Metempsychosis (Tanasukh) in Mulla Sadra's Thought*

METEMPSYCHOSIS (TANASUKH) IN MULLA SADRA'S THOUGHT*

Shigeru KAMADA**

The idea of metempsychosis (tanasukh)(1) with its complicated manifesta- tions appeared in the various aspects of Islamic thought and gave rise to heated controversies on its position in the Islamic framework among Muslim scholars. The idea can be divided into two types.(2) The first is that on its separation from a body one's soul takes a different form by its new attachment to another body of a higher or a lower species according to one's conduct in the life just ended. This type is found in Indian and Greek thought, which may be termed as metempsychosis in a general sense. The second is that the divine soul permeates through and indwells in all or particular existents in the physical world, which may be termed as metempsychosis in a special sense. The latter type of the metempsychosis often finds its expression in extreme Shi'te thought (ghulat) and Islamic mysticism, the manner in which it appears is that the Imam inherits a spark of the divine light (nur ilahi) through his preceding prophets or Imams from the first prophet Adam, or embodies Divinity through the incarnation (hulul) of the divine spirit in him.(3) The idea of incarnation gave birth to a series of incarnationists condemned among Islamic mystics.(4) The main purpose of this paper is to clarify Mulla Sadra's concept of metempsychosis. Mulla Sadra (d. 1050/1640) was a mystic philosopher in Safavid Iran.(5) First we would like to survey the common understanding of metempsychosis in Islam before our reading of Mulla Sadra's text. Al-Sayyid al-Sharif al-Jurjani (d. 816/1414), a theologian with a bent towards philosophy and mysticism, explains the word tanasukh in his ta'rifat as follows: Metempsychosis signifies the attachment of the spirit (ruh) to a body

** Associate Professor, Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo

Vol. XXX-XXXI 1995 119 (badan) after its separation from another body without time intervening between the two attachments on account of the essential affection between the spirit and the body (jasad).(6) Muhammad A'la al-Tahanawi, an encyclopaedist in eighteenth century India writes, metempsychosis is "the transmigration of the rational soul (al-nafs al-natiqah) from one body to another" and clarifies the view of the metempsychosists, who reject the idea of bodily resurrection (ma'ad jismani) in the following manner:(7) The rational soul reaches the sacred world ('alam al-quds) when it frees itself from bodily restrictions and attains perfection. On the contrary, the soul which has not attained perfection is made to return to a human body and transmigrates from one body to another until the soul reaches its goal. The transmigration of souls limited to human bodies is called naskh. Transmigration of souls downwards into animal bodies is called maskh, raskh when souls go down to vegetative bodies, and faskh when souls descend further into mineral bodies. Thus, souls are divided into two groups: (1) those which ascend to reach the divine world, and (2) those which descend to migrate into different bodies. Tahanawi categorises souls with regard to the type of metempsychosis. The first category is that of the perfect souls (nufus kamilah), which have reached human bodies after their transmigration among various bodies and attain enough perfection in both knowledge and morality to enter the world of intelligence ('alam al-'uqul), free from bodies. The second is that of the intermediate souls (nufus mutawassitah), which reach the level of the celestial bodies and the imaginative forms (ashbah mithaliyah) without attaining pecfection. The third is that of the deficient souls (nufus naqisah), which remain in animal bodies. Al-Biruni (d. 440/1048), who is well-known for his rich knowledge of comparative religion particularly Hinduism, mentions metempsychosis (tanasukh) as the cardinal feature of the Indian religion just as the "profession of faith" (shahadah) for the Muslims, the Trinity (tathlith) for the Christians and the observance of Sabbath (isbat) for the Jews. Biruni gives a detailed description of Indian tanasukh with a brief comparative comment on the theory of Greek and Islamic mystics.(8) Within the tradition of Islamic theology a number of heresiographers give various accounts on the occurrence and theories of metempsychosis.(9) Among them, Abu al-Muzaffar al-Isfarayini (d. 471/1078), a Sunni heresio-

