Rethinking Being: From Suhrawardī to Mullā Ṣadrā

ABSTRACT: The relation between essence and existence is one of the central problems of Muslim philosophical discourse. The debate on the ontological priority of either has created two major philosophical trends and rival doctrines: the principality of essence ( aṣālat al-māhīyyah ) and the principality of existence ( aṣālat al-wujūd ). The former is grounded in the priority of essence over existence, the latter in the priority of existence over essence and the thinking of essence as something conceptual rather than real. In this paper I will examine the conflict between these two philosophical trends in Persia during the Safavid period. I will explore the shift from the principality of essence to the principality of existence initiated by Mullā Ṣadrā, and his interpretation of essentialism as the ‘darkness of an illusion’. I will explain how Mullā Ṣadrā’s views have given rise to a new ontology based on the principality of existence.