Ma`rifat

One of the important issues in Sadra’i philosophy is the issue of the “time of the emergence of the soul” and, consequently, whether it is physical or spiritual. In other words, can a soul that is not inherently eternal be temporal eternity? Or is it a temporal origination? If it originated, is it physical or nonphysical at the time of its origination? It is well known that Sadr al-Mut’alehin not only considers the soul to be originated from the body, but also physical. Although this interpretation of some of his works is applicable, he eventually abandoned this view and changed his position to the eternity and spiritual nature of the soul. Using descriptive methods and content analysis, this article attempts to examine his thoughts on this matter. The main claim of the present article is that he does not have a fixed opinion on this matter. His intellectual evolution, in four steps, is as follows: The step of denying the eternity of the soul and interpreting the verses and narrations, the step of denying the soul's indivisibility, the step of explaining the physicality of the soul, and the step of departing from and revolutionizing the previous view and believing in the eternity and spirituality of the soul.