Existence Comes First: Asalat al-Wujud

Two sides of every thing: When you think of any real thing, two different aspects appear. Mahiyya (essence, whatness) answers the question "What is it?" — the nature of the thing, what makes it this kind of thing and not another. Wujud (existence) answers the question "Does it exist?" — the sheer fact that the thing is, that it actually exists in reality.

You can know the "what" without the "is": You can describe the Mahiyya of a horse perfectly — four legs, a mane, it neighs, it eats grass, it is an animal — without any horse existing at all. A perfect description of a horse does not make a horse exist. Mahiyya and Wujud are not the same thing.

The great debate: So which one is the primary reality, and which one is the mental abstraction? Asalat al-Mahiyya (the primacy of essence) says the real thing is the essence: the horse is really the horse-nature, and existence is just a mental label we put on it. Its supporters included Suhrawardi and some early scholars. Asalat al-Wujud (the primacy of existence) says the real thing is existence: the horse does not have existence — the horse IS a particular mode of existing, and we name that mode "horse". Its proponent is Mulla Sadra.

Argument 1 — only real existence can cause: Fire burns wood. The burning is real and measurable. What exactly passes from the fire to the wood? If "fire-ness" is just an abstract essence — a mental concept — then it has no causal power. Abstract concepts do not burn; the concept of fire in your mind does not warm your hand. The thing that actually burns is the existence of the fire — its Wujud. Whatever has causal power is real; Wujud has causal power, so Wujud is real, and it is the primary reality.

Argument 2 — science works because existence is shared: Science works because different things can be compared and measured together. That is only possible because all things share existence as common ground. If each thing had its own separate reality, with nothing in common, there would be no common ground on which science could stand.

Argument 3 — Allah has no Mahiyya: Allah is pure unlimited Wujud, with no Mahiyya at all. If existence were only a label added to essences, then Allah — who has no essence to label — would have no existence. But Allah is the Necessary Being, the source of all existence. So existence itself must be the real thing, not the label.

Mahiyya is the limit of Wujud: Then why does the concept of Mahiyya arise at all? When Wujud is limited — when it appears at a particular degree and intensity — that limit defines a specific mode of being. The mind then names that limit, and that name is the Mahiyya. A candle flame is light — genuinely. But it is limited light, and the boundary of where its light ends is what makes it "this candle" and not "that lamp". The light is Wujud; the limit is what generates the Mahiyya. Created things have a Mahiyya because their Wujud is limited; Allah has no Mahiyya because His Wujud has no limit.

The poverty of Mahiyya: Mahiyya has no existence from itself. A horse-nature cannot make itself exist; it must be given existence. Every created thing is poor and needy towards Allah for its very being.

Example

Look at a wave in the sea. The wave is not a separate thing that "has" water added to it — the wave IS water, in a particular shape and movement. The shape is like the Mahiyya: it tells you what kind of wave it is. The water itself is like the Wujud: it is the real thing. Take the water away and there is no wave at all; the shape alone cannot splash.

Key Terms

• Asalat al-Wujud (اصالت الوجود) — the primacy of existence; Mulla Sadra's claim that existence is the only reality
• Mahiyya (ماہیت) — essence, whatness; the answer to "What is it?"
• Asalat al-Mahiyya (اصالت الماہیہ) — the primacy of essence; the rival view that essence is the real thing
• Causal power (قوتِ علت) — the power to produce a real effect; only real existence has it

Quran or Hadith

Quran 35:15 — "O people! You are the poor (fuqara) toward Allah, and Allah is the Rich, the Praiseworthy." — to be checked. Like Mahiyya, every created thing has no existence from itself — it is poor and needy towards Allah for its very being.

Fresh diagram to be drawn: A horse drawn in two layers: the solid horse labelled "Wujud — the real thing", and a dotted outline of a horse labelled "Mahiyya — the mind's name for this mode of existing".