A Model of Soul’s Health in the View of Nasir al-Din Tusi: Analyzing Soul’s Health and Virtue as the First Step toward Fulfilling Righteous Human

Abolhassani Niyaraki, Fereshte; Ghorbani, Hashem

doi:10.22034/ra.2019.82987.2134

A Model of Soul’s Health in the View of Nasir al-Din Tusi: Analyzing Soul’s Health and Virtue as the First Step toward Fulfilling Righteous Human

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Fereshte Abolhassani Niyaraki ¹

Hashem Ghorbani ²

¹ Assistant Professor in the Department of Islamic Theology and Philosophy, University of Mazandaran

² Assitant Professor in the Department of Islamic Instructions, Imam Khomeini International University

10.22034/ra.2019.82987.2134

Abstract

Analyzing Health of soul and characteristics of a pure soul has been an important anthropological issue for Muslim thinkers. In his moral treatises, Nasir al-Din Tusi has developed a particular model on human soul`s health. The current research tries to depict this model and then give a comprehensive analysis of the issue on the basis of his writings. In the view of Tusi, purity of soul is a preliminary step toward human transcendence. In the transcendence-based theory of Tusi, decontaminating soul from vice and rascality exerts an important effect on the purity of soul. According to this thinker, virtue is a critical component for this purity. In this model he employs flexible indices aimed at a righteous Man rather than an ideal perfect or Gnostic human being. Such an analysis is different from other theories put forward on the issues including the view adopted by Zakariyyā al-Rāzī. Maintaining a spiritual therapeutic stance which is adopted from the moral theory of Tusi, the current research has depicted the spiritual disorders of soul and suggested remedial solution. Furthermore, considering the weight of “virtue” in the purity of soul, the nature of the concept, as well as faculties of soul, is explained and different interpretations are given.

Keywords

Tusi

Health of Soul

Virtue

Model

Spiritual Medicine