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grapher-theologian in his al-Tabsir fi al-din(10) divides the upholders of metempsychosis among the heretical groups (ahl al-bida') into four: (1) Ancient philosophers before Islam such as Socrates, (2) the Qadarites (Qadariyah) and the extreme Shi'ites (ghulat al-rawafidah) in the Islamic times, (3) the dualist Manichaeans (Mani al-thanawi), and (4) Jews.(11) He presents one of the theories expressed by Ahmad b. Khabit,(12) a Qadarite thinker, as follows: God created men in a world beyond this world with true knowledge (ma'rifah) and ordered them to thank Him. Some men were completely obedient to Him and kept their status in the primordial world. Some were completely disobedient to Him and were expelled into hellfire. The others who were partially obedient to Him were sent down to this world with physical bodies whose forms are different from each other according to their degree of disobedience. Their souls continue to transmigrate from one body to another until they reach their goal. Their goal is either the primordial world for those who have successfully erased their disobedience or hellfire for those who have failed in their obedience. Thus, the theory metempsychosis of infiltrated the field of Islamic theology and formed a 'heretical' sect, which held the transmigration of soul into different bodies, higher or lower in degree, as the result of man's good or bad conduct in his previous life. The group is regarded as one of the Qadarite groups, for their concept of reward and punishment is formed based on their previous conduct according to their free will. Ibn Sina (d. 428/1037), the master architect of the Peripatetic philosophy in Islam, refers to metempsychosis and refutes its doctrine in the manner outlined below.(13) The soul comes into existence and multiplies in accordance with the readiness (tahayyu') of bodies. Therefore, whenever a body is ready, a soul must emanate from the separate causes. If we assumed that a soul which has separated itself from a previous body should attach itself again to another by way of metempsychosis, then this body would have two different souls in it at one and the same time. The first would be present through metempsychosis and the second by the body's readiness. The relationship ('alaqah) between the soul and the body is understood in such a way that the soul is conscious of the body which in turn is influenced by it. Every living being is conscious that it has a unique soul, which governs and controls it. Therefore, if there is another soul of which the living being is not conscious, neither is it conscious of itself nor does it occupy Vol. XXX-XXXI1995 121 the body exclusively. Thus, the soul has no relationship with the body, because the relationship is to be understood in the above mentioned way. In such an argument Ibn Sina maintains the impossibility of metempsychosis. Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (d. 606/1210), a philosopher-theologian also refutes the idea of metempsychosis.(14) He introduces Ibn Sina's arguments against metempsychosis, which are rearranged under two headings. The first argument is as mentioned above, that a body would have two souls if soul's transmigration were accepted. The second is an argument concerning the time interval between the two attachments of the soul. If there is a time interval between the soul's separation from a body and its attachment to another, the soul would have to remain suspended (mu'attilah) for a time. This is absurd, for there is no suspension in nature (tabi'ah). If this is not the case, the number of those passing from the world would have to be same as that of those coming into the world, which is against our common knowledge. Razi points out several shortcomings in these arguments which he ascribes to Ibn Sina, and adds the third argument against metempsychosis, on which, he claims, all theologians depend. That is to say, if our souls had governed other bodies, we should know the states of our previous existence, but in reality we have no knowledge of our previous lives. Therefore, it is certain that our souls had never existed in other bodies. From the discussion above it is clear that many thinkers in Islam were certainly acquainted with the idea of metempsychosis found in non-Islamic religions and some "heretical" branches within Islam, and that they do not accept the idea of metempsychosis as orthodox at all.

