A Comparative Study of Potentiality and Actuality (Quwwa and Fiʿl) and Earth and World (Erde und Welt) in the Thought of Muslim Philosophers and Martin Heidegger

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Seyyed Muhammad Sadeq Atashzar
Mahdi Monfared
Seyyed Mohammad Mahdi Nabavian
Department of Islamic Philosophy and Theology, Faculty of Theology and Islamic Studies, University of Qom, Qom, Iran.
10.30470/phm.2025.2053916.2653
Abstract
The Peripatetics advocate the concrete composition of potentiality and actuality in the essence of corporeal bodies.Suhrawardī, however, posits the simplicity and monadic nature of bodily reality.In the Sadrian framework, only a singular existent is actualized in external reality thereby resolving the duality of potentiality and actuality through their ontological unity, resulting in a unitary composition of matter and form.Heidegger offers a distinct interpretation of matter and form and their unification, conceptualized as the dialectic of earth and world.At first glance, the divergence between the Peripatetic and Heideggerian perspectives becomes evident.While Suhrawardī’s rejection of the concrete composition of bodily reality suggests an affinity with Heidegger’s thought, such a comparative alignment is not without challenges.According to both Ṣadrā and Heidegger, duality is realized only through its grounding in ontological unity.Engaging this issue is essential for understanding the natural world and its implications for defining the relationship with modern natural sciences, as the latter focus on bodies and objects without interrogating their metaphysical reality—a task beyond the scope of the sciences themselves. This article employs a descriptive-analytical methodology, drawing on library sources, to conduct a comparativestudy of potentiality and actuality in Islamic philosophy and the dialectic of earth and world in Heidegger’s thought.
Keywords
Potentiality and Actuality (Quwwa and Fiʿl)
World and Earth (ʿĀlam and Arḍ)
Ibn Sīnā
Suhrawardī
Mullā Ṣadrā
Martin Heidegger
Philosophical Meditations

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 27 July 2025