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Abstract

In this article, I will examine Mulla Sadrā's views on the efficient and final causes. Mulla Sadrā, who has a distinguished position among the late period of Islamic philosophers, successfully synthesized the Mashshāī, Ishrāqī and mystical schools and succeeded in establishing a new system. The subject of efficient and final causes is important in terms of showing the nature of this synthesis. He brought a new perspective to Peripatetic teaching by explaining the efficient cause through the concepts of inayat and tajallī, also that he succeeded in introducing the concept of the efficient cause, in the philosophical sense, to the mystical knowledge. Considering his writings on the subject Sadrā explains the Necessary Being as an efficient cause by the concepts of ridā and tajallī, and the theologians do not favor the understanding of an efficient who acts willingly. In terms of science of metaphysics, he thinks that the feature that really makes the efficient an efficient is to bestow existence. In terms of the final cause, Sadrā thinks that the efficient has no purpose other than himself. Because, in fact, it is not possible to talk about a real existence other than the efficient. In that case, all wills return to the efficient’s self. The final cause must be necessary in terms of constituting the competence of knowledge and existence and being the cause that makes the efficient an efficient and must come later. Sadrā states that the efficient intended the world in an accidental and secondary sense, but this situation again returns to the efficient’s self. As a result, in reducing all causes to the efficient cause, Sadrā raises the universe to the level of the tajallī, hāl (state), attitude and the outcome of his works.