Journal of Interdisciplinary Qur'anic Studies

Journal of Interdisciplinary Qur'anic Studies

Gradational Epistemology in the Qur'an Based on Mullā Ṣadrā's Transcendent Philosophy and Its Epistemological, Anthropological, and Cultural–Civilizational Implications

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors
Sayyed Mohammad ALi Mirdamadi 1
Mohsen Tavakkoli Varzaneh 2
1 PhD in Philosophy and Islamic Theology, Faculty of Theology, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
2 Assistant Professor, Department of Qur'an and Hadith Sciences, Faculty of Theology, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
Abstract
Within Islamic theology and Qur'anic exegesis, the levels of sensory, rational, and cardiac (heart-based) cognition have generally been examined independently of one another. As the foundations upon which individual and collective attitudes and decisions are formed, these levels exert a direct influence on political and economic orientations. Nevertheless, Western theories of civilization have largely concentrated on structural factors and have devoted comparatively little attention to the role of levels of cognition in the dynamics of civilization. The absence of a model that explains these levels within a teleological and civilizational framework has created a significant gap in the existing literature. This study seeks to propose a Ṣadrian hermeneutical model that integrates Qur'anic epistemology with the principles of Mullā Ṣadrā's al-Ḥikmah al-Mutaʿāliyah, thereby reinterpreting the progression from sensory cognition to rational understanding and ultimately to cardiac intuition (ʿilm al-ḥuḍūrī, presential knowledge) in relation to civilizational development. By a Ṣadrian hermeneutical model, the study refers to an interpretive framework grounded in al-Ḥikmah al-Mutaʿāliyah that explains the understanding of the Qur'anic text in relation to the existential and cognitive levels of the human being. This model necessarily entails epistemological, anthropological, and cultural–civilizational implications, and the present study develops the model through an examination of these implications. The study adopts a descriptive–analytical method, while the analytical section employs a qualitative comparative approach to selected Qur'anic verses based on Mullā Ṣadrā's doctrines of substantial motion (al-ḥarakah al-jawhariyyah), the gradation of Being (tashkīk al-wujūd), and the unity of the intellect and the intelligible (ittiḥād al-ʿāqil wa al-maʿqūl). The findings are compared with classical Qur'anic commentaries—particularly al-Mīzān by ʿAllāmah Ṭabāṭabāʾī and Mafātīḥ al-Ghayb (al-Tafsīr al-Kabīr) by Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī—as well as with major Western theories of civilization, including those of Spengler, Huntington, and Klein. The Qur'anic–Ṣadrian model regards sensory cognition as the indispensable yet inherently limited point of departure; it presents rational cognition as a bridge leading to metaphysical intuition; and it identifies cardiac knowledge as the highest stage of epistemic maturity and the means through which individual spiritual refinement is linked to collective civilizational flourishing. By grounding the integration of the sciences in the unity and gradation of being and in a teleological worldview, this framework offers an alternative to exclusively empiricist, rationalist, or utilitarian approaches. It demonstrates that the elevation of human cognition constitutes a driving force for civilizational advancement within the Qur'anic horizon.
Keywords
Qur'an
sensory cognition
rational cognition
civilizational development
ʿilm al-ḥuḍūrī (presential knowledge)
Mullā Ṣadrā
gradational epistemology
Ṣadrian hermeneutics
Journal of Interdisciplinary Qur'anic Studies

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 16 July 2026