A new approach to the problem of temporal finitude of the universe, on the basis of the transcendent philosophy of Mulla Sadra

In the history of Islamic thoughts, Kalām specialists mostly believed in temporal coming-into-being of the universe, and on the other side, Islamic philosophers mostly believed in temporal eternity of it. But in contrast, “Mulla Sadra” as an Islamic philosopher, on the basis of the “renewing creation” based on the “substantial motion”, believed in temporal coming-into-being of the universe in every moment; but meanwhile, he rejects the temporal finitism. In this paper, after reconsidering the concepts of “temporal coming-into-being” and “temporal finitude” of the universe, I criticize the most important arguments against the temporal finitism, using the framework of Mulla Sadra’s transcendent philosophy. So I show that one can accept Mulla Sadra’s philosophical framework and his “renewing creation”, but reject his arguments against temporal finitism. Finally, I argue that not only there is no contradiction between transcendent philosophy and temporal finitism, but also this framework helps a lot for a coherent and valid explanation of both the temporal coming-into-being of the universe and the temporal finitude of it. Accordingly, I have introduced a new picture for temporal coming-into-being, in which the universe has both temporal beginning and renewing creation. One could call this theory "The temporally finite renewing universe". This model in addition to enjoying the benefits of the fruitful framework of transcendent philosophy, helps to solve some of the interdisciplinary problems and possible conflicts.