Editing Islamic philosophy (section)

===Transcendent school===
{{Main|Transcendent theosophy}}
[[Transcendent theosophy]] is the school of Islamic philosophy founded by [[Mulla Sadra]] in the 17th century. His philosophy and [[ontology]] is considered to be just as important to Islamic philosophy as [[Martin Heidegger]]'s philosophy later was to [[Western philosophy]] in the 20th century. Mulla Sadra bought "a new philosophical insight in dealing with the nature of [[reality]]" and created "a major transition from [[essentialism]] to [[existentialism]]" in Islamic philosophy, several centuries before this occurred in Western philosophy.<ref name="Kamal">{{cite book |title=Mulla Sadra's Transcendent Philosophy |first=Muhammad |last=Kamal |year=2006 |publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. |isbn=0-7546-5271-8 |pages=9, 39}}</ref>

The idea of "essence precedes existence" is a concept which dates back to [[Avicenna|Ibn Sina (Avicenna)]]<ref name="Irwin">{{Cite journal|first=Jones|last=Irwin|title=Averroes' Reason: A Medieval Tale of Christianity and Islam|date=Autumn 2002|journal=The Philosopher|volume=LXXXX|issue=2}}</ref> and his school of [[Avicennism]] as well as [[Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi]]<ref name="Razavi 1997 129"/> and his [[Illuminationist philosophy]]. The opposite idea of "[[Existence precedes essence]]" was thus developed in the works of [[Averroes]]<ref name="Irwin"/> and [[Mulla Sadra]]<ref>{{Harvp|Razavi|1997|p=130}}</ref> as a reaction to this idea and is a key foundational concept of [[existentialism]].

For Mulla Sadra, "existence precedes the essence and is thus principle since something has to exist first and then have an essence." This is primarily the argument that lies at the heart of Mulla Sadra's [[Transcendent Theosophy]]. Sayyid Jalal Ashtiyani later summarized Mulla Sadra's concept as follows:<ref>{{Harvp|Razavi|1997|pp=129–30}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|The existent being that has an essence must then be caused and existence that is pure existence ... is therefore a Necessary Being.}}

More careful approaches are needed in terms of thinking about philosophers (and theologians) in Islam in terms of [[Phenomenology (philosophy)|phenomenological]] methods of investigation in [[ontology]] (or onto-theology), or by way of comparisons that are made with [[Heidegger]]'s thought and his critique of the history of metaphysics.<ref>For recent studies that engage in this line of research with care and thoughtful deliberation, see: [[Nader El-Bizri]], ''The Phenomenological Quest between Avicenna and Heidegger'' (Binghamton, N.Y.: Global Publications SUNY, 2000); and [[Nader El-Bizri]], 'Avicenna and Essentialism', ''Review of Metaphysics'' 54 (2001), 753–78; and [[Nader El-Bizri]], 'Avicenna's De Anima Between Aristotle and Husserl', in ''The Passions of the Soul in the Metamorphosis of Becoming'', ed. Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003), 67–89</ref>