Avicenna and Mulla Sadra on the Exegesis of Q24: 35

Document Type : Scientific Research

Abstract

Q24: 35 (known as the verse of the Light) is among the verses that have been interpreted by some philosophers, some of whom are Avicenna and Mulla Sadra. Avicenna suggests a purely philosophical interpretation and understands the analogies of the verse as the levels of theoretical reason. By contrast, based on the notions of principality and gradation of existence, Mulla Sadra tries to come up with a system of divine grace descent and adapts the analogies of the verse to this system. It is important that although Mulla Sadra tries to prove the existence of God as the Light through Peripatetic approaches, his exegesis of the verse preserves its mystical approach as well as its philosophical one.The difference in aims, attitudes, exegetical methods and the degree to which they consider the apparent meaning are the main factors which distinguish Avicenna from Mulla Sadra on the Exegesis of Q24: 35.

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