Ibn Taymiyyas Theodicy of Perpetual Optimism

Islamic Philosophy,
Theology and Science
Texts and Studies

Edited by

H. Daiber

VOLUME LXXIII

Ibn Taymiyyas Theodicy

of Perpetual Optimism
by

Jon Hoover

LEIDEN BOSTON
2007

This is an open access title distributed under the terms of the Creative
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ISSN 0169-8729
ISBN 978 90 04 15847 4 (hardback)
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Copyright 2007 by Jon Hoover
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TO MY MOTHER AND FATHER

CONTENTS
Acknowledgements .......................................................................................

xi

Introduction ...................................................................................................

Chapter One: Worship, Religious Epistemology and Theological

Jurisprudence .............................................................................................
Ibn Taymiyya as a Theological Jurist ...................................................
The Centrality of Worshipping God Alone ......................................
The Correspondence of Reason and Revelation ...............................
On Knowing that God Exists and that He Alone should
be Worshipped .....................................................................................
The Methodology of Theological Jurisprudence ..............................
The Apologetic Quality of Ibn Taymiyyas Theological
Jurisprudence ........................................................................................
Chapter Two: Gods Wise Purpose, Perpetual Activity and
Self-Sufficiency ..........................................................................................
The Problematic of Gods Goodness and Gods
Self-Sufficiency .....................................................................................
Joseph Bell on Gods Wise Purpose and Self-Sufficiency
in Ibn Taymiyyas Theology ...............................................................
Ibn Taymiyyas Classification of Views on Wise Purpose/
Causality in the Will of God ...........................................................
The Ashar Case against Causality in the Will of God:
It Entails Imperfection and Origination in God, as well
as an Infinite Regress ..........................................................................
Ibn Taymiyyas Case for a God Who Acts Perpetually for
Wise Purposes and Creates from Eternity ....................................
Ibn Taymiyya on Gods Voluntary Acts Subsisting in
Gods Essence ........................................................................................
Ibn Taymiyya on Gods Sufficiency apart from the
Worlds in the Exercise of Wise Purpose ........................................
Conclusion .................................................................................................

19
19
26
29
32
46
68
70
70
72
76
78
80
95
97
101

viii

contents

Chapter Three: Gods Creation and Gods Command ........................

Ibn Taymiyyas Creation/Command Hermeneutic ..........................
Ibn Taymiyyas Classification of Errors in Creation and
Command .............................................................................................
Ibn Taymiyya: Analogy Is the Cause of Error in Creation
and Command .....................................................................................
Modes of Expressing Creation and Command in Ibn
Taymiyyas Thought .............................................................................
Ibn Taymiyya Defending the Coherence of Creation
and Command .....................................................................................
Conclusion .................................................................................................

103
103

Chapter Four: Gods Creation of Acts in the Human Agent ............

Ibn Taymiyyas View of the Human Act in Prior
Research .................................................................................................
The Theological and Philosophical Context .....................................
Ibn Taymiyya on the Compatibility of Divine Creation
and Human Action .............................................................................
Ibn Taymiyyas View of Divine Creation by Means of
Secondary Causes ................................................................................
Ibn Taymiyya on Controversial Kalm Terms Relating
to Human Agency ...............................................................................
Ibn Taymiyyas Compatibilism as the Golden
Mean (wasa$t) ........................................................................................
Conclusion .................................................................................................

136

Chapter Five: The Wise Purpose and Origin of Evil ...........................

Ibn Taymiyya and the Explanation of Evil in Islamic
Theodicies ..............................................................................................
Ibn Taymiyyas Evil Attribution Typology .........................................
Ibn Taymiyya on Gods Wise Purposes in the Creation
of Evil .....................................................................................................
Ibn Taymiyyas Location of the Origin of Evil in
Nonexistence (adam) ........................................................................
Conclusion .................................................................................................

104
115
119
129
134

136
137
146
156
165
173
174
177
177
179
190
195
209

contents

ix

Chapter Six: The Justice of God and the Best of All Possible
Worlds .........................................................................................................
Introduction ..............................................................................................
Ibn Taymiyyas Three-fold Typology on Gods Justice
(adl ) .......................................................................................................
Ibn Taymiyya on Gods Power and al-Ghazls Best of
All Possible Worlds .............................................................................
Conclusion .................................................................................................

224
227

Conclusion ......................................................................................................

229

Bibliography ...................................................................................................
Ibn Taymiyyas Writings ..........................................................................
Collected Works with Abbreviations .............................................
Ibn Taymiyyas Treatises with Short Titles ....................................
Works of Others Found in the Collected Works of
Ibn Taymiyya ...................................................................................
Other Arabic and Western Language Sources ..................................

239
239
239
239

Index .................................................................................................................

255

211
211
212

243
243

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book is a substantial reworking of my 2002 University of Birmingham
Ph.D. entitled, An Islamic Theodicy: Ibn Taymiyya on the Wise Purpose
of God, Human Agency, and Problems of Evil and Justice. David Thomas
gently guided and nurtured my doctoral research through many a blind alley.
Yahya Michot gave the doctoral thesis text a careful critique and drew my
attention to aspects of Ibn Sn in Ibn Taymiyya. Both shared generously
of their time, and their incisive questions, observations, corrections and
suggestions spurred me on to what I trust is now a more accurate reading
of Ibn Taymiyyas theodicy.
Many others have engaged me in conversations that provided encouragement, taught me much of relevance to Ibn Taymiyya, challenged me to think
deeper about what I was doing, and saved me from errors and oversights.
In this regard, I wish to thank especially Muammer skenderolu, Maha
Elkaisy-Friemuth, Giuseppe Scattolin, Frank Griffel, David Vishanoff, Shahab Ahmed, Livnat Holtzman, Caterina Bori, Mairaj Syed, Tariq el-Jamil,
David Grafton, Gino Schallenbergh, Aron Zysow, Luciano Verdoscia, Khaled
el-Rouayheb, Mark Swanson and Christian van Nispen. The Center for Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies at the American University of Beirut and
its director John Meloy kindly provided access to the research and library
resources needed to bring this book to completion. Michael Shelley and
Marc Schoeni read through the entire text at different stages of preparation
and offered their valuable perspectives as educated readers from outside the
sub-discipline of Islamic philosophy and theology. Trudy Kamperveen at Brill
guided the process of publication with eminent care and professionalism.
It has been my privilege to be part of supportive institutions throughout
this endeavor. Professors, staff and fellow students at the Centre for the Study
of Islam and Christian Muslim Relations in the University of Birmingham
offered friendship and rich dialogue. Colleagues, staff and students at Dar
Comboni for Arabic Studies in Cairo and now the Near East School of Theology in Beirut have graciously abided my ongoing interest in Ibn Taymiyya
and provided much stimulating conversation.
My gratitude extends as well to my parents to whom this book is dedicated
and to the numerous people of vision in the Mennonite churches of the
United States and Canada for making this undertaking possible in so many
different ways. I also owe a great debt to my wife and children for bearing

xii

acknowledgements

with me through the grueling process of study and granting me the daily
joy and warmth of life in family. Last, but certainly not least, I give thanks
to God who in love and mercy has seen me through this project. While this
study would not have been possible without so much help graciously given,
I remain fully responsible for its deficiencies.
Portions of Chapter Two and much of Chapter Six were published previously in the Theological Review of the Near East School of Theology as Ibn
Taymiyya as an Avicennan Theologian: A Muslim Approach to Gods SelfSufficiency, 27.1 (April 2006): 3446, and The Justice of God and the Best
of All Possible Worlds: The Theodicy of Ibn Taymiyya, 27.2 (November
2006): 5375, respectively. I am grateful to the editor for permission to
republish here with revisions and additions.

INTRODUCTION
Theodicy and Ibn Taymiyya
The eminent Muslim jurist Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328) is well known for
polemic against all manner of rational thought, whether the Neoplatonic
philosophy of Ibn Sn (Avicenna), the mystical speculation of Ibn Arab,
or the Kalm theology of the Ashars and the Mutazils. Furthermore, Ibn
Taymiyyas resolute adherence to the Quran, the Sunna and the Salaf (i.e.
the pious early Muslims) is nearly legendary. Yet, scattered about in specialized studies are hints that there is more to the shaykh than polemics and
unyielding literalism. While polemics and literalism are indeed prominent
features of Ibn Taymiyyas writing, it is growing ever more apparent that
their import is not fully grasped without reference to a broader method and
theological vision at work in his thought. Perhaps even more surprising is that
Ibn Taymiyya shares with Ibn Sn and Ibn Arab, as well as with al-Ghazl
in his I!hy ulm al-dn, a similar stance on one of the most fundamental
questions of monotheistic theology, that of theodicy.
The term theodicy as used in modern western philosophy of religion indicates the attempt to explain why a good, just and all-powerful God created a
less than perfect world. The term is not indigenous to the Islamic tradition,
and a major current within the traditionthe voluntarism of Ashar Kalm
theologyrejects the question of theodicy as meaningless. Gods unfettered
will, sufficiency apart from the world, and exclusive power preclude asking
why God does this or that. God is not limited by any necessity of reason,
and His acts require no deliberation, rational motive or external cause. Thus,
Gods creation of injustice, unbelief and other evils is not susceptible to any
explanation except that God wills it.
Despite this, theodicy and its division into two basic kindsthe bestof-all-possible-worlds theodicy, also known as optimism, and the free-will
theodicyprove useful as analytical shorthand for sorting through other
theological currents in the Islamic tradition.1 Mutazil Kalm theology
provides the primary instance of an Islamic free-will theodicy. While the

1
I owe this conceptual distinction to Marilyn McCord Adams, Horrendous Evils and the
Goodness of God (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999), 179, and passim.

Jon Hoover, 2007

This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/.

introduction

Mutazils uphold Gods sufficiency apart from the world along with the
Ashars, they also introduce purpose into Gods creation. They explain that
God creates human beings not out of His own need but for the benefit of
humans themselves, which is to work for reward in the retributive order of
obligations that God has imposed. Within this order God must do what is
best (a$sla$h) for all creatures in respect of religion, and, according to some
Mutazils, in mundane matters as well. Humans for their part have free
will and create their own good and bad deeds apart from Gods control.
God is therefore just to reward and punish. If God were the sole creator of
all human acts, He would obviously be unjust to punish the unbelief and
disobedience that He creates.
Optimism or the best-of-all-possible-worlds theodicy appears in more than
one strand of the Islamic tradition. An early instance occurs in the Kalm
theology of al-Mturd (d. 333/944) for whom evil serves the peculiar function of proving the existence of God. God creates all things, including evil,
in conformity to His wisdom, and, by virtue of evils opposition to good, evil
shows the contingency of the creation and its need for the Creator. Evil is
thus a tool of Gods wisdom to lead human beings to knowledge of God.2
While al-Mturdi serves as the eponym for the important Mturd
school of Kalm theology, Ibn Sn (d. 428/1037) and his doctrine of providence (inya) provide the key conceptual resources for the development of
optimism in the other major strands of the Islamic tradition. For Ibn Sn,
providence means that the First (i.e. God) is the source of the best possible
order: the First is a cause in Itself of good and perfection inasmuch as that
is possible (bi-!hasab al-imkn).3 Similarly, the knowledge of the First necessarily entails that the existence of everything is according to the best order
(al a!hsan al-ni)zm).4 Evil in Ibn Sns view does not truly exist. It is rather
a privation of being or existence, and it is a necessary consequence of and a
means to the greater good that God providentially wills in creation.5
J. Meric Pessagno, The uses of Evil in Maturidian Thought, Studia Islamica 60 (1984):
5982.
3
Ibn Sn, Al-Shif: Al-Ilhiyyt (2), ed. Mu!hammad Ysuf Ms, et al. (Cairo: Al-Haya
al-mma li-shun al-ma$tbi al-amriyya, 1380/1960), 415.
4
Ibn Sn, Al-Ishrt wa al-tanbht (Ed. Sulaymn Duny. 3 vols. Cairo: Dr i!hy al-kutub
al-arabiyya, 136667/194748), 3:206. Ibn Sn explains the providentially good ordering
of the heavens and the earth in Al-Mabda wa al-mad, ed. Abd Allh Nrn (Tehran:
Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill UniversityTehran University, 1984), 8890.
5
Ibn Sn, Al-Shif: Al-Ilhiyyt (2), 414422. Mn A!hmad Mu!hammad Ab Zayd
offers a wide ranging overview of Ibn Sns thought on evil in Mafhm al-khayr wa al-sharr
f al-falsafa al-Islmiyya: Dirsa muqrana f fikr Ibn Sn (Beirut: Al-Muassasa al-jmiiyya
li-l-dirst wa al-nashr wa al-tawz, 1411/1991). See also Shams C. Inati, The Problem of
2

introduction

Optimism is also widespread in Sufism. Sufis do not always speculate

whether this world is the best possible, but they do typically affirm that God
creates evil as an instrument of discipline on the spiritual path. Annemarie
Schimmel sums up this perspective as follows: The mystic can understand
that Gods wrath is mercy in disguise, and that the pain and punishment
that He inflicts upon those who love Him are necessary for their spiritual
growthjust as bitter medicine is necessary for the sick.6 In the more philosophical vein of Sufism, which draws on Avicennan conceptual resources,
al-Ghazl (d. 505/1111) sparked a debate lasting eight centuries with the
claim, There is nothing in possibility more wonderful than what is (laysa
f al-imkan abda mimma kn), and Ibn Arab (d. 638/1240) integrated
optimism fully into his prodigious and influential mystical writings.7
Also ranking with Muslim optimists is Ibn Taymiyya, as well as his most
illustrious student Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 751/1350). This has gone
almost completely unnoticed in basic works on Islamic philosophy and
theology in western languages.8 Yet, observation of Ibn Taymiyyas optimism
is not new. Joseph Bell broke important ground on several aspects of the
shaykhs theodicy in his 1979 Love Theory in Later (Hanbalite Islam, which
I will review in Chapter Two below,9 and, 40 years earlier, Henri Laoust in

Evil: Ibn Sns Theodicy (Binghamton, NY: Global Publications, Institute of Global Cultural
Studies, Binghamton University, 2000); Jean R. Michot, La destine de lhomme selon Avicenne (Louvain: Peeters, 1986), 6166; and Marwan Rashed, Thodice et approximation:
Avicenne, Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 10 (2000): 223257.
6
Annemarie Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam (Chapel Hill, NC: The University
of North Carolina Press, 1975), 198. Louis Massignon provides evidence for the instrumental role of suffering in Sufism in The Passion of al-Hallj: Mystic and Martyr of Islam, trans.
Herbert Mason (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1982), 3:111121.
7
On al-Ghazl and the subsequent controversy, see Eric L. Ormsby, Theodicy in Islamic
Thought: The Dispute over al-Ghazls Best of all Possible Worlds (Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press, 1984). I survey Ormsbys work at the end of Chapter Six. For a reminder that
al-Ghazls theological views are not easily harmonized into a coherent position, see Norman
Calders review of Ormsbys book in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies
49 (1986): 2112. For Ibn Arab see Ormsby, Theodicy, 1037, and more comprehensively,
William C. Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge: Ibn al-Arabis Metaphysics of Imagination
(Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1989), especially 289301.
8
The sole mention of Ibn Taymiyyas optimism that I have found in introductory works
occurs in Fazlur Rahman, Islam, 2d ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979), 1134,
who notes approvingly, although inaccurately in the case of the Mturds, that Ibn Taymya
reinstates into Muslim theology the doctrine of the purposiveness of the Divine behaviour, a
doctrine so strenuously denied by Asharism, Mturdism and %Zhirism as compromising the
omnipotence of Gods will and His dissimilarity to His creation. Unfortunately, Rahman
does not explore the implications of this in Ibn Taymiyyas theology further.
9
Joseph Normant Bell, Love Theory in Later H
( anbalite Islam (Albany, NY: State University
of New York Press, 1979), 4691.

introduction

his still unsurpassed 1939 Essai sur les doctrines sociales et politiques de Ta$kd-Dn A!hmad b. Taimya concisely described the shaykhs theodicy thus:
God is essentially providence. Evil is without real existence in the world. All
that God has willed can only conform to a sovereign justice and an infinite
goodness, provided, however, that it is envisaged from the point of view of the
totality and not from that of the fragmentary and imperfect knowledge that His
creatures have of reality. . . . Ibn Taymiyyas theodicy marks the advent in Sunn
dogmatics of an optimism of Platonic inspiration which will be more amply
and more literarily developed in the oeuvre of Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya.10

Unfortunately, Laoust says little more than this about Ibn Taymiyyas theodicy, and, buried away in Laousts encyclopedic tome, its significance has
not been recognized. The present study seeks to rectify this by drawing
together Ibn Taymiyyas thought on the sundry questions that come under
the rubric of theodicy and expositing, analyzing and occasionally translating
his theodicean writings. I also examine the shaykhs intellectual context in
order to shed light on his theodicys ___location in the wider Islamic tradition
and trace precedents for his thought. A great deal more remains to be done
in this regard, but the contextualizing work done here should be sufficient
to show that Ibn Taymiyya articulates a best-of-all-possible-worlds theodicy
over against traditional Asharism and Mutazilism that follows in the train
of Ibn Sn, Ibn Arab and al-Ghazl, whatever his differences with these
renowned figures on other counts. Attention is given as well to the theological method at work in Ibn Taymiyyas theodicy, and more will be said about
this at the end of this Introduction.
It becomes apparent in the course of this study that Laousts brief analysis
of Ibn Taymiyyas place in the Islamic tradition quoted above requires modification and elaboration. As for the inspiration of Ibn Taymiyyas theodicy, Ibn
Sn is more proximate than Plato, although Plato certainly lies in the distant
background. Additionally, inasmuch as al-Mturd and al-Ghazl come
earlier, Ibn Taymiyya does not mark the beginnings of optimism in Sunn
theology. Nonetheless, his theodicy might be original in another significant
respect. The shaykh combines a best-of-all-possible-worlds theodicy with a
dynamic vision of Gods essence. Ibn Taymiyyas God, who is perpetually
active and creative from eternity, contrasts sharply with the ultimately timeless and motionless God of not only Ibn Sn and his successors but also the

10
Henri Laoust, Essai sur les doctrines sociales et politiques de Ta!k-d-Dn A!hmad b. Taimya,
canoniste h! anbalite n H
( arrn en 661/1262, mort Damas en 728/1328 (Cairo: Imprimerie
de linstitut franais darchologie orientale, 1939), 169, cf. 515.

introduction

Kalm theologians. It is because of the unique character of Ibn Taymiyyas

God as ever active in a temporal sense that I call his optimism perpetual.
This will become readily apparent in Chapter Two below.
Ibn Taymiyyas theodicy has not been without interest to later generations
of Muslims. As Laoust correctly observes, Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya provides
a more fully developed optimism than does Ibn Taymiyya himself, although
the disciples theodicy and its debt to his master have yet to be studied
carefully.11 Perhaps more significantly, Ibn Taymiyya is well known today
as a major inspiration for contemporary Islamic resurgence, and it is common knowledge among students of modern Islam that the writings of the
shaykh are important sources for the eighteenth and nineteenth century
Wahhb movement in Arabia and modernist reformers such as Rashd Ri#d
(d. 1935).12 While modern Muslim interest in Ibn Taymiyya is often thought
to be social and political, there is anecdotal evidence that it extends to
theodicy as well. The direct influence of Ibn Taymiyyas optimism is found
in such diverse places as the work of the prominent Pakistani modernist
Fazlur Rahman (d. 1988) and a detailed volume on good and evil published

11
A major source for Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyas theodicy is Shif al-all f masil al-qa#d
wa al-qadar wa al-!hikma wa al-tall, ed. al-Sayyid Mu!hammad al-Sayyid and Sad Ma!hmd
(Cairo: Dr al-(Hadth, 1414/1994). Irmeli Perho, Man Chooses his Destiny: Ibn Qayyim
al-Jawziyyas view on predestination, Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 12 (2001): 6170,
provides access to the basic ideas found in the first part of this work, but the scope of her
article does not extend to the questions of wise purpose and causality in Gods will that are
treated later in the book. Of the thirty chapters in Shif al-all, A. de Vlieger, Kitb al qadr:
Matriaux pour servir a ltude de la doctrine de la prdestination dans la thologie musulmane
(Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1903), 116169, translates parts of Chapters 712 and 17, which deal
primarily with divine determination. Also of interest on Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya are Bell, Love
Theory, 92181; and Moshe Perlmann, Ibn Qayyim and the Devil, in Studi Orientalistici in
onore di Giorgio Levi della Vida, vol. 2 (Rome: Istituto per loriente, 1956), 3307.
12
For Ibn Taymiyyas influence from his death through to early twentieth century Egyptian
reform movements, see Laoust, Essai, 477575; and Laoust, Linfluence dIbn-Taymiyya, in
Islam: Past Influence and Present Challenge, ed. Alford T. Welch and Pierre Cachia (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1979), 1533. Ibn Taymiyya is seen widely today as the
key inspiration for contemporary Islamic militancy, primarily because militants quote him as
a key authority. However, accepting this linkage uncritically, as does Natana J. Delong-Bas,
Wahhabi Islam: From Revival and Reform to Global Jihad (Oxford, UK: Oxford University
Press, 2004), 247ff., is anachronistic and distorts Ibn Taymiyya into a more militant figure
than he was. For antidotes to this problem, see Emmanuel Sivan, Ibn Taymiyya: Father of
the Islamic Revolution: Medieval Theology & Modern Politics, Encounter 60.5 (May 1983):
4150; Johannes J.G. Jansen, Ibn Taymiyyah and the Thirteenth Century: A Formative
Period of Modern Muslim Radicalism, Quaderni di Studi Arabi 56 (19878): 3916; Paul
L. Heck, Jihad Revisited, Journal of Religious Ethics 32 (2004): 95128; and Yahya Michot,
trans., Ibn Taymiyya: Mardin: Hgire, fuite du pch et demeure de lIslam (Beirut: Dar
Al-Bouraq, 1425/2004).

introduction

in Egypt by Mu!hammad al-Sayyid al-Julaynad.13 It may well be that Ibn

Taymiyya writings, as well as those of Ibn al-Qayyim, are nurturing a broad
movement of optimism in modern Islamic discourse. However, it is beyond
the scope of the present book to examine the degree to which this is so,
especially as this merits a major inquiry in its own right. An important aim
of the present study is to provide a far firmer foundation than has previously
been available for research of that kind.
Ibn Taymiyyas Theodicean Writings
Ibn Taymiyya wrote voluminously and often polemically on a wide range of
issues in an effort to purge Islam of various innovations that he perceived it
to have suffered and to illumine the pure religion of the Quran, the Sunna
and the Salaf.14 His output as a scholar was complemented and shaped by
13
For Fazlur Rahman see Note 8 above and his Revival and Reform in Islam: A Study
of Islamic Fundamentalism (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2000), 148156. Mu!hammad
al-Sayyid al-Julaynad, Qa#diyyat al-khayr wa al-sharr f al-fikr al-islm: U$sluha al-na)zariyyajawnibuh al-ta$tbqiyya, Dirsa ilmiyya li-masliyyat al-insn f al-Islm, 2d Printing (Cairo:
Ma$tbaat al-(Halab, 1981), provides a study of the Mutazil and Ashar Kalm traditions
on good and evil, evaluating both with the help of numerous references and borrowings
from Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (e.g. 108114, 134, 177181, 205213,
234242, 2612, 2789, 298303, and 3201). Umar Sulaymn al-Ashqar, lam al-jinn
wa al-shayy$tn (Cairo: Bayt al-(Hikma, 1413/1992), 155167, borrows directly from Ibn
Qayyim al-Jawziyyas Shif al-all to explain Gods wise purpose in the creation of Satan. This
is translated as Umar Sulaiman al-Ashqar, The World of the Jinn and Devils, trans. Jamaal alDn M. Zarabozo, (Boulder, CO: Al-Basheer, 1998). Laoust, Essai, 5156, observes that the
modern Najd scholar Sulaymn b. Sa!hmn (d. 1349/1930) adopts Ibn Taymiyyas optimism
but that Ibn Abd al-Wahhb is much more Ashar. For the influence of Ibn Taymiyyas notion
of divine determination (qadar) on Mu!hammad Rashd Ri#d, see Christian van Nispen Tot
Sevenaer, Activit Humaine et Agir de Dieu: Le Concept de Sunan de Dieu dans le commentaire
coranique du Manar (Beyouth: Dar el-Machreq, 1996), 2645, 4834.
14
A manuscript giving an extensive list of Ibn Taymiyyas works has been attributed to Ibn
Qayyim al-Jawziyya and printed as Asm muallaft Ibn Taymiyya, ed. S! al!h al-Dn al-Munajjid
(Damascus: Ma$tbt al-majma al-ilm al-arab, 1953). Using an additional manuscript source,
Mu!hammad Uzayr Shams and Al b. Mu!hammad Imrn have reedited this in Al-Jmi li-srat
Shaykh al-Islm Ibn Taymyya (661728) khill sabat qurn, with an introduction by Bakr
b. Abd Allh Ab Zayd (Mecca: Dr lam al-fawid, 1420/19992000), 220249. Shams
and Imrn, Al-Jmi, 813, also reject Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyas authorship and attribute it
to another of Ibn Taymiyyas close followers Ibn Rushayyiq (d. 749/13489) on the basis of
two arguments. First, Ibn Taymiyyas main biographer Mu!hammad b. A!hmad b. Abd al-Hd
(d. 744/1343), Al-Uqd al-durriyya min manqib Shaykh al-Islm A!hmad b. Taymiyya
(Beirut: Dr al-kutub al-ilmiyya, n.d.), 267, copied a page from the lists preface, attributed
it to Ibn Rushayyiq, and credited him with compiling a list. (Ibn Abd al-Hd, Al-Uqd
al-durriyya, 2767, also provides a list of works, which has its own purposes and does not
correspond exactly to that attributed to Ibn Rushayyiq.) Second, although Ibn Qayyim

introduction

his vocation as the most prominent religious activist in the Ba!hr Mamlk
sultanate of Egypt and Syria. The shaykh called for jihad against Mongol
incursions from the east that threatened Mamlk sovereignty in Syria, and,
while he may have been a Sufi himself, he actively opposed Sufi and popular religious practices that he believed were in violation of the sacred Law.
Refusal to compromise on his allegedly anthropomorphic doctrine of Gods
attributes brought him public trials, imprisonment and a seven-year stay in
Egypt (705712/13061313). Ibn Taymiyya spent his last two years of life
(7268/13268) incarcerated in the citadel of Damascus for his criticism
of tomb visitation and the cult of saints.15
al-Jawziyya and Ibn Rushayyiq share the same kunya Ab Abd Allh, references to Ab
Abd Allh undertaking a compilation of Ibn Taymiyyas works found in an account by his
disciple Ibn Murr (included in Shams and Imrn, Al-Jmi, 97104) fit much better with
what is otherwise known about Ibn Rushayyiq than with our information on Ibn Qayyim
al-Jawziyya. These arguments allow very likely, although perhaps not definitive, attribution
of this list to Ibn Rushayyiq. Significant lists of Ibn Taymiyyas writings are also found in
the biographies by !Sal!h al-Dn Khall b. Aybak al-!Safad (d. 764/1362), Kitb al-wf bil-wafayt, vol. 7, ed. I!hsn Abbs (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner, 1969), 2330; Mu!hammad
b. Shkir al-Kutub (d. 764/1362), Fawt al-wafayyt wa al-dhayl alayh, ed. I!hsn Abbs
(Beirut: Dr S! dir, 1973), 1:7580; and Ibn Rajab (d. 795/1393), Kitb al-dhayl al t$ abaqt
al-!hanbila, (Cairo: Ma$tbaat al-sunna al-mu!hammadiyya, 1372/1953), 2:4034. Ibn Rajab
notes that it is impossible to account for everything Ibn Taymiyya wrote.
15
Shams and Imrn, Al-Jmi, bring together the pre-modern biographies of Ibn Taymiyya,
including those mentioned in the previous note. Available separately is a biography by Shams
al-Dn al-Dhahab (d. 748/13478) in Caterina Bori, A new source for the biography of Ibn
Taymiyya, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 67.3 (2004): 321348, which
contains both the Arabic and an English translation. For analysis of the Arabic biographies
and chronicle reports concerning Ibn Taymiyya, see Donald P. Little, The Historical and
Historiographical Significance of the Detention of Ibn Taymiyya, International Journal of
Middle East Studies 4 (1973): 311327; and An Introduction to Mamlk Historiography:
An Analysis of Arabic Annalistic and Biographical Sources for the Reign of al-Malik an-N$sir
Mu!hammad ibn Qaln, (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1970). Modern discussions of
Ibn Taymiyyas life include Caterina Bori, Ibn Taymiyya: una vita esemplare Analisi delle fonti
classiche della sua biografia, Supplemento N. 1., Rivista Degli Studi Orientali, Vol. 76 (Pisa/
Roma: Istituti Editoriali e Poligrafici Internazionali, 2003); and various works of Henri Laoust:
Essai, 7150; La biographie dIbn Taimya daprs Ibn Katr, Bulletin dtudes orientales 9
(19423): 115162; Le Hanbalisme sous les Mamlouks Bahrides (658784/12601382),
Revue des tudes islamiques 28 (1960): 171; and Ibn Taymiyya, The Encyclopedia of Islam,
New edition [hereafter EI2] (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 19542004), 3:9515. Hasan Qasim Murad,
Ibn Taymiya on Trial: A Narrative Account of his Mi!han, Islamic Studies 18 (1979): 132,
focuses on the shaykhs various trials. On the trials over anthropomorphism, see especially
Sherman A. Jackson, Ibn Taymiyyah on Trial in Damascus, Journal of Semitic Studies 39
(Spring 1994): 4185. George Makdisi locates Ibn Taymiyyas silsila in Ibn Taimya: A
Sufi of the Qdirya Order, American Journal of Arabic Studies 1 (1973): 118129, and of
related interest is George Makdisi, The Hanbali School and Sufism, Boletin de la Asociacion Espanola de Orientalistas 15 (1979): 115126, reprint as Part V in George Makdisi,
Religion, Law and Learning in Classical Islam (Hampshire, UK: Variorum, 1991). There
is also substantial biographical material on Ibn Taymiyya in the introduction to Jean R.

introduction

Certain difficulties attend research in Ibn Taymiyyas theodicean writings.

He often presumes in the reader a substantial knowledge of the Islamic religious tradition, and, in comparison to the full didactic style of his disciple
Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, Irmeli Perho aptly observes, Ibn Taymiyya wrote
very sparse prose and expressed his doctrinal views with a minimum of
elaboration.16 Thus, it is not always apparent what the shaykh intends to say.
Moreover, he does not devote a single full and definitive work to theodicy.
Instead, he deals with theodicean questions in fatwas, commentaries and
refutations of widely varying length and completeness that, furthermore,
approach the relevant issues from a number of different angles. In view of
the spare and diffuse nature of Ibn Taymiyyas reflection on theodicy, I have
ranged widely in the shaykhs corpus in search of applicable texts in order to
provide a reasonably full picture of his thought on the subject.
In order to facilitate further discussion and reference, the remainder of
this section describes Ibn Taymiyyas major theodicean texts located for this
study. The texts are dated where possible. Numerous shorter writings and
passages in larger works beyond those listed here will be introduced briefly as
they are employed in later chapters or cited only in the notes. The following
section of this Introduction attends to the methodological issues involved in
reconstructing the shaykhs theodicy from these respective texts.17

Michot, Ibn Taymiyya: Lettre un roi crois (Al-Rislat al-Qubru$siyya) (Louvain-la-Neuve:

Bruylant-Academia, 1995); and in Abdul Hakim I. al-Matroudi, The (Hanbal School of Law
and Ibn Taymiyyah: Conflict or Conciliation (London: Routledge, 2006), 1330. Donald P.
Little explores the possibility of analyzing Ibn Taymiyyas psychology in Did Ibn Taymiyya
have a Screw Loose? Studia Islamica 41 (1975): 93111; and Yahya Michot seeks to explain
Ibn Taymiyyas life-long celibacy in Un clibataire endurci et sa maman: Ibn Taymiyya
(m. 728/1328) et les femmes, Acta Orientalia Belgica 15 (2001): 165190. Caterina Bori,
Ibn Taymiyya wa-jamatu-hu: Authority, Conflict and Consensus in Ibn Taymiyyas Milieu,
forthcoming in Ibn Taymiyya and His Times, ed. Shahab Ahmed and Yossef Rapoport (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2007), provides valuable insight into the shaykhs relations with
his contemporary colleagues and followers. Bori also quotes statements by Ibn Taymiyyas
contemporaries that corroborate aspects of my characterization of the shaykhs theological
method described below in Chapter One. I am grateful to the author for sharing this article
with me prior to publication.
16
Perho, Man Chooses his Destiny, 63. A.S. Tritton in Muslim Theology (London:
Luzac, 1947), 203, speaks of Ibn Taymiyyas style less sympathetically, stating, He was not
a clear thinker.
17
Shahab Ahmed faces a similar set of methodological issues when examining Ibn Taymiyyas scattered statements on the Satanic verses in Ibn Taymiyyah and the Satanic verses,
Studia Islamica 87 (1998): 67124 (especially the comments on 74). Ahmeds combination of
translation, exposition and analysis provides a model of how these methodological difficulties
may be overcome in order to make Ibn Taymiyyas views accessible.

introduction

Texts relevant to this study have been identified in three ways.18 Employed
first were major texts identified in the secondary literature as touching on
theodicy and related issues, most notably Minhj al-sunna al-nabawiyya
[hereafter Minhj], Irda and Ab Dharr, which are described below. Second, the most comprehensive printed collection of the shaykhs writings, the
thirty-seven volume Majm fatw [hereafter MF], was examined. Especially
Volume Eight devoted to divine determination (qadar) and the matching
index on qadar in Volume Thirty-Six turned up many texts and passages
that have not been used in previous research.19 These include the treatises
Tadmuriyya, Kasb, Jabr, (Hasana and Fti!ha described below. Third, a few
more items of interest were found by consulting the tables of contents in
many of the books and collections not found in MF. The treatise dil, which
will be noted below, was identified in this way. No search was made among
manuscripts because it appears that most of Ibn Taymiyyas extant works
have been published.20 However, there are some apparently lost works that
18
This study cites works by Ibn Taymiyya with short titles (e.g. Irda, Nubuwwt, Dar)
whose full references are located in the Bibliography under Ibn Taymiyyas Writings. The
full references of collections usually cited only by their abbreviations (e.g. MF, MRM, MRK)
are also found there. Very short texts have not been given short titles and are cited only by
their locations in the respective collections. No attempt has been made to undertake the
enormous text critical task that awaits the field of Ibn Taymiyya studies, but I have tried to
use the best editions available to me. I employ the older and reasonably widespread Majm
fatw [abbreviated MF] (several publishers) in 37 volumes as opposed to the newer, but not
superior, Majmat al-fatwa in 20 volumes. The contents of the two collections are identical, but the pagination unfortunately differs. Collections and re-editions of Ibn Taymiyyas
works abound, but they often simply repackagesometimes carelessly and usually without
acknowledgementvarious portions of MF. Thus, I make every effort to employ MF as the
standard basis for citation. Many of Ibn Taymiyyas worksespecially his larger onesare not
found in MF. One requires special note. Minhj, the fine critical edition of Ibn Taymiyyas
Minhj al-sunna al-nabawiyya, is not yet widely available in libraries or in the marketplace,
whereas the old Blq edition (short title MinhjB) has been used almost universally for
previous research. Thus, volume and page citations to Minhj in the notes are followed by
a slash and the equivalent volume and page reference in the old Blq edition in order to
facilitate cross checking. Unfortunately, I have not had access to what Aron Zysow informs
me is a promising new series of critical editions of Ibn Taymiyyas writings: thr Shaykh
al-Islm Ibn Taymiyya wa m la!hiqah min aml (Makkah al-Mukarramah: Dr lam alFawid, 1422/2002), which has reached 12 volumes as of this writing.
19
The index on qadar is found in MF 36:142153.
20
An important listing of Ibn Taymiyyas extant works remains Carl Brockelmann,
Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur, revised ed. (Leiden: E.J. Brill 1949), 2:1257, with
Supplement (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1938), 2:119126. An Arabic translation of Brockelmanns
revised edition of Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur and the Supplement combined is
found in Trkh al-adab al-arab, trans. Ma!hmd Fahm (Hijz (Cairo: Al-Haya al-mi$sriyya
al-mma li-l-kitb, 1995), 6:402420. Brockelmanns listing in English with many additions
is found in Qamaruddin Khan, The Political Thought of Ibn Taymiyya (India: Adam, 1988),
186198. Taking Brockelmann and Khan as rough guides, as well as indications in other

10

introduction

would probably have been of interest to this study, especially Ibn Taymiyyas
commentaries on the Mu!hassal and Arban of the Ashar Kalm theologian
Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz (d. 606/1209).21 Apart from these lacunae, the body of
texts identified should constitute a sufficiently large and representative sample
upon which to base this inquiry into Ibn Taymiyyas theodicy.
Much of the first and third volumes of the nine volume critical edition of
Ibn Taymiyyas Minhj deals with theodicean issues. Minhj is a refutation
of Minhj al-karma, a tract of anti-Sunn polemic composed by Allma
Ibn al-Mu$tahhar al-(Hill (d. 726/1325), a Twelver Sh scholar who lived
in the Mongol lkhnid Empire of Iraq and Persia that rivaled the Mamlk
sultanate. The lkhnid ruler Oljeitu (d. 716/1316) converted from Sunnism to Twelver Shsm in 709/1310, possibly through al-(Hills efforts, and
al-(Hill wrote Minhj al-karma at the rulers behest sometime thereafter.22
The date of Minhj, Ibn Taymiyyas response, is no earlier than 713/1313
because it includes several mentions of Dar taru#d al-aql wa al-naql [hereafter Dar], a tome which its editor Mu!hammad Rashd Slim has dated to

secondary literature (e.g. Laoust, Ibn Taymiyya, EI2 3:953), it appears that most of Ibn
Taymiyyas extant works have been printed. Additionally, many available printed works have
been collected onto a CD ROM produced in Jordan: Muallaft al-shaykh wa tilmdhihi
Ibn al-Qayyim, CD ROM, Version 1.0 (Amman: Markaz al-turth li-ab!hth al-!hsib al-l,
1420/1999). Except as a guide to what is in print, this CD ROM is unfortunately of limited
use because the introductions and scholarly apparatus of the sources have not been included.
A number of treatises are in fact found on this CD ROM in more than one place, but there
is no cross referencing system to make this readily apparent.
21
Fakhr al-Dn Mu!hammad b. Umar al-Kha$tb al-Rz, Mu!ha$ss$ al afkr al-mutaqaddimn
wa al-mutaakhkhirn min al-ulam wa al-!hukam wa al-mutakallimn, ed. +Th Abd
al-Raf Sad (Cairo: Maktabat al-kulliyyt al-azhariyya, n.d.); and Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz, AlArban f u$sl al-dn, ed. A!hmad (Hijz al-Saq (Cairo: Maktabat al-kulliyyt al-azhariyya,
n.d.). Ibn Taymiyya himself mentions that he wrote books on Mu!ha$ss$ al and Arban in Qudra,
MF 8:7. Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (or rather, Ibn Rushayyiq), Asm muallaft Ibn Taymiyya,
19, says that Ibn Taymiyyas work on Mu!ha$s$sal is one volume and the work on Arban is two
volumes. These two works are also noted by Ibn Abd al-Hd, Al-Uqd al-durriyya, 37; Ibn
Rajab, Kitb al-dhayl, 2:403; al-!Safad, Kitb al-wf bi-l-wafayt, 7:24; and al-Kutub, Fawt
al-wafayyt, 1:76. Brockelmann does not mention these two commentaries, and I have not
seen any note of them elsewhere in the literature.
22
I cite Minhj al-karma as it is found in Ibn Taymiyyas Minhj. For an overview of this
work, see Henri Laoust, La critique du Sunnisme dans la doctrine dAl-(Hill, Revue des tudes
islamiques 34 (1966): 3560. For manuscripts of Minhj al-karma, see Sabine Schmidtke,
The Theology of al-Allma al-(Hill (d. 726/1325) (Berlin: Klaus Schwarz, 1991), 95. On al(Hills relationship to Oljeitu, see Mu!hammad Rashd Slim, MinhjA, Introduction 1:16,
23; Schmidtke, Theology, 2331; and Moojan Momen, An Introduction to Shi i Islam: The
History and Doctrines of Twelver Shi ism (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1985), 92.
Oljeitu is also known by his Muslim name, Khudbanda.

introduction

11

sometime between 713/1313 and 717/1317.23 Given the great size of both
Dar and Minhj, it is likely that Minhj was written well after 713/1313.
Laoust speculates that it might have arisen from Ibn Taymiyyas involvement
in a conflict over Sh policy in Mecca in 716/1317.24
Among the many domains in which al-(Hill takes Sunns to task in Minhj
al-karma is theodicy. Drawing on the Mutazil polemical tradition that
had permeated Sh theology, he imputes Ashar voluntarism to all Sunns
and attacks this doctrine of God with numerous problems of moral evil.25
23
In the introduction to the earlier incomplete critical edition MinhjA, 1:16, Mu#hammad
Rashd Slim notes that Minhj mentions Dar several times. He also dates Dar and the
subsequent Minhj to as early as 710 AH. However, Slim renders this date impossible in
his introduction to Dar , 1:710, which was published later. There he cites the report of
Ibn Abd al-Hd, Al-Uqd al-durriyya, 26, that Ibn Taymiyya wrote a volume answering a
certain Kaml al-Dn b. Sharss response to Dar. Slim reasons that Ibn Taymiyya wrote
Dar no later than 717 AH because Ibn Shars would have needed a bit of time to read
Dar and write his response before his death in 718 AH. Slim concludes that Ibn Taymiyya
must have written Dar after returning to Syria in 712 AH based on the fact that he once
mentions his sojourn in Egypt in the past tense. Slim adds that it is more likely that Ibn
Taymiyya wrote this long work during his later and calmer Syrian period than during his
tumultuous life in Egypt. Ibn Taymiyya mentions having been in Egypt in Dar, 1:25. Also,
several of Ibn Taymiyyas major works can be safely dated later than 713/1313 because they
contain references to Dar. These include Man$tiqiyyn, Jawb, Awliy and Nubuwwt (see
Slim in the Introduction to Dar, 1:6). Tarif Khalidi gives Dar the flattering remark that
it will undoubtedly become a philosophical classic in Arabic historical thought in the classical period (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 215 n. 65. Yahya Michot,
Vanits intellectuelles . . . Limpasse des rationalismes selon le Rejet de la contradiction dIbn
Taymiyyah, Oriente Moderno 19 (2000): 597617, states with respect to Dar, The quantity
alone of [Ibn Taymiyyas] references [to the philosophical tradition] already allow him to be
considered as the most important reader of the falsifah after Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz in the
Sunn world (599). In this article, Michot translates Dar, 1:156170, as an illustration of the
sophisticated and interdisciplinary nature of Ibn Taymiyyas grasp of the Islamic intellectual
tradition. Dar has been published previously in part as Bayn muwfaqat $sar!h al-maql
li-$sa!h!h al-manql (Clarification of the Agreement of Clear Reason with Correct Revealed
Tradition) on the margin of Ibn Taymiyya, Minhj al-sunna al-nabawiyya f naq#d kalm alSha wa al-Qadariyya [MinhjB], 4 vols. (Beirut: Dr al-kutub al-ilmiyya, n.d.), reprint of
1321/19034 Cairo (Blq) edition. This edition corresponds to Dar, 1:34:295.
24
Laoust, Ibn Taymiyya, EI2 3:952. In his earlier La biographie, 155, Laoust asserts
that Minhj could have been written no earlier than 1321 because the work to which it
responds, the Minhj al-Karma of al-(Hill, was only written in 1321. This is impossible
because al-(Hill wrote Minhj al-Karma for Oljeitu (i.e. Khudbanda) who had died five
years earlier in 716/1316.
25
On al-(Hills Mutazilism in theology, especially his view that God does the best (a$sla!h)
in both religious and worldly matters and his notion of Gods compensation, see Schmidtke,
Theology, 109116, and 117124. See also the theological treatise, (Hasan b. Ysuf b. Al
ibnu l-Mu$tahhar al-(Hill, Al-Bb l-(Hd Ashar: A Treatise on the Principles of Shite Theology with Commentary by Miqdd-l-F#dil al-(Hill, trans., William McElwee Miller (London:
The Royal Asiatic Society, 1928). In Minhj al-karma, al-(Hill sums up his moral charges
against Sunnism as follows, Most of the [Sunns] hold the doctrine that GodHe is Mighty
and Greatdoes bad deeds and that all kinds of disobedient acts, unbelief and corruption

12

introduction

For example, he charges that this God is unjust because He determines that
some should not believe, does not create in them the power to believe, and
then punishes them for not believing.26 Also, this God is foolish because
He commands unbelievers to believe but does not will that they believe.27
Unbelievers are actually obeying God because they are doing what God
wills.28 Moreover, since the voluntarist Sunn God does not act rationally for
a purpose, He may even chastise the Prophet for obeying Him and reward
Ibls for disobeying Him.29
Ibn Taymiyyas line-by-line refutation of al-(Hills attack is rambling and
repetitious, but the dominant strands of thought consistently follow the
lines of a best-of-all-possible-worlds theodicy in which human accountability
is somehow compatible with Gods determination of all things. First, the
shaykh affirms that God acts on account of wise purposes, and he deals at
length in Volume One of Minhj with the peculiar problems of necessity
and imperfection that subjection to rational purpose poses for Gods selfsufficiency and freedom. Here he affirms that God has been perpetually
creating for wise purposes from eternity. Second, and especially in Volume
Three, Ibn Taymiyya distinguishes Gods will to create from Gods will of
command, and he explains that God has a wise purpose in willing to create some things that He prohibits. Third, the shaykh resists the charge that
determinism obliterates human accountability. Human beings are the agents
of their acts and therefore responsible for them even though God creates
them. The details of these three lines of argument will be discussed below
in Chapters Two, Three and Four, respectively.
The lengthy fatwa Irda responds to an inquiry on whether the goodness
of Gods will implies that He creates for a cause. Ibn Taymiyya opens the
fatwa with a typology of views on causality and wise purpose in Gods will,
but only at the end does he defend Gods rationality against the Ashar
objection that this implies need in God. In the intervening pages, he presents a typology of ways that evil (sharr) is attributed so as not to attribute
it directly to God, an account of errors in divine creation and command,

occur by Gods decree and determination. And that the human has no efficacy in that. And
that God has no purpose in His acts, and that He does not do anything for the benefit
of servants. And that He wills acts of disobedience from the unbeliever and does not will
obedience from him. This makes hideous things follow necessarily, (as quoted in Minhj,
3:78/1:2645).
26
Al-(Hill, Minhj al-karma, as quoted in Minhj, 3:20/1:267.
27
Al-(Hill, Minhj al-karma, as quoted in Minhj, 3:179/2:34.
28
Al-(Hill, Minhj al-karma, as quoted in Minhj, 3:154/2:28.
29
Al-(Hill, Minhj al-karma, as quoted in Minhj, 3:86/2:11.

introduction

13

and a discussion of human agency that includes considerations of secondary causality.30 The opening lines of Irda, apparently added by a copyist,
tell us that Ibn Taymiyya received the request for this fatwa from Egypt in
Shawwl 714/JanuaryFebruary 1315. Presumably, the shaykh responded
from Damascus soon thereafter.31
Ibn Taymiyyas Tadmuriyya creed is perhaps one of the shaykhs most
systematic, although not complete, presentations of doctrine.32 The first part
deals with Gods attributes while the second takes up Gods relationship to
the world. Among other things, this latter part discusses secondary causality and Gods creation and command, and it sets out typologies of error on
both questions.
Two medium-length fatwas deal with the apparent incompatibility of
human accountability and divine compulsion ( jabr). In Kasb the inquirer
asks whether humans have any efficacy (tathr) in bringing their acts into
existence. The questioner argues that if someone does have efficacy then he
becomes an associate with the Creator in the creation of his act. This threatens
the exclusivity of Gods creation. Conversely, if the human has no efficacy,
this leads to divine compulsion, and there is no longer any basis for human
accountability to the Law. The inquirer closes by asking for clarification
that will release minds from this bond and heal hearts of this distressing
disease.33 The questioner in the second fatwa Jabr asks in poetic verse, How
is it that the servant chooses his acts, and the servant in acts is compelled?
The inquirer infers that one who is compelled is forced and such a person
is excused. He ends by noting that he became ill with longing to come
to see Ibn Taymiyya, but divine determinations (maqdr) had prevented
him.34 Jabr opens with a lengthy treatment of doctrine and error in Gods
creation and Gods command. Then, in both Kasb and Jabr, Ibn Taymiyya
Irda, MF 8:81158.
This information is found only at the beginning of the versions of Irda found in
MRM 5:11370 and MRK 1:31886. For some reason the editors of MF did not see fit
to include it.
32
Tadmuriyya, MF 3:1128. Ibn Taymiyya also tells us on the first page that he wrote
this treatise in response to a request for the contents of one of his teaching sessions. Henri
Laoust, La profession de foi dIbn Taymiyya: Texte, traduction et commentaire de la Wsi$tiyya
(Paris: Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner, 1986), 389, n. 4, calls this creed Ibn Taymiyyas
most methodological presentation of doctrine.
33
Kasb, MF 8:386405 (inquiry on 386).
34
Jabr, MF 8:448515 (inquiry on 4489). Reading asqaman (MFCD) in the last line
of the poem instead of the indecipherable s-y-q-m-n (MF). In a third fatwa of this kind,
Tiyya, MF 8:245255, the inquirer, identified as a scholar of the non-Muslim protected
peoples (dhimms), wonders whether he is disobedient when the Lord has willed his unbelief.
To this Ibn Taymiyya himself replies in poetic verse.
30

31

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attempts to maintain the compatibility of Gods determination (qadar) and

human agencyfocusing especially on the dynamics of secondary causality
in Kasbin order to retain human accountability. He explains that God
has a wise purpose in the creation of all things, and, towards the ends of
both fatwas, he gives brief typologies of the ways evil is attributed. Jabr also
includes a typology of views on definitions of Gods justice.
Two major treatises deal extensively with Gods justice (adl). Ab Dharr
is a commentary on the divine saying (!hadth quds) found in the hadith collection of Muslim, O My servants! I have forbidden injustice to Myself.35 At
issue in the early part of this treatise is the conflict between Gods freedom
afforded by voluntarism and the necessary obligation on God imposed by
rational justice. Ibn Taymiyya seeks to avoid these two extremes by interpreting this hadith to mean that Gods justice is self-imposed rather than
imposed by the necessity of independent reason.36 The treatise dil gives
two successive typologies of positions on Gods justice and then presents a
discussion of evil and Gods punishment of bad deeds that focuses on the
goodness of all that God creates. The treatise ends with a brief discussion and
affirmation of al-Ghazls claim that this is the best of all possible worlds.37
The heading of dil, apparently added by an early copyist, notes that this
treatise is among the things [Ibn Taymiyya] composed in his final detention
in the citadel in Damascus.38 This dates it to the last two years of his life,
sometime between 726/1326 and 728/1328.
(Hasana, an exegetical work on Q. 4:789 taking up nearly 200 pages in
the printed edition, includes one of Ibn Taymiyyas longest discussions of the
problem of evil as he tries to resolve the contradiction between Everything
35
Muslim, 4674, Al-Birr wa al-$sila wa al-db, Ta!hrm al-)zulm. Additional locations of
this hadith are mentioned in William A. Graham, Divine Word and Prophetic Word in Early
Islam (The Hague: Mouton, 1977), 2056. Due to the many different hadith collections on
the market, hadith reports are cited in this study only by the name of the collector (Bukhr,
Muslim, Ibn Mja, etc.) Hadith numbering follows the system of the lamiyya company
(tarqm al-lamiyya) used on the CD-ROM, Mawsat al-!hadth al-sharf, Version 2.0
(Cairo: Sakhr, 1997). To enable ___location of references in hadith collections not following this
numbering system, the Kitb and Bb are given for the first collection (usually Bukhr or
Muslim) in which the hadith has been found. Occasionally, I give the Kitb and Bb for
a second collection if the hadith related by Ibn Taymiyya is not found in the first collection
in its entirety. Translations of hadith reports are my own. In the many cases where there are
differences (usually slight) between the way a hadith appears in an authoritative collection
and in Ibn Taymiyyas writings, I follow Ibn Taymiyyas text. It is beyond the scope of this
study to note and trace textual variations in hadith reports.
36
Ab Dharr, MF 18:136209.
37
dil, JR 121142.
38
dil, JR 121.

introduction

15

is from God (Q. 4:78) and Any evil thing that comes to you is from yourself (Q. 4:79). How can everything be from God if some things, namely,
evil things, come from the individual himself ? Ibn Taymiyya explains that
everything God creates is good on account of His wise purpose, and he
attempts to resolve the contradiction by locating the cause of evil in nonexistence (adam) and the failure of humans to do that for which they were
created. The latter part of (Hasana builds on this interpretation by arguing
that none should be worshipped but God and that intercession should be
sought only from whomever God authorizes because God does no evil and
He is the sole source of good.39
Fti!ha, a commentary on the first sura of the Quran, discusses the worship (ibda) and asking for help (istina) that derive from this suras fifth
verse, You alone we worship, and You alone we ask for help. It also explores
various metaphysical and ethical aspects of the relationship between God
and His servants who were created to worship Him.40 As in (Hasana, this
text attributes the cause of evil ultimately to nonexistence. The comparatively
formal character of Fti!has presentation of evil and its other contents suggests that it comes from late in Ibn Taymiyyas life.
Method of Analysis and Presentation
A diachronic analysis of the major theodicean texts described above might
provide clues to evolution in Ibn Taymiyyas thought. It would especially
clarify whether his use of the Avicennan concept of evil as nonexistence in
(Hasana and Fti!ha, but not in other texts, was a later development or just
an irregularity of habit. These kinds of questions can only be answered with
certainty on the basis of a chronology of the relevant texts. However, most
of the major treatises do not indicate their dates, and they do not mention
other dateable works that would set a terminus a quo.41 I also have not found

39
(Hasana, MF 14:229425. An unnamed fatwa in MF 8:204234 abridges (Hasana, MF
14:294361. Only the opening paragraph giving the inquiry and the final paragraph of the
fatwa are not found in (Hasana.
40
Fti!ha, MF 14:436.
41
Ibn Taymiyya does mention Ma!habba and an unidentifiable Qida kabra in Fti!ha,
MF 14:14 and 27, respectively. Ma!habba itself contains no mention of datable works and
cannot therefore be dated. Ibn Taymiyya occasionally indicates that he has dealt with
something in another place, but this is a common feature in his writing that does not give
significant information.

16

introduction

external evidence by which to date the remaining treatises. Moreover, even

if the major theodicean treatises could be set into chronological sequence,
there would remain the problem of integrating numerous shorter and dateless writings into the scheme.
Since reliable diachronic analysis of these texts is not possible, some kind
of synchronic analysis must be employed. A rigorously empirical methodology might urge that at least the major theodicean treatises described above
receive separate exposition and analysis. While a text-by-text analysis would
respect the unique character of each treatise, it would entail extensive repetition of similar ideas in scattered parts of the presentation and make the
present work unwieldy. Even though the major theodicean texts described
above have diverse points of departure, they usually broach several of the
same theodicean issues and employ fairly consistent patterns of response.
Ibn Taymiyya, for example, sets out similar three-fold typologies of views on
Gods justice in dil, Jabr and Ab Dharr.42 Two of the views on justicethe
Ashars and his ownare contrasted in similar analyses in Minhj43 and in
his major work on prophecy Nubuwwt.44 In another example, the shaykh
presents a consistent three-fold typology on the attribution of evil in nine
different places including Irda, Kasb, Jabr, Fti!ha, (Hasana and Minhj.45
This repetition of certain basic issues suggests a thematic presentation in
which the material relevant to a particular idea or question is discussed in
one place, drawing from both the major theodicean texts and from other
shorter and scattered passages. This also permits direct comparison of differing responses to similar questions. A thematic presentation, however, necessarily obscures the unique character of each text. Occasional translation and
the brief descriptions of the major texts given above compensate for this to
some degree. A thematic presentation also risks imposing more coherence
and consistency on the texts than they rightly bear. I try to mitigate these
difficulties by pointing out inconsistencies where they occur. When diversity
warrants, I also treat passages relevant to a particular question in succession
instead of synthesizing them into one account.
The major questions related to theodicy are covered in Chapters Two
through Six. Chapter Two deals with Ibn Taymiyyas response to Ashar

dil, JR 1216,126130; Jabr, MF 8:505510; and Ab Dharr, MF 18:137156.

Minhj, 1:134141/1:334, 1:4514/1:1256, 2:304313/2145, 3:203/2678.
44
Nubuwwt, 1437.
45
Irda, MF 8:937; Kasb, MF 8:4001; Ta, MF 8:4467; Jabr, MF 8:5112; Fti!ha,
MF 14:21; (Hasana, MF 14:2656; Thulth, MF 17:946, 99; Minhj, 3:1425/2:256; and
Minhj, 5:408411/3:102.
42
43

introduction

17

challenges to wise purpose in Gods will. I begin with this issue for two
reasons. First, establishing the very possibility of Gods rationality is key for
theodicy in Ibn Taymiyyas intellectual milieu of strong Ashar voluntarism.
Second, the shaykh himself devotes considerable attention to this issue very
early in his major work Minhj, and this is the question that prompts his
important fatwa Irda. The remaining four chapters examine major clusters of ideas and rational difficulties in the relationship between God and
humankind. Chapter Three surveys the varied terminology with which Ibn
Taymiyya discusses Gods creation and Gods command and his suggestions
as to the wise purpose that might be involved when the two conflict. Chapter Four investigates how the shaykh seeks to maintain the compatibility of
Gods creation of human acts with human agency and accountability. This
includes discussion of secondary causality. Chapter Five considers evil, looking especially at the ends for which God wills it and its sources in human
agents and nonexistence. The last chapter examines Ibn Taymiyyas concept
of Gods justice, and it closes with his view that God creates the best of all
possible worlds.
It remains to say a few words about the first chapter. In the course of
preparing Chapters Two through Six, several things became apparent. First,
worship and ethics hold a central place in Ibn Taymiyyas thought and certain
related epistemological claims recur often: reason knows what is beneficial
in ethics; the existence of God is known by both reason and the natural
constitution ( fi$tra); the natural constitution knows that the proper human
end is love and worship of God; and reason agrees with authoritative revealed
tradition. At the very least, some attention to ethics seemed appropriate to
assess the link, if any, between Ibn Taymiyyas views on the moral quality
of human acts and the goodness of Gods acts. Additionally, comments
scattered in the theodicean writings on the rational and traditional bases
for knowledge of Gods attributes, as well as arguments as to what the perfection of God entailed in His attributes and acts, suggested that a peculiar
theological method was at work in the shaykhs argumentation. However,
these comments were too sparse within the theodicean writings themselves
to draw any conclusions.
These considerations led me to look beyond Ibn Taymiyyas theodicean
writings for material that might make sense of what I had found within
them. The result is Chapter One, which introduces Ibn Taymiyyas ethics,
religious epistemology and theological methodology. This chapter is based
on a less thorough investigation of the potentially relevant texts than the
following five chapters on issues pertaining to theodicy proper, and it is also
more highly synthetic than later chapters in drawing from a sampling of the

18

introduction

shaykhs works to exemplify a point. Nevertheless, Chapter One provides a

plausible and reasonably well substantiated ethical and theological horizon
against which to interpret Ibn Taymiyyas theodicy. It also leads me to
observe that his approach to theological questions is that of a jurist seeking
the correct way to speak about God.

CHAPTER ONE

WORSHIP, RELIGIOUS EPISTEMOLOGY

AND THEOLOGICAL JURISPRUDENCE
Ibn Taymiyya as a Theological Jurist
There has been no comprehensive study of Ibn Taymiyyas theological methodology, and his attitude toward reason in theological matters has not been
well understood. The (Hanbal legal school to which Ibn Taymiyya belonged
was of two minds in preceding generations concerning rational argument in
theology. On one side were the likes of al-Barbahr (d. 329/941) and Ibn
Qudma (d. 620/1223) who completely opposed discussion of theological
matters and permitted no more than repeating what was said about God in
the data of revelation.1 On the other side were Ab Yal (d. 458/1066) and
his disciple Ibn Aql (d. 513/1119) who produced writings dealing with the
principles of religion (u$sl al-dn), which were in content and structure not
unlike Kalm works of the Ashars and Mutazils.2 Even though Ibn Aql
was forced to recant for Mutazil sympathies, many of his theological views
were adopted later by Ibn al-Jawz (597/1201).3
Ibn Taymiyya is well known both for strict reliance on the Quran and
the Sunna and for extensive polemic against Kalm theology, Aristotelian
logic, Avicennan philosophy and the rationalizing mysticism of Ibn Arab.
Thus, he may well appear to belong to the first (Hanbal current, having no
theological position of his own except unreflective adherence to the texts. This

1
See Muwaffaq al-Dn Ibn Qudma al-Maqdisi, Ta!hrm al-na)zar f kutub al-kalm, ed.
Abd al-Ra!hmn b. Mu!hammad Sad Dimashqiyya (Riyadh: Dr lam al-kutub, 1990);
translated into English by George Makdisi, Ibn Qudmas Censure of Speculative Theology
(London: Luzac, 1962), in which Makdisi includes the Arabic text handwritten. For a general
discussion of (Hanbal attitudes toward Kalm, see Bell, Love Theory, 4954.
2
See Ab Yal Ibn al-Farr, Kitb al-mutamad f u$sl al-dn, ed. Wadi Z. Haddad (Beirut: Dar el-machreq, 1974); and George Makdisi, Ibn Aql: Religion and Culture in Classical
Islam (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1997), especially 859.
3
Merlin Swartz looks at the theological rationalism of Ibn al-Jawzs later years in A Medieval Critique of Anthropomorphism: Ibn al-Jawzs Kitb Akhbr a$s-!Sift: A Critical Edition of
the Arabic Text with Translation, Introduction and Notes (Leiden: Brill, 2002). In this regard,
see also Abd al-Ra!hmn Ibn al-Jawz, The Attributes of God (Daf Shubah al-Tashbh bi-Akaff
al-Tanzh), trans. Abdullh bin (Hamd Al (Bristol, UK: Amal Press, 2006).

Jon Hoover, 2007

This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/.

20

chapter one

is indeed the way some have portrayed him. In the course of describing Ibn
Taymiyyas polemical agenda, Ignaz Goldziher notes that the shaykh relied
on the sunna and on the sunna alone.4 More forcefully, Majid Fakhry uses
the terms slavish traditionalism, antirationalist polemics and misology
in describing Ibn Taymiyyas place in the history of Islamic philosophy.5
This interpretation of Ibn Taymiyya is no longer sustainable. It is true
that the shaykh vigorously maintains that all principles of religion have
been revealed in the Quran and the Sunna.6 But an ardently anti-rationalist portrayal of Ibn Taymiyya fails to make sense of three other aspects of
his writings. First, he frequently claims that knowledge derived from clear
reason (al-aql al-$sar!h or al-$sar!h al-maql) agrees and corresponds with
revealed tradition (naql or sam), the message of the prophets and the way
of the Salaf.7 Further on below, I examine the roles that Ibn Taymiyya gives
reason and its dynamic equivalent the natural constitution ( fi$tra) in acquiring
knowledge of ethical value, Gods existence and Gods attributes. This will
show clearly that his religious epistemology gives a more prominent role to
reason than his reputation would suggest.8
Second, Ibn Taymiyya explicitly permits rational theological argument
in Khaw$d, a fatwa written while in Egypt (705712/13061313) whose
importance is underlined by its later inclusion near the beginning of Dar.9

4
Ignaz Goldziher, Introduction to Islamic Theology and Law, trans. Andras and Ruth
Hamori (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1981), 240.
5
Majid Fakhry, A History of Islamic Philosophy, 2d ed. (New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1983), 3128. See also George Makdisi, Ashar and the Asharites in Islamic
Religious History, Studia Islamica 17 (1962): 3780, and 18 (1963): 1939, reprint as Part
I in Makdisi, Religion, Law and Learning in Classical Islam, who includes Ibn Taymiyya in
the camp of anti-rationalist traditionalism which he believes to have been the main theological current in medieval thought over against rationalist Asharism. Later, Makdisi, Ethics
in Islamic Traditionalist Doctrine, in Ethics in Islam, ed. Richard G. Hovannisian (Malibu,
CA: Undena, 1985), 4763, reprint as Part IV in Makdisi, Religion, Law and Learning in
Classical Islam, softens his thoroughly anti-rationalist view of traditionalism somewhat by
recounting a number of Ibn Taymiyyas theological arguments and positions.
6
Dar, 1:278; Nubuwwt, 589, 2145; and Marij, MF 19:155ff.
7
Nubuwwt, 215, 239240, 433; Jawb, 4:395, 401; Istiqma, 1:23; Minhj, 1:300
1/1:82; MF 5:172; MF 6:525; MF 6:580; MF 7:665; Abd al-Qdir, MF 10:475; MF 12:47;
MF 12:801; MF 12:229; Alaq, MF 16:463; and Imrn, MF 18:240.
8
See Michot, Vanits intellectuelles 597602, for further discussion of Ibn Taymiyyas
unjustified reputation as antagonistic to philosophical thinking.
9
Khaw#d appears in truncated form in MF 3:293326 and apparently full form in Dar,
1:2578. References to Khaw#d hereafter will be made only to Dar. At the point where he
begins copying Khaw#d into Dar, Ibn Taymiyya notes that he wrote this fatwa in Egypt. In
its intention to permit rational argument in theology, Ibn Taymiyyas Khaw#d compares to
al-Ashars Risla f isti!hsn al-khaw#d f ilm al-kalm found in Richard J. McCarthy, The
Theology of al-Ashar (Beirut: Imprimerie Catholique, 1953), 8597 (Arabic) and 117134

theological jurisprudence

21

This text argues that it is not disliked (makrh) to address people in their own
terms as long as the proper meanings of words are ascertained. Hadith reports
and the Quran may even be translated into other languages if necessary. In
order to achieve clear communication one needs to know both the meanings
of words used by the group addressed and the meanings of the terms used
in the Quran and the Sunna. Also, Ibn Taymiyya explains, the Salaf did
not reject Kalm terminology and argumentation as such. They were aware
that God Himself had propounded rational arguments, and they were open
to non-quranic terminology so long as it carried meanings congruent with
revelation. What the Salaf reproached in Kalm theology was using terms
in the wrong senses and misconstruing the role of rational arguments.10 In
other words Kalm theology went astray not in using reason as such but in
holding erroneous doctrines and using reason incorrectly.
Third, some of my own previous research has made apparent that the
shaykh attacks Kalm theology and Avicennan philosophy not because he
opposes reason but because he articulates and defends a fundamentally different vision of God. In two earlier studies, one on the shaykhs Imrn, a hadith
commentary on the creation of the world, and the other on Ikhtiyriyya, a
treatise on Gods voluntary attributes, I provide evidence that Ibn Taymiyya
views God in His perfection and very essence as active, creative, willing
and speaking from eternity. Whereas both the Kalm theologians and the
philosophers locate the perfection of Gods essence in timeless eternity, Ibn
Taymiyya locates it in personal and perpetual dynamism.11 Chapter Two

(trans.). However, al-Ashar does not draw Ibn Taymiyyas distinction between analogical
and a fortiori reasoning that will be explained below. Al-Ashar implicitly accepts the former
in theology, whereas Ibn Taymiyya does not.
10
Dar, 1:28, 436. For other discussions of Ibn Taymiyyas adoption of theological dialectic, see Bell, Love Theory, 545; and Thomas F. Michel, A Muslim Theologians Response to
Christianity: Ibn Taymiyyas Al-Jawab Al-Sahih (Delmar, NY: Caravan, 1984), 403. Bell and
Michel both appear to be drawing on Khaw#d. However, I could not verify this because the
printed editions they used were not available to me. Ibn Taymiyya also discusses translation
of the Quran for the sake of non-Arabic speakers in Man$tiq, MF 4:117, explaining that it
may be necessary to give similitudes (amthl) to convey the meaning and that this is in fact
part of translation. In Bughya, 25, Ibn Taymiyya comments that one need only understand
the technical terms of the philosophers to grasp their intentions. He adds that this is not
only permissible but also good and sometimes obligatory.
11
Jon Hoover, Perpetual Creativity in the Perfection of God: Ibn Taymiyyas Hadith
Commentary on Gods Creation of this World, Journal of Islamic Studies 15:3 (Sept. 2004):
287329, which translates Imrn, MF 18:210243; and Jon Hoover, God Acts by His Will
and Power: Ibn Taymiyyas Theology of a Personal God in his Treatise on the Voluntary Attributes, forthcoming in Ibn Taymiyya and His Times, ed. Shahab Ahmed and Yossef Rapoport
(Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2007), which analyzes Ikhtiyriyya, MF 6:217267.

22

chapter one

below surveys material from Minhj and Irda that further confirms and
elaborates this finding.
If Ibn Taymiyya is not an anti-rationalist polemist and unreflective literalist, what sort of theologian is he? Much work remains to be done on
the shaykhs writings before this question may be answered adequately, but
there are important preliminary indications. In a study on a portion of Dar
which treats Ibn Sns interpretation of prophetic imaginal discourse as a
kind of pious fraud intended to motivate the intellectually inferior masses for
their own benefit, Yahya Michot characterizes Ibn Taymiyyas hermeneutics
as literalist rationalism.12 Michot elaborates that Ibn Taymiyya rejects the
hermeneutics of both the philosophers and the Kalm theologians in order
to uphold the self-sufficiency of the religious rationality manifested in scriptural literality and common faith, and its validity for all, the elite and the
crowd.13 The nature of this egalitarian literalist rationalism becomes clearer
in an article by Shahab Ahmed on Gods protection (isma) of the Prophets
in Ibn Taymiyyas writings. Ahmed observes that the shaykh systematizes and
reconstructs out of amorphous statements in the early authoritative sources
what the Salaf apparently taught on the issue in question and explains the
rationale behind what they said, even if they did not say so themselves.14 My
studies on Imrn and Ikhtiyriyya identify a similar dynamic. I note that in
Imrn Ibn Taymiyya seeks to elucidate the rationality underlying the data
on creation found in the Qurn and the Hadith such that his theology may
be described as philosophical.15 In my analysis of Ikhtiyriyya, I call him an
apologist seeking to elucidate and defend an ordinary language reading
of the theological data of revealed tradition as rational and coherent.16
The present study of Ibn Taymiyyas theodicean writings provides further
evidence confirming such characterizations of his intention. However, calling
the shaykh an apologist or a philosophical theologian does not quite get to
the root of what he is doing. Henri Laoust in his Essai suggests a different
point of departure. Laoust explains that Ibn Taymiyyas theology is more of
a moral theology than a theology devoted to knowing God in Himself (the
traditional intention of Christian theology): The doctrine of Ibn Taymiyya
12
Yahya J. Michot, A Mamlk Theologians Commentary on Avicennas Risla A#dh! awiyya:
Being a Translation of a Part of the Dar al-Taru#d of Ibn Taymiyya, With Introduction,
Annotation, and Appendices [Trans. of Dar 5:1087], Journal of Islamic Studies 14 (2003):
149203 (Part I) and 309363 (Part II).
13
Michot, A Mamlk Theologians Commentary, 171.
14
Ahmed, Ibn Taymiyyah and the Satanic verses, 112.
15
Hoover, Perpetual Creativity, 295.
16
Hoover, God Acts by His Will and Power, last paragraph of the article.

theological jurisprudence

23

comes in fact to an ethic. Despite the importance that he grants to theology, it is not the problem of knowledge of God which preoccupies him in
the highest degree.17 Instead, Laoust explains, at the core of Ibn Taymiyyas
thought is service (ibda) to God, which is grounded in quranic verses
such as, I did not create the jinn and humankind except that they might
serve ( yabd) Me (Q. 51:56), and There is no god but I; so serve Me
(Q. 20:14). The goal of the whole ethical, juridical and political life is to
deepen this service to God. For Laoust, It thus appears that Ibn Taymiyyas
entire theology tends toward one sole aim: that of giving a foundation to his
ethics, and consequently, to all his juridical and social philosophy.18
While I will translate ibda as worship, Laoust reminds us with the
translation service that the term in Ibn Taymiyyas discourse encompasses
not only ritual practice but also matters ethical, juridical, social and political.
The worship of ibda draws together all domains of life under the rubric
of religious practice devoted solely to God. Laoust also insightfully links
Ibn Taymiyyas theology to his ethics, but the idea that his theology aims
to give a foundation to ethics or religious practice is open to more than one
interpretation. It could mean no more than that theology constitutes the
necessary ground for ethics insofar as theology speaks of the Creator God
without whom creatures and their moral lives would cease to exist. Laoust
seems to intend more, however, especially when he writes, Ibn Taymiyya,
who is a moralist and jurist more than a theologian, judges doctrines by their
function and their value for action.19 In this light Ibn Taymiyyas theology
becomes an instrumental and pragmatic effort to portray God in way that
motivates worship and obedience to God.
There is some truth in what Laoust asserts. Ibn Taymiyya often concerns himself with the ethical implications of theological doctrines. This is
especially apparent when he traces the sources of antinomian practices to
extreme Ashar views on Gods determination (qadar) and to Sufi notions
of annihilation ( fan) and the oneness of existence (wa!hdat al-wujd). Yet,
it is not entirely clear that Ibn Taymiyyas interest in theology is strictly a
function of its usefulness for inspiring human action. For example, Imrn, the
shaykhs hadith commentary on the creation of the world mentioned above, is
remarkably free of instrumentalized theology. Rather, Ibn Taymiyyas singleminded concern throughout is showing what reason and Gods messengers

17
18
19

Laoust, Essai, 1778, 469473 (quote on 469).

Laoust, Essai, 177.
Laoust, Essai, 158.

24

chapter one

indicate on the question of whether the world is eternal or created. The

text defends and explains Gods perpetual creation of things in this world,
but it shows very little concern for ethical repercussions of this doctrine.20
A similar phenomenon is observable in Ikhtiyriyya, the tract noted above
that explicates the voluntary and perpetually active character of many of
Gods attributes. Ibn Taymiyya does introduce the ethical imperative to call
on God and seek help from Him alone toward the end of this text, but this
is incidental to, and not a logical inference from, the central argument of
the treatise.21
Even with respect to texts like Ikhtiyariyya and Imrn, there remains an
argument in Laousts defense: Ibn Taymiyya crafts a vision of God as active,
personal and much more intimately involved in temporal and human affairs
than the God of Kalm theology and Avicennan philosophy in order to
prompt more ready obedience to Gods law. There is little doubt that part
of the reason that Ibn Taymiyya took up his pen was to achieve such a goal.
Nevertheless, without negating Laousts thesis or the presence of pragmatic
and instrumental elements in Ibn Taymiyyas theology, I propose that something more fundamental is driving his theological work. That is, the shaykhs
theology is not subservient to its functionality in achieving ethical or political
aims in the first instance. Rather, getting theological doctrine correct is an
ethical and practical concern in its own right.
A passage translated by Fazlur Rahman and re-translated in part below
provides the cue for this interpretation. Here Ibn Taymiyya draws into question the commonplace division in medieval Islamic thought between the
principles (u$sl ) which deal with creedal matters and the branches ( fur)
which cover practical obligations and prohibitions. He prefers instead to
set theological questions and matters of action firmly on the same level
and regard both sets of issues as practical (amal). From this perspective,
knowledge of Gods attributes is no different from knowledge of the practical
duties of Islam such as the Five Pillars. Likewise, denying the practical duties
is just as much unbelief as denying the theological doctrines.
Issues of [theological] information (al-masil al-khabariyya) may be equivalent
to practical issues (al-masil al-amaliyya) even though the former are called
issues of the principles (u$sl ) and the latter issues of the branches ( fur).
20
Perhaps a minor exception may be seen in Ibn Taymiyyas explanation that God set
aside one day each week for gathered worship as a sign pointing to the first week in which
God created the world (Imrn, MF 18:230231).
21
Ibn Taymiyya begins treating this ethical issue at Ikhtiyriyya, MF 6:258. See Hoover,
God Acts by His Will and Power, for further discussion.

theological jurisprudence

25

This designation [u$sl and fur] is made up; a group of jurists and Kalm
theologians came up with this division. . . . The truth of the matter is that what
is of great importance in each of the two types [informational and practical]
are the issues of the principles and that the fine points are the issues of the
branches. So, knowing the obligatory quality of obligations such as the five
pillars of Islam and the forbidden nature of things forbidden manifestly and
by abundant transmission is like knowing that God has power over everything
and knows everything, that He is all-hearing and all-seeing, that the Quran
is the speech of God, and such like from among manifest and abundantly
transmitted propositions. Therefore, one who denies those practical rulings
about which there is consensus disbelieves in the same way as one who denies
these [theological doctrines] disbelieves.22

With the basic equivalence of doctrinal and practical questions in mind,

worship (ibda) may now be seen to include not only ritual practice, ethics,
jurisprudence and politics but also speaking correctly about God, which, as
we will see by the end of this chapter, means speaking in a way that ascribes
to God the highest perfection and praise. From this vantage point, Ibn
Taymiyyas theological discourse is not most fundamentally an ideological
instrument to motivate action or an attempt to know God in Himself but
a practical search to find the most praiseworthy way to depict God. Put differently, thinking and speaking well of God is part of the law (shara), and
the shaykhs theology is an attempt to spell out that aspect of the law. As
such, it is an exercise in jurisprudence ( fiqh), and, even though I have not
found Ibn Taymiyya speaking in precisely such terms, his theology is perhaps
more appropriately called theological fiqh. Ibn Taymiyya may thus be seen as
a theological jurist responding to inquiries and challenges concerning what
should rightly be said about God. The apologetic and philosophical quality
of this fiqh arises inasmuch as he deems it permissible, constructive or even
necessary to take up rational reflection and argumentation in theological
matters.
This chapter examines the methodology of Ibn Taymiyyas theological
fiqh in greater detail, as well as key elements of his ethics and theology that
will prove helpful for making sense of his theodicy. After first elaborating
the role that Ibn Taymiyya gives to worship in his religious vision, this chapter turns to epistemological foundations for knowing that God exists and
that He alone should be worshipped. It then examines how Ibn Taymiyya

22
MF 6:567; translated in Rahman, Revival and Reform in Islam, 143. For further discussion of Ibn Taymiyyas dissolution of the widespread distinction between u$sl and fur,
see al-Matroudi, The (Hanbal School, 6972.

26

chapter one

delineates what should be said about Gods attributes and acts so as to give
God the highest praise.
The Centrality of Worshipping God Alone
An incident related by Ibn Taymiyyas biographer Ibn Abd al-Hd (d.
744/1343) points to the centrality of worship (ibda) in his vision of Islam.
In the year 707/1307, on Friday, 30 Rab al-Awwal, Ibn Taymiyya went to
a mosque in Cairo for the noon prayer. Some people asked him to teach,
but he said nothing. He only smiled and looked around. Then someone
quoted the quranic verse, God made a covenant with those who were given
the Scripture that you make it clear to the people and not conceal it (Q.
3:187). At that, Ibn Taymiyya got up, quoted the first sura of the Quran,
the Fti!ha, and proceeded to speak on its fifth verse, You alone we worship;
You alone we ask for help, and the meaning of worship and asking for help
(isti na) until the mid-afternoon (a$sr) prayer call, a period of perhaps two
or three hours.23 Since Ibn Abd al-Hd does not provide further details of
Ibn Taymiyyas long discourse, we can only imagine what he might have said.
However, there is ample material in his oeuvre to elucidate his thought on
worship.24 The discussion here is limited to writings on the Fti!ha itself.
For Ibn Taymiyya, the Fti!ha holds a privileged place in the quranic revelation because God made its recitation a duty during what he considers the
best of deeds, the ritual prayer ($salh). Furthermore, he sees the fifth verse
You alone we worship; You alone we ask for help as both the summary
of the Fti!ha and the pivot between its two halves. You alone we worship
ends the first half of the sura, which is worship dedicated to God. You
alone we ask for help begins the half of the Fti!ha, which is dedicated to
the worshipper himself and in which he asks for the help that God will
provide. In this fashion, the fifth verse captures the two elements of worship
Ibn Abd al-Hd, Al-Uqd al-durriyya, 255.
In addition to the sources from which the following discussion is drawn, see especially
Ubdiyya, MF 10:149236; Qudra, MF 8:3957; Taw!hd, MF 1:2036; Shirk, MF 1:8894;
and the many selections pertaining to Ibn Taymiyyas spirituality in the two series of translations by Yahya M. Michot, Textes Spirituels dIbn Taymiyya, Le Musulman (Paris), 1129
(19908), and Pages spirituelles dIbn Taymiyya, Action (Mauritius), 19992002. Full references for some of these may be found in the Bibliography, and, as of December 2006, the
texts could be accessed at http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/it/index.html. Also of interest
for Ibn Taymiyyas spirituality are Th. E. Homerin, Ibn Taimyas Al-!Sfyah wa-al-fuqar,
Arabica 32 (1985): 219244; and Thomas Michel, Ibn Taymiyyas Shar!h on the Fut!h alghayb of Abd al-Qdir al-Jln, Hamdard Islamicus, 4.2 (Summer 1981): 312.
23
24

theological jurisprudence

27

and supplication that characterize the whole sura. Here Ibn Taymiyya quotes
a saying attributed to (Hasan al-Ba$sr to the effect that God summarized all
the scriptures in the Quran; then, He summarized the Quran in the Mother
of the Book, the Fti!ha; and finally He summarized the Fti!ha in its two
phrases, You alone we serve, You alone we ask for help.25
Ibn Taymiyya also finds the senses of worship and asking for help grouped
together elsewhere in the Quran and the Hadith just as they are in the Fti!ha.
He cites for example, Worship Him, and trust completely in Him (Q.
11:123), In Him I have completely trusted, and to Him I turn (Q. 11:88),
and, In Him I have completely trusted, and to Him is my repentance (Q.
13:30). Turning to God (inba) and going to God in repentance (tawba)
are aspects of worship, and complete trust (tawakkul) is related to asking for
help. In the hadith, O Lord, this is from You and for You,26 Ibn Taymiyya
interprets for You (laka) as worship and from You (minka) as complete
trust and asking for help in the midst of whatever comes from God.27
In Gods relationship with humanity, worship is linked to Gods divinity
(ulhiyya or ilhiyya) and asking for help to Gods lordship (rubbiyya or
rabbniyya).28 Ibn Taymiyya observes that these respective senses of divinity
and lordship are found in the locutions of prayer. The name God (Allh),
which has the same Arabic root (-l-h) as ulhiyya, is associated with worship, as in God is greater (Allhu akbar) and Praise be to God (al-!hamdu
li-llh), while the name Lord (Rabb), which has the same root (r-b-b) as
rubbiyya, is linked with seeking help, as in Our Lord, forgive us our sins
(Q. 3:147) and Lord, forgive and be merciful; You are the best of the merciful (Q. 23:118).29 Thus, as illustrated in the following quotation, worship
flows out of Gods divinity, and asking for help springs from His lordship.
[You alone we worship; You alone we ask for help (Q. 1:5)] is the elaboration
of His saying, Praise be to God, Lord of the worlds (Q 1:2). This indicates
that there is no object of worship except God and that no one other than Him
has the right to be worshipped. His statement, You alone we worship, points
to worship of Him by means of the love, fear, hope, command and prohibition

Manbij, MF 2:4556; Talbs, 2:454; and Fti!ha, MF 14:7.

