One aspect of the Avicennian turn in Sunnī theology

Arabic Sciences and Philosophy

Volumn 14, Issue 1, 2004, Pages 65-100

  Wisnovsky, Robert ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 60949857516     PISSN: 09574239     EISSN: 14740524     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0957423904000013     Document Type: Review

References (57)

1. U. Rudolph, al-Māturīdī und die sunnitische Theologie in Samarkand (Leiden, 1996).
2. J. van Ess, Die Erkenntnislehre des 'Adcombining dot belowudaddīn al-Īcī (Wiesbaden, 1966)
3. and H. Davidson, Proofs for Eternity, Creation and the Existence of God in Medieval Islamic and Jewish Philosophy (Oxford, 1987).
4. For a brief survey of the attempts by post-Avicennian mutakallimūn, both Sunnī and Šī'ite, to appropriate Avicenna's distinctions between essence and existence, and between the necessary of existence in itself and the necessary of existence through another/possible of existence itself, see my "Avicenna and the Avicennian tradition", in P. Adamson and R. Taylor (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy (Cambridge, 2004).
5. On qidam in general see D. Gimaret, Les noms divins en Islam (Paris, 1988), pp. 164-9.
6. 'Abd al-Ǧabbār, al-Muġnī fī abwāb al-tawhcombining dot belowīd wa-al-'adl, ed. M.M. Hcombining dot belowilmī et al., 16 vols. (Cairo, 1958f.), vol. V, pp. 233.17-18; 234.15 and 235.1;
7. see also al-taqaddum fī al-wuǧūd at p. 234.6-11.
8. 'Abd al-Gabbār, al-Muġnī, V, pp. 233.1-2 and 234.7-9.
9. Ibn Fūrak, Muǧarrad maqālāt al- Aš'arī, ed. D. Gimaret (Beirut, 1987), pp. 26.19-20; 27.19-20; and 42.19-20.
10. Al-Aš'arī, Maqālāt al-islāmiyyīn, ed. H. Ritter, vol. I-II (Istanbul, 1929-30), p. 164.13-14.
11. On Mu'tazilite theories of attributes generally, see Maqālāt al-islāmiyyīn, pp. 164.10-165.13 and 484.5-487.14.
12. Al-Aš'arī, Maqālāt al-islāmiyyīn, p. 165.5.
13. Al-Aš'arī, Maqālāt al-islāmiyyīn, pp. 169.2-170.3.
14. I shall comment only briefly on the problem of whether some or all of the attributes are eternal. As far as the classical Aš'arites were concerned, only the attributes of the self could be called eternal, the attributes of the act being originated. Their reasoning was that if an attribute of the act, such as "providing" (rizq), were eternal, then the object of that act - namely, the creatures for whom God provides - would also have to be eternal. According to the Māturīdites, who were probably following the lead of the Hcombining dot belowanafite scholar al-Hcombining dot belowakīm al-Samarqandī (d. 953) on this point, attributes of the act as well as attributes of the self are eternal. The Māturīdites explained the eternality of the attributes of the act by appealing to a distinction that for all intents and purposes is the same as Aristotle's famous distinction, in De anima 2.1, between first entelekheia and second entelekheia. According to the Māturīdites, the transition from possessing the capability to provide (first entelekheia) to exercising that capability (second entelekheia), like the transition from knowing how to write but not writing, to writing, does not fall under any of Aristotle's categories of change - from one substance to another, from one quality to another, from one quantity to another or from one location to another - but refers instead to a single thing's transition from one state of being to another state of being. Cf. al-Hcombining dot belowakīm al-Samarqandī, K. al-Sawād al-a'zcombining dot belowam, no ed. (Cairo, 1837-38), p. 21.18-21;
15. On this see W. Madelung, "The origins of the controversy concerning the creation of the Koran", in J. Barral (ed.), Orientalia Hispanica: sive studia F.M. Pareja octogenario dicata (Leiden, 1974), pp. 504-25;
16. J. van Ess, "Ibn Kullāb und die Mihcombining dot belowna", Oriens, 18-19 (1965-66): 92-142 (esp. pp. 102ff.) and "Ibn Kullāb", Encyclopaedia of Islam (New Edition), Suppl., pp. 391-2;
17. and H. Wolfson, The Philosophy of the Kalam (Cambridge, Mass., 1976), pp. 235-303.
