Religious Causes and Motives of Mulla Rajab Ali Tabrizi and Qadi Said Qumi in Denying Mulla Sadra’s Principality of Being

There arose two distinctive philosophical approaches in the philosophical school of Isfahan: one originating from Mirdamad and the other from Mirfindiriski and Mulla Rajab Ali Tabrizi. The first approach resulted in the emergence of the Transcendent Theosophy and the second one in that of the peripatetic school of Mulla Rajab Ali Tabrizi. Taking the external meanings of Quranic verses and traditions into consideration, the proponents of the peripatetic school of Mulla Rajab Ali Tabrizi such as Qadi Said Qumi, Pirzadeh Qumi, etc. did not admit the principality of being and its implications such as the equivocation of being, unity of being, and analogical gradation of being. They argued that the principality of being and its equivocation would place God or the Creator in the same line as the creatures. This is not consistent with the transcendental approach toward God in Quranic verses and traditions. They did not consider the principality of being and its implications compatible with certain religious doctrines and beliefs on the unity of the necessary being. Drastically opposing the principality of being, they approved the principality of quiddity and its implications such as homonymy of being extending from the necessary being to the contingent being. Thus they concluded that beings are heterogeneous and multiple.