zeinab shakibi
Abstract
Ibn Sīnā introduces the idea of genushood (jinsiyyah) in explaining the relation between gradational universals (kulliyyāt mushakkikah) and their instances within the Peripatetic ...
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Ibn Sīnā introduces the idea of genushood (jinsiyyah) in explaining the relation between gradational universals (kulliyyāt mushakkikah) and their instances within the Peripatetic tradition of Islamic philosophy. This notion is later criticized by Suhrawardī, who demonstrates that a gradational universal (kullī mushakkik) cannot logically function as a proximate genus (jins qarīb) for its inferiors, which must rather be regarded as specific essences (māhiyyāt naw‘iyyah) under it. Suhrawardī then proposes the concept of logical entailment of generality—that the gradational universal is necessarily more general (a‘amm) than its particulars—and applies this to wujūd (existence) and nūr (light), viewing them as necessarily more general than their instances. This idea reaches a more systematic form in the thought of Khwāja Naṣīr al-Dīn Ṭūsī, who, in responding to Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī’s critique concerning the attribution of existence to the Necessary and the contingent, articulates the principle that existence is the most perfect necessary entailment (lāzim atamm) in relation to existential realities. However, this very notion becomes the basis for Ibn Kammūna’s well-known objection against the unity of the Divine. In response, Mullā Ṣadrā develops the doctrine of the gradation of the reality of existence (tashkīk fī ḥaqīqat al-wujūd), transforming the idea of gradation in the concept of existence into gradation in its reality. Tracing this intellectual development reveals a historically grounded understanding of how Muslim philosophers, from the fourth to the twelfth century AH, conceptualized the gradational nature of existence and its ontological implications.