18. On the attributes in general, see Wolfson's "Philosophical implications of the problem of the divine attributes in the Kalam", Journal of the American Oriental Society, 79 (1959): 73-80
19. and The Philosophy of the Kalam, pp. 112-234;
20. and M. Allard, Le problème des attributs divins dans la doctrine d'al-Aš'arī et de ses premiers grands disciples (Beirut, 1965).
21. For evidence that an infinite regress of meta-eternalities was a real worry to Sunnī thinkers, see the Aš'arite mutakallim and mystic al-Qušayrī (d. 1072), Šarhcombining dot below asmā' Allāh al-hcombining dot belowusnā, ed. Tcombining dot below.'A. Sa'd and S.Hcombining dot below.M. 'Alī (Cairo, 2001), pp. 55.8 and 392.5-7.
22. This is precisely the trap which the Mu'tazilite-influenced Šī'ī mutakallim al-Šayh{caron below} al-Mufīd (d. 1022) accuses al-Aš'arī of having fallen into: al-Šayh{caron below} al-Mufīd, Awā'il al-maqālāt fī al-madcombining minus sign belowāhib wa-al-muh{caron below}tārāt, ed. M. Muhcombining dot belowaqqiq (Tehran, 1993), pp. 11.20-12.8.
23. Al-Aš'arī, K. al-Luma', ed. R.J. McCarthy (in his The Theology of al-Aš'arī [Beirut, 1953]), pp. 12.21-13.2.
24. Ibn Fūrak, Muǧarrad maqālāt al- Aš'arī, p. 326.7-12; see also p. 28.12-17.
25. The texts Ibn Fūrak refers to explicitly are al-Īdcombining dot belowāhcombining dot below ( = K. Īdcombining dot belowāhcombining dot below al-burhān fī al-radd 'alā ahl al-zayġ wa-al-tcombining dot belowuġyān: Ibn 'Asākir, Tabyīn kadcombining minus sign belowib al-muftarī fī-mā nusiba ilā al-Imām Abī al-Hcombining dot belowasan al-Aš'arī, no ed. [Damascus, 1928], p. 130.3-4), where al-Aš'arī adopts the qadīm bi-qidamin view; and al-Muh{caron below}tazan (Ibn 'Asākir, p. 133.2-5), where he follows the qadīm bi-nafsihi line.
26. Abū al-Mu'īn al-Nasafī, K. Tabscombining dot belowirat al-adilla, ed. C. Salamé (Damascus, 1993), p. 56.2-10.
27. Al-Māturīdī, Ta'wīlāt ahl al-sunna ( = Tafsīr al-Māturīdī al-musammā Ta'wīlāt ahl al-sunna [Cairo, 1971]), vol. I, pp. 76.16-77.4;
28. Al-Bayhaqī, K. al-Asmā' wa-al-scombining dot belowifacombining minus sign belowt, p. 33.6-12.
29. For a transcription of this passage, see my Avicenna's Metaphysics in Context, p. 278.
30. There is some evidence (in an admittedly very compressed and difficult passage: ap. Ibn Mattawayh, K. al-Maǧmū' fī al-muhcombining dot belowītcombining dot below bi-al-taklīf, ed. J. Houben [Beirut, 1965], vol. I, pp. 152.7-154.17) that this move may have been anticipated by the Mu'tazilite al-Ǧubbā'ī, who appears to have maintained that God's distinctiveness from all other beings consisted in the necessity with which God possesses His essential attributes (bi-wujūbi hādcombining minus sign belowihi al-scombining dot belowifāti lahu) of eternality, power, knowledge, life and so on (152.7-14). His son Abū Hāšim disagreed, apparently maintaining that this copulative necessity, being ultimately reducible to God's eternally warranting His attributes, is not real enough to account for God's distinctiveness from other beings (152.15-19).
