Critical Evaluation of Fayyāzi’s Perspective on God Possessing an Quiddity

Mohammadi, Soheila; Kochnani, Qasemali; Ahsan, Majid

doi:10.48308/jipt.2025.239363.1619

Critical Evaluation of Fayyāzi’s Perspective on God Possessing an Quiddity

Document Type : Scientific-research

Authors

¹ Department of Islamic Philosophy and Theology, Faculty of Theology, University of Tehran, Iran.

² Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Theology, Imam Sadiq University, Tehran, Iran.

10.48308/jipt.2025.239363.1619

Abstract

The discussion of God's lack of essence in the strict sense is one of the significant topics in Islamic philosophy, with profound implications for discussions in metaphysics in its strict sense, such as divine unity, knowledge of the Divine, the simplicity of God's essence, the absence of a common genus between the necessary and contingent beings, and the non-causality of the Necessary Being. Philosophers of the Peripatetic and Transcendent Philosophy traditions have presented various arguments in defense of God's pure existence and the negation of essence from Him. Among them, a contemporary Islamic philosopher (Gholamreza Fayyāzi) has critiqued these arguments and, by presenting rational and transmitted evidence, concluded that God possesses an essence. His unique interpretation of the conceptual nature of essence in Transcendent Philosophy has played a significant role in articulating his claim. This study, conducted through a descriptive-analytical method with a documentary approach, seeks to describe and evaluate Fayyāzi’s perspective. The findings will demonstrate that his critiques of the philosophers' arguments regarding God's lack of quiddity are not valid, and the rational and transmitted evidence he claims to support God's possession of essence is not conclusive.

Keywords

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