Abstract

There are two views among the followers of the principiality of existence concerning the relationship between existences, namely, the difference and gradation views. The former is inconsistent with the principiality of existence, has been attributed to Peripatetic philosophers, downgrades the principiality of existence and equates it with the principiality of quiddity, and has led to some consequences such as silence before Ibn Kamunah's objection, lack of congruence between the cause and effect, and the rejection of Platonic Ideas as well as the imagianl world and the intermediate world. By propounding the view of the graded unity of existence, Mulla Sadra solved many of the important problems of Islamic philosophy and explained them in a way to be consistent with Shar'i rules. The gradedness view, in addition to considering the distinction among existences to be a graded distinction, negates any kind of ineffectiveness in the affairs of Almighty Necessary and lack of oneness in His attributes and acts. Finally, it provides a firm basis for demonstrating the world of Images, which some of the philosophers preceding him had failed to prove. The writer of this paper maintains that the graded oneness of existence leads to Islamic gnosis