31. On this absence, and on Avicenna's new distinction between wascombining dot belowfī and dcombining minus sign belowātī readings of modal propositions, see now Tony Street, "Logic", in Adamson and Taylor (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy.
32. al-Nāši' al-Akbar (d. 906), al-Kitāb al-Awsatcombining dot below fī al-maqālāt, ed. J. van Ess (Beirut, 1971), pp. 109.13-110.11 ( = #148);
33. and Sa'diyā al-Fayyūmī (i.e., Saadia Gaon, d. 942), Kitāb al-Amānāt wa-al-i'tiqādāt, ed. S. Landauer (Leiden, 1880), pp. 12.17-13.10; 16.19-20.18;
34. and (for the Sunnīs) al-Māturīdī, K. al-Tawhcombining dot belowīd, pp. 5.13; 7.11; 8.14-17; 42.20;
35. al-Aš'arī, K. al-Luma', pp. 41.10-42.15;
36. On the distinction between wāǧib and dcombining dot belowarūrī, see van Ess, Die Erkenntnislehre des 'Adcombining dot belowudaddīn al-Īcī, pp. 118-19.
37. Ih{caron below}wān al-Scombining dot belowafā', no ed. (Beirut, 1957), Rasā'il, vol. II, p. 471.1.
38. Ibn Sīnā, al-Mabda' wa-al-ma'ād, ed. 'A. Nūrānī (Tehran, 1984), p. 3.2-15.
39. On the possible relationship between Avicenna and 'Abd al-Ǧabbār, see now A. Dhanani, "Rocks in the Heavens?! The encounter between 'Abd al-Ǧabbār and Ibn Sīnā", in D. Reisman (ed.), Before and After Avicenna (Leiden, 2003), pp. 127-44.
40. Ibn Rušd, Tahāfut al-tahāfut, ed. M. Bouyges (Beirut, 1930), p. 276.4-9.
41. 'Abd al-Ǧabbār ap. Ibn Mattawayh, K. al-Maǧmū' fî al-muhcombining dot belowītcombining dot below bi-al-taklīf, I pp. 50.24; 99.21-22; 141.10-12; and 142.1.
42. 'Abd al-Ǧabbār ap. Ibn Mattawayh, K. al-Maǧmū' fī al-muhcombining dot belowītcombining dot below bi-al-taklīf, I p. 51.20-21.
43. 'Abd al-Ǧabbār, al-Muġnī, IV, p. 250.4-15; and XI, p. 432.11-15.
44. E. Rowson, "al-Rāghib al-Iscombining dot belowfahā nī", Encyclopaedia of Islam (New Edition), VIII, 389-90
45. and W. Madelung, "Ar-Rāġib al-Iscombining dot belowfahānī und die Ethik al-Ġazālīs", in R. Gramlich (ed.), Islamwissenschaftliche Abhandlungen Fritz Meier zum 60sten Geburtstag (Wiesbaden, 1974), pp. 152-63.
46. Al-Rāġib al-Iscombining dot belowfahānī, al-I'tiqādāt, ed. Š. al-'Aǧalī (Beirut, 1988), p. 48.15-20.
47. As I mentioned in fn. 4, detailed discussions of the Neoplatonic, Aristotelian and Fārābian background to Avicenna's distinction can be found in my Avicenna's Metaphysics in Context, Chapters 10-12. Other intriguing evidence that Avicenna inherited rather than invented the distinction has been highlighted by A. Hasnaoui, "Un élève d'Abū Bišr Mattā b. Yūnus: Abū 'Amr al-Tcombining dot belowabarī", Bulletin d'études orientales, 48 (1996): 35-55 at p. 37.
