Mullā Ṣadrā’s Legacy and Concluding Remarks

Abstract

Mullā Ṣadrā’s synthetic discourse on knowledge and authority can be interpreted as a discursive springboard for the establishment of the modern discourse of Shīʿī political authority, prominently the guardianship of the jurist (wilāya al-faqīh) in contemporary Iran. The author briefly reviews the discursive legacy of Mullā Ṣadrā in the formation and development of the discourse on the absolute religio-political authority of top jurists. The chapter follows the thread of his narrative of absolute epistemic authority as it relates to the imam and his representatives. The focus will be on the incorporation of philosophical and Sufi discourses into several influential texts from early modern and modern times, a process which culminated in the establishment of the theory of wilāya al-faqih as the dominant religio-political discourse during and after the Islamic Revolution of Iran.