Drim, 1864, Al-A#d!h, Al-Sunna f al-a#d!hiyya.
27
Manbij, MF 2:456; and Fti!ha, MF 14:9.
28
Paralleling divinity and lordship in Ibn Taymiyyas writings is a wide range of cognate
terms including Gods command and creation and Gods legislative will and ontological will,
respectively, which will be discussed in detail in Chapter Three.
29
Manbij, MF 2:456; and Fti!ha, MF 14:123.
25
26

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chapter one
that His divinity requires, and, You alone we ask for help, points to the
complete trust, commitment, and submission that His lordship requires.30

For Ibn Taymiyya, asking for help signifies absolute human dependence on
the God who is the Lord of the worlds. Lordship indicates Gods creative
and determining activity, and this lordship is exclusive. Creatures have
absolutely no existence apart from God, and they may ask for help only
from the source of their existence and trust in Him alone. The confession
that God is the sole Creator and Lord of the universe is called taw!hd alrubbiyya or taw!hd al-rabbniyya. In like manner, worship indicates human
devotion to Godturning to Him, loving Him, obeying Him, hoping in
Him and fearing Himand this is linked to Gods divinity (ulhiyya). The
divine is that which is loved and served as a god, and Gods divinity denotes
His essential right to worship. Taw!hd al-ulhiyya or taw!hd al-ilhiyya is
recognizing God as the only one with the right to divinity and turning to
worship Him alone. This, as Ibn Taymiyya explains, is the meaning of the
Islamic confession, There is no god but God. Unifying all ones energies in
worship to God excludes any kind of shirk or associating partners with God
and withholding from God the devotion that only He deserves.31
Ibn Taymiyya clarifies the ultimate priority of Gods divinity over Gods
lordshipand thus worship over asking for helpwith the aid of Ibn Sns
notions of final and efficient causality. Ibn Sn regards the final cause or telos
(al-illa al-ghiyya) as the end for which something comes into existence,
while the efficient cause (al-illa al-filiyya) is that which brings the thing
into existence. Furthermore, the final cause is an efficient cause in that it
activates the operation of the efficient cause. Conversely, the final cause is also
the effect (mall) of the efficient cause when it is realized in existence.32 Ibn
Taymiyya applies this analysis to You alone we worship; You alone we ask
for help by linking worship and divinity to final causality on the one hand
and asking for help and lordship to efficient causality on the other:
The God (al-ilh) is the one worshipped (al-mabd) and asking for help is
linked to His lordship. The Lord of the servants is He who lords over them.
This entails that He is Creator of everything that is in them and from them. The
divinity is the final cause, and lordship is the efficient cause. The final [cause]
is that which is aimed at, and it is the efficient cause of the efficient cause.
Therefore, He made You alone we worship precede You alone we ask for
help. Confessing the exclusiveness of the divinity (taw!hd al-ilhiyya) includes
30
31
32

Shirk, MF 1:89.
Taw!hd, MF 1:223; and Manbij, MF 2:4569. Cf. F Fu$s$s, MF 2:4046.
Ibn Sn, Al-Ishrt, 3:303.

theological jurisprudence

29

confessing the exclusiveness of the lordship (taw!h#d al-rubbiyya). Included in

worshipping only God is not confessing the lordship of any other.33

This text subordinates lordship to divinity such that divinity is both the
final cause, that is, the ultimate object of worship, and the efficient cause of
confessing Gods lordship, which in turn is the efficient cause bringing all
things into existence. Exclusive worship of God includes confessing God as
the sole Creator. In a different text, and as in the passage quoted above, Ibn
Taymiyya observes that the Fti!ha in You alone we worship; You alone we
ask for help (Q. 1:5) puts the final cause of worship before the efficient
cause of asking for help because the final cause should be the efficient cause
of this efficient cause. Ideally speaking, worship activates and is the efficient
cause of asking for help. Yet, Ibn Taymiyya observes, humans, out of their
sense of profound neediness, typically confess Gods lordship and ask for
His help much more than they worship Him. Thus, God raised up messengers to focus on calling humanity to worship God alone. Then, when
humans worship God, it will follow that they also confess His lordship and
ask Him for help.34 Putting it differently, God should be worshipped, loved,
and praised primarily for Himself in His divinity and only secondarily for
what He does in His lordship.
With the priority of worship in Ibn Taymiyyas thought firmly in view, we
turn now to the epistemological foundations by which human beings know
that God exists and should be their sole object of worship. Ibn Taymiyya
bases his thought on quranic revelation, even if interpreting it philosophically, but he also makes the apologetic claim that independent reason agrees
with revelation in providing the same information.
The Correspondence of Reason and Revelation
Ibn Taymiyya devotes his major work Dar, eleven volumes in the critical edition, to refutation of the rule established by Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz and others
that rational arguments must be given precedence over traditional proofs in
case of contradiction.35 Instead, the shaykh contends, there is no contradiction
between reason and tradition. Two studies by Binyamin Abrahamov illustrate
that it is not immediately obvious what Ibn Taymiyya means by this. In a

33
34
35

Talbs, 2:454. Cf. Ubdiyya, MF 10:194.

Fti!ha, MF 14:134
See especially Dar, 1:48.

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chapter one

1992 article on Dar, Abrahamov notes that Ibn Taymiyyas view appears
to come very close to that of the philosopher Ibn Rushd (d. 595/1198) in
which revelation and reason are both true and do not contradict.36 Abrahamov concludes, however, that Ibn Taymiyya differs fundamentally from Ibn
Rushd by confining himself to the terms and rational proofs found in the
Quran and the Sunna. Reason does not disagree with revelation because it
has no status apart from revelation.37
Later, Abrahamov explicitly rejects his former conclusion. In a 1998
general study of reason and revelation in Islamic theology, he briefly argues
that for Ibn Taymiyya there are rational arguments arising from the human
intellect independently of revelation, which are valid so long as they do not
contradict revelation. Reason is thus an independent source for knowledge
of God. Abrahamov does not present his case in detail, and he does not
investigate the nature of the rational proofs in question, but what follows
here supports his latter conclusion.38
Yahya Michot, in the introduction to his French translation of Ibn
Taymiyyas letter to the Syrian prince Ab al-Fid (d. 732/1331), conceives
the matter somewhat differently. Drawing upon Dar and the letter to Ab
al-Fid, Michot explains that for Ibn Taymiyya the Quran and the Sunna
are the summit and peak where the two paths of reason and tradition come
together and from where they depart. Whatever contradicts the Quran and
the Sunna lies outside the pale of rationality. Thus, the proofs of reason,
rightly exercised, lead to the same end as do the proofs of tradition, and
they derive from the same source.39 A passage from Ibn Taymiyyas letter

36
In an earlier article in Arabic, Abd al-Majd al-!Saghr elaborates similarities between
Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Rushd, Mawqif rushdiyya li-Taq al-Dn Ibn Taymiyya? Mul!ha)zt
awwaliyya, in Dirst maghribiyya muhdt il al-mufakkir al-maghrib Mu!hammad Azz
al-Habbb (Rabat: n.p., 1985), 93117, 2d ed. (Rabat: n.p., 1987), 164182.
37
Binyamin Abrahamov, Ibn Taymiyya on the Agreement of Reason with Tradition, The
Muslim World 82:34 ( JulyOct. 1992): 256273. Coming to much the same conclusion are
Nicholas Heer, The Priority of Reason in the Interpretation of Scripture: Ibn Taymyah and
the Mutakallimn, in Literary Heritage of Classical Islam: Arabic and Islamic Studies in Honor
of James A. Bellamy, ed. Mustansir Mir (Princeton, NJ: The Darwin Press, 1993), 181195;
and Mu!hammad al-Sayyid al-Julaynad, Al-Imm Ibn Taymiyya wa mawqifuhu min qa#diyyat
al-tawl (Cairo: Al-Haya al-mma li-shun al-ma$tbi al-amriyya, 1393/1973), 347355.
38
Binyamin Abrahamov, Islamic Theology: Traditionalism and Rationalism (Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University Press, 1998), 51.
39
Jean R. Michot, Ibn Taymiyya: Lettre Ab l-Fid (Louvain-la-Neuve: Institut Orientaliste de lUniversit Catholique de Louvain, 1994), 18. Information on Ab al-Fid and
the dating of the letter to the later years of Ibn Taymiyyas life is found on pp. 156. Laoust,
Essai, 1767, makes the same point less vividly: The Law then is all reason. No opposition

theological jurisprudence

31

illustrates how revelation and reason may be conceived as complementary

paths to the same truth.
[The Salaf and their followers] knew that both revelational and rational proofs
were true and that they entailed one another. Whoever gave rational and certain
proofs (al-adilla al-aqliyya al-yaqniyya) the complete inquiry due them knew
that they agreed with what the messengers informed about and that they proved
to them the necessity of believing the messengers in what they informed about.
Whoever gave revelational proofs (al-adilla al-samiyya) the understanding
due them knew that God guided His servants in His Book to certain rational
proofs by which are known the existence of the Creator, the subsistence of
His attributes of perfection and His exoneration from imperfections and from
anything being like Him in the attributes of perfection, and which prove His
uniqueness, the uniqueness of His lordship, the uniqueness of His divinity,
His power, His knowledge, His wisdom, His mercy, the truthfulness of His
messengers, the obligation to obey them in what they obligate and command,
and believing them in what they teach and inform about.40

According to this text, revelation reiterates the correct rational proofs pertinent to religion. As Ibn Taymiyya explains elsewhere, revelation contains
both information (khabar) and rational proofs. The rational proofs are both
revelational (shar) by virtue of being brought by God and His messengers
and rational (aql) since they are judged true by reason. The shaykh also notes
in the letter to Ab al-Fid and elsewhere that Kalm theologians, as well
as philosophersby whom he usually means the Aristotelian Neoplatonists
al-Farb (d. 339/950) and Ibn Snerr when they confine revelation to
the ___domain of information.41 To put the matter in another way, revelation
embodies true rationality. Once one has access to revelation, one identifies
it immediately as identical to whatever truth one knew previously through
reason. In this vein, Ibn Taymiyya observes that the truthfulness of the
between revelation and reason should exist. The authentic scriptural tradition (naql $sa!h!h)
and proper reason (aql $sar!h) are two manifestations of the one and same reality.
40
A Letter of Ibn Taymiyya to Ab l-Fid, ed. Serajul Haque, in Documenta Islamica
Inedita, ed. Johann W. Fck, 155161 (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1952), 159. This Arabic text
is reprinted in Michot, Ibn Taymiyya: Lettre Ab l-Fid, 837. References are to Michots
Arabic text following Haques pagination (cf. Michots French trans. on pp. 578).
41
Ab al-Fid, 160; Akmaliyya, MF 6:71; Marij, MF 19:160; Dar , 1:28; and Jahd,
9:242/Man$tiqiyyn, 382. Michel, A Muslim Theologians Response to Christianity, 15, misguidedly argues that the term falsifa (philosophers) in Ibn Taymiyyas writings refers mainly to
the Aristotelian Neoplatonists al-Farb and Ibn Sn and occasionally also to Ibn Rushd
and Na$sr al-Dn al-+Ts while the term mutafalsifa (pseudo-philosophers) is reserved for
al-Suhrawrd and the Ishrq school. Wael B. Hallaq, Ibn Taymiyya against the Greek Logicians (Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1993), 4 n. 1, rightly explains that the terms falsifa
and mutafalsifa are in fact synonymous in referring to the wider philosophical tradition. The
term mutafalsifa is not limited to the Ishrqs.

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prophets can be known only through reason.42 Conversely, the revelation

immediately exposes irrational ideas for what they are.43
Ibn Taymiyya sets limits to what reason can know in theology and ethics.
Revelation is required to know the details of what [the prophets] informed
concerning theological matters (al-umr al-ilhiyya), the angels, the Throne,
Paradise, the Fire and the details of what is commanded and prohibited.44
However, rational proofs, the best of which are found in the Quran, establish Gods existence, Gods attributes, and the obligation to believe and obey
what God brings through His messengers.
On Knowing that God Exists and that He Alone should be Worshipped
Reason and the Law
Ibn Taymiyya reports that reason (aql ) has two meanings in the Islamic
tradition. For A!hmad b. (Hanbal it is a potency (quwwa) and an instinct
(gharza) by which one reasons. For others, including Kalm theologians,
reason is a body of necessary knowledge (#darb min al-ulm al-#darriyya).
Ibn Taymiyya says that both are true, and he compares aql to the word ba$sar,
which in Arabic may refer both to the faculty of sight and to the perception
of seeing with this faculty.45
The shaykh explains that reason knows the foundational rules of thought:
that like things are alike, that different things are different, and that two
things cannot exist in the same place at the same time. For example, it is
neither rational nor possible to combine black and white in one place at one
time, and something cannot be simultaneously existent and nonexistent.46
Without acknowledging the sources of his ideas, Ibn Taymiyya also affirms
that reason knows metaphysical notions relating to efficient causality that
Ab al-Fid, 160.
Michel, A Muslim Theologians Response to Christianity, 129, makes much the same observation in discussing the epistemology of Ibn Taymiyyas refutation of Christianity in Jawb
al-!Sa!h!h: [Ibn Taymiyya holds that] truth is unitary. Whatever has been truly revealed can
never be contradicted by what is known through reason and sense perception, but can only
be confirmed by such information. Similarly whatever is correctly known from intellectual
knowledge or from accurate sense perception must be confirmed by revelation. As Michel
notes, the shaykh also holds sense perception to be a valid source of knowledge.
44
Furqn, MF 13:138.
45
Istiqma, 2:1612; and Bughya, 3140, which gives a very detailed discussion of the
meaning of aql.
46
Qudra, MF 8:9; and Jawb, 4:391, 3967.
42
43

theological jurisprudence

33

are basic to Kalm theology and the philosophy of Ibn Sn. With Kalm
theology, it is known by clear reason that an existent is either originated
(mu!hdath) or eternal, either created or uncreated, and with Ibn Sn, it is
known by clear reason that an existent is either necessary in itself (wjib
bi-nafsihi) or not necessary by itself, either sufficient apart from another
(ghan amm siwhu) or in need of another.47
With these metaphysical oppositions in place, the shaykh sets forth simple
and direct cosmological arguments for Gods existence. The existence of the
Creator is known necessarily by reason from the fact of created existence. It
is commonsense that everything needs a cause and that all things must have
an originator that is ultimately eternal and self-sufficient: The originated
being itself knows through clear reason that it has an originator.48 Every
creature is by its very existence a sign necessarily entailing the essence, unity
and attributes of the Creator, and it is the way of the prophets to point to
God by mentioning these signs.49 The existence of the Self-Sufficient and
the Eternal Existent which is Necessary in Itself is known by the necessity
of reason (#darrat al-aql ) and from the need of every originated event
for an originator (mu!hdith), as well as from the need of something possible
(mumkin) for something else to give it existence (mjid).50
Ibn Taymiyya contrasts his straight-forward proofs for Gods existence
from aql with the Kalm method of rational inference (na)zar) which proves
the existence of the Creator by indirect cosmological arguments appealing to
the origination of accidents and the composition of bodies from atoms.51 He
criticizes especially the Mutazils and some Ashar and H
( anbal theologians
52
for making na)zar the initial human obligation. He argues that this method,
whose origins he traces to Jahm b. !Safwn (d. 128/745), is not a necessary
basis for knowledge of Gods existence. Speculation of this sort leads to

Minhj, 2:116/1:1756.
Nubuwwt, 266.
49
Nubuwwt, 260; and Jahd, MF 9:1412, 144/Man$tiqiyyn, 150, 1534.
50
Tadmuriyya, MF 3:89; and Minhj, 2:116/1:1756.
51
For the details of these arguments, see Herbert A. Davidson, Proofs for Eternity, Creation
and the Existence of God in Medieval Islamic and Jewish Philosophy (Oxford, UK: Oxford
University Press, 1987), 134153.
52
Ibn Taymiyya, Dar, 8:348358, and Fi$tra, MRK 2:3467, notes that al-Juwayn, alGhazl, al-Rz and the (Hanbals Ab Yal b. al-Farr and Ibn Aql all first held to the
obligation of na)zar and then later went back on its obligation. Genevive Gobillot translates
Ibn Taymiyyas Fi$tra in Lptre du discours sur la fi$tra (Risla f-l-kalm al-l-fi$tra) de
Taq-l-Dn A!hmad Ibn Taymya (661/1262728/1328), Annales Islamologiques 20 (1984):
2953.
47
48

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error.53 He observes furthermore that not even the philosophers make their
speculative methods an obligation since they do not regard their special
knowledge to be available to the general populace.54 Rather, according to Ibn
Taymiyya, Gods origination of the human being after it was nonexistent is
known directly by all through reason apart from prophetic revelation even
though the prophets and the Quran also use this form of proof.55
Beyond knowledge of Gods existence, Ibn Taymiyya believes that basic
religious and ethical truths are also known by reason. Reason knows that
the Creator must be the sole object of worship and that nothing may be
associated with Him.56 Reason also knows which human actions are good
(!hasan) and which are bad (qab#h). This is because good and bad reduce to
the difference between suitability, pleasure, profit and benefit for the agent
on one hand and unsuitability, incompatibility, pain, harm and detriment on
the other.57 In this regard, the shaykh notes the view of Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz
that reason knows whether an act is an attribute of perfection (kaml) or of
imperfection (naq$s).58 Ibn Taymiyya rightly remarks that only later Kalm
theologians use such terms and that al-Rz got this from the philosophers.
Be that as it may, the shaykh reduces perfection and imperfection also to
pleasure and pain and the suitable and incompatible:
The perfection that occurs to the human being through some acts goes back to
agreement and opposition, which is pleasure and pain. The soul takes pleasure
in what is a perfection for it, and it suffers pain in the imperfection. So, perfection and imperfection go back to the suitable and the incompatible.59

Similarly, Ibn Taymiyya relates other value terms to suitability and pleasure:
It is known that knowledge, justice, truthfulness and beneficence are suitable
for humans and that they take pleasure in these. Moreover, their pleasure in
these is greater than in anything else. This is what it means for an act to be
good.60 In like manner, the terms good deed (!hasana) and evil deed (sayyia)

53
Nubuwwt, 5963ff., and Dar, 7:14110:318, which gives an extensive treatment of
the Kalm theologians and philosophers means of knowing Gods existence.
54
Dar, 10:317.
55
Nubuwwt, 712, 74.
56
Tawba, MF 11:682.
57
I!htijj, MF 8:3089; Man$tiqiyyn, 422; Ta!hsn al-aql, MF 8:4345; and Nubuwwt,
139. There are also partial analyses of Ibn Taymiyyas theory of ethical value in Bell, Love
Theory, 8891; and Makdisi, Ethics in Islamic Traditionalist Doctrine, 4763.
58
I!htijj, MF 8:310. Al-Rzs view is found in his Mu!ha$s$sal, 202.
59
I!htijj, MF 8:310.
60
Man$tiqiyyn, 424.

theological jurisprudence

35

are a matter of pleasure and pain.61 I have not found the shaykh defining
good (khayr) and evil (sharr) directly, but in their contexts they also relate to
benefit (ma$sla!ha) and detriment (mafsada), profit (naf ) and harm (#darar),
respectively.62 Nor have I found Ibn Taymiyya claiming that khayr and sharr
are known by reason, although there would be nothing to prevent him from
doing so. Generally speaking, value terms in Ibn Taymiyyas discourse reduce
to considerations of benefit and detriment. It is a special quality of human
reason to know and seek profit and to know and repel harm.63
The shaykh contrasts his theory of ethical value with the theories of
the Mutazils and the Ashars. What George Hourani calls the rational
objectivism of the Mutazils locates good and bad in objective qualities of
acts themselves. An act is good or bad on account of an attribute essential
to the act and necessarily concomitant with it. Thus, the value of this act is
known by reason, and the function of Gods command and prohibition is
not to assign values to acts but to unveil them. Moreover, a bad act deserves
chastisement in the hereafter even without the warning of a messenger. At the
other end of the spectrum is Ashar divine voluntarism or theistic subjectivism (Hourani) in which good and bad depend solely on Gods will. Acts are
good or bad only because God commands or prohibits them. There are no
attributes in acts making them good or bad. Their value can be known only
by revelation. Ibn Taymiyya claims polemically that the Ashars make Gods
command wholly arbitrary and devoid of regard for human benefit.64
As is already apparent, Ibn Taymiyya adopts a third view, a teleological or
consequentialist ethic in which acts depend on their final benefit for their
value. An act does not have an essential attribute ($sifa dhtiyya) that makes
it good or bad. Rather, something may be good, loved and profitable in some
circumstances and bad, hated and harmful in others.65 Acts have attributes by
I!htijj, MF 8:309.
Irda, MF 8:934; and (Hasana, MF 14:2689. Cf. Fti!ha, MF 14:201. In Marij,
MF 19:169, Ibn Taymiyya connects good (khayr) directly to profit and benefit: Good,
happiness, perfection and benefit ($sal!h) consist in two kinds: in profitable knowledge and
beneficial deeds.
63
Man$tiqiyyn, 429; and I!htijj, MF 8:311.
64
Ta!hsn al-aql, MF 8:4313; Tawba, MF 11:6757; Thulth, MF 17:198; and Minhj,
3:1778/2:334. Cf. Nubuwwt, 139142. See also Majid Fakhry, Ethical Theories in Islam,
315 and 4652; George F. Hourani, Islamic Rationalism: The Ethics of Abd al-Jabbr
(Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1971), 814; Richard M. Frank, Moral Obligation in
Classical Muslim Theology, The Journal of Religious Ethics 11.2 (1983): 204223; Sophia
Vasalou, Equal Before the Law: The Evilness of Human and Divine Lies: Abd al-abbrs
Rational Ethics, Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 13 (2003): 243268, and Louis Gardet, Dieu
et la destine de lhomme (Paris: J. Vrin, 1967), 813.
65
Man$tiqiyyn, 422.
61
62

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which they become good or bad, but these are accidental (ri#da) and must
be considered in light of what is suitable (mulim) or unsuitable (munfir)
to the agent.66 The good [act] is that which procures what is loved, sought
and intended for itself. The bad is that which procures what is hated and
loathed.67 Some things like eating meat that has not been ritually slaughtered
may be bad in some circumstances and good in others.68
Ibn Taymiyya claims wide consensus for the proposition that good and
bad defined in this teleological and benefit-oriented manner are known
rationally.69 This is in fact the case, especially among the philosophizing
Ashar Kalm theologians that dominate the later medieval period. With
beginnings in al-Juwayn (d. 478/1085) and clear formulation in al-Ghazl
(d. 505/1111), later Ashars interpret the Mutazil objectivist notions of
good and bad in terms of profit and harm, pleasure and pain, and suitability
and unsuitability. Additionally, they hold that these effects are known by
reason. However, later Ashars maintain that reason cannot know whether
an act is praiseworthy or blameworthy and rewarded or punished. This can
be known only through the Law.70 Ibn Taymiyya is not sympathetic to this
Ashar qualification, and he unsuccessfully tries to reduce it also to a matter
of profit and harm. He argues, In reality this controversy comes back to
the suitable and the unsuitable, the profitable and the harmful. Blame and
punishment are among the things that harm the servant and are unsuitable for him.71 While it is intuitive that blame and punishment cause pain
and harm, this does not address the question of whether one knows about
blame and punishmentespecially in the hereafterthrough reason. In a
different text, Ibn Taymiyya does say that the ultimate ends of acts can be
known only through the revealed Law: Knowledge of the end which is the
consequence of acts, that is, happiness and unhappiness in the hereafter, is
known only by the Law.72
Minhj, 3:178/2:34.
Minhj, 3:29/1:270.
68
Minhj, 3:29/1:270.
69
Tadmuriyya, MF 3:115; Irda, MF 8:90; I!htijj, MF 8:309; and Man$tiqiyyn, 4223.
70
Al-Julaynad, Qa#diyyat al-khayr wa al-sharr, 2528; Gardet, Dieu et la destine de lhomme,
823; Sherman A. Jackson, Islamic Law and the State: The Constitutional Jurisprudence of
Shihb al-Dn al-Qarf (Leiden: Brill, 1996), 2332; and Felicitas Opwis, Ma$sla!ha in
Contemporary Islamic Legal Theory, Islamic Law and Society 12.2 (2005): 182223, at
188189. See now Ayman Shihadeh, The Teleological Ethics of Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz (Leiden:
Brill, 2006), 45153, for a much more extensive and finer-grained discussion of the development of teleological ethics in Asharism culminating in al-Rz.
71
Minhj, 3:29/1:269. Cf. Aqwam, MF 8:90; and I!htijj, MF 8:309.
72
Tadmuriyya, MF 3:115.
66
67

theological jurisprudence

37

This brings us to the relationship of the Law to the good and bad that
is known by reason. Ibn Taymiyya asserts that Gods command is directed
toward the wise purpose (!hikma) and mercy of promoting human benefit.73
He writes, [God] commanded and prohibited according to His knowledge
of the benefits and detriments to servants in the command, the prohibition,
the thing commanded and the thing forbidden.74 Likewise, God raised up
messengers to bring benefits and reduce detriments.75
Beyond this, the shaykh identifies three types of divine command.76 In
the first, Gods command and prohibition confirm that humans should do
and not do what their reason already knows is good and bad, respectively.77
One example of this is the quranic verse, [God] commanded them to the
right and prohibited them from the wrong, and He made agreeable things
lawful for them and forbade disgusting things for them (Q. 7:157). Ibn
Taymiyya says that this indicates that these things are right or wrong, agreeable or disgusting, apart from Gods command. Otherwise, the verse becomes
tautologous: He commanded them what He commanded them . . .78
Ibn Taymiyya clarifies that, in this first type, God does not punish acts
known to be bad until He sends a messenger. He bases this on quranic texts
such as We do not chastise until We raise up a messenger (Q. 17:15) and
Your Lord never destroyed the towns until He raised up a messenger in their
leading town reciting Our verses to them. We never destroyed the towns
unless their people were unjust (Q. 28:59).79 God first sent messengers to
condemn what was already known to be bad. This was followed by prohibition and warning of chastisement.80 The shaykh observes that this differs
from the Ashars for whom bad acts prior to revelation were as indifferent
as eating and drinking and that it also opposes the Mutazils for whom bad
acts are punished even apart from the warning of a messenger.81
In dealing with an objection that there is no meaning to a bad act that
is not punished, Ibn Taymiyya draws a distinction between two kinds of
Man$tiqiyyn, 237.
Ta!hsn al-aql, MF 8:434.
75
Minhj, 3:84.
76
This three-fold typology occurs in Ta!hsn al-aql, MF 8:4346; and Thulth, MF
17:2013.
77
Ta!hsn al-aql, MF 8:4345.
78
Minhj, 3:1789/2:34.
79
Ta!hsn al-aql, MF 8:435.
80
Tawba, MF 11:677682.
81
Ta!hsn al-aql, MF 8:435; Tawba, MF 11:6801; MF 19:215; and Nubuwwt, 240.
Despite Ibn Taymiyyas polemic, the later Mutazil Quran commentator al-Zamakhshar
holds an identical position. See al-Julaynad, Qa#diyyat al-khayr wa al-sharr, 247.
73
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bad and two kinds of punishment (iqb). First, bad means that the act
is a cause of punishment of the kind that God deals out after a messengers
warning. Second, bad means blameworthy, imperfect and defective. Bad acts
in this sense entail a punishment of deprivation of good (!hirmn khayr),
which results from not doing what is better. Thus, those who commit bad
acts before the arrival of messengers suffer the punishment of imperfection,
but they do not suffer direct punishment from God. In this connection
the shaykh also mentions that there are traditions reporting that those who
have never received a messenger will have one sent to them on the Day of
Resurrection.82
In the second kind of divine command and prohibition, an act becomes
good or bad by the pronouncement of God, but it still entails benefit and
detriment. Ibn Taymiyya notes that God may specify places like the Kaba
and times like the month of Rama#dn in which to dispense greater quantities
of His mercy, beneficence and blessing. As examples of this second kind of
command, he also cites the prohibition against drinking wine. In response
to the objection that the forbidding of wine was arbitrary, the shaykh says
that God prohibited it at the time dictated by His wise purpose. Something
may be profitable at one time and harmful at another, or something that
is harmful may not be prohibited if its prohibition might result in greater
detriment. In the case of wine, God did not prohibit it completely until the
early Muslims had adequate faith to withstand its prohibition.83
The third type of divine command is the trial. The primary example Ibn
Taymiyya mentions is Gods command to Abraham to sacrifice his son. The
shaykh explains that such a sacrifice would have brought no benefit. Rather,
God tried Abraham to see whether his love for Him was greater than his love
for his son. Gods intention was to remove anything that might have come
between them and to perfect Abrahams friendship with Himself.84
To sum up, Ibn Taymiyya believes that reason provides knowledge of Gods
existence, His right to exclusive worship, and the broad foundations of ethics.

Tawba, MF 11:6867.
Thulth, MF 17:2012; and Ta!hsn al-aql, MF 8:4356.
84
Thulth, MF 17:203. Cf. Minhj, 3:20/1:267. In another example, Ibn Taymiyya, Ta!hsn
al-aql, MF 8:436, and Thulth, MF 17:203, cites a hadith about a leper, a bald-headed man
and a blind man in the collection of Bukhr, 3205, A!hdth al-anbiy, (Hadth abra$s wa
am wa aqra f Ban Isrl. In this hadith, God sent an angel to restore the skin, hair and
sight of each of these men, respectively, and to grant them wealth. Then the angel appeared
to them each as a needy traveler in their previous respective forms asking for help. Only the
blind man responded. Then the angel told the blind man to keep his property because it
was only a trial.
82
83

theological jurisprudence

39

The Law brings a higher level of accountability and some information about
Gods command and recompense that cannot be known otherwise, but the
Law confirms and is fully compatible with what is known independently
by reason. Although Ibn Taymiyyas teleological ethic sets him at odds with
both poles in the traditional Ashar and Mutazil debate over the rational
discernment of good and bad, he is nonetheless firmly within the mainstream
of later philosophizing Kalm views on ethical value. As we will see in later
chapters, this position offers him a vantage point from which to polemicize
against both the Mutazil and Ashar positions on Gods justice and on
the relation of Gods creation to Gods command. The shaykhs teleological
outlook also appears in the following treatment of another source of religious
knowledge, the natural constitution.
The Natural Constitution (fi$tra) and its Perfection through Prophecy
The natural constitution ( fi$tra) in Ibn Taymiyyas thought is an innate faculty or knowledge that is closely linked to reason (aql), but it is difficult
to pinpoint the exact relationship.85 The shaykh occasionally uses aql and
fi$tra or their derivatives in parallel.86 In other places, the natural constitution
appears to be the basis for reason. For example, the shaykh speaks of the
rational methods (al-$turuq al-aqliyya) that people endowed with reason
know by their natural constitutions,87 and he writes, What is intended by
the term object of reason (maql) is the clear object of reason that people
know by their natural constitutions upon which they have been naturally
constituted.88 However, the following statement could be cited to support the opposite thesisthat reason is the basis of the natural constitutionRational propositions (al-qa#dy al-aqliyya) are the foundations

Nurcholish Madjid, Ibn Taymiyya on Kalm and Falsafa: A problem of Reason and
Revelation in Islam, (Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1985), 857, argues that aql and
fi$tra are synonymous in Ibn Taymiyyas thought, but he gives relatively little evidence for
this. For an overview of fi$tra in various domains of Islamic thought, see Genevive Gobillot,
La fi$tra: la conception originelle: ses interprtations et fonctions chez les penseurs musulmans
(Cairo: Institut franais darchologie orientale, 2000). Also of interest is Camilla Adang,
Islam as the Inborn Religion of Mankind: The Concept of Fi$tra in the Works of Ibn H
( azm,
Al-Qan$tara 21 (2000): 391410.
86
Fi$tra, MRK 2:341; MF 6:80; I!htijj, MF 8:3112; and Jahd, 9:242/Man$tiqiyyn,
382.
87
Nubuwwt, 76.
88
Jawb, 4:395.
85

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chapter one

of the natural constitutions of people endowed with reason (u$sl fi$tar aluqal).89
Many of the same things that Ibn Taymiyya says are known by reason
are also known by the natural constitution. These include the basic rules of
thought. God has placed knowledge of likeness and difference in the natural
constitution.90 It is known by the natural constitution that a body or person
cannot be in two places at once. The shaykh adds that if in fact it appears
that a person is in two places simultaneously, then one of the appearances
is actually that of a jinn who has adopted the form of the person.91 As with
reason, the shaykh also frequently claims that the existence of the Creator
is known by the natural constitution through direct cosmological proofs.
All human beings in their natural constitutions know necessarily that the
creature needs a creator, maker and governor (mudabbir) and that an originated event needs an originator. Something possible needs a preponderator
(murajji!h) to tip the scales in favor of its existence over its nonexistence.
This fundamental affirmation of external determinative causality, or what
may be called the principle of preponderance, corresponds to humanitys
fundamental felt need for and dependence upon God.92 Even the insane are
aware of their need for a creator.93
Wael Hallaq, in an article on Ibn Taymiyyas proofs for Gods existence,
points out that the shaykhs views of the natural constitution appear inconsistent.94 Ibn Taymiyya sometimes presents the natural constitution as a means
or faculty for knowing necessarily from created things that they must have
a creator. Created things are signs pointing immediately to God. At other
times, however, he regards the natural constitution as an inborn knowledge
of God requiring no evidence whatsoever. In this vein, he argues that natural
constitutions must know the Creator without signs: If [the natural constitutions] had not known Him apart from the signs, they would not have

MF 12:229.
Jahd, 9:242/Man$tiqiyyn, 382.
91
Jawb, 4:397.
92
Furqn, MF 13:151; F Wujb, MF 1:45,47; Irda, MF 8:136; Dar, 8:348; and Fi$tra,
MRK 2:341, 3445, 348.
93
Fi$tra, MRK 2:337. Ibn Taymiyya also claims in (Hamawiyya, MF 5:15, that it is known
by the natural constitution that God is above the sky.
94
Wael B. Hallaq, Ibn Taymiyya on the Existence of God, Acta Orientalia 52 (1991):
4969, argues that Ibn Taymiyya reserves the term aql for the faculty conducting inferential
operations (55). In view of the presentation of aql above, I do not believe that this is sustainable because aql, like fi$tra, includes innately held principles and beliefs.
89
90

theological jurisprudence

41

known that these signs [pointed] to Him.95 Hallaq observes that the latter
argument is circular and that it contradicts the former.
Further investigation shows that Ibn Taymiyya probed the matter more
deeply, especially in the direction of the natural constitution being a faculty,
yet one that necessarily entails knowledge of the Creator without signs. To
examine this, it is helpful to begin with the textual basis for the doctrine of
the natural constitution, a hadith found in the collections of Bukhr and
Muslim:
Every newborn is born with the natural constitution. Then, his parents make
him a Jew, Christian or Zoroastrian. This is like an animal that bears another
that is perfect of limb. Do you sense any mutilation in it? Then Ab Hurayra
said: If you wish, recite, The natural constitution ( fi$tra) of God according to
which He has constituted ( fa$tara) humanity (Q. 30:30).96

The shaykh interprets the natural constitution in this hadith to be the religion
of Islam, and he connects this to the covenant God made with all humanity
in primordial time, [The Lord said], Am I not your Lord? They said, Yes,
indeed (Q. 7:172). However, he explains that this Islam does not exist in
actuality (bi-l-fil) at birth because the newborn does not have knowledge of
anything. Yet, as his innate potency (quwwa) of knowledge and will become
active, the knowledge of God that the natural constitution entails arises as
well so long as there are no impediments.97
In a part of Dar not accessible to Hallaq, Ibn Taymiyya observes that
teaching is not a sufficient condition for imparting knowledge.98 Teaching
animals and inanimate objects does not yield the same results as teaching
human beings. There must be a potency entailing knowledge and will that is
receptive to what is taught, and this potency is created so as to preponderate
the true religion over any other. It is possible that inner voices (khaw$tir)
in the soul alert it to the true religion without external teaching, and, apart
from corrupting influences, this will indeed happen. To deal with the problem of circularity, the shaykh still has resort to external determinative causes.
He says that these inner voices arise through the inspiration of an angel or
F Wujb, MF 1:48; and Hallaq, Ibn Taymiyya on the Existence of God, 65.
Bukhr, 1270, Al-Janiz, Idh aslama al-$sab fa-mta; Bukhr 1296, Al-Janiz, M
qla f awld al-mushrikn; Muslim, 48037.
97
Dar, 8:4601; and MF 4:2459. Texts from MF 4:245, 427, are translated alongside
Amr#d, MF 10:1326, in Yahya M. Michot, Pages spirituelles dIbn Taymiyya: IX. La finalit
du coeur, Action (Mauritius), July 2000, 189, 26.
98
Dar , 8:359468. Hallaq uses Muwfaqat $sa!h!h al-manql li-$sar!h al-maql, ed.
Mu!hammad Mu!hy al-Dn Abd al-(Hamd and Mu!hammad (Hmid al-Fiq (Cairo: Ma$tbaat
al-sunna al-mu!hammadiyya, 1370/1951), which corresponds to Dar, 1:23:87, only.
95

96

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other causes (asbb) that God originates. Yet, he insists that they do not arise
from human teaching and calling. Guidance through human intermediaries
is not a necessary condition for knowing the true religion. Ibn Taymiyya
compares the natural constitution to an infants instinct for his mothers
milk. If nothing impedes the infant, such as illness in himself or his mother,
he will necessarily drink. The shaykh adds that the natural constitution to
believe in God is even stronger than the infants instinct.99
In Ibn Taymiyyas view, the natural constitution also dictates what is good
for humans to do and love. God has constituted humans to will naturally what
is profitable for them and repel what is harmful: The [human being] has
been naturally constituted to will what he must inevitably have and to hate
what harms him and injures him.100 This corresponds to loving what is good
and right and hating what is bad and wrong. Justice (adl) is good because it
is beloved to the natural constitution and yields pleasure, joy and profit to
oneself and others. Injustice ()zulm) is bad because the natural constitution
knows that it is hateful and causes pain, trouble and torment. Humans have
been naturally constituted to love and find pleasure in justice, truthfulness,
beneficence and knowledge just as they have been naturally constituted to
find pleasure in food and drink.101 Moreover, God has naturally constituted
human beings to love and worship Him alone. To be a willing being is an
essential concomitant of the natural constitution. A willing being necessarily
has a god toward which it directs its love and which it loves for itself. Apart
from corrupting influences, this ultimate object of the natural constitutions
will and love will be God. Thus, a child left on his own will necessarily come
to know, praise, love and worship his Lord.102 In Dar, Ibn Taymiyya sums
up the religion of the natural constitution in terms of exclusive worship of
God as the end for which creatures are created and the lawfulness of good
things as the means toward this end:
The foundation of the religion upon which God naturally constituted His
servantsas He said, I have created My servants original believers (!hunaf).

99
Dar , MF 8:4614. In Ma!habba, 9 and 23, Ibn Taymiyya gives angels the role of
bringing forth all the motion in the universe that lies outside the capability of humans, jinn
and animals.
100
Abd al-Qdir, MF 10:481. Similarly, Abd al-Qdir, MF 10:465; and Minhj, 3:64/2:5,
3:69/2:6.
101
Man$tiqiyyn, 423. Cf. Man$tiqiyyn, 429, Souls are naturally disposed (majbla) to love
justice and its people and to hate injustice and its people. This love, which is in the natural
constitution, is what it means for [justice] to be good.
102
Fi$tra, MRK 2:338; Dar, 8:4648; Man$tiqiyyn, 423; Ma!habba, 445; F Wujb, MF
1:257; Amr#d, MF 10:135; Abd al-Qdir, MF 10:474; and (Hasana, MF 14:296.

theological jurisprudence

43

Then, satans turned them away, forbade them what I had made lawful for
them, and commanded them to associate to Me that to which I had not given
authority103this combines two foundations. The first of them is worship of
God alone without associate. He is worshipped only through what He loves
and has commanded. This is the objective for which God created creatures.
Contrary to this is associationism and innovation. Second is the lawfulness of
agreeable things ($tayyibt) in which help is sought toward the objective. This
is the means (wasla). Contrary to this is forbidding the lawful.104

Despite Ibn Taymiyyas optimistic view of the natural constitutions ability to

know God and the purpose of worship for which it was created, the above
quotation also indicates that it may become corrupted by satans (shay$tn).
In scattered references, the shaykh cites many things that may corrupt the
natural constitution. In addition to satans from among humans and jinn,
ignorance and heedlessness play a detrimental role.105 As noted in the hadith
on the natural constitution, parents may make a child a Jew, Christian or
Zoroastrian.106 Also, vain doctrines may corrupt the natural constitution
like a veil blocking the eyesight from seeing the sun.107 Pride, ill purposes,
and divided love for God all exert their corrupting influences.108
In view of corrupted natural constitutions, Ibn Taymiyya notes that one
of the best ways to reach necessary knowledge is through purifying the soul
and spiritual disciplines.109 Inferential methods may also be needed and even
obligatory to discern the existence of the Creator.110 However, Ibn Taymiyya
distinguishes between the invalid rational inquiry (na)zar) of Kalm theology
on the one hand and the valid na)zar of examining the guidance brought by
the Messenger and inferring the Creator from the existence of the human
being on the other.111 It is in fact part of the role of messengers, the Quran
and the Sunna to make the correct rational proofs obvious to those whose
natural constitutions have become corrupt.112 In addition to revealing details
of the Law that cannot be known by the natural constitution, messengers
have been sent to those who have suffered corruption in order to set the

103
Muslim, 5109, Al-Janna wa $sift namih, Al-!Sift allat yuraf bih f al-duny ahl
al-janna. . . .
104
Dar, 8:455.
105
(Hasana, MF 14:2967.
106
Amr#d, MF 10:135.
107
MF 4:247.
108
Minhj, 5:403/3:101.
109
Fi$tra, MRK 2:341.
110
Fi$tra, MRK 2:341, 345.
111
Nubuwwt, 6273; and Marij, MF 19:172.
112
Jahd, 9:242/Man$tiqiyyn, 382.

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natural constitution back on the right path and complete and perfect it.113
The following passage from Ibn Taymiyyas Nubuwwt elaborates this:
The Prophet, he and the rest of the believers inform only of the truth. They
command only justice. They command the right and they prohibit the wrong. . . .
They were raised up to perfect the natural constitution and firmly establish it,
not to replace it and change it. They command only what agrees with what is
right to rational minds which pure hearts accept with receptivity. So too, they
themselves did not differ, and they did not contradict one another. Rather,
their religion and their faith were one even if the laws were of diverse kinds.
They also agree with the obligation of the natural constitution according to
which God constituted His servants. [They] agree with rational proofs and
do not contradict them at all. . . . The prophets perfected the natural constitution and made humankind see. As has been said concerning the description
of Mu!hammadGod bless him and give him peacethat through him God
opens the eyes of the blind, the ears of the deaf and hearts that are closed. Their
opponents corrupt sense perception and reason just as they have corrupted the
proofs of revelation.114

A similar passage in another work points to the role of messengers in perfecting the natural constitution for the sake of blessing in Paradise.
GodExalted is Heraised up the messengers to perfect the natural constitution. They indicated to human beings that by which they obtain blessing
in the hereafter and are saved from the chastisement of the hereafter. The
difference between what is commanded and what is forbidden is like the difference between Paradise and the Fire, pleasure and pain, and blessing and
chastisement.115

The role then of prophets and messengers for Ibn Taymiyya is purifying
humans of corrupting influences and perfecting the natural constitution
in which they were created, which is to love God alone and dedicate their
religion solely to Him.116 This involves pointing to what is known to be just
and right in reason and guiding them on the path to Paradise. Prophecy and
revelation are fully congruent with and the perfection of what all human
beings have naturally constituted within them.

113
Minhj, 1:3001/1:82; Man$tiq, MF 4:45; Jahd, MF 9:2423/Man$tiqiyyn, 382; and
Abd al-Qdir, MF 10:466.
114
Nubuwwt, 4301. Ma!habba, 62, makes a similar affirmation.
115
I!htijj, MF 8:312.
116
Amr#d, MF 10:135.

theological jurisprudence

45

Connections to Ibn Taymiyyas Theodicean Writings

The previous two subsections show that reason and the natural constitution
constitute two functionally equivalent sources in Ibn Taymiyyas thought
for attaining knowledge of Gods existence and the ends to which human
beings should devote themselves. Apart from prophetic revelation, human
beings, by virtue of their very createdness, know that God exists, that the
fundamental human telos is to gain benefit and repel detriment, and that
this may be achieved most fully in worshipping and loving God. Prophecy
and revelation of Gods command restore and perfect these basic human
intuitions.
Certain rational difficulties arise from Ibn Taymiyyas ethical vision. His
view of the powers of the natural constitution to recognize and follow truth
is very optimistic, and it does not appear to take into account the problem
of inveterate unbelievers for whom prophecy and spiritual discipline do
not avail. It is insufficient to pass the blame off on satans because this only
pushes the question back one step to how even the natural constitutions of
the satans were corrupted. From whence then does evil ultimately come? A
similar problem exists with respect to reason. If humans know by reason what
will profit and harm them, why do they go astray, and if it is a matter of God
creating disbelief and disobedience in themas Ibn Taymiyya assertsthen
how is God just to create that, much less punish it? The shaykh attends to
these problems in several places, but most fully in (Hasana, which will be
examined in Chapter Five.
Beyond this, two key principles underlying the material above will reappear
in subsequent chapters. First, Ibn Taymiyyas cosmological proof for Gods
existence is rooted in the metaphysical presupposition that every possible
and originated existent requires an external cause preponderating and determining its existence. As will become apparent in Chapter Two below, the
shaykh usually upholds this principle of preponderance with an extraordinary
rigor that extends even into Gods will. Second, as already noted above, the
shaykh rejects Mutazil rational objectivism and Ashar voluntarism in favor
of a teleological theory of ethical value. At first glance, this appears to apply
not only to the human plane but to God as well, especially as Ibn Taymiyya
underlines the causal character of the wise purposes in Gods creative acts
(Chapter Two). An important question then is whether the shaykh applies
the two principles of preponderance and teleology to God univocally or in
some other fashion. What follows on the character of theological discernment of Gods attributes begins to suggest how the shaykh might answer
this question.

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chapter one
The Methodology of Theological Jurisprudence

To Ibn Taymiyyas mind, both reason and the natural constitution on the one
hand and Law and prophecy on the other affirm that God exists and that
God should be loved and worshipped. Beyond this, the revealed tradition also
ascribes various qualities and acts to God that resemble those of creatures.
But what is reason to make of these? More pointedly, what should be the
response to Gods messengers who bring information about Godsuch as
Gods sitting (istiw) on the Throne (Q. 57:4)that apparently conflicts
with rational proofs demonstrating Gods incomparability with creatures?
Ibn Arab in Al-Fut!ht al-makkiyya provides a typology of responses to
this question that will help situate Ibn Taymiyyas approach.117
The first of six groups outlined by Ibn Arab responds by doubting the
truthfulness of the messenger and turning away from the faith when informed
that God has attributes that are normally ascribed to originated things. This
is simply unbelief. The second group does not waver in its faith and retains
its rational proofs, but it takes the messengers report to be a wise adaptation to the weak who do not have access to the proofs of reason. Ibn Arab
does not link names to any of the groups, but this second group represents
the basic position of Muslim philosophers like al-Farb, Ibn Sn and Ibn
Rushd.118 The third group believes that the report of Gods self-description
contradicts its proofs negating all ascriptions of creaturely attributes to God,
but it accepts the truthfulness of the report-giver nonetheless and submits
to his greater knowledge since there is no harm in this. Still, the relation
of this description to God Himself is not known since Gods essence is
not known. Here Ibn Arab may have in mind traditionalists who affirm
Gods description of Himself in revelation but refuse to interpret its meaning, especially in the way practiced by the next group. Yet, there is little to
distinguish this position from his own which he affirms and elaborates at
the end of the typology.

117
Ibn Arab al-(Htim al-+T, Al-Fut!ht al-Makkiyya, 4 vols. (Beirut: Dr !Sdir, n.d.),
2:3067, translated in William C. Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge: Ibn al-Arabis Metaphysics of Imagination (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1989), 1867.
118
On the philosophers views of prophecy, see F. Rahman, Prophecy in Islam: Philosophy
and Orthodoxy (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1958), 3645, and Richard C. Taylor,
Averroes: religious dialectic and Aristotelian philosophical thought, in The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy, eds., Peter Adamson and Richard C. Taylor (Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press, 2005), 1829. On Ibn Taymiyyas rejection of the philosophers
perspective, see Michot, A Mamlk Theologians Commentary.

theological jurisprudence

47

The fourth group, clearly the Kalm theologians, accepts the truthfulness
of the report-giver but re-interprets (tawl) the apparent ()zhir) sense of
some reports to accord with its rational proofs, which, this group observes,
are congruent with Gods statement about Himself, There is nothing like
Him (Q. 42:11). The fifth group has no appreciation for rational proofs of
Gods incomparability and does not grasp the meaning of There is nothing
like Him. Rather, it takes the revealed descriptions of God in their apparent
sense without drawing a distinction between themselves and God. This is
the anthropomorphism and corporealism that the Islamic heresiographical
tradition often ascribes to Hadith scholars under the pejorative label (Hashwiyya. It is also what many of Ibn Taymiyyas opponents from his own day
onward understand him to teach.119
Ibn Arabs sixth and last group, the one approved as attaining salvation,
has faith in what came from God as God means it and knows it, while
negating assimilation (tashbh) [of God to creatures] with There is nothing
like Him (Q. 42:11).120 Ibn Arab continues with a long list of creaturely
attributes which revelation has ascribed to Godincluding inter alia a
hand, hearing, sight, good pleasure, hesitation (taraddud), joy, laughter and
descentmany of which the Kalm theologians seek to reinterpret.
Given Ibn Taymiyyas notoriety for polemic against Ibn Arab, it may
seem odd to resort to a typology from the latter to enlighten the views of
the former. Yet, from the following exposition of Ibn Taymiyyas view, it will
become apparent that the two agree on one thing. With the sixth group
above, both affirm allegedly anthropomorphic expressions about God on
a par with other divine attributes found in revelation while simultaneously
confessing that God is equally incomparable to creatures in all of His names
and attributes. Neither follows the philosophers for whom revelation is an
expedient for the masses who cannot bear pure intellectual truth. Nor does
either adopt the hermeneutical strategy of Kalm theology, which argues that
revelation must give way to reason through the practice of re-interpretation
(tawl). Nor may either of them be accused of the simplistic anthropomorphism and corporealism of the (Hashwiyya.

119
Following Ibn Taymiyyas unsympathetic biographer Ibn (Hajar al-Asqaln, Ignaz
Goldziher, The Z
% hirs: their doctrine and their history, trans. and ed. Wolfgang Behn (Leiden:
Brill, 1971 [1884]), 174, reports baldly that Ibn Taymiyya taught tajsm, that is, corporealism
or giving God bodily characteristics.
120
Ibn Arab, Fut!ht, 2:307; translation adapted from Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge, 187.

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Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Arab do differ at significant points, and two of
these need to be clarified here. Ibn Taymiyya does not follow the Sufi theorist
in privileging mystical experience or revelation over reason. Rather, reason
and revelation are on the same level and provide much of the same information about God. As we will see below, reason rightly exercised knows even
many of Gods allegedly anthropomorphic attributes found in revelation.
The two great figures also do not agree on the ontological referents of
Gods attributes and acts. Ibn Arab does not always distinguish Gods acts
from created things, and from a certain illumined perspective, Gods acts are
the created things themselves. Gods attributes and names then indicate the
diverse relationships between Gods many acts and Gods one unknowable
essence, but these relationships (i.e. the attributes) do not exist in reality.121
Ibn Taymiyya, unlike Ibn Arab whom he charges with conflating God and
the world, maintains that Gods attributes are real and that not only Gods
essence but also Gods attributes and acts are always ontologically distinct
from creatures: There is nothing like (mithl) [God], neither in His essence,
nor in His attributes, nor in His acts.122
Nevertheless, Ibn Taymiyya acknowledges that the unseen world, which
includes both God and the hereafter, can be discussed only through the
medium of what is known in the visible world: Things that are concealed
from sight and feeling are only known, loved and hated via a kind of likening
(tamthl) and analogy (qiys).123 The question then is how to speak correctly
of the God who is wholly other. Ibn Taymiyya answers this question from
the tradition and with rational arguments concerning what human conception of Gods perfection should entail.
Affirming Gods Attributes in the Revealed Tradition without Modality
Contributing perhaps to his anti-rationalist reputation, Ibn Taymiyya often
calls for acceptance of Gods attributes found in the authoritative textual
sources of Islam without making a parallel appeal to reason, asserting that
God must be spoken of strictly as He has revealed Himself to be and as the

121
For explanation of Ibn Arabs theology, see Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge,
812 and 3346.
122
I$sfahniyya, 9; Tadmuriyya, MF 3:25; Wa$siyya kubr, MF 3:374; MF 5:195; Nuzl,
5:330; Jawb, 2:164, 4:428; and Minhj, 3:151/2:27. On God having his essence and attributes
in reality (!haqqatan), see MF 5:1969. For brief note of Ibn Taymiyyas polemic against
Ibn Arabs ontology, see below Chapter Three.
123
Ma!habba, 214. Cf. Tadmuriyya, MF 3:57.

theological jurisprudence

49

Prophet speaks of Him. This approach rests on the quranic verse, There
is nothing like Him, and He is all-Hearing, all-Seeing (Q. 42:11), which
the shaykh understands to entail both a negation of Gods likeness to any
creature and an affirmation that God has attributes called hearing and seeing. By extension, all other attributes that appear in the authoritative texts
must be affirmed as they are, but always with the qualification that they are
wholly unlike those of creatures. A typical statement of this position occurs
in Ibn Taymiyyas Tadmuriyya creed:
God is qualified by that with which He has qualified Himself and by that with
which His messengers have qualified Him, negatively and positively. What
God establishes for Himself is established and what He negates for Himself is
negated. It is known that the way of the Salaf of the Community and its Imms
is establishment of the attributes ($sift) that He establishes without [giving
them] modality (takyf ) or likening [them to something else] (tamthl) and
without distorting [them] (ta!hrf ) or stripping [them] away (ta$tl ). Likewise,
they negate of Him what He negates of Himself. . . .
Their way involves establishing His names and attributes, as well as negation of His likeness with creaturesestablishing without assimilating [Him
to creatures] (tashbh), declaring [Him] incomparable (tanzh) without stripping away [His attributes]. As HeExalted is Hesaid, There is nothing
like Him, and He is all-Hearing, all-Seeing (Q. 42:11). In His statement,
There is nothing like Him, is a rejection of assimilation and likening, and
His statement, He is all-Hearing, all-Seeing, is a rejection of heresy (il!hd)
and stripping away.124

Adhering to these guidelines, God must be mentioned only in the theological language of the Quran and the Sunna. The admonitions against takyf,
tamthl, tashbh, ta!hrf and ta$tl protect this language from interpretation that
ties God to creatures in some fashion. Ibn Taymiyya supports his rejection
of assimilation (tashbh) and likening (tamthl) with several quranic verses
indicating that God has no son, associate or equal (Q. 2:22, 2:165, 16:74,
19:65, 25:2, 112:34, etc.). He also provides numerous verses establishing
that God has various names and attributes and that God is the Creator of
created things. For example, God is Self-Subsistent (al-Qayym) and Living
(Q. 2:255), all-Knowing and all-Wise (Q. 4:26). He created the heavens and
the earth and then sat upon the Throne (Q. 57:4). He loves (Q. 5:54) and

124
Tadmuriyya, MF 3:34. Other basic creedal statements of this kind include H
( amawiyya,
MF 5:26; I$sfahniyya, 910; Wsitiyya, MF 3:129130; Minhj, 2:111/1:174; and Jawb,
2:1634, 4:405 ( Jawb, 4:384411 is translated in Michel, A Muslim Theologians Response
to Christianity, 327341).

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gets angry (Q. 4:93). He spoke to Moses (Q. 4:164). He is Creator, and to
Him belong the most Beautiful Names (Q. 59:24).125
Ibn Taymiyya further explains that attempts by philosophers and Kalm
theologians to understand the detail of the revealed language about God
begin from alien conceptual frameworks and lead to error. Those who make
God analogous to creatures or liken God to them violate His incomparability and end up worshipping an idol. A philosophical via negativa strips
away Gods positive attributes (ta$tl ) and leads to worship of a nonexistent.
Moreover, those who negate Gods attributes only do so because they have
first likened these attributes to those of creatures and found them unfit for
God. In this way, even the strippers are likeners. In sum, the language about
God presented in the revealed sources must be accepted as it is without it
implying any likeness of God to creatures whatsoever.126
The shaykhs agnosticism as to the modality of Gods attributes becomes
especially apparent when he argues that they remain unique to God even if
He has identified Himself with names and attributes that are also employed
with respect to creatures. The shaykh elaborates this with a philosophical
nominalism that denies the existence of extramental universals. Wael Hallaq
comments that Ibn Taymiyya holds individuals in the extramental world to
be so distinct and different from one another that they cannot allow for
the formation of an external universal under which they are assumed.127
The shaykh explains that God calls Himself Living, Knowing, Merciful,
125
Tadmuriyya, MF 3:47; and Jawb, 4:4058. A full list of quranic verses that negate
Gods likeness to creatures and affirm His many names and attributes is found in Wsi$tiyya,
MF 3:130143.
126
Tadmuriyya, MF 3:7ff.; Jawb, 4:4056; and (Hamawiyya, MF 5:27, 59. Also, see especially Henri Laoust, Quelques opinions sur la thodice dIbn Taimiya, Mlanges Maspero,
Vol. 3, Orient Islamique (Cairo: Imprimerie de linstitut franais darchologie orientale,
193540), 4318, which argues that Ibn Taymiyya is not the anthropomorphist that earlier
western scholarship and a good part of the Islamic tradition had made him out to be. Sherman
Jackson, Ibn Taymiyyah on Trial, 536, discusses the same matter briefly but with greater
technical depth. Other discussions in the secondary literature include Laoust, Essai, 1557;
Victor E. Makari, Ibn Taymiyyahs Ethics: The Social Factor (Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1983),
3441; Serajul Haque, Ibn Taymyyah: A Life and Works, in A History of Muslim Philosophy,
ed. M. M. Sharif (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrossowitz, 1966), 2:796819 (at 799803); and
Michel, A Muslim Theologians Response to Christianity, 13, 523 passim, 414.
127
Hallaq, Ibn Taymiyya against the Greek Logicians, xxii. Hallaqs reference for this point
leads to Dar, 1:116, where Ibn Taymiyya argues for the complete unlikeness of all individual
entities, including all human beings, from each other. The shaykh quotes the verse, If you turn
away, He will exchange you for some other people, and they will not be your likes (amthl)
(Q. 47:38). From this, he denies that humans bear a likeness (mumthala) one to another
even though they may share in having bodies, moving, laughing and so forth. By denying all
likeness even between creatures, Ibn Taymiyya applies the same agnosticism that he holds
with respect to the modality of Gods attributes to the modality of human attributes.

theological jurisprudence

51

Hearing, Seeing and so on and that in the Quran He has used these names
for creatures as well. However, God and creatures share nothing in common
but these names.
Ibn Taymiyya does observe that the mind recognizes shared qualities and
connotations when these names are abstracted from their particular and
concrete manifestations. This is as when we recognize that both snow and
ivory share something in common with each other that we call whiteness
even though the whiteness of snow is much more intense than the whiteness of ivory. Yet, despite observed similarities, the shaykh asserts that the
abstract universal of whiteness or any other name has no existence outside
the mind. Applying this nominalism in the realm of theological language,
there is no longer any similarity between the referents of identical names
when they are particularized in the Creator and the creature apart from the
very names themselves. The shaykh suggests that this is obvious, for example,
in the attribute of knowledge. The knowledge of creatures is accidental,
originated, and acquired whereas that of the Creator is none of these. The
modalities of the concrete realities to which the names of the unseen God
refer are unknowable because they are completely unlike referents given the
same names in the created world.128
This rigorously agnostic and nominalistic approach permits affirming all
the revealed names and attributes of God without fear of anthropomorphism
because all of them are equally unlike their counterparts in the created world.
A sample of Ibn Taymiyyas dialectic against the Kalm theologians from
Tadmuriyya illustrates how this works. He takes particular issue with the
Kalm theologians interpreting Gods love, good pleasure, anger and hate as
metaphors for either Gods will or Gods blessing and punishment of human
beings. He explains, for example, that if the Kalm theologians understand
Gods will to be like that of creatures, then there should be no offense in
making God like creatures in other attributes as well, such as in love and
anger. Conversely, they might take God to have a will uniquely befitting
Him just as creatures have wills uniquely befitting them and different from
Gods. In this case, however, there should be no reason not to affirm love
128
Tadmuriyya, MF 3:1016; Jawb, 4:4218; Minhj, 2:112120/1:1747; Jahd, MF
9:145/Man$tiqiyyn, 1545; and Mun)zara, 3:191. My discussion avoids the highly technical
vocabulary Ibn Taymiyya uses because the main point is otherwise clear: the link between
Gods attributes and those of creatures is confined to the level of abstract universals in the mind.
For discussion of the technical terms involvedtaw$tu, tashkk and ishtirksee Jackson,
Ibn Taymiyyah on Trial, 545; Hallaq, Ibn Taymiyya against the Greek Logicians, 745;
and especially Mohamed M. Yunis Ali, Medieval Islamic Pragmatics: Sunni Theorists Models
of Textual Communication (Richmond, Surrey, UK: Curzon Press, 2000), 114125.

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and anger of God in a sense uniquely befitting Him as well. Moreover, if the
Kalm theologians take anger to be the boiling of the blood of the heart
from seeking vengeance and then say that this cannot be applied to God,
it can be countered that will means the inclination of the soul to obtain
profit or repel harm which also cannot be applied to God. Anger and will
in the anthropomorphic senses of these definitions are equally inapplicable
to God because neither Gods anger nor Gods will bears any relationship
to the human senses of anger or will. Rather, Ibn Taymiyya argues, God has
an anger and a will that uniquely befit Him.129
The shaykh also notes that the Kalm theologians establish some of Gods
attributes by rational proofs and imply that those attributes not proven
rationally must be reinterpreted. For example, the theologians argue that a
temporally originated act proves that God has power, will and knowledge.
These attributes necessarily imply life, and that which is living must be hearing, seeing and speaking. Then, other attributes like love and anger, which
are not proven rationally, may not be predicated of God except as metaphors
for the rationally proven attributes. Ibn Taymiyya retorts that absence of
proof does not necessarily imply that something does not exist. Furthermore,
rational proofs of a similar kind could be marshaled in support of Gods other
attributes. For example, Gods beneficence to humans proves His mercy; His
punishment of unbelievers points to His hate; and so on.130
Ibn Taymiyyas hermeneutic presupposition throughout these arguments
is an absolute application of There is nothing like Him (Q. 42:11), which
he complements with a rigorous nominalism that denies the existence of
extramental universals. On the basis of Gods complete unlikeness, the shaykh
portrays the Kalm theologians as inconsistent in their attempt to set apart
some of Gods attributes as metaphorical and in need of reinterpretation
(tawl ) while taking other attributes in senses common to creatures. Ibn
Taymiyya understands Gods names and attributes neither literally nor metaphorically. What is literal or absolute is that the names and attributes refer to
realities wholly beyond human comprehension. While Gods attributes may
connote certain things in the human mind, these thoughts do not correspond
to anything in the modality of the attributes of God Himself.

129
Tadmuriyya, MF 3:178. Bell, Love Theory, 645, recounts similar arguments from
Ikll, MF 13:298300.
130
Tadmuriyya, MF 3:189.

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53

Giving Meaning to the Revealed Attributes in Human Language

Absolute unlikeness between God and creatures may present difficulties
for the religious life insofar as the language about God does not connect
to anything concrete in human experience.131 Sherman Jackson argues that
Ibn Taymiyyas view of Gods names and attributes does, however, represent
an advance over the earlier (Hanbal Ibn Qudma. Ibn Qudma sets out his
position as follows:
We have no need to know the meaning of what GodExalted is Heintended
by His attributesHe is Great and Almighty. No deed is intended by them.
No obligation is linked to them except belief in them. Belief in them is possible
without knowing their meaning. Indeed, belief with ignorance is correct.132

Whereas Ibn Qudma rejects any attempt to link Gods attributes to the
referential world of ordinary human language, Ibn Taymiyya acknowledges
that Gods attributes do connote certain qualities in the mind although not
in the external world. In the following quote, Jackson suggests that these
mental associations give more tangibility to religious language than does
the full agnosticism of Ibn Qudma.
On this approach, a !hadth such as the one asserting Gods descent to the
lower heavens to offer forgiveness to repentent [sic] sinners is transformed
from an abstract mystery into a concrete promise of immanent grace. For,
what is understood by descent is now informed by its meaning in the case of
created entities, without this entailing, meanwhile, the belief that God actually
descends like anything created.133

While the associations that Gods attributes and acts evoke in the mind may
bring blessing and comfort of a kind, it seems doubtful that what Jackson
calls a concrete promise of immanent grace is in fact concrete because it
does not correspond to anything humans experience in concrete reality.
Nonetheless, Ibn Taymiyya does differ from Ibn Qudma in taking these
connotations very seriously and giving considerable attention to the meanings
of the words that are used for Gods attributes. He delineates these meanings
131
For a sociological analysis of this outlook not only in Ibn Taymiyya but among the
(Hanbals in general, see Aziz Al-Azmeh, Orthodoxy and (Hanbalite Fideism, Arabica 35
(1988): 253266, who observes that doctrinal language in this view is equivalent to a technical
language that is not native to the human understanding (257). He argues further that this
position was sustained through the rigorous transmission of texts claiming to preserve the
original revelation and through the structures of H
( anbal authority that included charismatic
preaching and miraculous signs.
132
Ibn Qudma, Ta!hrm al-na)zar, 512.
133
Jackson, Ibn Taymiyyah on Trial, 56.

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by reference to the authoritative tradition of the Quran, the Hadith, the

Salaf, the early Quran exegetes and the conventions of the Arabic language,
as well as by rational considerations.
Ibn Taymiyyas discussion of Gods attribute of sitting on the Throne (cf.
Q. 20:5, 25:59), especially as it appears in his (Hamawiyya creed, provides
an example of how this works. Basic to the argument are the distinctions
Ibn Taymiyya draws between three types of tawl.134 First is the tawl of the
Kalm theologians and others who turn away from the probable meaning
and adopt the less probable meaning on account of some proof for this. In
the case of Gods sitting, the shaykh in (Hamawiyya castigates the Mutazils
for reinterpreting Gods sitting (istaw) as possessing (istawl) in order to
reconcile it with the quranic affirmation, [God] is with you wherever you
are (Q. 57:4).135 The shaykh also criticizes Kalm theologians for applying
the verse, No one knows its tawl except God (Q. 3:7), to Gods descending, sitting and so forth. He says that this makes the prophets and the Salaf
out not to have known what they were talking about when they mentioned
these attributes. The second meaning of tawl is the linguistic inquiry or tafsr
(interpretation or explanation) of early Quran exegetes such as Ibn Abbs
(d. 68/687), Mujhid (d. ca. 1004/718722) and al-+Tabar (d. 310/923).
This is the tawl of the Salaf and those firmly grounded in knowledge
(Q. 3:7). The third meaning of tawl is the very reality of the thing referred
to, as for example the existence of the various realities in Paradise. This is the
tawl that only God knows (Q. 3:7). Ibn Taymiyya puts Gods attributes in
this third category since only God knows their reality.
In H
( amawiyya, the shaykh also cites the well-known statement of Mlik b.
Anas on Gods sitting: The sitting is known, and the modality is unknown,
and then interprets this as referring to his latter two types of tawl:
The sitting is known (malm). Its meaning (man) is known; it is interpreted
( yufassar), and it is translated into another language. This is part of the tawl
that those firmly grounded in knowledge know. As for the modality (kayfiyya)
of this sitting, this is the tawl that only GodExalted is Heknows.136

134
The following discussion is based on Tadmuriyya, MF 3:558; H
( amawiyya, MF 5:357;
Ikll, MF 13:288ff.; Ab al-Fid, 161; and Dar, 1:126 (also found in trans. in Michot, Ibn
Taymiyya: Lettre Ab l-Fid, 257). See also Ali, Medieval Islamic Pragmatics, 125135;
and al-Julaynad, Al-Imm Ibn Taymiyya, 149185, for further treatment of Ibn Taymiyyas
approach to tawl.
135
Hamawiyya, MF 5:20, 967.
136
(Hamawiyya, MF 5:367. Cf. Dar, 1:278. Several more brief passages in which Ibn
Taymiyya interprets Gods sitting are translated in Yahya M. Michot, Textes Spirituels dIbn

theological jurisprudence

55

The level of tawl at which the shaykh works interpretively and theologically
is the second, the linguistic level of tafsr and ascertaining the meaning. In
(Hamawiyya, Ibn Taymiyyas insistence that Gods sitting means sitting, and
not possessing as the Mutazils would have it, leads him to reflect on the
apparent contradiction between Gods sitting on the Throne and His omnipresence found in He is with you wherever you are (Q. 57:4). The shaykh
affirms that, just as God is with His creatures in reality (!haqqatan), He is on
His Throne in reality, and, in an analysis based on the authority of Arabic
semantic conventions, he explains that Gods withness (maiyya) consists in
watching over His creatures and knowing them. He suggests that this might
be as when someone says that the moon or stars are with him when traveling. Similarly, a father sitting on a roof may say to a son crying below, Do
not be afraid! I am with you. The father-son and moon-star images that
Ibn Taymiyya provides are simply suggestions as to what Q. 57:4 may mean
linguistically. However, interpretive maneuvers such as these were not well
understood by Ibn Taymiyyas contemporaries and earned him the charge of
anthropomorphism that led to his Damascene trials in 705/1306.137
In (Hamawiyya, Ibn Taymiyya also attempts to reconcile Gods sitting on
the Throne with the hadith, If one of you stands to pray, God is in front of
his face. So, let him not spit in front of his face.138 Ibn Taymiyya explains
that this is as when someone talks to the sky, sun or moon: they are over him
and also, simultaneously, in front of his face. In this case, the shaykh finds
precedent for his interpretive images in another hadith. He writes,
The ProphetGod bless him and give him peacepropounded the similitude
in this. To God is the highest similitude (al-mathal al-al) (Q. 16:60).
However, what is meant by drawing a similitude (tamthl) is explanation of
the permissibility ( jawz) of this and its possibility (imkn), not assimilation
(tashbh) of the Creator to the creature. The ProphetGod bless him and give
him peacesaid, There is not among you one but that he will see his Lord
alone. Ab Razn al-Uqayl said to him, How is this, O Messenger of God,
when He is only one and we are all together? The ProphetGod bless him
and give him peacesaid, I will inform you of the like (mithl) of this in the
favors of God. This moon, each of you sees it alone, and this is a sign among
the signs of God. God is greater, or as the ProphetGod bless him and give

Taymiyya: X. Je ne suis dans cette affaire quun musulman parmi dautres . . ., Le Musulman (Paris) 23 (1994): 2732 (at 28 n. 9).
137
H
( amawiyya, MF 5:1034; and Mun)zara, 3:1778 (trans. in Jackson, Ibn Taymiyyah
on Trial, 712).
138
Ab Dwd, 410, Al-!Salt, F karhiyyat al-buzq f al-masjid. Similar hadiths are found
in Bukhr, 391, and Muslim, 852.

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him peacesaid.139 He said, You will see your Lord as you see the sun and
the moon.140 He assimilated (shabbaha) the [one] vision to the [other] vision
even if the [one] thing seen is not similar (mushbih) to the [other] thing seen.
When the believers see their Lord on the Day of Resurrection and talk to Him,
each one will see Him over him in front of his face just as he sees the sun and
the moon. There is no incompatibility fundamentally.141

On guard against anthropomorphism, Ibn Taymiyya prefaces his remarks

in this quotation by noting that the hadith supplies a similitude that does
not assimilate God to creatures. It only indicates what is permissible and
possible with respect to God but not what exists necessarily in reality. The
shaykh provides similar similitudes or interpretative images in his theodicean
writings, especially in Minhj, and these will be noted in Chapter Three. In
methodological discussions examined next, Ibn Taymiyya links the verse,
To God is the highest similitude (Q. 16:60), to a rational criterion for
delineating the meanings of Gods attributes and for deriving many of the
attributes themselves.
Giving God the Highest Similitude with the a fortiori Argument
Up to this point, we have seen Ibn Taymiyya defend and explain an agnostic realism with respect to Gods attributes on the authority of traditional
sources. The attributes are real and meaningful, but their modality cannot
be known, and this we know from tradition. However, he also believes that
much of the same information concerning Gods attributes is known by
reason independently of revelation. The shaykhs rational proofs for Gods
complete unlikeness will be given toward the end of the following subsection;
here it is sufficient to note that they are founded on his rigorous denial of
extramental universals. The present subsection surveys his explanation and
justification of the a fortiori argument as a rational tool for deriving and
interpreting Gods attributes of perfection. The following subsection then
examines the shaykhs proofs for Gods perfection from both revelation and
reason, and it details several divine perfections.

139
Ibn Taymiyyas reporting of this hadith indeed appears to be very loose since I could
not locate anything that closely resembles it. However, similar affirmations of the vision of
God are found in Bukhr, 521, Mawqt al-$salt, Fa#dl $salt al-a$sr; in Ibn Mja, 176, AlMuqaddima, Fm ankarat al-Jahmiyya; and elsewhere.
140
The closest to what Ibn Taymiyya reportsbut without mention of the sunare alTirmidh, 2477, !Sift al-janna an rasl Allh, Minhu; and A!hmad, 18394.
141
(Hamawiyya, MF 5:107.

theological jurisprudence

57

When discussing the methodology of theological argument, Ibn Taymiyya

condemns the use of both analogy and categorical syllogism, and he explains
that discussion of Gods attributes and acts must occur in a fortiori mode.
The shaykh is not adverse to analogy in legal matters. He traces the usage
of legal analogy back to the Salaf and criticizes the %Zhirs for rejecting it.142
The juristic analogy is invalid, however, if it contradicts what God has clearly
legislated: Wherever we know that the explicit text opposes an analogy,
we know absolutely that it is an invalid analogy.143 In matters of theological doctrine, Ibn Taymiyya argues that the juristic analogy is always invalid
because it brings God and creatures into a relationship of direct comparison.
Even if God and an idol both happen to be objects of worship, and even
if God and creatures share the fact of existence, these coincidences do not
imply that God may be equated with created things in any other respect.
Rather, God may not be made analogous to any created thing because of
His incomparability. Drawing an analogy from a creature to God sets the
two on the same level and is tantamount to idolatry.144
Turning now to the categorical syllogism, Ibn Taymiyya is well known for
his polemic against Aristotelian logic, especially as it is found in his major
work Kitb al-radd al al-man$tiqiyyn [Man$tiqiyyn]. Wael Hallaq has
provided a translation of Jahd, an abridged version of Man$tiqiyyn, and, in
his introduction, Hallaq shows that the shaykhs critique of the Aristotelian
theory of definition and the categorical syllogism is extensive and incisive.145
For our purposes, however, it is important to note only two points. First,
Ibn Taymiyya accepts the formal validity of the categorical syllogism (qiys
al-shuml). However, he rejects the power of this syllogism to give certain
knowledge, and he denies that the premises that philosophers, Kalm theologians and theosophical Sufis introduce into it are real universals. Universals
for Ibn Taymiyya exist only in the mind. Thus, he believes, the elaborate
metaphysical structures built up by Ibn Sn, Ibn Arab, Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz
and many others exist only in the mind and not in external reality.146 Second,
I$sfahniyya, 79.
Qiys, MF 20:505.
144
Qiys, MF 20:5412.
145
Hallaq, Ibn Taymiyya against the Greek Logicians. Jahd al-qar!ha f tajrd al-na$s!ha
is found in MF 9:82254. The abridgement was carried out by Jall al-Dn al-Suy$ t
(d. 911/1505).
146
Hallaq, Ibn Taymiyya against the Greek Logicians, xivxxxii. Hallaq notes that qiys
al-shuml is a rare expression for the categorical syllogism and may have been coined by
Ibn Taymiyya himself (xiv, n. 17). He also explains that logic is simply superfluous for Ibn
Taymiyya. Whatever knowledge it might provide can be obtained through simpler means
including the natural constitution (xl; cf. Jahd, MF 9:187/Man$tiqiyyn, 199200; Jahd,
142
143

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in Jahd and elsewhere, the shaykh does not permit the use of the syllogism
with respect to God because, as with the juristic analogy, it places God and
creatures as different syllogistic terms on the same level.147
Although Ibn Taymiyya does not permit the univocal use of analogy and
the categorical syllogism with respect to God, he does permit their use in a
fortiori mode. Like analogy, the a fortiori argument plays an important role
in Islamic jurisprudence. A common example of this argument concludes
from the quranic injunction, Do not say to [parents] Fie! (Q. 17:23), that
hitting parents is a fortiori (i.e. all the more) prohibited because the disrespect
shown to parents in hitting is all the worthier of being prohibited than the
disrespect shown in saying Fie!148 When applied to God, this argument,
in Ibn Taymiyyas view, maintains the necessary unlikeness between God
and creatures and, moreover, asserts that God is all the worthier (awl) of
whatever judgment of perfection is applied to creatures than are the creatures
themselves. He explains this as follows:
Sometimes, the common degree (qadr mushtarak) in a rational argument is considered without consideration of priority (awwaliyya), and sometimes priority
is considered in it. The a fortiori argument (qiys al-awl) is composed in this
[latter] way. This [obtains] if it has been made a kind of categorical syllogism
or analogy having a particular [characteristic] by which it is distinguished
from all [other] kinds, which is that the desired judgment be worthier of being
established than is the case mentioned in the proof proving it.
This type is what the Salaf and the Immslike Imm A!hmad and others
among the Salaffollowed with respect to rational proof in the matter of
2178/Man$tiqiyyn, 2938). In this regard, according to Hallaq, Ibn Taymiyya argues that
the categorical syllogism differs only in form from the juristic analogy. The two are in fact
interchangeable because the middle term of the syllogism is equivalent to the cause and shared
attribute of the analogy. For example date wine (nabdh) has been prohibited by analogy to
grape wine (khamr) whose assessment or rule (!hukm) of prohibition has been set down in
the authoritative sources of the Quran and the Sunna. Through a process of induction,
the jurists determine that the cause (illa) of this rule is intoxication even though it is not
given in the texts. Now, since intoxication is a common attribute (wa$sf mushtarak) between
grape wine and date wine, the rule of prohibition also applies to date wine. The prohibition
of date wine may also be set out syllogistically as follows. All intoxicants are prohibited
(major premise). Date wine is intoxicating (minor premise). Therefore, date wine is prohibited
(conclusion). In this case, the middle term intoxicants is equivalent to the cause and common attribute in the analogy. The rule of prohibition that attaches to intoxicants establishes
both the major premise of the syllogism and the analogical transfer of the ruling from grape
wine to all other intoxicants (xxxvxxxix; cf. Nubuwwt, 2703; Kaylniyya, MF 12:3457;
I$sfahniyya, 48; and Jahd, MF 9:197206/Man$tiqiyyn, 209246).
147
Jahd, MF 9:1412/Man$tiqiyyn, 150; Tadmuriyya, MF 3:30; Kaylniyya, MF 12:347;
and I$sfahniyya, 49.
148
Wael B. Hallaq, A History of Islamic Legal Theories: An introduction to Sunn u$sl alfiqh (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 969.

theological jurisprudence

59

[Gods] lordship, and it is what the Quran brought. This is because it is not
admissible that GodExalted is Heand another be included in a categorical syllogism whose terms are on the same level or in an analogy in which the
judgment of the original case and that of the assimilated case are on the same
level. Indeed, GodExalted is Hethere is nothing like Him neither in His
essence (nafs) which is mentioned through His names, nor in His attributes,
nor in His acts. However, the a fortiori argument is followed with respect to
Him. As He said, And to God is the highest similitude (al-mathal al-al)
(Q. 16:60).
[Concerning] every perfection and attribute praiseworthy in itself and
devoid of imperfection that belongs to some created, originated existents, it is
known that the Lord, Creator, Self-Subsistent (!Samad), Everlasting (Qayym),
Eternal and Necessary Existent in Himself is all the worthier of it. And [concerning] every imperfection and defect from which some originated, possible
creatures must be exonerated, the Lord, Creator, Holy, Peace, Eternal, Necessary
of Existence in Himself is all the worthier of being exonerated from it.149

Analogies and categorical syllogisms may not be employed univocally for

God. Rather, the a fortiori argument which maintains Gods unlikeness should
be used, and, following the quranic verse, For God is the highest similitude
(Q. 16:60), God should be given the highest similitude or likeness (mathal).
This entails attributing all creaturely perfections to God and freeing Him
from every creaturely imperfection because He is a fortiori worthy of being so
qualified. Ibn Taymiyya asserts furthermore that the a fortiori argument has a
venerable tradition in the Quran and among the Salaf and other important
leaders of the Islamic community such as Ibn (Hanbal.
I have not found the shaykh showing how the Salaf and Ibn (Hanbal use
the a fortiori argument.150 In Dar however he does furnish some examples
149
I$sfahniyya, 49. For the same arguments, see also Dar , 1:2930, Tadmuriyya, MF
3:30; and Kaylniyya, MF 12:347.
150
Ibn H
( anbal uses the highest similitude argument in a passage in Al-Radd al zandiqa
wa al-Jahmiyya, ed. Mu!hammad H
( asan Rshid (Cairo: al-Ma$tbaa al-salafiyya, 1393/19734),
37, which Ibn Taymiyya quotes in Minhj, 2:4845/1:234, for other purposes. In response
to the Jahm charge that the traditionalists deny Gods unity by affirming His attributes, Ibn
(Hanbal compares God to a palm tree. The palm tree has a stump, leaves and so forth, but yet
it is considered one in name. So, likewise, Godfor Him is the highest similitudewith all
His attributes is one God. Immediately following this, Ibn (Hanbal gives a second example,
this time from the Quran: Leave Me [to deal] with him whom I have created one (wa!hd)
(Q. 74:11). Ibn (Hanbal takes the one created to be al-Wald b. al-Mughra al-Makhzm
who despite being called one still had ears, eyes and other body members. From this Ibn
(Hanbal concludes, So, likewise, Godfor Him is the highest similitudeHe, with all His
attributes, is one God. I have not here followed the unclear translation of Ibn H
( anbals Radd
found in Morris S. Seale, Muslim Theology: A Study of Origins with Reference to the Church
Fathers (London: Luzac, 1964), 96125 (specifically 1167). Wesley Williams, Aspects of
the Creed of Imam Ahmad Ibn Hanbal: A Study of Anthropomorphism in Early Islamic

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of the a fortiori argument in the Quran. He gives two sets of arguments,

first providing proofs for the resurrection at the Last Day and second giving
proofs for Gods exoneration from having associates.151
Concerning the resurrection, Ibn Taymiyya begins by explaining that we
know the possibility of something existing in the extramental world either
by its actual existence, by the existence of something equivalent to it, or by
the existence of something greater. In the latter case, The existence of something is a proof that something below it is a fortiori possible.152 Moreover,
the existence of any possibility is contingent upon the Lord having power to
make it occur. Ibn Taymiyya then cites quranic verses pointing to the original
creation of the heavens and the earth, as well as of humans, to demonstrate
a fortiori Gods power to raise humankind again. These include, It is He
who begins the creation, and then brings it back again, and this is easier for
Him. To Him is the highest similitude in the heavens and the earth (Q.
30:27), and, Do they not see that God Who created the heavens and the
earth is powerful to create the like of them (Q. 17:99). However, the shaykh
devotes the most attention to several verses in Srat Y Sn:
He set forth a similitude and forgot His creation. He said, Who will give life
to these bones when they are decayed? Say, He will give life to them Who
brought them forth the first time! He is All-Knowing about every creation. He
who makes fire for you out of the green tree. Behold, from it you kindle. Is not
He Who created the heavens and the earth powerful to create the like of them?
Yes, indeed! He is the Supreme Creator, the All-Knowing (Q. 36:7881).