48. Ibn al-Farrā', K. al-Mu'tamad fī uscombining dot belowūl al-dīn, ed. W.Z. Hcombining dot belowaddād (Beirut, 1974), p. 47.15-16: "Non-existence is not possible for Him [...] non-existence is impossible for Him (wa-lā yaǧūzu 'alayhi al-'adamu [...] istahcombining dot belowāla 'alayhi al-'adamu)" and 48.8-9: "Evidence pointing towards the fact that he is eternal a parte post (bāqin) [...] consists in what has been covered previously regarding the existence of the fact that He is eternal unendingly [in the past and future] (fī-mā lam yazal wa-lā yazālu), and in the fact that non-existence is impossible for Him (wa-anna al-'adama yastahcombining dot belowīlu 'alayhi)";
49. al-Fīrūzābādī al- Šīrā zī, al-Išāra ilā madhab ahl al-hcombining dot belowaqq, ed. Marie Bernand (in La profession de foi d'Abū Ishcombining dot belowāq al-Šīrāzimacr;) (Cairo, 1987), p. 20.13-18: "The non-existence of the eternal is impossible (al-qadīm yastahcombining dot belowīlu 'adamuhu)"; al-Mutawallī, Kitāb al-Muġnī, ed. M. Bernand (Cairo, 1986), p. 6.5: "Because the non-existence of the eternal is impossible (li-anna al-qadīma yastahcombining dot belowīlu 'adamuhu)" (followed by an explanation at 6.10-19); p. 21.4-5: "For the non-existence of the eternal is impossible (fa-inna al-qadīma yastahcombining dot belowīlu 'adamuhu)"; and p. 31.11: "The non-existence of the eternal is impossible (wa-yastahcombining dot belowīlu 'adamu al-qadīmi)".
50. The Iršād references are to J.-D. Luciani, ed. and [French] trans., El-Irchad par Imam el-Haramein (Paris, 1938).
51. al-Fadcombining dot belowālī (d. 1821), Kifāyat al-'awāmm fī 'ilm al-kalām (ap. al- Bāǧū rī, Hcombining dot belowāšiya 'alā kifāyat al-'awāmm, no ed. [Cairo, 1906]), pp. 31.1-33.1 (top): "Know that understanding the fifty forthcoming creedal statements is based upon three things: the necessary, the impossible and the possible. The necessary is that whose non-existence is inconceivable to the intellect, that is to say, the intellect will not assent to its non-existence"; p. 38.2-4 (top): "Thus if it is now said that power is necessary of God (inna al-qudrata wāǧibatun li-Allāhi), the meaning will be that the intellect will not assent to the non-existence of God's power"; p. 44.1: "The first and foremost of the attributes that are necessary of God is existence".
52. Ibn al-Farrā', Kitāb al-Mu'tamad fī uscombining dot belowūl al-dīn, p. 44.3-14.
53. Allard refers to al-Ǧuwaynī's new, modal method of categorizing the divine attributes as "Plan A", with "Plan B" referring to the old method of distinguishing between scombining dot belowifāt nafsiyya ("les attributs essentiels") and scombining dot belowifāt ma'nawiyya ("les attributs entitatifs"): Allard, Textes apologétiques de Guwaynī, p. 11;
54. and Abū al-Barakāt 'Abd Allāh ibn Ahcombining dot belowmad al-Nasafī (d. 1310), 'Umdat al-aqīda li-ahl al-sunna wa-al-ǧamā'a, ed. W. Cureton, in Pillar of the Creed (London, 1843), pp. 4.18-5.1: "That whose survival is impossible will not be eternal, because the eternal is the necessary of existence in and of itself [li-anna al-qadīma wāǧibu al-wuǧūdi li-dcombining minus sign belowātihi], and is thus impossible of non-existence."
55. A.I. Sabra, "The appropriation and subsequent naturalization of Greek science in medieval Islam: A preliminary statement", History of Science, 25 (1987): 223-43.
56. R. Wisnovsky, "Notes on Avicenna's concept of thingness (šay'iyya)"', Arabic Sciences and Philosophy, 10.2 (2000): 181-221.
57. Wisnovsky, "Avicenna and the Avicennian tradition".