Sadrian Metaphysics

Imam Reza (as) is reported to have stated : ”ولم يتغير مع المتغيرين، ولم يتبدل مع المتبدلين“ translation : “And He never changes along with the things that change, and never alters along with things that alter” [Al-Kafi,kitab-ul-tawhid,hadith#338] Change [تغير] is defined as a transition [انتقال] of a thing from potentiality [قوۃ] towards actuality [فعليۃ], with the potential to change residing within an underlying substrate known as matter [مادۃ], therefore that which undergoes change or alteration is a composite [مرکب] of potentiality and actuality, where the potentiality for receiving a new form [صورۃ] is denoted by its matter, and the aspect of actuality is denoted by some prior existing form, and every composite is necessary through another [واجب بغيرہ] and is subsistent through another [قايم بالغير], being therefore something dependent [محتاج], but that which is dependent for its subsistence [قوام] upon another such as matter and form, is not subsistent in itself [قايم بالذات]...

Ali ibn Ibrahim has narrated from Muhammad ibn ‘Isa ibn ‘Ubayd from Hammad from Hariz from Muhammad ibn Muslim from abu Ja’far (as), who has said the following : ”انه واحد صمد احدى المعنى ليس بمعنى كثيرة مختلفة, قال قلت جعلت فداك يزعم قوم من اهل العراق انه يسمع بغيرالذى يبصر و يبصربغيرالذى يسمع, قال فقال كذبو و الحدو و شبهوا تعالى الله عن ذلك انه سميع بصير يسمع بما يبصر و يبصر بما يسمع“ translation : “He, Allah, is One, the Self-sufficient. He is One and only One without any multiplicity in different meaning.The narrator has said that I further inquired, ‘May Allah keep my soul in your service, certain people in Iraq think, that Allah hears with something different from what He sees with, and He sees with something different from what He hears with.’ The Imam replied, ‘They have said a lie and have (deviated from the truth) become atheists for considering Allah similar to other things. Allah, the Most High, indeed is above all things. He is All-hearing and All-seeing. He hears with wh...

Evil is defined in Islamic Philosophy as the negation or the absence of Good, and since good is synonymous with existence, and the contrary of existence is given as non-existence, therefore evil would be equivalent to non-existence, and absolute-evil would be identical to absolute non-existence ; now all contingent/possible things that can be conceived, fall in either one of the following four categories : 1) purely-good, 2) primarily or predominantly good, 3) primarily or predominantly evil and 4) purely-evil ; things that are purely-good are completely free from corruption and evil, and things that are purely-evil are pure-nothingness and hence cannot exist, whereas things that are primarily evil also cannot exist because the greater evil in them overcomes the lesser good ; it means that things that are evil or that are said to be evil are those that fall under category (2) and are primarily or predominantly good and evil only accidentally, such as the existence of the entire physica...