Document Type : Original Article

Authors

• Hossein Zohdi Sehat ¹
• Jamal Soroush ²

¹ Islamic Philosophy and Theology - Faculty of Literature and Humanities - Malayer National University - Malayer - Iran

² Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy and Islamic Theology, Faculty of Humanities, Malayer University, Malayer, Iran

Abstract

This paper aims to explicate and analyze the theory of love from the perspective of Mulla Sadra, as well as to critically evaluate its foundations and implications. The central research question is how Mulla Sadra, relying on his philosophical principles—such as the primacy of existence, the gradational reality of existence, and the concomitance of existence with life and knowledge—elucidates the universality of love across all levels of being, and what challenges and criticisms this theory encounters.This question has been examined using a descriptive–analytical method with a critical approach.According to Mulla Sadra, love is an intrinsic reality inseparable from existence; and since existence is concomitant with life, consciousness, and will, every entity partakes in love proportionally to its ontological rank. By critiquing Avicenna’s perspective, Mulla Sadra regards life and knowledge as necessary conditions for the realization of love, which he sees as operative across all levels of being—from intellect and soul to nature. In Sadrian analysis, true love is exclusively directed toward the Necessary Being, while love for other entities is derivative, insofar as they manifest the divine. Drawing on the principles of the primacy of existence, the gradational reality of existence, and causality, he offers several arguments to demonstrate the pervasiveness of love among all beings, interpreting the causal order as a chain of lovers and beloveds. Despite the overall coherence of the theory, certain criticisms—such as the relation between love and life, the possibility of love in accidents, and the distinction between true and metaphorical love—indicate that Mulla Sadra’s theory requires further refinement and more precise exposition in some aspects.
Keywords: Mulla Sadra, Love, Desire, Existence, Ontological Levels, Concomitance

Keywords

• Mullā Ṣadrā
• Love
• Existence
• Levels
• Concomitances