The shaykh points out that the question, Who will give life to these bones
when they are decayed? is rhetorical, inviting the response that no one can
give life to decayed bones. However, the Quran then underlines that this
is indeed possible for God by pointing to His original creation of life from
dust: He will give life to them Who brought them forth the first time.
Then with the statement, He who makes fire for you out of the green
tree, the Quran shows that God produces hot dry fire from what is cold
and moist, something even more difficult than bringing life out of decayed
Discourse, International Journal of Middle East Studies 34 (2002): 441463, confirms that
Ibn (Hanbal engages in more interpretation and rational theological argument than is commonly acknowledged. Williams also shows that Ibn (Hanbal is fully an anthropomorphist
(mushabbih) who makes no effort to deny that the modality (kayf ) of Gods attributes can
be known. In this respect, Ibn Taymiyya does not follow Ibn (Hanbal.
151
Dar, 1:317. I$sfahniyya, 86, includes a much briefer demonstration of the a fortiori
argument in the Quran, citing only Q. 16:5862 and 30:28, which will figure also in the
following discussion.
152
Dar, 1:32.

theological jurisprudence

61

bones. Thus, the formation of living beings from decayed bones is a fortiori
possible, and the God who can create fire from a green tree is a fortiori able
to create life from dust.153
The second set of a fortiori arguments Ibn Taymiyya cites from the Quran
in Dar show Gods freedom from associates. These arguments are of two
kinds. In the first, the belief of pre-Islamic idolaters that God had daughters
while they themselves disliked having daughters is shown to be absurd. If
having daughters is judged to be an imperfection in the human sphere, God is
all the worthier of being exonerated from this imperfection. Following is one
of the quranic passages that the shaykh uses to illustrate this argument:
And they assign daughters to GodGlory be to Himand to themselves what
they desire. When one of them is given the news of a girl, his face becomes dark,
and he chokes inwardly. He hides himself from the people because of the evil
of the news that has been given him. Shall he keep her with dishonor or bury
her in the earth? Certainly, evil is their decision. For those who do not believe
in the hereafter is a similitude of evil, and for God is the highest similitude.
And He is All-Mighty, All Wise . . . They assign to God what they hate, and
their tongues assert the lie that better things will be theirs. Without doubt,
theirs will be the Fire, and they will be hastened into [it] (Q. 16:5762).

Ibn Taymiyya concludes from this passage and two others (Q. 43:169 and
53:1923) that God has made it obvious that He is far worthier of being
exonerated of imperfections than humans. It is not permissible for humans
to attribute to God what they hate to attribute to themselves.154 This is
apparently so even when the value system sustaining the argumentdislike of daughters and female infanticideis denounced in the process of
argumentation.
The same point lies behind a second kind of quranic argument showing
Gods a fortiori freedom from associates. Ibn Taymiyya cites the verse, He
set forth a similitude for you from yourselves. Do you have, among what
your right hands own, associates in what we have provided for you so that
you are equal with regard to it, you fearing them as you fear each other?
(Q. 30:28). According to the shaykh, God is here explaining that humans
do not permit what they own, that is, their slaves, to be associates with them
in their property such that they would fear their slaves as they fear their
peers. Then, God is asking humans how they could make His slaves and
His creatures associates with Him. The implication is that God is a fortiori

153
154

Dar, 1:315.
Dar, 1:357.

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worthy of being exonerated of associates that humans do not permit even

for themselves.155
With the above examples, Ibn Taymiyya shows that the type of theological argumentation found in the Quran is a fortiori and that this establishes
the permissibility of arguing in this mode in theological matters. In the
shaykhs view, the a fortiori argument preserves the unlikeness between God
and creatures which univocal use of analogy and syllogism fails to respect.
Moreover, the last two arguments cited aboveGods a fortiori right not
to have daughters and associatesillustrate the principle that God must be
given the highest similitude. That is, the Quran stipulates that God has an
a fortiori right to be ascribed with perfections found in creatures and exonerated of all creaturely imperfections. This style of reasoning guarantees that
God is spoken well of and in praiseworthy fashion without making Him
like creatures.
Affirming Gods Attributes of Perfection and Praiseworthiness
Ibn Taymiyya maintains that Gods perfection (kaml) is known by reason
and the natural constitution on the one hand and revealed tradition on the
other.156 He combines arguments from both streams in his lengthy fatwa
Akmaliyya, which also provides a fairly complete overview of Gods attributes
of perfection. Much, but not all, of what follows here comes from this fatwa.
Although the philosophical term perfection is not used with reference to
Gods attributes in the Quran, Ibn Taymiyya claims that the Quran indicates its meaning in mentioning Gods praiseworthiness, in giving God the
highest similitude (Q. 16:60), and in establishing Gods names. The shaykh
also reports that the Quran exegete Ibn Abbs interpreted the divine name
Self-Subsistent (al-!Samad) found in Surat al-Ikhl$s (Q. 112) to mean that
God has the right to perfection.157
Some of the shaykhs quranic support for Gods perfection has already
been cited above as examples of the a fortiori argument (Q. 16:5762 and Q.
30:28). A few more examples follow here. The verse, Is then He who creates
as one who does not create? Do you not remember? (Q. 16:17), shows that
creating is an attribute of perfection and that the Creator is better than the
creature. Another verse illustrates that being an impotent slave is an attribute
Dar, 1:37.
Akmaliyya, MF 6:713; and Jawb, 3:220.
157
Akmaliyya, MF 6:713. Cf. Nuzl, 5:229. On the name al-!Samad see also Ikhl$s, MF
17:214221; and Irda, MF 8:149150.
155
156

theological jurisprudence

63

of imperfection while power, sovereignty and beneficence are attributes of

perfection: God propounded a similitude: a servant owned by another who
has no power to do anything and one to whom We have provided a good
provision from Us and who spends from it secretly and openly. Are they
equal? Praise belongs to God, but most of them know not (Q. 16:75). Ibn
Taymiyya also cites Abrahams question to his father, O my father! Why
do you worship that which does not hear, does not see and cannot avail you
anything? (Q. 19:42), to show that hearing, seeing and availing are attributes
of perfection and to illustrate that the Quran often describes idols as devoid
of perfections such as speech, life, action and so forth.158
In addition to the Quran, Ibn Taymiyya bases the attributes of perfection in reason and the natural constitution. He says that it is known by the
natural constitution necessarily that God is more perfect than anything else
just as it is known that He is the Creator.159 Similarly, the shaykh argues
that Gods right to perfections that are completely devoid of imperfection,
as well as His right to freedom from all imperfection, is known by reason
necessarily and in the bases of intellects ( f bidyat al-uql). He grounds
this in two separate but related principles. First is causal priority. A cause is
known necessarily to be more perfect than the effect; the Creator is more
perfect than the creature; the Eternal is more perfect than the temporal;
and the Necessary Existent is more perfect than the possible that is susceptible to nonexistence. Second, God is the source of all perfections found in
creatures. God is the Creator of every existent belonging to the creature,
and creatures derive (istafda) all of their perfections from their Lord and
Creator. An imperfect creature cannot create a perfect existent, and so all
perfection must ultimately depend upon God. On both grounds, God is a
fortiori worthy of all perfections found in creatures. The Creator is all the
worthier of any perfection found in the creature because He is more perfect
than the creature and because He is the very source of the creatures perfection. As Ibn Taymiyya sees it, creatures are worthier of the imperfections of
nonexistence, possibility and origination.160
Ibn Taymiyya makes extensive use of the disjunctive reasoning indigenous
to Kalm theology to establish the various attributes of perfection rationally.
Accordingly, diverse attributes must be ascribed to God because the contraries would render Him imperfect. For example, the shaykh says that reason

158
159
160

Akmaliyya, MF 6:723, 7982.

Akmaliyya, MF 6:723; and I$sfahniyya, 878.
Dar, 1:2930; I$sfahniyya, 856; Akmaliyya, MF 6:757; and Jawb, 3:2156.

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knows necessarily that hearing and sight are attributes of perfection because
a living being who can see and hear is more perfect than one who cannot.
Similarly, one who is living and knowing is more perfect than one who is not.
Moreover, God must be qualified as hearing and seeing lest He be imperfect
and dependent upon another. If God were not qualified with hearing and
seeing, hearing and seeing creatures would be more perfect than He is, and
He would not be worthy of worship.161 In another example the same logic
applies to Gods life. If God were not qualified with life, an attribute to which
He has an essential right, he would be dead, and living creatures would be
more perfect than He would be.162 The following text provides a reasonably
comprehensive sample of such disjunctive reasoning:
If [God] were not living, knowing, hearing, seeing and speaking, it would
necessarily follow that He is dead, ignorant, deaf, blind and mute. He must be
exonerated of these imperfections. Indeed, HeGlory be to Himhas created
whoever is living, hearing, seeing, speaking, knowing, powerful and moving
(muta!harrik). So, He is all the worthier to be like that. Indeed, every perfection
in a caused, created thing is from the perfection of the Creator.163

While Kalm theologians often prove Gods attributes in like fashion, they
would not include movement as we find in this text. They would typically
reinterpret this and other alleged anthropomorphisms such as Gods descending and coming that appear in the Quran and the Sunna. Ibn Taymiyya
however argues that if God could not move He would be inferior even to
inanimate objects. Such objects are at least subject to being moved by another.
Moreover, if God could move but did not, then He would be inferior to
objects that do move on their own initiative. Rather, a living being is moving and active by itself.164
Ibn Taymiyya also provides arguments to prove and explain the perfection
of Gods other seemingly anthropomorphic attributes. For example, God is
qualified with laughter to exclude crying and with joy to exclude sadness.
Crying and sadness entail weakness and impotence that are not fitting for
God.165 Joy also appears in another argument. One who loves, rejoices and is
well pleased with attributes of perfection and who hates imperfection such
as injustice and ignorance is more perfect than one who does not differentiate between perfection and imperfection. Thus, love, joy, good pleasure and
161
162
163
164
165

I$sfahniyya, 85, 878.

Jawb, 3:2089, 211.
Qudra, MF 8:21. For similar argumentation, see Jawb, 3:217.
Qudra, MF 8:224.
Tadmuriyya, MF 3:867.

theological jurisprudence

65

hate are among Gods attributes of perfection. One who has power to act
by his hands is more perfect than one who does not because the former can
choose to act with his hands or through some other means whereas the latter
does not have the option of using his hands. By implication, Gods hands
are among His attributes of perfection.166
Exonerating God of certain imperfections poses slightly more difficulty for
Ibn Taymiyya. He admits that it is true that living beings that eat and drink
are more perfect than those that are sick and do not eat and drink. This is
because their sustenance depends upon eating and drinking. Nonetheless,
the creaturely perfections of eating and drinking are not completely free of
imperfection because they imply need, that is, need for food and drink. Now,
one who does not need to take anything into himself and is not dependent
on something outside himself is more perfect than one whose perfection
consists in eating and drinking. Thus, eating and drinking are not among
Gods attributes of perfection.167 Ibn Taymiyya argues that even the angels
do not eat and drink. Thus, God a fortiori does not eat and drink since God
is all the worthier of whatever perfections are found in creatures, in this
case the angels. Moreover, the shaykh adds, Gods not eating and drinking
is confirmed by the revealed tradition through Gods name Self-Subsistent
(al-!Samad).168
Ibn Taymiyya also asserts that the perfection of Gods attributes entails
their unlikeness to created things: [God] is qualified by every attribute of
perfection such that no one bears any likeness to Him in it.169 Paradoxically, this means that God must be qualified with the highest conceivable
perfection and that the perfection of that perfection is to be completely
unlike any created thing. In his Tadmuriyya creed, the shaykh supports the
unlikeness of Gods attributes with a number of a fortiori arguments rooted
in his thoroughgoing nominalism and rejection of real universals.
In one of these arguments, Ibn Taymiyya observes that the revealed sources
describe numerous things in Paradise such as foods, clothes, dwellings, marriage and so on. To this he adds a saying of Ibn Abbs, There is nothing in
this world that is in Paradise except the names.170 Ibn Taymiyya then argues
that, if there is such a great distinction between the realities of Paradise and

166
167
168
169
170

Akmaliyya, MF 6:923.
Akmaliyya, MF 6:87.
Tadmuriyya, MF 3:86.
Tadmuriyya, MF 3:74.
Tadmuriyya, MF 3:28.

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the realities of this world such that they share only the names given them,
the distinction between God and created things must be even greater.171
In a second argument, Ibn Taymiyya outlines the difficulty of pinning
down what it means for the human spirit (r!h) to be powerful, hearing,
ascending at death and so on. Although we qualify the spirit with such
attributes, we cannot investigate its modality because we cannot see it. Thus,
the shaykh concludes, If the spirit is qualified with these attributes, but
without their likeness to what is seen of created things, then the Creator is
all the worthier of His distinction from His creatures while being qualified
with His names and attributes that He deserves.172
In a third argument from Tadmuriyya, Ibn Taymiyya states, If the creature
is exonerated of likeness to [another] creature despite concordance in name,
then the Creator is all the worthier of being exonerated from likeness to a
creature even if there is concordance in name.173 It may appear gratuitous
to presuppose that creatures bear no likeness (mumthala) one to another
except in name. This is not explained in its context in Tadmuriyya, but it
fits with Ibn Taymiyyas thoroughgoing rejection of the extramental status
of universals.174
Although Ibn Taymiyya maintains that the modalities of Gods attributes
are completely unlike those of creatures except for the names, he occasionally
ascribes a certain religious function to Gods attributes and acts by claiming
that a God without this or that attribute or act is not worthy of worship
(ibda) or praise (!hamd). As noted in passing above, for example, Ibn Taymiyya maintains that a God who cannot see and hear is not worthy of worship.
Similarly, he writes, It is firmly established in natural constitutions that that
which does not hear, see or speak is not a lord who is worshipped. Similarly,
that which does not avail anything, does not guide and does not possess any
harm or benefit is not a lord who is worshipped.175 Elsewhere, the shaykh
argues that a God who does not love has no right to be worshipped, and in
the theodicean text H
( asana he states that a God who does not act with mercy
and wise purpose is not worthy of praise.176 Such assertions may suggest that
God should be praised and worshipped on account of His attributes and
acts. To draw this conclusion however would be misleading.

171
172
173
174
175
176

Tadmuriyya, MF 3:28. Cf. Ikhl$s, MF 17:3256 and (Hamawiyya, MF 5:115.

Tadmuriyya, MF 3:33. Cf. (Hamawiyya, MF 5:1156.
Tadmuriyya, MF 3:30.
On this see Hallaq, Ibn Taymiyya against the Greek Logicians, xxii.
I$sfahniyya, 87.
Alaq, MF 16:2967; and (Hasana, MF 14:313.

theological jurisprudence

67

In Akmaliyya, Ibn Taymiyya explains the religious function of Gods

attributes more fully. He observes that Gods attributes of perfection are not
mentioned in the Quran merely to counter those who strip them away (ahl
al-ta$tl ). It also enumerates them to show Gods right to worship, especially
against the associationists (mushrikn): GodGlory be to Himdid not
mention these texts only to confirm the attributes of perfection for Him.
Rather, He mentioned them to make evident (li-bayn) that He has the right
to worship apart from any other.177 The shaykh further notes that there are
two kinds of praise (!hamd) due to God:
Praise is of two kinds: [1] praise for His beneficence to His servants, which
belongs to giving thanks; and [2] praise for that to which He has a right in
Himself (bi-nafsihi) with respect to the attributes of His perfection. This praise
is only for what He in Himself has a right to praise. Only one who is ascribed
with attributes of perfection, which are existing things (umr wujdiyya), has
a right to that. There is no praise, good or perfection in purely nonexisting
things.178

With this, it becomes clear that God is praised not only for what He does
but also for who He is in His very self (nafs), and, as indicated in the text,
Ibn Taymiyya links Gods attributes very intimately to Gods self or essence
(dht). He explains later in Akmaliyya that a perfect essence without attributes of perfection is impossible and that it is known necessarily that an
essence ascribed with such attributes is more perfect than one without. These
attributes are necessary concomitants (lawzim) of Gods essence, without
which the essence would not exist. Thus, mentioning Gods attributes of
perfection is tantamount to mentioning His essence.179 In Akmaliyya, Ibn
Taymiyya is not as clear as he could be that worship and praise of God for
His essence and the concomitant attributes of perfection takes priority over
praise of God for His acts, but as we have seen earlier in this chapter, Gods
divinityGods right to worship in Himselftakes precedence over Gods
lordship and acts. God should be worshipped first for who He is and only
secondarily for what He does, and the role of Gods attributes of perfection
is to make evident Gods essential right to praise and worship. This religious
function of Gods attributes increases the gravity of Ibn Taymiyyas juridical
search for the best way to speak about God.
Akmaliyya, MF 6:83.
Akmaliyya, MF 6:84.
179
Akmaliyya, MF 6:957. For other assertions of the necessary concomitance of Gods
attributes with His essence, see (Hamawiyya, MF 5:26; MF 5:206; Nuzl, MF 5:326; MF
12:46; and I$sfahniyya, 49.
177
178

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chapter one
The Apologetic Quality of Ibn Taymiyyas Theological Jurisprudence

We are now in position to characterize Ibn Taymiyyas theological fiqh more

precisely. For the shaykh, both reason and revelation yield knowledge of Gods
existence and basic human ethical ends, especially that God alone should be
worshipped. One aspect of worship is speaking correctly about God, and
the task of Ibn Taymiyyas theological jurisprudence is to ascertain how to
do this. The shaykh explains that both reason and revelation specify that
God is ascribed with attributes of perfection and praiseworthiness. As for
revelation, the Quran and the Hadith indicate Gods attributes; the views
of early Quran exegetes and the conventions of the Arabic language delineate the linguistic meanings of these attributes; and similitudes are used to
suggest possible resolution of rational difficulties that may arise. Moreover,
Gods attributes are ontologically real, but on the basis of There is nothing
like Him (Q. 42:11) their modalities are entirely unknown. As for reason,
Ibn Taymiyya employs a fortiori argumentation to build a kind of natural
theology that takes human perfection as its point of departure for defining
Gods perfection while exonerating God of neediness and creaturely modalities. As the shaykh sees it, this is likewise the kind of theological reasoning
found in the Quran, finding specific support in the verse, To God is the
highest similitude (al-mathal al-al) (Q. 16:60).
Although Ibn Taymiyya claims that independent reason or the natural
constitution, exercised without corrupting influences, will arrive at correct
theological doctrine, it is perhaps going too far, as I do above, to speak of
the shaykh building a natural theology. Rather, it seems clear enough that
he is devising his rational arguments so as to arrive safely at theological doctrines held a priori on the basis of the authoritative tradition. With this in
mind, the methodology of Ibn Taymiyyas theological jurisprudence may be
characterized more analytically as a two step process. The first step is more
properly theological. The shaykh seeks to determine what should be said
about God from the Quran and the Hadith, and he employs philosophical
concepts or modelssimilitudesto elucidate the sense and coherence of
his ordinary language reading of these sources. The resulting theological
vision is that of a dynamic God who is far more engaged in the vicissitudes
of human life and the historical process than the God of the philosophers
and the Kalm theologians but who is in no way conflated with the created
world as the shaykh understands the God of Ibn Arab to be. This unique
concept of God provides the theological framework from within which Ibn
Taymiyya compares and critiques rival theologies.

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69

The second step is apologetic. Ibn Taymiyya makes and seeks to demonstrate the claim that his theological vision is that of both tradition and
reason, which agree and confirm each other. He attempts to show that his
reading of the Quran and the Hadith follows the intentions of the Salaf,
accords with the conventions of the Arabic language and ascribes to God
the highest praise and perfection. Likewise, he asserts that this doctrine is
known by independent reason properly exercised and that such reasoning
is the kind found within revelation. With this, the shaykh seeks to claim
the rational high ground over against the Kalm theologians and Muslim
philosophers on behalf of his tradition-based theological vision. He resists
intellectual currents that each in their own way drift toward elitism and
esotericism, either elevating reason over revelation on the one hand (Kalm
theologians and especially philosophers) or subordinating reason to mystical experience on the other (Ibn Arab). Thus, Ibn Taymiyya commends
his theological vision as both faithful to the revealed tradition and publicly
available to all right thinking people.
In short Ibn Taymiyyas juridical work on how to speak of God is theological in both the sense that it has to do with God and in the sense that it
seeks to explore the rationality and coherence of theological doctrine derived
from revelation. It is apologetic in that it makes a claim not only on those
who accept revelation fideistically but on all persons of sound intellect, even
those without access to revelation. Thus, Ibn Taymiyyas methodology may
be characterized most precisely, albeit awkwardly, as apologetic theological
jurisprudence.
The remainder of this study examines how Ibn Taymiyya interprets Islamic
doctrine concerning the metaphysical and moral relationship between God
and His creatures and how he faces rational difficulties that arise concerning purposeful creation and Gods self-sufficiency, human responsibility and
Gods determination, and evil and Gods justice. Ibn Taymiyya could take
these diverse conundrums as keys to esoteric knowledge; or he could protest
that Gods ways with humankind appear unjust and irrational; or he could
abandon obedient worship of God altogether. But he does none of these. At
a number of points along the way, it becomes evident that his understanding
of Gods essential right to perfection and his apologetic aims impede giving
voice to paradox, protest or skepticism. In this light, Ibn Taymiyyas theodicy
comes into view as a valiant juristic effort to find the best way to give God
the highest praise in the face of seemingly intractable rational dilemmas.

CHAPTER TWO

GODS WISE PURPOSE, PERPETUAL ACTIVITY

AND SELF-SUFFICIENCY
The Problematic of Gods Goodness and Gods Self-Sufficiency
In order to safeguard Gods sufficiency apart from the world, Ashar Kalm
theologians deny that God wills to create the world on account of causes
or wise purposes. There is no reason why God created the world in time
out of nothing when He did, and God does not need the world to be God.
Mutazil Kalm theologians agree that God has no need for the world and
that He created the world ex nihilo. Nonetheless, the Mutazils try to affirm
a stronger sense of Gods goodness by introducing some kind of rationality
into creation. God created the world to benefit humankind, but Gods wise
purpose in creation has no impact on Him.
Ibn Taymiyya follows neither the Ashars nor the Mutazils on the issue
of Gods sufficiency apart from the created world. Instead, he affirms that
God creates for the sake wise purposes that God loves, and, to make sense
of this, he employs conceptual strategies found also in Ibn Sn. A review
of some of Ibn Sns basic ideas here will prepare the ground for further
consideration of Ibn Taymiyyas approach in the rest of the chapter.
Within Ibn Sns writings is found a view of Gods unchanging perfection not unlike that of the Kalm theologians. God is completely perfect
as He is. He is pure perfection, pure good and pure actuality. God has no
need, and there is no unrealized potentiality or possibility in God. God does
not change because change would entail imperfection in God.1 However,
Ibn Sn rejects the Kalm doctrine of creation ex nihilo and portrays the
creation of the world as an emanation proceeding necessarily from its First
Cause God. God is essentially productive, emanating the world as a necessary concomitant of His essence. The world is eternal because its Cause is

1
Ibn Sn, Al-Risla al-arshiyya f taw#hdihi tal wa s$ iftihi, in Majmu rasil al-Shaykh
al-Ras Ab Al al-(Husayn b.Abd Allh b. Sn al-Bukhr, (Haydarbd al-Dakkan: Ma$tbaat
jamiyyat dirat al-marif al-uthmniyya, 1354/19356), 5; Ibn Sn, Al-Mabda wa al-mad,
1011; Ibn Sn, Al-Shif: Al-Ilhiyyt (2), 356; and Ibn Sn, Al-Taliqt, ed. Abd al-R!hmn
Badaw (Cairo: Al-Haya al-mi$sriyya al-mma li-l-kitb, 1973), 21, 1023, 150.

Jon Hoover, 2007

This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/.

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71

eternal. Ibn Sn also rejects the Mutazil claim that God creates the world
for the good of creatures. God does not emanate the world out of concern
for the world itself, nor does God act for causes or purposes external to
Himself because that would entail change in God.2 Instead the emanation
of the world follows necessarily from the very essence of God. Ibn Sn puts
it this way: The emanation of things from [the Creator] is because of His
essence, not because of something external, and His essence is the cause of
order and good.3 Ibn Sn speaks about the origin of the world in a variety
of idioms. For example, he speaks of the Firsts (i.e. Gods) love (ishq) of
Itself: When the First loves Its essence because It is good and Its beloved
essence is the principle of existing things, then they emanate from It ordered
in the best order.4 Another idiom is the Firsts knowledge of Itself. The First
does not acquire knowledge from existing things but from Its essence, and Its
knowledge is then the cause of existing things: The First knows everything
from Its essence, not that existing things are a cause of Its knowledge, but
Its knowledge is a cause of them.5
Al-Ghazl takes Ibn Sn and his ilk to task for denying the agency and
will of God despite their claims that God is the Artisan and Agent of the
world.6 While Ibn Sn does speak of God willing and choosing to create
the world, he does so only in a certain sense. The philosopher equates Gods
will (irda) with Gods knowledge or Gods providence and insists that Gods
will is not subject to purpose in the Mutazil sense.7 Rather, Gods choice is
conformity with His essence:
In the choice (ikhtiyr) of the First, no motive motivates It to [exercise] that
[choice] other than Its essence and Its goodness. It does not have choice
potentially and then become one who chooses actually. Rather, It has been
eternally choosing in actuality. Its meaning is that It does not choose other
than what It does.8

2
Ibn Sn, Al-Ishrt wa al-tanbht, 3:147151; Ibn Sn, Al-Taliqt, 16, 5354, 159;
and Ibn Sn, Al-Mabda wa al-mad, 33.
3
Ibn Sn, Al-Taliqt, 159.
4
Ibn Sn, Al-Taliqt, 157.
5
Ibn Sn, Al-Taliqt, 192. Cf. Ibn Sn, Al-Risla al-arshiyya, 9.
6
Al-Ghazl, The Incoherence of the Philosophers, Arabic ed. of Tahfut al-falsifa and
trans., Michael E. Marmura (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1997), 5678
(Third Question).
7
Ibn Sn, Al-Shif: Al-Ilhiyyt (2), 3667; Ibn Sn, Al-Risla al-arshiyya, 1011; Ibn
Sn, Al-Mabda wa al-mad, 2021; and Ibn Sn, Al-Taliqt, 19, 712, 80, 117.
8
Ibn Sn, Al-Taliqt, 5051.

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Here as with Gods knowledge and Gods love, any thought that God needs
the world as an arena in which to manifest His attributes or carry out His
will is eliminated by making Gods essence the first point of reference. Gods
self-referentiality is essential while the world that emanates eternally from
the essence is only accidental. As Ibn Sn puts it, [The First] loves Its
essence . . . and the order of the good is beloved to It accidentally (bi-l-ara#d ).9
God loves, wills, knows and chooses only Himself in the first instance. God
has no need of the world, and He does not love or will it directly. The world
only emanates from God as an accidental, but necessary, concomitant of
Gods self-love and self-willing.10
As will become apparent below, Ibn Taymiyya resolves the problem of
relating Gods self-sufficiency to Gods goodness in creating the world with
the notions of Gods self-love and Gods necessary, but accidental, creative
work in a fashion similar to that of Ibn Sn. However, the shaykh departs
substantially from Ibn Sin by rejecting emanation and giving a much stronger
and more dynamic role to Gods will.
Joseph Bell on Gods Wise Purpose and Self-Sufficiency in
Ibn Taymiyyas Theology
Joseph Bell gives extended attention to Ibn Taymiyyas theology of Gods
wise purpose and Gods sufficiency in his Love Theory in Later (Hanbalite
Islam. In line with the books title, Bells primary interest is Ibn Taymiyyas
doctrine of love, especially in dialogue with Ashar theology. The Ashars
maintain that God cannot love humans and humans cannot love God.
Otherwise, God would suffer need, and God would share some measure
of affinity with human beings. They also argue that the eternal God cannot be an object of human love because only a nonexistent or something
susceptible to nonexistence can be loved. Henri Laoust attributes this view
to Ibn Taymiyya as well, arguing that the shaykh taught love for Gods law

Ibn Sn, Al-Shif: Al-Ilhiyyt (2), 363.

For further exposition, see Rahim Acar, Talking about God and Talking about Creation:
Avicennas and Thomas Aquinas Positions (Leiden: Brill, 2005), 132149; which is nearly
identical to Rahim Acar, Avicennas Position Concerning the Basis of the Divine Creative
Action, The Muslim World 94 (2004): 6579. Ibn Sns view of Gods creation of the world
has often been portrayed as naturalisticlike fire burningrather than volitional. Acar shows
that this is inaccurate and interprets Ibn Sns view of creation along lines compatible with
what I present here.
9

10

gods wise purpose

73

and command but not love for God Himself in His essence or attributes.11
Bell corrects this and shows how Ibn Taymiyya sets the Ashar arguments
aside to make room for his own doctrine that God loves human beings and
that human beings can and should worship and love God for Himself in
His essence, not merely for the blessing and reward that they might gain
from obeying Him.12
Additionally, Bell examines how Ibn Taymiyya relates Gods love to
Gods will, and this draws him into an analysis of the shaykhs theodicy. Ibn
Taymiyya rejects the Ashar theologian al-Juwayns reduction of Gods love
(ma!habba) and good pleasure to nothing more than Gods will in creating
all things, even unbelief and iniquity. The shaykh agrees with the Ashars
that God wills all that exists with His creative will (irda khalqiyya), but,
whereas al-Juwayn affirms that God loves even the unbelief and iniquity that
He creates, Ibn Taymiyya asserts that God hates these evils. What God loves
is the belief and obedience that correspond to His prescriptive or legislative
will (irda shariyya). God does create things that He hates, but He does this
only for the sake of a wise purpose (!hikma) that He loves.13 With this, Bell
observes, Ibn Taymiyya subordinates Gods will to Gods love, and, in the
shaykhs understanding, God may forgo creating something that He loves
in order to attain something else which is better. Thus, while God loves
what He wills humans to do in obedience to His law, he also loves the wise
purpose in everything that He wills to create.14
Probably due to his focus on love theory, Bell does not notice that Ibn
Taymiyya is often content to leave the explanation for evil at the level of
Gods wise purpose without going on to Gods love. He also does not mention
that Ibn Taymiyya uses other theological idioms to speak of the substance
of Gods creative and legislative wills. Both points will become apparent in
Chapter Three below. However, metaphysical difficulties in Ibn Taymiyyas
notion of wise purpose do prompt Bell to discuss Gods self-sufficiency.

Laoust, Essai, 471.

Bell, Love Theory, 4649, 7491. On worshipping God for His essence, see above
Chapter One, as well as below Chapter Three, where parallels are noted between Gods
divinity, His command and His very self, in which case perhaps Bell and Laoust are both
correct: loving Gods command is loving God in His essence.
13
Bell, Love Theory, 69, explains that !hikma is translated better as wise purpose than
as wisdom because it envisions some end or reason that is sought or loved. In addition to
evidence presented by Bell, the translation of !hikma as wise purpose is supported by the
fact that Ibn Taymiyya occasionally uses it synonymously with the term illa ghiyya (final
cause) denoting purpose and aim (see Irda, MF 8:88 and (Hasana, MF 14:299).
14
Bell, Love Theory, 5673.
11

12

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Bell correctly observes that Ibn Taymiyya employs the term !hikma to
give moral significance to the created world in the face of the Ashar denial
that God performs acts on account of causes, reasons or purposes. However,
he also argues that Ibn Taymiyya uses !hikma instead of ghara#d, a common
Mutazil term for purpose, in order to bypass the Ashar objection that
ghara#d implies need in God. According to Bell, the shaykh believes that God
wills and creates for a cause, reason or end but yet that God is definitely
not moved by a purpose. 15 Bells distinction is not sufficiently precise. While
it is true that Ibn Taymiyya prefers !hikma to ghara#d, Bell does not point
out that the shaykh still takes it upon himself to defend !hikma against the
same objections that the Ashars level against the Mutazil understanding
of ghara#d. It entails need in God, temporal origination (!hudth) in God,
and an infinite regress. Examination of Ibn Taymiyyas response to these
three Ashar charges will take up the bulk of the present chapter, and this
will show that Gods acts in his view are purposive in a stronger sense than
that held even by the Mutazils.
Bell falters because he misapprehends Ibn Taymiyyas reason for rejecting
ghara#d. In Minhj, from which Bell derives his argument, the shaykh understands !hikma and ghara#d to have identical senses, but he prefers to carry out
his discussion in terms of the former. Before responding to Ibn al-Mu$tahhar
al-(Hills claim that the Sunns believe that God has no ghara#d in his acts,
Ibn Taymiyya shifts the discussion to the equivalent !hikma: the ghara#d
which is the !hikma, and, for a ghara#d, that is, a !hikma.16 Then, he notes
that the rejection of purpose, whether under the name ghara#d or !hikma, is
limited only to a few Sunns such as al-Ashar and his followers. Rather,
Most Sunns establish wise purpose (!hikma) in the acts of GodExalted
is Heand that He acts to the profit and benefit of His servants.17 Ibn
Taymiyya explains elsewhere in Minhj why he prefers !hikma to ghara#d.
Those who affirm !hikma but reject ghara#d do not use ghara#d with respect
to God because it may connote injustice and need in common usage. The
shaykh continues, When people say, So-and-so did that for a ghara#d , and,
So-and-so has a ghara#d toward someone, they often mean by this some
blameworthy intention such as injustice, abomination, etc.18 Thus, the

Bell, Love Theory, 69.

Al-(Hills comment is as quoted in Minhj, 3:7/1:2645. The two cases in which Ibn
Taymiyya shifts from ghara#d to !hikma are found in Minhj, 3:14/1:266.
17
Minhj, 3:14/1:266. Al-(Hill himself, as quoted in Minhj, 1:125/1:30 and 1:454/1:126,
uses !hikma as a synonym for ghara#d, as does Ibn Taymiyya in Nubuwwt, 143.
18
Minhj, 2:314/1:215. Cf. Minhj, 1:455/1:126.
15
16

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75

shaykh eschews ghara#d not to avoid purpose in Gods acts but only to avoid
the negative connotations ghara#d may carry in ordinary speech. This sort of
linguistic analysis is identical to what Bell observes in Ibn Taymiyyas rejection
of the term ishq (passionate love). The shaykh believes that ishq could be
applied to divine love but should not be because it may carry connotations
of excessive passion and earthly pleasure. Moreover, ishq need not be used
because it is not found in revelation.19
Although momentarily sidetracked claiming that Ibn Taymiyyas God
is not moved by a purpose, Bell does observe that the shaykh still has a
problem with Gods sufficiency when engaging the Mutazils. For the latter, God acts for a reason or a purpose that benefits humankind, not God
Himself. Ibn Taymiyya retorts in Irda that this is irrational. Some measure
of pleasure, reward or praise returns to the agent for the wise purpose in his
act.20 But does this not imply a God who acts out of need? Bell argues that
the shaykh solves this problemor rather evades itwith Gods love of His
wise purpose. He states, Having asserted that the relationship between God
and his !hikma was one of love, Ibn Taymya felt himself unobliged to deal
with the problem of a need or a lack on the part of God which the concept
of !hikma might otherwise have entailed.21 Drawing on Minhj and Irda,
Bell explains that Ibn Taymiyya takes refuge in the Neoplatonic notion of
Gods self-love employed by medieval Sufiswe may add Ibn Snand
that the shaykh often expresses this in his own idiom as Gods self-praise.
Gods self-love and self-praise far outstrip His love for creatures and their
love and praise of Him, and this renders Him completely sufficient apart
from them.22
This is not quite the whole story. Contrary to what Bell might have lead
us to believe earlier, Ibn Taymiyya does respond to the Ashar objection that
!hikma implies need in God, and, as we will see below, he does so by shifting
the meaning of Gods sufficiency (ghin) from Gods essential indifference
to the worldthe Kalm viewto Gods lack of need for help in creation.
Bell does in fact note this in an overly concise final paragraph on the topic
of Gods sufficiency. Drawing again on Irda, he explains that Ibn Taymiyyas
God is free of want and deficiency because everything worthy of love in
his creatures is Gods own work. Bell then concludes that creation does not
Bell, Love Theory, 81. Cf. Ma!habba, 528.
Irda, MF 8:8990, as discussed in Bell, Love Theory, 6970.
21
Bell, Love Theory, 71.
22
Bell, Love Theory, 712, based on Minhj, 5:408/3:1012 and Irda, MRK 1:374,
which is equivalent to MF 8:144.
19

20

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arise from need in God but from the natural and logical outworking of
Gods attributesespecially lovethrough Gods acts.23 Since natural and
logical imply necessity, is then creation necessary and even eternal for Ibn
Taymiyya? This question Bell does not answer.
Although halting at times, Bell breaks important new ground and is accurate in his basic intuitions. His difficulties derive from failing to bring out
two key concepts in Ibn Taymiyyas theology. First, as Bell begins to perceive
in the remark just noted, the shaykh agrees with the Neoplatonism of Ibn
Sn that God is essentially productive. Second, Ibn Taymiyya easily dispenses
with creation as eternal emanation because he reconfigures the nature of
Gods essence. For both Ibn Sn and the Kalm theologians, timeless and
unchanging eternity is what ultimately characterizes the perfection of God.
Ibn Taymiyya breaks with this mainstay of the Greek and Islamic intellectual
traditions and envisions Gods essential perfection as perpetual dynamism.
Purposive activity is of the very essence of GodGod is indeed moved by
purposes, but purposes that are His ownand God has been creating for
wise purposes from eternity. At the level of creation itself, nothing created
is eternal, but there have always been created things of one sort or another.
What follows below is closer analysis of relevant material in Irda, Minhj
and a few other texts showing how Ibn Taymiyya works out this theological vision in response to Kalm, and especially Ashar, objections to wise
purpose in Gods acts.
Ibn Taymiyyas Classification of Views on Wise Purpose/Causality
in the Will of God
In the fatwa Irda, Ibn Taymiyya elaborates on Gods willing for a wise
purpose in response to an inquiry concerning causality (tall) in the will
of God. The fatwa inquiry outlines the metaphysical options concisely and
provides a useful entry into Ibn Taymiyyas typical classification of views on
this question:
Concerning the goodness (!husn) of the will (irda) of GodExalted is Hein
creating creatures and bringing forth the human race. Does He create for a
cause (illa) or for other than a cause? If it is said, not for a cause, He is
aimlessExalted is God above that. If it is said, For a cause, and if you say

23
Bell, Love Theory, 73, based on Irda, MRK 1:3756, which is equivalent to MF
8:1467.

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77

that it is pre-eternal, it follows necessarily that the effect is pre-eternal (lam

yazal).24 And if you say that it is originated (mu!hdatha), it follows necessarily
that it has a cause, but an endless chain is absurd.25

Ibn Taymiyya identifies the advocates of each metaphysical position mentioned in the inquiry as follows.26 Those who deny that God wills for a cause
are the Ashars and the %Zhirs, among them Ibn (Hazm (d. 456/1064). Ibn
Taymiyya identifies those who maintain that God acts for an eternal cause
entailing an eternal effect as the philosophers upholding the eternity of the
world. The shaykh then divides those who teach that God acts for an originating cause into two groups. First are the Mutazils who claim that the cause
or wise purpose is a created thing disjoined (munfa$sil ) from God, which
consists only in His beneficence to creatures and giving them opportunity
to earn reward. In this view, however, God Himself is indifferent to His wise
purpose: No judgment (!hukm) returns to Him from that.27 Second are
those who disagree with the Mutazils on this point: jurists, hadith scholars,
Sufs, Karrms and some philosophers. This latter group maintains that a
judgment from Gods act returns to Him and that He does what He does
for a wise purpose that He knows.28
A similar classification in the first volume of Minhj leaves out the philosophers, but identifies more adherents of the other views. Ibn Taymiyya
notes that the Islamic tradition is agreed that God is endowed with wisdom
(!hikma), but he points out that there is no agreement on what Gods wisdom
implies. Jahm b. S! afwn and the Ashars deny causality in the will of God, but
most Sunns uphold it, believing that God has a wise purpose in His creation
and His command. The shaykh adds that not only the Mutazils and Shs
following Mutazil theology adhere to this but also Sufis, hadith scholars
and the Karrms, as well as followers of each of the four Sunn schools
of law. Among the Shfis, he names Ab Al b. Ab Hurayra (d. 345/
956) and Ab Bakr al-Qaffl (d. 365/9756). Among the (Hanbals, he lists
Ab al-(Hasan al-Tamm (d. 371/982) and Ibn Aql, and he mentions that
Ab Yal sometimes upholds one position and sometimes the other. As in
24
I usually translate Arabic terms implying some dimension of eternity as follows: abad
(post-eternity), abad (post-eternal), azal (pre-eternity), azal (pre-eternal), qidam (eternity),
qadm (eternal), lam yazal (had been/has been/was . . . pre-eternal/from eternity). The literal
meaning of lam yazal is has not ceased . . . but this translation is avoided because it often
yields cumbersome double negatives in English.
25
Irda, MF 8:81.
26
Irda, MF 8:8393.
27
Irda, MF 8:89.
28
Irda, MF 8:93.

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Irda, Ibn Taymiyya sets the Mutazils and their Sh followers apart from
the rest of the Sunns because they hold the viewirrational in the shaykhs
eyesthat the cause is disjoined from God and God is indifferent to whether
it exists.29 For Ibn Taymiyya, the cause is not disjoined from God, and God
is not indifferent to His wise purposes. The shaykh elaborates the theology
that sustains these convictions in the course of refuting arguments for the
Ashar position, and to these arguments we now turn.
The Ashar Case against Causality in the Will of God: It Entails
Imperfection and Origination in God, as well as an Infinite Regress
In Irda Ibn Taymiyya sets out the Ashar case against causality and wise
purpose in Gods will as follows. First, causality in Gods will makes God
imperfect: If [God] created creation for a cause, He would be imperfect
without it and perfected (mustakmal ) by it.30 In Minhj Ibn Taymiyya
relates the same argument thus: Whoever acts for a cause is perfected by it,
because if the occurrence of the cause were not better than its nonexistence,
it would not be a cause. One who is perfected by another is imperfect in
himself. This is impossible for God.31 This form of the argument makes
explicit the premise that the cause allegedly perfecting God arises from outside God Himself. As we will see below, this argument does not undermine
Ibn Taymiyyas theology because he locates the cause within Gods essence
and reinterprets the meaning of Gods perfection and sufficiency.
The second objection reported by Ibn Taymiyya in Irda follows the
sequence of dilemmas outlined in the inquiry prompting the fatwa. For the
sake of argument, the Ashars admit the Avicennan proof for the eternity of
the world: If [the cause] is eternal, the eternity of the effect is necessary.32
Then, they pose a dilemma, the first horn of which reads, If it were said
that [God] acts for an eternal cause, it follows necessarily that no originating
events originate, but that is contrary to what is observed. Here our experience of temporal origination in this world is taken to preclude the eternity
of its cause. This is the primary argument Ibn Taymiyya himself employs

29
30
31
32

Minhj, 1:1416/1:345.
Irda, MF 8:83.
Minhj, 1:145/1:35.
Irda, MF 8:83.

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against the philosophers, but it raises the question of how the eternal God
brings forth originating events in time.33
The second horn of the dilemma states, If it is said that [God] acts for an
originating cause, two prohibited things follow necessarily. The first prohibited thing mentioned in Irda is that God becomes a substrate (ma!hall )
for originating events (!hawdith).34 In Minhj Ibn Taymiyya reports how
the Mutazils evade this with their doctrine that God acts for a cause that
is disjoined from His essence. However, the Ashars counter that this cause
must have some impact on God. Otherwise, it would not be a cause. If then
it is disjoined from Godas the Mutazils sayHis acting for its sake
implies that the causewhich is something outside of Himselfperfects
Him. Conversely, if the cause is subsisting in Him (qim bihi), the Ashars
argue, it necessarily follows that He is a substrate for originating events,35 in
which case God becomes subject to temporal origination. As Ibn Taymiyya
notes, the Mutazils do not believe that the cause has any impact on God.
God is indifferent in Himself to whether the cause brings something into
existence or not.36
Ibn Taymiyya sets out the two horns of this dilemma posed by the Ashars
somewhat differently in Irda: [1] If the cause is disjoined from Him, and if
no judgment (!hukm) returns to Him from it, its existence will not be worthier
of Him than its nonexistence. [2] If it is supposed that a judgment returns
to Him from it, that [judgment] is originating, and thus originating events
subsist in Him.37 Below it will become clear that Ibn Taymiyya adopts the
second horn of the dilemma as his own view, although he prefers to speak
not of originating events subsisting in Gods essence but rather, equivalently,
of Gods voluntary acts.
In Irda the second prohibited thing ensuing from originating causality
in Gods acts is an endless chain or infinite regress (tasalsul). As the Ashars
see it, a cause precipitating Gods act must itself be originated and so requires
an originated cause of its own, and so on ad infinitum in an endless chain

33
Irda, MF 8:84. Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz recounts this argument in Arban, 78; and in
Al-Ma$tlib al-liyya min al-ilm al-ilh, ed. A!hmad (Hijz al-Saq, 9 parts in 5 vols (Beirut: Dr al-kitb al-arab, 1407/1987), 4:556. The latter text is discussed in Muammer
skenderolu, Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz and Thomas Aquinas on the Question of the Eternity of
the World (Leiden: Brill, 2002), 801.
34
Irda, MF 8:84.
35
Minhj, 1:145/1:35.
36
Minhj, 1:145/1:35.
37
Irda, MF 8:84.

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of originating events.38 The impossibility of an infinite regress is also a key

argument in the Kalm arsenal against the eternity of the world doctrine
held by philosophers like Ibn Sn. For this reason, Ibn Taymiyya gives
considerable attention to the doctrine of creation when discussing causality
in the will of God.39
Exposition of Ibn Taymiyyas responses to these Ashar arguments will
be in reverse order of the latters presentation here. Thus, we begin with his
rejoinder to the Ashar contention that causality in Gods will leads to an
endless chain and then move to his replies to the charges that this involves
originating events in the essence of God and Gods imperfection.
Ibn Taymiyyas Case for a God Who Acts Perpetually for Wise
Purposes and Creates from Eternity
In the edited version of Minhj, Ibn Taymiyyas response to the Ashar objection that wise purpose in Gods will entails an endless chain or infinite regress
takes up over 270 pages of the first volume.40 As this treatment far exceeds
any other in length and detail, it constitutes my primary source. By the same
token, however, this is not the place for an exhaustive account of this long
passage, and I will thus highlight only its main arguments. Ibn Taymiyya first
explains very briefly that the sequence of Gods wise purposes constitutes an
endless chain of originating events into the future, not into the past:
When [God] performs an act for a wise purpose, the wise purpose obtains after
the act. When from this wise purpose another wise purpose is sought after it,
this is an endless chain into the future. This wise purpose which has occurred
is beloved to Him, and it is a cause of a second wise purpose. HeGlory be
to Himdoes not cease originating, with respect to wise purposes, what He
loves and making it a cause of what He loves.41

Here Ibn Taymiyya gives wise purpose the sense of the fully realized objective
or final cause for which acts are carried out, and he momentarily bypasses
Irda, MF 8:84. Cf. Minhj, 1:145/1:35.
In what follows, I leave aside Ibn Taymiyyas many writings on God and creation
that do not fall within treatments of causality in Gods will. See for example Dar, passim;
Nubuwwt, 7192; !Safadiyya, passim; and Imrn, MF 18:210243, which is translated in
Hoover, Perpetual Creativity, 300329. For overviews of medieval Islamic arguments for
and against creation ex nihilo and the eternity of the world, see the works of Davidson, Proofs
for Eternity, and skenderolu, Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz.
40
Minhj, 1:146420/1:35117.
41
Minhj, 1:146/1:356. Cf. MF 8:380.
38

39

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the fact that the wise purpose had a prior existence as an intention in the
mind of God. The shaykh reasons that there should be no objection to an
endless chain in the future because the great majority of Muslims and even
non-Muslims believe that Paradise and the Fire will be perpetual.42 After this,
Ibn Taymiyyas turns in Minhj to the question of an endless chain into the
past. He first sets out the position that he will defend:
[God] has been active from eternity when He willed with acts that subsist in
His self by His power and His will one after another. . . . He has been speaking
from eternity by His will, and He has been acting from eternity by His will
one thing after another . . . Everything other than God is originated, created
[and came into] being after it was not. In the world, there is nothing eternal
accompanying God.43

The question of Gods acts subsisting within Him will be taken up later. First,
however, we are concerned with Ibn Taymiyyas claim that Gods creative
activity extends back in time to pre-eternity while no one created thing has
existed from eternity. To make intellectual space for this vision of God and
creation, Ibn Taymiyya must refute both Kalm arguments for creation ex
nihilo and philosophical arguments for the worlds eternity.
The Philosophers Argument that God Is an Eternal Cause Implies that
Nothing Originates
The first of the philosophers arguments that Ibn Taymiyya addresses in
Minhj was noted when discussing Ashar arguments above. As the philosophers see it, the Creator is a complete cause (illa tmma) necessitating in
His essence and necessarily entailing His effect (mall), that is, the world,
without a delay in time. Thus, the world is the eternal effect of God.44 For
Ibn Taymiyya, however, an eternal complete cause entirely precludes any
kind of origination in time, which manifestly contradicts human experience
of temporal origination:
Temporally originating events are observed in the world. If the Artisan were
necessitating by His essence [and] a complete cause necessarily entailing its

Minhj, 1:146/1:36.
Minhj, 1:1478/1:36. For Ibn Taymiyyas understanding of Gods speech, see Hoover,
Perpetual Creativity, 2969.
44
Minhj, 1:148/1:36; and Irda, MF 8:85. This argument goes back to the fifth century
Neoplatonist Proclus who maintains that creation would involve change or prior imperfection in the cause of the world. See Davidson, Proofs for Eternity, 5667, for proofs of this
kind from Proclus to Aquinas.
42
43

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effect, not one originating event would originate in existence since it is impossible for what originates to emanate from a pre-eternal, complete cause. If the
world had been eternal, its Creator would have been a complete cause. Nothing of the effect of a complete cause comes after it. So, it follows necessarily
from that that nothing originates in the world. Therefore, the origination of
events is a proof that their Agent is not a complete cause in pre-eternity, and,
when the complete cause in pre-eternity is disproved, holding to the eternity
of part of the world is vain.45

Under the conviction that nothing temporal can originate from the eternal,
Ibn Taymiyya expends much effort to show that the philosophers attempts
to arrive at temporal origination by way of intermediaries fails. He reports
that the philosophers themselves do not say that events arise out of a preeternal complete cause. All agree that a complete cause necessarily entails
its effect without any delay between the cause and the effect and that the
cause of an originating event only becomes complete or decisive at the very
instant that the event comes into existence. Rather, the philosophershere
he mentions Ibn Sn explicitlyexplain that God is the pre-eternal complete cause of the eternal elements of the world such as the celestial spheres
(aflk). The eternal motion of the spheres is then the source of the change
that occurs in the world by functioning as the cause of receptacles (qawbil)
and preparednesses (istiddt) that regulate the perpetual emanation of the
First Cause.46
Ibn Taymiyya does not accept such explanations of how change and
motion arise in the world. He maintains that it is incongruous for any events
whatsoever to originate from an eternal complete cause, whether directly or
indirectly. When originating events such as the receptacles are traced to God,
it implies that God is not the eternal complete cause of them. Conversely, if
God is the eternal complete cause for any so-called originating events, these
events must be either eternal or nonexistent. God as an eternal complete cause
ultimately implies the nonexistence of originating events or the eternity of
originating events, and both of them oppose what is observed.47 The shaykh
concludes that the philosophers posit motion arising out of nothing. Since
the motion of the celestial spheres, which is the cause of all other motion,
cannot arise from a pre-eternal complete cause, the spheres must be moving
of their own accord. Ibn Taymiyya rejects this as inadequate, and he asserts

45
46
47

Minhj, 1:148/1:36.
Minhj, 1:3368/1:923; and Minhj, 1:1827/1:457.
Minhj, 1:344/1:95.

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that there must be something above the celestial spheres necessitating their
motion.48
The Philosophers Argue Correctly that the Kalm Theologians Posit
Temporal Origination without a Cause
A second proof for the eternity of the world that Ibn Taymiyya attributes
to the philosophers, and to Ibn Sn in particular, reduces the Kalm view
that God created the world ex nihilo to absurdity.49 In Minhj the shaykh
presents the proof as follows:
The philosophers support for the eternity of the world is their view that the
[temporal] origination of originating events without an originating cause is
impossible. Positing an essence stripped (mua$tt$ al) of acting that was not acting
[but] then acted without an originating cause is impossible.50

Ibn Taymiyya denies that this argument proves the eternity of the world:
This view does not prove the eternity of any individual thing belonging
to the world, the celestial spheres and otherwise. It proves only that [God]
has been acting from eternity.51 Elsewhere in Minhj, he explains further:
All of what you [philosophers] and those like you mention proves only
the perpetuity (dawm) of action, not the perpetuity of an individual act
and not of an individual enacted thing.52 What this argument proves for
Ibn Taymiyya is only that God has been acting from eternity. Against the
philosophers, he denies that it implies the eternity of any particular part of
the world. The shaykh also points out that the philosophers argument for
the eternity of the world from an eternal complete cause falls afoul of the
very principle of origination that they use in the present proof against the
Kalm theologians. As noted in the previous subsection, the shaykh argues
that the philosophers cannot adequately explain the origin of movement in
the celestial spheres unless they permit the origination of events without a
temporally originating cause.53

48
Minhj, 1:3436/1:945. Cf. Minhj, 1:1505/1:378, 1:218/1:56, 1:323334/1:88
91; Irda, MF 8:867; and Nubuwwt, 132133.
49
Minhj, 1:154/1:38. For this argument in Ibn Sn, see al-Najh (Cairo: Ma$tbaat alsada, 1331/1913), 412422; and Al-Mabda wa al-mad, 46. For its history, see Davidson,
Proofs for Eternity, 516.
50
Minhj, 1:148/1:36.
51
Minhj, 1:1489/1:36.
52
Minhj, 1:351/1:97.
53
Minhj, 1:177/1:44.

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Beyond this, Ibn Taymiyya does agree with the philosophers that their
proof refutes the Kalm doctrine of creation ex nihilo. The shaykh attributes
the denial of Gods perpetual activity to the Mutazils, the Ashars, the
Karrms and the Shs, and he traces the foundation of this Kalm position to Jahm b. !Safwn and Ab al-Hudhayl al-Allf who presuppose that
originating events without a beginning are impossible and that the genus
of events must have had a beginning. Ibn Taymiyya argues that positing a
necessary beginning to the genus of temporally originating events renders
the origination of any events prior to the emergence of the whole genus
impossible. Since the genus of events has a beginning, no origination of
events could have occurred prior to this beginning. This raises the question
of how the genus of originating events itself became possible after having
been impossible. Ibn Taymiyya follows the philosophers in asserting that such
a transition was impossible unless a cause emerged to produce it. However,
this poses the problem of how a cause could originate before origination was
possible. For the shaykh, all of this ends in absurdities, and he concludes that
origination must have been possible from eternity since there could not have
been an origination of the possibility of origination.54
God Wills with an Infinite Regress of Willings
Ibn Taymiyya also casts this argument of the philosophers in terms of the
principle of preponderance. That is, every possibility requires a complete
preponderator (murajji!h tmm) that tips the scales in favor of its existence
over its nonexistence, and, in refutation of the Kalm doctrine of creation
ex nihilo, God cannot change from the impossibility of acting to the possibility of acting without a preponderator.55 According to the philosophers
and Ibn Taymiyya, the difficulty with the Kalm outlook is that the world
originates in time without a cause preponderating its origination. Al-Ghazl
responds to this problem in his Tahfut al-falsifa by giving the function
of preponderance to the eternal divine will. He argues that it is in the very
nature of Gods eternal will to have designated the time at which the world
originated. The world did not come into existence until the point at which
God in His eternal will had set, and He had not willed it to be created prior
to that.56 Ibn Taymiyya rejects this, and, in the first volume of Minhj, he

54
55
56

Minhj, 1:155161/1:3840.
Minhj, 1:1612/1:40, 1:1956/1:49.
Al-Ghazl, The Incoherence of the Philosophers, 1526.

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85

asserts that al-Ghazl erred in adopting this Kalm position, that is, the
idea that one who is powerful and choosing preponderates one of his two
possibilities over the other without a preponderator.57
Ibn Taymiyya denies that an eternal will can give rise to temporal origination, and he asserts that it is impossible for God to will a concrete individual
in eternity.58 The shaykh argues that if God had an eternal will that applied
in general to all things, then everything would be eternal and nothing could
originate. This denies the origination and motion that we actually see, such
as the motions of the sun, moon, celestial bodies, wind, clouds, living beings
and plants. Rather, Gods willing of something to happen occurs at the time
that it happens.59
The dynamic quality of Gods will in Ibn Taymiyyas thought becomes
clearer in his criticism of the philosopher Ab al-Barakt al-Baghdd
(d. ca. 560/1165). The shaykh reports that Ab al-Barakt in his Mutabar
posits two divine wills: an eternal will to will what is eternalthe celestial
sphereand successive wills or newly arising willings (irdt mutajaddida)
subsisting in the essence of God to will successive originating events.60 The
shaykh first notes that an object of will is necessarily originated in time:
Something being willed necessarily entails its origination.61 What is eternal cannot be an object of Gods will. Thus, Ibn Taymiyya believes that it is
totally unnecessary to posit an eternal divine will because everything other
than God, including the celestial sphere, is originated.62 Originating events
may be accounted for adequately with successive willings: If it is permissible
that He has successive willings perpetual in species, it is not impossible that
everything other than Him originate by these willings.63
The shaykh elaborates a bit more elsewhere in the first volume of Minhj
on the operation of Gods will and power using the conceptual framework
of complete causality. His fundamental premise is that someone who wills
decisively to do something that he is able to do will necessarily produce the
act. Applied to God, Whatever God wills is, and whatever He does not
will is not. Truly, He is powerful over what He wills. With complete power

Minhj, 1:356/1:99. Cf. Irda, MF 8:1479.

Minhj, 1:165/1:41, 1:75/1:43.
59
Minhj, 1:2345/1:61 and 1:2968/1:801.
60
Minhj, 1:178/1:44, 1:219220/1:57, 1:338/1:93; Ab al-Barakt Hibat Allh b. Al
b. Malk al-Baghdd, Kitb al-mutabar f al-!hikma, 3 vols. (Hyderabad: Jamiyyat dirat
al-marif al-uthmniyya, 13578/19389), 3:164, cf. 3:45.
61
Minhj, 1:179/1:44.
62
Minhj, 1:1789/1:445, 1:219220/1:57.
63
Minhj, 1:179/1:445.
57
58

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(al-qudra al-tmma) and decisive will (al-masha al-jzima), the existence of

the act is necessary.64 God is the one Necessitating in His Essence (al-mjib
bi-l-dht), not in the philosophers sense of being an eternal complete cause,
but as necessitating what He originates by His will and His power.65
Ibn Taymiyyas notion of Gods decisive and necessitating willing as a
complete cause faces philosophical difficulties. By virtue of Ibn Taymiyyas
adherence to the principle of preponderance, each originating act of decisive
will must be activated by a prior originating cause that makes its existence
preponderate. The shaykh may say that Whatever God wills is, and whatever
He does not will is not, but there still must be a complete cause precipitating each act of willing. If we posit an infinite regress of decisive divine
wills and complete causes whose effects are immediately necessary, we may
inquire into the ground of this whole infinite regress. Is the series as a whole
self-preponderating just as Ibn Taymiyya believes the eternal motions of the
spheres to be for the philosophers? Or does it go back to a First Cause that
preponderates the existence of the series? If it does go back to a First Cause
which is eternal and complete, it would seem that the chain of complete
causes and decisive wills must lock up into a timeless series under the eternal
complete First Cause, which would yield the eternity of the world. As we
will see, the shaykh resists this conclusion by insisting that willed or created
things come into existence in time after they did not exist.
Ibn Taymiyya may not be able to evade the difficulty of explaining how
temporal origination arises without violating the principles of preponderance
and originating causality that he employs polemically against his adversaries.
What is significant, however, is that he locates the boundary between the
eternal and the temporal at a different point from either the Kalm theologians or the Neoplatonic Islamic philosophers. Whereas the latter explain
temporal events as the product of the eternal motion of the celestial spheres
and al-Ghazl explains them with Gods eternal and unchanging will whose
nature it is to preponderate in time, Ibn Taymiyya posits their source in an
infinite regress of divine willings within God. Although Ibn Taymiyya does
not say so explicitly, he places the boundary between time and eternity in
Gods very essence.

64
65

Minhj, 1:405/1:113.
Minhj, 1:164/1:41. Cf. Minhj, 1:404/1:113.

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God in His Perfection Acts, Wills and Creates from Eternity

To this point, the arguments surveyed have been largely deconstructive. Ibn
Taymiyya maintains that the eternal divine will of the Kalm theologians
and the eternal complete cause of the philosophers cannot explain the emergence of originating events. Every such argument founders on the shoal of
the principle of preponderance or originating causality. The alternative set
forth by Ibn Taymiyya is that God has been willing and acting from eternity,
with eternity here meaning not timelessness but time without beginning.
The shaykh also proves his position positively from the necessity of Gods
perfection.
Invoking considerations of Gods perfection discussed above in Chapter
One, Ibn Taymiyya first explains in Minhj that the Creator has a greater
right to perfections found in creatures than do the creatures themselves
because creatures derive their perfections from the Creator. Likewise, God
has an even greater right to be exonerated of imperfections from which
creatures exonerate themselves.66 With these principles in place, the shaykh
argues that activity is not neutral with respect to perfection because creating, which he takes here to be synonymous with acting, is better than not
creating. Moreover, in an obvious stab at the philosophers, Ibn Taymiyya
argues that one who performs successive acts is better than one who has
something conjoined to him from eternity:
[People from the Muslim, Jewish and Christian religious communities]67 say
also that acting is an attribute of perfection. They reply to the Kalm theologians who say that it is neither an attribute of perfection nor imperfection:
HeExalted is Hehas said, Is then He Who creates as one who does not
create? Will you not then remember? (Q. 16:17). That being the case, it is
reasonable that the agent who acts by his power and his will is more perfect than
one having no power and no will. The powerful, freely choosing (mukhtr) agent
who performs acts one after the other is more perfect than one the product of
whose act is necessarily concomitant with him [and who] is not powerful to
originate anything or to change anything from one state to another.68

Ibn Taymiyya also casts the latter part of the quoted argument into a contrast
between the whole species of acting and an individual eternal act. First, he

Minhj, 1:371/1:103. Cf. Minhj, 1:4178/1:116.

The antecedent of the third person plural pronoun hum beginning this sentence is found
a few pages earlier in Minhj, 1:367/1:102, at the beginning of a series of proofs against those
who believe in the eternity of the world.
68
Minhj, 1:3712/1:103. Cf. Minhj, 1:384/1:107.
66
67

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says that the eternity of the species of enacted things in the world is more
perfect than the eternity of one individual. Then, he argues that agency over
a species of things occurring successively is more perfect than agency over an
individual thing. He adds that the perpetuity of agency over an individual
thing is an unknown concept and that the perpetuity of agency does not
entail the perpetuity of an individual. What it does entail is the origination
of the individuals of the species.69 In sum, Ibn Taymiyya maintains that
Gods perfection requires that He has been acting and creating the species
of originating things from eternity. Gods ultimate perfection is found not
in the Kalm theologians and philosophers ideals of eternal stillness and
changelessness, but in Gods eternal activity and creativity.
No One Originating Event Is Eternal, but the Genus of Originating Events
Is Eternal
This brings us to closer consideration of Ibn Taymiyyas view of the created
world itself. In Minhj the shaykh claims that Gods perpetual activity does
not mean that any one thing in the world is eternal. God is perpetual of
agency (dim al-f iliyya), but, it does not follow necessarily from the
perpetuity of His being an agent that there is an individual, eternal enacted
thing with Him.70 Rather, originating events come into being after they were
not, and all things other than God are originated and created: Everything
except God is created [and came into] being after it was not.71
With the phrase, being after it was not (kin bad an lam yakun), the
shaykh denies the eternity of any individual thing apart from God and also
distinguishes himself from Ibn Sn and others who speak of the world as
eternal but originated and possible. The issue turns on Ibn Sns understanding of possibility and causal priority. The philosopher maintains that
the world can be eternal but yet possible (mumkin) in the senses that it is
not self-sufficient and that it might not have been. Considered in itself, the
world is possible. It only becomes necessary through another, namely, God
who is the eternal efficient cause of the existence of the world. Ibn Taymiyyas
summary of this idea reads, The world is an effect (mall) of [Gods]. He
is necessitating it and emanating it. He is prior to it in honor, causality and
nature. He is not prior to it in time.72 Moreover, according to the shaykh,
69
70
71
72

Minhj, 1:387/1:108.
Minhj, 1:336/1:92.
Minhj, 1:359/1:100. Cf. Minhj, 1:298/1:81.
Minhj, 1:149/1:36.

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Ibn Sn calls the world originated (mu!hdath) only in the sense of its being
the effect of an eternal cause.73
Against Ibn Sn, Ibn Taymiyya marshals the support of Aristotle and Ibn
Rushd to show that what is possible originates in time and that something
originated and possible must be preceded by nonexistence in time.74 The
shaykh writes, Aristotle and the ancients among his followers along with
the rest of the people of reason say that the possible whose existence or
nonexistence is possible is only originated, being after it was not.75 For Ibn
Taymiyya, it is not possible that something eternal could have been nonexistent. Likewise, it is not possible that something possible be eternal.76
Ibn Taymiyya asserts in Minhj that everything except God is originated
and preceded by nonexistence and that there is nothing eternal in the world.77
However, he also maintains that there have always been originating events
of one sort or another in the universe. Moreover, the perpetuity of Gods
creative activity requires this. While there is no one thing in the universe that
is eternal, the species or genus of originating events is eternal.78 The shaykh
gives a number of examples to tease out the difference between an eternal
species and its originating individuals. In some cases, individuals and species
are qualified in a similar way. When, for example, all of the individuals of a
species are qualified as existent, possible or nonexistent, the species itself must
also be so qualified. Ibn Taymiyya cites the following example: If each one of
the Zanj is black, then the whole group is black.79 However, the individuals
of a species do not necessarily have to share the same attributes as the species itself, as when individuals are qualified by origination and passing away
while the species as a whole is perpetual. As an example of this distinction,
Ibn Taymiyya cites quranic verses on the provision of Paradise, Its food is
eternal, and its shade (Q. 13:35), and, Truly, this is our provision which
has no end (Q. 38:54). What is perpetual here is the species of provision
and not the individual units that go out of existence. No one piece of food
is perpetual. The shaykh probes this distinction further by observing that

Minhj, 1:2001/1:51.
Minhj, 1:199/1:51, 1:2356/1:612, 1:374380/1:1034.
75
Minhj, 1:236/1:62.
76
Minhj, 1:1979/1:50, 1:2767/1:74. In Minhj, 1:239296/1:6380, Ibn Taymiyya
treats Ibn Sns idea that an act need not be preceded by nonexistence in a refutation of ten
proofs for it set out by Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz, Kitb al-mab!hith al-mashriqiyya (Hyderabad:
Ma$tbaat majlis dirat al-marif al-ni)zmiyya, 1343/1924), 1:485492.
77
Minhj, 1:3013/1:823, 1:384/1:107.
78
Minhj, 1:2323/1:601.
79
Minhj, 1:430/1:119.
73
74

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the attributes of individual parts of something may not qualify the whole
and vice versa. Certain parts of a house, a human being or a tree may be
long or wide, but this does not necessarily mean that every part is long or
wide. If one says that this day or that prayer is long, it does not mean that
all parts of this day or that prayer are long. Similarly, the origination and
passing away of individual units does not necessarily entail the origination
or passing away of the whole species of originating events.80
If the species of originating events is eternal, we may ask what Ibn Taymiyya believes existed prior to this present world. He asserts that the celestial
sphere was originated in time, and he does not rule out the possibility
that there were other celestial spheres prior to this one.81 He also indicates
that this present world was created out of pre-existing matter. He explains that
Aristotle was the first to claim that the celestial sphere was eternal, but he
notes that the philosophers before Aristotle believed that this world was
originated, either in its form ($sra) only or in its form and matter (mdda).
And most of them maintain the priority of the matter of this world over
its form.82
Ibn Taymiyya shows that the revealed tradition also indicates that other
things existed before the creation of this world and that this world was created
out of pre-existing matter. In support of this, he cites the following quranic
verses: [God] created the heavens and the earth in six days, and His Throne
was on the water (Q. 11:7), and, He rose toward heaven when it was smoke,
and He said to it and to the earth, Come under coercion or obediently.
They both said, We come obediently (Q. 41:11). In this regard, he also
notes two hadiths: Truly, God determined the determinations of created
things before He created the heavens and the earth by fifty thousand years,
and His Throne was on the water,83 and, God was, and there was nothing
before Him. And His throne was on the water. And He wrote everything
in a Reminder. Then He created the heavens and the earth.84 The shaykh
says that traditions from the Companions and the Followers affirming Gods
creation of the heavens from water vapor, that is, smoke, are abundantly
transmitted (mutawtir).85
Minhj, 1:426431/1:1189.
Minhj, 1:220/1:57 and 1:385/1:107.
82
Minhj, 1:360/1:100. Unfortunately, Ibn Taymiyya does not provide names of any
pre-Aristotelian philosophers.
83
Muslim, 4797, Al-Qadar, (Hijj dam wa Ms.
84
Bukhr, 6868, Al-Taw!hd, Wa kna arshuhu al al-m. . . . The variant readings of this
hadith are discussed in Hoover, Perpetual Creativity, 3001.
85
Minhj, 1:3601/1:100. Ibn Taymiyyas intepretation of the quranic verses listed here
resembles that of Ibn Rushd in Kitb fa$sl al-maql, ed. George F. Hourani (Leiden: E.J. Brill,
80

81

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In interpreting these texts, Ibn Taymiyya reports debate over whether

God first created the Penas in the hadith, The first thing God created
was the Pen,86or the Throne. The shaykh explains that God most likely
created the Throne first. Then, the Pen was the first thing created of this
world for the purpose of writing down the determinations fifty thousand
years before the creation of the heavens and the earth. He adds that there
must have been time prior to the creation of this world so that God would
have had some measure by which to say that He had created it in six days.87
Ibn Taymiyya also notes that the Torah says much the same thing: the earth
was covered with water and the wind was blowing over it before God created
the heavens and the earth in several days time (Genesis 1:12). He then
cites some unnamed scholars among the People of the Book to the effect
that this means that God created from matter and in time.88
The shaykh does not discuss whether the Throne itself, as the first created thing, was also created from pre-existing matter. The logic of Gods
perfection would appear to entail that there has always been one created
thing or another, even before the Throne. Yet, the shaykh does imply that
there was in some sense a first created thing by asserting that it is in Gods
perfection that He is prior to all others in every respect.89 Although Ibn
Taymiyya does not himself suggest the possibility, we might imagine that
the infinite regression of originating events in this world approaches Gods
pre-eternity asymptotically. The regression grows ever closer to pre-eternity
but never touches it, and, so, it may still be said that God is prior to every
originating event in time.
Refutation of Kalm Arguments against an Infinite Regress
Although most of Ibn Taymiyyas polemic in the first volume of Minhj uses
the principle of preponderance or originating causality to reduce the Kalm
position of creation ex nihilo to absurdity, he also seeks to undermine positive Kalm arguments against the eternity of the world.90 Refutation of these
proofs is especially important to Ibn Taymiyya in order to open the door to
1959), 1921; in trans. as Averroes, On the Harmony of Religion and Philosophy, trans. George
F. Hourani, (London: Luzac, 1961), 557.
86
Ab Dwd, 4078, Al-sunna, F al-qadar; Al-Tirmidh 2081, Al-Qadar an Rasl Allh,
M ja f al-ri#d bi-l-qa#d.
87
Minhj, 1:3612/1:100. On the matter of time before the creation, see also Minhj,
1:1723/1:43.
88
Minhj, 1:363/1:100.
89
Minhj, 1:419/1:117.
90
Minhj, 1:432438/1:1202. Cf. Irda, MF 8:1523.

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the possibility of an infinite regress of causes or wise purposes in Gods will.

The main Kalm proofs are based on two arguments for the impossibility
of an actual infinite stemming from the sixth-century philosopher John
Philoponus (d. ca. 570). The Kalm theologians conclude that, since any
actual infinite is impossible, the world must have a beginning.91
One of John Philoponuss arguments asserts that the passing of time
increases the number of past events. However, infinites cannot be increased.
So past events cannot be infinite.92 From the notion that an infinite cannot be increased, Ibn Sn, with precedents in the philosopher al-Kind
(d. ca. 252/866), developed the application (ta$tbq) argument to show that
magnitudes must be finite. The argument may be summarized as follows.
Suppose that a magnitude A is finite on one end and infinite on another.
Some length is added to the finite end of A yielding a new magnitude B.
The finite end of B is then applied to the finite end of A, and it is noted
that the two infinite ends no longer match. This is absurd and disproves
the possibility of infinite magnitudes. Ibn Sn does not use this argument
against an infinite regression of causes and effects, but the Kalm theologian
Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz does, and al-Rzs form of the argument is what Ibn
Taymiyya refutes in Minhj.93
Ibn Taymiyya presents al-Rzs argument as follows. If the series of originating events from the time of the (Hijra to infinity is compared with the
series of originating events from the time of the Flood of Noah to infinity,
the one series will be longer than the other by the difference between the
Flood and the (Hijra. Since disparity between two infinites is impossible, an
infinite series of originating events is impossible.94 For Ibn Taymiyya, such a
disparity is not impossible. From the Flood to future infinity is greater than
from the (Hijra to future infinity. Likewise, what is between the (Hijra and
past infinity is greater than what is between the Flood and past infinity even
though both lack a beginning. The disparity, however, occurs only between
the two finite ends, in this case between the Flood and the H
( ijra. It does not

91
On Philoponus and the adoption of his arguments against an actual infinite into the
Kalm tradition, see Davidson, Proofs for Eternity, 8694 and 117127; and Harry Austryn
Wolfson, The Philosophy of the Kalam (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1976),
410434.
92
Davidson, Proofs for Eternity, 889.
93
Davidson, Proofs for Eternity, 1257; and al-Rz, Arban, 34. On the origins of the
application argument, see also Husm Muh Eldn al-Alous, The Problem of Creation in Islamic
Thought: Quran, Hadith, Commentaries, and Kalam (Baghdad: The National Printing and
Publishing Co., 1965), 304313.
94
Minhj, 1:432/1:120.

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occur in the infinite ends. Infinity itself is not subject to specific measurement such that one infinite may be said to be commensurate to, greater than,
or less than another infinite. To illustrate his point, Ibn Taymiyya compares
the concept of infinity to multiplicity. The numbers 1, 10, 100, 1000, etc.
all share in multiplicity, but this does not mean that they all have the same
value. Likewise, infinites may entail diverse values from one perspective, yet
all share in infinity from another.95 Ibn Taymiyya also recounts Ibn Sns
refutation of the Kalm use of the application argument. In Ibn Sns view,
the application argument against an infinite regress of causes and effects is
just a mental exercise. It does not correspond to anything in actuality because
everything in the past no longer exists and everything in the future does not
yet exist. The application argument against an actual infinite is only valid
for what actually exists.96
The second argument from John Philoponus exploited by the Kalm
tradition maintains that an infinite cannot be traversed. This being the case,
something in the present cannot be preceded by an infinite regression of
events.97 In Minhj Ibn Taymiyya refutes the defense that al-Juwayn gives
for this argument in his Kitb al-irshd.98 Al-Juwayn argues that positing an
originating event preceded by originating events without beginning is like
saying to someone, I will not give you a dirham unless I give you a dinar
before it, and I will not give you a dinar unless I give you a dirham before
it. Under these conditions, al-Juwayn concludes that no dirham or dinar
will ever be given. He argues that the only way that this statement can be
turned into a valid condition is to say, I will not give you a dinar unless I
give you a dirham after it.99
Rephrasing al-Juwayns formulas slightly, Ibn Taymiyya agrees that it
is possible to say, I will not give you a dirham unless I give you a dirham
Minhj, 1:4324/1:120.
Minhj, 1:4345/1:1201. For the attribution of this argument to Ibn Sn, see Davidson, Proofs for Eternity, 1289. Davidson, Proofs for Eternity, 89, 122, also distinguishes a
third argument from John Philoponus that carried over into the Kalm tradition even though
it is merely a variation of the second. Rather than assume that an infinite cannot be added
to, it assumes that an infinite cannot be multiplied. The Kalm theologians argued that the
revolutions of the planets could not be infinite because it was known the planets revolved at
different speeds. If the planets had revolved from eternity, each planet would have revolved
an infinite number of times proportionally different from the other planets. This was rejected
as absurd. Ibn Taymiyya does not treat this argument nor does he need to since he permits
infinites that are not commensurate.
97
Davidson, Proofs for Eternity, 878, 119120.
98
Minhj, 1:4356/1:121.
99
Imm al-(Haramayn Abd al-Malik b. Abd Allh al-Juwayn, Kitb al-irshd il qaw$ti
al-adilla f u$sl al-itiqd (Beirut: Dr al-Kutub al-ilmiyya, 1416/1995), 16.
95
96

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after it. However, he believes that it is wrong-headed and impossible to say,

I will not give you a dirham until I give you a dirham before it, because
this negates that something will happen in the future until the same thing
happens in the future. The argument as stated is invalid, and does not deal
with an infinite regress in the past. The shaykh believes that the statement
should instead read, I have not given you a dirham unless I have given you
a dirham before it. This is a negation of a past event until another past event
has occurred prior to it, and this is possible. So, by correcting al-Juwayns
formulation to make it properly applicable to an infinite regress in the past,
Ibn Taymiyya believes that he has eliminated any difficulty that al-Juwayns
argument might pose for an infinite regress of events.100
By refuting the Kalm arguments against an actual infinite, Ibn Taymiyya
clears the way for the possibility of an infinite regression, and, as we have
seen, he upholds an endless chain of originating events into the past and into
the future. However, he clarifies in Minhj that he admits only an infinite
regress of effects (thr), not an infinite regress of causes, creators, agents
and originators. Causes and agents in an infinite regress are all possible,
originated and nonexistent in themselves and must be given existence by
another. In fact, he notes, the longer the chain of these agents becomes, the
greater is its need for an agent who is only existent in Himself, necessarily
existent, not admitting nonexistence, eternal and not originated.101 Yet, Ibn
Taymiyya does not explain how this eternal and necessary First Cause gives
rise to a regress of temporally originating events.
Summing up the present discussion, Ibn Taymiyya agrees with the Ashars
that wise purpose and causality in the will of God lead to an infinite regress,
but he denies that this constitutes grounds to reject Gods rationality. The
shaykh refutes the arguments for the impossibility of an actual infinite
that the Kalm theologians use to disprove the eternity of the world, and
he maintains that the perfection of God requires that God create and will
originating events from eternity. Using the principles of preponderance and
originating causality, he deconstructs the cosmologies of the Kalm theologians and philosophers such as Ibn Sn. He argues against the philosophers
that originating events in the world cannot arise from an eternal complete
cause and against the Kalm theologians that events cannot originate from
an eternal divine will. Rather, he maintains that there is an infinite regress

100
Ibn Taymiyya gives al-Juwayns argument fuller treatment in Dar, 9:1868, and concludes that al-Rz and al-mid had already detected the arguments weakness.
101
Minhj, 1:4368 (quote on 437)/1:121.

