The question of 'imaginal perception' (al-idr?k al-khay?l?) constitutes one of the most complex and important sections of the 'Transcendental Philosophy' (al-hikmat al-muta'?liyya) of Sadr al-D?n Sh?r?z? (1569-1640). Sadr al-D?n's contribution to the conception of 'imaginal perception' is distinguished from those of his towering predecessors, namely Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and Suhrawardi. In fact, Sadr al-D?n developed inspiring ideas connected with 'imaginal faculty', 'imaginal perception' and 'imaginal realm', and he did it on the basis of his well-considered and elaborated doctrines such as 'principality and primacy of being' (is?lat al-wuj?d, that the 'being' of each object is principial vis-a vis its 'quiddity' and that the essential qualities of 'Being', including 'knowledge' ('ilm), are concomitant with 'Being' itself), as well as based on his theories of perception and cognition, of the 'perfection in esse' or 'substantial perfection' of the soul, and of correspondence between the multiple states of 'being' and those of the human being - as a microcosmic image of 'being' itself. In the same line, Sadr al-D?n also developed Suhraward?'s teachings on the 'imaginal world' as a mediatory realm between the sensory and the intelligible realms. It was on the basis of such elaborated doctrines and theories that Sadr al-D?n succeeded to explain some particular problems related to the 'soul', among them, one may refer to the problem of 'reward and punshment in the Hereafter' as well as the question of 'bodily or corporal resurrection'.

Author Name: Azam Mardiha; Seyd Morteza Hosseini Shahroudi

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Keywords: Imaginal perception; imaginal faculty; subjective/microcosmic imaginal world ('?lam al-khay?l al-muttasil); objective/macrocosmic imaginal world ('?lam al-khay?l al-munfasil); imaginal realm (al-'?lam al-mith?l); corporal resurrection

ISSN: 2383-0689

EISSN: 2383-0697

EOI/DOI: 10.30465/cw.2018.2977

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