A Comparative Rereading of "This-Worldly Vision of God"; Ṣadrā to Eckhart

Document Type : Biannual Journal

Author

Department of Theology, Farhangian University, Tehran, Iran

10.30465/cw.2026.53089.2136
Abstract
The problem of the possibility and quality of the sensory vision of God in the material world has long been a fundamental question in the field of comparative philosophy and mysticism. The main research question in this paper is as follows: Can and how can the vision of God be interpreted as a this-worldly and objective experience within the framework of Mulla Sadra's Transcendent Philosophy (al-Ḥikmat al-Mutaʿāliya) and Meister Eckhart's mysticism? This research has been conducted using a descriptive-analytical method with a comparative approach. Data were collected by referring to the primary texts of the two thinkers, and then the ontological and epistemological principles they uphold regarding the problem of sensory vision were analyzed and compared. The findings indicate that, despite differences in language and intellectual tradition, both thinkers emphasize the centrality of several common principles: God is not beyond the world, but present within it; the material world is not a veil over God, but rather a mirror and manifestation of Him. In Transcendent Philosophy, concepts such as the existential poverty (faqr wujūdī) of possible existents, the personal unity (waḥdat shakhṣiyya) of existence, transcendent sense, and certain other rules provide the philosophical basis for the sensory vision of God in this very world. Eckhart, too, with concepts such as ground (Grund), the birth of God in the soul, and the single eye, considers vision contingent upon the human being emptying themselves of self and intuiting the divine presence at the heart of all creatures, including sensible things. The article concludes that the vision of God in the material world is possible, but it is neither a simple sensory-physical observation nor a purely mental affair; rather, it is an existential experience in which sense, reason, and intuition unite in the light of a transcendent truth. In this experience, the duality of "seer" and "seen" dissolves into unity, and the world is read as a book in which every word manifests the immediate presence of the Divine.

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Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 21 July 2026