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of Gods willings corresponding to the originating events that God creates

in the world.
Ibn Taymiyya on Gods Voluntary Acts Subsisting in Gods Essence
Besides an infinite regress, a key Ashar objection to wise purpose in the
will of God is that it makes God a substrate for originating events. In the
first volume of the edited Minhj, Ibn Taymiyya traces this objections root
to the Jahm argument that Gods attributes must subsist outside of Him
because originating events (i.e. the attributes) only subsist in originating
bodies and God is not an originating body.102 Ibn Taymiyya himself does
not take God to be an originating body, but he rejects as fallacious the claim
that originating events subsist only in originating bodies. Despite this, the
shaykh is reticent to affirm explicitly that origination, much less time, subsists
in Gods essence. Although he does on rare occasion allow that originating
events subsist in God, he typically states the doctrine in other terms.103 He
hints at why in Minhj.
Ibn Taymiyya argues in Minhj that the Mutazils and their Sh followers
must admit originating events in God because they say that God became an
agent after He was not one, that is, He was subject to a change in state when
He began to create the world. The shaykh adds that all groups, including the
philosophers, must admit this doctrine, an argument Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz
makes as well without working out its implications in his theology.104 Perhaps
with some exaggeration, Ibn Taymiyya goes on to claim that, in addition to
Ab al-Barakt, the pre-Aristotelian philosophers, the Karrms and others,
the mainstream Sunn tradition does in fact uphold this doctrine: As for
the great majority of the People of the Sunna and the Hadith, they speak
of it or its meaning, even if some of them choose to speak only in legislated
terms (al-alf)z al-shariyya) and some of them express the legislated meaning
with expressions indicating it.105 Here, Ibn Taymiyya draws a distinction
between those who use the technical term originating events to identify
this doctrine and other scholars who seek to speak of the doctrine in terms

Minhj, 1:311/1:85.
In Furqn, MF 13:156, Ibn Taymiyya states briefly but explicitly that the Salaf uphold
originating events subsisting in God.
104
Al-Rz, Al-Ma$tlib al-liyya, 2:1067. For further discussion of this argument in
al-Rz, see Hoover, God Acts by His Will and Power.
105
Minhj, 1:4213/1:1178 (quote on 1:4223/1:118).
102
103

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closer to the authoritative texts. It seems apparent that Ibn Taymiyya takes
the latter path since he studiously avoids originating events in his own doctrinal affirmations and speaks instead of Gods attributes or acts which are
voluntary (ikhtiyriyya). While the very term ikhtiyriyya does not appear
in the Quran or the Hadith, other forms of the verb ikhtra (to choose),
from which it is derived, do occur.106
Ibn Taymiyyas Minhj discussion of Ibn Sns denial of change in Gods
essence illustrates his typical idiom in this respect. Ibn Taymiyya argues that
when God the Agent remains in one state, there is no way to explain the
difference and origination that arise in the world. While there are enacted
things, there is no act to bring them into existence. Rooting himself in the
authority of the prophets, the Salaf and unnamed pre-Aristotelian philosophers, Ibn Taymiyya argues that there must be voluntary acts in Gods
essence in order for change to arise in the world.107 To deny acts subsisting
in God is to deny that He is acting and originating.108 Rather, he affirms,
The Lord must inevitably be qualified by acts subsisting in Him one after
another . . . like His will subsisting in His essence, His words subsisting in His
essence, and His voluntary acts subsisting in His essence.109
With this, Ibn Taymiyya leaves aside the ideal of the philosophers and the
Kalm theologians that God is timelessly eternal and replaces it with a God
whose essential perfection consists in perpetual dynamism. In this theology,
the question of the origin of the causes or wise purposes giving rise to Gods
acts of will poses no difficulty because they are simply prior and posterior
acts of God extending backwards and forwards forever in Gods eternal activity. It remains to address how Ibn Taymiyya conceives Gods self-sufficiency.
An infinite regress of Gods acts implies an infinite regress of the objects of
those acts. If then there has always been one world or another, in what sense
is God sufficient apart from the worlds?

For example, I [i.e. God] have chosen you (ikhtartuka). So, listen to what is revealed
(Q. 20:13). In Ikhtiyriyya, MF 6:217267, a treatise devoted to the active quality of Gods
attributes, Ibn Taymiyya also rejects the Kalm position and upholds the substance of originating events subsisting in Gods essence while avoiding the very words and speaking instead of
Gods voluntary attributes. For analysis of Ikhtiyriyya and further contextualization of Ibn
Taymiyyas position in the tradition of later Kalm, see Hoover, God Acts by His Will and
Power. Ibn Taymiyya, MF 8:380, also speaks of voluntary matters (al-umr al-ikhtiyriyya)
subsisting in Gods essence.
107
Minhj, 1:3346/1:912.
108
Minhj, 1:3523/1:97. See Irda, 8:149151, for polemic against the Mutazils in
this regard.
109
Minhj, 1:327/1:89. Cf. Minhj, 1:336/1:92 and 3:1916/2:378.
106

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Ibn Taymiyya on Gods Sufficiency apart from the Worlds in the

Exercise of Wise Purpose
In order to guarantee Gods sufficiency apart from the world, the Ashars
deny that God acts for wise purposes lest He be perfected (mustakmal) by
those purposes and imperfect beforehand. The Mutazils affirm that God
acts on account of wise purposes, but, again to protect Gods sufficiency,
these are disjoined from God and yield a return of beneficence and profit
only to creatures. Ibn Taymiyya adopts a decidedly different and apparently paradoxical stance. He asserts Gods sufficiency ( ghin), but he also
maintains that God acts on account of wise purposes that return to God.
Qudra, a treatise on Gods power, contains a clear and concise statement of
the shaykhs view:
God has a wise purpose in everything that He creates. As He said, The handiwork of God who perfected everything (Q. 27:88), and He said, Who made
good everything He created (Q. 32:7). HeGlory be to Himis sufficient
apart from the worlds (Q. 3:97, 29:6). The wise purpose includes two things.
First is a wise purpose that returns to Him (tadu ilayhi), which He loves and
with which He is well pleased. The second [returns] to His servants, which
is a blessing for them at which they rejoice and in which they take pleasure.
This is in things commanded and in things created.110

With respect to things commanded, Ibn Tamiyya goes on in Qudra to explain

that God loves obedience and rejoices when His servants repent. There is
happiness in this for servants as well: In what He has commanded of acts
of obedience is its praiseworthy end which returns to Him and to His servants. In it, He has a wise purpose, and His servants have a mercy.111 The
same applies to created things: Likewise, what He created He created for
a wise purpose which returns to Him and which He loves, and for servants
He created it to be a mercy from which they profit.112
Taken by other concerns, Ibn Taymiyya does not respond to Ashar and
Mutazil objections against his view of wise purpose in Qudra, but he does
so in Irda and Minhj. In Irda the shaykh identifies contradiction in the
Mutazil view. The Mutazils, he argues, maintain that God created and

Qudra, MF 8:3536.
Qudra, MF 8:36. Ibn Taymiyya, Qudra, MF 8:39, also explains that God created servants to worship, praise, laud and glorify him, and he devotes most of the rest of Qudra to
an explanation of I did not create the jinn and humankind except that they might worship
Me (Q. 51:56).
112
Qudra, MF 8:37.
110

111

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commanded creatures for the wise purpose of showing them beneficence

and giving those who are legally obligated their reward. However, they
claim that no judgment (!hukm) returns to God for His beneficence, and
they make God indifferent to His own acts by asserting that His acts do
not subsist in His essence. But, Ibn Taymiyya continues, someone who is
beneficent is praised, and it is the judgment that returns to the beneficent
that makes beneficence praiseworthy. Moreover, someone who is beneficent
is not indifferent to his acts: The generous soul rejoices, is glad and takes
pleasure in the good that proceeds from it to another.113 Conversely, it is
irrational that someone not seek gain through his acts: Anyone who commits
an act in which there is neither pleasure, nor benefit nor profit for himself
in any respect, neither sooner nor later, is aimless, and he is not praised for
this.114 Thus, the Mutazils end up in contradiction by portraying God as
aimless in the very act of trying to protect Him from the aimlessness of the
Ashar position.
Ibn Taymiyyas argument gives short shrift to disinterested beneficence
and makes a measure of self-interest intrinsic to what constitutes rational and
praiseworthy action. Implied, but left unstated, is that God is perfect and
praiseworthy because of the rationality in the things that He does. From
this, it could be understood that God acts rationally in order to elicit His
servants praise for the sake of His perfection. However, this would run
counter to what we find for example in a blustery passage on Gods sufficiency
in Nubuwwt, Ibn Taymiyyas book on prophecy. He seeks to allay Kalm
fears that love, wise purpose and the like lead necessarily to Gods need
for His servants by denying that Gods servants can profit Him or that He
needs their profit. Likewise, God has no need to fear creatures. Unbelievers
cannot harm Him, and it does Him no harm when people fail to keep His
commands.115 The shaykhs defense here offers no theological analysis; it is
limited to negations.
Ibn Taymiyya does more substantial theological work on Gods sufficiency in Irda and Minhj by considering the all-comprehensive character
of Gods acts instead of their ethical quality. Here is how the shaykh replies
briefly in the first volume of Minhj to the Ashar charge that wise purpose
in Gods will implies that God is perfected by another and was imperfect
beforehand:

113
114
115

Irda, MF 8:89.
Irda, MF 8:8990.
Nubuwwt, 1356.

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When [God] is powerful over [and] the agent of everything, He does not
need another in any respect. On the contrary, the causes enacted are objects
of His power and will. GodExalted is Heinspires His servants to invocation and He answers them. He inspires them to repentance, and He rejoices
at their repentance when they repent. He inspires them to deeds and rewards
them when they perform deeds. It will not be said that the creature impacts the
Creator or makes Him act to answer, reward and rejoice at their repentance.
HeGlory be to Himis the Creator of all of that. To Him is sovereignty,
and to Him is praise. He has no associate in anything of that, and in it He
has no want of another.116

What Ibn Taymiyya leaves unsaid is that he does not accept the presupposition provoking the Ashar objection. The Ashars posit creation as
an utterly free and arbitrary act of God that could just as well not have
occurred without any loss to God being God. If God acts or creates for a
purpose, this detracts from His freedom by making the act essential to His
perfection. For Ibn Taymiyya, however, Gods creative activity is not free in
the sense intended by the Ashars. Instead, perpetual creativity is intrinsic
to Gods perfection, and the existence of the genus of created things follows
necessarily from this. What would detract from Gods perfection is someone
else controlling or helping God in what He wills to create. Gods sufficiency
and lack of need consist in God alone creating all things with no one else
helping Him or influencing Him in that.117
Ibn Taymiyya responds to the Ashar objection more comprehensively
in Irda in five points. Leading up to this is a discussion of love that sets
the theological context. On the authority of texts from the Quran and
the Hadith, Ibn Taymiyya argues that Gods servants should love God in
Himself and love other things only for Gods sake. Conversely, God loves
His servants who believe in Him and do what He loves. Much as we find in
Ibn Sn, Ibn Taymiyya locates the source of Gods love for His servants in
Gods love for Himself: What God loves of worship of Him and obedience
to Him follows from love for Himself, and love of that is the cause of [His]
love for His believing servants. His love for believers follows from love for
Himself.118 That is, Gods love for Himself is primary, and Gods love for
116
Minhj, 1:421/1:117. The translation, . . . that the creature impacts the Creator or
makes Him act . . ., follows the text of Minhj which reads: inna al-makhlq aththara f alkhliq aw jaalahu filan. MinhjB reads somewhat differently: inna li-l-makhlq atharan
f al-khliq jaalahu filan.
117
See similar arguments at MF 8:379.
118
Irda, MF 8: 1404 (quote on 144). Similarly in Nubuwwt, 111, Ibn Taymiyya writes,
The LordExalted is Heloves Himself, and among the necessary concomitants of His
love of Himself is that it is a love willing what He wills to do. What He wills to do, He wills

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human beings follows on from that secondarily. On this basis, Ibn Taymiyya
argues comparatively that Gods self-love, self-praise and self-laudation so
greatly exceed human love, praise and laudation of God that God has no
need of them. More decisively, however, the shaykh leaves the human vantage
point aside completely and adds that God has no need because it is He who
creates the love and good deeds of His servants:
[God] is the Sufficient-in-Himself (al-ghan bi-nafsihi). He does not need
anyone else. Even more, everything other than Him is in want of Him . . . When
He rejoices at the repentance of the repenting, loves whoever draws close to
Him with supererogatory deeds, is well pleased with the earliest predecessors
and such like, it is not permissible to say that He has want of another in that.
He is not perfected by another. It is He who created them, and it is He who
guided them and helped them so that they did what He loves, is well pleased
with and rejoices at.119

As in the argument cited from Minhj above, Ibn Taymiyya here preserves
Gods sufficiency not by making the world arbitraryas the Ashars dobut
by crediting all that occurs within it to Gods creative acts. One might ask
what role volition plays in the shaykhs understanding of human agency, but
answering this question must await Chapter Four. Continuing on in Irda,
Ibn Taymiyya identifies the argument above as that of the great majority
who affirm in [Gods] acts a wise purpose which is linked to Him, which He
loves, with which He is well pleased, and for the sake of which He acts.120
After this, the shaykh takes up his five point response to the Ashar
objection that this makes God perfected by another and imperfect prior
to that.121 Four of the five points made in Irda are arguments from reason.
The first point states that only someone perfected by his acts is rational. We
have already seen this premise at work in Ibn Taymiyyas polemic against the
Mutazil notion that God acts for wise purposes that do not return to Him.
The second point briefly sets aside the Ashar theology of a God who acts
without cause: a God not able to act for a wise purpose would be imperfect.
This is expanded in the fifth point where the shaykh explains that reason
knows that someone able to bring events into existence for a wise purpose is
more perfect than someone not able to do that. Probably with the philosofor an objective ( ghya) that He loves. Love is the final cause (al-illa al-ghiyya) because of
which everything exists. Although not explicitly stated, the context indicates that the final
cause here is Gods very essence. My translation differs somewhat from that of Bell, Love
Theory, 80, who quotes it for other purposes.
119
Irda, MF 8:145.
120
Irda, MF 8:145.
121
Irda, MF 8:1467 (quote on 146).

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phers in mind, he adds that it does not matter that these events originate
temporally and are not eternal. In fact it is of the perfection or character of
an originating event not to exist prior to its origination. In his fourth point,
and arguing in a similar vein, Ibn Taymiyya takes on the Ashar complaint
that Gods acting for a cause makes God imperfect prior to His alleged
perfection. The shaykh replies that perfection is the existence of something
only when wise purpose requires. Imperfection is its existence at other times.
Thus, imperfection is not the nonexistence of something as such, but only its
absence when it should exist. Ibn Taymiyya notes that God is ascribed with
both negative and positive attributes, both of which imply His perfection,
and greater perfection is not always attained through addition.
The third point has been saved for last because it is not properly a rational argument but a clarification. Ibn Taymiyya explains that God is not
perfected by another, as the Ashars surmise. Rather, God is perfected by
His own will and power without help from any other. Gods sufficiency is
brooking no rivals in the act of creation; it is not indifference to creation
as such. If it should still be thought that God somehow gains something
from others through His acts, he adds, When it is said that He is perfect
through (kamula bi) His act in which He does not need anyone else, it is as
if it were said that He is perfect through His attributes or perfect through
His essence.122 From this angle, Gods acts are just as constitutive of His
perfection as His attributes and essence. Gods activity is a necessary concomitant of Gods perfection, and in no way does God acquire perfection
through His acts.123
Conclusion
Ashar objections to rationality in Gods will present a major obstacle to
articulating a theodicy, and Ibn Taymiyya must face these objections squarely
in order to carve out intellectual space for his own view. The shaykhs insistence that God acts rationally on account of wise purposes or causes in a
self-interested sense strongly suggests that God needs creatures to manifest
His perfection. The shaykh thus appears to fall afoul of the Ashar charge
that causality in the will of God endangers Gods self-sufficiency. Ibn Taymiyya sidesteps the Ashar allegation by explaining that it is God who creates

122
123

Irda, MF 8:146.
Cf. Kasb, MF 8:387, which is translated below in Chapter Four, n. 122.

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both creatures and their responses. God is sufficient in the sense that He
needs no help in creating all that is in the world. The shaykh also employs
the Avicennan notion that while the world is a necessary concomitant of
Gods perfection and self-love it is not essential to who God is. God has no
need of the world. He loves, praises and lauds Himself primarily, and from
that flows the world only secondarily, even if necessarily.
The Ashars also argue that causality in Gods will entails an infinite regress
and subjects God to temporal origination, both of which the Ashars take to
be impossible. In response, Ibn Taymiyya refutes Ashar arguments against
an infinite regress and turns perpetual origination in Gods essence into a
virtue of Gods perfection. However, the shaykh prefers to speak not technically of originating events subsisting in Gods essence but more scripturally
of Gods voluntary attributes and acts, which He exercises by His will and
power. This is much the same as when Ibn Taymiyya indicates causality in
Gods will with the term wise purpose (!hikma) instead of purpose (ghara#d )
in order to avoid negative connotations attached to the latter term in everyday speech. In sum, God in His perfection has been willing and creating
originated things of one kind or another for wise purposes from eternity
by means of His will and power.
This perpetually dynamic vision of Gods essence sets Ibn Taymiyya apart
from much, perhaps all, of the preceding Islamic philosophical and theological tradition and especially from fellow optimist Ibn Sn. The shaykh rejects
the Kalm doctrine that creation had a definite beginning, and he jettisons
Ibn Sns emanation cosmology and timeless God. However, he retains the
necessity of optimal productivity inherent in Ibn Sns notion of God. Ibn
Taymiyya portrays Gods creation of the world as voluntary and dynamic, but
this dynamic and voluntary creativity is nonetheless a necessary concomitant
of Gods essential and self-sufficient perfection.

CHAPTER THREE

GODS CREATION AND GODS COMMAND

Ibn Taymiyyas Creation/Command Hermeneutic
If God is the wise Creator of everything that occurs in the world, how does
Ibn Taymiyya account for human agency and responsibility? The following
chapter focuses directly on how God creates human agency. The present
chapter examines how the shaykh relates Gods legislation, which imposes
human obligation and responsibility, to Gods all-encompassing creation. As
noted in the last chapter, Joseph Bell shows how Ibn Taymiyya attacks alJuwayn for equating Gods love and good pleasure with Gods creative will
(irda khalqiyya) of all things. According to Ibn Taymiyya, God does not
love the unbelief that He creates. Rather, God loves and is well pleased with
obedience to His legislative will (irda shariyya). God only creates unbelief
for a wise purpose that he loves. God does not love unbelief, but God loves
the wise purpose for which it is created.
While Bell has well described the core of Ibn Taymiyyas doctrine, it
remains to display the variety of ways in which the shaykh expresses it. The
terms creative will and legislative will are part of a creation/command
hermeneutic that Ibn Taymiyya employs to interpret a wide range of quranic
and theological terms. Equivalent to Gods creation are Gods lordship, inspiration, determination, decree and ontological will. Corresponding to Gods
command are Gods divinity, love, good pleasure and religious will, as well
as the distinction between piety and immorality. Additionally, Ibn Taymiyya
does not always address the conundrum posed by creation and command with
Gods love for his wise purpose. Frequently he simply affirms wise purpose,
justice or mercy in Gods creation. On a few occasions, however, he does
suggest images or similitudes to render the non-coincidence of creation and
command more plausible.
Besides surveying diverse ways that Ibn Taymiyya affirms creation and
command, the present chapter gives much space to his attendant polemic
against Kalm theologians, Sufis and skeptics. However, the shaykhs critique
of Sufism, which grows out of his concern to give creation and command

Jon Hoover, 2007

This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/.

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each their due, is much more extensive than can be examined here.1 The
discussion below is limited to indicating some major directions this takes.
More detailed treatment of Ibn Taymiyyas criticism of Sufism may be found
elsewhere.2
Ibn Taymiyyas Classification of Errors in Creation and Command
A Typology of Errors
In several theodicean texts, Ibn Taymiyya sets out a four-fold typology on
creation and command that classifies his polemical opponents and identifies his own view.3 Although not complete, the following passage translated
from Tadmuriyya is fairly typical. Four major positions are identified with
the appellations Majss, Mushriks, Iblss, and People of Guidance
and Success. Following the translation, the first three positions will be
clarified and augmented from the shaykhs other instances of the typology
and related polemic.
It is well known that it is obligatory to believe in Gods creation (khalq) and
His command (amr), His decree (qa#d) and His legislation (shar). The mis-

1
Much of Ibn Taymiyyas thinking on Sufi matters is found in volumes 1, 2, 10 and 11
of MF, and in Iqti#d, Istiqma and Ma!habba. There is also a great deal of material scattered
throughout his other writings.
2
For Ibn Taymiyyas various critiques of Sufi speculation and popular religious practices,
see Alexander D. Knysh, Ibn Arabi in the Later Islamic Tradition: The Making of a Polemical
Image in Medieval Islam (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1999), 87111,
with corrections to the analysis of Ibn Taymiyya in the review by Jon Hoover in Islam and
Christian-Muslim Relations 10:3 (Oct. 1999): 3924; Muhammad Umar Memon, Ibn
Taimyas Struggle against Popular Religion: With an Annotated Translation of his Kitb
iqti#d a$s-$sir$t al-mustaqm mukhlafat a$s!hb al-ja!hm (The Hague: Mouton, 1976); Michel,
A Muslim Theologians Response to Christianity, 514, 2439; Jean R. Michot, Musique et
danse selon Ibn Taymiyya, Le livre du Sam et de la danse (Kitb al-Sam wa l-Raq$s) compil par le shaykh Muhammad al-Manbij (Paris: J. Vrin, 1991); P. Nwyia, Une cible dIbn
Taimya: Le moniste al-Tilimsn (m. 690/1291), Bulletin dEtudes orientales 30 (1978):
127145; Niels Henrik Olesen, tude compare des ides dIbn Taymiyya (12631328)
et de Martin Luther (14831546) sur le culte des saints, Revue des Etudes Islamiques 50
(1982):175206; and Niels Henrik Olesen, Cultes des Saints et Plerinages chez Ibn Taymiyya
(Paris: Paul Geuthner, 1991).
3
Ib$tl, MF 2:3004; F Fu$s$s, MF 2:409411; Tadmuriyya, MF 3:1112; Qadariyya, MF
8:256261; and T
+ a, MF 8:4446. Cf. Minhj, 3:82/2:910. The following discuss the same
ideas although not in the form of a tidy typology: Wsi$tiyya, MF 3:148150; Irda, 8:97117;
Sada, MF 2889; I!htijj, MF 8:303370; Jabr, MF 8:449478; Furqn, MF 13:211229;
(Hasana, MF 14:347359; Shams, MF 16:230248; and Minhj, 3:758/2:78.

gods creation and gods command

105

guided people who delve into determination (qadar) have divided into three
sects: Majss, Mushriks and Iblss.
The Majss are those who gave the lie to the determination of God even
if they believed in His command and His prohibition. The extremists among
them denied the [fore-]knowledge [of God] and [pre-]writing [of human
acts]. The moderates among them denied the generality of His will (masha),
His creation and His power (qudra). These are the Mutazils and those who
agree with them.
The second sect is the Mushriks who acknowledged decree and determination and denied command and prohibition. HeExalted is Hesaid, Those
who gave associates [to God] will say, If God had willed, we would not have
given associates, nor would have our fathers, and we would not have forbidden
anything [against His will] (Q. 6:148). Whoever argues for stripping away
the command and prohibition with determination is one of these. This has
become frequent among those Sufis who claim [to have attained] reality.
The third sect is the Iblss who acknowledged the two elements, but they
regarded them as contradictory in the LordGlory be to Him, Exalted is
Heand they discredited His wise purpose (!hikma) and His justice (adl ),
just as this is mentioned concerning Ibls, their ringleader, according to what
the experts in sectarian teachings (ahl al-maqlt) transmitted and what is
transmitted from the People of the Book.
The point is that [the above] is what the people who go astray say. As for
the People of Guidance and Success, they believe in both. They believe that
God is Creator, Lord and Sovereign of everything. What He wills is, and what
He does not will is not. He is powerful over everything, and His knowledge
encompasses everything. . . . And it is necessary to believe in legislation. This is
belief in the command and the prohibition and the promise and the threat, as
God raised up His messengers with this and sent down His books.4

As noted under the fourth position, that of the People of Guidance and
Success, Ibn Taymiyya includes the promise and the threat on the side of
divine command and prohibition.5 This involves the promise of reward for
good deeds and the threat of punishment for bad deeds. Under command,
he elsewhere includes the names and the judgments (al-asm wa al-a!hkm)
which deal with whether one is a believer or unbeliever.6 These matters fall
on the side of command rather than creation because they involve questions
of human accountability.
In other texts, Ibn Taymiyya identifies all of the first three positions cited
above as Qadar. This yields the Majs Qadars, the Mushrik Qadars and

Tadmuriyya, MF 3:1113. Much of the ellipsis is translated below (1578).

The connection between command and prohibition, or related notions, and promise
and threat also occurs in Jabr, MF 8:452; and Shams, MF 16:230, 235.
6
Furqn, MF 13:211.
4
5

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the Ibls Qadars.7 These are polemical labels rather than names of actual
groups. The sense of Qadar in these appellations is that of anyone who goes
astray on the doctrine of determination (qadar), and the adjectives Majs,
Mushrik and Ibls denote three different ways of erring. Ibn Taymiyya occasionally uses other adjectival forms with Qadar such as Mujbir Qadars,8
Jabr Qadars9 and Murji Qadars.10 For Ibn Taymiyya the Mujbirs or
Jabrs deny that humans are the agents of their acts, and the Murjis, who
did constitute an actual movement in early Islamic history, understand faith
(mn) as assent and knowledge without deeds.11 The shaykh places both
groups under the category of Mushrik Qadars because of their perceived
weakness in upholding human accountability.
Qadars and Mutazils: Compromising Creation
The terms Mushrik Qadar and Ibls Qadar do not appear often in Ibn
Taymiyyas writings.12 He most commonly reserves the term Qadar for those
who follow the precedent of the historical Qadar trend in early Islam and
deny that God creates human acts.13 He states, for example, Not one of the
Qadars affirms that God is Creator of the acts of servants.14 Ibn Taymiyya
also calls Qadars Deniers (nufh) because they deny that God can make
someone either obedient or disobedient.15 In light of this, the shaykh often
uses the term Qadar to denote the Mutazils.16 He cites the Mutazil Ab
al-(Husayn al-Ba$sr as a prominent proponent of the Qadar view and credits

7
For these three types of Qadars, see F Fu$s$s, MF 2:409411; Qadariyya, MF 8:256
261; MF 10:718; and Shams, MF 16:230, 232, 235, 238, 239.
8
Furqn, MF 13:212, 225; and (Hasana, MF 14:247. In Irda, MF 8:105, Ibn Taymiyya
also notes that some early scholars in Islam called those who believed in Gods compulsion
( jabr) of human acts Qadars.
9
Nubuwwt, 96.
10
Irda, MF 8:105.
11
For Ibn Taymiyyas views on the Jabrs, see below. For his views on the Murjis, see
mn I, MF 7:190ff., and the translation of this work, Kitab Al-Iman: Book of Faith, trans.
Salman Hassan Al-Ani and Shadia Ahmad Tel (Bloomington, IN: Iman Publishing House,
1999), 200ff. See also Shams, MF 16:2413.
12
I located five occurrences of the term Ibls Qadars in MF: F Fu$s$s, MF 2:400, 411;
Qadariyya, MF 8:260; MF 10:718; and Shams, MF 16:232.
13
On the Qadar movement in early Islam, see W. Montgomery Watt, The Formative Period
of Islamic Thought (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1973), 82118.
14
Shams, MF 16:232. Cf. F Fu$s$s, MF 2:400, where Ibn Taymiyya includes with the
Qadars the naturalists who attribute acts to bodies, natures, celestial spheres or souls
rather than God.
15
Furqn, MF 13:2256. Cf. (Hasana, MF 14:347.
16
See for example Shams, MF 16:239; and Minhj, 3:18/2:267.

gods creation and gods command

107

him with being the foremost of the later Mutazils.17 He also uses the term
Qadar for later Shs such as Ibn al-Mu$tahhar al-(Hill who adopt Mutazil
theology.18 In creation and command typologies, Ibn Taymiyya typically only
explains that the Mutazils reject Gods creation of human acts in order to
maintain His justice, but he does give the Mutazil rationale closer attention in other contexts.
The term Majs, which appears in the quotation from Tadmuriyya above,
comes from Majs, the Arabic word denoting the followers of the dualist,
Persian religion Zoroastrianism, also called Mazdaism.19 The Majs were
known to Ibn Taymiyya as believing in an agent of evil other than God.
He adds that they were a community which paid the jizya to the Muslims
and whose women some scholars said Muslims could marry.20 He equates
the Majs with the Persians,21 and he explains that they fell into dualism
(thanawiyya) by inquiring into the cause of evil.22 The shaykh links the
Qadars to the Majs on the basis of a hadith in which the Prophet is said
to have called the Qadars the Majs of this community.23 He also notes

17
Shams, MF 16:236. Concerning Ab al-(Husayn, Ibn Taymiyya continues, He had
more intelligence and erudition than most of his peers, but he had little acquaintance with
the traditions (al-sunan), the meanings of the Quran and the path of the Salaf.
18
For example, see Minhj, 3:181/2:34, where Shs are subsumed under the Qadars,
and Minhj, 3:190/2:37, where Ibn Taymiyya calls his opponent al-(Hill a Qadar. Minhj,
1:1278/1:31, describes how later Shs adopted Mutazil doctrine. For the assimilation of
the Mutazils to the Qadars in early Kalm theology, see Daniel Gimaret, La doctrine dalAshar (Paris: Cerf, 1990), 3968.
19
On Zoroastrianism and its relationship to the Islamic tradition, see M. Morony, Madjs,
EI2 5:11108; Guy Monnot, Penseurs musulmans et religions iraniennes: Abd al-Jabbr et
ses devanciers (Paris: Librairie philosophique J. Vrin, 1974), 7781, 8891, 137142; Guy
Monnot, Islam et religions (Paris: ditions Maisonneuve et Larose, 1986), 129156 (on alMturd) and 157170 (on the Ashar al-Bqilln); and Christoph J. Brgel, Zoroastrianism
as Viewed in Medieval Islamic Sources, in Muslim Perceptions of Other Religions: A Historical
Survey, ed. Jacques Waardenburg (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1999), 202212.
For the view that Zoroastrianism and Mazdaism are synonymous, see Gherardo Gnoli,
Zoroastrianism, in The Encyclopedia of Religion, ed., Mircea Eliade (New York: MacMillian,
1987), 15:579591. On the dualism of both Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism in relation to
Islam, see G. Monnot, Thanawiyya, EI2 10:439441. Also of interest on Islamic responses
to dualism is G. Vajda, Le Tmoignage dal-Mturid sur la doctrine des Manichens, des
Day$snites et des Marcionites, Arabica 13 (1966): 138, 113128.
20
Irda, MF 8:100.
21
Shams, MF 16:239.
22
Taiyya, MF 8:248 (reading illat al-sharr instead of illat al-sirr).
23
Wsi$tiyya, MF 3:150; Ab Dwd. 4071, Al-Sunna, F al-qadar. Sarah Stroumsa and
Gedaliahu G. Stroumsa, Aspects of Anti-Manichaean Polemics in Late Antiquity and under
Early Islam, Harvard Theological Review 81:1 (1988): 3758 (especially 545), cite this
hadith as evidence that debate over divine determination in Islam emerged in the context of
the challenge posed by Zoroastrian, as well as Manichaean, dualism.

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that the Qadars resemble the Majs inasmuch as both affirm [someone]
other than God who produces evil things apart from His will, His power
and His creation.24 The point in comparing the Qadars to the Majs is to
accuse the former of a dualism of creators when they posit human beings
as the creators of their acts.
The quotation from Tadmuriyya above also distinguishes between extremist Majss who deny Gods foreknowledge and moderate Mutazils who
do not. In Jabr Ibn Taymiyya reports that Mabad al-Juhan (d. 83/703)
promulgated the extremist Qadar teaching first in Basra to counter the
Umayyads but was opposed by the Companions of the Prophet.25 Elsewhere,
the shaykh notes that deniers of foreknowledge argue that it would be bad
of a prince to command someone to do something when he knows that the
person will not obey, and so also with God.26 Apart from such occasional
mentions, denial of Gods foreknowledge is not a major concern for Ibn
Taymiyya, and he says that almost no one denied it in his time.27
Sufi Antinomians, Jahms, Jabrs and Ashars: Compromising Command
Turning now to the Mushrik Qadars, or more simply the Mushriks, the
crux of the problem shifts from denying Gods creation of human acts to
nullifying Gods command. The term mushrik means idolater or more literally one who associates partners (ashraka) with God, and, for Ibn Taymiyya,
Mushrik is a term of aspersion rather than the name of a historical group.
The shaykhs primary concern in the Tadmuriyya quotation above is the
argument of the Arab associationists found in the Quran that divine
determination prevented them from pure worship of God. He notes that
this argument is widespread among Sufi gnostics in his time. He alleges that
the Sufi antinomians (mub!hiyya) are worse than the Arab associationists.
The latter, he observes, at least have some laws whereas the Sufis annul the
Law completely.28
Jabr, MF 8:452.
Jabr, MF 8:450. Cf. Sada, MF 8:288. According to Watt, Formative Period, 85, 87,
Mabad was involved in political opposition to the Umayyads and denied that God had
determined their misdeeds. J. van Ess underlines the politically charged and thus uncertain
nature of the sources for knowledge of this figure in Mabad b. Abd Allh b. Ukaym alDjuhan, EI2 5:9356.
26
Shams, MF 16:233.
27
Wsi$tiyya, MF 3:1489. Gods foreknowledge is discussed briefly in Ta!hsn al-aql, MF
8:429430; and Shams, MF 16:2334. A full defense consisting mostly of quranic quotations
occurs in Jabr, MF 8:4907.
28
Jabr, MF 8:4578.
24
25

gods creation and gods command

109

Ibn Taymiyya writes prolifically against this determination argument (ali!htijj bi-l-qadar).29 His main complaint is that it does not hold up against
human rationality. Reason and the natural constitution know it to be a vain
argument.30 He explains that no one will accept divine determination as an
excuse for injustice, violation of his wife, and murder of his son. Nor will
anyone who excuses his own misdeeds with determination accept it as an
excuse from someone who acts against him. Everyone is subject to the same
divine determination, and so it cannot serve as an argument for anyone.
The shaykh asserts that, if all could do as they pleased without censure, the
world would be destroyed.31
On this basis, Ibn Taymiyya adopts a pragmatic perspective. If someone is
warned of an approaching enemy, he does not wait for God to create fleeing in him; he strives to flee and then God helps him flee.32 Someone who
truly wills to believe and obey God and has the power to do so will do it.
If he does not do it, it is because he did not will it.33 Whoever defends his
sins with determination is simply following his caprice and does not have
knowledge.34 For Ibn Taymiyya, the proper attitude is patience with the afflictions that God has determined. In sins the response should be repentance
and asking forgiveness, while in acts of obedience one should also confess
Gods determination to avoid pride.35
The shaykh identifies two different foundations of Sufi antinomianism, one
particular and the other general.36 The particular occurs when the individual
Sufi in ecstatic annihilation ( fan) erroneously believes that he no longer
has a will of his own but passes away into the will of the Real. In this witnessing (mushhada), any distinction between good and evil does not apply
to the gnostic, and the Law is no longer relevant. Ibn Taymiyya cites the
(Hanbal Sufi Ab Isml al-An$sr al-Haraw (d. 481/1089) as an example
of this line of thinking. In response Ibn Taymiyya appeals to the teaching
of the early Sufi master al-Junayd (d. 298/910) that even in witnessing the
29
Giving extended attention to the qadar argument are I!htijj, MF 8:303370; Minhj,
3:5486/2:211; Qa# d, MF 8:262271; Ubdiyya, MF 10:157172; and Ib$ tl, MF
2:3003, 323330.
30
Minhj, 3:56/2:3, 3:60/2:4, and 3:65/2:5.
31
Ta, MF 8:263; Tiyya, MF 8:248251; Jabr, MF 8:4535; Minhj, 3:567/2:3;
Ubdiyya, MF 10:1645; Ib$tl, MF 2:3002; and Irda, MF 8:114.
32
Minhj, 3:67/2:5. Cf. Minhj, 3:65/2:5.
33
Minhj, 3:6970/2:6.
34
Minhj, 3:65/2:5; and Ubdiyya, MF 10:165.
35
I!htijj, MF 8:3278, 331; Minhj, 3:78/2:8; Ubdiyya, MF 10:159160; Ib$tl, MF
2:3012; Tadmuriyya, MF 3:122; MF 8:767; and MF 8:237.
36
F Fu$s$s, MF 2:364370, outlines the two perspectives.

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universal will of God one must also witness command and prohibition.37
He also asserts that Abd al-Qdir al-Jiln (d. 561/1166), the eponym of
the Qdir Sufi order, prohibits arguing from determination.38 Ultimately,
the shaykh asserts, the Sufi gnostic cannot escape the fact that he still draws
distinctions between what profits and harms him, and this is in fact what
the Law was sent to clarify.39
Ibn Taymiyya identifies a general basis for antinomianism in the doctrine of Ibn Arab and his followers whom the shaykh calls the People of
the Oneness of Existence (ahl wa!hdat al-wujd )40 or the Unificationists
(itti!hds).41 The shaykh interprets their teaching as a monism that collapses
a proper distinction between God and His creatures and makes God identical
to creation. This leads to the repulsive notion that God punishes Himself
and is identical to idols, satans, pigs and unbelievers.42 Ibn Taymiyya alleges
that Ibn Arab and his followers thus accept any kind of worship: They
agree with every form of associationism in the world, equate God with every
created thing, and permit worship of everything.43 Furthermore, the shaykh
charges the Unificationist poet al-Tilimsn (d. 690/1291) with falling into
explicit antinomianism, making all forbidden things lawful, even marriage
to ones mother or daughter.44
Although Ibn Taymiyya does not mention the Jahms, Jabrs and Ashars
in the above typology from Tadmuriyya, he includes them in similar discussions elsewhere. He accuses them of upholding determination at the expense
of Gods command, and he sometimes links them to Sufi antinomianism.45
He usually takes the early Muslim theologian Jahm b. !Safwn to be the
source of this tendency, explaining that Jahm upheld Gods determination

37
H
( asana, MF 14:3545. Cf. I!htijj, MF 8:3178, 346, 369; Awliy, MF 11:245; Minhj,
3:168/2:31; and Furq, MF 8:2289.
38
I!htijj, MF 8:306, 369. Ibn Taymiyya devotes the treatise Abd al-Qdir, MF 10:455548,
to Abd al-Qdirs Fut!h al-ghayb. The latter has been translated as Abdul-Qdir al-Jln,
Revelations of the Unseen (Fut!h al-Ghaib), trans. Muhtar Holland (Houston, TX: Al-Baz,
1992).
39
Tadmuriyya, MF 3:1167; and I!htijj, MF 8:308311, 3467.
40
F Fu$s$s, MF 2:367. Cf. Ib$tl, MF 2:294ff.
41
Itti!hdiyyn, MF 2:134, 1401.
42
Itti!hdiyyn, MF 2:142, 173; F Fu$s$s, MF 2:3645; and Ib$tl, MF 2:331, 3556.
43
Itti!hdiyyn, MF 2:255.
44
Manbij, MF 2:472; and F Fu$s$s, MF 2:3647. Ibn Taymiyya, Ib$tl, MF 2:342, also
reports that al-Tilimsn said that even a dead, scabby dog was part of Gods essence.
45
Ta, MF 8:4445; I!htijj, MF 8:3523; and (Hasana, MF 14:346359. Cf. Shams,
MF 16:235.

gods creation and gods command

111

in the extreme.46 Ibn Taymiyya describes Jahm and his followers the Jahms
as Jabrs and Mujbirs, calling Jahm himself the Imm of the Mujbirs.47
Additionally, the shaykh frequently compounds the names Jahm and Mujbir
to yield Mujbir Jahms.48 The labels Jabr and Mujbir both derive from the
word jabr (compulsion), which denotes the idea that God, as the sole Actor
in the universe, compels the human act. In earlier Islamic history, these terms
did not denote a particular group but were used by the Mutazils to cast
aspersion upon their opponents.49 Ibn Taymiyya asserts that the Jahms were
the first to deny that humans were truly the agents ( f il) of their acts, and
he reports that it was said that they believed that the servant is compelled
(majbr), and he has no act fundamentally.50 The shaykh accuses Jahm of
several related errors. Jahm sees no real difference between good and evil
deeds.51 He rejects Gods wise purpose, justice and mercy by denying that
God creates and commands for a cause or reason: [ Jahm] used to deny
that God was the Most Merciful of the merciful. He used to go out to the
lepers, look at them and say, The Most Merciful of the merciful has done
the likes of this with them.52 Ibn Taymiyya also claims that Jahm and his
followers bear a strong resemblance to the people of India (ahl al-Hind ), but
he does not explain why.53 The Muslims knew the Brahmans (Barhima) of
India primarily as deniers of prophecy, and possibly Ibn Taymiyya linked an
extreme emphasis on compulsion to a denial of the need for prophecy.
Under the rubric of the Jabrs, Ibn Taymiyya mentions the Ashar theologian Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz.54 He writes, [Al-Rz] openly proclaimed that
he taught jabr,55 and he calls al-Rz a pure Jabr.56 As we will see in the
next chapter, al-Rz does in fact call himself a Jabr, and the well-known

46
(Hasana, MF 14:346358, in which passage Ibn Taymiyya accuses Jahm of two innovations: denial of the divine attributes and excess in divine determination. The Mutazils
then fell into the first error and the Ashars the second. Cf. I!htijj, MF 8:347, 352ff. In
F Fu$s$s, MF 2:367, Ibn Taymiyya says that the Itti!hds realized the Jahm position better
than anyone else.
47
Kasb, MF 8:394; and Minhj, 3:75/2:7. In Thulth, MF 17:177, Ibn Taymiyya calls Jahm
the Imm of the extremist Mujbirs.
48
Jabr, MF 8:497; Minhj, 3:75/2:7, 3:1936/2:38; and (Hasana, MF 14:310.
49
Watt, Formative Period, 118.
50
Jabr, MF 8:460.
51
Jabr, MF 8:466; and (Hasana, MF 14:346358.
52
Jabr, MF 8:460. This story is also found in Nubuwwt, 353; Minhj, 3:32/1:270; and
Thulth, MF 17:102.
53
Shams, MF 16:239.
54
Shams, MF 16:236; and Isti$ta, MF 8:375.
55
Minhj, 3:267/2:56.
56
I!htijj, MF 8:307.

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Ashar doctrine of acquisition (kasb) in human acts is of no consequence

to either al-Rz or Ibn Taymiyya. Beyond this, Ibn Taymiyya is convinced
that al-Rzs doctrine of jabr annuls ethical distinctions: [Al-Rz] firmly
believes . . . that the servant is compelled (majbr) [to do] his act and that
the act of one compelled is not bad. Thus, no acts of servants are bad.57 Ibn
Taymiyya believes that al-Ashar is better in this regard since he affirms that
the difference between command and prohibition is real for creatures even
if not for God.58
It is something of an oddity that the two major groups that Ibn Taymiyya
brings together under the one rubric of those compromising commandthe
Sufis and the Asharsdiffer fundamentally in their approach to problems of
evil. The Sufis typically adopt some kind of optimism while the voluntarism
of the Ashars completely rejects rationality in Gods will. What the two
groups share, however, is belief in Gods determination of all existents, and
Ibn Taymiyyas primary concern in this type is with those who shirk Gods
command because they take determinism to be incompatible with human
responsibility.
Free-thinkers and Poets: Impugning Gods Wise Purpose and Justice
The Iblss constitute the third group in the Tadmuriyya typology quoted
earlier. Ibn Taymiyya explains that the Iblss take their name from their forerunner Ibls and accuse God of injustice and foolishness in what He creates
and commands. Elsewhere, Ibn Taymiyya identifies this as the view of the
fools among the poets and such like among the free-thinkers (zandiqa),
and he cites the poet Ab al-Al al-Maarr (d. 449/1058) as an example.59
Curiously, Ibn Taymiyya does not identify the voluntarist Jahms and Ashars
explicitly with the Ibls position even though their problems are similar:
both deny rationality in Gods all-determining will. Possibly the difference
is that the shaykh regards the Ashars as seeking to maintain a semblance

Shams, MF 16:246.
(Hasana, MF 14:355; and Shams, MF 16:2467.
59
Qadariyya, MF 8:260. I have not found Ibn Taymiyya naming any particular free-thinkers on the question of Gods justice. One of the better known is Ibn al-Rwand (4th/10th
century) who voiced the basic Ibls complaints mentioned here in a book called Kitb al-tadl
wa al-tajwr. For notice of this book, see Ab al-(Husayn Abd al-Ra!hmn b. Mu!hammad b.
Uthmn al-Khayy$t, Kitb al-inti$sr, ed. H.S. Nyberg and trans. Albert N. Nader (Beirut: Les
lettres orientales, 1957), 12 (trans. 2); and Sarah Stroumsa, Freethinkers in Medieval Islam:
Ibn al-Rwand, Ab Bakr al-Rz, and Their Impact on Islamic Thought (Leiden: Brill, 1999),
1312, which includes an English translation of al-Khayy$ts notice.
57
58

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113

of piety in practice while the Ibls position is that of explicit skepticism,

disbelief and rebellion.
The Quran does not speak of Iblss denial of Gods wisdom and justice.
It only mentions that he grew proud and refused to bow before Adam at
Gods command.60 However, as noted in the typology from Tadmuriyya
above, Ibn Taymiyya indicates that experts in sectarian teachings and the
People of the Book have transmitted an account of Iblss defamation of
Gods wisdom and justice.61 He probably has in mind the story of Iblss
seven objections to Gods wisdom found at the beginning of the Kitb almilal wa al-ni!hal of al-Shahrastn. (Among other charges, Ibls questions
Gods wisdom in creating him when God already knew what would become
of him).62 A passage in Irda similar to that in Tadmuriyya makes explicit
reference to al-Shahrastns account and the fact that al-Shahrastn traces
it to the People of the Book. Ibn Taymiyya casts doubt on the authenticity
of the story by noting that it lacks a proper chain of transmission, and he
goes on to argue that it is probably a Mutazil forgery.63
In Irda the shaykh also explains why the Mutazils would have interest
in forging such a story: Their intention in this is to refute those who affirm
determination. They say that Gods case against His creatures can only be
brought forward by denying determination.64 In Ibn Taymiyyas view, the

60
The story of Ibls is found in Q. 2:34, 7:118, 15:2842, 17:615, 18:50, 20:116120
and 38:7185. On the reception of this story in Sufism, see Peter J. Awn, Satans Tragedy
and Redemption: Ibls in Sufi Psychology (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1983).
61
Tadmuriyya, MF 3:111. In Minhj, 3:82/2:9, Ibn Taymiyya also mentions that a disputation by Ibls was related, but he does not indicate by whom.
62
Mu!hammad b. Abd al-Karm al-Shahrastn, Al-Milal wa al-ni!hal, ed. A!hmad Fahm
Mu!hammad (Beirut: Dar al-kutub al-ilmiyya, n.d.), 79, which is translated in Mu!hammad
b. Abd al-Karm al-Shahrastn, Muslim Sects and Divisions: The Section on Muslim Sects in
Kitb al-Milal wa l-Ni!hal, trans. A.K. Kazi and J.G. Flynn (London: Kegan Paul, 1984),
125, and Shahrastani, Livres des religions et des sectes, trans. Daniel Gimaret and Guy Monnot (Louvain: Peeters, 1986), 1:1159.
63
Irda, MF 8:1145. Sarah Stroumsa, Freethinkers, 1301, sees the ethical challenge
presented to monotheists by Manichaean and Zoroastrian dualists behind this story. Stroumsa
and Stroumsa, Aspects of Anti-Manichaean Polemics, 518, argue that Mutazils such as
Abd al-Jabbr sought to refute the dualist challenge by rejecting the foolish and unjust God
of the Manichaean caricature of monotheism. This Mutazil polemic then found a target
closer home in their Mujbir co-religionists whose belief in Gods absolute determination
seemed to bear a strong resemblance to the Manichaean caricature. These observations do
not, of course, prove that al-Shahrastns story of Ibls was a Mutazil forgery, but they do
indicate the sort of milieu in which it may have arisen. The above comments may also help to
explain why, in F Fu$s$s, MF 2:400, Ibn Taymiyya lists the Majss not with those who deny
Gods creation of human acts but with the Iblss. Perhaps he was thinking of the Zoroastrian
polemic against the goodness of a monotheistic God.
64
Irda, MF 8:115.

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story of Ibls defaming Gods wisdom and justice serves the Mutazil polemical purpose of undermining belief in Gods all-encompassing creation and
determination. If Gods creation of all human acts can be shown to entail
foolish and unjust behavior from God, then this view must be wrong. This
is in fact the strategy adopted by the Sh scholar al-(Hill in his Minhj alkarma, the Mutazil-inspired polemic against Sunnism that Ibn Taymiyya
in turn refutes in Minhj. Al-(Hills basic charges against an all-determining
God have already been noted in the description of Minhj found in the
Introduction to this study.
In setting out the four-fold typology of positions on creation and command, Ibn Taymiyya does not always highlight Ibls skepticism. Instead, one
version confronts ethical laxity with a quotation attributed to the (Hanbal
scholar Ibn al-Jawz, You are a Qadar in obedience, and you are a Jabr in
disobedience, which is to say, whatever school of thought suits your caprice
is the one you adopt.65 Ibn Taymiyya says that people holding this view take
credit for their good deeds but blame their acts of disobedience on Gods
decree, and he notes that this is not a particular school of thought but the
attitude of those unconcerned with the Law. In other places dealing with
creation and command, the shaykh cites this statement in conjunction with
Sufi antinomianism.66
To sum up the creation and command typology, Ibn Taymiyya charges that
the Sufis and the Ashars emphasize Gods determination at the expense of
Gods command and drift towards a monism that collapses the human sphere
entirely into God. He castigates the Mutazils for dualism in denying that
God creates human acts, and he censures those who impiously reject Gods
creation and command on the grounds that they are irrational and unjust.
Ibn Taymiyya himself maintains the reality of both the human responsibility
involved in Gods command and the all-encompassing character of Gods
creation without favoring one at the expense of the other. He makes no
effort here to resolve the conundrum of creation and command rationally.
He simply wards off theological and ethical shortcomings that he perceives
in the solutions of others.

+Ta, MF 8:446.
Ib$tl, MF 2:301; and Shams, MF 16:248. The quotation is also found in MF 8:241;
Ubdiyya, MF 10:165; and Ab Dharr, MF 18:204.
65
66

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115

Ibn Taymiyya: Analogy Is the Cause of Error in Creation and Command

Ibn Taymiyyas commentary on Surat al-Shams (Q. 91) [hereafter Shams]67
provides a colorful analysis of the causes of the three types of error in creation
and command noted above. The shaykh here traces the roots of the problem
to a common Qadar and Jabr presupposition in the realm of ethical value
and to an analogy Ibls drew from himself to God. These same points are
made elsewhere, but Shams appears to be unique in the degree to which it
draws them together and fills them out into a story of what went wrong.
Ibn Taymiyya opens Shams with a brief comment on the suras first eight
verses.68 Then he devotes the bulk of his energy to polemic involving the
eighth verse, [God] inspired [the soul] to its immorality ( fujr) and its
piety (taqw) (Q. 91:8). This one verse, he claims, exposes error in both the
Majs Qadar and the Jabr/Mushrik/Sufi antinomian currents of thought.
Ibn Taymiyya explains that inspiration (ilhm) here carries the meaning of
creation. Thus, God is Creator of both piety and immorality. This invalidates
a Qadar interpretation of inspiration that excludes Gods creation of human
acts even if it affirms both Gods foreknowledge and Gods determination
of everything else.69
The shaykh then contends that the verse also establishes Gods legislation
because the phrase its immorality and its piety distinguishes between the
good of piety that is commanded and the evil of immorality that is prohibited. If the verse had read only, He inspired it to its acts, the indication of
command and prohibition would not have been present. There would be
no distinction between the good and the evil, the loved and the hated, and
the commanded and the prohibited. As it stands, however, the verse is a
proof against the Mushriks, such as the antinomians and Jabrs, who do
away with command and prohibition, and good and bad.70
Thus the verse, He inspired [the soul] to its immorality and its piety,
affirms both Gods creation and Gods command. Ibn Taymiyya also finds
both together in other verses such as He misguides whomever He wills, and
He guides whomever He wills (Q. 16:93). In this verse, Gods will involves

67
Shams, MF 16:226250. The text gives no indication of its date. At MF 16:237, Ibn
Taymiyya mentions having once elaborated something elsewhere but without specifying the
___location.
68
Shams, MF 16:22630.
69
Shams, MF 16:2304.
70
Shams, MF 16:235.

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creation of all things, while guidance and misguidance involve the distinction
between good and evil found in His command and prohibition.71
Following a discussion of the human act in Shams, Ibn Taymiyya locates
the ultimate source of Qadar and Jabr difficulties in the shared presupposition that rational judgment of ethical value is incompatible with Gods
creation of human acts. He argues that both the Qadars and the Jabrs agree
that something created by God cannot be subject to judgments of moral
value by virtue of some inherent quality. They say, If [God] is the Creator
of an act, it is impossible for the act to be inherently good and deserving
of reward or bad and deserving of punishment.72 The Jabrs then conclude
that acts cannot be inherently good or bad since God creates everything.
Good and bad only arise from the command and prohibition of the God
who has the right to command what He wills without any quality [inhering]
in it and prohibit what He wills without respect to any quality [inhering]
in it.73 On the other hand, the Qadars conclude that God does not create
human acts because acts are indeed inherently good or bad. If God created
inherently bad acts, He Himself would be bad.74
In Shams Ibn Taymiyya does not defend himself against what appears
to be the inevitable conclusion of his polemic: that God creates inherently
bad acts. Instead, he continues his diatribe against the Qadars and the
Jabrs, showing his preference for the Qadars and the Mutazils over the
Jabrs because the former give stronger emphasis to Gods command and
prohibition. Following this, the shaykh turns to the Iblss. He explains that
they acknowledge Gods command as well as His determination. They err,
however, in claiming that, in the contradiction of these two, God is ignorant
and foolish and that God is unjust to punish someone for what He created
in him.75 Ibn Taymiyya then traces the source of Iblss error to the analogy
he drew from himself to God in his rebellion:
[Ibls] said, Because You misled me, I will indeed adorn the path of error for
them in the earth, and I will mislead them all (Q. 15:39). He confessed that
God misled him. Then he deemed that to be a motive making it necessary
for him to mislead Adams progeny. Ibls was the first to show enmity toward

Shams, MF 16:235.
Shams, MF 16:2378.
73
Shams, MF 16:238.
74
Shams, MF 16:238. Similarly, in Ubdiyya, MF 10:166, Ibn Taymiyya indicates that
neither Sufi antinomians nor the Mutazils can imagine someone being commanded to do
the opposite of what has been determined for him.
75
Shams, MF 16:2389.
71
72

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117

God, exceed the proper bounds of His creation and command, and oppose
what was appointed with analogy (qiys).
Because of this, one of the Salaf said, The first to draw an analogy was
Ibls. God commanded him to prostrate before Adam, but he opposed that
command with, I am better than him (Q. 7:12), and he refused to prostrate.
He was the first to show enmity toward God. He is ignorant and unjustignorant of the wise purpose in the command of God and unjust by virtue of his
pride in which he combined disregard for the Real (al-(Haqq) and contempt
for humanity.
Then his statement to his Lord, Because You misled me, I will surely do
[such and such], made Gods actwhich is His misleading himinto his
argument and motive for misleading humankind. This was his discrediting of
Gods act and His command and his allegation that it was bad. So [he said],
I will do bad also. He drew an analogy from himself to his Lord and likened
himself to his Lord. Thus, he was imitating [God] in lordship.76

In this passage, Iblss first error is to draw an analogy between himself and
Adam and then to conclude that Gods command was without wise purpose.
Moreover, Ibls accuses God of having committed a bad act in misleading
him. This is also based on an analogical projection of his own sense of good
and bad onto God, which, in Ibn Taymiyyas judgment, is tantamount to
claiming the prerogative of lordship.
In Shams the shaykh does not directly accuse the Qadars/Mutazils of
holding God analogically to human standards of good and bad, but it is
implicit in his analysis of why they maintain that God cannot create bad acts.
If we say that God cannot do acts that we know to be inherently bad, then
we are holding God to human standards of what is bad. As we will see later
in Chapter Six, Ibn Taymiyya argues this explicitly against the Mutazils in
his discussions of Gods justice. In discussing Gods creation and command,
the shaykh also does not accuse the Jabrs/Ashars of falling into the analogy
trap. Yet, this as well is implicit in his analysis here in Shams when he argues
that the Jabrs share with the Qadars the common presupposition that God
could not create inherently bad deeds. Thus, the Jabr viewpoint also rests
on a human analogical judgment about what is impossible for God. This
common presupposition of the Qadars and the Jabrs comes out clearly in
Ibn Taymiyyas narrative description of their joint failure to defeat Ibls:
The Qadars intended to exonerate God of foolishness. Their intention was
good because HeGlory be to Himis much too holy for what the unjust
among Ibls and his forces say. [He is] a wise arbiter and just. However, [the
Qadars] were not up to the task, and a sort of ignorance overtook them. With
76

Shams, MF 16:239240.

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this, they firmly believed that this exoneration could only be completed by
stripping Him of His power over the acts of servants, His creation of them,
and His all-encompassing will of everything. They disputed with Ibls and his
party in one thing, but Ibls got the better of them from another angle. This is
one of the greatest banes of debating in religion without knowledge or without
truth. This is the talk (kalm) that the Salaf blamed. One who does this refutes
vanity with vanity and innovation with innovation.
Then groups from the People of Affirmation [of determination] came and
disputed with [the Qadars] in order to establish firmly that God is Creator of
everything, that what God wills is and what He does not will is not and that
He is powerful over everything. However, their strength and knowledge were
not up to the task. For they firmly believed that this could not be completed
unless we deny Gods love, good pleasure and the good and evil attributes that
set one act apart from another and we deny His wise purpose and His mercy.
Thus, every act is admissible for Him, and He is exonerated neither from
injustice nor any other act.77

Here Ibn Taymiyya alleges that the Qadars maintain Gods wisdom and
justice at the expense of Gods power, creation and will. The People of
Affirmation (i.e. Jabrs) maintain Gods creation, will and power against
the Qadars at the expense of Gods love and good pleasure and His wise
purpose, justice and mercy. In the Jabr outlook, God can do anything, and
good and evil are totally subjective.
It must be said, of course, that the historical figures lying behind the
polemical labels Qadar and Jabr do not deny the divine attributes in question. Rather, they interpret them in senses not to Ibn Taymiyyas liking.
Yet, this raises questions about the coherence of the shaykhs polemic in
Shams. On the one hand, he rejects analogical extension of human concepts
onto God. On the other, he has definite ideas about what Gods attributes
meanobviously based on some kind of relation to human languageand
he criticizes those who differ with his interpretations. However, the shaykh
does not explain in Shams how he himself escapes the analogy trap, and
his polemic taken in isolation presents itself as completely contradictory.
Sense can be made of it only by reference to his theological methodology
surveyed in Chapter One. The God who bears no analogy to creatures must
nonetheless be spoken well ofgiven the highest similitudein accord with
considerations of tradition and reason.

77

Shams, MF 16:241.

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Modes of Expressing Creation and Command in Ibn Taymiyyas Thought

Creation and Command in the Wsi$tiyya Creed
The previous two sections have outlined Ibn Taymiyyas polemic against those
whom he believes fail to uphold creation and command in proper balance.
The commentary in Shams has shown also how the shaykh reads creation
and command into the quranic term inspiration (ilhm) and the contrast
between piety and immorality, respectively. The present section examines
the diverse modes of expression that fall under this rubric more directly,
beginning with the basic confession of creation and command found in the
segment on Gods determination in Ibn Taymiyyas well-known catechismal
creed Wsi$tiyya.78 The shaykh opens this segment by affirming that the People
of the Sunna believe in determination, the good of it and the evil of it. He
then proceeds to note that belief in determination has two stages. The first
stage (daraja) is belief in Gods knowledge of all human acts from eternity
and in Gods writing down all that He determined to be, in general and in
detail. The second stage of belief in determination sets out Gods creation
and command:
As for the second stage, it is the operational will of God (mashat Allh alnfidha) and His all-inclusive power (qudra). It is belief that what God wills
is and that what He does not will is not. And that there is no motion and rest
in the heavens and the earth except by the will of GodGlory be to Him.
There is nothing in His sovereignty except what He wills. And that HeGlory
be to Him, and Exalted is Heis powerful over everything among existents
and nonexistents. There is no created thing in the earth or in heaven but that
God is its CreatorGlory be to Him. There is no creator other than Him
and no lord except Him.
Along with this, He has commanded His servants to obey Him and obey His
messengers, and He has prohibited them from disobeying Him. HeGlory be
to Himloves the pious, the beneficent and the fair, and He is well pleased
with those who believe and perform righteous deeds. He does not love the
unbelievers, and He is not well pleased with iniquitous people. He does not

78
Al-Aqda al-wsi$tiyya, MF 3:129159, which is equivalent to MRK 1:387406 and
has been translated into three European languages: Henri Laoust, La profession; Merlin Swartz,
A seventh-century (A.H.) Sunn creed: The Aqda Wsi$tya of Ibn Taymya, Humaniora
Islamica 1 (1973): 91131; and Clemens Wein, trans., Die Islamische Glaubenslehre (Aqda)
des Ibn Taimya (Bonn: n.p., 1973). This creed became very well known in Ibn Taymiyyas
day and has had widespread appeal down to the present. For affirmations similar to those
found here in Wsi$tiyya, see MF 8:2358; Tiyya, MF 8:2467; and Jabr, MF 8:449450,
452, 459, 466.

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command abomination, and He is not well pleased with unbelief in His servants. He does not love corruption.
Servants are agents in reality (!haqqatan), and God is the Creator of their
acts. The servant is the believer and the unbeliever, the righteous and the
immoral, the one praying and the one fasting. His servants have power to do
their acts, and they have a will. God is their Creator and the Creator of their
power and their will, as HeExalted is Hesaid, To whosoever among you
wills to go straight. You will not unless God, Lord of the worlds, so wills
(Q. 81:289).
The vast majority of the Qadars denounce this level of determination as
liesthose whom the ProphetGod bless him and give him peacecalled
the Majs of this community. A group from among the people who establish
[Gods attributes and determination] are extreme in it to the point that they
strip the servant of his power and choice, and they exclude wise purposes
(!hikam)79 and benefits from Gods acts and judgments.80

The first paragraph of this passage establishes that Gods attributes of will,
power, sovereignty, lordship and creation encompass everything. He is the
Creator of all things. The third paragraph treats the special instance of
Gods creation of human acts. Ibn Taymiyya is here concerned to maintain
that human acts are real and that humans are in fact the agents of their acts
despite Gods will and creation of them. The human act will receive further
consideration in Chapter Four. The second paragraph links Gods command
to His attributes of love (ma!habba) and good pleasure (ri#d). God loves and
is well pleased with belief and obedience, and He does not love unbelief,
disobedience and corruption. The fourth paragraph disparages the Qadar
position on determination and criticizes those who deny that God acts for
wise purposes and benefits (i.e. the Jabrs).
Lordship and Divinity
Parallel to the creation/command distinction in Ibn Taymiyyas thought is
a further distinction between Gods lordship and divinity. We have already
met these two notions in Chapter One, and, as noted there, Gods lordship
(rubbiyya) deals with His creation of all things and the great need of creatures to call upon Him for help while Gods divinity (ulhiyya or ilhiyya) is
linked to His command and indicates His essential right to worship. These
79
Laoust, La profession, 73, appears to have read !hikam as !hukm because he renders the
Arabic as sens (sense or meaning). The plural form !hikam of the singular !hikma (wisdom or wise purpose) flows better with the Arabic style of the sentence since it lies in
parallel with the clearly plural ma$sli!h (benefits).
80
Wsi$tiyya, MF 3:149150; the translation is my own.

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121

terms usually appear in strongly ethical discussions, often dealing with the
verse in the Fti!ha, You alone we worship; You alone we ask for help
(Q. 1:5). These discussions make an appeal to confess both that God is
the only Lord who may be called upon for help (taw!hd al-rubbiyya or
al-taw!hd al-rabbn) and that God is the sole divinity or worthy object of
worship (taw!hd al-ulhiyya or al-taw!hd al-ilh). This taw!hid al-ulhiyya
excludes any kind of shirk or giving partners to God; God has the right to
exclusive devotion.81
A reasonably full treatment of these concepts appears in Ibn Taymiyyas F
Fu$s$s, an apologetic text directed toward Sufis. Its primary lacuna is explicit
reference to the Avicennan causal analysis relating lordship as the efficient
cause to divinity as the final cause, which was noted in Chapter One. In
discussing lordship, Ibn Taymiyya affirms that God is the Lord, Creator and
Sovereign of all things. He created the heavens and the earth. The heart of
every servant is between two fingers of the fingers of the All-Merciful. If
He wills to set them aright, He sets them aright. If He wills to turn them
aside, He turns them aside.82 The Lord makes people laugh, and He makes
people cry. He sends the wind and the rain. He guides and misguides. He
knows all things and has power over them.83 The shaykh complements Gods
overwhelming power, lordship and governance with His goodness, wise purpose and mercy. Everything that God has created is good, perfect and wise.
His mercy extends far and wide, and, as found in the Hadith, Indeed, God
is more merciful toward His servants than this mother toward her son.84
Ibn Taymiyya draws these affirmations together under two principles: 1)
the universality of Gods creation and lordship and 2) the universality of
His beneficence (i!hsn) and wise purpose. Gods attributes of lordship and
sovereignty are not capricious but give evidence of Gods goodness and mercy.
God creates all, and all that God creates is good and wise. All things are in
fact signs of God, and they manifest (mu)zhir) the names and attributes of
God from which they derive.85
Following this Ibn Taymiyya moves in F Fu$s$s to Gods divinity (ilhiyya),
which indicates that creatures should make God their god (taalluh), that is,
81
Taw!h#d, MF 1:223; Shirk, MF 1:8990; Manbij, MF 2:4559; Tadmuriyya, MF
3:98109; Ubdiyya, MF 10:1568; Fti!ha, MF 14:515, 316; (Hasana, MF 14:376380;
Ma!habba, 245; Talbs, 2:454; and Minhj, 3:276336/2:5974.
82
F Fu$s$s, MF 2:3989.
83
F Fu$s$s, MF 2:3989.
84
F Fu$s$s, MF 2:399400. This hadith is found in Bukhr, 5540, Al-Adab, Ra!hmat alwalad wa taqbluhu wa munaqatuhu; Muslim 4947; and Ibn Mja, 4287.
85
F Fu$s$s, MF 2:400.

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their object of worship, and that worship should be devoted to God alone.86
The shaykh elaborates further that the source of Gods exclusive right to
worship is Gods essence or very self (nafs):
To Him is the destiny [of beings] and their return, and He is their object of
worship and their God. It is not fitting that any [being] be worshipped except
Himjust as no one created them but Hebecause of that to which He has
a right in Himself (lim huwa musta!hiqquhu bi-nafsihi) and of that which He
alone possesses of the attributes of divinity, in which He has no associate.87

Ibn Taymiyya then discusses how Gods divinity and lordship appear in
humans. Traces of divinity and the rulings of the law are manifest only in
those who serve God, take God as a friend, agree with God in what He loves
and is well pleased with and follow what He commands and prohibits. God
manifests traces of His lordship and the rulings of His power in both believers and unbelievers as He gives them provision, property, beauty, knowledge
and religious experiences. The manifestation of lordship apart from divinity
is especially clear in Pharaoh, the Mongol conqueror Ghengis Khan and the
one-eyed Dajjl. The manifestation of divinity and lordship together occurs
in angels, prophets and friends of God as in the Prophet Mu!hammad and the
Messiah, son of Mary. Ibn Taymiyya notes further that lordship corresponds
to the judgments of the ontological words and divinity to judgments of the
religious words, and he gives an extensive list of such words.88 These two
kinds of words correspond to creation and command, respectively, and they
will be examined next from a different text.
Ontology and Legislation
Ibn Taymiyya often qualifies matters linked to Gods determination and
creation with the term ontological (kawn) and things related to Gods command and prohibition with the terms religious (dn) and legislative (shar).
The shaykh speaks, for example, of the ontological, determinative and lordly
realities (al-!haqiq al-kawniyya al-qadariyya al-rubbiyya), which apply to
all things, and the religious, legislative, divine realities (al-!haqiq al-dniyya
al-shariyya al-ilhiyya), which extend only to those who obey Gods command.89 Other similar ways of speaking include Gods address of generation

86
87
88
89

F Fu$s$s, MF 2:4046.
F Fu$s$s, MF 2:406.
F Fu$s$s, MF 2:4078, 4113.
Fti!ha, MF 14:15; and Ubdiyya, MF 10:1567.

gods creation and gods command

123

(khi$tb al-takwn) and Gods address of obligation (khi$tb al-taklf ),90 and
His ontological creation (khalquhu al-kawn) and His religious command
(amruhu al-dn).91 Ibn Taymiyya takes a number of quranic terms to have
an ontological meaning in some contexts and a legislative meaning in others. Among these are Gods will (irda), decree (qa#d), judgment (!hukm),
authorization (idhn) and command (amr). The shaykh sets these out in list
form with example quranic verses and hadiths in a number of texts.92
One such list, which is typical of the rest, is translated below with its introduction. This passage falls within Taraddud, a short fatwa on the meaning of
Gods hesitation (taraddud) found in the Hadith of Supererogatory Works
(!hadth al-nawfil). The last portion of the hadith reads, I do not hesitate
over anything as I hesitate over taking the soul of My believing servant. He
hates death, and I hate to torment him.93 Ibn Taymiyya notes that God loves
His servants who draw close to Him through supererogatory works, and so
He hates to take their lives. Yet, God has decreed death. Gods hesitation
means that God decrees death despite the fact that He hates it. There is thus a
conflict of interest between Gods love and Gods decree. To resolve this, Ibn
Taymiyya concludes that God has a wise purpose (!hikma) in everything that
He determines and decrees.94 In the middle of the fatwa, Ibn Taymiyya notes
that a similar conflict between Gods moral attributes and His ontological
attributes exists in His willing of unbelief and disobedience, and this leads
him into a listing of parallel ontological and religious terms:
[Concerning] the unbelief, iniquity and disobedience that occur in existence.
GodExalted is Heloathes that, displays wrath against it, hates it and
prohibits it. And HeGlory be to Himhas determined it, decreed it and
willed it with His ontological will (al-irda al-kawniyya), even if He did not
will it with a religious will (irda dniyya). This is the crux of the matter ( fa$sl
al-khi$tb) about which the people dispute: Does HeGlory be to Himcommand what He does not will?

Martib, MF 8:1826.
F Fu$s$s, MF 2:409.
92
The fullest text of this kind that I have located is Awliy, MF 11:265271, which is
translated in Yahya M. Michot, Textes Spirituels dIbn Taymiyya: II. Ltre (kawn) et la
religion (dn), Le Musulman (Paris) 13 (19901): 710, 28. Similar lists are found in F
Fu$s$s, MF 2:4113; Tu!hfa, MF 10:238; and MF 8:5861.
93
This is the last part of the !hadth al-nawfil found in Bukhr, 6021, Kitb al-riqq,
Bb al-taw#du. See Graham, Divine Word and Prophetic Word, 1734, for a brief discussion
of the transmission and content of this hadith.
94
Taraddud, MF 18:129135, which is translated into French in Yahya Michot, Un Dieu
hsitant? (Beirut: Dar Al-Bouraq, 1425/2005).
90
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The general belief among the Kalm theologians who establish [determination] and those who agree with them from among the jurists is that He commands what He does not will. The Qadars, the Mutazils and others say that
He only commands what He wills.
The truth of the matter is that will (irda) in the Book of God is of two
kinds: a religious, legislative will and an ontological, determinative (qadar)
will. The first is like His statementExalted is HeGod wills ease for you.
He does not will difficulty for you (Q. 2:185), and His statementExalted
is HeHe wills to purify you (Q. 5:6). And His statementExalted is
HeGod wills to make plain to you and to guide you in the ways of those
before you, to His statement, and God wills to turn toward you (Q. 4:267).
Here, will has the meaning of love and good pleasure, and this is the religious
will. The indicator of this is His statement, I did not create the jinn and
humankind except that they might worship Me (Q. 51:56).
As for the ontological, determinative will, this is like His statementExalted
is HeWhomever God wills to guide, He opens his breast to Islam. Whomever He wills to misguide, He makes his breast narrow and tight as if he were
climbing up to the sky (Q. 6:125). And like the saying of the Muslims, What
God wills is, and what God does not will is not. All beings are encompassed
in this will (irda) and necessitating will (isha). Good and evil, right and
wrong do not deviate from it. This will and the necessitating will include what
the legislative command does not include. The religious will corresponds to
the legislative command. They do not differ. This division between the ontological, determinative and the religious, legislative appearing in the term will
appears likewise in the terms command (amr), words (kalimt), judgment
(!hukm), decree (qa#d), writing (kitb), raising up (bath), sending (irsl) and
their like.
The ontological words are those from which neither a righteous person nor
an immoral person deviates. These are those with which the ProphetGod
bless him and give him peaceasked for help in his statement, I take refuge in
the complete words of God that no righteous or immoral person oversteps.95
GodExalted is Hesaid, His command when He wills something is only
that He says to it, Be! and it is (Q. 36:82). As for the religious [words], these
are the books sent down about which the Prophet said, Whoever fights so
that the word of God is exalted is on the path of God.96 And HeExalted
is Hesaid, She judged the words of her Lord and His books to be true
(Q. 66:12).
Also, the religious command is like His statementExalted is HeTruly,
God commands you to deliver trusts back to their owners (Q. 4:58). And
the ontological, His command when He wills something (Q. 36:82).97

A!hmad, 14914, Musnad al-makkiyyn, (Hadth Abd al-Ra!hmn b. Khanbash.

Bukhr, 120, Al-Ilm, Man saala wa huwa qim liman jlisan; Bukhr, 2599; Muslim,
3525; and elsewhere.
97
Ibn Taymiyya only quotes the first part of this verse, having already quoted it in full
above.
95
96

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125

The religious raising up is like His statementExalted is HeIt is He

who raised up from among the unlearned a Messenger from among them
(Q. 62:2). And the ontological raising up, We raised up against you servants
of ours (Q. 17:5). The religious sending is like his statement, He it is who
sent His messenger with guidance and the religion of truth (Q. 9:33). And
the ontological, Do you not see that We sent satans against the unbelievers
to incite them (Q. 19:83).98

Behind some of these terms lie polemical debates and distinctions. The first
part of the quotation mentions the difficulties of Kalm theologians with
will, and these will be treated below.99 A further example comes from Ibn
Taymiyyas polemic against Ibn Arabs interpretation of decree (qa#d). In
the verse, Your Lord has decreed that you serve none but Him (Q. 17:23),
Ibn Arab understands decree (qa#d) to mean that no one in the universe
worships anyone but God, no matter what his immediate object of worship
might be. In the story of Aaron, Moses and the calf, for example, Ibn Arab
says that Moses knew that those worshipping the calf were in fact worshipping God because this is what God decreed.100 In Ibn Taymiyyas view, Ibn
Arab incorrectly reads decree in Q. 17:23 in an ontological sense, while the
context of the verse dictates that decree means command.101
Ontological Will and Legislative Will
Several times in his writings, Ibn Taymiyya sets out the two types of will
(irda) found in the list from Taraddud above along with the same or similar
illustrative verses.102 The two types receive a number of different names. For
example, the shaykh calls them the commanding will (al-irda al-amriyya)
and the creative will (al-irda al-khalqiyya).103 On the side of creation are
also the ontological, determinative (qadariyya) will104 and the ontological,

Taraddud, MF 18:1313.
See also discussion of the two types of command (amr) in Ib$tl, MF 2:289, 320330,
and the two types of authorization (idhn) in (Hasana, MF 14:383ff., which occur in a treatment of Gods authorization of intercession in Q. 2:255. Cf. Qawl Al, MF 8:168.
100
See Mu!hy al-Dn Ibn Arab, Fu$s$s al-!hikam, ed. and commentary Ab al-Al Aff
(Beirut: Dr al-kitb al-arab, n.d.), 72 and 1912. Both passages from F$s$s al-!hikam are
quoted by Ibn Taymiyya in Itti!hdiyyn, MF 2:2512.
101
Itti!hdiyyn, MF 2:264.
102
Minhj, 3:167/1:2667, 3:1567/2:29, 5:4123/3:103; Irda, MF 8:131, 140;
MF 8:159; MF 8:1978; MF 8:2012; Ta, MF 8:4401; Jabr, MF 8:476; and Thulth,
17:6263.
103
Minhj, 5:413/3:103.
104
Minhj, 3:156/2:29.
98
99

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all-inclusive (shmila) will.105 Other ways of drawing the distinction include

the will of decree (qa#d) and determination (taqdr) versus the will of
command and legislation (tashr),106 and the will of generation (takwn)
versus the will of command, Law, love, good pleasure and religion.107 The
following passage speaks of the two wills in yet another combination of
termsdeterminative, creative and commanding, legislativeand links
them to lordship and divinity, respectively. Also, Gods commanding will
is linked to Gods love and good pleasure and that which is beneficial for
human beings.
The Salaf, the leaders of the jurists and the great majority of Muslims affirm
creation and command: the determinative, creative will including every originating event and the commanding, legislative will concerning everything that
God loves and is well pleased with for His servants, which is what the Messengers were commanded and is what profits servants, is beneficial to them,
and has a praiseworthy end, profitable at the Return (al-mad) and repelling
corruption. This commanding, legislative will is linked to His divinity which
includes His lordship. Similarly, that creative, determinative will is linked to
His lordship.108

Ibn Taymiyya outlines the four possible combinations of ontological will and
legislative will in a brief treatise called Martib al-irda. First, the two wills
coexist in the generation of righteous deeds. Second, righteous deeds that
do not occur are linked to the legislative will, but not to the ontological.
Third, acts of disobedience and permitted acts (mub!ht) that occur, but
are not commanded, are linked to the ontological will, but not the legislative. Fourth, neither the legislative will nor the ontological will are linked to
permitted acts and acts of disobedience that do not occur.109 Ibn Taymiyya
makes similar notes on the combinations of the two wills elsewhere. For
example, he defines the happy person as the one in whom Gods will of
determination and will of command concur and the unhappy person as the
one in whom they do not.110 Also, God wills belief and obedience from those
Irda, MF 8:131.
MF 8:197.
107
MF 8:2012.
108
Thulth, MF 17:64.
109
Martib al-irda, MF 8:1889, which is translated in Fritz Meier, The Cleanest about
Presdestination: A Bit of Ibn Taymiyya, in Essays on Islamic Piety and Mysticism, trans. John
OKane (Leiden: Brill, 1999), 309334 (text on 3289), which is in turn a translation of
Fritz Meier, Das sauberste ber die vorbestimmung: Ein stck Ibn Taymiyya, Saeculum 32
(1981): 7489. Reference to Meier hereafter is only to the English. Bell, Love Theory, 67,
provides a diagram illustrating the various combinations of will.
110
MF 8:198.
105
106

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127

who believe and obey both in command and creation, and He helps them
and makes them do that. On the other hand, God commands unbelievers
to believe and obey in His legislative, religious will, but He does not will
to create their obedience in His ontological will. This is for a wise purpose
and a benefit that overrides whatever benefit may have been attained in
creating obedience.111
The shaykh furthermore links the ontological will to Gods masha (will)
and, as we saw above, the legislative will to His love and good pleasure.112
For Ibn Taymiyya, the semantic fields of masha and irda are not identical,
and this presents a problem in translation. For lack of better alternatives,
I usually translate both terms as will and transliterate the Arabic when
necessary. Ibn Taymiyya uses masha only for Gods ontological activity as
when he says that the irda linked to the creation is the masha and is the
ontological, determinative irda.113 The term irda, however, carries either
an ontological or a legislative sense depending on the context.114
The distinction between irda and masha also becomes apparent in Ibn
Taymiyyas discussion of oath taking. If someone swears an oath that he will
do such and such if God wills (sha) and does not do it even when he has
no excuse, he has not broken his oath. A person cannot be held accountable
for not conforming to Gods masha. If, however, he swears an oath by Gods
love, and he does not do it, then he has broken his oath. He is liable to do
what God loves and commands. If he swears by Gods irda and does not
do it, he has broken his oath only if he intended the irda of love.115
Ibn Taymiyyas primary polemical targets when discussing the two types
of irda are Kalm theologians who make the semantic fields of divine will,
love and good pleasure identical. This has different results for the Mutazils
and the Ashars, respectively. The shaykh reports that the Mutazils equate
love, good pleasure and willboth irda and mashasolely with Gods
command. In this case, things exist which God does not will ( yash), and
God wills things that do not exist.116 Ibn Taymiyya reports that al-Juwayn

Minhj, 5:414. Cf. Minhj, 3:1623 and 1823, and MF 8:199.

Minhj, 3:233/2:478; and MF 8:159.
113
Minhj, 3:156/2:29.
114
Bells brief discussion of masha and irda in Love Theory, 656, is not sufficiently
precise and may be read to mean that both masha and irda carry ontological and religious
senses. As noted here, however, Ibn Taymiyya uses masha only in the ontological sense.
115
Minhj, 3:16/1:266, 3:19/1:267, 3:1556/2:28, 3:188/2:36; and Jabr, MF 8:475. Cf.
Minhj, 3:258/2:54.
116
Minhj, 3:145/1:266, 3:158/2:29, 3:196/2:39; I!htijj, MF 8:340; and Jabr, MF
8:474, 4767.
111
112

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said that al-Ashar was the first to equate divine love, good pleasure and
will (both irda and masha) wholly with Gods creation of all that exists,
and in this he was followed by Ab Yal, al-Juwayn himself and others.
The shaykh says that this ultimately goes back to Jahm b. !Safwan, although
he also accuses the latter of denying Gods attributes completely.117 In this
Ashar view, God loves and is well pleased with everything, including iniquity, unbelief and disobedience. God loves, wills and is well pleased with
all that exists. He does not love and will what does not exist, and He is not
well pleased with it. Ibn Taymiyya notes that the Ashars reinterpret such
verses as God does not love corruption (Q. 2:205) and God is not well
pleased with unbelief in His servants (Q. 39:7) to mean that God does not
love and will corruption and unbelief in those in whom they do not exist
or that God does not love and will these things religiously in the sense that
He does not will to reward the corrupt and the unbeliever.118
Ibn Taymiyya also reports that al-Ashar held a second position, which
is that of the majority among those who believe in only one type of irda.
In this view, the irda is Gods masha alone whereas Gods love and good
pleasure are linked to His command.119 The shaykh attributes this view to
most of the Kalm theologians, the Karrms and the (Hanbals Ab Bakr
Abd al-Azz and Ibn al-Jawz.120 Ibn Taymiyya argues that the majority of
Sunns up to the time of al-Ashar, as well as subsequently, distinguish Gods
irda of all things from His love and good pleasure linked to His command.
However, it is not always clear whether the shaykh also attributes a two-irda
view to this majority or simply a separation between a single irda on the
one hand and love and good pleasure on the other.121
For the sake of independent historical perspective, Gimaret and Bell have
shown that the complete identification of love and good pleasure with all
that God wills to exist is not found in Ashar theology until al-Juwayn. It
also appears that no Ashar followed him in this thereafter.122 Bell cites the
Minhj, 3:15/1:266, 5:412/3:1023; Jabr, MF 8:475; H
( asana, MF 14:353; and Thulth,
MF 17:1012.
118
Minhj, 3:145/1:266, 3:1589/2:29, 3:196/2:3940; I!htijj, MF 8:3405; Jabr, MF
8:4767; Thulth, MF 17:101; and Irda, MF 8:98. Much of Irda, MF 8:97106, is translated
in Rahman, Revival and Reform in Islam, 149153.
119
Minhj, 3:181/2:34.
120
Minhj, 5:4112/3:1023.
121
Minhj, 3:15/1:266, 3:178/1:267, 3:159/2:29; and Jabr, MF 8:4756.
122
Bell, Love Theory, 5660. See al-Juwayn, Kitb al-irshd, 99 (in the middle of Bb
al-qawl f al-isti$ta wa !hukmih), for the identification of will, love and good pleasure. In
this text, however, al-Juwayn does not identify this view as that of al-Ashar explicitly but
only as that of those Ashars who are right (man !haqqaqa min aimmatin). D. Gimaret,
117

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later Ashars al-Ghazl and al-Rz as maintaining a distinction between

good pleasure and love on the one hand and will on the other.123 Also,
Roger Arnaldez has shown that al-Rz sets out a scheme of two wills, one
pertaining to creation and one to command.124 Additionally, the Sufi Ab
+Tlib al-Makk (d. 386/996) identifies irda with masha and love with
Gods command, and he also then distinguishes two types of irda: one
pertaining to generation and one to command.125 In sum Ibn Taymiyya says
nothing new with his doctrine of two wills and the restriction of love and
good pleasure to Gods legislative will. However, he singles out al-Juwayns
view that God loves all that exists and makes it a frequent focus of polemic.
He may believe that this is what Asharism truly reduces to, or possibly this
doctrine enables him to make the link that he perceives to exist between
Ashar theology and antinomian Sufism.126
Ibn Taymiyya Defending the Coherence of Creation and Command
As is clear from the preceding discussion, Ibn Taymiyya devotes much effort
to holding creation and command in balance without compromising one to
the other and without succumbing to skepticism or irrationality. However,
he devotes relatively little energy to exploring the sense of their relationship when they appear to contradict. Yet, he does not ignore the problem
completely. Perhaps his most powerful metaphor capturing the paradoxical

Un problme de thologie musulmane: Dieu veut-il les actes mauvais? Thses et arguments,
Studia Islamica 40 (1974): 573 and 41(1975): 6392 (at 40:1723), locates the direct attribution of this view to al-Ashar only in non-Ashar texts including the Mturd theologian
al-Pazdaw (d. 593/1099), and he adds that he could find no grounds in al-Ashars texts for
attributing the view to the master himself.
123
Bell, Love Theory, 233 n. 5. For further historical background, see especially Gimaret,
Un problme de thologie musulmane, 40:1723; and al-Julaynad, Qa#diyyat al-khayr wa
al-sharr, 4251 (includes Mutazil views). See also, Gardet, Dieu et la destine de lhomme,
1201; and Meier, The Cleanest about Predestination, 3212.
124
Roger Arnaldez, Apories sur la prdestination et le libre arbitre dans le commentaire
de Razi, Mlanges de linstitut dominicain dtudes orientales 6 (19591961): 123136 (at
1356).
125
Ab +Tlib al-Makk, Qt al-qulb (n.pl.: n.p., n.d.), 1:1278 (i.e. toward the end of
Section 30 in Vol. 1), distinguishes between Gods command which attaches only to religious
obligations and Gods love which attaches to both religious obligations and supererogatory
works. See also the general discussion of the conflict between Gods will (irda) and command (amr) in Sufism in Awn, Satans Tragedy and Redemption, 1019.
126
Ibn Taymiyya clearly links the Ashar equation of will and love to Sufi antinomianism
in I!htijj, MF 8:337370; and (Hasana, MF 14:346359. Cf. Bell, Love Theory, 901.

