خلاصة:
There are many differences between the creative cause (the real and true cause that bring things into being) and natural causes (preparing causes). In his essay, the author has referred to the most significant differences in Mulla Sadra’s viewpoint. The outcome -achieved through library references and the analysis of the data- is to attain those features in the true creative cause none of them can be found in preparing causes. Those features are: bringing into being (creation), that making is not exclusive to composite making, that an influence and influencing are one identical thing, that an agent and its being agent are one identical thing, that such agent is free from motion instrument and receptive element, that the influence is from its side, that it is stronger than the effect, that it is impossible to separate the act from the agent and vice versa.
ملخص الجهاز:
However, the natural agent is merely a preparer and facilitator for receiving the grace of existence in bodies, and its effect is nothing more than moving and transforming bodies from one state to another; for example, the work of a builder, which is considered the efficient cause of a building, involves moving construction materials, mixing them with one another, and placing them next to each other or on top of each other, based on a specific form and state.
For this very reason, attributing the bestowal of existence to agents other than God (such as the intellects) — even if this attribution were correct — means that these agents are mediators of grace and preparers (in the second sense); because both the aforementioned agents themselves and their actions are the very essence of connection and relation to the Exalted Necessary Being: «فلا استقلال لهذه الأشياء في الإيجاد بل الحق أن نسبة الإيجاد إليها لو صحت فهي تكون لإمداد علوي و إنما هي روابط و مصححات للوجود» (Sadr al-Din al-Shirazi, Vol. 2, p.
Based on this difference, the life-giving agent is the origin of the effect's existence, and based on Sadrian primacy and simplicity of existence, it bestows the essence and the entire identity of the effect upon it; whereas the motional agent merely transforms a state of its effect — which previously possessed existence without the intervention of the motional agent — (Sadr al-Din al-Shirazi, 1366, Vol. 7, p.
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