As for the idea of metempsychosis, Mulla Sadra seems to accept a certain type of it at least from a point of view. Those who accept metempsychosis in Islam naturally refer to the Qur'an and hadith as a support of their claim. Mulla Sadra cites the following passages from the Qur'an(15) as alluding to the possibility of metempsychosis when he discusses the subject. There is not an animal in the earth, nor a flying creature flying on two wings, but they are peoples like unto you. We have neglected nothing in the Book (of Our decrees).(16)

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Worse is he of whose sort God hath turned some to apes and swine, and who serveth idols. Such are in worse plight and further astray from the plain road.(17) Their ears and their eyes and their skins testify against them as to what they used to do.(18) And We shall assemble them on the Day of Resurrection on their faces.(19) As for those who will be wretched (on that day) they will be in the Fire; sighing and wailing will be their portion therein.(20) He saith: Begone therein, and speak not unto Me.(21) In addition to the Qur'anic passages, he cites the following hadith.(22) People will be assembled on the Day of Resurrection with various faces. Some people will be assembled with the forms for which ape and swine are fit. He who disobeyed a prayer leader at the performance of prayer will be assembled with his head being donkey's. He also quotes a phrase "There is no teaching (madhhab) in which metempsychosis has no firm footing"(23) presenting it together with the above sacred texts. This shows how important the issue of metempsychosis is in religious thought. The theory enjoyed a great acceptance among the ancient Greek philosophers, who were one of the sources of Mulla Sadra's thought. He names several philosophers as holding some kind of metempsychosis, such as, Plato, Socrates, Phythagoras, Agathodaemon,(24) Empedocles, Hermes, and Aristotle.(25) Although the idea was very important for Greek thinkers, the idea of metempsychosis is branded as heterodox teaching in the Islamic orthodoxy as described above. Therefore, it is a very subtle and grave problem for Mulla Sadra how to understand metempsychosis in a hostile climate. Mulla Sadra presents two kinds of metempsychosis, one of which is the same as tanasukh in a general sense, as mentioned above. Metempsychosis is untenable in the sense of the transmigration (intiqal) of the soul from an elementary or natural body to another, different from the first, whether it may be in descendance or in ascen- dance: In the former case [descendance] it is called naskh when the transmigration occurs within the human species, maskh when within animals, faskh when within plants, and faskh when within minerals.

Vol. XXX-XXXI 1995 123 In the latter case, it occurs to the contrary to what we have mentioned. It occurs even to celestial bodies as some of scholars believe and Shaykh al-Ra'is (Ibn Sina) relates that he approves the idea concerning souls of both the stupid and the intermediate attaching themselves to celestial bodies after their separation from [human] bodies through natural death.(26) He clearly rejects the metempsychosis in a general sense, but he subscribes to a different kind of metempsychosis which he states as follows: Metempsychosis is not against the reality in the sense that in the mode of being in the hereafter (al-nash'ah al-ukhrawiyah), the soul takes a form, either animal, vegetative, or mineral, its being of the inferior degrees according to its despicable difference and evil habits. This is a matter established by the imams of illumination and witness and confirmed by the people of truth among the masters of sacred laws and creeds.(27) It is clear that Mulla Sadra confirms a metempsychosis in which the soul takes different forms in the hereafter according to its conduct in this world. In other words, he accepts the soul's transformation, based on the result of its own conduct in this world, in the hereafter. Perhaps he does this because the mode of being is completely different from its mode of being in this world; while he does not accept that the soul transmigrates into another different body in this same world. In the passages of the Qur'an and hadith the souls aquire different bodies (tajassum), beautiful or ugly, according to their nature, habit, intention and belief, either good or evil. Those passages depict not this world but the hereafter free from the this-worldly materiality.(28) It is totally wrong to view metempsychosis held by the ancient sages as that in a general sense, above mentioned. Their theory is nothing but the metempsychosis approved by Mulla Sadra, namely, the Gathering of Human Souls (hashr al-nufus al-insaniyah) in the hereafter.(29) Thus, Mulla Sadra presents two types of metempsychosis: 'horizontal' transmigration in which soul repeats its life in this same world in different forms, and 'vertical' transmigration in which the soul transcends into the hereafter. The former is to be rejected, and the latter is to be accepted. In another expression, the former is a transmigration among the this-worldly lives (naskh), while the latter is the Gathering (hashr) in the hereafter, or 124 ORIENT METEMPSYCHOSIS (TANASUKH) IN MULLA SADRA'S THOUGHT