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linkage of creation and command is the image of seeing with two eyes. I
have found only one clear usage of this in the shaykhs writings. Concerning
Gods will of determination and Gods will of the Law, he says, Judgment
(al-!hukm) goes according to these two wills. Whoever looks at deeds with
these two eyes sees. Whoever looks at determination without the Law or
the Law without determination is one-eyed.127
Ibn Taymiyya explores the coherence of his position in a few different
places, but it is in Minhj, writing against al-(Hill the Sh theologian of
Mutazil orientation, that he makes his fullest contribution. Al-(Hill strongly
insinuates that the will of the Sunn God is irrational, charging inter alia
that the Prophet disobeys God in commanding belief when the Sunn God
wills the unbelief of the unbeliever.128 Ibn Taymiyyas counter polemic against
Mutazilism has been surveyed above. Here we focus on the shaykhs attempt
to defend the rationality of his approach.
Wise Purpose in Commanding but not Helping
In an extended discussion in Minhj, Ibn Taymiyya distinguishes two kinds
of will (irda) as follows. First is the will of an agent to perform his own act,
and second is the will of an agent that someone else commit an act.129 With
respect to God, the shaykh observes that some affirm only the first kind of
will, Gods will to act Himself. These are obviously the Jabrs, although he
provides no labels. Conversely, the Qadars affirm the second kind of will but
deny the first by denying that God creates human acts. Ibn Taymiyya asserts
that the Salaf affirm both kinds of will, and he continues with examples
from human affairs of how this might be so to advance the plausibility of
this view. For instance, someone may command another to do what profits
the latter but not help him do it because there is no benefit (ma$sla!ha) in
it for the commander. This is like someone who advises another to marry a
certain woman but does not marry her himself. Ibn Taymiyya argues that if
127
MF 8:198. When discussing Gods lordship and divinity in Shirk, MF 1:90, Ibn Taymiyya speaks similarly, but less vividly, of two views (mashhad): When the servant is found
true in this view [of lordship] and [God] gives him success in that such that this view does
not veil him from the first view [of Gods divinity], he is learned ( faqh) in his servitude.
These two views are indeed the pivot around which the religion turns. For this reference I
am indebted to Yahya M. Michot, Textes Spirituels dIbn Taymiyya: IV. Entre la divinit
et la seigneurialit, le polymorphisme de lassociationnism (shirk), Le Musulman (Paris) 16
(1991): 813, (at 10), which translates Shirk, MF 1: 8894.
128
Minhj, 3:154/2:28.
129
Minhj, 3:168177/2:314. This distinction is also made in Minhj, 3:18/1:267; and
Jabr, MF 8:4778.

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this distinction is possible with respect to creatures it is a fortiori possible

with respect to God. God has commanded human beings what profits them
and prohibited them from what harms them. Yet, God does not create all
acts which He commands. Such was the case in God commanding Pharaoh
and Ab Lahab to believe but not helping them do so because of His wise
purpose in that or to avoid some unspecified detriment (mafsada).
Ibn Taymiyya goes on in Minhj to emphasize that commanding someone
to do something that will benefit the commanded or even the commander is
not the same as helping the commanded carry out the act. The commander
may refrain from helping in order to avoid his own detriment. As an example,
the shaykh cites the quranic story of one who came running to warn Moses
to flee. He told Moses, A crowd is conspiring to kill you. Leave! I am an
advisor to you (Q. 28:20). It was to his benefit to command Moses to leave
but not to help him in that. Indeed, if he had helped him, his people would
have harmed him.130 Again, Ibn Taymiyya argues that if it is possible on the
human plane that someone command but not help out of consideration for
his own wise purpose and benefit then it is a fortiori possible for God. He
adds another example to illustrate the basic concept. Someoneapparently
a king, although the shaykh does not specifymay realize that it would be
to the benefit of one of his subjects to learn the ways of power. Furthermore,
this king might command his subject to do what would benefit him (i.e. the
subject). However, the king himself will not help his subject lest he rise up as
an enemy against the kings son. The upshot is that God has a wise purpose
in all that He commands and all that He creates even if there is a kind of
harm in that for some people on account of the wise purpose in that.131
Ibn Taymiyyas various illustrations from human affairs presuppose libertarian freedom in the one commanded, that is, freedom to act apart from
any external control. Yet, as the shaykh makes clear at the beginning of this
passage in Minhj, the distinction between willing to act oneself and willing that another act involves subsuming the creation of human acts strictly
under Gods own will to act. It thus goes without saying that Ibn Taymiyyas
examples do not apply to the God-human relationship univocally, and the
shaykh acknowledges this in an aside as he reiterates his main point:
[As for] the examples that are mentioned concerning creatureseven if it is
not possible to mention the like of them with respect to Godthe point here
is that it is possible with respect to the wise creature to command someone else

130
131

Minhj, 3:172/2:32.
Minhj, 3:1715/2:323 (quote at 3:175/2:33).

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with a command and not help him do it. The Creator is all the more worthy
(awl) of that possibility with respect to Him with His wise purpose.132

As elsewhere, Ibn Taymiyya does not explain the methodology of his

theological jurisprudence as well as he might, but reference to the quranic
injunction to give God the highest similitude (al-mathal al-al) discussed
in Chapter One makes his procedure reasonably clear. While maintaining
that Gods essence, attributes, and acts are wholly unlike those of creatures,
the shaykh nonetheless seeks to ascribe to God praiseworthy human perfections. In the present passage from Minhj, Ibn Taymiyya wards off the
implication in al-(Hills polemic that the relationship between creation and
command is irrational by building on examples of human wisdom to point
to the praiseworthiness of Gods wisdom.
Ibn Taymiyya continues in Minhj with some suggestions as to Gods wise
purposes in untoward things. Gods creation of illness and oppression lead
to invocation, humility, repentance, expiation of sins, removal of pride and
enmity, and softening of the heart, all benefits that health and justice would
not necessarily bring. Ibn Taymiyya ends the present Minhj discussion of
two wills by saying that it is not given to humans to know the details of Gods
wise purposes.133 Further attention will be given to Gods wise purposes in
evil in Chapter Five below.
A little later in Minhj, Ibn Taymiyya again draws a distinction between
will as commanding another and will as helping another. The shaykh quotes
the Sh theologian al-(Hills charge that someone (i.e. the Sunn God) who
commands what he does not will and wills what he prohibits is foolish. Ibn
Taymiyya argues that this is not so. A doctor who commands a sick person
to take medicine does not have to help his patient take it, and advisors in
matters of business and agriculture do not have to follow their own advice.
Conversely, an advisor may tell an advisee not to do what the advisor himself is doing because it would be harmful to the advisee. The shaykh notes
that a snake handler is not foolish to prohibit his son from handling a
snake. Likewise, a swimmer tells someone who cannot swim not to swim,
and a king who goes out to fight prohibits women from going out with
him. Upon mentioning these examples, Ibn Taymiyya makes a clear statement of his methodological aim. He notes that it is not possible to find an
example or similitude that is applicable to God in every respect since there
is nothing like Him. Rather, the point is to show that it is possible that one
132
133

Minhj, 3:176/2:33.
Minhj, 3:1767/2:33.

gods creation and gods command

133

commands what he does not will, whereas the Mutazils think this to be
foolish necessarily.134
Doing what one Hates for a Wise Purpose that Is Loved
As Bell has observed, Ibn Taymiyya also tries to give sense to the conundrum of creation and command by interpreting Gods creation of things
contradicting His command as a means to that which He loves. Again, the
shaykh articulates this most fully in Minhj when responding to al-(Hills
Mutazilism. He argues that humans may will things that they hate as when
taking medicine. Conversely, they may will not to have things that they love
as when a sick person does not eat something that would harm him. Similar
logic applies to someone fasting who does not eat even though he loves
food or does not drink even though he is thirsty. Likewise for someone who
loves to follow his appetites but does not do so because he hates them from
the perspective of his reason and religion. The shaykh infers that if these
distinctions are possible with respect to creatures, then there is no reason
that they might not be possible for God. Ibn Taymiyya extends this thinking into a distinction between what is willed and loved in itself and what is
willed accidentally as a means (wasla) to something that is loved in itself.
For example, a sick person may take medicine as a means to the health that
he loves and wills. Thus, the shaykh concludes, there are two kinds of will
(irda): the will for what is loved in itself and the will for something hated
but willed for the sake of something else that is loved in itself.135
In defense of Gods creation of hateful things as a means to things that He
loves, Ibn Taymiyya observes the need to choose between contrary alternatives. At the human level, we understand that one cannot enjoy everything
at once. The pleasure (ladhdha) of eating precludes the pleasure of drinking
at the same time. Listening to one thing prevents listening to another. One
cannot simultaneously go on hajj and fight in jihad. Everything has its necessary concomitants. Similarly, even though God is powerful over all things, He
cannot create contraries simultaneously in one place, and He cannot create
a son before his father. God is bound to follow the rules of logic. Thus, if

Minhj, 3:188190/2:367.
Minhj, 3:1634/2:30, 3:182/2:35, 3:207/2:41, 5:414/3:103; I!htitjj, MF 8:3623;
and Jabr, MF 8:478.
134
135

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He creates obedience in some but not in others, it is for some wise purpose
that could not have been achieved through some other means.136
In some places in Minhj, the shaykh defines Gods wise purpose itself as
that which is willed and loved. He asserts, [God] created creatures according to His wise purpose that He loves.137 Moreover, God creates things that
He hates and loathes for the sake of a wise purpose that He loves and is
well pleased with.138 Elsewhere, he notes that these things are created with
respect to their end ( ghya) and not for themselves,139 and this explains
Gods creation of satans and other detestable things.140 He adds in Minhj
that God could have created everyone to be a believer but has not done so
in His wisdom. He may know that that would have led to some end that
He would have hated.141 Ibn Taymiyya does not speculate what that hateful
end might have been. In keeping with his method of giving God the highest
similitude, his aim is simply to suggest how it might be thought that God
loves the wise purpose in what He creates.
Conclusion
This chapter has shown how Ibn Taymiyya polemicizes against three currents
which he believes fail to hold Gods creation and Gods command in proper
balance. First, he castigates the Qadars and the Mutazils for denying Gods
all-encompassing creation and falling into dualism by asserting that human
beings are the creators of their own acts. Second, he charges the Jahms, the
Ashars and the Sufis with using Gods creation and determination of human
acts as an excuse to weaken adherence to the Law. Moreover, the shaykh
alleges that Ibn Arab and his followers not only annul human responsibility
but also collapse the distinction between Creator and creature into a metaphysical monism that makes value judgments meaningless because everything
is divine. In the treatise Shams, Ibn Taymiyya accuses both the Mutazils
and the Ashars of having fallen afoul of the belief that Gods creation of
human acts is incompatible with rational judgment of the ethical value of
Minhj, 3:1836/2:356, 5:4156/3:1034. Cf. Jabr, MF 8:5123.
Minhj, 5:408/3:102. Cf. Minhj, 5:401/3:100.
138
Minhj, 5:411/3:102. Cf. Thulth, MF 17:99.
139
I!htijj, MF 8:363, in which Ibn Taymiyya also notes that the correct attitude of the Sufi
gnostic (rif ) is to hate the unbelief and disobedience that God creates just as God hates it
but to love Gods wise purpose in creating these things just as God loves His wise purpose.
140
Jabr, MF 8:478.
141
Minhj, 3:183/2:35.
136
137

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135

those same acts. The Mutazils maintain that reason distinguishes good and
bad human acts and that this precludes Gods creation of these acts. For the
Ashars, Gods creation of human acts precludes rational discernment of the
ethical value that God attaches to these acts. Ibn Taymiyya censures a third
group consisting of poets, free-thinkers and the ethically lax, and he charges
these with following Ibls in making Gods creation and command out to be
contradictory and disparaging Gods wise purpose and justice.
Beyond polemics, Ibn Taymiyya employs his hermeneutic of creation and
command to give sense to diverse vocabularies found in the Quran and the
wider religious discourse. Equivalent terms for expressing Gods creation of all
things include lordship, determination, will (masha), inspiration, power and
the ontological words. Terms used on the level of command and prohibition
include divinity, love, good pleasure, hate, the religious and legislative words
and the distinction between piety and immorality. Moreover, Ibn Taymiyya
identifies a number of words, including will (irda), judgment (!hukm) and
decree (qa#d), which appear in the Quran in an ontological sense at some
points and in a legislative sense at others. These various sets of terms indicate
two distinct realms, that of Gods determination of all things and that of
human responsibility to obey God.
Ibn Taymiyya does not often address the rational difficulty in upholding
creation and command simultaneously. However, especially in Minhj, he
does employ the juridical imperative to give God the highest similitude to
show that God creating what opposes Gods command need not be irrational.
Citing various examples from human affairs, he argues that someone may
have a wise purpose in commanding someone to do something but refrain
from helping, or that someone may do something he hates out of love for a
desirable end. While recognizing that these explanations do not fully explain
the relation of Gods creation to Gods command, Ibn Taymiyya maintains
that such worthy intentions are a fortiori ascribable to God.

CHAPTER FOUR

GODS CREATION OF ACTS IN THE HUMAN AGENT

Ibn Taymiyyas View of the Human Act in Prior Research
Ibn Taymiyyas view of the human act has received considerably more scholarly attention than other aspects of his theology. Henri Laoust observes
in his Essai that the shaykh criticizes the Ashar doctrine of acquisition
(kasb) and sometimes admits secondary causality but that he also maintains
Gods full omnipotence. The result is an irresolvable duality of perspective:
Through theological reflection, the human being becomes more and more
profoundly conscious of absolute determinism. He must, for the sake of
the necessities of the social and moral life, willingly convince himself of his
freedom. Laoust adds in a footnote that the shaykh often contradicts himself by affirming Gods omnipotence and human freedom simultaneously.1
Laousts observations are correct so far as they go, but they do not illumine
Ibn Taymiyyas position fully.
More enthusiastically, Victor Makari finds Ibn Taymiyyas view of the
human act inescapably convincing and lucid and profound. Makaris
commendation appears to derive from reading Ibn Taymiyya against the
backdrop of causal chain theories attributed to the Ashar theologian alJuwayn and the philosopher Ibn Rushd.2 While Ibn Taymiyya does employ
the philosophical language of secondary causality, this chapter will show that
these causes are not efficacious but only instruments in Gods acts of creation.
God creates all existents directly; human acts are not links in a causal chain
headed by a First Cause.3

1
Laoust, Essai, 1667 and n. 4 (quote on 167). Laoust repeats the assessment that Ibn
Taymiyya is ambiguous on the human act in Les schismes dans lIslam (Paris: Payot, 1965),
400401, as does Christian van Nispen, Activit Humaine et Agir de Dieu, 2645.
2
Makari, Ibn Taymiyyahs Ethics, 7681 (quotes on 80).
3
Thomas Michel, A Muslim Theologians Response to Christianity, 4455, does not analyze
Ibn Taymiyyas doctrine of the human act in detail, but he does demonstrate a historically
significant point. The shaykhs criticism of the Ashar doctrine of divine determination for
undercutting human responsibility adds a new dimension to the traditionalist H
( anbal censure
of Kalm theology. Earlier (Hanbal polemicists had not condemned the Ashars for this.

Jon Hoover, 2007

This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/.

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Makari unfortunately does not take note of the earlier and far more thor( anbal
ough work of Daniel Gimaret. In a 1977 article on the human act in H
thought, Gimaret devotes a section to Ibn Taymiyyas views in Minhj and
Irda.4 Among the features of the shaykhs doctrine that Gimaret highlights
are mediation between the Ashars and the Mutazils, polemic against the
Ashar doctrine of acquisition, assertion that human agency is both real
and created by God and affirmation of some kind of secondary causality.
Gimaret also briefly mentions the two kinds of divine willontological and
legislativewhich were treated in the previous chapter. Gimaret is impressed
with Ibn Taymiyyas ingenuity and originality and with the degree to which
he gives a role to human agency.5 However, Gimaret is rather less admiring
in his 1980 book on the human act in Sunnism as a whole. He justifies his
exclusion of the (Hanbals and Ibn Taymiyya from the book by stating that
they did not make an original contribution to this doctrine in the Sunn
tradition. In a short footnote Gimaret explains that when writing his earlier article on (Hanbal views he was not aware of the extent to which Ibn
Taymiyya had been inspired by the Ashar theologian Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz.
Unfortunately, Gimaret says no more about this linkage.6
The present chapter examines Ibn Taymiyyas views afresh, going beyond
the work of Gimaret by drawing on a wider range of the shaykhs texts, clarifying how he is similar to al-Rz and showing that he is less comfortable
than are both al-Rz and Ibn Arab with compulsion ( jabr) and paradox.
First, however, more attention must be given to these and others among Ibn
Taymiyyas predecessors.
The Theological and Philosophical Context
As is evident from the preceding chapter, the fundamental division in Islamic
theological reflection on the human act turns on who creates and determines
this act: God or human beings? Out of concern for Gods justice in reward
and punishment, the Mutazils maintain that humans create their own acts
4
Daniel Gimaret, Thories de lacte humain dans lcole (Hanbalite, Bulletin dtudes
orientales 29 (1977): 156178.
5
Also, following Gimaret, Thories de lacte humain dans lcole (Hanbalite, George
Makdisi, Ethics in Islamic Traditionalist Doctrine, 516, provides a brief exposition from
Minhj, showing that for Ibn Taymiyya God is the Creator while the human is the agent
of the human act.
6
Daniel Gimaret, Thories de lacte humain en thologie musulmane (Paris: J. Vrin, 1980),
x n. 3.

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with libertarian freedom, that is, with freedom to choose apart from the
decisive control of external determinants. Out of concern for the all-pervasive
quality of Gods power, the rest of the Islamic tradition affirms that God
creates and determines the human act. Western philosophy of religion distinguishes determinism of this sort into two basic kinds. Hard determinism
denies the human will any role in producing human acts; human freedom is
an illusion. Soft determinism or compatibilist freedom gives significance to
human action and will without granting libertarian freedom. In this latter
view, human beings paradoxically exercise choice and are thereby morally
responsible even though external causes fully determine their wills.7
The pure compulsion (al-jabr al-ma!hd) attributed to Jahm b. !Safwn is
the archetypal case of Islamic hard determinism. In this view, God not only
creates and determines the human act but is also the acts sole Agent ( f il).
If humans may be said to act, it is only in a metaphorical sense. There is no
difference between human acts and the movements of inanimate bodies or
between voluntary and involuntary acts. God creates all of them equally.8
Some scholars portray Ibn Sn as a hard determinist or nearly so, while
others argue that he makes room for human freedom.9 Ibn Sns best pos7
For conceptual analysis of the notions libertarianism, compatibilism (i.e. soft determinism) and hard determinism which I introduce here, see Thomas P. Flint, Providence and
predestination, in A Companion to Philosophy of Religion, ed. Philip L. Quinn and Charles
Taliaferro (Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers, 1997), 569576.
8
Gimaret, Thories de lacte humain en thologie musulmane, 646. Gimaret adds that this
view of Jahms doctrine may need to be qualified from al-Ashars Maqlt, which indicates
that Jahm gives humans a power and a will in a sense resembling that of the Ashar doctrine
of acquisition (kasb).
9
George F. Hourani, Ibn Sns Essay on the Secret of Destiny, Bulletin of the School of
Oriental and African Studies 29 (1966): 2548, reads Ibn Sn in a way that is very close to
hard determinism. Opposing this are Alfred L. Ivry, Destiny Revisited: Avicennas Concept
of Determinism, in Islamic Theology and Philosophy: Studies in Honor of George F. Hourani,
ed. Michael E. Marmura (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1984), 160171;
and Lenn E. Goodman, Avicenna (London: Routledge, 1992), 8396. Nevertheless, favoring a
hard determinist reading is Michot, La destine de lhomme selon Avicenne, 6163 n. 18, who
observes that for Ibn Sn humans produce their invocation of God only from a certain point
of view (bi-wajh m) while God produces the invocation in reality (bi-l-!haqqa). Humans
can thus not be said to act in reality but only metaphorically. Yahya Michot, ed. and trans.,
Ibn Sn: Lettre au vizir Ab Sad (Beirut: Les ditions al-Bouraq, 1421/2000), 104*111*,
120*129* and 1047, translates and comments on several more strongly deterministic passages from Ibn Sn. Adding to his evidence for le total dterminisme dAvicenne is Yayha
Michot, ed. and trans., Avicenne: Rfutation de lastrologie (Beirut: Les ditions al-Bouraq,
1427/2006), 6171 (quote on 61), which translates additional relevant texts, mostly from
Ibn Sns al-Talqt. More polemically, Inati, The Problem of Evil, 154162, argues that Ibn
Sn is a hard determinist no matter what he might say about human freedom. Ab Zayd,
Mafhm al-khayr, 183191, also discusses Ibn Sns jabrism. Also, see now Catarina Belo,
Chance and Determinism in Avicenna and Averroes (Leiden: Brill, 2007).

gods creation of acts in the human agent

139

sible world order in which all contingent existents are necessary by virtue
of external causes leading back to the First certainly precludes libertarian
freedom, but it goes beyond our present purposes to sort out whether Ibn
Sns determinism is hard, soft, or ambiguous and underdetermined. What
is of interest here is that Ibn Sn speaks of free choice (ikhtiyr) in a way
that has soft determinist or compatibilist potential and is employed by later
thinkers including Ibn Taymiyya. In the following passage from al-Talqt,
Ibn Sn explains that human beings perceive themselves to be choosing
freely for their own purposes even though they are fully determined by
external causes.
The [human] soul is necessitated in the form of one who chooses freely
(al-nafs mu#dtarra f $srat mukhtra), and its movements are also subject to
subjection like natural movement. It depends on purposes 10 and motives,
and it is subjected to them, except that the difference between it and natural
[movements] is that it perceives its purposes, and nature (al-$taba) does not
perceive its purposes.11

Formulations of this kind find their way into the post-Avicennan tradition
in the writings of al-Ghazl, al-Rz, Ibn Arab and, as we will see, Ibn
Taymiyya. Al-Ghazl for example writes in his I!hy ulm al-dn that the
human being is compelled to choose freely (majbr al al-ikhtiyr), which
means his being compelled is that all [of his acts] occur in him from outside
of him, not from him . . . [and] his freely choosing is that he is a substrate
(ma!hall) for a will which originates in him.12
Most Ashar theologians may be described as compatibilists, but they
articulate this in different ways. In the view traditionally ascribed to alAshar by later Ashars, God is both Creator and Agent of the human
actas in the doctrine of Jahm b. !Safwnbut the human acquires this
act with a power originated by God in the person. There is no causal connection between the power and the acquisition (kasb) of the act, and this
power does not determine the act/acquisition in any respect. Yet, the power
and the acquisition do establish human responsibility for acts. The Ashar
theologian Bqilln takes a slightly different course, maintaining that the

Reading aghr#d instead of ar#d.

Ibn Sn, Al-Talqt, 53.
12
Ab H
( mid al-Ghazl, I!hy ulm al-dn, (Beirut: Dr al-marifa, n.d.), 4:2545, cf. 4:5.
On al-Rz see further below in the present section. William C. Chittick, The Self-Disclosure
of God: Principles of Ibn al-Arabs Cosmology (Albany, NY: State University of New York
Press, 1998), 188190, translates several examples of Ibn Arabs affirmation that humans are
compelled in their choosing from Fut!ht al-Makkiyya (e.g. 2:444 and 3:229).
10

11

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human power determines an attribute of the act, but other Ashars, such as
al-Juwayn in his Irshd, and later al-mid and j, deny the human power
any efficacy in the act, and this is the strict Ashar determinism that Ibn
Taymiyya denounces.13
A second stream of Ashar thought on the human act is couched in causal
terms. In al-Juwayns al-Aqda al-ni)zmiyya, the human power is created
by God to serve as an intermediate or secondary cause for His creation of
the human act.14 Al-Shahrastn sees in this the philosophers doctrine of a
chain of causes leading back to the First Cause, God. Gimaret hesitates to
interpret al-Juwayns secondary causality along Neoplatonic lines of this kind
because al-Juwayn explicitly states that God creates the causes producing
the human act directly.15
Similar uncertainty surrounds the interpretation of al-Ghazl. There is
little dispute that he employs Ibn Sns causal vocabulary, but its meaning is
not entirely clear. According to Gimaret and Michael Marmura, al-Ghazl
is a strict Ashar denying causal efficacy between the human power and
the human act. God creates each cause and each effect directly in the chain
of causes and effects that constitute the world. While there is no efficient
causality between causes, causes do function as conditions (sg. shar#t) upon
which subsequent causes depend. In order for God to create the human will,
there must be prior human knowledge; for knowledge there must be prior
human life; for life there must a prior human body; and so on. In Marmuras

13
Gimaret, Thories de lacte humain en thologie musulmane, 79118, 1546, 1601.
It is not entirely clear whether al-Ashar himself denied secondary causality between the
human power and the acquired act. Arguing that al-Ashar did uphold secondary causality
is Richard M. Frank, The structure of created causality according to al-Aar: An analysis
of the Kitb al-Luma, pars. 82164, Studia Islamica 25 (1966): 1375. Refuting Franks
thesis is Binyamin Abrahamov, A re-examination of al-Ashars theory of kasb according to
Kitb al-luma, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 1989 ii: 210221. Gimaret, Thories de
lacte humain en thologie musulmane, 7992, detects weakness in Franks thesis, but he also
cites evidence for the possibility of secondary causality in al-Ashar. See additionally the
survey of M. Schwarz, Acquisition (Kasb) in early Kalm, in Islamic Philosophy and the
Classical Tradition: Essays presented by his friends and pupils to Richard Walzer on his seventieth
birthday, ed. S.M. Stern, Albert Hourani and Vivian Brown (Columbia, SC: University of
South Carolina Press, 1973), 355387.
14
Imm al-(Haramayn Ab al-Mal Abd al-Malik al-Juwayn, Al-Aqda al-ni)zmiyya, ed.
Mu!hammad Zhid al-Kawthar ([Cairo]: Ma$tbaat al-anwr, 1368/1948), 3042.
15
Al-Shahrastn, Kitb nihyatu l-iqdm f ilmi l-kalm, ed. and English paraphrase
Alfred Guillaume (London: Oxford University Press, 1934), 78 (Arabic), 35 (English). For
full discussion, see Gimaret, Thories de lacte humain en thologie musulmane, 1208, who
argues that al-Shahrastn over-interprets al-Juwayn.

gods creation of acts in the human agent

141

summation, Ghazali . . . adopts Avicennan ideas. But these are reinterpreted

and cast in Asharite occasionalist terms.16
Binyamin Abrahamov and Richard Frank read al-Ghazl differently. They
explain that al-Ghazl adheres ultimately, but not explicitly, to a chain of
natural cause and effect leading back to God as the First Cause and Sustainer,
a chain in which God cannot intervene. To make sense of the inconsistencies
in al-Ghazls writings, Frank argues that al-Ghazl is Ashar in outward
allegiance and teaching while holding various Neoplatonic notions in his
private belief.17 Franks proposals have not escaped critique. Both Michael
Marmura and Ahmad Dallal criticize Frank for misreading al-Ghazls texts
and misunderstanding his terminology.18 This yet unresolved debate over
al-Ghazl well illustrates that Muslim theologians use of causal language
is subject to diverse interpretations. Ibn Taymiyya is a prime case in point.
Whereas Makari reads the shaykhs theology of the human act in terms
of efficacious and natural causality, I will show that, from the theological perspective at least, conditional or instrumental causality is the better
interpretation.
A key figure in post-Avicennan Islamic theology and a frequent foil in Ibn
Taymiyyas writings is the Ashar theologian Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz. Gimaret
explains that al-Rz is inspired by both Ibn Sn and the Mutazils in his
approach to the causal relations involved in the human act. Yet, al-Rz
reduces Mutazil libertarian freedom to either compatibilist freedom or
compulsion. Al-Rz either does not speak about the traditional Ashar
notion of acquisition or simply rejects it as a word without meaning. Moreover, al-Rz does not believe that proofs from the Quran can give certain

16
Michael E. Marmura, Ghazali and Asharism Revisited, Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 12 (2002): 91110, especially 102110 (quote on 108); and Gimaret, Thories de lacte
humain en thologie musulmane, 128132. See also Michael E. Marmura, Ghazalis Chapter
on Divine Power in the Iqti$sd, Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 4 (1994): 279315.
17
Binyamin Abrahamov, Al-Ghazls Theory of Causality, Studia Islamica 67 (1988):
7598; and Richard M. Frank, Al-Ghazl and the Asharite School (Durham, NC: Duke
University Press, 1994), 4, 201, 369, and 86101. Frank states that for al-Ghazl God in
His custom cannot interrupt the lawful operation of secondary causes (201). Richard M.
Frank, Creation and the Cosmic System: Al-Ghazl and Avicenna (Heidelberg: Carl Winter
Universittsverlag, 1992), 4782, and 86, gives detailed support for this assessment and
argues that al-Ghazl adopts the optimism and natural necessitarianism of Ibn Sn despite
incompleteness in his theology and his rejection of numerous inconsequential theses of
the philosopher.
18
Michael E. Marmura, Ghazlian Causes and Intermediaries, Journal of the American
Oriental Society 115 (1995): 89100, responds to Franks Creation and the Cosmic System.
Ahmad Dallal, Ghazali and the Perils of Interpretation, Journal of the American Oriental
Society 122.4 (2002): 773787, reviews Franks Al-Ghazl and the Asharite School.

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knowledge on the question of the human act because the sacred text may
be used to prove either the Qadar or the Jabr theses. Only rational proofs
are decisive.19
Al-Rzs primary rational proof is the preponderator (murajji!h) argument,
which we have already seen Ibn Taymiyya use to prove the existence of God
and refute the arguments of the philosophers and the Kalm theologians on
the origin of the world. Gimaret credits al-Rz with having invented this
argument even though the terms murajji!h, ruj!hn (preponderance), and their
cognates go back to Ibn Sn and the Mutazil theologian Abd al-Jabbr (d.
415/1025). To begin the argument, al-Rz presupposes with the Mutazils
that God creates the human power by which the human acts. In the Mutazil
conception, this power is a power to perform either an act or its contrary.
Al-Rz argues that there is nothing to tip the balance for this human power
in favor of one of the two equally possible acts. The human power cannot
preponderate out of itself. It requires a preponderator that makes one act
preponderate (rji&h) over the other. So, al-Rz maintains, God must supply
this preponderator. Thus, the human act comes into existence by means of a
human power and a preponderator, both of which God creates.20
Gimaret suggests that al-Rz devises the preponderator argument to
embarrass the Mutazils by drawing out what he believes to be their implicit
determinism. The Jubb Mutazils, among them Abd al-Jabbr and his
student Ab al-(Husayn al-Ba$sr, maintain that voluntary human acts arise
not only from human power but also from a motive (d).21 Like al-Rz,
Gimaret claims that this Mutazil doctrine leads inevitably to determinism
since the motive that God creates determines the act. Richard Frank and
Wilferd Madelung have both refuted Gimaret in the case of Abd al-Jabbr,
for whom, they say, the motive does not necessitate the act. Frank does not

19
Gimaret, Thories de lacte humain en thologie musulmane, 134140. In discussing alRz, Gimaret draws extensively, but not exclusively, from a manuscript of al-Rzs Al-Ma$tlib
al-liyya. The material on the human act is now found in the ninth part of the published
edition. Also, see now Shihadeh, Teleological Ethics, 1344, for a more detailed treatment of
al-Rzs theology of human action than that provided by Gimaret. Shihadeh clarifies that
al-Rz did adhere to the traditional Ashar doctrine of acquisition in his earliest works but
abandoned it later on. Additionally, according to Shihadeh (10 n. 34), the ninth part of the
edited Al-Ma$tlib al-liyya is rather a separate and earlier work called Al-Jabr wa al-qadar.
20
Gimaret, Thories de lacte humain en thologie musulmane, 1401.
21
Gimaret, Thories de lacte humain en thologie musulmane, 3960. For a detailed history of the followers of Ab Al al-Jubb and especially those of his son Ab Hshim (the
Bahshamiyya), which include Abd al-Jabbr and Ab al-(Husayn al-Ba$sr, see Margaretha T.
Heemskerk, Suffering in Mutazilite Theology: Abd al-Jabbrs Teaching on Pain and Divine
Justice (Leiden: Brill, 2000), 1371.

gods creation of acts in the human agent

143

speak to the case of Ab al-(Husayn, but Madelung contends that he also,

albeit with difficulty, retains the non-necessitating character of motives
and factors of preponderance in bringing about the human act. For Ab
al-(Husayn, it is human choice that decides the act.22 These clarifications
aside, it remains that al-Rz imputes to Ab al-(Husayn the doctrine that
the motive is necessitating, and, as Gimaret explains, he draws out the logical conclusion of compulsion ( jabr). The motive necessarily brings the act
into existence. Otherwise, the act would require another motive prior to it,
and so on ad infinitum. The stark choice is thus between compulsion and
determinism on the one hand and denying the Creator on the other. Al-Rz
chooses compulsion and the Creator, and, unlike his Ashar predecessors,
he does not hesitate to call himself a Jabr.23
Apart from anti-Mutazil polemic, al-Rz conceives the operation of the
human act in compatibilist terms with parallels in the Mutazil psychology
of voluntary action. The human is the agent of his act, but God creates and
determines the act. When the motive combines with the power that is equally
powerful for an act and its contrary, then the act becomes necessary. Gimaret
notes that al-Rz sometimes calls the motive an intention (qa$sd ) or a will
(irda or mash a). He also speaks of the decisive will (al-mash a al-jzima)
that brings the act into existence necessarily. The human being acts by his
will, but God creates this will. Accordingly, employing a formula like those
of Ibn Sn and al-Ghazl noted above, al-Rz affirms, The human being
is necessitated in the form of one who chooses freely (al-insn mu#dtarr f
$srat mukhtr).24
In addition to this compatibilism, a passage in al-Rzs Tafsr finds him
underlining the contradictory character of human agency.25 Al-Rz sets out
his comments when interpreting the verse: God has sealed the hearts [of the
22
Wilferd Madelung, The Late Mutazila and Determinism: The Philosophers Trap, in
Yd-nma in memoria di Alessandro Bausani, ed. Biancamaria Scarcia Amoretti and Lucia
Rostagno, vol. 1, Islamistica (Rome: Bardi, 1991), 245257; and R.M. Frank, The Autonomy
of the Human Agent in the Teaching of Abd al-abbar, Le Muson 95 (1982): 323355.
Frank points out that the psychological determinism that Gimaret imputes to the Jubbs
runs counter to the fundamental Mutazil concern for justice. See also al-Julaynad, Qa#diyyat
al-khayr wa al-sharr, 1856, for an exposition of Abd al-Jabbrs thought on motives that
corresponds to the analyses of Frank and Madelung.
23
Gimaret, Thories de lacte humain en thologie musulmane, 1425.
24
Gimaret, Thories de lacte humain en thologie musulmane, 1459 (quote from al-Rz,
Al-Ma$tlib al-liyya, 9:25).
25
Fakhr al-dn al-Rz, Al-Tafsr al-kabr li-l-Imm al-Fakhr al-Rz, 3d ed. (Cairo:
Muassasat al-ma$tbt al-islm, n.d.), 2:523. Gimaret, Thories de lacte humain en thologie
musulmane, 1523, provides a partial translation of this passage, as does Shihadeh, Teleological Ethics, 389.

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unbelievers] and their hearing (Q. 2:6). After concluding that the quranic
evidence on the human act falls into the realm of contradiction (!hayyiz
al-taru#d ), al-Rz turns to the rational arguments of the Asharswhom
he calls Sunnsand the Mutazils. He first notes that the Shfi jurist
Ab al-Qsim al-An$sr (d. 512/1118) argues that neither Mutazils nor
Sunns (i.e. Ashars) should be called unbelievers on this matter because
both exalt God. Al-Rz explains that Sunns emphasize Gods greatness and
say that God must be the sole Creator (mjid) while Mutazils stress Gods
wisdom (!hikma) and say that it is unbefitting of Gods sublimity to commit
bad deeds (qabi&h). After this, al-Rz goes on to a second mystery (sirr),
this time dealing with the cause of the human act. On the one hand, he
writes, Establishing the Divinity leads necessarily to the view of compulsion ( jabr). On the other, Establishing the Messenger leads necessarily to
the view of [human] power. In the latter view, that of the Mutazils, Gods
guidance through the Messenger Mu!hammad entails human accountability
and human power to commit acts. Al-Rz proves the contrary compulsion
position with his preponderator argument. Acts that are merely contingent
or possible (mumkin) require a preponderator (murajji!h) to bring them into
existence. God must create this preponderator. So, denying that human acts
require a preponderator is tantamount to denying the Creator, but affirming
a preponderator entails compulsion and determinism in human acts and is
tantamount to denying the Messenger. Al-Rz then outlines a third mystery.
We intuitively sense a need for a preponderator to determine somethings
existence or nonexistence, but, following the logic of the previous mystery, this insight leads to compulsion in human acts. Conversely, we know
intuitively that there is a difference between voluntary and involuntary acts,
between the good of praise and the bad of blame, and between command
and prohibition. This entails the doctrine of the Mutazils. Al-Rz concludes
that it seems as though the dictates of reason and the exaltation of Gods
power and wisdom lead into the realm of contradiction, and he closes his
discussion by asking God to lead us to truth and to good ends. In this text,
al-Rz pits Mutazil libertarian freedom against compulsion and makes no
attempt to render the two perspectives compatible.26

26
Al-Rz, Al-Ma$tlib al-liyya, 8:118, observes the same contradiction or opposition
(taru#d ) and indicates that it is obligatory for ordinary people (al-awmm) not to delve into
it. Shihadeh, Teleological Ethics, 181203, provides a sensitive discussion of al-Rzs late-life
skepticism concerning apodictic knowledge in metaphysical and theological matters.

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145

Three somewhat different outlooks may be detected in the above review

of al-Rzs thought on the human act. First, he calls himself a Jabr, openly
confessing compulsion ( jabr) in human acts and reducing Ab al-(Husayn
al-Ba$srs libertarianism to compulsion as well. Second, he articulates a
compatibilism in which the human being is the agent of his act while God
creates the act by creating the power and the decisive will through which the
act comes into existence. Third, al-Rz in his Tafsr stresses the contradiction between libertarian freedom and compulsion and makes no attempt to
articulate their compatibility.
In some sense, Ibn Arab picks up where al-Rz leaves off. For the Sufi theorist, proofs from revelation contradict each other, and while the Mutazils
and the Ashars both make strong and valid rational argumentsthe first
based on Gods command, the second based on Gods powertheir views
are contradictory as well. With Ibn Arab, ambiguity is the fundamental
character of reality, and all perspectiveseven if contradictoryhave their
proper validity. So, in this question as in others, it is perhaps missing the
point to try to pin Ibn Arab down to one position or another. Nonetheless,
he does say that the truth of this matter is found only through unveiling
(kashf ) and that this gives greater credence to the Ashar view. Ultimately, the
gnostic sees that all acts are Gods acts and that there is no linkage between
secondary causes or between the human power and the human act. At most,
the acquisition or performance (kasb) of the act is attributed to the human
being, and this is his free choice (ikhtiyr).27
As the following sections will bear out, Ibn Taymiyya resists the drift toward
open admission of contradiction characteristic of al-Rz and Ibn Arab and
refuses to surrender claim to rationality in the face of this most intransigent
of theological paradoxes. Working within a metaphysical framework developed in al-Rzs theology, Ibn Taymiyya holds fast to the compatibility of
human agency and Gods preponderance of human acts. This, as well as his
polemic against Jabrs and strict Ashars, explains why Ibn Taymiyya may
lookin Gimarets wordsmuch more anti-Ashar than anti-Mutazil,28
even though the underlying metaphysic is fully deterministic.

Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge, 205211, translates several texts pertaining to the
human act from Ibn Arabs Futu!ht al-makkiyya (especially 3:403 translated on 208).
28
Gimaret, Thories de lacte humain dans lcole (Hanbalite, 166.
27

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chapter four
Ibn Taymiyya on the Compatibility of Divine Creation and
Human Action

God Is the Creator, Originator and Preponderator of the Human Act

Ibn Taymiyya supports the view that God is the Creator of human acts with
quranic verses such as, [Abraham and Ishmael said,] Our Lord! Make us
(ijaln) submissive to You and of our progeny a nation submissive to You
(Q. 2:128), We made ( jaaln) leaders from among them guiding under our
command (Q. 32:24), and, Surely, the human being was created (khuliqa)
fretful, when evil touches him, anxious, when good touches him, grudging
(Q. 70:1921).29 For rational proof that God is the Creator of the human act,
Ibn Taymiyya turns to al-Rzs preponderator argument and an equivalent
originator argument. The shaykh uses these extensively in Minhj to counter
the Mutazilism of al-(Hill.
One full and clear version of the originator argument proceeds as follows.
Ibn Taymiyya first notes that the human will or act originates after not existing. Now, he argues, an originating event either has an originator or it does
not. If it does not, then we have origination without an originator. If the
act has an originator, it must be either the human, or God, or someone else.
If it is the human, then the acts originator itself requires a prior originator
and so on ad infinitum. This is impossible because an infinite regress of
originating events cannot subsist in humans who are themselves originated.
If the originator of the act is someone else, the same difficulty of an infinite
regress recurs as when the originator is the human himself. Therefore, God
must be the Creator and Originator of the human act and will.30
The preponderator argument has already been presented from al-Rz
above, and its details need not be repeated here. For Ibn Taymiyya, it yields
the same result as the originator argument.31 The shaykh occasionally even
interchanges the terms origination and preponderance in the course of the
same argument.32 The upshot of the preponderator and originator arguments
is that God creates, preponderates or originates human acts directly by supplying the complete cause that makes the respective act necessary.

29
Minhj, 3:110/2:17, 3:153/2:28, 3:237/2:48, 3:258ff./2:54ff.; Ib$tl, MF 2:322; MF
8:789; and Dar, 1:689.
30
Minhj, 3:236/2:48.
31
Minhj, 3:1189/2:19, 3:236/2:49, 3:2689/2:578.
32
Minhj, 3:301/1:270, 3:1168/2:189.

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147

For Ibn Taymiyya, there is also no essential difference between voluntary

and involuntary human acts from the perspective of Gods creation. He
explains that God creates human acts through the intermediary of His
creation of the servants will and his power just as He creates the effects by
their secondary causes (asbb). He creates clouds through wind, rain through
clouds, and plants through rain.33 More will be said about secondary causality
later in this chapter. Here it suffices to note that the modes of Gods creation
in the moral and natural spheres are identical, the only difference being that
human will and power are the relevant intermediaries in the moral realm.
Moreover, all human activities are contingent upon Gods will to create them.
In support of this, Ibn Taymiyya frequently cites the verse, To whomsoever
among you wills to go straight: You will not unless God, the Lord of the
worlds, so wills (Q. 81:289).34 He explains that this verse affirms against
the Jabrs that humans have a will and against the Qadars that this will is
dependent upon the will of God.35 He also notes that belief in the human
will is vital for belief in command and prohibition, promise and threat, while
belief in Gods will is central to belief in determination.36 Nonetheless, he
maintains that the human will and power are totally dependent upon Gods
creation for their operation.37 Ibn Taymiyya discusses human power and will
often, although not always precisely. The following two sections analyze this
discourse further.
Determining Power and Legislative Power
Ibn Taymiyya uses several terms to indicate power in humans: power (qudra),
capability (isti$ta), ability ($tqa) and strength or potency (quwwa). Power
and capability occur most commonly. All four of these terms are used
Minhj, 3:146/2:26.
Wsi$tiyya, MF 3:150; Irda, MF 8:118; MF 8:238; Qa#d, MF 8:268; Isti$ta, MF 8:374;
Kasb, MF 8:393; Jabr, MF 8:459, 488; and Minhj, 3:111/2:17, 3:236/2:48.
35
Jabr, MF 8:488.
36
MF 8:240.
37
The following passage in Minhj, 3:269/2:57, illustrates Ibn Taymiyyas view of Gods
complete causality in the creation of human acts: Since the act of the servant does not occur
except by a preponderator from GodExalted is Heand upon the existence of this preponderator the existence of the act is necessary, his act is like the rest of the originating events that
originate by means of secondary causes that GodExalted is Hecreates. The existence of
the originating event is necessary with them. This is what it means for the LordBlessed is
He, and exalted is Heto be Creator of the act of the servant. The meaning of that is that
GodExalted is Hecreates the complete power and the decisive will in the servant. Upon
their existence, the existence of the act is necessary because this is the complete cause for the
act. When the complete cause exists, the existence of the effect is necessary.
33
34

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synonymously in the course of four pages in the third volume of the edited
Minhj.38 In Dar the shaykh says similarly that the capability of the human
is his power and his ability.39 Ibn Taymiyya speaks of two kinds of power
in humans. On the one hand is the legislative power that is the factor of
[bodily] soundness (mu$sa!hh! i!h) for the act which is the crux of command and
prohibition40 or the power that is the condition for imposing obligation
(al-qudra al-mashr$ta f al-taklf ).41 On the other hand is the determining power necessitating the act which is conjoined to the thing empowered
and is not posterior to it.42 The shaykh also calls the latter the power that
makes the act follow necessarily (mustalzim). The power that is a factor of
soundness is both before and with the act, and it is a condition (shar$t) for
the act to take place. The necessitating power comes into force at the very
time of the act and not prior to it.43 Capability falls into the same two types
as noted in a passage from the brief fatwa Isti$ta:
Capability is of two kinds: anterior and effectual for two opposites, and conjoined and only with the act. [The first] is the soundness factor for the act and
the admissibility factor (mujawwiza) for it. [The second] is the necessitating
factor for the act and the realization factor (mu!haqqiqa) for it.44

In a number of texts, the shaykh uses a few key quranic verses and hadith
to illustrate the soundness factor senses of both capability and power. He
quotes, for example, It is the duty of people to God to take the Pilgrimage (! hajj) to the House, whoever is capable of making his way there
(Q. 3:97). He argues that if this were the capability conjoined to the act,
then the obligation of the Pilgrimage would fall only on those actually taking
the Pilgrimage. In this case, those with requisite means for the Pilgrimage
would not be disobeying if they did not take it.45 He also quotes the hadith
in which the Prophet says, When I have commanded you with a command,
do of it what you are capable.46 This capability is not conjoined to the act.

38
Minhj, 3:4750/2:2745. See also the interchangeable usage of qudra and isti$t in
Irda, MF 8:129; Isti$ta, MF 8:371; and Ta, MF 8:4412.
39
Dar, 1:60.
40
Irda, MF 8:129.
41
Minhj, 3:103/2:15.
42
Irda, MF 8:129.
43
Minhj, 3:50/1:275, 3:71/2:6, 3:103/2:15. Cf. Minhj, 3:47/1:274.
44
Isti$ta, MF 8:372. Cf. Minhj, 3:4850/1:2745; Dar, 1:601; Sada, 8:2901; and
Ab Dharr, MF 18:1723.
45
Irda, MF 8:129; Isti$ta, MF 8:372; and Minhj, 1:4078/1:114.
46
Bukhr, 6744, Al-Iti$sm bi-l-kitb wa al-sunna, Al-Iqtid bi-sunan rasl Allh; A!hmad,
9158.

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149

Otherwise, the hadith would mean that they were commanded to do only
what they did.47 As examples of the conjoined and necessitating capability,
the shaykh cites, They were not capable of hearing, and they were not seeing (Q. 11:20), and, Those whose eyes were covered from My Reminder,
and they were not capable of hearing (Q. 18:101).48 Ibn Taymiyya adds in
Isti$ta that the first type of capability is legislative and the second ontological, and he ties these to the commanding, legislative words and the creative,
ontological words, respectively, which we observed in Chapter Three.49 The
shaykhs two senses of capability thus correspond to Gods command and
creation, respectively.
Ibn Taymiyya attributes his doctrine of the two senses of power and
capability to those who grasp the full truth among the Kalm theologians,
jurists, hadith specialists and Sufis.50 He reports that the Mutazils and
their followers among the Shs affirm only the soundness factor type of
human power while the Ashars and others grant only the necessitating
power. The former group insists that humans could do other than what they
do. The human power is effectual for either an act or its opposite. However,
the shaykh says that this violates the principle of preponderance. The latter
group says that humans can do only what they actually do. Human power
is only effectual for and conjoined to the act it creates. Ibn Taymiyya notes,
however, that some from this latter group uphold the former type of capability when working in the realm of jurisprudence.51
Imprecision in the Human Will
In view of the fact that Ibn Taymiyya conceives the conjoined power or
capability to be immediately effectual in producing the human act, the place
of the will is not apparent. Further investigation shows that the shaykhs
psychology of human action becomes imprecise when pressed beyond the
basic distinction between power as the bodily soundness to perform an act
and the complete cause that brings the act into existence.
We begin with several passages solely from Minhj to demonstrate Ibn
Taymiyyas variety of expression. One passage sets out will and power in
Irda, MF 8:129; and Isti$t a, MF 8:3723.
Isti$ta, MF 8:373; and Dar, 1:61.
49
Isti$ta, MF 8:373. Cf. Irda, MF 8:129131.
50
Dar, 1:60.
51
Isti$ta, MF 8:371; Ab Dharr, MF 18:173; Sada, MF 8:290, 292; Dar, 1:60; and
Minhj, 1:4089/1:114. On jurists adhering to an anterior capability in jurisprudence but
not in theology, see Irda, MF 8:130.
47
48

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equivalent terms. Without giving names, the shaykh notes that people
dispute over the choosing agent (al-f il al-mukhtr). Is his will before
the act, conjoined to the act, or both? Likewise, is power prior to the act,
conjoined to the act, or both? The shaykh then gives what he believes to be
the correct view: The decisive will (al-irda al-jzima) with the complete
power (al-qudra al-tmma) make the act follow necessarily and are conjoined
with it. The act does not come to be by an unconjoined prior power only
or an unconjoined prior will only.52 Ibn Taymiyya observes that before the
act there may be power but not will, or will but not power. There may also
be resolve (azm). Then he writes, When the time for the act comes, the
resolve strengthens and becomes an intention (qa$sd). The will at the time
of the act is more perfect than it was before it, and likewise, the power at
the time of the act is more perfect than it was before it.53 Although this
discussion holds will and power in perfect symmetry, there is no attempt to
explain how the two are related or whether they are identical.
A second passage in Minhj eliminates power as a necessitating factor in
the act and gives this role solely to will. After noting that some say that the
power is before the act and others say that it is conjoined to it, Ibn Taymiyya
articulates his own view:
The power is the factor of soundness only, and it is with it and before it. As
for [the factor] making it follow necessarily, it only occurs upon the existence
of the will with the power, not by the very thing that is called power. The will
is not part of what is called the power. This view is the one agreeing with the
language of the Quran and, moreover, the language of the rest of the nations.
It is the most correct of the views.54

At a later point in Minhj, the shaykh distinguishes will from power in similar
terms. Power is the condition for imposing obligation, but will is not. Rather,
the will is the condition for the existence of the act.55 A fourth passage just
a little earlier in Minhj gives less prominence to the will. After explaining
the two views that power is either before the act or at the time of the act,
Ibn Taymiyya claims that there is both a power prior to and extending up
to the time of the act and a second power necessitating the act. The power
existing prior to the act is not sufficient to make someone believe or disbelieve. God must single out the believer with special blessing and produce
52
53
54
55

Minhj, 1:407/1:113.
Minhj, 1:407/1:1134.
Minhj, 3:712/2:6.
Minhj, 3:106/2:16.

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151

his will to believe. This will is part of the entirety of the power conjoined
with the act.56 Here, the will has been subsumed under the power that is
complete and produced directly by God. In a fifth passage from Minhj, Ibn
Taymiyya says that the human act follows necessarily when the decisive will
and the complete potency (al-quwwa al-tmma) combine (ijtama). He then
explains that what brings an act into existence is the complete cause (al-illa
al-tmma) which is necessarily conjoined to the act and not prior.57
Beyond Minhj, there are a number of other texts presenting similar
diversity. A discussion of necessitating capability in Dar construes capability as will. Ibn Taymiyya notes that the Salaf interpret the verse, They were
not capable of hearing, and they were not seeing (Q. 11:20), to mean that
somethingin this case hearing and seeingis not possible, not due to a
lack of power but a lack of will. The shaykh writes, Their souls were not
capable of willing it, even though they had the power to do it if they had
so willed. This is the state of one whose caprice or corrupt opinion diverted
him from listening to the books of God sent down and following them.58
Elsewhere, Ibn Taymiyya says that a decisive will is needed to make an act
necessary, but he also allows that this will falls under the ensemble of factors
constituting the conjoined capability.59 A brief passage in Kasb subsumes not
only will but also every other cause that may be involved in the production of
an act under the conjoined power: Power here is absolutely nothing but an
expression of that from which the act [comes] with respect to intention, will,
soundness of [body] members, created potency in the limbs, etc. Therefore,
it must be conjoined with the act.60
In short Ibn Taymiyya maintains one power that is the soundness of the
human body for performing acts that is the condition for Gods imposition
of obligation. He also upholds a second powervariously called will, power,
capability or some combination thereofthat generates the human act and
is created directly by God. Beyond this, nothing more precise may be said
about how the shaykh conceives the psychology of human action.

56
57
58
59
60

Minhj, 3:104.
Minhj, 3:50/1:275.
Dar, 1:61.
Ta, MF 8:4412.
Kasb, MF 8:390.

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Reconciling the Jabrs and the Qadars with Compatibilist Freedom

Ibn Taymiyya occasionally articulates the compatibility of human accountability with Gods creation of human will and power by reconciling the
Ashar Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz with the Mutazil Ab al-(Husayn al-Ba$sr. In
Minhj, the shaykh quotes a passage from al-Rzs Arban in which the
Ashar theologian accuses Ab al-(Husayn of contradiction. On the one hand,
al-Rz argues, Ab al-(Husayn goes to the extreme in Mutazilism by asserting
that it is necessary knowledge that humans bring their acts into existence
(jd). On the other, Ab al-(Husayn falls into extreme Jabrism because he
holds that the occurrence of the act is dependent on a motive (d), which
al-Rz understands as necessary to preponderate the existence of the act.61
Ibn Taymiyya accuses the Shs Na$sr al-Dn al-+Ts (d. 672/1274) and Ibn
al-Mu$tahhar al-(Hill of the same contradiction that al-Rz finds in Ab
al-(Husayn.62
Despite this accusation, Ibn Taymiyya goes on to use al-Rzs deterministic
reading of Ab al-(Husayns motive theory to argue, sophistically it will appear,
for the compatibility of the Mutazil and Ashar viewpoints. He maintains
that Ab al-(Husayns theory is equivalent to the teaching of the majority of
Sunns, and he claims that al-Juwayn, the H
( anbal Ab Khzim b. Ab Yal
(d. 527/1133) and the Karrms come close to this position.63 The existence
of human power alone is inadequate for an act to become preponderate. A
motive, that is, a complete preponderator, must be conjoined to this power
for the existence of the act to become necessary.64 According to the shaykh,
the Mutazils err only when they claim that the motive arises apart from
Gods will and power.65
Ibn Taymiyya also uses the deterministic interpretation of Ab al-(Husayn
al-Ba$sr to reconcile two data of necessary knowledge that Fakhr al-Dn
al-Rz took to be contradictory. As in the passage translated below from
Isti$ta, the shaykh affirms first that it is necessary knowledge that voluntary
acts are attributed to the human who is their agent and originator (mu!hdith).
Second, he contends that it is necessary knowledge that human will and
action require an originator or preponderator from God. Thus, Ibn Taymiyya

Al-Rz, Arban, 1:319, quoted in Minhj, 3:251/2:52.

Minhj, 3:247250/2:512, 3:276/2:589. Ibn Taymiyya, Minhj, 3:273/2:58, also
mentions that, unlike Ab al-(Husayn, the Mutazil al-Zamakhshar does not adhere to the
necessitating quality of the preponderator.
63
Minhj, 3:239/2:49, 3:251/2:52, 3:268/2:56.
64
Minhj, 3:31/1:270, 3:74/2:7, 3:239/2:49, 3:2678/2:56.
65
Minhj, 3:75/2:7. Cf. Minhj, 3:248/2:52.
61

62

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153

maintains that both the Qadars and the Jabrs have part of the truth on the
human act. The human act truly exists, and it is fully dependent upon God
for its existence. Unlike al-Rz, he claims that the necessary knowledge of
voluntary human agency is not incompatible with the necessary knowledge
of the need of the human act for a preponderator, and he sees no contradiction in this.66 Here is his argument in full:
The Qadars and the Jabrs separate into two contradictory sides. Each of them
is correct in what it establishes but not in what it denies. Ab al-(Husayn al-Ba$sr
and whoever follows him among the Qadars claim that the knowledge that
the servant originates ( yu!hdith) his acts and his actions is necessary knowledge
and that denying that is sophistry.
Ibn al-Kha$tb [Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz] and his like among the Jabrs claim that
the knowledge that preponderating the servants act over his not acting requires
a preponderator apart from the servant is necessary. [This is] because one of
the two positions of something which is possible and has two equal positions
will not become preponderant over the other except with a preponderator.
Both of these views are correct. However, the claim that the necessary
implication of one of them is to deny the other is not correct. The servant
is originating his acts [and] acquiring (ksib) them, and this origination is in
need of an originator. The servant is acting, fabricating ($sni) and originating, and his being acting, fabricating and originating after he was not [thus]
must inevitably have [another] agent. As He said, To whomsoever among you
wills to go straightWhen he wills to go straight, he begins going straight.
Then, He saidYou will not, unless God, Lord of the worlds, so wills (Q.
81:289).
All of what is known necessarily and what traditional (sam) and rational
(aql) proofs demonstrate is true. Therefore, there is neither might nor power
except by God. The servant needs God. [He has] an essential need for Him
in his essence, his attributes, and his acts. Nonetheless, he still has an essence,
attributes and acts.67

It is apparent that Ibn Taymiyya effects his reconciliation of Fakhr al-Dn alRz and Ab al-(Husayn al-Ba$sr in this passage by reading the term originate
( yu!hdith) in a much different sense from the usual Mutazil sense of create.
In Isti$ta, from which this passage is taken, the shaykh does not elaborate
how humans may be said to originate their acts, but he does broach this
question in Minhj. There he explains that Gods origination (i!hdth) of
acts means that He creates them disjoined from Himself and subsisting in
humans whereas human origination (i!hdth) of acts means that acts originate

66
67

See similar discussions in Shams, MF 16:2357, and Minhj, 3:235240/2:489.

Isti$t a, MF 8:375.

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(!hadatha) from humans by their will and power which God creates.68 Thus,
human origination of acts does not involve human creation of acts for Ibn
Taymiyya as it would for the Mutazils. The shaykh follows al-Rz in
insisting on Gods preponderance of the human act, and he maintains the
compatibility of this with human accountability by replacing a libertarian
account of human agency with the simple existence of a human agency willed
and created by God. Ibn Taymiyya maintains that human beings have acts
that exist in reality just as they have essences and attributes that are real,
but, if human beings may be said to have choice and freedom in the shaykhs
thought, it is strictly in a compatibilist sense.
The Substrate Principle: Humans Are the Agents of their Acts in Reality
In a number of texts and especially in Minhj, Ibn Taymiyya distinguishes
between God who creates the human act ( fil) and the human who is its
agent ( f il) by limiting attribution of the act to the substrate (ma!hall) (i.e.
the human) in which it subsists. The shaykh draws this distinction to counter
the Mutazil objection that a God who creates acts of disobedience is bad
and unjust.69 God cannot be called to account for creating bad acts because
He creates them in a substrate other than Himself, namely, human beings,
and He is not qualified by them. By virtue of this substrate principle, only
the substrate is qualified by the acts subsisting in it.70
The shaykh explains that Gods creation of acts in humans is like Gods
creation of their attributes. God creates some black and some white, some
tall and some short, and so on. So also, He creates some believing and some
disbelieving, some unjust and some oppressed. In each of these cases, it is not
God but humans who are qualified by what He creates. God is not black or
white, tall or short, believing or unbelieving but only the humans in whom
He creates these things.71
From the human perspective, humans are the agents of their acts in reality
(!haqqatan)not metaphorically as Jahm b. S! afwn would have itby virtue
of what God has created to subsist in them. Humans act by their will, power
Minhj, 3:239240/2:49.
See for example Minhj, 1:455460/1:1267, 2:2945/1:213, 3:137154/2:248;
Irda, MF 8:1227; and Ab Dharr, MF 18:1515. Cf. Jabr, MF 8:4689.
70
Minhj, 1:4557/1:126, 3:110/2:17, 3:146/2:26, 3:148/2:26; Irda, MF 8:119127;
and Jabr, MF 8:4834. Cf. Gimaret, Thories de lacte humain dans lcole (Hanbalite,
1767.
71
Jabr, MF 8:4834; Kasb, MF 8:403; Ab Dharr, MF 18:155; and Minhj, 1:455
7/1:126, 2:2945/1:213. Cf. Minhj, 3:217220/2:434.
68

69

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155

and free choice (ikhtiyr), and judgments for their acts are attributed to them
and not to God.72 Ibn Taymiyya suggests that if things that cannot choose
may even be said to come from a certain placeas fruit from a certain tree
or a crop from a particular plot of groundthen acts are a fortiori attributed
to those with free choice, even though God is their Creator.73 As the shaykh
puts it in one discussion of the human act, The Quran has informed that
servants believe, disbelieve, act, commit deeds, acquire, obey, disobey, pray,
give alms, undertake the Hajj, undertake the Umra, kill, commit adultery,
steal, tell the truth, lie, eat, drink, fight and wage war.74 Thus, both acts of
obedience and disobedience are attributed to humans, and humans thereby
become worthy of reward and commendation or punishment and blame.75
Passages employing the substrate principle often include polemic against
the ideas that Gods creation (khalq) and act ( fi l ) are identical to the
thing created (makhlq) and the thing enacted (maf l ), respectively.76
Ibn Taymiyya attributes these views to Jahm b. !Safwn, al-Ashar and their
followers in the four Sunn schools of law including the (Hanbals Ibn Aql
and Ibn al-Jawz.77 He explains that their intention is to avoid saying that
the human act has two agents (i.e. God and the human).78 But he counters
that one must distinguish an act from the thing enacted and creating from
the thing created. Thus, the human act is the act of the human in reality
and a thing created and enacted by God. God creates the act, but He does
not commit the act. If it is said that the act ( fi l ) is His, it means that it
is enacted (maf l) by Him in another. The shaykh attributes this view to
Sunns generally on the report of the Shfi jurist al-Baghaw (d. 510/1117),
to Sufis on the report of al-Kalbdh (d. 380/990 or 384/994), and to a
number of (Hanbals. He also tells us that it was the last of two positions
held by Ab Yal, and he attributes it to the (Hanaf law school, possibly
72
Minhj, 3:12/1:265, 3:109/2:17, 3:145/2:26, 3:1489/2:26, 3:257/2:54; Wsi$tiyya, MF
3:150; Irda, MF 8:118, 123; Jabr, MF 8:459, 4823; and Ab Dharr, MF 18:1515.
73
Minhj, 3:1456/2:26.
74
Jabr, MF 8:459. See also Wsi$tiyya, MF 3:150; Irda, MF 8:120; MF 8:2378; and
Minhj, 3:1112/2:17. See Minhj, 3:256265/2:536, 3:3369/2:745, for an extended
listing and discussion of quranic texts indicating both that humans commit acts and that
God creates them.
75
Minhj, 3:1534/2:28.
76
Irda, MF 8:118ff.; Jabr, MF 8:468; and Minhj, 1:458460/1:127, 2:296ff./1:213ff.,
3:13/1:266, 3:112/2:17, 3:2401/2:4950, 5:4267/3:107.
77
Minhj, 1:457/1:127, 2:2967/1:2134, 3:112/2:17; and Jabr, MF 8:428. Ibn
Taymiyya also reports in Minhj, 2:296/1:213, 3:240/2:59, that the Ashar theologian Ab
Is!hq al-Isfaryn (d. 418/1027) taught that the single act had two agents (i.e. God and the
human).
78
Jabr, MF 8:428.

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having in mind the Mturd school of theology that was prominent among
the (Hanafs.79 Gimaret notes that Ibn Taymiyyas distinction between the
act and the thing enacted corresponds to the Mturd theological position,
and he suggests that Ibn Taymiyya or an earlier (Hanbal, such as Ab Yal,
may have borrowed this idea from the Mturds.80
In view of the substrate principle, Ibn Taymiyya maintains that God is
not unjust in what He creates. As for why God would create unbelief and
disobedience, Ibn Taymiyya asserts that God has wise purposes in this.81
In Minhj the shaykh also provides a fortiori arguments to defend Gods
retributive justice further. He argues that, if a human is not unjust to punish his servant for injustice that God creates, then God Himself is a fortiori
not unjust to punish injustice that He creates. Likewise, if someone is not
considered unjust to chastise another when that is necessary to gain a certain benefit, then God Himself is a fortiori not unjust to do the same.82 In
a similar argument just a little later in Minhj, Ibn Taymiyya explains that
this is in keeping with the God who is not like anything, but Who, in His
right to perfection, is given the highest similitude.83 These arguments and the
substrate principle that lie behind them may not have satisfied Ibn Taymiyya
completely. In (Hasana, which will be examined in the next chapter, he goes
beyond the substrate principle and attempts to absolve God of responsibility
for creating bad deeds by locating the ultimate cause of human disobedience
in nonexistence.
Ibn Taymiyyas View of Divine Creation by Means of Secondary Causes
An Overview of Secondary Causality
As was noted previously, Ibn Taymiyya says that God creates the human act
by means of human will and power just as He creates plants in the natural
79
Minhj, 1:4578/1:127. Cf. Minhj, 2:298301/1:214, 3:112/2:17, 3:149/2:27.
Ibn Taymiyya, Ta, MF 8:438, identifies Ab Man$sr al-Mturd as a Kalm theologian
among the (Hanafs. In Irda, MF 8:1203, Ibn Taymiyya gives a detailed account of the act
( fi l)/thing enacted (maf l ) distinction, but the early part of this passage is confusing and
may be textually corrupt. Two lines that appear in MF 8:121 (mid-line 4 to mid-line 6) are
lacking in the MRM and MRK1 versions of the text. Moreover, the two lines in question
include the key term musamm al-ma$sdar, which appears to be used inconsistently in the
wider context.
80
Gimaret, Thories de lacte humain dans lcole (Hanbalite, 1778.
81
Ab Dharr, MF 18:155; Minhj, 3:148/2:27; Irda, MF 8:123; and MF 8:238.
82
Minhj, 3:148/2:26.
83
Minhj, 3:1501/2:27.

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world through secondary causes like clouds and rain. Yet, what exactly is
meant by secondary causality? In Tadmuriyya the shaykh gives an overview
of his views on this that is translated below. This will serve as the basis for
exploration of this question in other texts, especially in Kasb, which contains
much illustrative material. In Tadmuriyya Ibn Taymiyya affirms that God is
Creator, Lord and Sovereign of all things and that He is powerful over all
things and knows all things. Nothing occurs apart from His will (masha).
The shaykh continues:
Along with this, [the People of Guidance and Prosperity] do not deny what God
creates of secondary causes (asbb) by which He creates effects (musabbabt).
For example, HeExalted is Hesaid, [It is He Who sends the winds . . .] till
when they have carried a heavy-laden cloud. We drive it to a land that is dead.
Then We send down rain to it, and thereby We bring forth every kind of fruit
(Q. 7:57). HeExalted is Hesaid, By [the Book] God guides whoever follows His good pleasure to ways of peace (Q. 5:16). HeExalted is Hesaid,
By [this parable], He leads many astray, and by it He guides many (Q. 2:26).
Thus, He informed that He acts by means of secondary causes.
Whoever [e.g. a strict Ashar] says that He acts with them (indah) and
not by means of them (bih) opposes what the Quran has brought and
denies what God has created of potencies (quw) and natures ($tabi). This
is similar to denying what God created of potencies that are in living beings
by which living beings act, like the power of the servant. Likewise, whoever
[i.e. a Mutazil] makes them the creators of that has given associates to God
and attributed His act to another.
That is because there is no cause among the causes but that needs another
cause for its effect to occur, and there must inevitably be an impediment
(mni) impeding what is entailed by it (muqta#dhu) when God does not repel
[the impediment] from the [cause]. There is not one thing in existence that
does anything independently when it wills, except God alone. HeExalted is
Hesaid, And of everything We have created pairs, that you might remember
(Q. 51:49), that is, that you may know that the Creator of the pairs is one.
Therefore, whoever [e.g. Ibn Sn] says that from God only one [thing]
emanates because nothing emanates from one but one is ignorant.84 Indeed,
there is no one thing in existence from which emanates anything aloneneither

84
According to Ibn Sn, only unity can flow from the One (i.e. God) so as to preserve
the utter simplicity of the One. Since the One cannot be the source of multiplicity, multiplicity arises from the First Intellect, which emanates from the One. For further discussion,
see Ibn Sn, Al-Talqt, 54, 99100; Ian Richard Netton, Allah Transcendent (Surrey, UK:
Curzon Press, 1989), 1627; and Nicholas Heer, Al-Rz and al-+Ts on Ibn Sns Theory of
Emanation, in Neoplatonism and Islamic Thought, ed. Parviz Morewedge (Albany, NY: State
University of New York Press, 1992), 111125. Ibn Taymiyya argues in Irda, MF 8:134, that
Ibn Sns One is devoid of attributes and ultimately has no existence outside the mind.

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one [in number] nor twoexcept God who created all the pairs among what
the earth makes to grow, their souls, and what they do not know.
Burning does not occur except by the fire in which God created heat and in
a substrate receptive to burning. When [fire] falls on a phoenix, sapphire and
such like, it does not burn them, and a body may be coated with something
that prevents it from burning. As for the sun from which rays come, there must
inevitably be a body that receives the reflection of the rays upon it. When there
is an obstacle such as a cloud or a roof, the rays do not pass below it.85

In other texts, Ibn Taymiyya gives numerous examples of Gods creation

through secondary causality. God may create market price rises by means
of (bi-sabab) human injustice and price drops by means of human beneficence.86 God may grant humans their provision by the usual means of
human endeavor or by the rarer means of angels and jinn.87 God may make
an eclipse or a strong cold wind a cause of chastisement.88 God may make
the celestial bodies (kawkib), the blowing of the wind, and the light of
the sun and the moon secondary causes of originating events in the earth.89
Also, invocation and intercession are among the secondary causes by which
God brings to pass what He decrees.90 Marriage and sexual intercourse are
the divinely established customary causes of begetting children.91 God has
made deeds causes of reward and punishment just as He has made poison a
cause of illness and illness a cause of death.92
Polemic on Secondary Causality
The Tadmuriyya passage translated above includes polemic, first, against those
who say that God creates only with or at (ind) the instance of the causes,
but not by (bi) them, and, second, against those who give human power the

Tadmuriyya, MF 3:1123.
MF 8:520.
87
Tawakkul, MF 8:534.
88
MF 35:176. Yahya J. Michot, Ibn Taymiyya on Astrology: Annotated Translation
of Three Fatwas, Journal of Islamic Studies 11.2 (2000): 147208, translates the fatwa on
astrology found in MF 35:166190. Cf. Qawl Al, MF 8:172.
89
Man$tiqiyyn, 270 and MF 25:1989, both of which are translated in Yahya Michot,
Pages spirituelles dIbn Taymiyya: XIII. Contre lastrologie, Action (Mauritius), January
2001, 1011, 26 (the passage from Man$tiqiyyn is at 10 n. 4).
90
Wsi$ta, MF 1:137. Wsi$ta, MF 1:121138, is translated in full in Yahya J. Michot,
Ibn Taymiyya: Les intermdiaires entre Dieu et lhomme (Rislat al-wsi$ta bayna l-khalq
wa l-!haqq), Le Musulman (Paris) Special Issue (1996). Cf. MF 8:1923.
91
Sada, MF 8:276; and MF 8:68.
92
Qa#d, MF 8:268. Cf. Sada, MF 8:2789. See also the listings of quranic verses indicating secondary causality in Minhj, 3:1134/2:18; and Irda, MF 8:1378.
85
86

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ability to create acts. The former charge is leveled against the tradition of
strict Asharism in which whatever appears to be causally connected is simply
a matter of God creating things conjoined at the same place and time. The
human act does not occur by means of human power, but only with it.93 The
latter charge is directed against the Mutazils who argue that humans must
create their own acts in order to be held properly accountable for them and
also to free God from creating evil deeds. For Ibn Taymiyya, however, this
is tantamount to giving God an associate (shirk) in His creative enterprise,
and it must be rejected because God is the sole Creator. A discussion of
secondary causality in Irda adds a third charge.94 While some deny causes
as the means by which God creates, others disregard causes that God has
commanded such as invoking God and performing righteous deeds. The
latter think that whatever God determines will happen whether or not they
do what God has commanded. The shaykh counters this with two exchanges
found in the Hadith:
[Some asked the Prophet], Should we not leave deeds and trust completely
on what has been written? He said, No! Perform deeds! Each is facilitated
into that for which he was created. . . . It was said, O Messenger of God!
Have you seen medicine by which we may be cured, charms by which we
may invoke [God], and piety (taqw) by which we may fear [God]? Do they
ward off anything of Gods determination? He said, They are part of Gods
determination.95

Ibn Taymiyya adds furthermore that God makes one thing a cause of another
and that what God has determined has been determined to happen by means
of secondary causes. In summing up these positions in Irda, Ibn Taymiyya
cites a saying, which he elsewhere attributes to al-Ghazl and Ibn al-Jawz
in their writings on complete trust (tawakkul ):96
Turning to the causes (asbb) is giving associates in [violation of Gods] uniqueness (shirk f al-taw!hd ). Obliterating the causes by denying that they are
causes is an aberration with respect to reason. Abandoning the causes entirely
is defamation of the Law.97

93
For this see also Minhj, 3:239/2:49; Irda, MF 8:1367; Bughya, 35; and Michot, Ibn
Taymiyya on Astrology, 1556 and n. 34, which translate MF 35:168 and MF 9:2878,
respectively.
94
Irda, MF 8:1389.
95
Irda, MF 8:138. The first hadith is found in Bukhr, 4568, Tafsr al-Qurn, Fa-sanuyassiruhu li-l-usr, and the second in Ibn Mja, 3428, Al-+Tibb, M anzala Allh dan
ill anzala lahu shif.
96
The attribution to al-Ghazl and Ibn al-Jawz is found in Bughya, 35.
97
Irda, MF 8:1389.

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In the context of this dictum in Irda, it appears that the Mutazils are
those turning to the causes in their attribution of the creation of acts to
humans. The strict Ashars obliterate the causes, and those who fail to
do what God has commanded because of determination abandon the
causes. The shaykh also mentions this aphorism in other places with minor
changes of wording, but its interpretation is not always apparent.98 In one
text, however, he gives an extended discussion that clarifies what he thinks
it means. Turning to the causes is depending upon them and putting ones
hope in them. For Ibn Taymiyya, there is no cause worthy of this because
all causes depend upon God for their origination. Nothing originates itself.
Here he criticizes the philosophers and the astrologers at length for believing
that the motions of the nine celestial spheres are the causes of all originating
events.99 He also identifies the naturalists and the Mutazils with this first
part of the aphorism. Moving to its second part, he notes that obliterating the causes is not only an imperfection in reason but also defames the
Law, and he identifies this position with many of the Kalm theologians,
presumably the Ashars.100 Regarding the third part, the shaykh says that
abandoning the causes entirely is not only defamation of the Law but
also irrational, and he censures those who think their deeds play no role
in what will happen to them because of divine determination.101 For Ibn
Taymiyya, the first part of the aphorism negates Gods creation and the last
two parts undercut the Law.
Secondary Causality from the Divine Perspective Is Instrumental
A key point in the Tadmuriyya quotation above is that the secondary causes
by which God creates do not in themselves have the ability to entail their
effects. No secondary cause can act alone. Examples from Kasb clearly illustrate that the causes are thus purely instrumental from Gods perspective.
Ibn Taymiyya notes that God punishes via human effort: Fight against
them; God will chastise them by your hands (Q. 9:14). Then, he explains
that our hands are the secondary causes, the instruments (lt), the intermediaries (aws$t) and the tools (adawt) in bringing the chastisement to
98
Wsi$ta, MF 1:131; Tu!hfa, MF 10:35; MF 8:70; Qawl Al, MF 8:169; Tawakkul, MF
8:528; MF 10:256; and Bughya, 35. I am indebted to Michot, Ibn Taymiyya: Les intermdiaires entre Dieu et lhomme, 8 (including n. 12), for the first two references.
99
Qawl Al, MF 8:169173.
100
Qawl Al, MF 8:175.
101
Qawl Al, MF 8:1758.

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them.102 In Kasb he also illustrates the efficacy (tathr) of human power on

the human act with the images of a pen writing, an adz hewing and a stick
striking.103 The pen, for example, is not considered an associate (shark) in
the act of writing. The implication is that God has no associates in creating
the human act. Nevertheless, the shaykh maintains that the effect (athar)
of the pen cannot be ignored, and it is said that the act is performed by or
with (bi) it. Here the shaykh adds in passing that God is given the highest
similitude.104 Apparently, he is alerting the reader that he is not necessarily
describing the very modality of Gods action but simply trying to speak well
of it in accord with the principle of giving God the highest human perfection, as I have described in Chapter One. Following through on the pen and
stick similes a little later in Kasb, Ibn Taymiyya fields the objection that no
one has ever seen a writers pen rewarded or a strikers stick punished. The
images obviously fail him at this point, and he does no more than divert
attention from the divine perspective to the human. He asserts that humans
are agents in reality and do indeed have a will. He adds that every reasonable
person knows intuitively that there is a difference between someone praying
or committing adultery and someone shivering from fever, that is, there is a
distinction between voluntary (ikhtiyr) and involuntary (i#d$tirr) acts.105
The shaykhs integration of Gods guidance into the scheme of secondary
causes also illustrates their instrumentality. The passage from Tadmuriyya
quoted earlier cites an example from the Qur an: By [the Book] God
guides whoever follows His good pleasure to ways of peace (Q. 5:16). The
Book, that is, the Quran, is a means by which God guides.106 In Kasb Ibn
Taymiyya explains further that Gods command is a secondary cause distinguishing obedience from disobedience. It is part of the ensemble of causes
that brings Gods determination of human destinies to fruition in happiness
or punishment. The command in itself does not necessitate an obedient act,
Kasb, MF 8:390.
See also Irda, MF 8:134, where Ibn Taymiyya explains that the efficacy of the human
power is that of secondary causality and condition (shar$t); and similarly, Minhj, 3:114
5/2:18. Al-Ghazl, I!hy ulm al-dn, 4:247252 (in Kitb al-taw!h#d wa al-tawakkul),
employs the image of the pen esoterically to point beyond humanity to God as the sole agent
in the universe. Ibn Taymiyya uses the pen image somewhat differently both to point to Gods
agency and to secure a role for human agency and obligation to the Law.
104
Kasb, MF 8:391. Cf. Kasb, MF 8:392. In Nubuwwt, 81ff., Ibn Taymiyya elaborates on
Gods creation by means of other things and on how something created from matter is greater
in servitude than something created from nothing (especially bottom of 89). Ibn Taymiyyas
belief in perpetual creation from pre-existing matter was noted above in Chapter Two.
105
Kasb, MF 8:3934.
106
Tadmuriyya, MF 3:112.
102
103

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but it is the instrument that determines whether an act is an act of obedience or disobedience.107
In other texts, Ibn Taymiyya gives additional discussion on the dependence
of the secondary causes on other causes and of these on the will of God.
He notes that fire cannot burn, food cannot fill the stomach, and drink
cannot quench thirst by themselves. These things require at least one other
secondary cause. Heat, for example, requires two causes. It requires the agent
fire, and it requires a receptacle (qbil), such as a body that is receptive to
heat and burning.108 Rain cannot make plants grow without air, soil and
other such things, and anyone who provides help is depending on a great
number of other causes beyond his own power.109 According to the shaykh,
there is ultimately no secondary cause and no created thing that can be a
complete cause (illa tmma or sabab tmm) entailing its effect necessarily.
Everything is totally dependent on the will of God. It is God who perfects
the combination of causes and conditions (shur$t) and removes impediments (mawni) so that something comes into being.110 If God does not
make the causes perfect and repel the impediments, what is intended will
not happen. What HeGlory be to Himwills is, even if people do not
will it, and what people will is not unless God wills.111 It is not sufficient,
for example, that a couple engages in sexual intercourse in order to bear a
child; God must also will to make the woman pregnant. Likewise, good
deeds are a cause, but not a sufficient cause, of happiness; God must also
grant His mercy and pardon.112
Secondary Causality from the Human Perspective Is Natural
Even though Ibn Taymiyyas dominant emphasis is that secondary causes are
instrumental and cannot bring effects into existence apart from Gods will,

107
Kasb, MF 8:402. Ibn Sn explains the causality of commands and prohibitions in much
the same way in Risla f sirr al-qadar, 29 (Arabic) and 32 (trans.), in George F. Hourani,
Ibn Sns Essay on the Secret of Destiny, 2548.
108
Irda, MF 8:133.
109
Qawl Al, MF 8:167.
110
MF 8:70; Irda, MF 8:133; Jabr, MF 8:4867; Ma!habba, 24; Qawl Al, MF 8:1678;
Minhj, 3:115/2:18; and Ab Dharr, MF 18:179. Note also from Minhj, 3:13/1:266:
GodExalted is Heis the Creator of the cause and the effect. Although He is the Creator
of the cause, it must inevitably have another cause sharing with it, and it must inevitably have
an obstacle impeding it. Its effect is not completeeven though God created itunless God
creates another cause and removes the impediments.
111
Wsi$ta, MF 1:137.
112
MF 8:70.

