Ma`rifat Kalami

When the extensive discussions in the field of the knowledge of the Necessary Being (knowledge of His essence and of existents) mature and become intertwined with His agency, power, providence, and will, the concept of the “wisdom of the Necessary Being” emerges and calls for investigation and inquiry. The perspective of Muslim philosophers on this subject is long-standing, and, influenced by Qur’anic teachings, they have sought to understand the nature of divine wisdom. The discussion of God’s wisdom reached a significant stage of development in the thought of Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā). He regarded three categories—knowledge, causality, and divine satisfaction (good pleasure)—as the fundamental elements of the wisdom of the Necessary Being. After Avicenna, and within the same framework of his conceptual clarification, philosophers such as Suhrawardī and Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī (Mullā Ṣadrā), as well as commentators of the Sadrian tradition, undertook to expand and deepen these three foundational elements. The present study seeks, on the basis of the philosophical principles of Suhrawardī and Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī and within the framework of Avicennian conceptualization, to elucidate the concept of divine wisdom to the extent possible and within the limits of its research capacity.