Resurrection.(30) One of the causes which have given birth to a misunderstanding re- garding metempsychosis is the ignorance of the world of soul ('alam al-nafs), the intermediate world which is between the world of nature ('alam al-tabi'ah) and the world of intelligence ('alam al-'aql).(31) Mulla Sadra's understanding of metempsychosis is based on his theory of the growth of soul, which consists of three levels.(32) The first level is this world (dunya), the visible world ('alam al-shahadah), or the world of nature, where every thing is attached to matter and not free from motion. This world has a locus of manifestation (mazhar) in the five external senses, such as sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. The second level is the intermediate world (barzakh), or the world of soul, which is the world of shapes (ashbah) and forms (suwar) not perceptible by the external senses and has its locus of manifestation in the internal senses, such as common sense, representation, imagination, estimation, and memory. In the world of soul, the soul exists independently from the this-worldly body. However, it is not completely free from materiality, but aquires an imaginative form (shabah mithali) in which his nature and character in this world, either good or evil, manifest themselves. Its form there is concomitant with the soul just as the shadow (gill) follows the form (dhu al-zill).(33) The world on the second level may be called a 'hereafter' (dkhirah) in contrast to 'this world' on the first level, and is divided into two: the paradise (jannah) and the hell (jahim). The former is the abode of the happy (ddr al-su'ada') who have manifested their good nature and character in this world. The latter is that of the miserable (dar al- ashqiya') who have manifested their evil nature and character. The third level may be called the 'hereafter' in its truest sense, the world of intelligence ('slam al-'aql) or the world of the absolute spirits ('alam at-arwah al-mutlaqah), which has its locus of manifestation in perfect human intelligence. This is the world of the pure good, and of the pure light which souls may finally attain. Human souls attain spiritual perfection through the above mentioned three levels. Their ignorance of the second level leads to their misunderstanding of soul's resurrection as its transmigration. That is to say, they wrongly understand soul's resurrection in the hereafter as meaning its transmigration in this world. He explains the soul's resurrection which may easily be misunderstood in the following way:(34) people resurrect in Vol. XXX-XXXI1995 125 the world of soul, intermediate between the world of nature and that of intelligence by taking a form suitable to their character. Then, all the blameworthy characteristics in the soul manifest themselves in various bodily forms of the different kinds of animals which are suitable to their evil characters. For example, arrogance and carelessness are manifested as a lion's body, wickedness and cunning as a fox's, imitation and mockery as an ape's, vanity as a peacock's, and avarice as a swine's. Animal bodies taken at the resurrection change in size according to the intensity of the character. More arrogant men take a form of a bigger lion at resurrection. Every man has many different blameworthy characteristics, and therefore, takes different forms of animals based on the various intensity of their evil natures and their different combinations. The animal forms they assume also change when a certain character in one's soul loses its principal position and another becomes principal. This kind of change occurs only in the hereafter ('alam al-akhirah) and not in the this-worldly mode of being (nash- 'ah dunyawiyah).

To summarize, Mulla Sadra's so-called metempsychosis does not allow the human soul to resume a form of animals such as apes and swines in this same world after its separation from its original body. The soul takes a form of the animal suitable to his character based on his this-worldly conduct in the hereafter, a world free from the this-worldly materiality. His form not only in its kind but also in its size in the hereafer is due to his nature and conduct in this world.

III

In whatever sense we understand metempsychosis, we must think of the relationship between the soul and the body. Metempsychosis in a general sense always presupposes both the soul and the body as independent sub- stances. Here is a dualism of soul and body. However, according to Mulla Sadra's thought, the relationship between the soul and the body in an actual- ly living being is of essential attachment (ta'alluq dhati). Their composition (tarkib) is completely unified in nature (tabi'i ittihadi).(35) A living being certainly consists of soul and body, but either soul or body cannot exist independently from each other in the early stage of man's spiritual growth.(36) Without their unification they cannot grow into higher dimensions in this

