Zahra Gozali

Beauty is a metaphysical concept in Thomas. Such an attitude about beauty necessarily will relate it to the other philosophical concepts. It can be said that the understanding of _beauty_ – which separated from _Good_- is impossible in the Hellenistic and middle ages thoughts- which are a kind of metaphysical one - because _Beauty_ and _Good_ are often enumerated as the objective properties of Beings in these thoughts. Thomas as other predecessors accepts the same idea about Beauty too and connects it with the Being. So we can enumerate beauty as one of the Transcendentals; one of which necessarily connect with _Goodness_; because the Transcendentals not only have connected with the _Being_ but also with each other. Beauty, in Aquinas' philosophy, is an objective property and at the same time has connected with apprehension and with the soul too. Because of this, the appetitive power of the soul will owe the beauty by the mediation of the intelligence.

Knowledge, according to Ibn Arabi and Mulla Sadra, in term of its obvious concept and its hidden existence or truth is an existential truth. There is nothing as obvious as the concept of knowledge through which the knowledge itself can be explained. But, on the other hand, the truth of knowledge, like the truth of existence, is absolutely hidden. The reality of knowledge, based on the pantheism, is the "hierophany". In fact, knowledge, as characteristic of God is the same as his nature or essence and since his existence is the one and only and does not have any partner, knowledge is one as well and will not have any denotation but the existence of God. The ‘extinction of the self in God’ and the can be known as another interpretation of real knowledge. Because of the fact that the human perfection is nothing but his knowledge of himself, and this, in itself, happens when one could be the perfect illustration of hierophany. In fact, the realization of the ‘eternal life in union with God’ involved in the ‘extinction of the self in God’, and in case that it happens the real knowledge and the ultimate perfection will be equal, the different concepts in a union reality. Therefore, Ibn Arabi's goal of the Spiritual Journey and the purpose of Mulla Sadra from the Intellectual Journey is the realization of the real knowledge, or as Ibn Arabi says; it is the “realization of pantheism”.