Love as a Path towards Human Perfection (A Comparison of the Ideas of Ibn Sina and Mulla Sadra)
Subject Areas : Etymology of philosophical terms
1 -
Keywords:
Abstract :
Islamic philosophers, such as Ibn Sina, have divided human love into true and virtual types. True love is the same extreme enthusiasm and passion for divine essence and attributes, and virtual love itself is divided into soulish love and animal love. The origin of soulish love is the substantial participation and commensurability of the souls of the lover and the beloved. However, the origin of animal love is physical desire and seeking animal pleasure. Ibn Sina believes that virtual love is one of the elements of the “purification of the inner self”, which is one of the goals of ascetic practice and a way for attaining perfection. Mulla Sadra also maintains that in soulish virtual love, the unity of the lover’s soul with that of the beloved through preference and representing the external beauty of the beloved leads to the lovers’ purification of the soul, so that he becomes ready for accepting the station of being annihilated in God. Accordingly, he says that virtual love is a bridge for attaining true love and, ultimately, human perfection.