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he nonetheless often presents them as having certain and predictable effects

once activated by that will. As stated in the long passage from Tadmuriyya
quoted earlier, fire burns whatever is receptive to burning, and roofs and
clouds necessarily block the rays of the sun.113 Also, Ibn Taymiyyas assertion
in the same text, There must inevitably be an impediment impeding what
is entailed by [the cause], strongly suggests that causes automatically entail
effects apart from impediments.114 The implication is that once God removes
impediments the causes are free to exercise their efficacy in a natural causal
fashion, at least from the human perspective. Once the cloud is removed (by
Gods will), the suns rays will naturally heat the earth. Here Gods direct
willing of every event begins to recede from the picture. In Kasb the shaykh
presents human deeds and recompense in a similarly naturalistic fashion.
After discussing the divine side of the human act at some length in this fatwa,
Ibn Taymiyya turns to the human basis of reward and punishment:
Know that GodExalted is Hecreated the act of the servant to be a cause
entailing praiseworthy or blameworthy effects (thr). A righteous deed like
prayer . . . is followed immediately by light in [the servants] heart, gladdening
in his chest, tranquility in his soul, increase in his knowledge, confirmation in
his certainty, strength in his reason, and other than that. [This includes] the
strength of his body, the splendor of his face, his renouncing abomination and
wrong, fostering love for him in human hearts, repulsion of trials from him and
other things that he knows and we do not know. Furthermore, these effects of
light, knowledge, certainty and otherwise, which occur to him, are secondary
causes leading to other effects of the same kind, of another kind higher than
these, and so on. Therefore, it has been said that from the reward of a good
deed is a good deed after it and that from the punishment of an evil deed is
an evil deed after it. One who commits an evil deed like lying, for example,
is punished immediately by darkness in the heart, hardness and tightness in
his chest, hypocrisy, restlessness, forgetting what he has learned, blocking of
the door to knowledge he was seeking, a decrease in his certainty and reason,
disgrace, hatred of him in human hearts, boldness in other sin of the same kind
or of a different kind, and so on, unless God sets him right by His mercy.115

This naturalistic account of reward and punishment shifts the focus from
Gods all-pervasive will to the responsibility of humans for their destiny. Yet,
its naturalism involves a kind of inevitability in the results of acts, and this
shifts the focus back to God who set up this cause and effect world. The
113
Tadmuriyya, MF 3:113. Cf. Minhj, 3:270/2:57, where Ibn Taymiyya notes that when
God creates fire in a garment there will be burning thereafter.
114
Tadmuriyya, MF 3:112.
115
Kasb, MF 8:396. Cf. Minhj, 3:278/1:269 for similar notions of the natural effects
of good and evil deeds.

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shaykh goes on in Kasb to explain that God has bound certain causes to
certain effects with a firm bond (rab$t mu!hkam) such that, from the perspective of creatures, the operation of the secondary causes is that of natural
causality. Someone who eats gets full. Someone who drinks quenches his
thirst. Yet, this account, even from the human perspective, is not entirely
naturalistic. According to Ibn Taymiyya, God can break these causal bonds
if He wills. He can take the potency out of food or place an impediment
in the stomach. He can even make people full and quench their thirst by
some other means if He so wills. However, humanity cannot violate the
causal bonds that God has arranged. No one can eat without getting full or
drink without satisfying his thirst.116 Following this in Kasb, Ibn Taymiyya
attributes everything to Gods wise purpose. God has a wise purpose in sending His messengers, and He has a wise purpose in creating the secondary
causes and effects. Yet, the shaykh in Kasb also relates everything back to
Gods vanquishing power, operational will and even pre-eternal knowledge.
Gods determination is a mystery (sirr). It is enough to know that God is
All-Knowing, All-Wise and All-Merciful.117
Conclusion on Secondary Causality
To sum up this overview of secondary causality in Ibn Taymiyyas thought,
Gods perspective appears to be that of a real but inert world of tools and
raw materials that is wholly dependent upon Gods will for its every movement. God creates by means of these instruments in accord with His wise
purpose. The human perspective is that of a world of naturalistic cause and
effect and reward and punishment into which God can intervene at any
point. The language of secondary causality does not resolve the rational
difficulty that Gods all-encompassing will poses for free human agency
and moral accountability. The shaykhs comparison of human agency to
the writing of a pen successfully models instrumental causality from Gods
perspective, but it fails to make sense of voluntary human agency. When
Ibn Taymiyya is faced with the injustice of an instrument like a pen being
punished for what it writes, he can do no more than switch from the divine
to the human perspective. In the course of his argument, he simply stops
trying to explain how God creates human agency, and he appeals instead to
rational intuition of the differences on the human level between acts that

116
117

Kasb, MF 8:397. Cf. Sada, MF 8:284.

Kasb, MF 8:3989.

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are good and bad, and voluntary and involuntary. Despite such rational difficulties, Ibn Taymiyyas notion of secondary causality provides him with a
powerful rhetorical tool for speaking of the compatibility of the divine and
human spheres and for identifying error in those who he believes falter in
one of the two domains.
Ibn Taymiyya on Controversial Kalm Terms Relating to Human Agency
No Ashar Acquisition (kasb) and No Independent Efficacy (tathr)
This and the following two sections examine what Ibn Taymiyya writes about
certain controversial terms and issues in the Kalm tradition, namely, human
efficacy (tathr) in acts, human acquisition (kasb) of acts, Gods obligation of
what humans are not able to do (taklf m l yu$tq), and compulsion ( jabr).
Laoust and Gimaret both note that Ibn Taymiyya rejects the Ashar view of
acquisition, and this will be reviewed below.118 However, they do not mention
that the shaykh still employs the term to refer to the act itself, as in, The
act is the acquisition.119 Ibn Taymiyya also suggests that acquiring does
not differ from saying that someone acts, brings into existence, originates,
fabricates, performs deeds, etc.120 The term also indicates to the shaykh
that human acts have results. The act that God creates in the person is an
acquisition by which [the person] attracts profit to himself and by which he
repels harm from himself.121 In Kasb Ibn Taymiyya links acquisition to the
quranic verse, What [the soul] has acquired is accounted to it, and what
it has acquired is held against it (Q. 2:286). Thereafter, he observes that
acquisition appears as the act through which human beings gain what they
need to develop from deficiency to perfection.122

118

166.

Laoust, Essai, 166; and Gimaret, Thories de lacte humain dans lcole (Hanbalite,

Minhj, 3:210/2:42.
Irda, MF 8:119. Cf. Irda, MF 8:124 and Isti$ta, MF 8:375.
121
Minhj, 3:146/2:26.
122
The passage from Kasb, MF 8:387, reads, The acquisition is the act that brings profit
or harm to its agent ( f il ), as HeExalted is Hesaid, What [the soul] has acquired is
accounted to it, and what it has acquired is held against it (Q. 2:286). HeGlory be to
Himhas made obvious that the souls acquisition is for it or against it. People say, So-andso acquired property or praise or eminence. Similarly, he profited from that. When servants
are perfected by their acts and benefit from themwhen they were created imperfect at
the beginning of creationestablishing the secondary cause (sabab) is correct. Indeed, their
perfection and their benefit come from their acts. The act of GodGlory be to Him and
119
120

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Ibn Taymiyya disparages the strict Ashar concept of human acquisition

with the aphorism, There are three things having no truth: the leap of alNa)z)zm, the states of Ab Hshim and the acquisition of al-Ashar.123
The shaykh reports that for al-Ashar God is the Creator of the human
voluntary act, which the human then acquires conjoined to his temporally
originated power in the same substrate. The existence of the originated power
distinguishes voluntary from involuntary acts. However, this power has no
efficacy in bringing the act into existence, and the human being is not the
agent of his act. The shaykh believes that this is irrational, and he explains
that this comes very close to the complete denial of human power set forth
by Jahm b. !Safwn.124 In Minhj he writes,
As for the Jabrs such as Jahm and his followers, according to them, the servant
has no power at all. Al-Ashar agrees with them in meaning. He says that the
servant does not have an efficacious power (qudra muaththira). He maintains
something he calls a power, and he makes its existence like its nonexistence.
Similarly for the acquisition that he maintains.125

Ibn Taymiyya asserts that merely conjoining the power to the acquisition
without positing any efficacious link erases any distinction between the
powerful and the impotent or between power and any other human attributes, such as life, knowledge or will.126 Moreover, there is then no difference
between voluntary and involuntary acts.127
It was noted in the discussion of secondary causality above that the efficacy
(tathr) that Ibn Taymiyya himself posits between human power and the
act itself is not of the kind that produces effects independently. Independent
causal efficacy is solely Gods prerogative. Human power is rather a condition
and a secondary cause for Gods creation of the act. It is thus apparent that
Ibn Taymiyya can criticize al-Ashar for no more than failing to maintain
that human power is among the secondary causes by which God creates the

exalted is Heand His handiwork come from His perfection and His greatness. His acts
come from His names and His attributes and are derived from them.
123
Irda, MF 8:128 and Dar, 3:444. A similar saying appears in Minhj, 1:459/1:127,
2:297/1:214. For discussion of al-Na)z)zms theory of the leap ($tafra) in causal operations
and Ab Hshim al-Jubbs doctrine of states (a!hwl ) in Gods attributes, see Wolfson, The
Philosophy of the Kalam, 167205 (Ab (Hshim) and 5147 (al-Na)z)zm); and Gimaret, La
doctrine dal-Ashar, 548 (al-Na)z)zm), and 169170 and passim (Ab Hshim).
124
Minhj, 3:75/2:7, 3:109/2:167, 3:209/2:412; Irda, MF 8:1189; and Jabr, MF
8:467.
125
Minhj, 1:3978/1:111.
126
Minhj, 3:113/2:178.
127
Jabr, MF 8:467; and Minhj, 3:209210/2:42.

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act. In this regard, the shaykh also rejects a third sense of efficacy proposed
by al-Bqilln in which the human power is efficacious in determining an
attribute or state of the act, but not the act itself. The shaykh says that this
posits somethingeven if only an attributethat falls outside the ___domain of
Gods creation. He argues that there is no difference between giving efficacy
to a speck or an elephant apart from God. Both equally involve giving God
an associate (shirk).128
Ibn Taymiyya has no difficulty employing the terms efficacy and acquisition according to his own senses despite the fact that he believes Ashar
theologians have stripped them of meaning. However, the shaykh is much
more reticent to say that God obligates humans to do what they are not
able or that God compels them to act. As the next two subsections show,
Ibn Taymiyya believes that these two ways of speaking, even if given correct senses, should not be used because they too easily suggest ideas that are
inappropriate for God.
No Obligation of What One Is Not Able to Do (taklf m l yu$tq)
Closely connected to the issue of human power is that of the obligation of
what one is not able to do (taklf m l yu$tq). On a number of occasions,
Ibn Taymiyya notes that two different kinds of obligation come under this
label. The first kind is obligating people to do what they have no power to
do, as in obligating humans to fly, the blind to vocalize copies of the Quran,
the chronically ill to walk or the sitting simultaneously to stand. The shaykh
asserts that most Sunns, including most Ashars, deny that this kind of
obligation is found in the Law. The second kind is obligating people to do
that of which they are capable in the sense of being sound of body and limb.
However, the obligated does not commit the act because he lacks the will
to do it and is preoccupied with something else. For example, an unbeliever
could believe but does not do so because he is preoccupied by unbelief.
According to Ibn Taymiyya, the first kind of obligation of what one is
not able to do does not occur, but the second kind does. However, he does
not believe that the second kind should be given this label even though the
Ashar theologian al-Bqilln, the (Hanbal Ab Yal and many others do
identify it as such. He explains that calling the second kind obligation of
what one is not able to do is based on the Ashar principle that the human

128
Kasb, MF 8:389; and Minhj, 3:113/2:18. Cf. Minhj, 3:268/2:56. For detail on alBqillns view, see Gimaret, Thories de lacte humain en thologie musulmane, 92ff.

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power or capability to act is present only at the time of the act and is only
for the act that actually takes place. Thus, all imposition of obligation prior
to an act itself is obligating what is beyond human ability.129 Presupposing his
doctrine of two capabilities, Ibn Taymiyya argues that this is not in keeping
with the teachings of the Quran, the Sunna and the Salaf because the Quran
explicitly states that God has obligated acts of which one is capable. This
includes things like going on pilgrimage and fasting (cf. Q. 3:97, etc.)130
Ibn Taymiyya also addresses a more extreme version of obligation of what
one is not able to do, that of al-Rz.131 The shaykh provides a full discussion
of this in Jabr. For al-Rz, this doctrine is not just a matter of obligating
something of someone who lacks potency, as in commanding the blind to
see. Rather, God obligates what is rationally impossible, as in combining two
contradictories. Moreover, al-Rz believes that this is found in revelation.
The prime example is when God obligated the Prophets uncle Ab Lahab
to believe while knowing and revealing that he would not do so. Since Gods
foreknowledge could not have been contradicted lest He become ignorant, it
was inherently impossible that Ab Lahab believe. Additionally, obligation
of anything apart from Gods knowledge of what will happen is obligation
of what one is not able to do.132
Ibn Taymiyya evades al-Rzs conclusions by switching from the eternal
divine perspective adopted by al-Rzs argument to the human historical
perspective, and from the necessitating divine knowledge to the secondary
causal sense of human power. Ibn Taymiyya explains that God commanded
Ab Lahab to believe and that God did not put Ab Lahab in the predicament of having also to believe that he would not believe. God did not tell
the Prophet to share the quranic verse, [Ab Lahab] will burn in a fire of
blazing flames (Q. 111:3), with Ab Lahab himself. The shaykh also cites
the parallel example of Noah and his people. God told Noah that no more

129
For a detailed discussion of al-Ashars views on this, see Gimaret, La doctrine dalAshar, 4379.
130
Jabr, 8:469470; Dar, 1:603; and Minhj, 3:523/1:276, 3:1027/2:156. There is
also considerable discussion of taklf m l yu$tq in Sada, MF 8:293302, and numerous
scholars are linked to the various positions identified. However, I have not relied on this text
because its structure is confused and may be corrupt. This should entail no loss since its basic
ideas are found in the other texts employed.
131
Jabr, MF 8:4714, 498500; Minhj, 3:107/2:16; Sada, MF 8:302; T a, MF
8:4378; and Dar, 1:624. See Gimaret, Thories de lacte humain en thologie musulmane,
1512, and Yasin Ceylan, Theology and Tafsr in the Major Works of Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz
(Kuala Lumpur: International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization, 1996), 159161,
for discussions of Rzs doctrine of taklf m l yu$tq.
132
See also Ta, MF 8:438ff.

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of his people would believe (cf. Q. 11:36), but God did not tell Noah to
convey this message to his people.
Furthermore, Ibn Taymiyya argues, human disobedience occurs for lack
of human will, not for lack of power, and not because God knew it would
occur.133 A discussion of impossibility (al-mumtani) later in Jabr clarifies
the shaykhs point. He says that it is correct that what is contrary to Gods
foreknowledge will not happen and that if it did happen it would turn
Gods knowledge to ignorance. However, this does not mean that someone
obligated to do what God knows will not happen is unable to carry out the
respective obligation. It could be that the one obligated is able but has no
will to do it. Then, the shaykh concludes, he is obligated to do only what
he is able to do despite the knowledge of the Lord that it will not be.134
Ibn Taymiyya advances his argument further by invoking a parallel with
the operation of Gods will. God knows that what He does not will will
not exist. However, this does not mean that God could not will it. What
He knows will not exist is only impossible by virtue of His not willing it,
not because it is inherently impossible or because He is unable to do it. The
shaykh supports this with a number of quranic verses including, If your Lord
had willed, He would have made you one nation (Q. 5:48). Likewise, then,
humans may be able to do something but not will to do it.135
This bit of polemic works for Ibn Taymiyya only because he has diverted
the readers attention from the perspective of Gods fixed foreknowledge to
that of temporality and history, in respect both of human power and Gods
will. Possibly it would be fairer for him to argue that the human act is contingent from the perspective of human power and necessary from that of
Gods knowledge. However, to conclude from this that humans are obligated
beyond what they are able to do would not fit his interpretation of the Quran
and would probably offend his sense of what befits Gods perfection.
No Speaking of Compulsion (jabr)
In a number of texts, Ibn Taymiyya devotes attention to the term compulsion ( jabr), which Jahm b. !Safwn and al-Rz employ to describe the

Jabr, MF 8:4714.
Jabr, MF 8:4989.
135
Jabr, MF 8:498500. In Dar , 1:62, the shaykh also observes that those who deny
Gods power to do anything but what He knows share a fundamental presupposition with the
extremist Qadars who deny Gods foreknowledge: Both sects agree that the opposite of what
is known is not possible (mumkin) or within the realm of possibility (maqdr alayhi).
133
134

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human act. In Dar the shaykh draws directly from a discussion of the early
Jabr/Qadar controversy in Ab Bakr al-Khallls al-Sunna, which appears
no longer to be extant.136 Following al-Khalll, Ibn Taymiyya reports that
the early hadith specialist al-Zubayd (d. 149/766) completely denies that
God compels. This is because the generally accepted meaning of the term is
coercing (ilzm) someone against his good pleasure (ri#d), as when jurists
say that a woman is compelled to be married apart from her choice and
good pleasure. The shaykh explains that God does not compel someone in
this sense because God has the power to make someone choose and be well
pleased to do what he does and to make someone hate what he does not
do. Someone who chooses his acts is not compelled.137
Ibn Taymiyya reports a second view, that of the early jurist al-Awz
(d. 157/774), who prohibits speaking about compulsion since the term
does not appear in the Quran and the Sunna.138 The shaykh explains that
al-Awzs prohibition against discussing the term compulsion is better
than al-Zubayds complete denial. The reason relates to the fact that one of
Gods names, which does appear in the Quran, is Compeller (al-Jabbr)
(Q. 59:23), a name with the same Arabic root as compulsion. In this regard,
Ibn Taymiyya notes that a certain Mu!hammad b. Kab (d. 118/736)139 said,
[God] is only called Compeller because He compels creatures to [do]
what He wills. The shaykh takes this to be a correct usage of compulsion.
Thus, al-Zubayds position may deny something that is true in the process

136
Dar , 1:6572. Minhj, 3:36/1:271, 3:2458/2:51; Irda, MF 8:1312; Kasb, MF
8:395; Sada, MF 8:294; Jabr, MF 8:3612; Al, MF 16:1412; and Shams, MF 16:237
contain similar but briefer and less precise discussions. See H. Laoust, al-Khalll, EI2
4:989990, for a discussion of al-Khallls works.
137
Dar, 1:667.
138
Dar, 1:667. Still drawing on al-Khalll, Ibn Taymiyya notes that Sufyn al-Thawr
also denies compulsion and says that God naturally disposes ( jabala) people. In response,
the hadith specialist Ab Bakr al-Marwaz (d. 292/905) supposes that al-Thawr had in mind
the following hadith: [The Prophet said to Ashajj Abd al-Qays], In you are two characteristics that God loves: gentleness and deliberateness. He said, Two characteristics that I
have affected or two characteristics to which I have been naturally disposed ( jubiltu)? [The
Prophet said], Of course, two characteristics to which you have been naturally disposed. He
said, Praise be to God who has naturally disposed me with two characteristics God loves.
This is as quoted in Dar, 1:68, where it is traced to the collection of Muslim. However, very
little of this hadith appears in Muslim (see e.g. Muslim, 24, 25, Al-mn, Al-Amr bi-l-mn
bi-Allh, tal . . .). Closer, but not exact, versions appear in Ab Dwd, 4548, Al-Adab,
F qublat al-rijl; and A!hmad, 17160, Musnad al-shmiyyn, (Hadth wafd Abd al-Qays an
al-Nab. Ibn Taymiyya often quotes this hadith, as in Minhj, 3:247/2:51; Jabr, MF 8:462;
and Al, MF 16:142.
139
In Kasb, MF 8:395, Ibn Taymiyya says that Mu!hammad b. Kab was among the most
excellent of the second generation in Medina.

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of denying what is false, whereas the position of al-Awz does not run this
risk.140 In Minhj, Ibn Taymiyya also attributes al-Awzs position to Sufyn
al-Thawr (d. 161/778) and A!hmad b. (Hanbal.141
In Jabr Ibn Taymiyya elaborates his views more extensively. He explains
that in ordinary language contexts the term compulsion means coercion
(ikrh) of others against their wills. He notes, It is said, The father compelled his daughter to marry, and the judge compelled the man to sell what
he had to pay his debt. 142 The shaykh also distinguishes right coercion
from wrong coercion. Coercion is justified to make a warring unbeliever
accept Islam or pay the jizya, to return an apostate to Islam and to make
Muslims perform their religious duties, pay their debts as they are able, and
so on. However, it is wrong to coerce someone to disbelieve or disobey as in
rape and coercing someone to drink.143 Whether right or wrong, Servants
commit this compulsion, which is coercion, with each other because they
cannot originate will and free choice in [each others] hearts or make them
commit their acts.144 Humans cannot compel others to will, love and hate.
The most they can do to get others to follow their wills is arouse desire or
strike terror. Coercion consists in terrorizing someone else to the point that
the other commits an act he would not otherwise will and choose. Apart
from cases in which the one coerced has no power to resistthe shaykh gives
rape as an examplethe victim does in fact will and choose to commit the
act. However, he wills his act only secondarily. His primary intention is to
avoid the greater evil that might befall him for noncompliance.145
In contrast to human compulsion, which is necessarily coercive, Ibn
Taymiyya asserts in Jabr that Gods compulsion is not coercive, because
He has the power to create the will and the free choice by which humans
commit their acts. God makes humans will and love what they do. He can
even make humans will something that they hate: He is able to make [the
servant] do something despite his hatred of it. He wills it to the point that
he does it despite his loathing of it. For example, an ill person may drink
medicine despite his hatred of it.146 The shaykh adds that God moreover
creates this hatred (karha). He illustrates this with two quranic verses, To

140
141
142
143
144
145
146

Dar, 1:69.
Minhj, 3:242/2:51.
Jabr, MF 8:4623.
Jabr, MF 8:464, 5024.
Jabr, MF 8:4634.
Jabr, MF 8:5012.
Jabr, MF 8:464.

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God prostrates whosoever is in the heavens and the earth obediently or with
hatred (karhan) (Q. 13:15), and, To Him has submitted whosoever is in
the heavens and the earth obediently or with hatred (Q. 3:83).147 Speaking of Gods name Compeller, Ibn Taymiyya explains that it is from His
compulsion, His subjugation and His power that He makes servants willing
to do what He wills from them.148 He also clarifies that all that God does
is wise and just, while the compulsion that creatures commit may be unjust,
ignorant and foolish.149
Despite denying coercion on the part of God in the above discussion,
Ibn Taymiyya adds confusion in Jabr by also attributing right coercion
to God when he asserts, GodExalted is Hedoes not coerce anyone
except in truth.150 This inconsistency aside, the shaykhs primary concern
is to underline that Gods compulsion, if the term be permitted, consists in
creating human free choice and will directly with wise purpose in a way that
is impossible for humans to create in each other. Even with this clarification,
Ibn Taymiyya is reticent to use the word. In Kasb, for example, he argues
against direct divine compulsion of human acts on the basis of an intuitive
difference between involuntary and voluntary acts. There is a rational and
intuitive difference between the shivering of the feverish on the one hand and
sitting, praying or stealing on the other. In the latter case, human beings are
willing, choosing and able to commit their acts while in the former they are
not. Ibn Taymiyya maintains that it is still God who creates the human will
that necessitates human acts, and he admits that this is compulsion by means
of will ( jabr bi-tawassu$t al-irda).151 Yet, he will not break with tradition
and call himself a Jabr as did al-Rz who holds essentially the same view.
He argues that it is better not to speak of compulsion lest it be confused
with that which humans impose on each other.152 As with purpose (ghara#d )
and passionate love (ishq), which were discussed in Chapter Two above, it
is a matter of the ordinary language meaning of compulsion suffering too
many negative connotations for use in theological discourse.

147
148
149
150
151
152

Jabr, MF 8:464.
Jabr, MF 8:465.
Jabr, MF 8:465.
Jabr, MF 8:505.
Kasb, MF 8:394.
Kasb, MF 8:395.

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Ibn Taymiyyas Compatibilism as the Golden Mean (wasa$t)

It remains to note that what I have been calling Ibn Taymiyyas compatibilismhis conviction that Gods all-encompassing power is compatible with
real human will and actionis perhaps better expressed in his own quranic
idiom as the golden mean (wasa$t), the balanced intermediate position that
avoids extremes (cf. Q. 2:143). In a number of places, the shaykh explains
that the People of the Sunna (ahl al-sunna) stand in an intermediate position between the various Muslim sects and diverse religions on numerous
religious issues.153 For example, on the question of Gods attributes they
take the golden mean between stripping God of His attributes (ta$tl ) and
assimilating God to creatures (tashbh), and on the issue of the Companions of the Prophet they take the middle course between the Shs and the
Khrijs. Among other things, Ibn Taymiyya charges Shs with preferring
Al over the first two Sunn caliphs Ab Bakr and Umar, and he accuses
the Khrijs of calling the third Sunn caliph Uthmn an unbeliever and
rejecting Als caliphate.154
With respect to Gods creation of human acts, Ibn Taymiyya states tersely
in Wsi$tiyya, [The People of the Sunna and the Community follow] a
golden mean concerning the subject of Gods actsExalted is Hebetween
the Qadars and the Jabrs.155 He outlines his view more fully in another
text translated below. Although there is nothing substantially new here,
this passage does show Ibn Taymiyya employing the notion found in Ibn
Sn, al-Rz and others that God necessitates or compels the human being
to choose freely more clearly than we have seen above. However, he uses
the quranic terms make ( jaala) and create in lieu of the linguistically
unredeemable compel.
Concerning the subject of [Gods] creation and His command, [the People
of the Sunna follow] a golden mean between those who belie the power of
God, who do not believe in His perfect power, His all-inclusive will and His
creation of everything, and between those who corrupt the religion of God,
who take the servant not to have a will, a power or a deed. They strip away
the command and the prohibition, the reward and the punishment, and they
become equivalent to those associationists who said, If God had willed, we
153
Minhj, 3:4689/2:105; Minhj, 5:168172/3:4243; Jawb, 1:6975; Wsi$tiyya, MF
3:141; Qubru$siyya, MF 28: 613615; and Wa$siyya kubr, MF 3:369375, which is translated in Yahya Michot, Pages spirituelles dIbn Taymiyya: II. La religion du milieu, Action
(Mauritius) (December 1999), 2223, 30. See also Laoust, Essai, 220225.
154
Wa$siyya kubr, MF 3:373, 375.
155
Wsi$tiyya, MF 3:141.

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would not have given associates, nor would have our fathers, and we would
not have forbidden anything [against His will] (Q. 6:148).
The People of the Sunna believe that God is powerful over everythingHe
is thus able to guide servants and turn their heartsthat what God wills is
and what He does not will is notThere is nothing in His sovereignty that
He does not will, and He is not incapable of executing His willand that
He is Creator of everything with respect to concrete entities, attributes and
movements.
And they believe that the servant has a power, a will and a deed and that
he is freely choosing (mukhtr). They do not call him compelled (majbr),
given that one who is compelled is coerced [to act] differently from his free
choice. GodGlory be to Himmade ( jaala) the servant someone who
freely chooses what he does. He is thus someone who freely chooses and wills.
God is his Creator and the Creator of his choice.156

Conclusion
This chapter has shown that Ibn Taymiyya uses several different terms to
set out a view of Gods creation of human agency that is essentially that of
Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz in its metaphysical structure and that has its roots in
the causal language of philosophers like Ibn Sn. Ibn Taymiyya speaks of the
complete necessitating cause with which God creates all human acts directly
using terms such as origination, preponderance, decisive human will, complete
human power and potency, determining power, and conjoined capability. In
order to provide a basis for human accountability to Gods command, the
shaykh identifies an anterior and legislative power that denotes the bodily
soundness of the human agent for undertaking acts. Ibn Taymiyya also discusses the created world and human agency in terms of secondary causes,
which are the instruments and raw materials with which God creates, and
which, from the human perspective, form a world of natural cause and effect.
Among the secondary causes that are relevant to human voluntary action,
and which God uses to originate human acts, are human power and will, as
well as Gods command.
Ibn Taymiyya insists on the compatibility of Gods creation of human acts
alongside real human agency and responsibility, and, unlike al-Rz in his
Tafsr, the shaykh does not acknowledge rational difficulty in upholding the
two simultaneously. He maintains that human agency is real insofar as it is

156

Wa$siyya kubr, MF 3:3734.

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175

something that God creates, but he does not affirm human freedom in the
libertarian sense. The shaykh argues that God is just to reward and punish
deeds that He creates because He creates them in a substrate that is separate
from Himself, that is, in the human being. By virtue of this substrate principle, God is not qualified with the human acts that he creates just as he is
not qualified with their attributes, such as blackness or tallness.
Ibn Taymiyyas view of Gods creation of human agency may be compared
to a marionette show in which God is wisely directing the performance in all
its detail in order to tell a good story. God cannot be charged with injustice
in creating this or that misdeed of a particular marionette because it is necessary to the wise purpose of forwarding the narrative plot. The marionettes
perceive themselves to be free agents involved in a drama of obedience and
disobedience to the divine command that God has interjected into the
story, but God is Author and Creator of the drama as a whole. This gives
full scope to Gods power, will and wise purpose, while also affirming the
reality of human choice and activity.
When faced directly with the contradiction between God the determiner
of human acts and human free choice and responsibility, Ibn Taymiyya
sometimes switches from Gods perspective to the human. This occurs in
his use of the image of an author writing with a pen to illustrate how God
creates acts in the human. When faced with the absurdity of pens being
punished for what they write, the shaykh evades the problem by dropping
the pen image and asserting that human beings do have a will and are agents
in reality. He then appeals to intuitive knowledge of the difference between
voluntary and involuntary acts to complete his switch to the plane of human
rationality. Something similar happens when Ibn Taymiyya broaches Fakhr
al-Dn al-Rzs claim that Ab Lahab could never have believed because
Gods eternal foreknowledge made his belief impossible. Without notice, the
shaykh shifts from Gods perspective from which this claim is made to the
historical human perspective and explains that Ab Lahab was never put in
the predicament of having to believe the revelation of Gods foreknowledge
that he would not believe.
Ibn Taymiyya does admit that his theology involves divine compulsion
( jabr) of human acts by the intermediaries of human will and power. Al-Rz
holds essentially the same view, but, unlike al-Rz, the shaykh does not allow
this position to be called compulsion lest it be confused with direct divine
compulsion and evoke negative connotations concerning God. This, along
with his insistence on human responsibility and his unannounced perspective
switching to avoid mentioning contradiction in Gods economy, reflects his

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concern to speak of God according to the highest similitude. Open admission

of contradiction would detract from Gods perfection and praiseworthiness,
and it would open the door to the Ibls style irrationality and ethical laxity that he seeks to stem. Rather, Ibn Taymiyya portrays his compatibilism
positively as the golden mean between the extremes of the Jabrs and the
Qadars, between hard determinism and libertarian freedom.

CHAPTER FIVE

THE WISE PURPOSE AND ORIGIN OF EVIL

Ibn Taymiyya and the Explanation of Evil in Islamic Theodicies
The question of evil (sharr) in Ibn Taymiyyas writings has not received serious study. Before examining the pertinent texts, it will prove useful to fill
in some background on how the preceding Islamic tradition explains evil.
A common theme is the educational and disciplinary role of evil in advancing the religious life. Already noted in the Introduction were al-Mturds
view that evil is a tool of Gods wisdom to lead humankind to knowledge of
Gods existence and the Sufi notion that evil and suffering are instruments of
Gods discipline on the spiritual path. Similar ideas are found in the free-will
theodicy of the Mutazil Abd al-Jabbr who maintains that God inflicts
pain not only as punishment for sins but also for the purposes of testing,
warning and deterring.1
In the best-of-all-possible-worlds theodicy of Ibn Sn, all things are good
from the vantage point of the whole. Pure or absolute evil does not exist, but
relative or partial evil does and is inherent in the perfection of the created
order. In the section on providence in al-Shif, Ibn Sn explains that evil,
which he understands metaphysically as imperfection (naq$s) and adama
term that I will translate variously as nonexistence, privation or lackis
necessary to some things for them to be what they are. By way of example,
he argues that burning is necessary to the perfection of fire even if fire occasionally burns someone. If such things did not involve evil, they would in
fact be something else, but they must exist as they are for the maintenance
of the universal order. In addition to the nonexistence of absolute evil and
the necessity of relative evil to the perfection of things, Ibn Sn also speaks
quantitatively about evil. He affirms that the amount of evil in the universe
is very small compared to the great amount of good.2

Heemskerk, Suffering in Mutazilite Theology, 1516.

Ibn Sn, Al-Shif: Al-Ilhiyyt (2), 414422. Ibn Sn, Al-Risla al-arshiyya, 16,
also attributes wise purpose (!hikma) to evils. For further analysis of metaphysical evil in the
thought of Ibn Sn, see Ab Zayd, Mafhm al-khayr, 112118, 152159; and Inati, The
Problem of Evil, 65101.
1
2

Jon Hoover, 2007

This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/.

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Other parts of the Islamic tradition elaborate further answers as to why

evil is necessary for the best possible order. In I!hy ulm al-dn, al-Ghazl
roots the necessity of evil in the principle that things cannot be known except
by their opposites. Health is not enjoyed without illness; the blessed in Paradise would not know their blessedness without Hell; and perfection is not
known without imperfection.3 Ibn Arab employs an additional explanation
for evil, what Arthur Lovejoy in his classic The Great Chain of Being calls
the principle of plenitude, which locates the good in the greatest possible
variety.4 For Ibn Arab, God bestows existence on the cosmos for the great
good of making Himself known. Evil and imperfection, which are paradoxically no more than privation and otherness from the sole reality of God and
yet real in that they thwart Gods Law and human purposes, are necessary
in order to afford God the possibility to manifest the infinite diversity, the
great plenitude, of His names. Everything in existence reflects a divine name
such as All-Merciful, Giver of Life, Giver of Death, Honorer, Humiliator and
so forth. These names extend in number beyond the traditional ninety-nine
to infinity. Nonetheless, Ibn Arab maintains that, out of courtesy for God,
we should address God only with names that He has revealed. We should
not, for example, call God Liar or Ignorant.5
The principle of plenitude and the idea that things are known only by
their opposites do not appear explicitly in Ibn Taymiyyas thought on evil,
but he does speak of evils educational qualities, its logical necessity in the
nature of the world, its relativity and its quantitative insignificance. However, congruent with his juridical concern to speak well of God, the shaykhs
primary interest is finding ways not to attribute evil to God even though
it is God who is ultimately responsible for the world being the way it is. In
the end his refuge is Gods wise purpose.
The first section below examines Ibn Taymiyyas three-fold typology for
attributing evil. This includes discussion of his views on Gods names. The
second section investigates the degree to which he believes that Gods wise

3
Al-Ghazl, I!hy ulm al-dn, 4:2589 (at the end of Kitb al-taw!hd wa al-tawakkul).
Ormsby, Theodicy, 40 and 649, provides a translation and analysis of this text. The idea that
things are known through their opposites is also found in al-(Hallj and others, especially in
reflection on the fate of Ibls. On this, see Awn, Satans Tragedy and Redemption, 122150.
4
Arthur O. Lovejoy, The Great Chain of Being: A Study of the History of an Idea (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1936), 52ff.
5
Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge, 3344, 289297. For briefer treatment of these
themes, see William C. Chittick, Imaginal Worlds: Ibn al-Arab and the Problem of Religious
Diversity (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1994), especially Chapters 2, 3
and 8.

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179

purposes may be known and his few suggestions as to what they are. The
third section shows how Ibn Taymiyya employs the metaphysical concept of
evil as nonexistence for moral and religious ends in (Hasana and Fti!ha.
Ibn Taymiyyas Evil Attribution Typology
Attributing Evil to the Generality, the Secondary Cause or the Elided Agent
In Minhj, Irda, Kasb, Jabr, (Hasana and a few other texts Ibn Taymiyya
asserts that evil must not be attributed directly to God but rather in one of
three other ways, which he presents in a recurring typological form.6 This
three-fold typology appears in diverse contexts with varying degrees of fullness. Occasionally, it appears as a hermeneutic grid comprehending the ways
that evil is attributed in the Quran or in both the Quran and the Sunna.7
Most often, however, the shaykh cites it as a general statement of how evil
is attributed. In the first type evil falls within the compass of the generality
(umm) of created things, or falls within the compass of the generality,
or, more tersely, is attributed by way of the generality. In the second type,
evil is attributed to its secondary cause (sabab), its agent cause (al-sabab alfil ) or the creature (makhlq). In the third type, evil is mentioned without
reference to its agent.
The Attribution of Evil in the Quran
Although Ibn Taymiyya gives very little direct explanation of the three types
in the evil attribution typology itself, he usually supplies examples of each
from the Quran. As an example of the first type in which evil is attributed
to the generality, the shaykh customarily cites, God is the Creator of
everything (Q. 13:16, 39:62), or, He has created everything (Q. 25:2).
These verses do not explain what it means for evil to fall within the compass of the generality except to direct attention away from Gods creation
of evil specifically and to His creation of all things in general. More will be
said about the interpretation of this type below. The attribution of evil to its
6
Irda, MF 8:937; Kasb, MF 8:4001; Ta, MF 8:4467; Jabr, MF 8:5112; Fti!ha,
MF 14:21; (Hasana, MF 14:2656; Thulth, MF 17:946, 99; and Minhj, 3:1425/2:256,
5:408411/3:102.
7
In the Quran in Ta, MF 8:447, and in both the Quran and the Sunna in Irda, MF
8:94; and Jabr, 8:511.

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secondary cause, that is, the creature, is more obvious, and, as an example,
Ibn Taymiyya often cites, Say, I seek refuge with the Lord of the daybreak
from the evil of what He has created (Q. 113:12), that is, from the evil
instigated by Gods creatures. The shaykhs standard example of the third
type is the quranic statement about the jinn: We do not know whether
evil is willed for those in the earth or whether their Lord wills rectitude for
them (Q. 72:10). Here, the agent willing evil, presumably God, has been
elided and the verb to will put in the passive voice.
In the two instances of the typology in Minhj, Ibn Taymiyya observes
that all three types are found in the first chapter of the Quran: Guide us
in the Straight Path, the path of those whom You have blessed, not those
upon whom is anger, and not those who went astray (Q. 1:67).8 In these
verses, God is the agent ( fil ) of blessing (first type). The agent of anger
has been elided (third type), and the evil of going astray is attributed to
creatures themselves (second type). The shaykh also gives this illustration
in Jabr, but he presents the earlier verse, Praise be to God, Lord of the
worlds (Q. 1:2), as the example of the first type.9 Ibn Taymiyya provides
no additional quranic examples of the first and third types. Moreover, the
third type receives no further discussion at all. Elision of the agent of evil is
no more than a rhetorical device or form of courtesy that the shaykh finds
the Quran using to avoid attributing evil to God.
In Irda the shaykh gives several more quranic examples of attributing
evil to human secondary causes: Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves
(Q. 7:23); When an affliction comes to you, even after having dealt one
out twice as great, you say, From where does this come? Say, It is from
yourselves (Q. 3:165); and Any good thing that comes to you is from
God, and any evil thing that comes to you is from yourself (Q. 4:79).10
Elsewhere, he adds Abrahams attribution of illness to himself but the cure
to God: And when I am ill, He cures me (Q. 26:80).11 Ibn Taymiyya also
illustrates the attribution of evil to its secondary cause with brief quotations

8
Minhj, 3:143/2:25 and 5:410/3:102. English translations of ghayr al-magh#db alayhim
as not (the way) of those who have earned Your Anger ((Hill and Khn), not of those
against whom Thou art wrathful (Arberry) or Not (the path) of those who earn Thine
anger (Pickthall) do not accurately translate the Arabic by obscuring the fact that no agent
of anger is mentioned in the text.
9
Jabr, MF 8:511. Ibn Taymiyya also mentions in (Hasana, MF 14:272, that the threefold
evil attribution typology is found in the first chapter of the Quran, but he does not explain
beyond the first type.
10
Irda, MF 8:95.
11
Jabr, MF 8:511; Kasb, MF 8:401; and Minhj, 3:143/2:25, 5:410/3:102.

the wise purpose and origin of evil

181

from the quranic story of the guide who led Moses through three ordeals
(Q. 18:6082).12 When explaining the reasons for his puzzling actions,
the guide, whom Ibn Taymiyya takes to be the mythical Khi#dr, attributes
his prima facie evil acts of sinking a boat and killing a boy to himself but
attributes his good act of straightening a leaning wall to God. These verses
concerning Abraham and Khi#dr show not only that evil is attributed to
creatures but also that good comes from God. The human agent gets sick,
sinks a boat and kills, but God rights a leaning wall and cures the sick.
Evil Is Good in Gods Wise Purpose, and Good Far Exceeds Evil
As mentioned above, Ibn Taymiyya does not clearly specify what he means
in the first type of the evil attribution typology by evil falling within the
compass of the generality of created things.13 However, the contexts of
these typologies elaborate this in three different ways that echo Ibn Sn.
First, from Gods perspective, the generality of what God creates is wholly
good; evil is relative and exists only from the perspective of creatures. Second, evil is a necessary concomitant of the perfection of the created order.
Third, from the human perspective, the generality of good is far greater in
quantity than evil.
In the first of these three ways, Ibn Taymiyya maintains that what creatures regard as evil is good by virtue of Gods wise purpose. The following
from Minhj is typical: If GodExalted is Heis Creator of everything,
He creates good (khayr) and evil (sharr) on account of the wise purpose
that He has in that by virtue of which His act is good (!hasan) and perfect
(mutqin).14 A nearby passage extends this to more unseemly things: God
is Creator of illnesses, aches, hateful odors, ugly forms and noxious bodies
like snakes and human excrement on account of a profound wise purpose
in them.15 In (Hasana, the shaykh underscores that what makes all Gods

Jabr, MF 8:512; and Irda, MF 8:95.

Irda, MF 8:94.
14
Minhj, 3:142/2:25.
15
Minhj, 3:144/2:25. Ibn Taymiyya, Minhj, 3:1445/2:25, clarifies that these things,
as with everything else that God creates, come neither from Gods essence nor from His
command. In the same passage the shaykh tersely explains that everything that God creates
is good according to the two doctrines of delegation and causality (al qawlay al-tafw#d
wa al-tall). I understand this to mean that Gods creation of evil is not evil on His part
because of His delegation of it to a creature or secondary cause and by virtue of the final
causality in His will, that is, His wise purpose in creating it.
12
13

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deeds good is wise purpose while what makes human evil deeds evil is a lack
of wise purpose.16
Ibn Taymiyya grounds the doctrine of Gods wise purpose in quranic texts
showing that all Gods creative acts are good and true. Most commonly, he
cites, The handiwork of God who perfected everything (Q. 27:88), and,
Who made good everything He created (Q. 32:7).17 In Fti!ha he adds,
We did not create the heavens and the earth and what is between them
except with truth (Q. 15:85), and, [Those who] reflect on the creation
of the heavens and the earth, [saying], Our Lord! You have not created
this in vain (Q. 3:191).18 These last two verses and several others denying
aimlessness and vanity in Gods creative work are given in Thulth, a commentary on Surat al-Ikhl$s (Q. 112) that will be discussed at greater length
below.19 In several places, the shaykh also quotes the hadith, Good is in
Your hands, and evil is not [attributed] to You, to affirm the goodness of
all that God does.20
In view of the complete goodness of the evil that God creates, Ibn Taymiyya notes in the contexts of the evil attribution typology in Irda, Jabr,
(Hasana and Fti!ha that God does not create evil that is absolute (mu$tlaq),
general (mm), total (kull) or pure (ma!hd). Rather, the evil that God creates is relative (i#df), particular (kh$s$s), partial ( juz), accidental (ri&d ) or
restricted (muqayyad).21 Evil is thus evil relative only to those who commit it
or suffer its harm. The following passage from (Hasana gives concise expres16
The text in (Hasana, MF 14:275, reads: [God] created [an evil deed] only for a wise
purpose. It is not attributed to Him in respect to its being an evil deed (sayyia). Rather, it
is attributed to the person (nafs) who commits evil (sharr) by it without wise purpose. She
deserves to have evil and an evil thing attributed to her. In what she commits of sins, she
does not aim at a good on behalf of which committing it is preponderant. On the contrary
what is like this is in the category of good things. Therefore, the act of God is good (!hasan).
He never does a bad thing (qab&h) or an evil deed.
17
Minhj, 3:142/2:25, 5:409/3:102; Irda, MF 8:94; Jabr, MF 8:512; and Fti!ha, MF
14:21.
18
Fti!ha, MF 14:21.
19
Thulth, MF 17:956, 99. The additional references are Q. 6:73, 15:856, 21:167,
23:115, 38:27, 44:39 and 75:36.
20
Kasb, MF 8:400; Jabr, MF 8:511; Fti!ha, MF 14:18; (Hasana, MF 14:266; Thulth, MF
17:94; and Minhj, 5:409/3:102. The hadith is found in Muslim, 1290, !Salt al-musfirn wa
qa$sruh, Al-Du f $salt al-layl wa qiymihi. Ibn Taymiyya, Minhj 5:409/3:102, notes that
the latter part of this saying, wa al-sharr laysa ilayk, is subject to more than one interpretation. It has been understood to mean either that one cannot draw close to God with evil
deeds or that evil is not attributed to God. In Thulth, MF 17:94, he also adds the possibility
that it means evil is nonexistence (adam) or among the concomitants of nonexistence.
The shaykh does not rule out any of these interpretations, but I have chosen to translate the
saying as denying evils attribution to God because that befits the context.
21
Irda, MF 8:94; Jabr, MF 8:512; (Hasana, MF 14:266, 270; and Fti!ha, MF 14:201.

the wise purpose and origin of evil

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sion to these ideas using several of the aforementioned terms: [God] does
not create pure evil. Rather, in everything that He creates is a wise purpose
by virtue of which it is good. However, there may be some evil in it for some
people, and this is partial, relative evil. As for total evil or absolute evil, the
Lord is exonerated of that.22
In Fti!ha the shaykh employs the relativity of evil to interpret exhortations
to believe in both the good and evil of Gods determination. He relates, for
example, a hadith transmitted by Ab Dwd, If you had disbursed [in
alms] a whole earth full of gold, [God] would not have accepted it from
you until you had believed in determination, its good and its evil.23 Ibn
Taymiyya explains that the evil mentioned here is only evil for the person who
suffers pain under it and that what is evil for one may in fact be a blessing
for another: When evil afflicts the servant, the heart of his enemy is glad.
It is good for the one and evil for the other. There is no good and no evil
with respect to one who has no friend and no enemy.24 In this view, evil is
associated with pain and disadvantage to a particular individual, whereas,
from Gods perspective, everything is good.
In (Hasana Ibn Taymiyya links Aristotelian causal terminology to the
first two types in his three-fold evil attribution typology. This further illustrates how he folds evil into Gods general and complete goodness: [Evil]
is not attributed simply to GodExalted is He[but it is attributed] in
two respects: in respect to its final cause (al-illa al-ghiyya) and in respect
to its secondary cause (sabab) and agent cause (al-illa al-filiyya).25 Ibn
Taymiyya then equates the philosophical term final cause with wise purpose,
and he asserts that God does not create pure evil in which there is no wise
purpose or mercy. He explains that mentioning evil with respect to Gods
activity must always be done in the proper context of Gods more general wise
22
(Hasana, MF 14:266. Cf. (Hasana, MF 14:268. In Jabr, MF 8:512, the shaykh makes
the same point: The created thing is good and wise by virtue of the wise purpose for which
it was created even if there is evil in it in another respect. This is something accidental and
partial that is not pure evil. Rather, evil through which preponderant good is intended is good
coming from the Wise Agent, even if it is evil for the one in whom it subsists. In Fti!ha, MF
14:21, Ibn Taymiyya explains: God did not create anything except for a wise purpose. This
wise purpose is its aspect of goodness (!husn) and good (khayr). In created things, there is no
pure evil in which there is no good and in which there is no advantage in any respect.
23
Fti!ha, MF 14:20. The hadith is found in approximately this form in Ab Dwd,
4077, Al-Sunna, F al-qadar.
24
Fti!ha, MF 14:21.
25
(Hasana, MF 14:299. Ibn Taymiyya structures a major portion of (Hasana around these
two causes: MF 14:299315 is headed by discussion of the final cause, and MF 14:315331
begins with the agent or secondary cause. However, the text meanders, and the shaykh does
not confine himself to direct exposition of these two causes in the course of these pages.

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purpose. For example, he argues that it is wrong merely to say, Mu!hammad

and his nation spill blood and spread corruption in the earth, because this
is subjecting them to blame. Rather, one should say, They undertake jihad
in the way of God in order that the word of God be highest and all religion
be for God, and they kill whoever obstructs them from that.26 Likewise,
it is erroneous to say that God creates evil that is of no profit to anyone.
Instead, one should affirm that God in His wisdom has created everything
good and that He has in what He creates of pain or blameworthy deeds in
living beings a great wise purpose and a momentous blessing.27 By placing
the focus on Gods goodness and wise purpose first, any accompanying evil
finds its place as evil relative only to particular creatures. Moreover, this
relative evil is wholly good by virtue of Gods wise purpose.
In a discussion linked to the evil attribution typology in (Hasana, Ibn
Taymiyya complains that two groups go astray on this issue. The first group,
seeking to protect God from doing bad deeds, denies that God wills all
things or creates human acts, while the second group asserts that God may
create evil without a wise purpose.28 Although unnamed, the two groups are
obviously the Mutazils and the Ashars, respectively. Ibn Taymiyya observes
that both groups do not adequately distinguish particular evil from general
evil or relative evil from absolute evil. They conceive evil solely in an absolute
sense that applies equally to creatures and the Creator but fail to grasp that
evil is only evil relative to creatures. He gives the case of lying prophets as
further evidence that God does not create general evil. In His wise purpose,
God may lead some people astray, but His wise purpose precludes confirming lying prophets with miracles because that would show God to be weak
and unable to differentiate truth-tellers from liars. For God to support a
lying Prophet with the same miracles with which He supports truth-telling
prophets would be a general evil.29
Ibn Taymiyyas second way of making sense of what it means for evil to
fall under the generality of created things is to argue that evil is logically
necessary to the perfection of creation. The shaykh does not elaborate on
this extensively, but in Jabr he does broach the question why Gods wise
purpose could not have been achieved apart from any evil whatsoever. He
explains that the question reveals a lack of knowledge of the reality and

26
27
28
29

(Hasana, MF 14:300.
(Hasana, MF 14:300.
(Hasana, MF 14:2667.
(Hasana, MF 14:268, 2701.

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interconnectedness (irtib$t) of things. Much in the fashion of Ibn Sn,

Ibn Taymiyya argues that God is bound by logical constraints: When God
creates something, He must inevitably create its necessary concomitants.30
God cannot join two contraries at one time, and He cannot create what
is impossible. God cannot, for example, make someone simultaneously a
believer and an unbeliever, even if He can join together a measure of belief
and hypocrisy in the same person. Ibn Taymiyya adds that Gods attributes
of knowledge, power, wisdom and mercy are of the utmost in perfection and
that such perfection is necessary for the Lord.31 The implication is that this
world with its relative evil is the best possible in the divine perfection and
that evil is necessary to the achievement of Gods purpose. Ibn Taymiyya
affirms that this is the best possible world explicitly in dil, which will be
discussed in Chapter Six.
Ibn Taymiyyas third way of elaborating the sense in which evil is attributed
by way of the generality is illustrated in a text from Fti!ha. Here, even from
the human perspective, evil is minimal in comparison to the great amount
of good that God creates:
In the things that God creates there is nothing that always inflicts pain on all
creatures, and there is nothing that always inflicts pain on most of them. On
the contrary, the things that He creates bless them, or most of them, most of
the time, like the sun and health. There is nothing among the existent things
which God creates that is evil absolutely [and] generally. It is known that
created, existent evil is restricted, particular evil. There is another aspect by
which it is good and a good thing and which is the preponderant of the two
aspects.32

Quantitative analysis of evil on the creaturely plane is also found in Irda,

where Ibn Taymiyya opens a discussion of evil by affirming that God has a
wise purpose in the generality of what He creates: The general things that
[God] does are for a general wise purpose and general mercy, as, for example,
the sending of Mu!hammadGod bless him and give him peace.33 Then
the shaykh broaches a peculiar problem of evil involving the Messenger and
provides two quantitative responses:

Jabr, MF 8:512.
Jabr, MF 8:5123.
32
Fti!ha, MF 14:21.
33
Irda, MF 8:93. Ibn Taymiyya backs this up with several quranic references: We have
not sent you except as a mercy to the worlds (Q. 21:107) and Q. 3:144, 3:164, 6:53 and
14:28.
30
31

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When someone says, A group of people like those from among the associationists and the People of the Book who considered [the Messenger] a liar were
harmed by his message, there are two answers to this.34
The first of them is that he profited them to the extent possible. He weakened their evil that they were committing. [What would have happened] had
it not been for the message with the manifestation of arguments and signs
that made what was in their hearts tremor and with jihad and the poll tax that
frightened them and humiliated them until their evil decreased? Whomever he
killed among them died before his life grew long in unbelief and his unbelief
became greater. Thus, this was a reduction of his evil. The messengersGod
bless themwere raised up to obtain benefits and perfect them and to strip
away detriments and reduce them to the extent possible.
The second answer is that whatever harm occurred is a minuscule thing
beside whatever profit occurred. An example is the rain whose profit is general even if some houses are destroyed by it and some travelers and laborers,
like the fullers and their like, are held up by it. Something whose profit and
benefit is general is an intended good and beloved mercy even if some people
are harmed by it. Certain groups of the Muslims, the Kalm theologians, the
jurists and others among the (Hanafs, the (Hanbals and others, and among
the Karrms and the Sufis give this answer, and it is the answer of many of
the philosophers.35

In this text, Ibn Taymiyyas first argues that the Prophet reduced evil to the
extent possible and even cut short the lives of unbelievers for their own good.
The shaykh argues similarly in (Hasana that the great good and happiness
rendered by Mu!hammads message bear no relation to the limited misery and
partial evil suffered by the Arab associationists and the unbelieving People
of the Book.36 The second answer in the above passage explains that the evil
incurred by rain is a small price to pay for the much greater good obtained
through it. Both answers appeal to the quantitative insignificance of evil on
the plane of human affairs.
The Relation of Gods Names to Evil
An illustrative component accompanying several instances of the evil attribution typology is consideration of Gods names. Following the pattern of the
second type, Ibn Taymiyya sometimes excludes evil from Gods names entirely
and locates it in created things. The following from Irda is typical: There
34
Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz also takes up this question in his Tafsr, 22:2301, on Q.
21:107.
35
Irda, MF 8:934. See also H
( asana, MF 14:268, for the claims that rain and the sending
of a messenger are general goods.
36
(Hasana, MF 14:2767.

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is no name among the most beautiful names of God that entails evil. Evil is
only mentioned in the things that He enacts (maf ltihi).37 The shaykh
supports this with several quranic verses in which the evils of punishment and
chastisement are clearly distinguished from Gods names: Tell My servants
that I am the Forgiving, the Compassionate and that My chastisement is
the painful chastisement (Q. 15:4950); Your Lord is swift in punishment, and He is the Forgiving, the Compassionate (Q. 6:165); Know that
God is severe in punishment and that God is Forgiving, Compassionate
(Q. 5:98); Truly, the grip of your Lord is severe. Truly, He it is Who begins
and returns, and He is the Forgiving, the Loving (Q. 85:124).38 In Thulth
Ibn Taymiyya provides additional interpretation: [God] regarded forgiveness
and mercy to be among the meanings of His beautiful names with which
He names Himself . . . As for the punishment that connects to servants, this
is a creation of His, and it is this which is painful. He did not say, Truly,
I am the Chastiser.39
In both Irda and Thulth, Ibn Taymiyya takes up the name Avenger (alMuntaqim) because it contradicts his claim that Gods names involve no
mention of evil. Although this name appears in the Quran, Ibn Taymiyya
explains that it is qualified (muqayyad ) by something in the immediate
quranic context: From the criminals We are avenging (muntaqimn) (Q.
32:22); and God is All-Mighty, possessor of vengeance (dh intiqm) (Q.
3:4).40 The shaykh does not clarify what these qualifying elements are, but the
reader is left to assume that Gods vengeance is limited to the criminals in
the first example and subsumed under Gods name All-Mighty in the second.
Ibn Taymiyya also argues that Avenger is not one of the established beautiful
names of God and that the hadith in the collection of al-Tirmidh41 listing
Avenger as an independent and unqualified name of God does not come
from the Prophet himself.42
Even though Ibn Taymiyya excludes evil completely from Gods names
in some passages, he explains in other places that evil is suggested in the
Irda, MF 8:96. Cf. Ta, MF 8:447; Thulth, MF 17:94; and Minhj, 3:143/25:2.
Irda, MF 8:96.
39
Thulth, MF 17:945.
40
Ibn Taymiyya also mentions that Avenger is a qualified name in (Hasana, MF 14:276.
41
Tirmidh, 3429, Al-Daawt an rasl Allh, M ja f aqd al-tasb!h bi-l-yad.
42
Irda, MF 8:967; and Thulth, MF 17:95. Ibn Taymiyya, Irda MF 8:97, adds that the
only other hadith listing the ninety-nine names of God, that of Ibn Mja, 3851, Al-Du,
Asm Allh azza wa jalla, has a weak chain of transmission. Elsewhere, the shaykh, MF
22:4816, explains that ninety-nine is simply a large number and does not actually indicate
the exact number of Gods names. In his view, the Quran and the Sunna supply more names
than those listed in the two hadiths transmitted by Tirmidh and Ibn Mja.
37
38

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mention of some of the names but that these names are then conjoined
with other names having positive significance. Ibn Taymiyya usually takes
up the conjoined names under the rubric of the first type in the evil attribution typology. An excerpt from Minhj provides one of the shaykhs fuller
explanations of this:
If [God] is mentioned by His particular (kh$s$s) name, it is conjoined with the
good, as He says in His most beautiful names: the Harmer/the Profiter (al-*Drr
al-Nfi), the Giver/the Impeder (al-Mut al-Mni), the Abaser/the Exalter
(al-Khfi#d al-Rfi), and the Honorer/the Humiliator (al-Muizz al-Mudhill).
He combines the two names because of the generality and inclusiveness in this,
which indicates His unity.43

Apparently reticent to implicate the names Harmer, Impeder, Abaser and

Humiliator in evil directly, Ibn Taymiyya instead labels them particular
names. These are then conjoined to Profiter, Giver, Exalter and Honorer,
respectively, to mitigate their severity and point to the general and all-inclusive creative work of God. A brief explanation of the conjoined names in
Irda concurs with this interpretation: Neither the name Impeder is isolated
from its conjoint nor Harmer from its conjoint because their conjunction
indicates the generality.44
There is tension in Ibn Taymiyyas thought on the conjoined names
between affirming that God in His various names relates to everything in
existence, including evil, and maintaining that all of Gods names imply only
good. This comes out clearly in accompanying discussions of Gods grace
and justice in Irda, Minhj and Thulth.45 Only the fullest treatment, that
in Thulth, will be discussed here. Ibn Taymiyya argues in Thulth that one
part of Gods Word, namely, Surat al-Ikhl$s (Q. 112), which is said to be
equivalent to one-third of the Quran, can be better than another. To support
his point, he notes that some of Gods attributes are preferable to others, as
in the divine saying, My mercy precedes My anger.46 Ibn Taymiyya then
extends the principle of preference to Gods hands. While there are hadiths
which say, Both of His hands are right [hands],47 because left implies
deficiency and there is no deficiency in the hands of God, there is another

43
Minhj, 5:410/3:102. Three of these pairs of conjoined names are also mentioned in
(Hasana, MF 14:276.
44
Irda, MF 8:95.
45
Irda, MF 8:95; Minhj, 5:4101; and Thulth, 17:914.
46
Bukhr, 6998, Al-Taw!hd, Qawl Allh tal bal huwa Qurn majd f law!h ma!hf)z ;
Muslim, 4940.
47
Muslim, 3406, Al-mn, Fa#dlat al-imm al-dil wa uqubt al-jir . . .; A!hmad, 6204.

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hadith which indicates that one of Gods hands is preferable to the other:
The right hand of God is full, and spending liberally day and night would
not diminish it. Have you not seen what He has spent since the creation of
the heaven and the earth? What is in His right hand has not diminished. In
His other hand is justice; He abases and exalts.48 Ibn Taymiyya understands
this to mean that grace is in Gods right hand and justice is in His other, and
he adds that it is known that grace is preferable to justice. Yet, in the event
that Gods justice should suggest that God commits evil, the shaykh quickly
shifts from Gods perspective to that of creatures and adds, Evil does not
appear in His names. It appears only in the things that He enacts, and he
then sets out the evil attribution typology: [Evil] is not attributed to Him
except by way of the generality, by its attribution to the created cause or by
the elision of its agent.49
In sum Ibn Taymiyya fluctuates between the first and second types of
evil attribution when discussing Gods names. Sometimes, he treats the
names according to the first type, allowing that some of the names imply
evil and asserting that these must be conjoined to, that is, subsumed under
the generality of names carrying positive connotations. At other times, he
completely denies any implication of evil in Gods names and attributes
evil solely to what God creates in creatures. As just observed from Thulth,
he also switches easily from the first to the second type for the sake of the
rhetorical propriety of speaking only of Gods goodness.
Although Ibn Taymiyya resembles Ibn Arab in suggesting that creation
reflects the diversity of Gods names, the shaykhs ideas are far less developed.
More importantly, Ibn Taymiyya does not follow Ibn Arab and his devotees
in employing the image of Gods two hands to elaborate a yang/yin dialectic
in Gods names or between God and creation.50 While Ibn Taymiyya similarly
links Gods names to good and evil in created reality, he does not mention
that this relationship is in any way paradoxical. His primary concern is to
avoid attributing evil to God by classifying the diverse data of revelation into
the categories of his evil attribution typology. Yet, the fact that his typology
is a typology and not a rational resolution implicitly acknowledges a duality
of perspective. Gods perspective of the generality and wise purpose does not

48
Muslim, 1659, Al-Zakh; Al-(Hathth al nafaqa . . . (The text is not identical); Bukhr,
6869. Cf. Q. 5:64.
49
Thulth, MF 17:914.
50
On the dialectical or yang/yin interplay of Gods two hands in Ibn Arab and his
disciples, see Sachiko Murata, The Tao of Islam (Albany, NY: State University of New York
Press, 1992), 88114.

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negate that evil is still evil relative to creatures, and the evil perpetrated and
experienced by creatures at the level of secondary causes does not nullify
the goodness of God. The one perspective cannot be reduced to the other.
The following two sections examine how Ibn Taymiyya fills out these two
perspectives, first, by articulating Gods wise purposes in creation and, second,
by seeking to root the cause of evil in humans.
Ibn Taymiyya on Gods Wise Purposes in the Creation of Evil
Ibn Taymiyya consistently argues that God has wise purposes in all that
He creates, but he does not often ask what those purposes are, and he
sometimes presents little hope that human beings can discover them. In
Kasb, for example, he indicates that God has a well-guarded secret in His
determination. It is enough to know that God is knowing, wise and merciful.51 In Irda Ibn Taymiyya says that it is sufficient for people to know in
general (min haythu jumla) that God has a great wise purpose in both His
creation and His command. Yet, he also promises deeper insight for those
who grow in faith. The function of this insight is to confirm Gods revelation and Gods reality:
Each time [the servant] increases in knowledge and faith, some of Gods wisdom
and His mercy will appear to him that will dazzle his intellect. This will make
evident to him to count as true that about which God has informed in His
Book, We will show them Our signs on the horizons and in themselves until
it becomes evident to them that He is the Real (Q. 41:53).52

In Minhj the shaykhs attitude varies from exhortation against asking questions to suggesting reasons for Gods creation of illness and oppression. At
one point, he says that it is not for us to ask God Why? and he quotes the
verse, God is not questioned as to what He does, but they are questioned
(Q. 21:23).53 At another place, he states without further comment that some
people may know the wise purposes while others may not.54 A third passage
in Minhj illumines the human relationship to Gods wisdom by comparing
our knowledge of Gods wise purpose to the ordinary persons awareness of
a specialists knowledge. A non-specialist can recognize that someone is an

51
52
53
54

Kasb, MF 8:399.
Irda, MF 8:97.
Minhj, 3:678/2:5.
Minhj, 1:146/1:35.

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expert in grammar, mathematics, jurisprudence or medicine without being

able to understand everything the expert says. Likewise, Gods wisdom and
mercy can dazzle minds and lead human beings to accept that God is wise
and merciful without their understanding Gods wise purpose.55 Despite
this, another passage from Minhj already noted in Chapter Three reveals
more. Ibn Taymiyya says that one cannot know the detail of Gods wise
purpose, but he does note that, generally speaking, Gods creation of illness
and oppression leads to humility, repentance from sins and other religious
virtues that cannot be attained except by way of difficulty. These evils are
preconditions to greater goods that could not otherwise exist.56
In Jabr, when leading into a mention of the evil attribution typology, the
shaykh asserts, [God] is not questioned as to what He does (Q. 38:27).
[This is] because of the perfection of His wise purpose, His mercy and His
justice, not merely because of His subjugation and His power, as Jahm and
his followers say.57 The exhortation not to question God would appear to
bar any knowledge of Gods wise purpose. However, very soon thereafter,
Ibn Taymiyya turns quite gnostic, opening the door to knowledge of Gods
wise purposes for certain spiritually sensitive people:
Some servants may know some of [Gods] wise purpose, and what is hidden of
it may be hidden from them. People are favored over others in knowledge of
His wise purpose, His mercy and His justice. Each time the servant increases
in knowledge of the realities of things, he increases in knowledge of Gods wise
purpose, His justice, His mercy and His power.58

Ibn Taymiyya then explains that what the servant comes to understand is
that even though God creates and determines all things and that his good
deeds come from God, his evil deeds still come from the imperfection and
ignorance of his soul (nafs) and God is just in punishing him. It is not
clear how this existential knowledge of ones place before God represents
knowledge of His wise purpose except possibly that Gods wise purpose is
that one comes to this particular understanding. In Jabr the shaykh goes
on to note that most people are unable to know the detail of Gods wise
purpose. He adds that even the angels could not discover Gods purpose in
creating human beings who would shed blood (Q. 2:30). The angels had to
be content with general knowledge and belief.59
55
56
57
58
59

Minhj, 5:416/3:104.
Minhj, 3:1767/2:33.
Jabr, MF 8:511.
Jabr, MF 8:513.
Jabr, MF 8:5134.

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The shaykh says much the same thing about angelic knowledge of human
nature in (Hasana. In Gods great wise purpose and mercy, He created evil to
be an inevitable constituent of humanity. Reminiscent of Ibn Sns assertion
that fire would not be fire without burning, Ibn Taymiyya maintains that
human beings would not be human had God created them differently and
Gods wise purpose would not have been realized. Yet, not even the angels,
much less humans, know why this is so.60 Despite the shaykhs agnosticism
concerning Gods wise purpose in this particular passage, he provides more
indications in (Hasana than I have found elsewhere as to what he believes
Gods wise purposes in the creation of evil to be. He also tells his readers
in (Hasana that he has expounded the wise purpose and mercy in Gods
creation of Ibls and Hell in another place, but I have failed to locate this
in the shaykhs works.61
In (Hasana Ibn Taymiyya gives relative evil the educational function of
deterrence and guidance away from the wrong path. Gods destruction of
Pharaoh and his people was evil relative to them, but it served the universal
good as a lesson from which future generations might profit. In this regard,
the shaykh quotes quranic verses dealing with Pharaoh and his people, So,
when they angered Us, We took vengeance on them and We drowned them
all together. We set them as a precedent and an example to later generations
(Q. 43:556); and, Truly, in this is a lesson for those who fear (Q. 79:26).62
Other quranic stories also promote human benefit in that they provide lessons upon which we may reflect and recognize in ourselves something of the
disbelief that plagued earlier generations.63 Human sin in general serves as
a lesson to others by evoking reflection, guidance, and belief. However, the
shaykh adds that we should ask God not to make us into an object lesson
of this kind.64
Ibn Taymiyya also notes that God sends prosperity and adversity, as well
as tumult or earthquake (zalzl), to test believers, purify them from evil,
expiate their sins and increase their reward through patience. The blessing of
prosperity may in fact be a greater trial than adversity.65 In support of these
notions, he quotes the following texts among others: That God might try
what was in your breasts and that He might purify what was in your hearts

60
61
62
63
64
65

(Hasana, MF 14:315.
(Hasana, MF 14:3001.
(Hasana, MF 14:276.
(Hasana, MF 14:3212.
(Hasana, MF 14:307.
(Hasana, MF 14:2545 and 3045.

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(Q. 3:154);66 It may be that you hate something that is good for you, and
it may be that you love something that is evil for you. God knows, but you
do not know (Q. 2:216);67 and the hadith, I seek refuge in You from the
trial of poverty and the evil of the trial of wealth.68 Also, when discussing
Gods use of an unjust ruler to ward off even greater injustice, Ibn Taymiyya explains that this injustice expiates the sins of those afflicted by it and
increases their reward. He adds, In [afflictions] they return to God, ask His
forgiveness and turn to Him in repentance.69
In (Hasana Ibn Taymiyya argues, as he does in Minhj, that evil deeds
are a precondition to the virtues of humility and repentance. He makes
this point when taking up the hadith, God did not decree anything for
the believer except what is good for him.70 How could Gods decree of evil
deeds inducing punishment be good for the believer? The shaykh first asserts
that the hadith appears to be referring to blessings and afflictions and to
prosperity and adversity, not to human deeds. However, he then considers
the possibility that the hadith encompasses Gods decree of human sins as
well. He explains that this is good for the believer because it leads to the
further good of repentance that could not otherwise occur. The believer is
not one who avoids sins entirely, but one who does not persist in them and
repents to his own greater good:
The believer is he who does not persist in a sin but repents from it. Thus, it
becomes a good deed. . . . He does not cease repenting from it until he enters
Paradise by means of his repentance from it. A sin necessitates a servants
humility, his subjection, invocation of God, his asking Him for forgiveness
and his bearing witness to his poverty and to his need for Him and that no
one can forgive sins except Him. Because of the sin, good things happen to
the believer that would not have happened without this. Therefore, this decree
is good for him.71

(Hasana, MF 14:255.
(Hasana, MF 14:304.
68
Bukhr, 5899, Al-Daawt, Al-Istidha min fitnat al-ghin, in (Hasana, MF 14:305.
69
(Hasana, MF 14:269.
70
A!hmad, 12439, Bq musnad al-mukaththirn, Musnad Anas b. Mlik. Ibn Taymiyya,
Ma!habba 156, also discusses this hadith in the context of God trying believers with both
prosperity and adversity.
71
(Hasana, MF 14:3189. This focus on the goodness of sin with repentance in (Hasana
correlates with the findings of Shahab Ahmed, Ibn Taymiyyah and the Satanic verses,
867 and 90100, concerning Ibn Taymiyyas view of prophetic protection (isma) and the
exemplary repentance of the prophets. According to Ahmed, the shaykh regards prophetic
i$sma not as complete protection from committing sins (the widespread Sunn belief in
medieval and modern times) but as protection from persisting in sins already committed.
In Ibn Taymiyyas view, the prophets, including the Prophet Mu!hammad, sinned, but they
66
67

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Here, as in other brief notes on the good of evil examined above from
(Hasana and Minhj, the good in evil and ones own adversity and sin is the
opportunity afforded to advance in the religious life. Elsewhere, Ibn Taymiyya
notes as well that the unbelief of unbelievers is a blessing for believers in
that it gives them occasion for jihd and moral exhortation. Similarly, the
existence of satans provides believers opportunity to gain the highest rewards
and spiritual levels through striving, showing enmity and resisting caprice.72
However, Ibn Taymiyya does not go on in (Hasana or any other text to my
knowledge to note the implications for God in the fashion of his close
disciple Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, who explains that sins and disobedience
afford God Himself the occasion to demonstrate His mercy and forgiveness
and that Gods joy in repentance depends upon there being something from
which human beings repent.73 Concern to protect Gods self-sufficiency is
probably what prevents Ibn Taymiyya from speaking of the vicissitudes of
creatures giving God opportunity to exercise His attributes.
Whatever be the case, the shaykh does maintain in H
( asana that everything
that God creates is a blessing to His servants revealing His wisdom, mercy
and power. He adds, In everything that God creates is beneficence to His
servants for which He is praised with the praise of thanksgiving. And in it
He has a wise purpose that returns to Him because of which He has a right
to be praised for it with a praise to which He has a right in His essence.74 A
little later in (Hasana, Ibn Taymiyya complements this with, In everything
that He creates, He has a wise purpose, and He is praised for [what He creates] in consideration of that wise purpose.75 Although the shaykh does not
put it so simply, it seems clear enough that God is praised not only for His
beneficence to creatures but also for His essence in which wisdom is inherent.
Ibn Taymiyya then criticizes the Qadars (i.e. Mutazils) for asserting that

immediately repented from their sins and did not remain in them. Through sin and repentance,
the prophets attained greater perfection (kaml) than they could otherwise have attained.
This pattern of immediate repentance from sins then serves as an example for all believers
to follow, and it nurtures the devotional virtues of repentance and asking for forgiveness. It
might be thought that Ibn Taymiyya encourages sinning in order to gain the greater good of
repentance. However, Ahmed, 93 n. 64, highlights, but does not translate, a text in Minhj,
2:400/1:227, where Ibn Taymiyya cautions against this. The passage reads, There is no doubt
that evil deeds are not commanded, and it is not for the servant to commit them in order
thereby to repent from them. . . . [This is] like someone who wants to eat poison and then
drink the antidote. This is ignorance.
72
Ma!habba, 160.
73
Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, Shif al-all, 486.
74
(Hasana, MF 14:301315 (quote on 302).
75
(Hasana, MF 14:309.

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God creates with wise purpose to the profit of creatures but without return
to Himself. With such a God, praise is nothing more than thanksgiving for
profit gained, and consideration is given neither to His sovereignty nor to
confessing His exclusive divinity (taw!hd al-ilhiyya), that is, His right to
worship in His essence. Additionally, Ibn Taymiyya condemns the Jahms
(i.e. Ashars) for holding to Gods sovereignty and exclusive lordship (taw!hi#d
al-rubbiyya) without confessing His wisdom or exclusive divinity. The
Jahm God who creates pure evil devoid of wise purpose, profit and mercy
is worthy of blame and has no right to praise or love. Rather, [Praise] is
for His blessing, and it is worship of Him for His divinity, which includes
His wise purpose.76
This discussion of the (Hasana material has drifted from Gods wise
purposes in the creation of evil onward to Gods essence and divinity, thus
reflecting Ibn Taymiyyas keenness to affirm not only wise purposes in Gods
acts but also, more profoundly, the wise purpose inherent in Gods essence
and Gods praiseworthiness in that. For Ibn Taymiyya, Gods right to worship is essential, and it is from this that His wise purpose flows, even to His
creation of evil, which serves to expiate sin, guide human beings and nurture
religious virtues such as humility and repentance that lead to recognition
of His exclusive divinity. In this light, the shaykhs interpretation of evil
is very much that of the Sufis for whom it is Gods tool of discipline for
spiritual growth.
Ibn Taymiyyas Location of the Origin of Evil in Nonexistence (adam)
In texts examined in Chapter Four, Ibn Taymiyya deems the substrate principle a sufficient defense of Gods justice in creating and punishing human
bad deeds. God is not qualified with the bad deeds that He creates and He
is just to punish these acts because He creates them in a substrate other
than Himself. In two major theodicean texts(Hasana and Fti!haIbn
Taymiyya goes beyond the substrate defense of Gods justice and attempts
to free God entirely from creating gratuitous evil deeds by locating their
origin in nonexistence. The following two sections examine how the shaykh
employs nonexistence to deal with the origin of evil in (Hasana and Fti!ha,
respectively. Rooting evil in nonexistence probably represents a development

76

(Hasana, MF 14:309313 (quote on 311).

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in Ibn Taymiyyas thought, but this cannot be shown definitively due to difficulty in establishing a precise chronology for his theodicean writings.
Exclusive Divine Goodness and the Origin of Evil Deeds in (Hasana
Interpreting Q. 4:789: Everything Is from God; Evil Is from the Soul
Precedents for the notion of evil as privation or nonexistence (adam) are
found in Ibn Sn and Ibn Arab.77 Whereas these thinkers draw on the concept of privation primarily for metaphysical reasons, Ibn Taymiyya employs it
in (Hasana to address a more typically Mutazil concern, that of upholding
Gods order of retribution and absolving God of being the ultimate source
of moral evil. Some material from H
( asana has already been examined in this
and previous chapters, but the central problem of the treatisethe origin of
evilhas yet to be addressed. Much of the text wrestles with an apparent
contradiction posed by two quranic verses that occur in a context of commanding jihad and blaming those who try to evade it (Q. 4:65104).78 Ibn
Taymiyya writes:
One group thought that there was in the verses an ambiguity or contradiction
in the outward sense where [God] says, Everything is from God (4:78), and
then differentiates between good things (!hasant) and evil things (sayyit). He
said, Any good thing that comes to you is from God and any evil thing that
comes to you is from yourself (min nafsika) (Q. 4:79). This is due to their
insufficient understanding and their not meditating on the verses. In these
verses is no contradiction (tanq#d ).79

If God is the source of all things, do not evil things also come from Him
and not from creatures? Ibn Taymiyya does not specify the group posing
this contradiction, but he does mention earlier Kalm attempts to resolve
it. The shaykh cites a Mutazil proposal that Q. 4:79 refers to Gods command. On this reading all good comes from God only in the sense that
He commands it. He does not necessarily create it. The nafs, which I will
translate variously as self, soul or person, creates both obedience and
disobedience and is thus the source of evil things. Ibn Taymiyya rejects this
77
For references in Ibn Sn and Ibn Arab, see above at the beginning of this Chapter.
Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz also elaborates on evil as nonexistence in one of his works, his philosophical al-Mab!hih al-mashriqiyya, 2:519523. Al-Julaynad, Qa#diyyat al-khayr wa al-sharr,
1614, explains that al-Rzs departs from Ashar tradition with these ideas.
78
Ibn Taymiyya, H
( asana, MF 14:229233, surveys the context that these verses constitute
for Q. 4:789.
79
(Hasana, MF 14:2489.

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interpretation because Everything is from God (Q. 4:78) precludes human

beings creating their own acts.80
The shaykh also notes an interpretation that he traces to the Ashar theologian Ab Bakr b. Frak (d. 406/1015). In this view, the end of Q. 4:79
should be read as an interrogative, Any evil thing that comes to you, is it
from yourself ? which must be answered negatively because all things come
from God. Ibn Taymiyya discards Ibn Fraks interpretation as grammatically
untenable. The shaykh argues instead that the verse refutes any depreciation
of the human role in acts because it indicates that at least some deeds come
from the person himself.81
In a brief discussion of these verses in Irda, Ibn Taymiyya interprets good
things and evil things as strictly blessings and afflictions. The evils of affliction
are only from the person in the sense that God sends them as punishment for
sins that God also creates. The shaykh states clearly that good things and evil
things are not acts of obedience and acts of disobedience, respectively, such
that God could be said to create the former but not the latter.82 In (Hasana,
however, he locates the ultimate source of disobedient acts more firmly in
human beings. While !hasant and sayyit, which I have been translating
good things and evil things respectively, do refer to blessings and afflictions, Ibn Taymiyya argues that they may also be said to include obedience
and disobedience. For this reason, I will sometimes translate !hasant and
sayyit as good deeds and evil deeds. In this light, the shaykh reads Q.
4:79 to mean that obedience is a blessing that comes to a person from God
while disobedience is an affliction that comes to him because he himself, in
some sense, does it.83
Ibn Taymiyya explains this interpretation by drawing a distinction between
a deed and its recompense ( jaz) of punishment or reward. God may punish
a first act of disobedience with a second act of disobedience, and He may
reward a first good deed with a second good deed. The shaykh illustrates
this from the Quran at length. Three of his quotations will suffice here:
By [the Book], God guides whoever follows His good-pleasure in the ways

80
(Hasana, MF 14:2467, 2589. Gimaret, Thories de lacte humain en thologie musulmane, 347352, surveys this and other interpretations of 4:789 found in the classical Kalm
and tafsr literature.
81
(Hasana, MF 14:247, 4214.
82
Irda, MF 8:1147.
83
(Hasana, MF 14:2349. Similar interpretations of 4:789 may be found in the commentaries of al-+Tabar, Tafsr al-+Tabar: Jmi al-bayn an tawl yy al-Qurn, ed. Ma!hmd
Mu!hammad Shkir (Cairo: Dr al-Marif bi-mi$sr, n.d.), 8:555560; and Ab al-Qsim Jr
Allh al-Zamakhshar, Al-Kashshf (Beirut: Dr al-kutub al-ilmiyya, 1415/1995), 4:527.

