MULLA SADRA ON EXISTENCE & ESSENCE

Mulla Sadra on Existence and Essence:

Existence (wujud) answers the question “whether a thing is?” whereas Essence (mahiya) is the answer to what is it? In other words essence of a thing defines what it is. Existence is perceivable through sense perception and therefore has “wujud-e-aini”, essence on the other hand is not perceivable through sense perception and therefore is devoid of “wujud-e-aini” and is only a mental concept subject to conceptualization. Existence is an external objective reality whereas essence is not an external objective reality and is simply a mental concept (wujud-e-dhihni) and is devoid of “wujud-e-khariji”. Essence is a universal idea that is abstracted from specific or concrete objects or entities by extracting their common and essential attributes or properties to formulate an abstract or universal concept applicable and common to all. Essential attributes or properties are those features of an entity or object without which it would be impossible for it to exist or survive. Therefore attributes or properties that are common but non-essential or accidental do not form part of the essence. Hence it is correct to assert that essence is a universal idea or concept that is shared by many things and is common to them all whereas existence of a thing is particular to it and cannot be shared by other objects and entities. Since essence is an idea or concept that is abstracted from existence therefore it is dependent upon existence and not independent. Due to the reasons stated above Mulla Sadra formulated his doctrine of the “Primacy of Existence” (asalat-al-wujud) according to which reality and significance is of existence instead of essence. The more intense and strong the existence of a thing the lesser or weaker is its essence and hence greater the reality of it and the less intense or weaker the existence the greater is the essence and lesser the reality. According to Mulla Sadra since God is pure existence therefore he has no essence, this is because the existence of God is the strongest and most intense of all and hence he has no essence and is the greatest reality.
[X] . Islamic Phil Theo . (X)