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Allamah Misbah’s Puzzle … M. Legenhausen (33
the soul more similar to that body, contrary to the
offered by Aquinas and by the predominant religious views
majority of Muslim theologians and the views of the
and philosophers prior to Sadra. Neoplatonists, who held the
soul to be immaterial and
Allamah Misbah’s Puzzle immortal.
about the Generation of the Soul The depth of the difficulty
The root of the puzzle about is expressed by Evelina
the generation of the soul Miteva at the end of a study
raised by Allamah Misbah of the European debates on
may be traced back to the the issue in the thirteenth
conflict between the Platonic century:
and religious views of the Probably the problem of
soul, on one side, and the the soul as form of the body
Aristotelian views, on the other. and at the same time an
The origination of the immortal substance could
source of the differences of not be solved in a consistent
opinion about the soul in the philosophical manner; Because,
conflict between Platonist and by its nature, the soul is
Aristotelian philosophies is “stretched” between the
discussed by Mulla Sadra in realms of the corporeal and
his “Asfar”: (Mulla Sadra, of the spiritual, and this
2008: 286) tension is what makes it
On the Aristotelian hylomorphic human. (Miteva, 2012: 100)
view, the soul is the form of
the individual human being, Mulla Sadra’s innovation is
and the body is the matter. to suggest that the corporeal
This seems to imply that the human substance can change
soul cannot exist without the
