An Examination of the Possibility of Understanding of the Wisdom of God’s Actions with an Emphasis on the Muʿtazilite Abd al-Jabbar’s Argument about God’s Promise

Document Type : Scientific-research

Authors

1 Professor, Department of Moral Philosophy, University of Qom, Qom, Iran (corresponding author)

2 Doctoral student in Philosophy of Religion and New Theological Issues, School of Law, Theology and Political Sciences, Science and Research Unit, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.

3 Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, School of Law, Theology and Political Sciences, Science and Research Unit, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

The appeal to Divine Wisdom, either as a direct axiom or a framework for other principles, has been widely prevalent in Mutakallimun’s arguments. In the present paper, after presenting some cases of this trend and through logical analysis, the Muʿtazilite ʿAbd al-Jabbar’s arguments based on Divine Wisdom are scrutinized and criticized in particular. As a hypothesis, the authors believe that the Muʿtazilite ʿAbd al-Jabbar’s appeal to this divine attribute is, at least partly, inaccurate and thus, his arguments are logically inconclusive. Seemingly, this divine attribute is often used in a posterior method, and this method has been applied merely to rationalize the religious dogmas and the revelatory statements discursively. In addition, elaboration on this particular topic requires a comprehensive inner knowledge about all details of the universe and the ultimate purpose of the creation. Many other cases which, based on this very principle, must have been done or created, and yet are left unrealized, can be taken as serious counter-examples for this theological framework. It should be noted that the main theme of this paper doesn’t concern the objective reality per se, for based on decisive rational arguments and the explicit religious teachings, all Divine actions are carried out in the ultimate wisdom for the ultimate good; rather, this paper aims at questioning the possibility of a comprehensive understanding of such wisdom and the human intellect’s capacity - with all its limitations and failures - for discerning its cases.

Keywords

References

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