He criticized Aristotle and the Muslim Peripatetics on logical grounds...

He criticized Aristotle and the Muslim Peripatetics on logical grounds, before setting out to expound the doctrine of ishraq3 This doctrine was based not on the refutation of logic, but on transcending its categories through an illuminationist knowledge based on immediacy and presence, or what Suhrawardi himself called 'knowledge by presence' ( al-'ilm al-huzuri ), in contrast to conceptual knowledge ( al-'ilm al-husuli ) which is the ordinary method of knowing based on concepts.4 It was these two trends that Mulla Sadra tried to mix with the Shi'i kalam.

Mulla Sadra's metaphilosophy was based on existence ( wujud ) as the sole constituent of reality; it rejected any role for quiddities ( mahiyya ) or essences in the external world. Existence was for him at once a single unity and an internally articulated, dynamic process, the unique source of both unity and diversity.

From this fundamental starting point, Mulla Sadra was able to find original solutions to many of the logical, metaphysical and theological difficulties which he had inherited from his predecessors. Previous…