Statement of the Negative Theory of Ethics in Sadra’s Wisdom

By analyzing the issue of annihilation as the end of moral action, this article pays attention to a new interpretation of Sadra’s mystical moral system. In order to reach his ultimate happiness, man must destroy the degrees of his existence: absence of form, absence of self, and absence of spirit. These steps, which are equivalent to natural death, destruction of the human self and annihilation in divine monotheism, respectively, in addition to being harmonious with the skeptical-ontological foundations of transcendental philosophy, by answering the question “What is the role of moral action in a negative reading of the nature of morality?” provide a possibility of presenting a negative ethical theory. Accordingly, the path of being moral begins after man’s journey to the divine world and ends after the disappearance of non-Gods. By heeding the distinction between worldly and otherworldly morality and concurrent with paying attention to the hadith of proximity of supererogatory and obligatory prayers, the advantage of this negative theory in recognizing the nature of Islamic morality is clarified.