Analytical Study of Social Freedom and Social Walaa in Mulla Sadra’s Transcendent Philosophy

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Department of Theology, Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University

10.22080/jepr.2026.30576.1308

Abstract

This study examines the philosophical bases of social freedom and social walaa (spiritual guardianship and ontological connectivity) within Mulla Sadra’s system of Transcendent Philosophy (Ḥikmah Mutaʿāliyah). It proposes that freedom, in Sadra’s view, transcends its common ethical or political sense and represents an existential modality rooted in his principles of gradation of being (tashkīk al-wujūd) and substantial motion .

In this ontological perspective, human liberty is not absolute independence but a stage of the soul’s motion toward perfection. True freedom thus lies in voluntary existential transformation, where the intellect and will participate in ascending levels of being. When extended to the social level, this ontological structure produces social walaa, i.e., a network of dynamic hierarchical relations that express the unity of existence within society.

Such walaa embodies the metaphysical link between individuals, society, and divine order, uniting communal life under a single existential continuum. Hence, Sadra’s conception of freedom naturally evolves into a vision of spiritual solidarity and governance, where social relations mirror the gradational unity of the cosmos.

By integrating metaphysical anthropology (the soul’s existential evolution) with divine governance, Sadra formulates a distinctive Islamic paradigm of social philosophy. This paradigm interprets social organization and authority not as external systems but as results of internal spiritual motion—making freedom and walaa complementary principles of human and communal perfection.

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