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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Philosophical Instructions Lesson Fifty-One: The Immutable and the Changing Introduction Among the primary divisions which can be made for existence is that between the immutable and the changing. The immutable includes the Necessary Existent and completely immaterial beings. The changing includes all material existents and souls that are attached to matter. Changes may be divided into two kinds: sudden and gradual.

The gradual is that which is called ‘motion’ in philosophical terminology, and opposed to this is the concept of being stationary, which is its relative complement ( ‘adam malikah ); that is, it is not the case that everything which lacks motion necessarily has the attribute of being stationary, but those things which have the capacity for motion but in actuality are not in a state of motion will be stationary. Therefore, completely immaterial existents cannot be called stationary.

From this, the difference between the concept of being stationary and that of being immutable is clear: the former is the relative complement of motion, while the latter is the contradictory of change. In this part, we will first give an explanation of the immutable and the changing and the types of change and alteration, then we will discuss motion, prove the existence of motion, and present the implications and kinds of motion.

Along the way we shall explain the concepts of potentiality and actuality, and the relation between these and change and motion. Finally, this part, which is the last part on first philosophy, will be brought to an end with a discussion of substantial motion. An Explanation Regarding Change and Immutability In Arabic, the word for change, taghayyur , is derived from the word for other, ghayr , and means becoming another, or becoming different.

Change is a concept whose abstraction requires the consideration of two things or states, or two parts of one thing, one of which vanishes and is replaced by the other. Even the obliteration of something may be called a change since its existence changes to nonexistence, that is, it becomes annihilated, although nonexistence has no reality, and temporal coming into existence ( ḥudūth ) also can be called change, for the previous nonexistence is changed into existence.

Alteration and change in state ( taḥawwul ) are also close to change, but since taḥawwul is derived from ḥāll (state), it is more suitable to confine its use to changes in state.