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of peace (Q. 5:16); Then the unbeliever was confounded. God does not
guide people who are unjust (Q. 2:258); and, We shall turn their hearts
and their eyes, as they did not believe in it the first time, and We shall leave
them in their insolence to wander blindly (Q. 6:110). From this evidence
that God rewards and punishes deeds with other deeds similar in kind, the
shaykh concludes that the key phrase at the end of Q. 4:79, from yourself,
encompasses both sins gratuitously perpetrated and Gods creation of evil
deeds as punishment. As for good deeds, however, God creates both the
acts and their recompense in keeping with Any good thing that comes to
you is from God.84
Having established that evil things originate only in the very person
afflicted, Ibn Taymiyya refutes a charge that the Prophet and his message
are sources of evils and afflictions, as in Q. 4:78: If a good thing comes to
them, they say, This is from God, and if an evil thing comes to them, they
say, This is from you [Mu!hammad]. Say, Everything is from God. The
shaykh invokes the context of this verse in the Muslim setback at the Battle
of U!hud and places the blame for its afflictions not on the Prophet but on
the sins of the Muslims.85
All Good Comes from Gods Unmerited Blessing
Even though Ibn Taymiyya imbues Any evil thing that comes to you is from
yourself with a strong sense of retributive punishment in (Hasana, it is difficult to see how this fits with his conviction that both good and evil deeds
are created and predetermined by God. What is the sense in which human
beings are the sources of their evil deeds? The shaykh himself presents the
problem clearly:
If acts of obedience and acts of disobedience are predetermined (muqaddar)
and blessings and afflictions are predetermined, then what is the difference
between good things, which are blessings, and evil things, which are afflictions,
so as to deem the one from God and the other from the human soul?86

In response, Ibn Taymiyya elaborates a series of eight differences ( furq)

between good things and evil things.87 The fourth and eighth differences
do not address the question directly and may be summarized briefly. The
(Hasana, MF 14:239247.
(Hasana, MF 14:248254, 342. Cf. (Hasana, MF 14:3735.
86
(Hasana, MF 14:259.
87
These eight differences vary in length from one paragraph to fifty-four pages in the
printed text. The one-paragraph discussions are the first (MF 14:260) and the third (MF
14:265). The fifth is the longest (MF 14:277331). The eight discussions together take
84
85

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199

fourth observes that evil is relative and provides a three-fold evil attribution
typology along lines examined earlier in this chapter.88 The eighth difference
says simply that disgusting circumstances are appropriate for those who do
disgusting things (khabith). It is not fitting for such people to reside in
Paradise as Paradise is only appropriate for those who have been purified
from their sins.89
The remaining differences work toward resolving the contradiction. In the
first three and the seventh, Ibn Taymiyya underscores Gods great beneficence.
God distributes blessings (sg. nima) and grace ( fa#dl ), such as health, guidance, belief and good deeds, apart from consideration of human worthiness,
and God brings people into Paradise out of pure grace without respect to
their deeds. With respect to evil deeds, moreover, God limits His punishment strictly to what retribution requires.90 The following passage from the
second difference epitomizes this perspective:
All that intelligent beings enjoy of the two goods of this world and the hereafter is pure blessing from Him without a preceding cause making it their right.
They have neither might nor strength from themselves except through Him.
He is Creator of their souls, Creator of their righteous deeds and Creator of
recompense. So, His statement, Any good thing that comes to you is from God
(Q. 4:79), is true in every respect, in the outward sense and the inward sense,
according to the doctrine of the Sunns. As for an evil thing, it is only from
the sin of the servant, and the sin is from himself. [God] did not say, Truly,
I did not predetermine this, and I did not create it. Instead, He mentioned
to human beings what profits them.91

According to Ibn Taymiyya, the profitable thing that God has mentioned is
the latter part of Q. 4:79: Any evil thing that comes to you is from yourself.
From yourself benefits humankind by prompting repentance and entreaty
for forgiveness of sins. With this in mind, the shaykh interprets Everything
is from God (Q. 4:78) to mean that blessings, afflictions and acts of obedience and disobedience are all from God. The second verse (Q. 4:79) then
differentiates between blessings and evil in order to motivate thanksgiving to
God for the former and seeking forgiveness from Him for the latter.92 This
interpretation involves a shift from a retributive scheme of reward for good
up just under half of (Hasana, specifically 87 out of 197 pages in the printed text (MF
14:259346).
88
(Hasana, MF 14:266277.
89
(Hasana, MF 14:3436.
90
(Hasana, MF 14:2605, 339342.
91
(Hasana, MF 14:261.
92
(Hasana, MF 14:2615. A similar argument is made in (Hasana, MF 14:319320.

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deeds to a logic of pure grace and blessing in which God is the sole source
of all good. The substrate principle noted in Chapter Four above no longer
applies in good deeds. Good deeds are not attributed to the human in whom
God creates them to subsist but to Gods unmerited blessing. Retribution
is left to operate strictly on the level of evil deeds. This interpretation of
Q. 4:789 may nurture a reverent attitude toward the goodness of God, but
it does not explain how pure grace in good deeds coexists with retribution
in evil deeds.
The Source of Evil Deeds Is Ignorance, which Is Nonexistent
Ibn Taymiyya grapples with the logic of reward and punishment more
extensively in the fifth and sixth differences in (Hasana, vacillating at first
between retributive based and blessing based approaches to reward before
concentrating on a retributive scheme in punishment. At the beginning of
the fifth difference, the shaykh explains that all good deeds with which God
blesses human beings are existing things (umr wujdiyya). Furthermore,
omission (tark) of what is prohibited is just as existent as obedience to a
command. Omission of a prohibited act is existent because it involves a
persons knowledge that it is a bad sin and that it is a cause of chastisement,
his loathing and his hatred of it, and his restraint of himself from it when
he desires it, craves it and seeks it.93 Ibn Taymiyya then speaks retributively,
noting that human beings are only rewarded for good deeds if they undertake them with explicit intention and love for God. Similarly, they are only
rewarded for omitting evil deeds if they omit them out of hatred for them
and loathing for worship of any apart from God. Moreover, there is no
reward for omitting a forbidden deed that one never thought to commit,
and there is no punishment for omitting to do what is commanded unless
there is a perverse refusal to obey. Reward and punishment apply only to
the existentor we might say intentionalcommission of good deeds and
evil deeds, respectively. There is neither reward nor punishment for someone
who does not know that his deeds are good or evil. Such a person is in a state
of unaccountability similar to that of children and the insane. The shaykh
ends this part of his discussion by turning from the retributive perspective
to that of Gods unmerited blessing. All rewarded good deeds are existent
and a blessing from God: It is He who makes belief beloved to the believers

93

(Hasana, MF 14:278.

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201

and adorns it in their hearts, and [it is He] who makes disbelief, iniquity
and disobedience hateful to them.94
Ibn Taymiyya returns to retribution in the fifth difference by tracing evil
deeds variously to injustice, heedlessness ( ghafla), craving (shahwa), caprice
(haw), Satan and the souls hatred for what is obligatory. However, he roots
evil deeds ultimately in ignorance or the lack of knowledge. God has created
humans in their natural constitution ( fi$tra) to love knowledge and to gain
what profits them and gives them pleasure. Moreover, God has given His
guidance: GodExalted is Hehas guided humanity with general guidance
by the knowledge and the means of knowledge that He put in the natural
constitution and by the books He sent down to them and the messengers He
sent to them.95 Moreover this guidance and knowledge will restrain from
evil. Human beings will decide to perform good deeds and avoid evil deeds
if they are adequately aware of the profit entailed in doing so: The root of
what makes people fall into evil deeds is ignorance and not knowing that
they will harm them with preponderant harm, or thinking that they will
profit them with preponderant profit.96 The shaykh argues that a thief will
not steal if sure of getting caught and an adulterer will not commit adultery
if certain of being stoned. Wine drinkers, however, present a more difficult
problem. Ibn Taymiyya observes that punishment does not necessarily stop
them from drinking. However, he does not explore why this is so; instead, he
notes that the death penalty may be necessary for the inveterate drinker.97
It is difficult to reconcile Ibn Taymiyyas view of ignorance as the source of
evil with his notion that only perverse and existent disobedience is punished
retributively. On the one hand, and as noted in the preceding paragraph, he
argues that human beings given proper guidance will necessarily do what
they should since this will be the course of action most profitable for them.
He believes that they will never perversely disobey God in full awareness
of the consequences, and he does not allow the observation of incorrigible
wine drinkers to disturb this conviction. No one will disobey knowing full
well that it will lead to his own ruin. Perversity is therefore impossible.
On the other hand, Ibn Taymiyya explains that punishment is due only
for the existent omission of obligatory deeds, that is, for disobedience that
is perverse and intentional. Now the difficulty is this: If a knowledgeable
person will not disobey, and if a person who disobeys does so only for lack
94
95
96
97

(Hasana, MF 14: 277287 (quote on 287).

(Hasana, MF 14:296.
(Hasana, MF 14:290.
(Hasana, MF 14:287294.

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of knowledge and proper guidance, then there will be no justly administered

retributive punishment because no act of disobedience is truly perverse.98 The
disobedient is always ignorant and therefore unaccountable. The notion that
lack of knowledge is the fundamental root of evil deeds renders a retributive
scheme that punishes only existent or perverse deeds superfluous. Punishment, however, may be administered for other than retributive reasons, such
as deterrence and education, which make evil deeds and their consequences
known for what they are: harmful to the human soul. As observed above,
Ibn Taymiyya does indeed supply these kinds of reasons in (Hasana.
The evident reason that Ibn Taymiyya locates evil deeds in ignorance and
lack of knowledge is to clear God of being the source of evil. Continuing in
the fifth difference, he argues that the nonexistence that is ignorance and
lack of knowledge is nothing at all. It has no agent and therefore cannot be
attributed to God. God is the source only of existent things, not of ignorance.99 In the same context, the shaykh explains that God creates the soul
constantly willing and moving. When it does not turn toward God in its
ignorance, it necessarily turns away from Him and worships something else.
Such a person suffers recompense through not living the profitable life for
which he was created.100 Yet, it remains unclear how the God who creates
all human acts can hold human beings responsible for their ignorance, and
it is not apparent why human beings lack adequate knowledge in the first
place. Ibn Taymiyya concludes the fifth difference in (Hasana by discussing
the attribution of evil to its final cause, that is, to wise purpose, and to its
agent or secondary cause, as was noted above. With this, the shaykh looks
away from the origin of evil to Gods wise purpose in all created things.
Punishment Is for a Lack of the Deeds for which One Was Created
In the sixth difference, Ibn Taymiyya returns to the problem of evils ultimate source and makes his final and fullest attempt in (Hasana to explain
how God is just to punish human sins retributively. Substantial portions of
this discussion are translated below. Ibn Taymiyya begins, The existent sins
(al-dhunb al-wujdiyya) by which the servant is triedeven if they are a
creation of Godare his punishment for his not doing what God created

98
Aspects of the problem outlined here are not unique to Ibn Taymiyya. According to
Hourani, Islamic Rationalism, 927, the Mutazil theologian Abd al-Jabbr argues that
humans will not do bad deeds if they know both that such deeds are evil and that there is
no advantage to be gained in doing them.
99
(Hasana, MF 14:294.
100
(Hasana, MF 14:297.

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him to do and what He constituted him naturally to do.101 The fundamental

problem is the failure of human beings to commit the good deeds for which
they were created and the deeds that humans should know to do through the
guidance of their natural constitutions. In order to free God from responsibility for having created this failure and to render Him just in punishing it
retributively, Ibn Taymiyya calls it a nonexistent that God does not create.
This nonexistent is not punished with the complete punishment of the Fire,
but it is punished by Gods creation of evil deeds. The shaykh explains that
this is a middle position between complete punishment for a pure lack of
good deeds, a view he attributes to the Mutazil Ab Hshim al-Jubb
(d. 321/933), and complete punishment of only existing evil deeds such as
the intentional omission of good deeds.102 He elaborates:
What has been mentioned in this respect is a median position (amr wasa$t).
That is, [God] punishes [the servant] for this lack [of good deeds] with his
commission of evil deeds, not with [complete] punishment of them. He does
not punish him for them until He sends His messenger. When he disobeys
the messenger, at that moment he deserves complete punishment. At first, he
is only punished by that from whose evil he can be saved by repenting or by
not being held accountable. He is like a boy who does not occupy himself
with what profits him but with what is a cause of his harm. However, the pen
of sinful things will not write anything against him until he reaches the age
of accountability. When he reaches the age of accountability, he will be punished. Then, the evil deeds to which he has grown accustomed may be a cause
of his disobedience after reaching the age of accountability. He has not been
punished except for his sin, but he only deserves the conventional punishment
after being made accountable. As for his preoccupation with evil deeds, this is
punishment for his not committing good deeds.
Hence, evil is not [attributed] to God in any respect. Even if God is the
Creator of the servants actsHis creation of obedient acts is blessing and
mercy, and He has a wise purpose and mercy in His creation of evil deedsthis
is nonetheless just of Him. He is not unjust to humans at all, but humans are
unjust to themselves. Their injustice to themselves is of two kinds: their not
committing good deedsthis is not attributed to Himand their commission
of evil deedsHe creates them as their punishment for omitting to commit

(Hasana, MF 14:331.
(Hasana, MF 14:333. Ibn Taymiyya, (Hasana, MF 14:2812, takes an explicit position
against Ab Hshim al-Jubb who says that failure to fulfill an obligation is not an act
at all. Ab Hshims father Ab Al took the opposite position (i.e. that adopted by Ibn
Taymiyya), saying that omission of a duty is in itself a real act. Both father and son agree,
however, that God punishes failure to fulfill duties. For a brief description of the controversy,
see Martin J. McDermott, The Theology of al-Shaikh al-Mufd (d. 413/1022) (Beirut: Dar
el-Machreq, 1978), 1579.
101
102

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the good deeds for which He created them and which He commanded them.
Every blessing from Him is grace, and every vengeance from Him is just.
It will become clear to whoever meditates on the Quran that, generally,
God makes whatever He mentions in the way of creating unbelief and acts of
disobedience as a recompense for these deeds. [This is] as in His statement
Exalted is HeWhomever God wills to guide, He opens his breast to Islam.
Whomever He wills to misguide, He makes his breast narrow and tight as if
he were climbing up to the sky. In this way, God makes an atrocity for those
who do not believe (Q. 6:125). And HeExalted is Hesays, So, when they
turned away, God turned their hearts away (Q. 61:5). And HeExalted is
Hesays, As for him who is a miser and self-sufficient and belies goodness,
We will ease his way into hardship (Q. 92:810). In this and similar examples
they executed deeds by which He punished them for committing what was
forbidden and omitting what was commanded. These things were only from
them and created in them because they did not do that for which they were
created. They must inevitably have motion and a will. When they were not
active with good deeds, they were active with evil deeds out of Gods justice
since He put this in its place, in its substrate, which is susceptible to it, namely,
the heart, which is not [existent] except [as] committing deeds. If it does not
commit a good deed, it will be employed in committing an evil deed. As it was
said, As for your soul, if you do not occupy it, it will occupy you.103

Following this, Ibn Taymiyya briefly notes that Jabrs assert that God could
punish unbelief and disobedience that He creates without wise purpose and
that Qadars maintain that humans create their own acts. He also mentions
that many Qadars allow God to create sins in recompense but do not permit God to create the first sin that a person commits lest God be unjust to
punish it.104 Ibn Taymiyya likewise excludes the first sin from the realm of
Gods creation, but, unlike the Qadar, he also does not attribute its creation
to the human. He maintains that it is not created by anyone because it is not
an existent. Rather, it is the nonexistence of the good deeds for which the
human was created. The first sin in the life of each individual human being
is a passive failure to cooperate with Gods intention for him. It is a privation of what God meant human beings to do and be, and this privation has
neither a divine nor a human agent. In the following passage from the sixth
difference in (Hasana, the shaykh elaborates this and then briefly addresses
why humans do not do that for which they were created in the first place:
What we have mentioned necessitates that God is Creator of everything.
Nothing originates except by His will and power. Nevertheless, the first of the
existing sins is the [one] created, and this is a punishment for the servants not
103
104

(Hasana, MF 14:3335.
(Hasana, MF 14:3356.

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doing that for which he has been created and that which he is supposed to do.
It is not permissible to attribute this lack to God. It is not anything so that it
would enter into our statement, God is the Creator of everything. The first
of the existent sins that He originates is a punishment of the servant for this
lack. The rest [of the sins] may either be a punishment of the servant for what
exists or they may be a punishment for his continuation in [this] lack. As long
as he does not consecrate deeds to God, he is still an associationist, and Satan
still has authority over him.
Then, His specification (takh$s$s)Glory be to Himof whom He guides
to employ him from the beginning in that for which he was created and not so
to employ anotheris a specification of His by His grace and mercy. Therefore,
God says, And God chooses whomever He wills for His mercy. God is the
owner of abounding grace (Q. 2:105). In this is wise purpose and mercy about
which He knows better, as when He specifies some bodies (abdn) to have
strengths not found in others. Because of the lack of strength, [a body] might
suffer diseases that are existent and other than that in His wise purpose. By
verifying this, [the servant] wards off the obscurities of this subject, and God
knows better what is correct.105

Locating the origin of evil in the nonexistent failure of human beings to do

that for which they were created may succeed in granting some semblance of
libertarian freedom and establishing a basis upon which to mete out retributive punishment. However, making nonexistence the origin of this failure does
not explain convincingly why human beings fall passively into their initial
sins. In the passage above, the shaykh appears to sense these problems, and
he turns away from arguing on the plane of retribution and shifts back to
Gods grace and wise purpose. Ultimately, there is no explanation for human
weakness but Gods wise purpose and mercy. Ibn Taymiyyas attempt to find a
basis for retributive judgment in nonexistence still has its further grounding
in Gods wise purpose in setting up the creation as He has and in creating
some human beings to dissipate their energies in unprofitable deeds.
Call on God Alone Because He Is the Sole Source of Good
Summing up the previous subsections, Ibn Taymiyyas dominant viewpoint
on Gods recompense in (Hasana differs substantially from that of the substrate principle in which the good and bad deeds that God creates are both
attributed to human beings. With the substrate principle, retributive justice
operates in both good and bad deeds from the human perspective, while God
from the divine perspective creates everything according to His wise purpose.
In (Hasana, however, the shaykh often maintains that humans should take

105

(Hasana, MF 14:3367.

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the perspective of Gods all-comprehensive goodness in blessings and good

deeds but the human retributive perspective in evil deeds and afflictions.
Good things point to God alone, not to human achievement, while evil
things always point to lack and failure in the individual afflicted. Neither
God nor human beings create this failure; it has no agent. Yet, human beings
are responsible for allowing this failure to occur to them, and they suffer the
punishment of God creating evil deeds in them as retribution.
The shift from the substrate principle to God as the unique source of all
human good deeds also carries ethical and spiritual import for Ibn Taymiyya in (Hasana. Noted above was his claim that Q. 4:79 indicates what is
profitable for human beings: the conviction that all blessings come from
God evokes thanksgiving, while knowledge that evil deeds come only from
the soul promotes seeking forgiveness. In the latter parts of (Hasana, he also
contends that no intercession (shafa) should be sought except from those to
whom God gives authority to intercede before Him, and he criticizes beliefs
and practices that he believes violate Gods Law and detract from calling on
God alone. While God has a right to worship in His very essence, it is also
the case that, as the sole source of all good things, He should be the sole
object of complete trust, hope, praise and invocation.106
The Origin of Evil in Human Imperfection and Lack in Fti!ha
Whereas the shaykh introduces the notion of evil as nonexistence in H
( asana
primarily to solve a rational difficulty dealing with retribution, he elaborates
it in Fti!ha with much greater philosophical detail and analysis to make a
religious argument. Fti!ha opens with a full treatment of complete trust in
God and Gods exclusive and essential right to worship. This constituted a key
source for my discussion of worship and asking for help found above in
Chapter One.107 Following this, Ibn Taymiyya takes up evil in order to argue
that, since no good comes from creatures, appealing to them for help is like
seeking aid from nothing at all. Thus, human weakness, imperfection, and
ultimately nonexistence show that God alone should be sought for help.108
Ibn Taymiyya begins the part of Fti!ha on evil by affirming that God is
Creator of all existent things. The human soul contributes only nonexistence,
which is nothing at all and requires no agent. Now, according to the shaykh,

106
107
108

(Hasana, MF 14:3145, 341, 359421.

Fti!ha, MF 14:415.
Fti!ha, MF 14:15, 29.

the wise purpose and origin of evil

207

the nonexistence of something may be due to the lack of an entailing factor

(muqta#d) or the existence of an impediment (mni). However, Gods will
(masha) is always decisive in necessitating the existence of something: The
will of [God] is the perfect cause (al-sabab al-kmil). With its existence there
is no impediment, and with its nonexistence there is no entailing factor.
With these metaphysical bases in place, the shaykh explains that all good
comes from God and that no good comes from the soul.109
Ibn Taymiyya then identifies two kinds of evil: the nonexistent and the
existent.110 He explains that a nonexistent evil may be the nonexistence of an
essence, the privation of an attribute of perfection such as life, knowledge,
speech and the like, or a lack of good deeds such as loving and turning to God.
The existence of such things is good, and their privation is evil. However,
this privation has no agent or creator. Thus, it is not attributed to God but
to the soul as a concomitant of the way God created it. In other words, evil,
imperfection and privation are essential elements of human nature:
[This privation] is only from the necessary concomitants of the soul, which is
the reality of the human being, before it is created and after it has been created. Before it is created, it is nonexistent, which makes this privation follow
necessarily. After it has been createdit having been created weak and imperfectthere is imperfection, weakness and impotence in it, and these things
are nonexistent. They have been attributed to the soul as the attribution of the
nonexistence of the effect to the nonexistence of its cause.111

Following this, Ibn Taymiyya again notes that the nonexistence of something
may be due either to the lack of its agent or to an impediment, and, as
before, he mentions that no impediment can impede Gods will. However,
he adds that God may create one thing to be a secondary cause (sabab),
another thing an entailing factor, and yet another thing an impediment.
In this case, the impediment impedes the cause until God makes the cause
complete (tmm). With this in view, the shaykh explains, These nonexistent
evil deeds are only attributed to the servant, sometimes due to the lack of a
cause from him, and at other times due to the existence of an impediment
from him. The lack of a cause consists in servants having no strength and
good in themselves. Impediments include impotence and preoccupation
with deeds that logically preclude other better deeds.112

109
110
111
112

Fti!ha, MF 14:157 (quote on 17).

Fti!ha, MF 14:1824.
Fti!ha, MF 14:18.
Fti!ha, MF 14:1920 (quote on 19).

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Some discussion of the second kind of evil in Fti!haexistent evilhas

already been given earlier in this chapter. This evil is not absolute, and, from
Gods perspective, it is wholly good by virtue of Gods wise purpose. Following the three-fold evil attribution typology, however, it is also attributed to
its secondary cause, and, The secondary cause of this existent, particular,
restricted evil is either nonexistent or existent.113 As examples of the nonexistent type of secondary cause, Ibn Taymiyya notes the lack of a condition or the lack of part of a cause. This is as when a cause of pleasure and
good is fully present, but the condition is lacking, which causes pain. More
concretely, the lack of hearing causes the pain of deafness; the lack of health
causes pain and illness; and so on. The shaykh clarifies furthermore that the
servant commits forbidden acts and suffers their harm only out of ignorance
and need which arise out of nonexistence, specifically, the nonexistence of
knowledge and the nonexistence of sufficiency ( ghin), respectively. As
examples of existent secondary causes of existent evil, Ibn Taymiyya cites
commission of forbidden deeds leading to punishment and blame, eating
harmful foods and forceful movements inducing pain. These existents are
imperfect because they do not cause pure good, and the shaykh traces them
back to other lacks such as the lack of complete examination and listening,
which themselves go back to either pure nonexistence or the impediments
of pride and envy. Pride results from a vain imagination that arises out of the
souls lack of sufficiency in the Real, and envy originates in a lack of the level
of blessing that would bring the envious on a par with the envied. Similarly,
murder and adultery occur because someone cannot fulfill his need in some
other way, and the source of this need is nonexistence.114 The distinction
between nonexistent and existent causes of existent evil dissolves in the
final analysis to nonexistence because the existent causes of evil are always
imperfect, and imperfection itself is rooted in nonexistence.
Ibn Taymiyya elaborates further in Fti!ha that pure nonexistence cannot
cause existence and that existence is not a cause of nonexistence because
nonexistence does not need an existent cause. He again notes that pure
existence is completely good, and he then divides evil into pain on the one
hand and causes of pain on the other. As an example of a cause of pain, he
notes evil deeds leading to chastisement. Pain results from a privation, as
in the separation of something that should be connected. Sins that cause
pain arise initially from not meeting obligations, which opens the door to

113
114

Fti!ha, MF 14:22.
Fti!ha, MF 14:234.

the wise purpose and origin of evil

209

committing forbidden acts. The shaykh ends the section on evil in Fti!ha by
explaining that human beings should seek refuge in God from both the evil
deeds they commit and the pain and punishment that these deeds bring.115
In the remainder of the treatise, he expands on the human need for God to
be the object of his worship Whom he loves for His essence and on the need
to rely totally on the God from Whom all blessing and help come.116
Conclusion
In the evil attribution typology presented at the beginning of this chapter,
Ibn Taymiyya identifies three ways of speaking about evil. Reviewing these in
reverse order, the third type consists in eliding the agent of evil, presumably
God, and giving the respective verb in the passive voice. This is a rhetorical
courtesy, which the shaykh does not elaborate further except to cite a few
examples from the Quran. The second type diverts attention from the Creator and attributes evil solely to its secondary cause, that is, to the creature
that commits it. The first type attributes evil to the generality of what God
creates. This type is interpreted along Avicennan lines in three ways: evil is a
necessary concomitant of Gods creative activity; evil is harmful only relative
to particular persons but wholly good by virtue of Gods wise purpose in
creating it; and evil is minuscule compared to the great quantity of good.
Ibn Taymiyya is often reticent to speculate on the specifics of Gods wise
purposes in the creation of evil, and he sometimes notes that it is sufficient
to believe simply that God has a wise purpose in all that He does. In a few
places, however, and especially in (Hasana, the shaykh explains that evil has
the educational function of deterring others from bad deeds and the religious
functions of purifying through testing, expiating sins, providing opportunity
to earn reward and developing virtues such as repentance, humility and devotion to God. In assigning evil these educational and spiritually nurturing roles,
the shaykh adopts ideas found also among the Mutazils and the Sufis.
The first two types in Ibn Taymiyyas evil attribution typology formalize a
dichotomy between the divine and human perspectives. However, the shaykh
does not explicate this paradoxically in the spirit of Ibn Arab. Instead, he
attempts to resolve the attendant rational difficulties. His interpretation of
Q. 4:789 in (Hasana provides a prime example of this. Ibn Taymiyya denies

115
116

Fti!ha, MF 14:248.
Fti!ha, MF 14:2936.

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that there is a contradiction in these verses claims that all is from God and
that every evil thing is from the individual person afflicted. He resolves this
most fully by locating the ultimate source of evil in the nonexistence or lack
of the good deeds for which God created human beings. This lack cannot be
attributed to the creative activity of God because a nonexistent has no agent,
but God punishes people in whom this lack is found by creating evil deeds
that preoccupy them from doing good deeds. However, there remains the
question of why some people fall into a lack of good deeds. Here the shaykh
implicitly acknowledges difficulty by switching back to the divine perspective
and explaining that God chooses to employ some, but not others, in good
deeds according to His mercy and wise purpose, just as He creates some to
be stronger than others. Despite Ibn Taymiyyas denial of contradiction in
Q. 4:789, his interpretation does not eliminate the contradiction in his
doctrine between retribution on the one hand and Gods mercy and wise
purpose on the other.
A similar problem arises in Ibn Taymiyyas discussion of the basis for
reward in (Hasana. At some points, he grounds reward retributively in good
deeds, but, at other points, he shifts this ground to Gods unmerited grace in
creating only blessings and good deeds. He then argues that God is the sole
source of good and therefore the only worthy object of trust and worship.
The same ideas are articulated more philosophically in Fti!ha. The upshot is
that piety and probably the concomitant injunction to give God the highest
similitude nudge Ibn Taymiyya gently but firmly away from a retributive
conception of good deeds. As a result, he limits retribution to evil deeds
and grounds good deeds solely in Gods grace and blessing. Perhaps as well
the shaykh is simply working out the inherent logic of optimism.

CHAPTER SIX

THE JUSTICE OF GOD AND THE BEST OF ALL

POSSIBLE WORLDS
Introduction
The question of Gods justice in rewarding and punishing humanity permeates
the texts analyzed in the previous three chapters even though adl, the Arabic
term translated justice, appears infrequently. However, Ibn Taymiyya does
comment explicitly on the meaning of adl and its opposite )zulm (injustice)
in a number of places, especially in Minhj, Ab Dharr and dil.1 In these
discussions of justice, Ibn Taymiyya maintains that all Muslims and people
of other faiths agree that God is just and exonerated of injustice, but he
notes that people have different understandings of these terms.2 He identifies
three basic types of interpretation, which will be surveyed in the first part
of this chapter. The first type is the Mutazil conception of Gods justice as
retributive. The second is the voluntaristic, Ashar notion of Gods justice.
The third type, Ibn Taymiyyas own position, defines Gods justice as putting
things in their proper places. The shaykh also devotes considerable attention
in his justice discussions to the question of whether optimism endangers
Gods power and freedom. This will be taken up in the latter part of the
chapter which also assesses the shaykhs few comments on al-Ghazls claim
that there is nothing in possibility more wonderful than this world. In what
is probably the latest of these comments, Ibn Taymiyya affirms that this is
the best of all possible worlds.

1
The main passages are dil, JR 1216, 126130; Minhj, 1:134141/1:334,
1:4514/1:1256, 2:304313/2145, 3:203/2678; Jabr, MF 8:505510; Ab Dharr,
MF 18:137156; and Nubuwwt, 1437.
2
dil, JR 121, 125; Minhj, 1:1334/1:323, 3:151/2:27; and Jabr, MF 8:505. Cf.
Minhj, 1:134/1:33, 1:453/1:125, where Ibn Taymiyya also says that no Sunn Muslim states
that God does bad or fails to keep obligations.

Jon Hoover, 2007

This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/.

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Ibn Taymiyyas Three-fold Typology on Gods Justice (adl)

Ibn Taymiyyas discussions of the three basic types or ways of understanding

Gods justice in the Islamic tradition vary widely in completeness and length.
At times, the shaykh focuses more on polemic against the Mutazils or the
Ashars. At other times, he devotes more attention to explaining his own
view. There is no one passage that sufficiently comprehends what is found
in the others to serve as a basis for exposition. However, the views presented
in the various texts are consistent, and this justifies a composite account for
the sake of avoiding excessive repetition.
Mutazils: Gods Obligation to Retributive Justice
Under the rubric of his first type, Ibn Taymiyya does not typically mention
names of individual Mutazils, and he frequently calls them simply Qadars.3
However, he does speak in Minhj of the moderns (mutaakhkhirn) of the
Imms who follow the Mutazils in theology.4 This appellation is aimed
chiefly at Twelver Sh al-(Hill, who wrote the anti-Sunn tract that Minhj
refutes.
The shaykh also reviews basic elements of the Mutazil theodicy. Gods
justice is retributive in the sense that God metes out reward and punishment
in due proportion for good and bad deeds, respectively. According to the
shaykh, the Mutazil God does not will or create human acts of disobedience,
iniquity and unbelief. Instead, humans create their own acts, and so God
is just to punish those who disobey His command.5 If God were to create
injustice directly in humans, He would be unjust to punish it, and if God
were to chastise sins that He created, that would be unjust and undeserved
harm.6 Moreover, Ibn Taymiyya reports, the Mutazil God must provide
all possible help to His servants to carry out His commands, and He must
help everyone equally.7 If God singled out one person over another for His
mercy and bounty ( fa#dl ), that would be unjust.8 The shaykh also mentions
the Mutazil view that God must do what is best (a$sla!h) for His servants, at
3
Exceptions include Ibn Taymiyyas mention of the early Mutazil al-Na)z)zm in dil, JR
129, and al-Jubb in the story of the three brothers quoted below.
4
Minhj, 1:134/1:33.
5
dil, JR 123.
6
Ab Dharr, MF 18:138, 152; and dil, JR 127. See also Ab Dharr, MF 18:145, for
the definition of injustice as undeserved harm (i#drr ghayr musta!hiqq).
7
Ab Dharr, MF 18:138.
8
Irda, MF 8:92.

the justice of god and the best of all possible worlds 213
least in matters of religion (Ba$sran Mutazils), or in worldly matters as well
(Baghdd Mutazils),9 and he cites the Mutazil doctrine that Gods reason
for creating human beings was to benefit them and subject them to the possibility of earning reward.10 The main Mutazil doctrine that Ibn Taymiyya
fails to highlight is their doctrine that God must provide compensations
(iwa#d ) to all creatures who suffer unjustly.11
Ibn Taymiyya rejects the Mutazil free-will theodicy outright because it
posits humans creating their own acts.12 Also, drawing on arguments developed by the Ashar tradition, he takes the Mutazils to task for insisting that
God adhere to human standards of retribution and even for turning God into
a fool. As the shaykh sees it, the trouble begins when the Mutazils ground
Gods justice in the rational discernment of moral value. They maintain that
reason knows acts to be objectively good or bad by virtue of attributes inherent in the acts, and then they argue that God must be exonerated of acts
that reason deems bad. Ibn Taymiyya counters that reason does not dictate
that creatures and the Creator are subject to identical standards of good
and bad.13 He accuses the Mutazils of likening (tamthl) and assimilating
(tashbh) Gods acts to human acts and drawing an analogy from human acts
to Gods acts. In effect, he claims, the Mutazils set down a law for God,
obligating Him to adhere to human standards of justice and forbidding
Him from human notions of injustice, which, according to Ibn Taymiyya,
violates Gods complete unlikeness.14 He explains that the Mutazils and
like-minded Shs, such as al-(Hill, apply their law polemically to the God
of the Ashars, Who is by definition outside the sphere of human morality.
The Ashar God does not meet the Mutazil standard of justice, and so, the
Mutazils conclude, this God commits bad deeds and fails to fulfill obligations.15 Ibn Taymiyya complains that the Mutazils propounded similitudes
(amthl) for God but did not give Him the highest similitude.16 It is not
Minhj, 3:198/2:39; and Irda, MF 8:92.
dil, JR 128; Jabr, MF 8:506; and Minhj, 3:1523/2:278.
11
For compensation in the thought of Abd al-Jabbr, see Heemskerk, Suffering in
Mutazilite Theology, 142191. Cf. Schmidtke, Theology, 117124.
12
Ab Dharr, MF 18:138, 148; and dil, JR 129.
13
Ab Dharr, MF 18:147.
14
Minhj, 1:4478/1:124, 3:3940/1:272, 3:153/2:28; Jabr, MF 8:5056; Ab Dharr,
MF 18:138, 147; Ta!hsn al-aql, MF 8:4312; and dil, JR 128. For Abd al-Jabbrs univocal
use of analogy from the visible world to the invisible world (qiys al-ghib al al-shhid )
in Gods acts, see Daniel Gimaret, Thories de lacte humain en thologie musulmane, 2813;
and Heemskerk, Suffering in Mutazilite Theology, 1123.
15
Minhj, 1:4534/1:1256.
16
Ab Dharr, MF 18:138.
9

10

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just a matter of the Mutazils likening God to creatures. It is also that when
they do they arrive at an inadequate view of God.
To explain further how he believes analogy and assimilation fail the
Mutazils, Ibn Taymiyya juxtaposes the Muslim obligation to command the
right and forbid the wrong with the Mutazil view of libertarian freedom.17
In Jabr he gives the following argument: If someone were able to stop others from being unjust to one another but did not prevent them, he himself
would be unjust. Implied here is that God should stop injustice if indeed
He is subject to human standards. In reply the Mutazils assert that God
gives humans free choice and provides opportunity for reward if they obey
and punishment if they do not. If God were to force someone not to do
something, the opportunity for reward provided by obligation would fall
away. Ibn Taymiyya responds that most people would reply that someone
who acts like thisknowing full well that his servants will not obey his
commandis neither wise nor just. Such behavior would be praiseworthy
only in someone who did not know what was going to happen or could
not prevent it. God however is all-powerful and knows future events, and
someone who can prevent injustice must do so by force (ilj).18 Ibn Taymiyya mocks the Mutazils in Minhaj for implying that God creates power in
humans by which they can lie and commit iniquity and injustice, knowing
full well that they will commit such acts. This implies even that God helps
them to commit these deeds. The shaykh compares this to one person giving
another a sword to fight unbelievers knowing full well that he will misuse it
to kill a prophet. The shaykh says that this is foolish on the human level and
that God as well is exonerated of this. He adds that Gods acts are judged
differently from ours and that He has a wise purpose in what He creates.19
In Minhj Ibn Taymiyya cites the famous Ashar story of the three brothers to show that the Mutazil doctrine of the best (a$sla!h) falls into contradiction because it is based on assimilation of God to creatures. Rosalind
Gwynne has shown that Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz was probably the first to link
this story to al-Ashars break with his Mutazil master Ab Al al-Jubb

17
For an extensive discussion of this obligation in the Islamic tradition, see Michael Cook,
Commanding Right and Forbidding Wrong in Islamic Thought (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
University Press, 2000).
18
Jabr, MF 8:506.
19
Minhj, 3:2201/2:44. For additional arguments of this sort, see Minhj, 3:1513/2:278:
it would be foolish for a man to give his son money if he knew the son was going to use it to
buy poison to eat; and dil, JR 128: it would be unjust for a master to let his slaves commit
injustice if he could stop it. Cf. Minhj, 2:3123/1:215.

the justice of god and the best of all possible worlds 215
(d. 303/916).20 Be that as it may, Ibn Taymiyya simply accepts the account
as historical:
[Al-Ashar] said to [al-Jubb]: When God created three brothers, one of them
died young, and the other two reached the age of accountability. One of the
[latter] two believed, and the other disbelieved. [God] brought the believer
into Paradise and raised his rank. He brought the young one into Paradise
and made his level below [the other brother]. The young one said to Him, O
Lord! Raise me to the rank of my brother. He said, You are not like him.
He believed and committed righteous deeds. You are young, and you did not
commit the deeds he did. He said, O Lord! You made me die. If you had
kept me [alive], I would have done the like of his deeds. He said, I did what
was to your benefit (ma$sla!ha) because I knew that if you had reached the age
of accountability you would have disbelieved. Therefore, I carried you away to
death. Then, the third [brother] cried out from the depths of the Fire, and he
said, O Lord! Why did you not carry me away to death before reaching the
age of accountability as you carried my young brother away to death? For this
would have been of benefit to me also. It is said that when this was brought
against [al-Jubb], he stopped. This is because [the Mutazils] obligate Him
to be just between two likes and to do what is best (a$sla!h) to each one of them.
Here, He did what was best, according to them, to one of the two but not to
the other. This is not the place to elaborate on this. If the matter is like this,
their assimilation of God to His creatures is vain.21

In addition to showing the absurdity to which he believes the Mutazil sense

of Gods rigorous fairness leads, Ibn Taymiyya in Minhj also explains his
own view that God is not unjust to single out some for special blessings over
others. God bestows the special grace of guidance upon some people so that
they believe while upon others He does not. Likewise, He gives some more
knowledge, health, strength and beauty than others. To support his point,
the shaykh quotes the quranic verse: Is it they who divide out the mercy of
your Lord? It is We who divide out between them their livelihood in this
world, and We have raised some of them above others in ranks so that some
may take others into subjection (Q. 32:43).22
In Minhj the shaykh also argues that an odious consequence of al-(Hills
Mutazilism is that God cannot be thanked because He is doing no more
than fulfilling His obligations. This argument rests on the presupposition that
gratitude is due only for blessings that exceed obligations. God, in al-(Hills

Rosalind W. Gwynne, Al-Jubb, al-Ashar and the Three Brothers: The Uses of Fiction, The Muslim World 75 ( JulyOct. 1985): 132161.
21
Minhj, 3:1989/2:39.
22
Minhj, 1:138/1:34.
20

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view, is obligated to provide both worldly and religious blessings.23 Moreover,

God cannot make someone a believer, and, so, He cannot be thanked for
that either. Gods blessings in the hereafter consist in obligatory recompense
just as an employer must pay an employee his wage or a debtor must pay
off his debt. Thus, all is obligation for God, and He is not worthy of thanks
for anything. Additionally, Ibn Taymiyya reads al-(Hill to say that humans
are not worthy of praise, thanks or blame if God makes them do good or
evil. Conversely, one cannot say that God is blessing or testing when human
authorities act justly or unjustly, respectively, because God is not controlling their actions. This, the shaykh argues, undermines the proper attitude
of thankfulness both to God and to other people that befits believers in all
circumstances. Rather, the shaykh asserts, human beings have been naturally
constituted to praise someone who does good and to blame one who does
evil even if these acts are determined and created by God. God makes one
person deserving of praise and reward and another deserving of punishment
and blame according to His wise purpose.24
In sum Ibn Taymiyya is unsympathetic to the sober Mutazil free-will
theodicy in which God treats human beings with rigorous equality as they
freely choose their response to Gods command and earn their just deserts.
He attacks the Mutazils both for obligating God to act according to a
retributive ethic and for misconceiving the divine economy in such a way
that makes God look foolish and undermines thankfulness to Him.25
Ashars: Gods Voluntaristic Justice
In the second of Ibn Taymiyyas three types, Gods justice is voluntaristic.
Whatever God wills is just by virtue of the fact that it is God who wills it.
Ibn Taymiyya attributes this view to the Jahms, the followers of Jahm b.
!Safwn, al-Ashar and the Ashars including al-Bqilln and al-Juwayn,
the (Hanbals Ab Yal, Ibn al-Zghn and Ibn al-Jawz, the Mlik Ab
al-Wald al-Bj (d. 474/1081), and other members of all four of the Sunn
schools of law.26 He also attributes it to the moderns (mutaakhkhirn) of
the Jahms27 and the moderns among the Kalm theologians who establish

On this view in al-(Hills thought, see Schmidtke, Theology, 109115.

Minhj, 3:1317/2:224.
25
Most of the arguments above may be found in Ashar Kalm handbooks. See for example
al-Shahrastn, Kitb nihyatu, 397411 (Arabic), 126131 (English).
26
Minhj, 3:20/1:267; and dil, JR 1223, 127.
27
Jabr, MF 8:506.
23
24

the justice of god and the best of all possible worlds 217
determination, both of which probably refer to Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz and
possibly al-mid.28
In the Ashar view, according to the shaykh, injustice is inherently impossible for God in the same way that it is impossible to combine two contradictories or put one body in two places at once. God would be just to do
anything imaginable whose existence is possible, and He is not under external
obligation of any kind. God would not be unjust to chastise the obedient
or reward the disobedient. He may punish the children of unbelievers and
the insane even if they have not sinned. He would not be unjust to punish
someone even for his color or height. Ibn Taymiyya cites two Ashar arguments for this doctrine. First, injustice means acting freely in someone elses
property. Since everything is Gods property, it is by definition impossible for
Him to be unjust. Second, injustice means opposing a command that must
be obeyed. Since God is not subject to the command of any other, injustice
cannot be ascribed to God.29
With respect to the first argument, Ibn Taymiyya rejects defining justice
as freely acting in someone elses property. He counters, A human being
may rightly act freely in the property of another and not be unjust, and
he may wrongly act freely in his [own] property and be unjust. Injustice
of the servant against himself is frequent in the Quran.30 The shaykh also
traces the Ashar definition of injustice to an alleged misunderstanding.
He observes that Iys b. Muwiyya (d. 122/740) is reported to have said,
I have not disputed with anyone with my whole mind except the Qadars.
I said to them, What is injustice? They said, That you take what is not
yours, or That you act freely in what is not yours. I said, To God belongs
everything.31 Iys, the shaykh explains, did not intend to define Gods
justice. He sought only to show that the Qadars were wrong and to avoid
going into further details.32
With respect to the second argument, which is based on the premise that
God is not subject to commands, Ibn Taymiyya counters that God has in
fact subjected Himself to His own writing and forbidding: GodGlory be

Ab Dharr, MF 18:138.
Minhj, 1:134/1:33, 1:452/1:125, 2:3056/1:2145, 3:202/1:2678, 3:40/1:272;
dil, JR 121, 125, 127; Jabr, MF 8:5067; Ab Dharr, MF 18:139, 152; and Nubuwwt,
1435.
30
Ab Dharr, MF 18:145.
31
The version of this dictum translated here is that found in Ab Dharr, MF 18:139.
It is also found with slight variations in Minhj, 1:3045/1:214, 3:22/1:268, and in dil,
JR 122.
32
Ab Dharr, MF 18:139140.
28

29

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to Himhas written mercy for Himself and forbidden injustice to Himself.

He does not act in opposition to what He has written, and He does not do
what He has forbidden.33 All well and good, but the God of Asharism may
not necessarily be as capricious as Ibn Taymiyya makes Him out to be. The
shaykh also reports the Ashar view that God will not do everything that
is permissible for Him because God has said that He will not and because
this information corresponds to His knowledge of what He will and will not
do. God will not in fact punish children without sin and bring unbelievers
into Paradise even though it would not be unjust of Him to do so. God will
keep His promises given in revelation.34
Ibn Taymiyya does not always explain why he finds this Ashar qualification inadequate to guarantee Gods reliability.35 In Nubuwwt, however, he
argues that a God who has arbitrary choice in possibility, if not in actuality,
cannot be known to be reliable in the information that He gives. He retorts
that the Ashars allow that God could send anyone with whatever message
He wills, even someone who commits grave sins.36 Ibn Taymiyya then turns
the Ashars denial of Gods purposive activity against them to undermine
their foundations for prophetic reliability. He cites al-Ashar, al-Bqilln,
Ibn Frak and the (Hanbal Ab Yal as arguing that a God who is powerful
must confirm the truthfulness of His prophets and that this can be done only
through miracles. The shaykh says that this contradicts the Ashar contention that God may do whatever He wills. Moreover, God cannot establish
a miracle as a sign of the truthfulness of a messenger if He does not do one
thing on account of another, that is, if He does not act for purposes. Ibn
Taymiyya reports as well that al-Juwayn adopted a different strategy, claiming
that knowledge of the truthfulness of prophets to whom God gives a miracle
is necessary. The shaykh replies that this argument works only if it is known
Ab Dharr, MF 18:145.
Ab Dharr, MF 18:148; Nubuwwt, 143; and Minhj, 1:4512/1:125. The basics
of this view are found in al-Ashars Kitb al-luma. In response to the question, Is it for
GodExalted is Heto inflict pain on children in the hereafter? al-Ashar writes, It is
for God [to do] that, and He would be just if He did that. Similarly, whenever He inflicts
an infinite punishment for a finite crime, subjects some living beings to others, blesses some
apart from others, and creates them knowing that they will disbelieve, all of this is justice on
His part. It would not be bad on the part of God if He were to bring them forth in painful
chastisement and make it perpetual. It would not be bad on His part to chastise the believers
and bring the unbelievers into Paradise. We only say that He will not do that because He has
informed us that He will punish the unbelievers, and it is not permissible for Him to lie in
His informing. This translation has been adapted from that of McCarthy in The Theology
of al-Ashar, 71 (Arabic) and 169 (trans.).
35
As in Ab Dharr, MF 18:148; and Minhj, 1:4512/1:125.
36
Nubuwwt, 1456.
33

34

the justice of god and the best of all possible worlds 219
that God is one who does things for wise purposes. Otherwise, there is no
way of knowing that God has done something to indicate something else.
It must be known necessarily that God does things for wise purposes before
one can recognize necessarily that God confirms His messengers through
miracles.37 In Nubuwwt Ibn Taymiyya himself establishes the reliability of
prophets on the basis of necessary knowledge that God acts for wise purposes. Gods wise purpose, justice and mercy are known by reason.38 Rational
proof of Gods wise purpose is found in the dazzling divine wisdom that is
evident in all created things, as for example in the perfect placement of the
body parts.39 God must act according to His wise purpose, and, His wise
purpose necessitates that He make the truthfulness of the prophets obvious
and support them.40
In short Ibn Taymiyyas critique of the Ashars view of justice reduces to
upbraiding them for denying that Gods justice entails some kind of rationality. A capricious God who could so radically violate the order of retribution
as to punish believers for their belief or make liars into prophets and still be
called just cannot by His very nature establish a relationship with humankind
based on promise and trust.
Much as was observed when discussing Shams in Chapter Three, Ibn
Taymiyyas polemic here against the Mutazils and the Ashars appears contradictory. On the one hand, he attacks the Mutazils for applying analogical
reasoning to God and assimilating God to creatures. On the other, he appears
to fall into this very error when criticizing both the Mutazils for making
God foolish and the Ashars for rendering God capricious. Unfortunately,
Ibn Taymiyya does not elaborate his theological principles adequately enough

Nubuwwt, 1489, 3612, 3713.

Nubuwwt, 349353, 361.
39
Nubuwwt, 3567.
40
Nubuwwt, 349. For this point, see also H
( asana, MF 14:271; and Minhj, 3:919/2:12
4, 3:2268/2:46. In Minhj, 3:97/2:12, Ibn Taymiyya adds that it would be an attribute
of imperfection for God to confirm a liar. For more on Ashar difficulties in prophecy,
see Gardet, Dieu et la destine de lhomme, 2001. Also, Ibn Taymiyya, Nubuwwt, 3645,
notes that al-Ghazl saw the difficulties in traditional Ashar views and turned to the view
of the philosophers that prophecy is a genus of dreams (manmt), and he reports that
al-Rz vacillates concerning prophecy between the Ashars and the philosophers. Ceylan,
Theology and Tafsr, 167172, also recounts al-Rzs difficulties on prophecy. Frank Griffel,
Al-azls Concept of Prophecy: The Introduction of Avicennan Psychology Into Aarite
Theology, Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 14 (2004): 101144, explains that al-Ghazl and
al-Rz recognize difficulties in the early Ashar view that miracles authenticate prophets and
so ground evaluation of prophetic claims psychologically in necessary knowledge of what
constitutes prophetic truthfulness. See now Shihadeh, Teleological Ethics, 129142, for a more
comprehensive discussion of al-Rzs thought on the authentication of prophetic claims.
37
38

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in his justice texts to make full sense of his argumentation, but the contradiction may be resolved by reference to his juristic methodology pertaining
to theological matters surveyed in Chapter One. On the one hand, as will
also become clear below, God must be envisioned according to the highest
humanly imaginable perfection on both rational and quranic grounds. On
the other, Gods perfection requires that He be wholly unlike creatures and
subject to no analogy. Thus, the shaykhs discourse on Gods justice does
not purport to inform about its modality but simply how to speak of Gods
justice with the highest praise.
Ibn Taymiyya: Gods Justice as Putting Things in their Places
The third type in Ibn Taymiyyas justice typology sets out his own view, and
here his optimism becomes readily apparent. He sometimes begins by defining
injustice rather than justice. Injustice ()zulm) is putting something in other
than its place. He sometimes traces this definition to the linguist Ab Bakr
b. al-Anbr (328/940), and he attributes this view to many of the Sunns,
hadith scholars and people of rational thought (ahl al-nu)zr).41 Beyond
this, he gives no names, but justice defined as putting things in their places
is common in the tradition. Al-Ghazl, for example, defines justice in this
fashion when outlining the wise placement of the body parts as a sign of
the orderliness of Gods creation in al-Maq$sad al-asn.42 For al-Mturd as
well, justice is putting a thing in its place, and al-Shahrastn says that this
is orthodox doctrine.43
Ibn Taymiyya does not clearly define what it means to put things in their
places. In a context beyond his justice typologies, he characterizes Gods
justice as beneficence (i!hsn) to His creatures.44 This gives no specific content to Gods justice except to identify it with Gods goodness. In his justice
typologies, however, he often gives justice connotations of retribution. Following is one of his more extended definitions, which comes from dil:

41
Jabr, MF 8:507. Cf. Minhj, 1:139/1:34; and Ab Dharr, MF 18:145. For the connection to Ibn al-Anbr, see dil, JR 124, 129.
42
Al-Ghazl, Al-Maq$sad al-asn f shar!h man asm Allh al-!husn, ed. Fadlou A.
Shehadi (Beirut: Dar el-Machreq, 1982), 1059 (on Gods name al-Adl). See Frank, Creation
and the Cosmic System, 646, for further analysis of al-Ghazl on Gods justice.
43
Pessagno, The uses of Evil in Maturidian Thought, 689; Ab Man$sr al-Mturd,
Kitb al-taw!hd, ed. Fat!h Allh Khulayf (Alexandria: Dr al-jmit al-mi$sriyya, n.d.), 97;
Al-Shahrastn, Al-Milal wa al-ni!hal, 37.
44
Qudra, MF 8:31.

the justice of god and the best of all possible worlds 221
Injustice is putting something in other than its place (wa#d al-shay f ghayr
maw#diihi). Justice is putting everything in its place. HeGlory be to Himis
a wise arbiter and just, putting things in their places. He does not put anything except in its place, which corresponds to it and which wise purpose and
justice require. He does not differentiate between two likes, and He does not
equate two different things. He punishes only whoever deserves punishment
and puts [the punishment] in its place on account of the wise purpose and
justice in that. As for the people of righteousness and piety (taqw), He does
not punish them at all.45

Apart from the tautology of defining justice as putting something in its

place as wise purpose and justice require, the text carries an appeal to an
intuitive sense of retribution. Elsewhere, the shaykh claims that it is known
by the natural constitution that it is not permissible for God in His justice,
wisdom and mercy to punish those who do good works and raise the iniquitous to the highest rank.46 Similarly, he quotes, Whoever does deeds of righteousness and is a believer will not fear injustice or curtailment (ha#dman)
(Q. 20:112), and he explains that curtailment is reducing ones good deeds,
and injustice is making one responsible for the evil deeds of another. Only
those who sin will be punished in the hereafter even though God may also
pardon some.47 Other verses he quotes along these lines include: Indeed,
God is not unjust to so much as the weight of an ant (Q. 4:40); That no
one burdened bear the burden of another, and that the human has only that
for which he has made an effort (Q. 53:389); and, Whoever does good
equal to the weight of a small ant will see it, and whoever does evil equal
to the weight of a small ant will see it (Q. 99:78).48 These last two verses
suggest a rigorous standard of retribution. However, Ibn Taymiyya adds that
God is also merciful to many people without regard to their deeds and that
profit may accrue to a person from Gods grace and mercy as well as from
the invocation and deeds of others.49
The upshot of these comments is that justice for Ibn Taymiyya means
putting reward and punishment in their proper places, where the place
of something is not clearly defined. For the most part, however, it appears
dil, JR 1234.
Nubuwwt, 145. Cf. dil, JR 125, 128; and Minhj, 1:139/1:34. Ibn Taymiyya,
Nubuwwt, 423, also explains that God grants recompense in this world in accord with
wise purpose and benefit and that God punishes each disobedient people according to His
wise purpose and what is fitting for them.
47
Jabr, MF 8:507; Ab Dharr, MF 18:1414, 146; and Nubuwwt, 144.
48
dil, JR 126; Jabr, MF 8:507; Ab Dharr, 18:142; and Minhj, 1:1358/1:334. These
references include additional quranic verses of this kind.
49
dil, JR 126; and Ab Dharr, 18:1423.
45

46

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that the wicked are punished while the righteous are not. Yet, retribution is
not absolute and some other rationalitythat of Gods mercysometimes
comes into play such that punishment for bad deeds does not always ensue.
Even though Ibn Taymiyya does not specify the rationality to which Gods
justice conforms, he optimistically believes that human beings will recognize
it when they see it.
Now in view of Ibn Taymiyyas conviction that God creates all things, it
might be asked how some people become fitting places for punishment. How
is it that human beings end up in the quandary of needing to be punished?
The shaykhs justice passages generally do not broach this question, but he
does attribute Gods creation of evil deeds to an unspecified divine wise
purpose in dil. dil opens with two consecutive versions of his justice
typology and then shifts to a defense of God against the charge that He
commits bad and evil deeds. The wordy argument focuses very little on the
causes of evil, but it extols the goodness of what God does at length. Only
the central points of this defense will be given here.
To begin, Ibn Taymiyya explains that God makes humans commit evil and
unjust acts for a wise purpose. He does not explain what this wise purpose
is but observes instead that this is a matter of God justly putting things in
their places.50 The shaykh supports his point by noting that human artisans
do the same thing in placing defective raw materials in places properly
befitting them:
When the artisan takes a crooked board, a broken stone and an imperfect
brick, he puts them in a place befitting them and becoming of them. From
him this is just, upright and correct. He is praiseworthy even if there is a crook
and a fault in them by virtue of which they are blameworthy. Whoever takes
disgusting things (khabith) and puts them in the place that befits them, this
is wise and just. Foolishness and injustice are only that he places them in other
than their place. Whoever places a turban on the head and sandals on the feet
has placed each thing in its place. He has not been unjust to the sandals since
this is their place becoming of them. Thus, HeGlory be to Himplaces a
thing only in its place. This is only just, and He does only good. He is only
beneficent, liberal and merciful.51

dil, JR 130.
dil, JR 130. Ormbsy, Theodicy, 228, translates an almost identical passage from a
brief treatise on evil by the Ottoman scholar Ibn Kaml Pasha (d. 940/1534), F bayn alh
! ikma li-adam nisbat al-sharr ilayhi tal, in Rasil Ibn Kaml (Istanbul: Ma$tabaat Iqdm,
1316/18989), 1:125130 (passage on 126). In view of the fact that Ibn Taymiyyas and Ibn
Kamls texts are otherwise dissimilar, it seems likely that Ibn Kaml is not dependent on Ibn
Taymiyya for this passage but that both are dependent on a common earlier source.
50

51

the justice of god and the best of all possible worlds 223
Following this affirmation of the justice in everything that God does, Ibn
Taymiyya states that God in His religious, legislative will has commanded
what He loves and what is best and most beneficial and that what God has
created is better than what He has not created. God creates only good, which
is defined as that whose existence is better than its nonexistence.52 God
does not will and create evil, which is the existence of everything whose
nonexistence is better than its existence.53 The shaykh explains that the terms
good (khayr) and evil (sharr) are used most commonly in their comparative
senses: Good is what is better than something else, and evil is what is more
evil than something else. Good and evil are in degrees (darajt).54 He then
notes that the evil that God creates is good by virtue of Gods wise purpose
and that its existence in general is better than its nonexistence. Created
evil is only perceived to be evil when compared to something else, and it is
harmful only to some people.55
Ibn Taymiyya affirms at some length in dil that God is just and wise
in that He chastises and punishes human beings only for the sins that they
commit. The shaykh explains that God does not recompense, chastise,
destroy, withdraw blessing and take vengeance except on account of sins and
evil deeds. He adds, moreover, that the aim of Gods chastisement in some
cases is to bring about humility and repentance, as in the verse, Indeed We
seized them with chastisement, but they did not abase themselves before
their Lord, and they were not humble (Q. 23:76).56 The shaykh leaves off
discussion of Gods retribution without addressing the fundamental reasons
for human disobedience. Instead, he states that his objective is to emphasize
that God always does what is best: The point here is that the existence of
everything that the Lord does and creates is better than its nonexistence. It
also is better than something else, that is, [better] than an existent other than
it that could be supposed to be existent instead of it.57 A few lines later in
dil, Ibn Taymiyya reaches a climax in his argument:
To the LordExalted is Heis the highest similitude (cf. Q. 16:60). He
is higher than any other, having a greater right to praise and laudation than
everything other than Him, most worthy of the attributes of perfection and the
farthest from the attributes of imperfection. It is impossible that the creature

52
53
54
55
56
57

dil, JR 1301 (quote on 131).

dil, JR 131.
dil, JR 133.
dil, JR 134.
dil, JR 1346.
dil, JR 136.

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be qualified with a perfection in which there is no imperfection. The Lord is
qualified only with the perfection in which there is no imperfection. When
He commands His servant to do the finest (al-a!hsan) and the best (al-khayr),
it is impossible that He Himself do [anything] but the finest and the best.
Doing the finest and the best is praised and is a perfection in which there is
no imperfection. He has a greater right to praise and perfection in which there
is no imperfection than any other.58

In this passage, Ibn Taymiyya grounds Gods doing the best both in the
quranic injunction to ascribe the highest similitude to God and in Gods
rational a fortiori right to praise and the highest humanly conceivable perfection. Moreover, he argues, if God commands human beings to do what is
best, it is impossible that God Himself should do anything less. That God
does what is best does not arise from empirical consideration of the actual
world; it is instead rooted in a priori convictionswhether scriptural or
rationalabout what the perfection of God entails.
Ibn Taymiyya on Gods Power and al-Ghazls Best of All
Possible Worlds
A major difficulty with Ibn Taymiyyas optimism, with the conviction that
God does only what is best, is that it endangers Gods power. The necessity
that God in His perfection and justice create the best possible world easily
implies that God could not have created any world other than this. While
not openly admitting the problem, the shaykh does in his various three-fold
justice typologies expend considerable effort defending Gods power and
freedom to do other than what God does in fact do. To make the point, he
insists that God has power to commit injustice even if God does not actually
do so: [God] has put everything in its place despite His power to do the
opposite of that. HeGlory be to Himacts by His free choice and His
will. He has a right to praise and laudation for being just and not unjust.59
Whereas the Ashars say that injustice is inherently impossible for God, Ibn

58
dil, JR 136. Following these rational arguments, the shaykh also supports his claim
that God necessarily does what is best with several quranic references, including, In Your
hand is the good (khayr). Truly, You are Powerful over everything (Q. 3:26), God has sent
down the best discourse (a!hsan al-!hadth) (Q. 39:23), and Who made good everything He
created (Q. 32:7). A little later, he reasserts that it is impossible for the creature to be more
perfect than the Creator, and thus, It is necessary that He will by means of [His will] what
is more worthy, better and preferable (141).
59
dil, JR 129.

the justice of god and the best of all possible worlds 225
Taymiyya argues that divine injustice is possible (maqdr and mumkin). God
could do injustice but chooses not to, and this makes Him praiseworthy
because praise is due only to one who chooses not to do injustice, not to
one for whom it is inherently impossible.60
In another strategy to avoid the necessitarianism of optimism and retain
Gods freedom, Ibn Taymiyya speaks of Gods self-obligation not to commit
injustice. He bases this on a divine saying in the collection of Muslim, O My
servants! I have forbidden injustice to Myself.61 According to the shaykh,
this hadith necessarily implies that injustice is possible for God. If God has
forbidden something to Himself, it must have been possible beforehand.
Otherwise, the hadith would mean, I have informed about Myself that
what is not possible is not from Me.62 This is a useless interpretation in the
shaykhs opinion and does not elicit praise.63
Ibn Taymiyya also demonstrates concern to uphold Gods power and
freedom in three comments on the dictum, There is nothing in possibility
more wonderful than what is (laysa f al-imkn abda mimm kn). This
saying goes back to the theosophical Kitb al-taw!hd wa al-tawakkul of
al-Ghazls I!hy ulm al-dn,64 and its evident antecedent is the optimism
of Ibn Sns doctrine of providence. In Theodicy in Islamic Thought, Eric
Ormsby provides a history and analysis of the controversy that ensued from
this dictum, and a brief look at Ormsbys study is relevant here in order to
assess the historical significance of Ibn Taymiyyas comments.65
After examining the origins of this dictum in al-Ghazls writings,
Ormsbys second chapter surveys its various commentators from the time
of al-Ghazl down to the thirteenth/nineteenth century. The relatively few
scholars who commented on the dictum up to the mid-eighth/fourteenth
century usually objected to it on the grounds that, in addition to dabbling
too much in Sufism and philosophy, al-Ghazl had limited Gods power. In
this earlier period, the only figure that Ormsby cites as approving the saying is
Minhj, 1:135/1:33; and Ab Dharr, MF 18:146.
Muslim, 4674, Al-Birr wa al-$sila wa al-db, Ta!hrm al-)zulm.
62
Ab Dharr, MF 18:144.
63
Ab Dharr, MF 18:144; Minhj, 1:1357/1:33, 1:4513/1:125; and Jabr, MF
8:509.
64
In I!hy ulm al-dn, 4:258, al-Ghazl writes, There is nothing in possibility fundamentally better (a!hsan) than [what God divides out], nor more complete, nor more perfect. In
Kitb al-iml f ishklt al-I!hy, a defense of the I!hy ulm al-dn, he states, There is nothing
in possibility more wonderful (abda) than the form of this world, nor better arranged, nor
more perfectly (akmal) made (in Mul!haq al-I!hy printed with I!hy ulm al-dn, 5:1341,
at 35). For detailed discussion of these texts, see Ormsby, Theodicy, 3781.
65
Itti!hdiyyn, MF 2:213; Kasb, MF 8:399; and dil, JR 142.
60
61

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Ibn Arab. From the mid-eighth/fourteenth century onward, however, there

was a shift toward accepting the dictum, and in the ninth/fifteen century it
was subjected to major debate.
In the third through fifth chapters Ormsby surveys the basic objections
to al-Ghazls statementit impinges on Gods power to do anything
that He might wish; it makes creation a natural necessity (the error of the
philosophers); and it obligates God to do the best (a$sl!h) (the error of the
Mutazils)and he explains how al-Ghazls defenders overcame these
objections. Al-Ghazls defenders argued that even though the world is
perfect and just at every moment of its existence, it is also contingent. Things
could be other than what they are, but Gods wisdom determines what will
and will not be. Ormsby points out that the challenge of theodicy is to assert
the necessary rightness of things as they are, but to do so in a way that they
are seen as proceeding from Gods will, wisdom, and power, and not from a
necessity of His nature.66 He concludes that necessity finally rests in Gods
wisdom in the theodicy of al-Ghazl and his defenders.67
Ormsby does not include Ibn Taymiyya as a participant in the above
debate, and the brevity of the shaykhs three comments on al-Ghazls
aphorism indicates that it did not concern him greatly.68 Nonetheless, his
contribution to the dispute is not insignificant. In two of his comments on
al-Ghazls dictum, Ibn Taymiyya does not refer to al-Ghazl by name. One
occurs in a context where he accuses Ibn Arab of limiting Gods power to
the power to create only what actually exists. Here, he adds in passing that
most people deny the dictum, and it is clear that he does so as well.69 The
second comment rejects the dictum as of a piece with the philosophers ideas
that the Creator is necessitating in His essence and that what exists is the
only thing possible.70 Ibn Taymiyya gives al-Ghazls dictum closer attention

Ormsby, Theodicy, 264.

Ormsby, Theodicy, 259264. Ormsbys analysis focuses on the possibility that God can
do other than what He does, something that Ibn Taymiyya also affirms in his discussions of
justice. However, al-Ghazl and his defenders do not appear to understand wisdom in the
causal and purposive sense of Ibn Taymiyya but rather as Gods eternal knowledge and decree.
Ormsby does not address this question directly except to note that al-Ghazls detractor alSijilms al-Lama$t (d. 1156/1743) raises the problem of causality in wisdom only to have it
dismissed by al-Ghazls later defenders as unworthy of attention (2047).
68
In passing Ormsby, Theodicy, 47, mentions with reference to Bell, Love Theory, 69ff.,
that Ibn Taymiyya took the Ashars to task for denying Gods wisdom, but he does not
examine the shaykhs critique.
69
Itti!hdiyyn, MF 2:213.
70
Kasb, MF 8:399.
66
67

the justice of god and the best of all possible worlds 227
at the end of dil. This remark is probably the latest of the three because
this treatise dates from the last two years of his life. He explains that some
scholars reject the saying in order to protect Gods power, and he agrees that
God certainly has power to create other than this world. However, he notes
that there is another way to read the dictum:
It could mean that no better (a!hsan) than this [world] or no more perfect
(akmal ) than this is possible ( yumkin). This is not a defamation of power.
Rather, it has established His power [to do] other than what He has done.
However, it says, What He has done is better and more perfect than what He
has not done. This ascribes to HimGlory be to Himgenerosity, liberality and beneficence. HeGlory be to Himis the most generous. No more
generous (akram) [being] than He can be conceived.71

Thus, Ibn Taymiyya accepts al-Ghazls statement on the condition that it is

understood that God could have created other than He did. However, what
God did create is the best of all possible worlds because He is the most perfect
and generous being imaginable. With this, Ibn Taymiyya becomes one of
the earliest scholars after Ibn Arab to accept al-Ghazls dictum before it
became widely accepted from the mid-eighth/fourteenth century onward.
The degree to which Ibn Taymiyya may have contributed to its eventual
approval would perhaps be more than one could ascertain.
Conclusion
In various passages dealing with justice (adl ) Ibn Taymiyya rejects the
Mutazil theodicy for subjecting God to an external and un-praiseworthy
standard of strict retributive justice, and he denounces the Ashars for
rendering God utterly unreliable. Ibn Taymiyya defines justice as putting
things in their places. It is apparent that he believes that human beings
should intuitively recognize that God always puts things in their places, but
he does not clearly define the rationality governing this justice. Although
the shaykh speaks often of Gods justice retributively, as in Gods locating
punishment in someone who disobeys, he rejects the strict retributivism
of the Mutazils. Instead, Ibn Taymiyya links Gods justice to Gods wise
purpose, and, in dil, he follows the rational and quranic imperatives to
ascribe the highest perfection to God on to the conclusion that what God
71

dil, JR 142.

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creates is the best of all possible worlds, the inference likewise of Ibn Sn,
al-Ghazl and Ibn Arab. In dil and in his other discussions of Gods
justice, the shaykh concerns himself very little with the origin and purpose
of evil deeds, and the sphere of the human fades from view. In the final
analysis, speaking of Gods justice for Ibn Taymiyya is about exalting Gods
wise and good creation of all things.

CONCLUSION
We are now in position to draw together the main results of this study and
clarify how Ibn Taymiyya is similar to and different from others in the Islamic
tradition. What emerges out of the shaykhs sundry theodicean writings is an
optimism that is consistent but not always fully worked out. Over against
Ashar voluntarism and the Mutazil free-will theodicy, Ibn Taymiyya maintains that God in His perfection creates everything in existence, human acts
included, according to His wise purpose and, ultimately, in the best possible
way. This places Ibn Taymiyya in the company of Ibn Sn, al-Ghazl in his
I!hy, and Ibn Arab on the central theological question of theodicy, even
as he differs with these figures on other key matters.
Ibn Taymiyyas optimism is readily apparent in discussions linked to the
first type of his three-fold evil attribution typology examined in Chapter Five.
To review these three types briefly, the first attributes evil to the generality
of Gods creation. The second type ascribes evil to the creature or secondary cause. The third type is the rhetorical courtesy of eliding the agent of
evilpresumably Godand putting the relevant verb in the passive voice;
Ibn Taymiyyas discussion of this type is limited to citing examples from
the Quran.
Attribution of evil to the generality, the first type, is understood in three
ways in Ibn Taymiyyas discourse, each clearly echoing Ibn Sn. First, evil is
harmful only to particular persons while being to the greater benefit of the
whole. Everything that God creates, both good and evil, is good by virtue of
His wise purpose. Ibn Taymiyya supports this with quranic verses such as,
Who made good everything He created (Q. 32:7), and We did not create the heavens and the earth and what is between them except with truth
(Q. 15:85), and the hadith, Good is in Your hands, and evil is not [attributed] to You. In texts examined in Chapter Six, the shaykh also speaks of
the goodness of all that God creates in terms of Gods justice (adl ) that puts
everything in its place. Justice in this sense does not indicate pure retribution
but Gods wise purpose and beneficence in creation.
Second, evil is intrinsic to the perfection of some things. In Jabr Ibn
Taymiyya explains that God is subject to logical constraints. God cannot
create the impossible, and God in creating good must also create the evil that
is necessarily concomitant to it. The shaykh then implies that God creates
the best world that He can with an assertion of the necessary perfection
Jon Hoover, 2007
This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/.

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conclusion

of Gods attributes of wisdom, power and mercy. He makes this optimism

explicit in dil, a text dealing with Gods justice, by rooting Gods creation
of the best possible world in the exigencies of Gods perfection and generosity and endorsing al-Ghazls aphorism, There is nothing in possibility
more wonderful than what is. Lest this imply limitation to Gods power
and freedom, Ibn Taymiyya affirms that God can do other than what He
in fact does.
Third, and finally, attributing evil to the generality means that evil is
quantitatively insignificant. The shaykh notes in (Hasana, for example, that
the Messenger brought great profit even though some were killed in the
course of his mission.
At times, Ibn Taymiyya states that Gods wise purpose in the creation
of evil cannot be known and that it is only important to believe that God
has a wise purpose in all that He does. At other times, however, he does
specify that evil has particular educational or religious benefits for human
beings, which echo similar notions in Mutazilism and Sufism. The unbelief and destruction of Pharaoh, for example, serve as a lesson and a
deterrent against tempting the same fate. Illness and sin provide occasions
for humble turning to God that would not be possible otherwise. Oppression under an unjust ruler expiates sins and motivates turning to God to
ask forgiveness.
Even though Ibn Taymiyya supplies educational and religious reasons for
evil, he does not exploit two other explanations for evil adopted by some
Muslim optimists. First, unlike al-Ghazl, Ibn Taymiyya does not explain
that evil is necessary for knowledge in the sense that things are known only
by their opposites. For al-Ghazl, health is known through illness and the
blessing of Paradise from the punishment of Hell. Second, unlike Ibn Arab,
Ibn Taymiyya does not readily invoke the principle of plenitude, which
maintains that evil is necessary in order for God to display the full diversity
of His names and attributes. The principle of plenitude would seem to be
inherent in a fully worked out best-of-all-possible-worlds theodicy, and Ibn
Taymiyya does suggest that creation reflects the diversity of Gods names. As
already noted, he even goes so far as to say that sin leads to good things not
otherwise possible. However, the shaykh does not say explicitly, as does his
disciple Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, that God is dependent upon the existence
of human sin and disobedience for the exercise of some of His attributes,
and he does not explore and elaborate the paradoxical interplay of Gods
attributes in the fashion of Ibn Arab. Rather, he is greatly concerned to
avoid implicating God in evil and so affirms the complete goodness of all
of Gods names and attributes.

conclusion

231

With regard to the second type in Ibn Taymiyyas evil attribution typologythe attribution of evil to the creatureit seems probable that there
was development in his thinking. In several texts, as in Minhj for example,
the shaykh establishes a basis for retribution with the principle that acts are
attributed not to their Creator but to the human substrate in which they
are created. With this, God is just to reward and punish the human deeds
that He creates. This way of explaining the origin of sin and evil is more
at home in the world of Kalm theology than in a full orbed best-of-allpossible-worlds theodicy. Also, it implies that God is ultimately responsible
for bad acts insofar as He creates them.
In (Hasana, which contains Ibn Taymiyyas fullest discussion of evil, he
goes beyond the substrate principle to root evil in nonexistence (adam)a
notion employed by Ibn Sn and Ibn Arab for metaphysical and mystical
ends, respectivelyto strengthen the foundations of retributive punishment by clearing God of responsibility for creating human disobedience.
Ibn Taymiyya claims in (Hasana that two affirmations in Q. 4:789 are not
contradictory: Everything is from God, and, Any evil thing that comes
to you is from yourself. To make sense of this, he traces the origin of bad
human acts back to the failure of humans to do that for which they were
created. This failure is a lack which is by definition nonexistent, and so God
is not responsible for it. The evil deeds that God creates are then retribution
for this initial failure, while good deeds come strictly from Gods unmerited
grace and blessing, having no ground in human virtue and achievement.
When faced with the question of why some people are created more prone
to initial failure than others, the shaykh falls back on Gods wise purpose in
the creation of all things.
In Fti!ha, which is likely a later treatise, Ibn Taymiyya similarly upholds
retributive punishment for evil deeds but drops retributive reward for good
deeds. He asserts that the blessings of good deeds, their rewards, and entry
into Paradise have no basis in human merit but occur strictly by the grace
of God. God is the only source of all good, and, in this case, piety calls
for acknowledging Gods grace for all good while maintaining full human
responsibility for all evil, which arises ultimately from nonexistence.
Going beyond the interpretation of good and evil, Ibn Taymiyya uses
ideas found also in Ibn Sn to make sense of Gods self-sufficiency. At the
core of the shaykhs theodicy is a causal model of Gods wisdom. God acts
on account of causes, which are His wise purposes. To Ashar Kalm theologians, this implies that God is perfected by acting on account of a cause and
was imperfect beforehand. This compromises Gods sufficiency apart from
the world. Both Ashar and Mutazil Kalm theologians seek to avoid this

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conclusion

problem with the doctrine of Gods creation of the world in time ex nihilo.
This assures that God is fully God apart from the world by positing a point
at which the world did not in fact exist. The Mutazils still try to affirm that
God creates the world for purposes, purposes that benefit the world only and
have no impact on God. But the Asharsand Ibn Taymiyyareject the
Mutazil solution as irrational. Ibn Taymiyya affirms fully that God acts in
a rationally self-interested sense for the sake of His own wise purpose. This
strongly suggests that God needs creation in order to work out His wise
purposes and manifest His perfection. To meet this objection, Ibn Taymiyya
employs the Avicennan notion that Gods love for Himself is essential while
the world is an accidental and secondaryeven if necessaryproduct of
Gods self-love. Even though there has always been a world, this does not
mean that God would be less fully God without it. Ibn Taymiyya argues as
well that God is sufficient apart from the world inasmuch as He needs no
help in creating all that exists. Creatures have no impact on God since it is
God Himself who creates their acts.
While both Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Sn posit Gods origination of the
world as necessary, they differ on a key point. For Ibn Sn, this world is a
necessary emanation of the eternal and timeless essence of God. Ibn Taymiyya
responds that positing the world as the effect of a timeless and motionless
First Cause completely precludes movement in the world, which manifestly
contradicts our experience of events originating in time. To overcome this
problem, Ibn Taymiyya rejects the timeless ideal of Gods perfection and
introduces movement into both God and the world. He also discards Ibn
Sns emanation cosmology and replaces it with Gods voluntary, but perpetual, creativity. For Ibn Taymiyya, it is of the necessary concomitants of
Gods perfection and essence that He act and create by means of His will and
power from eternity. Putting it more succinctly, God creates voluntarily by
necessity. Ibn Taymiyya does not normally speak of time or originating events
subsisting in Gods essence. Rather he speaks of the perpetual dynamism of
God in terms of Gods voluntary attributes and acts, whose ongoing exercise
according to Gods wise purpose brings about their effects in the temporally
created world, and, even though God could do other than what He does,
what God does create at each point in time is the best possible for that time.
With respect to creation itself, Ibn Taymiyya denies that anything in the
world is eternal. Each individual created thing is preceded by nonexistence
in time. Yet, there have always been created things, and the genus or species
of created things is eternal.
Ibn Taymiyyas conciliation between the providentially necessitating God
of Ibn Sn and the dynamic, personal and historically involved God found in

conclusion

233

his plain language reading of the Quran and Hadith is unusual and possibly
unprecedented in the Islamic tradition. The shaykh achieves this conciliation
by abandoning the ancient Greek philosophical ideal shared by medieval
Kalm theologians, Muslim philosophers and philosophically-minded Sufis
alike that the ultimate perfection of God consists in unchanging and motionless eternity. The perpetual and voluntary activity that is both necessary and
essential to Gods perfection is what most fundamentally distinguishes Ibn
Taymiyyas optimism from the optimisms of Ibn Sn, Ibn Arab, al-Ghazl
and their like.
When Ibn Taymiyya turns his attention to the relation of Gods action
to human action and accountability, he is most concerned to distinguish
the two spheres clearly and give each its full due. That is, God is Creator of
all existents including human acts, and human beings freely choose and are
accountable for the deeds that they commit. The shaykh rejects any attempt
to resolve the tension between these two spheres by limiting Gods power on
the one hand (Qadars and Mutazils) or limiting human responsibility on
the other (Sufi antinomianism and theologies such as those of al-Juwayn and
Ibn Arab that allegedly undergird it). He also denies that the two spheres
are contradictory, and he is unsympathetic to Ibn Arabs understanding of
reality as fundamentally paradoxical and ambiguous.
As shown in Chapter Three, the shaykh uses his divine action/human
accountability or creation/command hermeneutic to bring order and sense
to a wide array of quranic and theological terms. On the side of creation are
also Gods determination, decree and ontological words, while on the side of
command are Gods love, good pleasure, and legislative and religious words.
Parallel to creation and command are also divinity and lordship, inspiration
and piety/immorality (Q. 91:78). In this last set of terms, inspiration indicates creation, and the contrast between piety and immorality corresponds
to legislation, that is, command and prohibition. Moreover, a number of
quranic terms such as will, judgment, writing and authorization carry an
ontological, determinative sense in some instances and a legislative or religious
sense in others. At times, Ibn Taymiyya finds it necessary to clarify that terms
often associated with one sphere may carry senses appropriate to the other,
as when he specifiesagainst Ibn Arabthat decree carries a legislative
sense in the verse, Your Lord has decreed that you serve none but Him
(Q. 17:23). The shaykhs concern throughout is to undermine interpretations
that he believes lead to antinomianism, especially al-Juwayns equation of
Gods love with Gods ontological will.
It is particularly in Minhj, writing against the Mutazil polemic of
the Sh Ibn al-Mu$tahhar al-(Hill, that Ibn Taymiyya seeks to defend the

234

conclusion

plausibility of adhering fully to both creation and command by offering

illustrations from human affairs. In one type of illustration, Ibn Taymiyya
observes that God may will to create what opposes His command for the
sake of something elsesome wise purposethat He loves, as when a sick
person takes medicine to attain health. In another kind of illustration, the
shaykh distinguishes the will of an agent to perform an act himself (creation)
and his will that someone else perform an act (command). He observes,
moreover, that an agent may have a wise purpose in commanding someone
to do something without helping him to do it, as for example in the quranic
story of the one who advised Moses to flee but did not help Moses in order
to avoid detriment to himself (Q. 28:20). While Ibn Taymiyya recognizes
that such examples do not apply perfectly to God, he argues that, if it is
possible that commanding but not helping is at times wise for creatures,
such wise intentions are a fortiori possible for God.
Ibn Taymiyyas creation/command hermeneutic extends as well into his
treatment of the human act. On the creation side, God creates a power,
capability, decisive will or some combination thereof in the human being to
necessitate or preponderate the existence of the human act. This view of Gods
creation of the human act by means of power or will is essentially that of
Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz. Its roots lie in the preponderance (tarj!h) terminology
of the Mutazils and in Ibn Sns language of causality, but neither al-Rz
nor Ibn Taymiyya subscribe to a causal chain theory into which God cannot
intervene. Both al-Rz and Ibn Taymiyya dismiss the early Ashar doctrine
of acquisition (kasb) as meaningless. Yet, while al-Rz openly identifies his
view as compulsion ( jabr), the shaykh wishes not to speak of compulsion lest
it be confused with coercion (ikrh), which nullifies human will and choice
entirely. For Ibn Taymiyya, God cannot be said to coerce because He creates
the will and free choice by which human beings act voluntarily.
Corresponding to the realm of command is the human power or capability
that is anterior to Gods creation of the act and constitutes the bodily soundness rendering a human being accountable to Gods legislation. Similarly,
on the side of command and human action are the secondary causes, which
include, among other things, Gods guidance and the human will. From this
perspective, humans live in a predictable world of apparently natural causes
and conditions, and involuntary human acts are distinguished from voluntary
acts inasmuch as the latter come into existence by means of the human will.
However, God can break the natural order of the causes whenever He wills,
and, from the side of Gods creation, it is God who employs the secondary

conclusion

235

causes as instruments and raw materials according to His wise purposes to

originate all that occurs.
Al-Rz sometimes maintains the compatibility of Gods preponderance or
creation of the human act with human accountability, but at least oncein
his Tafsrhe rigorously spells out how they contradict one another. By way
of contrast, Ibn Taymiyya consistently denies contradiction between Gods
determination of the human act and human free choice, and on occasion
he presents their compatibility as the golden mean between the extremes of
compulsion ( jabr) and denying Gods all-comprehensive power. Nevertheless, he does encounter rational difficulties. In response, he simply affirms
that God has a wise purpose in all that He creates, or he diverts his readers
attention from the divine perspective to the human. A clear example of the
latter is his response to al-Rzs claim that God obligates humans to do the
impossible. Al-Rz argues that God obligated Ab Lahab to do the impossible when God commanded him to believe because Gods foreknowledge
necessitated that he not believe. Although Ibn Taymiyya cannot deny that
this is so metaphysically, he sidesteps al-Rzs conclusion by switching to
the human ethical perspective in which belief was indeed obligatory for Ab
Lahab. Moreover, the shaykh argues, God did not inform Ab Lahab that
He already knew that he would not believe.
From the above, it is apparent that Ibn Taymiyyas theodicean writings
constitute a concerted attempt to exegete and rationalize the relevant texts
in the Quran and the Hadith into a consistent perpetual optimism in theodicy and compatibilism in the human act. In order better to understand the
underpinnings of this, Chapter One sought out texts beyond the theodicean
writings that provided clues to Ibn Taymiyyas theological methodology.
This showed that Ibn Taymiyyas theological work may be characterized as
a juristic exercise dedicated to finding the most praiseworthy way to speak
about God and that this is part of the shaykhs wider practical and juristic
effort to ascertain how correctly to worship God in all aspects of life. Basic
to Ibn Taymiyyas theological jurisprudence is the principlegrounded both
in rational considerations of causality and in the quranic verse, To God
is the highest similitude (Q. 16:60)that God has an a fortiori right to
ascription with the highest human perfections and to exoneration from all
imperfections. With this principle in place, Ibn Taymiyya affirms the full
reality of all attributes ascribed to God in the Quran and the Hadith, while
also affirming that both Gods perfection and the verse, There is nothing like
Him (Q. 42:11), dictate that the modalities of these attributes be wholly

236

conclusion

unlike those of creatures. Within this framework, the shaykh explicates the
significance, coherence and faithfulness to tradition of his plain language
reading of the theological data in the revealed texts, and he makes and seeks
to demonstrate the apologetic claim that independent reason rightly exercised
leads to speaking about God in the same way.
Ibn Taymiyyas approach to Gods attributes and theological language
differs from a number of others in the Islamic tradition. Unlike the Kalm
theologians, the shaykh sees no need to reinterpret corporeal attributes
such as Gods hand and Gods sitting to give them meanings allegedly more
fitting to God. He typically tries to interpret Gods attributes according
to their linguistic and contextual senses and to show how these meanings
fit together. He avoids anthropomorphism by maintaining that it is of the
perfection of Gods perfection that all of Gods attributes be wholly unlike
their counterparts in creatures, except in name. In contrast to the Muslim
philosophers and Ibn Arab, Ibn Taymiyyas approach is also distinctively
egalitarian. Unlike the philosophers, he does not draw a distinction between
a superior intellectual apprehension of the truth by the elite on the one hand
and the imaginal reports of Gods messengers adapted for easy apprehension by the inferior masses on the other. And while Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn
Arab share in rejecting Kalm reinterpretation (tawl ) of Gods corporeal
attributes, the (Hanbal jurist distinguishes himself from the Sufi theorist
by drawing a sharp line between the Creator and the creature. He affirms
the ontological reality of Gods names and attributes, leaves no room for
the illumined gnostic to see created things as Gods very acts, and refrains
from esoteric interpretation. Additionally, Ibn Taymiyya breaks with the
unreflective traditionalism of H
( anbal forbears such as Ibn Qudma. Instead,
he engages in interpretation of the meanings of Gods attributes and makes
the apologetic claim that his views accord with reason. For Ibn Taymiyya,
reason and revelation lead to the same truth, and this truth about God is
equally available to all ordinary people of right mind.
With the basic elements of Ibn Taymiyyas apologetic theological jurisprudence in view, his theodicy provides an important case study in its implementation. Here, several features of his methodology become apparent. The
quranic and rational imperative to ascribe to God the highest perfection or
similitude means avoiding terms that may carry negative connotations in
ordinary speech and/or whose usage is not required by revelation. Thus, Ibn
Taymiyya speaks not of purpose (ghara#d ) but of wise purpose (!hikma), not
of compulsion ( jabr) but of creating and making ( jal), and not of originating events in Gods essence but of Gods voluntary attributes and acts, this
even though the respective terms mean the same thing metaphysically. More

conclusion

237

substantively, giving God the highest similitude involves Ibn Taymiyya in

clarifying the characteristics of Gods perfection and identifying why competing theodicies are wrong. With reason and the revealed tradition interpreted
by the Salaf as his stated authorities, the shaykh takes Gods perfection to
consist in willing and creating things in the world for wise purposes from
eternity in the best possible way. He criticizes the Mutazils and the Ashars
for failing, each in their own way, to ascribe to God the highest similitude
or perfection. The imperative to ascribe perfection to God also entails a
rationalism for Ibn Taymiyya that seeks to resolve or at least find plausible
ways to understand rational difficulties such as the origin of evil and the
conundrum of creation and command.
In the end, Ibn Taymiyyas best-of-all-possible-worlds theodicy is testimony
to a deep conviction that proper worship of God requires making laudable
sense out of the revealed tradition and showing that this accords with reason. His perpetual optimism constitutes an apologetic rationalization of a
close ordinary language reading of what Islams foundational texts say about
Gods moral relationship to the world. The present study has been devoted
primarily to elucidating the contours of this apologetic rationalization and
showing how it works. This hopefully sets the stage for further exploration
in three directions. First, other aspects of Ibn Taymiyyas theology await more
detailed exposition and analysis, especially his doctrine of Gods attributes
surveyed in Chapter One. Second, much work remains to clarify how Ibn
Taymiyya appropriated the thought of those he read, especially Ibn Sn, Ibn
Arab and Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz, as well as Ibn Rushd and Ab al-Barakt
al-Baghdd. The latter two figures have received comparatively little attention in this study, but they may well be no less important to Ibn Taymiyyas
intellectual formation. Third, the strong modern interest in Ibn Taymiyya
warrants extensive research into how and why his theodicy, and his theology
more generally, have been appropriated by successors, both late-medieval
and modern. It seems likely that Ibn Taymiyyas egalitarian and non-esoteric
approach to interpretation combined with his rationalization of the theological evidence in Islams source texts is one reason many Muslims have been
drawn to him in the rationalistic and egalitarian age of modernity.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ibn Taymiyyas Writings
Collected Works with Abbreviations
JR
MCD
MF

MFCD

MRK 1
MRK 2
MRM

Jmi al-rasil li-Ibn Taymiyya. Ed. Mu!hammad Rashd Slim. Vol. 1. Cairo:
Ma$tbaat al-madan, 1389/1969.
Muallaft al-shaykh wa tilmdhihi Ibn al-Qayyim. CD ROM. Version 1.0.
Amman: Markaz al-turth li-ab!hth al-!hsib al-l, 1420/1999. This CD
contains most of Ibn Taymiyyas published works.
Majm fatw shaykh al-Islm A!hmad b. Taymiyya. Ed. Abd al-Ra!hmn b.
Mu!hammad b. Qsim and Mu!hammad b. Abd al-Ra!hmn b. Mu!hammad.
37 vols. Cairo: Dr al-Ra!hma, n.d. Henri Laoust, La profession de foi dIbn
Taymiyya: Texte, traduction et commentaire de la Wsi$tiyya (Paris: Librairie
Orientaliste Paul Geuthner, 1986), 91, gives the publication dates of the
original Riyadh edition of MF as 13816/19617. MF includes all items
found in MRM below.
Majm fatw Ibn Taymiyya. CD ROM. Version 1.0. Cairo: Sharikat (Harf
li-taqniyyat al-malmt, 1999. This is MF on CD ROM. Citations are
made strictly from the print version. As of December 2006, MF was also
available at http://ibntaimiah.al-islam.com/, but unfortunately volume and
page numbers from the printed text were not provided.
Majmat al-rasil al-kubr. Vol. 1. Cairo: Al-Ma$tbaa al-mira al-sharafiyya,
1323/1905.
Majmat al-rasil al-kubr. Vol. 2. Beirut: Dr i!hy al-turth al-arab,
1392/1972.
Majmat al-rasil wa al-masil. Ed. Mu!hammad Rashd Ri#d. 5 parts.
Cairo: Ma$tbaat al-manr, 13419/19221930. All items in MRM have
been integrated into MF.