126 ORIENT METEMPSYCHOSIS (TANASUKH) IN MULLA SADRA'S THOUGHT world. Mulla Sadra states as follows: As the beginning of its origination the soul with all its states is potential, and so is the body. It always has one of the essential qualities (al-shu'un al-dhdtiyah) different corresponding to the age of childhood, infancy, youth, senility, decrepitude and others. Both of them emerge from potentiality to actuality. The degrees of potentiality and actuality in every soul are determined according to the degrees of potentiality and actuality in a body specific to it as long as its bodily attachment (ta'alluq) continues. There is no soul which does not emerge from potentiality to actuality during its bodily life (hayat-hd al- jismaniyah). According to its acts and conduct, either good or evil, it [nafs] acquires a kind of actuality and realization in existence whether it may be in happiness or in misery. Once it becomes actual in one of the species, it is impossible for it to enter again the limit of the sheer potentiality, just as an animal cannot become a drop [of sperm] or a blood clot, once it has attained the completion of creation. This motion [of growth] is substantial and essential, and its divergence is not possible either by force, by nature, by will, or by accident. If the soul unattached to a body were to attach itself to a body at the time of its being embryo, then one of them would necessarily be potential and the other actual, and a thing insofar as it is actual would necessarily be potential. This is impossible because the composition between them is unified in nature, and the natural composition is impossible between two matters, one actual and the other potential.(37) Thus, the soul cannot grow without its unification with the body. The soul before its unification with the body is a potential soul, not yet actualized as soul. On the contrary in the theory of metempsychosis in a general sense the soul has to be actualized before its attachment to another body. Otherwise, we cannot say that a 'soul' attaches itself to a 'body'. This is incompatible with Mulla Sadra's idea. The soul unified with a body continues to purify its own existence from its birth in this world until its departure from this world at death. The process of purification, spiritual growth, is not a reversible but a unidirectional ascending motion from lower to nobl- er, from coarser to subtler.(38) This ascending motion is based on the motion that the existents which emanate from the Absolute, the source of existence, return to Him.(39)

Vol. XXX-XXXI 1995 127 The soul passes over from this world to the hereafter through its separation from body. The process of the soul's ascension is that of perfection, but the sense of perfection here does not necessarily connote a moral im- provement. Rather, the process of perfection is an ontological change from the this-worldly mode of being to the one in the hereafter, which is beyond any moral judgment. The soul's emerging from potentiality to actuality does not con- tradict the [soul's] misery in the hereafter. The disobedient and faith- less damned souls become more trivial and more distressed than they used to be even when they were in their this-worldly life. But inspite of this, they lose potentiality and possibility and nullify preparedness, and they attain the limit of the perfection in misery.(40) As this quotation shows, not only happiness but also misery has its own perfection. Everything, whether its nature may be good or evil, ascends from its this-worldly mode of being to the mode of being in the hereafter. In the hereafter man may be changed to an ape, a swine or other animals due to his inner character formed by his behavior and thought in this world. Even if man takes such an animal form in the hereafter, it is psychic, not material. Therefore, it is in a higher order of existence, even though man seems to retrogress to a lower species. This is a returning movement of all the existents towards the origin of existence. Pleasure in heaven or agony in hell which human souls will experience in the hereafter is based on a moral judgment of man's behavior in this world, and the soul's fate in the hereafter in hell is certainly more distressed than in this world. But both heaven and hell are psychic and therefore, are located ontologically higher than the this-worldly material existence. As for the soul's attachment to a body, he states in another passage of the asfar as follows: It must be known that man here is a union of soul and body. They are existent through one existence with their being different in dimension [from each other]. They are as if one thing with two aspects, one of which is changeable, perishable and transient and is like a branch; and the other of which is firm and continuing and is like a root. Whenever the soul becomes perfect in its existence, the body [to which the soul has attached itself] becomes purer and subtler and more intensely attaches itself to the soul. The unification (ittihad) between

