Ma`rifat Falsafi

"Justice" and "peace" have been the most foundational aspirations of various theological and philosophical traditions. Although the concept of peace is not explicitly discussed in transcendent wisdom, its theoretical foundations provide significant potential for contributing to peace studies. This article seeks to extract key principles of "peace" from the philosophy of Mullā Ṣadrā using the conceptual framework of a prominent contemporary peace researcher, Johan Galtung. Within a frame of a triangle, Galtung categorizes violence into three primary forms: direct, structural, and cultural. "Structural violence" applies to systems with discrimination and exploitation (injustice) that obstruct the growth and realization of optimal potential for segments of society. Similarly, Mulla Ṣadrā presents "justice" as a fundamental concept in his works. Based on divine cosmic justice, he envisions the cosmos as directed toward perfection and asserts that humans, in harmony with the universe, must cultivate justice within their faculties and morals to achieve their own perfection. This internal justice involves balancing the soul's faculties, acquiring virtues, and eliminating vices to eradicate the roots of oppression and violence. In the social dimension, Mulla Ṣadrā identifies divine law (Sharī‘ah) as the mechanism for establishing justice, arguing that injustice leads societies toward corruption and bloodshed, hindering their progress toward perfection.