Ibn Taymiyyas Treatises with Short Titles

Ibn Taymiyyas writings used in this study are alphabetized here by their respective short titles,
which in many cases are those used by Laoust in La profession, 8993. For treatises appearing
in more than one published work, citation is made to the first mentioned work only, except
for Minhj, in which case the reference is also followed by a slash and the equivalent ___location
in MinhjB. Some shorter writings have not been given short titles and are cited in the text
only by their locations in the respective collections.
Abd al-Qdir
Ab al-Fid

F shar!h kalimt li-Abd al-Qdir fi kitb Fut!h al-ghayb. MF 10:455

548.
A Letter of Ibn Taymiyya to Ab l-Fid. Ed. Serajul Haque. In Documenta
Islamica Inedita, ed. Johann W. Fck, 155161. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag,
1952. Reprinted with translation in Jean R. Michot, Ibn Taymiyya: Lettre
Ab l-Fid (Louvain-la-Neuve: Institut Orientaliste de lUniversit
Catholique de Louvain, 1994), 4367 (French), 837 (Arabic). References
are to the Arabic of Michot following Haques pagination, which Michot
includes as well.

240

bibliography

Shar!h !hadth ann !harramtu al-)zulm al nafs, or An man !hadth Ab

Dharr . . . y ibd ann !harramtu al-)zulm al nafs. MF 18:136209.
dil
Qida f man kawn al-Rabb dilan wa f tanazzuhihi an al-)zulm wa f ithbt
adlihi wa i!hsnihi. JR 121142.
Akmaliyya
Al-risla al-akmaliyya. MF 6:68140.
Al
Tafsr srat al-Al. MF 16:82216.
Alaq
Tafsr srat al-Alaq. MF 16:251476.
Amr
Al-Amr bi-l-marf wa al-nahy an al-munkar. MF 28:121178. Also in
Istiqma, 2:198311.
Amr#d
Amr#d al-qulb wa shifuh. MF 10:91137.
Awliy
Al-Furqn bayn awliy al-Ra!hmn wa awliy al-Shay$tn. MF 11:156310.
Ba$ti!hiyya Mun)zarat Ibn Taymiyya li-dajjilat al-ba$ti!hiyya. MF 11:445475, and
MRM 1:121146.
Bughya
Kitb bughyat al-murtd f al-radd al al-mutafalsifa wa al-qarmi$ta wa alb$tiniyya (also called Al-Sabaniyya). Ed. Faraj Allh Zak al-Kurd al-Azhar.
Cairo: Ma$tbaat al-kurdistn al-ilmiyya, 1329/1911.
Dar
Dar taru#d al-aql wa al-naql. Ed. Mu!hammad Rashd Slim. 11 vols. n.pl.:
n.p., n.d. Dar, 1:34:295 corresponds to Bayn muwfaqat $sar!h al-maql
li-$sa!h!h al-manql previously published on the margin of Min!hjB. Dar ,
1:23:87 corresponds to Muwfaqat $sa!h!h al-manql li-$sar!h al-maql, ed.
Mu!hammad Mu!hy al-Dn Abd al-(Hamd and Mu!hammad *Hmid al-Fiq
(Cairo: Ma$ tbaat al-sunna al-mu! hammadiyya, 1370/1951). Information
concerning this latter edition is based on Slims notes in the introduction to
Dar, 1:6670, since it was not available to me directly.
Darajt
F darajt al-yaqn. MF 10:645652, and MRK 2:157164.
Fti!ha
Amm !hadth fti!hat al-kitb . . . MF 14:436. MF 14:536 is also in Kitb
al-Taw!hd. Ed. Mu!hammad al-Sayyid al-Julaynad, 3768. Cairo: Dr al-fikr
al-!hadth li-l-$tiba wa al-nashr, 1973.
F Fu$s$s
Al-Radd al-aqwam al m f Fu$s$s al-!hikam. MF 2:362451.
F wujb
F wujb ikhti$s$s al-khliq bi-l-ibda wa al-tawakkul. MF 1:3763.
Fi$tra
Risla f kalm al al-fi$tra. MRK 2:333349. Trans. Genevive Gobillot,
Lptre du discours sur la fi$tra (Risla f-l-kalm al-l-fi$tra) de Taq-l-Dn
A! hmad Ibn Taymya (661/1262728/1328), Annales Islamologiques 20
(1984): 2953.
Furqn
Rislat al-furqn bayn al-!haqq wa al-b$til. MF 13:6229, and MRK 1:1
179.
(Hamawiyya Al-Aqda al-!hamawiyya al-kubr. MF 5:5120, and MRK 1:414469.
( asana
H
Al-(Hasana wa al-sayyia. MF 14:229425. Also, Al-(Hasana wa al-sayyia.
Beirut: Dar al-kutub al-ilmiyya, n.d. Also, Al-( Hasana wa al-sayyia. Ed.
Mu!hammad Jaml Ghz. Cairo: Ma$tbaat al-madan, n.d. on MCD. Also, Al(Hasana wa al-sayyia. Ed. and Introduction Mu!hammad Jaml A!hmad Ghz.
Beirut: Dr al-jl, 1410/1990. Also in Al-Tafsr al-Kabr, ed. Abd al-Ra!hmn
Amra, 3:257456. Beirut: Dr al-kutub al-ilmiyya, 1408/1988. An unnamed
fatwa in MF 8:204234 abridges (Hasana MF 14:294361.
Ib$tl
Ib$tl wa!hdat al-wujd. MF 2:286361, and MRM 1.61120.
I!htijj
Risla f al-i!htijj bi-l-qadar. MF 8:303370, and MRK 2:97155.
Ikhl$s
Tafsr surat al-Ikhl$s. MF 17:214503. Also, Tafsr surat al-Ikhl$s. Bombay:
Dr al-salafiyya, 1408/1987.
Ikhtiyriyya Fa$sl f al-$sift al-ikhtiyriyya. MF 6:217267.
Ikll
Rislat al-ikll f al-mutashbih wa al-tawl. MF 13:270313, and MRK
2:336.
mn I
Al-mn. MF 7:4460. Also, Al-mn. Cairo: Dr lim al-marifa, 1413/1993.
Trans. Salman Hassan Al-Ani and Shadia Ahmad Tel, Kitab Al-Iman: Book of
Faith (Bloomington, IN: Iman Publishing House, 1999).
Ab Dharr

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Imrn

241

Kitb al-mn al-awsa$t. MF 7:461640.

Shar!h !hadth Imrn b. (Hu$sayn. MF 18:210243, and MRM 5:172195.
Trans. Jon Hoover, Perpetual Creativity in the Perfection of God: Ibn
Taymiyyas Hadith Commentary on Gods Creation of this World, Journal of
Islamic Studies 15:3 (Sept. 2004): 287329.
Iqti#d
Iqti#d al-$sir$t al-mustaqm mukhlafat a$s!hb al-ja!hm. Ed. A!hmad (Hamd
Imm. Jedda: Dr al-Madan, 1406/1986. Trans. Muhammad Umar Memon,
Ibn Taimyas Struggle against Popular Religion (The Hague: Mouton, 1976).
Irda
Aqwam m qla f al-qad wa al-qadar wa al-!hikma wa al-tall. MF 8:81158
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Swartz, Merlin. A Medieval Critique of Anthropomorphism: Ibn al-Jawzs Kitb Akhbr
a$s-!Sift: A Critical Edition of the Arabic Text with Translation, Introduction and Notes.
Leiden: Brill, 2002.
. A seventh-century (A.H.) Sunn creed: The Aqda Wsi$ tya of Ibn Taymya.
Humaniora Islamica 1 (1973): 91131.
+Tabar (al-), Ab Jafar Mu!hammad b. Jarr. Tafsr al-+Tabar: Jmi al-bayn an tawl yy
al-Qurn. Ed. Ma!hmd Mu!hammad Shkir. Cairo: Dr al-Marif bi-ma$sr, n.d.
Tritton, A.S. Muslim Theology. London: Luzac, 1947.
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des Marcionites. Arabica 13 (1966): 138, 113128.
Van Nispen Tot Sevenaer, Christian. Activit Humaine et Agir de Dieu: Le Concept de Sunan
de Dieu dans le commentaire coranique du Manar. Beyouth: Dar el-Machreq, 1996.
Vasalou, Sophia. Equal Before the Law: The Evilness of Human and Divine Lies: Abd alabbrs Rational Ethics. Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 13 (2003): 243268.
Von Grunebaum, G.E. Observations on the Muslim Concept of Evil. Studia Islamica 31
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Watt, W. Montgomery. The Formative Period of Islamic Thought. Edinburgh: Edinburgh
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1415/1995.

INDEX
a fortiori argument (qiys al-awl)
(see highest similitude)
Aaron 125
Abd al-Jabbr (d. 415/1025) 113 n. 63,
142, 177, 202 n. 98, 213 n. 14
Abd al-Qdir al-Jiln (d. 561/1166) 110
ability ($tqa) 1478, 1659
Abraham 38, 63, 146, 1801
Abrahamov, Binyamin 2930, 140 n. 13,
141
Ab al-Barakt al-Baghdd (d. ca.
560/1165) 85, 95
Ab al-Fid (d. 732/1331) 301
Ab al-Hudhayl al-Allf (d. 227/841?)
84
Ab al-(Husayn al-Ba$sr (d. 436/1044)
106, 142, 145, 1523
Ab Al b. Ab Hurayra (d. 345/956) 77
Ab Bakr (d. 13/634) 173
Ab Bakr Abd al-Azz (d. 363/974) 128
Ab Bakr b. al-Anbr (d. 328/940) 220
Ab Dwd al-Sijistn (d. 275/889) 183
Ab Dharr (Ibn Taymiyya) 14, 211.
See also translations.
Ab Hurayra (d. 59/678) 41
Ab Is#hq al-Isfaryn (418/1027) 155
n. 77
Ab Khzim b. Ab Yal (d. 527/1133)
152
Ab Lahab 131, 168
Ab Razn al-Uqayl (Companion of the
Prophet, d.?) 55
Ab &Tlib al-Makk (d. 386/996) 129
Ab Yal b. al-Farr (d. 458/1066) 77,
128, 1556, 167, 216, 218
Acar, Rahim 72 n. 10
acquisition (kasb) explained 1657;
mentioned 112, 138 n. 8, 139,
140 n. 13, 141, 142 n. 19, 145, 153,
155, 165 n. 122
act ( fil )
of God: affirmed without modality 48,
57, 59, 132, 161; wise purpose
and causality in (see wise purpose);
perpetuity of 809; right to praise
in 667; as voluntary and subsisting
in Gods essence 956; and Gods

sufficiency 97101, 1656 n. 122;

goodness of 1812; freedom of 224;
subject to what written for Himself
218; against analogical evaluation of
1178, 2136; derived from names
and attributes 1656 n. 122; and
secondary causes 157; golden mean in
173; Ibn Arab on 48, 145.
See also will.
human: reality of 106, 120, 1535;
God as creator and originator of
146147, 1506, 1734; Jahm/
Jabr view of God as Agent of 111,
138, 155; created in a substrate
1546, 166, 195, 200, 2046;
created through secondary causes
147, 156166; enacted (maf l )
by God 1556, 1879; voluntary
and involuntary distinguished 147,
161, 1656; pre-Ibn Taymiyya
Islamic views of 137145; prior
research on Ibn Taymiyyas view of
1367; ethical and legal evaluation
of 349; denial of Gods creation of
1068 (see also Mutazils; Qadars;
Majs); justice in punishing and
rewarding 1546, 195, 197208;
reconciliation of Jabr and Qadar
views of 1524. See also will;
power; compulsion; acquisition;
free choice.
adam (see nonexistence)
adhb (see chastisement)
dil (Ibn Taymiyya) 14, 185, 2204.
See also translations.
adl (see justice)
agreeable things ($tayyibt) 37, 43
A#hmad b. (Hanbal (d. 241/855) 32,
589, 171
Ahmed, Shahab 8 n. 17, 22, 193 n. 71
Akmaliyya (Ibn Taymiyya) 623, 67.
See also translations.
alam (see pain)
Al b. Ab &Tlib (d. 40/661) 173
Allh (God) See existence; essence; names;
attributes; act; worship; divinity; wise
purpose; justice; will; creation; lordship.

256

index

mid (al-), Sayf al-Dn (d. 631/1233)

94 n. 100, 140, 217
amr (see command)
analogy (qiys) 48, 579, 62, 1158,
2134, 220; al-awl (see highest
similitude); al-shuml (syllogism)
579, 62
anger (gha#dab) of God elided 180
annihilation ( fan) 23, 109
An$sr (al-) al-Haraw, Ab Isml (d. 481/
1089) 109
An$sr (al-), Ab al-Qsim (d. 512/1118)
144
anthropomorphism (see assimilation;
likening)
antinomianism 23, 108110, 1145,
116 n. 74, 129
anti-rationalism 202, 48
apologetic 25, 29, 689
Aqda ni!zmiyya (al-Juwayn) 140
aql (see reason)
Arabic language 545
Arban (Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz) 10, 152
Aristotle, Aristotelianism 19, 31,
57, 8990. See also pre-Aristotelian
philosophers.
Arnaldez, Roger 129
Ashar (al-) (d. 324/935) rational
argument in theology 201 n. 9; love
and will 128; acquisition (kasb) and
human acts 112, 138 n. 8, 139140,
155, 166; justice 214218
Ashars, Asharism 6 n. 13, 19, 20 n. 5;
voluntarist critique of wise purpose/
causality 7481, 84, 94101, 112,
184, 195, 226 n. 68; voluntarist justice
39, 216220, 224; ethical value 357,
39, 117; rational inquiry (na!zar) as
initial obligation 33; love and will 723,
1279; creation/determination and
command 23, 1104, 129; human acts
136 n. 3, 139145, 149, 152; denial
of secondary causes 157160;
acquisition (kasb) 112, 138 n. 8, 139,
141, 142 n. 19, 1657; obligation of
what one is not able 167; story of three
brothers 2145; prophecy 218219.
See also Ashar; Juwayn; Rz.
Ashqar (al-), Umar Sulaymn 6 n. 13
asking for help (istina) 15, 24, 2629,
1201, 124, 206
a$sla#h (best) 2125, 226
assimilation (tashbh) 479, 556, 59,
173, 2135, 219

associationism (shirk) 28, 34, 43, 49,

602, 99, 105, 108, 1212, 157161,
167
attributes ($sift)
of God: typology of views on 467;
affirmed without modality
4752, 59, 656, 118, 173; reality
of 48, 56; connotations and
linguistic meaning of 26, 516,
745, 118, 1723; avoiding negative
connotations of 745, 1723, 236;
of perfection 31, 34, 5667, 87,
101, 132, 185, 219 n. 40, 2234;
praiseworthiness of 667; as necessary
concomitants to Gods essence 67;
voluntary 21, 24, 956; preference of
some to others 1889; Ibn (Hanbal on
5960 n. 150; mentioned 20, 24,
323, 723, 76, 111 n. 46, 1203,
128, 157 n. 84, 166 n. 122, 189, 194.
See also names.
human: 50 n. 127, 140, 1534, 1667,
207
authorization (idhn) 15, 123, 125 n. 99
Avenger (Muntaqim) 187
Averroes (see Ibn Rushd)
Avicenna (see Ibn Sn)
Awz (al-) (d. 157/774) 1701
Azmeh (al-), Aziz 53 n. 131
bad (qab#h) 349, 1157, 182 n. 16,
213
Baghaw (al-) (d. 510/1117) 155
Bj (al-), Ab al-Wald (d. 474/1081)
216
Bqilln (al-) (d. 403/1013) 139, 167,
216, 218
Barbahr (al-) (d. 329/941) 19
Basra 108
Bell, Joseph 3, 726, 100 n. 118, 128,
133
beneficence (i#hsn) of God 38, 52,
63, 67, 77, 978, 121, 194, 199,
220, 222, 227; human 34, 42, 119,
158
benefit (ma$sla#ha, $sal#h) -oriented
ethic 356; opposite detriment
(mafsada) 348, 45, 1302, 186;
mentioned 66, 74, 98, 120, 127,
1302, 156, 165 n. 122, 192, 215,
221 n. 46
best, finest a#hsan 2, 71, 2234;
khayr 224; Mutazil doctrine of
a$sla#h 2125, 226

index
best-of-all-possible-worlds theodicy
(see optimism)
Bible (Genesis 1:12) 91
blame (dhamm), blameworthy 368, 45,
74, 114, 118, 144, 155, 163, 184, 1958,
208, 216, 222
blessing (nima) retribution versus
unmerited 197205; mentioned 38, 44,
51, 73, 97, 180, 1835, 1925, 206,
208, 2156, 223
Book, People of the (ahl al-kitb) 91,
105, 113, 186
Bori, Caterina 8 n. 15
Brahmans (Barhima) 111
brothers, story of three 2145
Bukhr (d. 256/870) 41
Cairo 26
Calder, Norman 3 n. 7
capability (isti$t a) 147151, 1678
cause (illa, sabab), causality in Gods will
(see wise purpose); wise purpose as
final (ghiyya) 73 n. 13, 181 n. 15,
183, 202, 226 n. 67; divinity as
final 289, 121; lordship as efficient
( f iliyya) 289, 121; principle of
323, 402, 45; priority in perfection
of 634; in creation of human acts
before Ibn Taymiyya 138141,
1445; complete (tmm) 146, 147
n. 37, 149, 151, 162, 207; perfect
(kmil) 207; secondary 1367, 147,
156168, 207; as instrumental and
conditional secondary 136, 1602; as
natural secondary 1624; God
breaking secondary 164; polemics in
secondary 158160; evil attributed to
agent ( fil) or secondary 179183,
2023, 2089; efficacy of 1667; in
analogy 58 n. 146; Ibn Sns analysis
of 28; in commands (Ibn Sn)
162 n. 107
chastisement (adhb) 12, 37, 44,
156160, 187, 200, 208, 212, 217,
218 n. 34, 223. See also punishment.
Christians, Christianity 22, 32 n. 43, 41,
43, 87
coercion ilzm 170; ikrh 1712,
174
coherence 22, 689, 118, 129130
command (amr) three types 379;
modes of expressing creation and
119129, 173 (see also will; divinity;
love); errors in creation and 104118;

257

coherence of creation and 129134;

and creation in Wsi$tiyya creed
119120; and human will and power
1479, and secondary causes 159161,
162 n. 107; wise purpose in 37, 77, 97,
190; and omission 200, 204; injustice as
opposing a 217
commanding (amr) will, words,
etc. 1256, 149
compatibilism, compatibilist
freedom 138154, 165, 1734
Compeller ( Jabbr) 1702
compensations (iwa#d ) 213
complete trust (tawakkul) 278, 159,
206
compulsion ( jabr) explained 1112,
169173; mentioned 106 n. 8, 1389,
1415, 165, 170 n. 138. See also Rz;
Jabrs.
connotations 513, 745, 172, 189;
avoiding negative 745, 1723, 236.
See also ordinary language; linguistic
explanation.
corporealism (tajsm) 47
creation (khalq) for wise purposes
(see wise purpose); perpetuity of 21,
76, 8095; of the world 8891; of
human acts 136175 (see also act); of
evil 179195, 2224 (see also evil);
of bad deeds as punishment 195206;
of humans weak 2057; and Gods
sufficiency 702, 758, 97101; and
limits to Gods power and freedom
1845, 2247; modes of expressing
command and 119129, 173 (see also
will; lordship; determination); errors
in command and 104118; coherence
of command and 129134; and
command in Wsi$tiyya creed
119120; as emanation (Ibn Sn)
702, 76, 82, 88; ex nihilo (Kalm
view) 70, 805, 915. See also Creator;
attributes; act.
creative (khaq) will, words, etc. 73,
1256, 149
Creator (khliq) proofs for existence
of 314, 403; prior to creatures
in perfection 59, 634, 87. See also
creation; attributes; act; will; lordship.
d (motive) 139, 1423, 152
Dajjl 122
Dallal, Ahmad 141
Damascus 7, 134, 55

258

index

Dar (Ibn Taymiyya) dated 1011;

rational argument in theology 202,
5962; reason and revelation 2930;
natural constitution 413; human acts
148, 151, 170. See also translations.
Davidson, Herbert 93 n. 96
dawm (see perpetuity)
decree (qa#d) 1045, 114, 1236, 158,
193
Delong-Bas, Natana 5 n. 12
determination (qadar) argument
(al-i#htijj bi-l-) 108110; two stages of
119120; of good and evil, belief in 119,
183; equivalent to creation/lordship/
ontological will, etc. 23, 28, 901,
105126, 130, 147, 159161, 164, 190,
217; Ibn Taymiyyas successors on
5 n. 11; 6 n. 13.
determinative (qadar) will, realities,
etc. 1227
determinism 138144
detriment (mafsada) (see benefit)
dhamm (see blame)
dhull (humility) 132, 1915, 223
dhunb (see sins)
discipline, spiritual, evil as 3, 132, 177,
1915, 202, 223
disgusting things (khabith) 37, 199,
222
disobedience (ma$siyya) 34, 45, 106,
114, 119120, 123, 126130,
134 n. 139, 148, 1546, 1612,
169, 171, 194, 196204, 212, 217,
221 n. 46, 223
divinity (ulhiyya, ilhiyya) explained
279, 1202, mentioned 31, 67,
73 n. 12, 126, 130 n. 127, 195
du (see invocation)
dualism (thanawiyya) 1078, 113 n. 63,
114
duality of perspective 136, 164, 189190,
209
education, evil as 1778, 192, 202
efficacy (tathr) 136, 1401, 1617
efficient cause (illa filiyya) 289, 121.
See also cause.
Egypt 67, 11 n. 23, 13, 20
emanation 702, 76, 82, 88, 157
enacted thing (maf l ) 83, 88, 96,
1556, 1879
endless chain, infinite regress
(tasalsul ) 74, 7781, 86, 916, 146

essence (dht, nafs) of God perpetual

causal and voluntary activity in 21,
7680, 836, 956, 122; mentioned
through names 59; attributes as
concomitants to 67; right to praise
and worship 67, 122, 1945, 206;
love for 73; as final cause of existence
100 n. 118; reality of 48 n. 122; Ibn
Sn on 702; Ibn Arab on 468;
Mutazil cause disjoined from 79,
978; mentioned 33, 81, 101,
110 n. 44, 132, 181 n. 15
eternity translation of terms for 77
n. 24; as time without beginning
87; as timeless 21, 76, 878. See also
perpetuity.
ethical value 339, 1158, 213216,
219
evil (sharr) types of attribution
179190; attribution in the Quran
179181; and good in Gods names
186190; as relative, partial, and good
by way of generality and wise purpose
73, 179184, 187195, 2223; as
necessary to perfection 177, 1845,
192; quantitative insignificance of 177,
1856; as educational and disciplinary
instrument 132, 177, 1915, 202, 223;
attributed to the creature or secondary
cause 179181, 186190; nonexistence
as the origin of 177, 195208; agent
elided 179180; knowledge of good and
35, 109, 1156; belief in determination
of good and 119, 183; and good known
by opposites 178; explained by principle
of plenitude 178. See also bad; evil
deed/thing.
evil deed/thing (sayyia) 345, 1635,
196206; translation 197
existence (wujd ) proofs for Gods 2,
314, 405; nonexistence and evil
177, 181, 185, 188, 194, 2008; better
than nonexistence 223; oneness of 23,
110
expiation (takfr) 132, 1925
eyes, seeing with two 130
Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz (see Rz)
Fakhry, Majid 20
falsifa (see philosophers)
fan (annihilation) 23, 109
Farb (al-) (d. 339/950) 31, 46
Fti#ha (Q. 1) 269, 121

index
Fti#ha (Ibn Taymiyya) described 15;
attribution of evil 1823, 185; evil as
nonexistence 195, 206209. See also
translations.
F Fu$s$s (Ibn Taymiyya) 1212. See also
translations.
fil (see act)
final cause (illa ghiyya) and wise
purpose 73 n. 13, 181 n. 15, 183,
202, 226 n. 67; divinity as 289,
121
fiqh (see theological jurisprudence)
fire 601, 72 n. 10, 1623, 177, 192
fitna (trial) 193
fi$tra (see natural constitution)
Five Pillars 245
foreknowledge of God 105, 108, 115,
1689
Frank, Richard 140 n. 13, 1413, 145
free choice (ikhtiyr) 87, 139, 1435,
155, 1714, 224
freedom Gods 12, 14, 75, 99, 2245
(see also sufficiency); human (see
libertarian freedom; compatibilism;
free choice)
free-thinkers (zandiqa) 112
free-will theodicy (see Mutazils)
fujr (immorality) 120, 124; opposite
piety 115, 119
Fut#ht makkiyya (Ibn Arab) 46
Genesis 1:12 91
ghara#d (purpose) 7475, 172
Ghazl (al-), Ab (Hmid (d. 505/1111)
33 n. 52, 36, 129, 219 n. 40, 220;
optimism 141 n. 17, 2257; nothing
in possibility more wonderful than
what is 225; will of God 71, 846;
human acts 139143, 159, 161 n. 103;
evil and good known by opposites 178;
contradictory views of 3 n. 7, 141
Ghengis Khan 122
genus/species 845, 8790, 99
gha#dab (anger) of God elided 180
ghin (see sufficiency)
Gimaret, Daniel 128, 137145, 156, 165
God (Allh) See existence; essence; names;
attributes; act; will; perfection; worship;
divinity; wise purpose; justice; creation;
lordship.
golden mean (wasa$t) 203. See also
median.
Goldziher, Ignaz 20, 47 n. 119

259

good deed/thing (#hasana) 345, 1635,

196206; translation of 197
good pleasure (ri#d) of God 51, 65, 73
(see also love); human 170
good, goodness khayr, #husn (see wise
purpose; justice; evil); #hasan opposite
bad 349, 1157, 182 n. 16, 213
Goodman, Lenn 138 n. 9
grace ( fa#dl) 199200, 2045; in right
hand of God 189
Griffel, Frank 219 n. 40
guidance (hidya) evil as 192, 195;
ignorance and punishment 2013; as
secondary cause 161; People of
1045, 157; mentioned 31, 424, 66,
100, 105, 1156, 121, 1245, 144, 157,
174, 1979, 2045, 215
Gwynne, Rosalind 214
hadith reports quoted Both of His hands
are right [hands] 188; Every newborn is
born with the natural constitution 41;
The first thing God created was the Pen
91; God did not decree anything for
the believer except what is good for him
193; God was, and there was nothing
before Him 90; Good is in Your hands,
and evil is not [attributed] to You 182; I
do not hesitate over anything [Hadith of
Supererogatory Works (#hadth
al-nawfil)] 123; I have created My
servants original believers 423; I seek
refuge in You from the trial of poverty
193; I take refuge in the complete words
of God 124; If one of you stands to pray,
God is in front of his face 55; If you had
disbursed [in alms] a whole earth full of
gold 183; In you are two characteristics
that God loves 170 n. 138; Indeed, God
is more merciful toward His servants
than this mother toward her son 121;
A leper, a bald-headed man and a blind
man 38 n. 84; My mercy precedes My
anger 188; O Lord, this is from You and
for You 27; O Messenger of God! Have
you seen medicine by which we may
be cured 159; O My servants! I have
forbidden injustice to Myself 225; The
right hand of God is full 189; Should
we not leave deeds and trust completely
on what has been written? 159; There
is not among you one but that he will
see his Lord alone 556; Truly, God

260

index

determined the determinations of

created things 90; Whoever fights so
that the word of God is exalted 124;
You will see your Lord as you see the
sun and the moon 56
hajj/pilgrimage 133, 148, 155
Hallaq, Wael 31 n. 41, 401, 50, 57
(Hamawiyya (Ibn Taymiyya) 546.
See also translations.
#hamd (see praise)
(Hanafs 1556, 186
(Hanbals 19, 33, 53, 77, 109, 114, 128,
136 n. 3, 137, 152, 1556, 167, 186,
216, 218
hands of God 65, 1889
hard determinism 1389
harm (#darar) opposite naf (see profit);
opposite benefit 66, 131; mentioned
1323, 182, 202, 208, 212, 223
#hasan (see good)
#hasana (good deed/thing) 345, 1635,
196206; translation of 197
(Hasana (Ibn Taymiyya) described 1415,
183 n. 25, 198 n. 87; attribution of
evil 179186; wise purposes in evil
1925; evil as nonexistence 195206;
Gods worthiness of praise 66. See also
translations.
(Hashwiyya 47
hate, hatred (kurh, karha) Gods (see
love); human 702
hesitation (taraddud ) of God 47, 123
hidya (see guidance)
highest similitude (mathal al), a fortiori
argument (qiys al-awl) explained
5662; summarized 689; employed
556, 636, 1315, 156, 161, 213,
2234; mentioned 1 n. 9, 118, 220;
in A#hmad b. (Hanbal 5960 n. 150.
See also praise.
#hikma (see wise purpose)
(Hill (al-), Ibn al-Mu$tahhar (d. 726/1325)
1012, 74, 107, 114, 130133, 146,
152, 212216
Hourani, George 35, 138 n. 9
#hudth (see origination)
humility (dhull ) 132, 1915, 223
ibda (see worship)
Ibls, Iblss denial of wise purpose and
justice 1046, 1124, 1178; and
analogy 115118; creation of 192.
See also Satan.
Ibn Abbs (d. 68/687) 54, 62, 65

Ibn Abd al-Hd (d. 744/1343) 6 n. 14,

10 n. 21, 11 n. 23, 26
Ibn al-Jawz (d. 597/1201) 19, 114, 128,
155, 159, 216
Ibn al-Rwand (4th/10th cent.)
112 n. 59
Ibn al-Zghn (527/1132) 216
Ibn Aql (d. 513/1119) 19, 33 n. 52,
77, 155
Ibn Arab (d. 638/1240) optimism
2269; Gods names and attributes
468, 178, 189; human acts 139, 145;
evil as nonexistence 178, 196; ambiguity
and paradox 145, 178, 189; critiqued 48,
57, 689, 110, 125, 226
Ibn Frak, Ab Bakr (406/1015) 197,
218
Ibn (Hajar al-Asqaln (d. 852/1449)
47 n. 119
Ibn (Hanbal (see A#hmad)
Ibn (Hazm (d. 456/1064) 77
Ibn Kaml Pasha (d. 940/1534)
222 n. 51
Ibn Mjah (d. 273/887) 187 n. 42
Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (751/1350) 38,
194
Ibn Qudma (d. 620/1223) 19, 53
Ibn Rushayyiq, Abd Allh (d. 749/
13489) 6 n. 14, 10 n. 21
Ibn Rushd (Averroes) (d. 595/1198) 30,
31 n. 41, 46, 89, 90 n. 85, 136
Ibn Sn (Avicenna) (d. 428/1037) 31
n. 41, 33, 57, 923; casual analysis 28;
prophecy and revelation 22, 31, 46;
optimism, providence and the role of
evil 12, 71, 177, 181, 185, 192, 225;
evil as nonexistence 177, 196; Gods
self-sufficiency 702, 756, 99; human
acts 138143, 1734; causality in
commands 162 n. 107; ontology and
emanation critiqued 76, 803, 889, 94,
96, 157
Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328) theodicy
summarized 229237; biography
67; Damascus trials 7, 55; influence
and significance 46; writing style 8,
16; citation of writings by short titles 9
n. 18; writings 616. For his ideas, see
the respective concepts; for his interaction
with others, see the respective groups and
persons. See also the respective short titles
of his works and translations of Ibn
Taymiyyas texts.
ibtil (trial) 38, 192, 193 n. 70, 202

index
idhn (authorization) 15, 123, 125 n. 99
i#dll (misguidance) 1156, 121, 124,
204
idolatry (see associationism)
ignorance ( jahl ) 43, 191, 2002, 208
i#hsn (see beneficence)
I#hy ulm al-dn (al-Ghazl) 139, 178,
225
j (al-), A#dud al-Dn (d. 756/1355) 140
ikhtiyr (free choice) 87, 139, 1435,
155, 1714, 224
ikhtiyr (see voluntary)
Ikhtiyriyya (Ibn Taymiyya) 214
ikrh (coercion) 1712, 174
ilhiyya (see divinity)
ilhm (inspiration) 41, 99, 115, 119
lkhnid Empire 10
illa (see cause)
illness (mara#d ) 42, 132, 158, 178181,
1901, 208
ilzm (coercion) 170
imkn (see possibility)
immorality ( fujr) 120, 124; opposite
piety 115, 119
impediment (mni) 41, 157, 1624,
2078
imperfection (naq$s) punishment of 38;
evil 1778, 191, 2068. See also
perfection.
impossibility (imtin) of two contraries
at one time and place 32, 185; of
opposing Gods foreknowledge 169.
See also possible; possibility;
preponderance.
Imrn (Ibn Taymiyya) 212, 24
Imrn, Al b. Mu#hammad 6 n. 14
imti#hn (test) 192
imtin (see impossibility)
Inati, Shams 138 n. 9
inya (providence) 2, 4, 71, 177, 225.
See also wise purpose; justice.
incomparability (tanzh) 4650, 57
independence of God (see sufficiency)
India 111
infallibility of prophets (i$sma) 193 n. 71
infinite regress, endless chain
(tasalsul ) 74, 7781, 86, 916, 146
injustice, oppression (!zulm) as
undeserved harm 212; as acting freely in
someone elses property 217; as opposing
a command 2178; Gods self-forbidding
218, 225; as putting something in
other than its place 2202; as hateful 42,
64; Gods power to commit

261

2245; compensation for 213; human

37, 109, 132, 154, 158, 1903, 201;
and purpose (ghara#d ) 745. See also
justice.
inspiration (ilhm) 41, 99, 115, 119
intercession (shafa) 125 n. 99, 158, 206
interpretation (tafsr) 545. See also
reinterpretation.
invocation (du) 99, 132, 138 n. 9, 158,
193, 206, 221
iqb (see punishment)
Irda (Ibn Taymiyya) described 1213;
wise purpose and perpetual activity
7580, 97101; secondary causality
159160; attribution of evil 179182,
185190, 197; Ibls on Gods wisdom
1134. See also translations.
irda (see will)
Iraq 10
irrational, irrationality 32, 69, 114,
129132, 160, 166, 176; of Mutazil
view of Gods purpose 75, 78, 98
Isfaryn (al-), Ab Is#hq (d. 418/1027)
155 n. 77
Ishmael 146
ishq (see love)
Ishrqs 31 n. 41
i$sma (protection of prophets from
sins) 193 n. 71
istina (see asking for help)
isti$t a (capability) 147151, 1678
Isti$ta (Ibn Taymiyya) 1489, 1523.
See also translations.
istiw (sitting) 46, 545
itti#hds (Unificationalists) 110
iwa!d (compensations) 213
Iys b. Muwiyya (d. 122/740) 217
Jabbr (Compeller) 1702
Jabr (Ibn Taymiyya) described 1314;
compulsion 1712; obligation of what
one is not able 1689; attribution of evil
179185, 191; mentioned 108, 214.
See also translations.
jabr (see compulsion)
Jabrs defined 1101; human act 106,
1101, 1148, 130, 1425, 1524, 166,
1703; analogy and ethical value
1158; reconciliation with Qadars
1524; denial of wise purpose 120,
204; Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz as 111,
1435, 172
Jackson, Sherman 53
Jahd (Ibn Taymiyya) 578

262

index

jahl (ignorance) 43, 191, 2002, 208

Jahm b. %Safwn, Jahms rational inquiry
(na!zar) as initial obligation 33;
attributes 59 n. 150, 84, 95, 111 n. 46,
128; denial of wise purpose/causality
77, 1112, 191, 195, 216; human acts
110111, 1389, 1545, 166, 169
jaz (see recompense)
Jews 41, 43, 87
jihad 7, 133, 184, 186, 194, 196
Jiln (al-), Abd al-Qdir (d. 561/1166)
110
Jubb (al-), Ab Al (d. 303/916) 142
n. 21, 203 n. 102, 2145
Jubb (al-), Ab Hshim (d. 321/933)
142 n. 21, 166, 203
judgment (#hukm) ontological and
legislative 1204, 130; returning to
God 77, 79, 98; in analogy 59; names
and 105
Julaynad (al-), Mu#hammad al-Sayyid 6,
143 n. 22
Junayd (al-) (d. 298/910) 109
jurisprudence (see theological
jurisprudence)
justice (adl ) typology of views on
injustice (!zulm) and 212224;
retributive 156, 191, 2026, 2126, 222;
voluntarist 216220; as putting things
in their places 2204; as beneficence
220; parallel to wise purpose 105,
1114, 1178, 172, 191, 205, 2213;
parallel to mercy (see mercy); entailing
the best possible world 2248; and
creation of human acts 107, 1546, 164,
195, 2026; and Gods power 2245;
and analogy 2136; as beloved 42; in
one hand of God 189; Jahm denial of
111; Ibls denial of 105, 1128; human
34, 44, 132
Juwayn (al-) (d. 478/1085) 33 n. 52, 36,
934, 216, 218; love and will 73, 1279;
human acts 136, 140, 152
Kalbdh (al-) (d. 380/990 or
384/994) 155
Kalm theologians (mutakallimn)
method critiqued 212, 25, 31, 57,
69, 118; reason 323; reinterpretation
(tawl) 47, 505, 64; timeless eternity
of God 21, 24, 68, 76, 878, 96;
creation ex nihilo 805, 915. See also
Ashars; Mutazils; Mturds; Jabrs;
Qadars.

kalimt (words), ontological and

religious 1224, 149
kaml (see perfection)
Karrms 77, 84, 95, 128, 152, 186
Kasb (Ibn Taymiyya) described 1314;
human acts 151, 165, 172; secondary
causality 157, 1604; attribution of evil
179, 190. See also translations.
kayf (see modality)
khabith (disgusting things) 37, 199,
222
Khalidi, Tarif 11 n. 23
Khalll (al-), Ab Bakr (d. 311/923) 170
khalq (see creation)
Khrijs 173
kha$tya (see sins)
Khaw%d (Ibn Taymiyya) 201
khayr (good) (see wise purpose; justice;
evil; best)
Khi#dr 181
Khudbanda (see Oljeitu)
Kind (al-) (d. ca. 252/866) 92
kitb (writing) of God 105, 119, 124,
217
Kitb al-irshd (al-Juwayn) 93
Kitb al-milal wa al-ni#hal (al-Shahrastn)
113
lack (see nonexistence)
ladhdha (see pleasure)
Lama$t (al-), A#hmad b. Mubrak
al-Sijilms (d. 1156/1743) 226 n. 67
Laoust, Henri 35, 11, 13 n. 32, 224,
30 n. 39, 50 n. 126, 72, 120 n. 79, 136,
165
law (shara, shar) and theology 245;
and reason 369; deprecation of 7, 13,
108110, 114, 130, 159160, 206;
mentioned 43, 46, 723, 122, 126,
130, 161 n. 103, 167, 178, 213.
See also revelation.
lawzim (see necessary concomitants)
legislative (shar) will, words, etc.
27 n. 28, 73, 1229, 1489, 223
libertarian freedom defined 138;
mentioned 131, 139, 141, 1445, 154,
205, 214
likening (tamthl) 4852, 117, 2134
linguistic explanation (tafsr) 545.
See also ordinary language;
connotations.
literalism 22, 52
logic Aristotelian 19, 57; rules of 32, 40,
133

index
lordship (rubbiyya, rabbniyya)
explained 279, 1202; mentioned
31, 59, 67, 117, 126, 130 n. 127,
195
love
(ma#habba): parallel to good pleasure/
command/legislative will, opposite
hate 512, 73, 115, 118129, 223;
Kalm and Sufi views of will and
512, 723, 1279; of wise purpose
(in creating what is hated) 73, 80,
97, 1335; Gods sufficiency and
self- 756, 97100; as final cause
of existence 100 n. 118; attribute
of perfection 646; for God (in His
essence) 2729, 38, 209; natural
constitution 356, 426, 201
(ishq): passionate 75, 172; Gods
self- (Ibn Sn) 712
Maarr (al-), Ab al-Al (d. 449/1058)
112
Mabad al-Juhan (d. 83/703) 108
Madelung, Wilferd 1423
Madjid, Nurcholish 39 n. 85
mafsada (detriment) (see benefit)
maf l (enacted thing) 83, 88, 96,
1556, 1879
ma#habba (see love)
ma#hall (see substrate)
Majs, Majss 1048, 113 n. 63, 115,
120
Makari, Victor 1367, 141
Makdisi, George 7 n. 15, 20 n. 5, 137
n. 5
Mlik b. Anas (d. 179/795) 54
Mliks 216
Mamlks, Ba#hr 7, 10
mni (see impediment)
Manichaeism 107 n. 23, 113 n. 63
Man$tiqiyyn (Ibn Taymiyya) 578.
See also translations.
Maq$sad asna (al-Ghazl) 220
mara#d (see illness)
Martib al-irda (Ibn Taymiyya) 126
Marmura, Michael 1401
Marwaz (al-), Ab Bakr (d. 292/905)
170 n. 138
masha (see will)
ma$siyya (see disobedience)
ma$sla#ha (see benefit)
Ma$tlib liyya (Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz)
142 n. 19
mathal al (see highest similitude)

263

Mturd (al-), Ab Man$sr (d. 333/944),

Mturds 2, 129 n. 122, 156, 177, 220
Mazdaism 107
Mecca 11
median (wasa$t) 173. See also golden
mean.
medicine 3, 1323, 159, 171
mercy (ra#hma) precedes anger 188;
written by God for Himself 218; parallel
to wise purpose, justice or goodness 37,
66, 97, 111, 118, 121, 1836, 1902,
195, 2035, 212, 219222; parallel to
forgiveness or pardon 162, 187, 194,
2212; mentioned 31, 38, 52, 163, 215,
218
Messiah, son of Mary 122
Michel, Thomas 31 n. 41, 32 n. 43,
136 n. 3
Michot, Yahya [ Jean R.] 11 n. 23,
20 n. 8, 22, 30, 138 n. 9
Minhj (Ibn Taymiyya) described
1012, 114; wise purpose and perpetual
activity 22, 74100; human acts
146156, 166, 171; attribution of evil
179181, 188; wise purposes in evil 132,
1904; use of similitudes 56, 1305;
justice 2126. See also translations.
Minhj al-karma (Ibn al-Mu$tahhar
al-(Hill) 1012, 114
misguidance (i!dll) 1156, 121, 124,
204
modality (kayf, takyf ) 4856, 60 n. 150,
66, 161, 220
Mongols 7, 10, 122
Moses 50, 125, 131, 181
motive (d) 139, 1423, 152
Mu#hammad b. Kab (d. 118/736) 170
Mu#hammad the Prophet 44, 122, 144,
1846, 193 n. 71, 198
Mu#hassal (Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz) 10
mu#hdith (see originator)
Mujhid (d. ca. 1004/718722) 54
Mujbirs 106, 111, 113 n. 63. See also
Jabrs.
mulim (suitable) 34, 36
mumkin (see possible)
munfir (unsuitable) 34, 36
munkar (see wrong)
Muntaqim (Avenger) 187
Murjis 106
Mushriks 1048, 115
Muslim (d. 261/875) 14, 41, 225
Mutabar (Ab al-Barakt al-Baghdd)
85

264

index

mutafalsifa 31 n. 41. See also

philosophers.
mutakallimn (see Kalm theologians)
Mutazils, Mutazilism free-will
theodicy 12, 177, 213, 216; rational
inquiry (na!zar) as initial obligation 33;
objectivist ethics 357; assimilation and
objectivist ethics 1168, 213216, 219;
reinterpretation (tawl) and denial of
attributes 545, 111 n. 46; purpose,
sufficiency and origination in God
71, 749, 84, 958, 100, 1945, 213;
human creation of acts 1058, 114,
1435, 149, 157160, 184, 2123;
acts interpreted deterministically
1413, 1524; polemic against
voluntarism and determinism 1134,
130, 133, 154; will and command 124,
127; purposes in evil 177; retributive
justice 196, 2126; purpose of creation
as human benefit 75, 77, 978, 213,
215; best (a$sla#h) 2125, 226; and Sh
theology 11, 95, 107, 149; Ba$sran and
Baghdd 213. See also Jubb; Abd
al-Jabbr; Ab al-(Husayn al-Ba$sr;
(Hill.
naf (see profit)
nafs (see soul; essence)
names (asm) of God affirmed without
modality 4753, 62, 656; essence
mentioned through 59; manifestation
of 121, 178, 189; relation to evil 1869;
conjoined 188; ninety-nine 178, 187;
Allh 27; Jabbr (Compeller) 1702;
Muntaqim (Avenger) 187. See also
attributes.
naql (see tradition)
naq$s (see imperfection)
natural constitution ( fi$tra) explained
3944; mentioned 20, 456, 57
n. 146, 623, 66, 109, 2013, 216, 221.
See also reason.
natural causality 1624
na!zar (rational inquiry) 33, 43
Na!z!zm (al-) (d. 231/845) 166, 212 n. 3
necessary concomitants (lawzim) of
God 67, 702, 87, 99 n. 118, 101; evils
as 181, 182 n. 20, 185, 207; mentioned
35, 42, 133
need (see sufficiency)
negation of Gods attributes (see stripping
away)

Neoplatonism 31, 756, 81 n. 44, 86,

1401
nima (see blessing)
Noah 92, 1689
nominalism 502, 65
nonexistence, privation, lack (adam) and
evil 1779, 1956, 2008
Nubuwwt (Ibn Taymiyya) 44, 98,
2189. See also translations.
oaths 127
obedience ($ta) 12, 234, 28, 312,
73, 90, 97, 99, 106, 109, 114, 119122,
1267, 155, 1612, 172, 196200, 203,
214, 217
obligation (taklf ) of what one is not
able (m l yu$tq) 1659; power
that is the condition for imposing
149151; rational inquiry (na!zar) as
the initial 334, 43; mentioned 98, 123,
214
Oljeitu (d. 716/1316) 10, 11 n. 24
omission (tark) 2004
omnipotence (see power)
oneness of existence (wa#hdat al-wujd)
23, 110
ontological (kawn) will, words, etc.
27 n. 28, 1227, 149
opposites, good and evil known by 178
oppression (see injustice)
optimism, best-of-all-possible-worlds
theodicy introduced 16; perpetual,
defined 5; as a threat to Gods power
2247; summary of Ibn Taymiyyas 45,
229237. See also wise purpose; justice;
Ibn Sn; Ibn Arab; al-Ghazl.
ordinary language 22, 53, 68, 1712.
See also linguistic explanation;
connotations.
origination (#hudth) of events from
eternity 7780, 8895; in Gods
essence 74, 79, 956; God as eternal,
complete cause precludes 78, 813;
possible from eternity 836; and
secondary causality 160; of human acts
by God 146, 147 n. 17, 1524; of acts
by humans (but not creation) 1524
originator (mu#hdith) argument for
Gods existence 334, 40; argument
for Gods creation of human acts 146,
1524; prior to originated in perfection
59, 63
Ormsby, Eric 3 n. 7, 2256

index
pain (alam) 346, 424, 1837, 2089
paradox 65, 69, 97, 129, 137, 138, 145,
178, 189
passionate love (ishq) 712, 75, 172
Pazdaw (al-) (d. 593/1099) 129 n. 122
perfection (kaml ) as perpetual
activity 21, 76, 878, 91, 94, 96, 99;
attributes of/ascribing the highest/
exoneration from imperfection 25,
31, 5669, 878, 132, 156, 161, 169,
220, 2234, 227 (see also highest
similitude); of the created order 1778,
181, 1845, 222, 225 n. 64, 2267;
exists only when wise purpose requires
101; known through imperfection 178,
185; and Gods self-sufficiency/wise
purpose 7880, 81 n. 44, 97101,
1656 n. 122; of natural constitution
445; mentioned 34, 70, 150, 165,
191, 194 n. 71, 207
Perho, Irmeli 5 n. 11, 8
perpetuity (dawm) of causal, voluntary
and creative activity in God 21, 24,
7696, 99, 122; of emanation 82
Persia 10, 107
perspective switching 161, 164, 1689,
189, 200, 205; duality of 136, 164,
189190, 209
perversity 2002
Pharaoh 122, 131, 192
Philoponus, John (d. ca. 570) 923
philosophers ( falsifa) 21 n. 10, 34,
57, 140, 186; identified 31; revelation
and prophecy 22, 31, 467, 50, 69,
219 n. 40; God and the world 21, 68,
7788, 94, 96, 142, 160, 226. See also
Neoplatonism; Ibn Sn; Ibn Rushd.
piety (taqw) 159, 221; opposite
immorality 115, 119
Pilgrimage/Hajj 133, 148, 155
Plato 4
pleasure (ladhdha) 345, 424, 978,
133, 201, 208
plenitude, principle of 178
polytheism (see associationism)
possibility (imkn) of other than what
is 2237; of divine injustice 2178,
2245
possible (mumkin) eternal versus
preceded by nonexistence 889; need
for preponderator or cause to bring into
existence 33, 40, 835; 1424, 153; the
Necessary Existent more perfect than 63

265

potency (quwwa) reason as 32;

natural constitution as 41; in human acts
147, 151, 168; mentioned 157, 164
power (qudra)
of God: Qadar/Mutazil denial of
105, 108, 118, 1589; optimism
as a threat to 2247; mentioned 52,
60, 635, 857, 119122, 1734,
218
human: reality of 120; Ashar views of
139145; determining and legislative
147152; as secondary cause 147,
156161, 1669
praise (#hamd ), praiseworthy ascribing
to God the highest 256, 59, 623,
669, 132, 220, 2235 (see also highest
similitude); for God in His essence 29,
667, 1945, 206; Gods self-sufficiency
and self- 75, 97100; in human acts 36,
126, 144, 163, 165 n. 122, 2146, 222.
See also worship; love.
pre-Aristotelian philosophers 90, 956
predestination (see determination)
predetermination (see determination)
preponderance (tarj#h) principle of
401, 45, 142; in Gods will 45, 847,
91, 94; in creation of human acts
1426, 147 n. 37, 149, 1524; of good
over evil 182 n. 16, 183 n. 22, 185
principles (u$sl) of religion (al-dn)
1920; and branches ( fur) 245
privation (see nonexistence)
Proclus (d. 485) 81 n. 44
profit (naf ) opposite harm (#darar)
348, 42, 45, 52, 978, 110, 131, 165,
186, 201, 203; in acts 74, 126, 130,
184, 192, 195, 199, 202, 2056, 221.
See also benefit.
prophecy (nubuwwa) 22, 446, 111, 184,
1934 n. 71, 2189
Prophet Mu#hammad 44, 122, 144,
1846, 193 n. 71, 198
protection of prophets from sins
(isma) 193 n. 71
providence (inya) 2, 4, 71, 177, 225.
See also wise purpose; justice.
punishment (iqb) before and after
guidance 378, 2004; for lack of
good deeds 2046; naturalistic
1634; mentioned 36, 45, 512, 105,
116, 155161, 173, 177, 187, 193,
197209, 212223. See also justice.
purpose (ghara#d ) 7475, 172

266

index

qab#h (bad) 349, 1157, 182 n. 16, 213

qa#d (decree) 1045, 114, 1236, 158,
193
qadar (see determination)
Qadars defined 105108; Gods will
and the human act 1148, 124, 130,
142, 147, 1524, 170, 173, 204; denial
of foreknowledge 108, 169 n. 135;
analogy and ethical value 115118;
reconciliation with Jabrs 1524; wise
purpose 194; justice 212, 217. See also
Mutazils.
Qaffl (al-), Ab Bakr (d. 365/9756)
77
qim bi (see subsisting in)
qiys (see analogy)
qiys al-awl (a fortiori argument) (see
highest similitude)
qiys al-shuml (syllogism) 579, 62
Qudra (Ibn Taymiyya) 97. See also
translations.
qudra (see power)
Quran as authoritative 1922, 2734,
43, 49, 54, 58 n. 146, 5962, 689,
168170; translation of 21 n. 10; verses
cited: (Q. 1:2) 27, 180; (Q. 1:5) 27, 29,
121; (Q. 1:67) 180; (Q. 2:6) 144;
(Q. 2:22) 49; (Q. 2:26) 157; (Q. 2:30)
191; (Q. 2:34) 113 n. 60; (Q. 2:105)
205; (Q. 2:128) 146; (Q. 2:143) 173;
(Q. 2:165) 49; (Q. 2:185) 124;
(Q. 2:205) 128; (Q. 2:216) 193;
(Q. 2:225) 49; (Q. 2:255) 125 n. 99;
(Q. 2:258) 198; (Q. 2:286) 165;
(Q. 3:4) 187; (Q. 3:7) 54; (Q. 3:26)
224 n. 58; (Q. 3:83) 172; (Q. 3:97)
97, 148, 168; (Q. 3:144) 185 n. 33;
(Q. 3:147) 27; (Q. 3:154) 93;
(Q. 3:164) 185 n. 33; (Q. 3:165)
180; (Q. 3:187) 26; (Q. 3:191) 182;
(Q. 4:26) 49; (Q. 4:267) 124;
(Q. 4:40) 221; (Q. 4:58) 124;
(Q. 4:65104) 196; (Q. 4:789)
145, 196200; (Q. 4:79) 180, 206;
(Q. 4:93) 50; (Q. 4:164) 50; (Q. 5:6)
124; (Q. 5:16) 157, 161, 198; (Q. 5:48)
169; (Q. 5:54) 49; (Q. 5:64) 189 n. 48;
(Q. 5:98) 187; (Q. 6:53) 185 n. 33;
(Q. 6:73) 182 n. 19; (Q. 6:110) 198;
(Q. 6:125) 124, 204; (Q. 6:148) 105,
174; (Q. 6:165) 187; (Q. 7:1118)
113 n. 60; (Q. 7:12) 117; (Q. 7:23)
180; (Q. 7:57) 157; (Q. 7:157) 37;
(Q. 7:172) 41; (Q. 9:14) 160; (Q. 9:33)

25; (Q. 11:7) 90; (Q. 11:20) 149,

151; (Q. 11:36) 169; (Q. 11:88) 27;
(Q. 11:123) 27; (Q. 13:15) 172;
(Q. 13:16) 179; (Q. 13:30) 27;
(Q. 13:35) 89; (Q. 14:28) 185 n. 33;
(Q. 15:2842) 113 n. 60; (Q. 15:39)
116; (Q. 15:4950) 187; (Q. 15:85)
182; (Q. 15:856) 182 n. 19; (Q. 16:17)
62, 87; (Q. 16:5762) 612;
(Q. 16:5862) 60 n. 151; (Q. 16:60)
556, 59, 62, 68, 223; (Q. 16:74) 49;
(Q. 16:75) 63; (Q. 16:93) 115;
(Q. 17:5) 125; (Q. 17:12) 117;
(Q. 17:15) 37; (Q. 17:23) 58, 125;
(Q. 17:615) 113 n. 60; (Q. 17:99)
60; (Q. 18:50) 113 n. 60; (Q. 18:6082)
181; (Q. 18:101) 149; (Q. 19:42) 63;
(Q. 19:65) 49; (Q. 19:83) 125;
(Q. 20:5) 54; (Q. 20:13) 96; (Q. 20:14)
23; (Q. 20:112) 221; (Q. 20:116120)
113 n. 60; (Q. 21:167) 182 n. 19;
(Q. 21:23) 190; (Q. 21:107) 185
n. 33, 186 n. 34; (Q. 23:76) 223;
(Q. 23:115) 182 n. 19; (Q. 23:118) 27;
(Q. 25:2) 49, 179; (Q. 25:59) 54;
(Q. 26:80) 180; (Q. 27:88) 97, 182;
(Q. 28:20) 131, 234; (Q. 28:59) 37;
(Q. 29:6) 97; (Q. 30:27) 60; (Q. 30:28)
60 n. 151, 612; (Q. 30:30) 41;
(Q. 32:7) 97; (Q. 32:22) 182, 187,
224 n. 58; (Q. 32:24) 146; (Q. 32:43)
215; (Q. 36:7881) 60; (Q. 36:82) 124;
(Q. 38:27) 182 n. 19, 191; (Q. 38:54)
89; (Q. 38:7185) 113 n. 60; (Q. 39:7)
128; (Q. 39:23) 224 n. 58; (Q. 39:62)
179; (Q. 41:11) 90; (Q. 41:53)
190; (Q. 42:11) 47, 49, 52, 68;
(Q. 43:1619) 61; (Q. 43:556) 192;
(Q. 44:39) 182 n. 19; (Q. 47:38)
50 n. 127; (Q. 51:49) 157; (Q. 51:56)
23, 97 n. 111, 124; (Q. 53:1923) 61;
(Q. 53:389) 221; (Q. 57:4) 46, 49,
545; (Q. 59:23) 170; (Q. 59:24)
50; (Q. 61:5) 204; (Q. 62:2) 125;
(Q. 66:12) 124; (Q. 70:1921) 146;
(Q. 72:10) 180; (Q. 74:11) 59 n. 150;
(Q. 75:36) 182 n. 19; (Q. 79:26)
192; (Q. 81:289) 120, 147, 153;
(Q. 85:124) 187; (Q. 91) 115;
(Q. 91:8) 115; (Q. 92:810) 204;
(Q. 99:78) 221; (Q. 111:3) 168;
(Q. 112) 62, 182, 188; (Q. 112:34)
49; (Q. 113:12) 180
quwwa (see potency)

index
rabbniyya (see lordship)
ra#hma (see mercy)
Rahman, Fazlur 3 n. 8, 5, 24
rational inquiry (na!zar) 33, 43;
objectivism (ethics) 35, 45
rationalism 22, 237. See also reason;
highest similitude; theological
jurisprudence.
Rz (al-), Fakhr al-Dn (d. 606/1209)
10, 11 n. 23, 29, 33 n. 52, 34, 57,
79 n. 33, 89 n. 76, 92, 94 n. 100, 95,
129, 214, 217, 219 n. 40; as a Jabr
111, 1435, 172; compulsion ( jabr) of
human acts 1112, 139, 1416, 1524,
169, 1723; acquisition (kasb) rejected
112, 142 n. 19; obligation of what
one is not able 168; late-life skepticism
144 n. 26; evil 186 n. 34, 196 n. 77
reality (haqqa) of Gods essence,
attributes and acts 48, 546; of human
action 114, 120, 138 n. 9, 1545, 161,
164, 1735; ontological and legislative
122; of extramental universals 57, 65;
ambiguous character of (Ibn Arab)
145
reason (aql), rational (aql) defined
323; correspondence of revelation with
20, 2932; and Law 329; and rational
argument in theology (see theological
jurisprudence; highest similitude); and
natural constitution 3940; mentioned
23, 438, 53, 56, 623, 89, 100,
109, 118, 133, 144, 153, 159163,
213, 219
recompense ( jaz) unmerited reward
and blessing versus retribution 197205;
mentioned 39, 163, 221 n. 46. See also
justice.
reinterpretation (tawl) 47, 545, 64
religious (dn) will, words, etc. 1228,
223
repentance (tawba) 27, 53, 97100, 109,
132, 1915, 199, 203, 223
retribution (see recompense; justice)
revelation (shar) correspondence
of reason with 21, 2932, 44, 56;
mentioned 19, 26, 29, 347, 448,
53 n. 131, 56, 75, 168, 189190, 218.
See also tradition; law.
reward (thawb) retributive versus
unmerited 197200; naturalistic
1634; Mutazil purpose for creating
humans as opportunity to earn 77,
2134; mentioned 36, 735, 989, 105,

267

116, 128, 155, 158, 161, 173, 1924,

212, 2167, 221. See also justice.
ri#d (see good pleasure)
Ri#d, Rashd 5
right (marf ) 37, 42, 44, 124, 214
rubbiyya (see lordship)
sabab (see cause)
Salaf (the pious early Muslims) 1, 6,
202, 31, 49, 54, 579, 69, 95 n. 103,
96, 107 n. 17, 1178, 126, 130, 151,
168
Slim, Mu#hammad Rashd 10, 11 n. 23
sam (see tradition)
Satan 6 n. 13, 201, 205. See also Ibls.
satans (shay$tn) 43, 45, 110, 125, 134,
194
sayyia (evil deed/thing) 345, 1635,
196206, translation of 197
Schimmel, Annemarie 3
secondary cause (see cause)
seeing with two eyes 130
self-sufficiency (see sufficiency)
service (ibda) (see worship)
shaf a (intercession) 15, 125 n. 99, 158,
206
Shfis 77, 144, 155
Shahrastn (al-) (d. 548/1153) 113,
140, 220
Shams (Ibn Taymiyya) 1158, 219.
See also translations.
Shams, Mu#hammad Uzayr 6 n. 14
shar (see revelation; law)
shara (see law)
sharr (see evil)
Shif (Ibn Sn) 177
Shihadeh, Ayman 142 n. 19, 144 n. 26
Shs, Shism 1011, 778, 84, 95,
107, 114, 1302, 149, 152, 173,
2123
shirk (see associationism)
similitudes (amthl ) in Qurn
translation 21 n. 10; in theology
(see highest similitude)
sins (dhunb, kha$tya) lead to virtues
132, 1915; origin of 197205,
2089; initial 205; mentioned 27,
109, 163, 177, 182 n. 16, 212, 218,
2213
sitting (istiw) 46, 545
skepticism 69, 1134, 129, 144 n. 26
soft determinism 1389
soul, self (nafs) ignorance and evil in 191,
196208; weakness of 205207; celestial

268

index

106 n. 14; mentioned 34, 413, 52, 98,

115, 123, 139, 151, 158, 163, 165
species/genus 845, 8790, 99
spiritual discipline, evil as 3, 132, 177,
1915, 202, 223
stripping away (ta$tl) 4950, 67, 83, 173
Stroumsa, Gedaliahu 107 n. 23, 113
n. 63
Stroumsa, Sarah 107 n. 23, 113 n. 63
subsisting in (qim bi) God 79, 81, 85,
956, 98; humans 146, 1534, 183
n. 22, 200
substrate (ma#hall ) God as 79, 95;
human as 139, 1546, 166, 195, 200,
2046; receptive to burning 158
sufficiency (ghin) of God 78, 96101,
194; human 208; Ibn Sn on 702;
Joseph Bell on 725
Sufs, Sufism 48, 57, 75, 77, 121, 129,
134 n. 139, 145, 149, 155, 225; of Ibn
Taymiyya 7; critiqued 7, 23, 1035,
108115, 116 n. 74, 129; and evil as
instrumental 3, 177, 186, 195
Sufyn al-Thawr (d. 161/778) 170
n. 138, 171
Suhrawrd (al-) (d. 587/1191) 31 n. 41
suitable (mulim) 34, 36
Sulaymn b. Sa#hmn (d. 1349/1930) 6
n. 13
Sunna (Ab Bakr al-Khalll) 170
Sunna 1921, 30, 43, 49, 58 n. 146, 64,
168, 170, 179, 187 n. 42; People of the
95, 119, 1734. See also hadith reports
quoted.
Sunns, Sunnism 4, 778, 95, 128, 144,
152, 155, 167, 173, 193 n. 71, 199,
211 n. 2; al-(Hills critique of 1012, 74,
114, 130, 132
supplication (see asking for help)
switching perspectives 161, 164, 1689,
189, 200, 205
syllogism (qiys al-shuml ) 579, 62
Syria 7, 11 n. 23, 30
$ta (see obedience)
&Tabar (al-) (d. 310/923) 54, 197 n. 83
Tadmuriyya (Ibn Taymiyya) described
13; Gods attributes 4952, 656;
creation and command 104113;
secondary causality 157163. See also
translations.
Tafsr (Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz) 1435, 186
n. 34,

tafsr (interpretation, linguistic

explanation) 545
Tahfut al-falsifa (al-Ghazl) 84
tajsm (corporealism) 47
takfr (expiation) 132, 1925
taklf (see obligation)
takyf (see modality)
Talqt (Ibn Sn) 139
Tamm (al-), Ab al-(Hasan (d. 371/982)
77
tamthl (likening) 4852, 117, 2134
tanzh (incomparability) 4650, 57
$tqa (ability) 1478, 1659
taqw (piety) 221, 159; opposite
immorality 115, 119
taraddud (hesitation) 47, 123
Taraddud (Ibn Taymiyya) 1235.
See also translations.
tarj#h (see preponderance)
tark (omission) 2004
tasalsul (endless chain, infinite
regress) 74, 7781, 86, 916, 146
tashbh (see assimilation)
tathr (efficacy) 136, 1401, 1617
ta$tl (stripping away) 4950, 67, 83, 173
tawakkul (complete trust) 278, 159,
206
tawba (see repentance)
taw#hd (uniqueness, exclusivity of God)
289, 1212, 195
tawl (reinterpretation) 47, 545, 64
$tayyibt (agreeable things) 37, 43
teleological ethic 356, 39, 45
test (imti#hn) 192
thanawiyya (dualism) 1078, 113 n. 63,
114
thawb (see reward)
Thawr (al-) (see Sufyn al-Thawr)
theistic subjectivism 35
theodicy defined 13; free-will (see
Mutazils); best-of-all-possible-worlds
(see optimism). See also justice.
theological jurisprudence, theological
fiqh 1926, 4669; apologetic and
philosophical quality of 22, 25, 29,
689; instrumentalized 235. See also
highest similitude.
three brothers, story of 2145
Throne (arsh) of God 46, 545
Thulth (Ibn Taymiyya) 182, 1879.
See also translations.
Tilimsn (al-) (d. 690/1291) 110
time (see perpetuity; eternity)

index
Tirmidh (al-) (d. 279/892) 187
Torah (Genesis 1:12) 91
tradition, revealed (naql, sam)
correspondence to reason 2932;
mentioned 17, 20, 22, 46, 48, 54, 56,
62, 65, 90, 118, 153. See also revelation;
hadith reports quoted
transcendence (see incomparability)
translations of Ibn Taymiyyas texts
(two lines or more) (MF 6:567)
245; (MF 8:198) 130; (MF 12:229)
3940; Abd al-Qdir (MF 10:481)
42; Ab Dharr (MF 18:139) 217, (MF
18:145) 217, (MF 18:145) 2178; Ab
al-Fid (159) 31; dil ( JR 1234) 221,
( JR 130) 222, ( JR 133) 223, ( JR 136)
223, ( JR 136) 2234, ( JR 142) 227;
Akmaliyya (MF 6:83) 67, (MF 6:84) 67;
Dar (1:61) 151, (8:455) 423; Fti#ha
(MF 14:17) 207, (MF 14:18) 207, (MF
14:19) 207, (MF 14:21) 183, 183
n. 22; F Fu$s$s (MF 2:3989) 121, (MF
2:406) 122; F Wujb (MF 1:48) 4041;
Furqn (MF 13:138) 32; (Hamawiyya
(MF 5:367) 54, (MF 5:107) 556;
(Hasana (MF 14:2489) 196, (MF
14:259) 198, (MF 14:261) 199,
(MF 14:266) 183, (MF 14:278) 200,
(MF 14:287) 201, (MF 14:290) 201,
(MF 14:296) 201, (MF 14:299) 183,
(MF 14:300) 184, (MF 14:302) 194,
(MF 14:309) 194, (MF 14:3189)
193, (MF 14:331) 203, (MF
14:3335) 2034, (MF 14:3367)
2045; I#htijj (MF 8:310) 34, (MF
8:312) 44; Irda (MF 8:81) 77,
(MF 8:84) 79, (MF 8:97) 190,
(MF 8:8990) 98, (MF 8:93) 185,
(MF 8:934) 186, (MF 8:95) 188,
(MF 8:96) 1867, (MF 8:115) 113,
(MF 8:138) 159, (MF 8:1389)
159, (MF 8:144) 99, (MF 8:145)
100, (MF 8:146) 101; Isfahniyya
(49) 589, (87) 66; Isti$t a (MF 8:372)
148, (MF 8:375) 153; Itti#hdiyyn
(MF 2:255) 110; Jabr (MF 8:459) 155,
(MF 8:460) 111, (MF 8:4623) 171,
(MF 8:4634) 171, (MF 8:464) 171,
(MF 8:465) 172, (MF 8:511) 191,
(MF 8:512) 183 n. 22, (MF 8:513)
191; Jawb (4:395) 39; Kasb (MF
8:387) 1656 n. 122, (MF 8:390)
161, (MF 8:396) 163; Ma#habba (214)

269

48; Man$tiqiyyn (424) 34; Minhj

(1:146/1:356) 80, (1:1478/1:36) 81,
(1:148/1:36) 812, 83 (1:1489/1:36)
83, (1:149/1:36) 88, (1:236/1:62) 89,
(1:327/1:89) 96, (1:344/1:95) 82,
(1:351/1:97) 83, (1:360/1:100) 90,
(1:371/1:103) 87, (1:3978/1:111) 166,
(1:405/1:113) 86, (1:407/1:113) 150,
(1:407/1:1134) 150, (1:421/1:117) 99,
(1:4223/1:118) 95, (2:314/1:215) 74,
(2:400/1:227) 194 n. 71, (3:14/1:266)
74, (3:29/1:269) 36, (3:29/1:270) 36,
(3:712/2:6) 150, (3:142/2:25) 181,
(3:144/2:25) 181, (3:146/2:26) 147,
(3:172/2:32) 131, (3:176/2:33) 1312,
(3:1989/2:39) 215, (3:269/2:57) 147
n. 37, (5:410/3:102) 188; Nubuwwt
(111) 99100 n. 118, (4301) 44;
Qiys (MF 20:505) 57; Qudra (MF
8:21) 64, (MF 8:356) 97, (MF 8:36)
97, (MF 8:37) 97; Shams (MF 16:235)
115, (MF 16:236) 107 n. 17, (MF
16:2378) 116, (MF 16:238) 116,
(MF 16:239240) 1167, (MF
16:241) 1178, (MF 16:246) 112;
Shirk (MF 1:89) 278, (MF 1:90)
130 n. 127; Ta (MF 8:446) 114;
Tadmuriyya (MF 3:34) 49, (MF
3:28) 66, (MF 3:30) 66, (MF 3:1113)
105 and 158, (MF 3:115) 36; Ta#hsn
al-aql (MF 8:434) 37; Talbs (2:454)
289; Taraddud (MF 18:1313)
1235; Thulth (MF 17:64) 126,
(MF 17:945) 187; Wsi$ta (MF
1:137) 162; Wsi$tiyya (MF 3:141)
173, (MF 3:149150) 119120;
Wa$siyya kubr (MF 3:3734)
1734
trial of Ibn Taymiyya 7, 55; as spiritual
discipline (ibtil, fitna) 38, 1923
&Ts (al-), Na$sr al-Dn (d. 672/1274) 31
n. 41, 152
ulhiyya (see divinity)
Umar b. al-Kha$t$tb (d. 23/644) 173
Umayyads 108
Unificationists (itti#hds) 110
uniqueness of God (taw#hd) 289,
1212, 195
universals 502, 57, 656
unsuitable (munfir) 34, 36
u!sl (see principles)
Uthmn b. Affn (d. 35/656) 173

270

index

voluntarism (see Ashars)

voluntarist ethic 35, 45
voluntary (ikhtiyr) attributes and acts
of God 21, 24, 79, 96; human acts 138,
1424, 147, 1523, 161, 1646, 172.
See also free choice.
wa#hdat al-wujd (oneness of
existence) 23, 110
wasa!t (median, golden mean) 173, 203
Wsi$tiyya (Ibn Taymiyya) 119120, 173.
See also translations.
weakness, human 2057
will
(irda, masha) of God: irda and
masha distinguished 1278; Kalm
and Sufi views of irda and masha
73, 124, 1279; as masha 105,
119120, 124, 157, 207; creative/
ontological/determinative and
commanding/legislative/religious
28, 73, 123130, 223 (see also love);
coherence of 1305; and lordship and
divinity 126; causality, wise purpose
and rationality in 7480, 989, 181
n. 15; perpetual dynamism of 21,
81, 847, 926; and secondary
causality 1614; al-Ghazl 71, 846;
Ibn Sn 712; mentioned 512,
108110, 115, 118, 121, 169, 1735,
2047, 2168, 224 n. 58
(irda) human: Gods creation of 412,
138154, 1734, 202; reality of
120, 161, 1735; Ibn Taymiyyas
imprecision in 149151; obligation
of 1679; and compulsion 138,
1712. See also free choice.
Williams, Wesley 5960 n. 150
wise purpose, wisdom (#hikma) in Gods
will, creation and acts, classification of
views on 768; affirmed in creation,
determination, lordship, etc. 1213, 127,
164, 172, 189195, 202, 214; affirmed
in unbelief, disobedience, evil, what
is hated, etc. 73, 1335, 156, 1815,
2035, 208, 216, 2223; in placement
of body parts 219220; in commanding
but not creating 1303; in specific evils

1905 (see also evil); in commands

378; and Ibls/Satan 6 n. 13, 192;
as causal 73 n. 13, 7481, 92, 94,
181 n. 15; 183, 202; and Gods
perfection and self-sufficiency 725,
78, 81 n. 44, 97101; and an endless
chain into the future 801; and an
endless chain into the past 7995; and
originating events in Gods essence
7980, 956; love of 735, 80, 97,
1335; and divinity and essence
1945; and right to praise 66, 195;
basis in Quran and Hadith for 182;
and justice and retribution 221; in
parallel to justice and mercy (see mercy;
justice); and prophecy 2189; and
purpose (ghara#d ) 745; as translation
of #hikma 73 n. 13; Joseph Bell on 726;
in Ibn Sn 177 n. 2; denial of (see Ibls;
Ashars; Jahm b. %Safwn)
words (kalimt), ontological and
religious 1224, 149
worship (ibda) meaning and scope
239, 1212; includes speaking well
about God 25 (see also theological
jurisprudence; highest similitude); Gods
worthiness of 29, 647, 73, 122, 195,
206; of God alone, epistemological
foundations for 34, 38, 42, 68; humans
created to 425, 97 n. 111, 124;
incorrect 50, 57, 63, 108110, 125,
202; translation of ibda as 23.
See also praise.
writing (kitb) of God 105, 119, 124,
217
wrong (munkar) 37, 42, 44, 124, 163,
214
yang/yin dialectic 189
&Zhirs 57, 77
Zamakhshar (al-) (d. 538/1144) 37
n. 81, 152 n. 62, 197 n. 83
zandiqa (see free-thinkers)
Zoroastrians, Zoroastrianism 413, 107,
113 n. 63
Zubayd (al-) (d. 149/766) 170
!zulm (see injustice)