Ma`rifat Falsafi

The purgatorial evolution of human souls is a certain and definite matter in the revelatory approach, but from the perspective of philosophical discussion, it faces the significant problem of the ‘impossibility of motion in incorporeal beings.’ The peripatetic philosophers, by establishing proofs such as the ‘proof of potency and act’ to demonstrate the existence of hyle (prime matter) in bodies as a substantial part independent of form, and by negating this substantial part in the existence of incorporeal substance due to its simplicity, consider the existence of hyle as that which validates motion in physical substances, and its absence in incorporeal substances as preventing the acceptance of motion in them. Therefore, they faced difficulties in the philosophical explanation of the soul’s purgatorial evolution, and the ultimate philosophical justification they offered for this issue is the statement of Farabi, who considers the evolution of souls in the purgatory to be due to the soul’s attachment to celestial bodies. Mulla Sadra, in order to reconcile motion and incorporeality and respond to the impossibility of ‘motion in incorporeal beings,’ resorts to the bodily dimension of the soul and considers the existence of potency and hyle in the bodily dimension of the soul as that which validates the motion of the incorporeal substance (the soul). However, with the soul’s separation from the bodily dimension, he faces the problem of motion’s need for hyle, and from this point, the apparent inconsistency in Mulla Sadra’s words begins. Seemingly, the soul’s substantial motion in purgatorial life, from his perspective, lacks that which validates motion, and this issue was investigated by thinkers after him, but no proper solution was offered. However, Professor Fayyazi, by refuting the proofs for the existence of hyle and allowing motion in incorporeal beings, has provided a philosophical explanation of purgatorial evolution. This article, using a descriptive-critical method, after briefly presenting the ideas of the peripatetic and Transcendent Theosophy schools regarding the soul’s purgatorial evolution, evaluates and accepts professor Fayyazi’s ideas in detail.