Abstract

One of the objections that has recently been raised against Mulla Sadra is that he was merely the founder of a new school of philosophy and gnosis, without being interested in human beings' livelihood. Accordingly, his main concern was people's perception of resurrection and spiritual and otherworldly affairs, and even if he discussed people's livelihood, he had adopted his ideas in this regard from his predecessors, such as Farabi and Ibn Sina, who themselves followed Plato and Aristotle. Therefore, the writer decided to compare the views of this philosopher concerning the ruler of the ideal city and his characteristics, which is one of the important issues in political philosophy and enjoys a high comparative value, with those of Farabi. In this way, we will understand how he developed his new theories in the light of Qur'anic and hadithi teachings, particularly, those of Shi'ite Imams. A considerable part of these theories pertain to political and social issues. Obviously, he could not have remained heedless to them and resisted interpreting and explaining them.