A Comparative Study of the Survival and Decline of Government from the Perspectives of Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi and Mulla Sadra

Abstract

This study comparatively examines the factors contributing to the survival and decline of government in the thought of Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi and Mulla Sadra. It investigates the epistemological, ontological, ethical, and political foundations through which these two Muslim philosophers explain governmental stability and degeneration and identifies the principal similarities and differences between their perspectives. The study employs a descriptive, analytical, and comparative method based on library research and textual analysis. The findings indicate that Qutb al-Din considers politics a branch of practical wisdom intended to regulate social cooperation, secure collective interests, and guide human beings toward worldly and otherworldly felicity. In his political thought, justice, equilibrium among social powers, the competence of the ruler, civic cooperation, and the integration of religion and politics constitute the primary foundations of governmental survival. Conversely, injustice, the appointment of unqualified individuals, domination by appetitive desires, and disruption of the political and economic balance generate governmental decline. Mulla Sadra, however, identifies ignorance, the absence of authentic knowledge, the domination of appetite and anger over reason, religious superficiality, and the corruption of rulers and false scholars as the deeper causes of political degeneration. Within Transcendent Philosophy, individuals and societies continuously move toward either perfection or decline, while governmental laws, institutions, and educational practices contribute to shaping the moral and existential character of citizens. The comparative analysis demonstrates that justice in Qutb al-Din’s thought represents the institutional foundation of political survival, whereas ignorance in Mulla Sadra’s philosophy constitutes the epistemic origin of decline. These accounts are complementary rather than contradictory: ignorance produces moral corruption, moral corruption generates political injustice, and injustice destroys public trust, cooperation, and governmental legitimacy. Genuine governmental survival therefore depends on the coordinated presence of knowledge, virtue, justice, law, social participation, and an orientation toward human perfection.