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them becomes tighter and more intense so that they will be one without differentiation when the intelligible existence takes place [to them]. The [real] matter is not like the supposition of the general [philosophers] that at the transformation (tabaddul) of its this-worldly existence into its hereafter one, the soul removes its body and becomes naked as if it has thrown off its cloth.(41) Thus, soul and body are two different aspects of a reality though they are different only in dimension from each other. In proportion as the soul proceeds towards its pecfection, the body also transforms itself to being subtler, and their union and unification becomes more complete. Then in the last stage, man's physicality is totally withdrawn into the soul, creating an intellective existence with no contradiction. Man's death, namely his move from the this-worldly mode of being to the mode of being of the hereafter, is not soul's separation from the body, but rather, a realization of a higher psychic existence which comprehends both soul and body. However, the meaning of 'body' here may not be a body as we usually understand it. The body in an ordinary sense is nothing but a dead corpse which is outside the soul's sphere. In other words, it is a portion expelled from the act of nature (fi'l al-tabi'ah), the same as dirt, hair, and horn, which nature actualized outside itself for different external purposes and in which no life flows. Rather, the real body (al-badan al-haqiqi) which Mulla Sadra has in mind, is that in which the light of sense and life flows essentially not accidentally, and whose relationship to the soul is similar to the ray's to the sun.(42) Thus, the visible body is an outgrowth from the real body, which is a direct flow of life from the soul. Man's death may be described as the soul's separation from body, but this is only accidental, because the body from which the soul has separated is not real, but simply a lifeless corpse, like dirt and horn. The real body which has produced a corpse in order to maintain its this-worldly life is not to perish with the corpse it has outgrown, rather, to become the basis of soul's life in the hereafter, by forming various shapes according to one's behavior and thought in this world. Both soul and body are considered to be in the process of growth. The soul at first in this world is too weak to sustain itself without its body. How- ever by becoming subtler and purer, the soul acquires enough strength to subsist without material support. The lifeless corpse as an outgrowth of

Vol. XXX-XXXI 1995 129 the real body will perish at man's death, but the real body realizes unity with the soul on a higher level free from matter. Man's course of life is considered as an unidirectional process of growth from the potential state of soul and body to their actual state. At one's death his soul acquires independence from the 'body' (in an ordinary sense) and enters the sphere of the hereafter. In the first stage of the hereafter, the soul subsists free from the 'body', but with imaginative forms which are, as it were, shadows of those in this world. They are the disclosed forms which the human soul acquired within itself through its behavior and thought in this world and which were concealed with body. The disclosure of the concealed realities in his soul is nothing but the metempsychosis Mulla Sadra accepts: in other words, the eschatological Gathering (hashr). Nothing to do with Mulla Sadra's teaching is the idea of metempsychosis based on the soul-body dualism that the soul detaches itself from its indwelling body and attaches again itself to another while the body perishes. Mulla Sadra's metempsychosis is to be understood only in the context of his idea of the eschatological Gathering which is supported by his monistic mystical philosophy that the soul and the body realize their unity in a higher order of existence in the hereafter.

Notes

(*) The present article is a revised and considerably rewritten version of my paper in Japanese published in the Isuramu Sekai (The World of Islam), Nos. 23/24 (January, 1985). (1) The word 'metempsychosis' in this paper is simply used as equivalent for the Arabic word tanasukh in the philosophical, not in the jurisprudent context. See Al- Tahanawi, kitab kashshaf istilahat al-funun, Ed, by M. Wajih et alii, Tehran, 1967 (First ed., 1862), II, p. 1382 and also T. P. Hughes, A Dictionary of Islam, London, 1985, p. 627. (2) B. Carra de Vaux, "Tanasukh," Shorter Encyclopaedia of Islam, Leiden, 1965, pp. 572f. He gives here a concise picture of Islamic metempsychosis. Recently P. Walker gives a more detailed description of tanasukh in a wider scope of the history of Islamic thought with paying much attention to Isma'ili thinkers. P. Walker, "The Doctrine of Metempsychosis in Islam," Islamic Studies Presented to Charles J. Adams, Ed. by W. B. Hallaq and D. P. Little, Leiden, 1991, pp. 219-238. (3) Imam Muhammad al-Baqir tells that God created in the Prophet five spirits, one of which was the sacred spirit (ruh al-quds) and was transmitted to the Imam when the Prophet died. This hadith might be interpreted in a metempsychosis sense. Al-Kulayni, al-usul min al-kafi, Ed. by 'Ali Akbar al-Ghaffari, Beirut, 1401AH, I, p. 272. (4) Al-Hujwiri, kashf al-mahjub, ed. by V. Zhukovski, Tehran, s. d., pp. 333-341.

