development of soul through contemplation and action seen from the viewpoint of lslamic philosophers and gnostics

for a long time, philosophers have considered contemplative knowledge and thinking to be the specific perfection of the human species. from this point of view, philosophers such as aristotle and avicenna thought that the act of thinking was the highest activity leading to man's happiness. on the contrary, illuminative philosophers and gnostics in the islamic world only considered speculative philosophy to be a preliminary to the attainment of noble qualities of character and moral virtues ; in other words, they thought that practical philosophy was the only necessary criteria leading to practical happiness. this article presents the different theories of islamic philosophers which aimat justifying the development of the human soul through knowledge and speculative sciences. the main justificatory theory in this field is the theory of the unity of the intellect and the intelligible which is a legacy of neoplatonic philosophy and was revived by mulla sadra. in addition to the theory of the mental existence, this theory may be considered to be the basis of the theory of the soul’s development. however, this article will show that mulla sadra's statements on this matter are not clear and are subject to serious criticism. finally, through the reorganization of the sadrian pattern, gnostic theory and transcendental philosophy will remarkably get closer to each other.