ABSTRACT
Usually when ‘Islamic thought’ is discussed attention is limited to the schools that prevailed during the early centuries, and even then only to the theologians (mutakallimūn) and the Peripatetic philosophers (mashshā’iyyūn). In this field as in so many others, rarely has the study of Western scholars extended to include Islamic intellectual life in its totality. Therefore, often the views of the Hermeticists, Illuminationists (ishrāqīs), Sufis or gnostics (‘urafā’) and of the followers of the school of Mullā ṣadrā regarding metaphysical and philosophical questions are neglected. Our intention is to discuss the different conceptions of nature held in various schools and the question of the integration of these conceptions in the total view of Islam. We shall restrict ourselves to the views of the theologians, Peripatetic philosophers, gnostics and the school of Mullā ṣadrā. 1