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(5) Mulla Sadra's text studied here is mainly taken from his magnus opus, al- hikmah al-muta'aliyah fi al-asfar al-'aqliyah al-arba'ah (abreviated as asfar in the following notes), Tehran, 1379AH, vol. IX. F. Rahman has discussed upon this topic in his The Philosophy of Mulla Sadra, Albany, 1975, pp. 247-250. As for studies on Mulla Sadra, we have such works on him in Japanese as T. Izutsu, Sonzai ninshiki no michi (Japanese translation with introduction of the kitab al-masha'ir), Tokyo, 1978 and my Morra Sadora no Reikonron (Introduction, Arabic text edition and Japanese translation of the iksir al-'arifin), Tokyo, 1984 in addition to the studies of S. J. -D. Ashtiyani, H. Corbin, S. H. Nasr, F. Rahman and others. (6) Al-Jurjani, kitab al-ta'rifat, Ed, by G. Fluegel, Beirut, 1965 (1845), p. 72. (7) Al-Tahanawi, kashshaf, II, p. 1380. (8) Abu al-Rayhan Muhammad al-Biruni, tahqiq ma li-al-hind min maqulah maqbulah fi al-'aql aw mardhulah, Beirut, 1983, pp. 39-44. (9) Several heresiographers before Isfarayini also give descriptions of metempsychosis. Ibn Hazm (d. 456/1063) divides the upholders of metempsychosis into two: (1) those who maintain the possibility of the transmigration of soul into a body different in species from that to which it previously attached; and (2) those who maintain that souls transmigrate only among bodies of the same species. Ahmad b. Khabit (The printed text of the kitab al-fasl runs Habit) belongs to the first group with others such as Abu Muslim al-Khurasani (d. 137/755) and Muhammad b. Zakariya al-Razi (d. 311/923). The second group is materialists (dahriyah) and observes no shari'ah. See Ibn Hazm, kitab al-fasl fi al-milal wa al-ahwa' wa al-nihal, Baghdad, s. d., I, pp. 90-94 and also his al-usul wa al-furu', Beirut, 1984, pp. 145-148. The latter's text is mostly same as the former's. 'Abd al-Qadir al-Baghdadi (d. 429/1037) in his al-farq bayn al-firaq, Beirut, 1978, pp. 253-259 mentions metempsychosis among Manichaeans (Manawiyah), the Philosophers, Jews, the incarnationist Shi'ites (al-rawafid al-hululiyah) and the Qadarites in such a similar manner as Isfarayini's. Shahrastani (d. 548/1153) also refers to the metempsychosis of Ahmad b. Khabit in his kitab al-milal wa al- nihal, ed. by M. S. Kilani, Beirut, s, d., I, pp. 60-63. (10) Abu al-Muzaffar al-Isfarayini, al-tabsir ft al-din wa tamyiz al-firqah al-najiyah 'an al-firaq al-halikin, ed. by Kamal Yusuf al-Hut, Beirut, 1983, pp. 136-138. (11) See the Book of Daniel, 4: 16. (12) Ahmad b. Khabit is Basri and a disciple of Ibrahim al-Nazzam, a Mu'tazilite thinker (d. 231/845). Besides the metempsychosis he is reported as upholder of various heretical ideas. See Ibn Hazm, fasl, IV, pp. 197f. and other references given in the preceeding notes (9) and (10). (13) Ibn Sina, kitab al-najat, ed. by M. Fakhri, Beirut, 1985, p. 227 and his kitab al-shifa' [Avicenna's De Anima, ed. by F. Rahman, 1970 (repr. of 1959)], pp. 233f. See also F. Rahman, Avicenna's Psychology, Westport, 1981 (repr. of 1951), pp. 63f. (14) Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, al-matalib al-'aliyah min al-'ilm al-ilahi, Ed. by A. H. al-Saqa, Beirut, 1987, VII, pp. 201-210. (15) asfar, IX p. 5 as well as his al-mabda' wa al-ma'ad, (abreviated as mabda') Ed. by S. J. -D. Ashtiyani, Tehran, 1394AH, p. 327. (16) qur'an, 6: 38. Here is an allusion that all animals and birds are of the same kind as humans because their souls are common among them with difference only in their bodily forms. (17) qur'an, 5:60/65. See also 2:65, 7:166. (18) qur'an, 41:20/19. The passage is explained by Mulla Sadra (asfar, IX. p. 5) in such a way that various parts of man's body will testify his real nature through

Vol. XXX-XXXI 1995 131 their forms acquired in the hereafter according to their conduct in this world. See also qur'an, 24: 24. (19) qur'an, 17: 97/99. See mabda', p. 327 where Mulla Sadra explains the passage as alluding to forms of animals with bowed heads. (20) qur'an, 11: 106/108. Both zafir ("sighing") and shahiq ("wailing") originally means voices of donkey. Here is an allusion that they will be transformed into donkeys in the hereafter. (21) qur'an, 23: 108/110. The passage is taken as an allusion that they will be changed into dumb animals. (22) asfar, IX, p. 5; mabda', p. 327. (23) asfar, IX, p. 6; mabda', p. 327. This anonymous phrase is also quoted in his ta'liqat 'ala sharh hikmat al-ishraq, Lithographed edition, 1315AH, p. 477 and al- shawahid al-rububiyah, ed, by S. J. -D. Ashtiyani, Mashhad, 1346AHs, p. 232. (24) He is regarded as an ancient Egyptian sage and an authority of occult scienses in the Islamic tradition. M. Plessner, "Aghathudhimun," Encyclopaedia of Islam (Second Edition), Leiden, 1960, I, p. 247. (25) asfar, IX, p. 6; mabda', pp. 327f. (26) asfar, IX, p. 4. (27) mabda', p. 326. The same discussion is found in the asfar, IX, p. 4. (28) See asfar, IX, p. 5. (29) See asfar, IX, p. 26. (30) asfar, IX, p. 30. See H. Corbin, En Islam iranien, Paris, 1972, IV, p. 79 (31) asfar, IX, p. 30. (32) The following description of the tripartite spiritual growth of soul is mainly based on the asfar, IX, pp. 211. See also H. Corbin, op. cit., IV, pp. 115-122. (33) asfar, IX, p. 31. See also ibid., pp. 18f. (34) asfar, IX, pp. 30f. (35) asfar, IX, pp. 2f. (36) See asfar, IX, p. 3. (37) asfar, IX, pp. 2f. (38) asfar, IX, p. 16. (39) All the existents originating from the Absolute in the order of intelligence ('aql), soul (nafs), nature (tabi'ah) and matter (maddah), proceed from lower to higher in the order of formal body (jism musawwar), plant, animal with soul and human with intellect ('aql) towards God [shawahid, p. 180]. The motion which supports this return process is called the substantive motion (al-harakah al-jawhariyah), one of Mulla Sadra's original contributions to the philosophical tradition in Islam. Accord- ing to this idea every form is one of the phases of the flux of existence and constant- ly renews itself in manifestation. Changes not only occur to accidents but also pen- etrate deeper into their substance. Namely, a thing changes from the depth of its inside without perduring subject of motion. Therefore, soul's move from the this-worldly mode of being to the mode of being in the hereafter is to be explained simply as a continuing process of the constant flux of existence. See F. Rahman, The Philosophy of Mulla Sadra, pp. 94-98. M. Dehbashi also analyses the scholastic philosophical aspect of the theory in his Mulla Sadra's Theory of Transubstantial Motion: A Transla- tion and Critical Exposition, Ph. D. Dissertation, Fordham University, 1981. (40) asfar, IX, pp. 27f (41) asfar, IX, pp. 98f. (42) asfar, IX, p. 99.

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