Nature, Man and God in Medieval Islam : : Volume Two.

• VerfasserIn: Calverley, Edwin,
• TeilnehmendeR: Pollock, James.
• Place / Publishing House: : : BRILL,, 2022.; ©2002.
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (478 pages)

A contemporary to Thomas Aquinas in Latin Catholic Italy, and with a parallel motivation to stabilize each his own civilization in its flux and storm, 'Abd Allah Baydawi of Ilkhan Persia wrote a compact and memorable Arabic Summation of Islamic Natural and Traditional Theology. With the same strokes of his pen he presented the Islamic version of the Science of Theological Statement, bafflingly called "Kalam" while familiarly embracing "Theology". Baydawi's Tawali'al-Anwar min Matal'al-Anzar (Rays of Dawnlight Outstreaming from Far Horizons of Logical Reasoning), with Mahmud Isfahani's commentary, is a formidably clear logical and mental vision of mankind's final completion as a spiritual structure in Islam. Reality - in nature's Possible mode, in an apodictic Divine mode, and in humanity's heroic Prophetic mode - comprises man's Worldview and is the Theme of the Baydawi/Isfahani discourse. The Edifice of Man and Humanity's evanescent Evidence within it are both hugely arresting and moving. The print edition is available as a set of two volumes (9789004121027).

Table of Contents

Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- BOOK TWO REALITIES DIVINE -- Section 1: The essence of God -- Chapter 1: Comprehensive knowledge about God -- 1. Invalidation of circular and infinite series arguments -- 2. Proof for the existence of the Necessary Existent -- 3. Experiential knowledge of God's essence -- Chapter 2: Qualities not properly attributable to God -- 1. Exclusion of resemblance between God's reality and any other being -- 2. Exclusion of corporeality and regionality -- The argument of the corporealists -- 3. Exclusion of union and incarnate indwelling -- 4. Exclusion of temporal phenomena from subsistence in God -- 5. Exclusion of sensate qualities -- Chapter 3: Doctrine of the divine singularity -- 1. Arguments of the Muslim philosophers and of the Mutakallimun -- Section 2: The attributes of God -- Chapter 1: Established attributes, the basis of God's acts -- 1. God's omnipotence in autonomous action -- Divine omnipotence related to some problems of logic -- God's omnipotence in autonomous action is over all possible realities -- 2. God's ever-present omniscience -- An argument at variance -- Corollary l: God comprehends all intelligibles -- Corollary 2: God's 'knowledge' and 'power' are entities distinct from Himself -- 3. God's living nature -- 4. God's will -- God's will is not a temporal phenomenon -- Chapter 2: Other attributes, not the basis of God's acts -- 1. God's hearing and sight -- 2. God's speech -- God's spoken word is truthful -- 3. God's immortality -- 4. Other qualities that al-Ash'ari named attributes -- 5. God's production of being -- 6. God's beatific visibility to believers in the hereafter -- Mu'tazilah arguments at variance -- Section 3: The acts of God and the acts of mankind [by topics] -- 1. On the acts of mankind -- Mu 'tazilah doctrine, "Autonomy" in human acts.

Asha 'irah doctrine, "Compulsion" in human acts -- 2. God is the agency that wills moral phenomena in all creatures -- 3. On predicating the good and the heinous -- 4. God is under no obligation whatsoever -- 5. God's acts are not based on hidden purposes -- 6. Obligations imposed are God's notice to humankind of a final life evaluation -- BOOK THREE REALITIES PROPHETIC -- Section 1: Prophethood [by topics] -- 1. Mankind's need for the Prophet -- 2. The possibility of miracles [in psychology and religion] -- 3. The prophethood of the Prophet Muhammad -- Refutation of the Brahmans' doctrine on the intellect -- Refutation of the Jews' doctrine on the Mosaic Law -- 4. The blamelessness of the prophets -- Blamelessness is a psychic possession preventing iniquity -- 5. The prophets are superior to the angels -- 6. The signs of divine favor [given to saints and prophets] -- Section 2: The resurrection assembly and the recompense [by topics] -- 1. Restoration of the vanished nonexistent -- 2. The Resurrection Assembly of human bodies -- Whether the body's atomic particles actually will be annihilated then restored -- 3. The Garden and the Fire -- The Garden and the Fire are created entities -- 4a. The Mu'tazilah on reward and punishment -- 4b. The Asha 'irah on reward and punishment -- 5. Pardon and intercession for those guilty of the dreadful great sins -- 6. Certainty of earned torment in the grave -- 7. Other traditional doctrines -- 8. The terms 'faith' and 'evidential practice' in the religious code -- Section 3: The supreme leadership of the Muslim community [by topics] -- 1. On the obligation to appoint a supreme leader -- The Sunni Asha'irah argument of human traditional responsibility -- The Imamiyah argument of the divine benevolence -- 2. The attributes of an Imam -- Blamelessness not a prerequisite -- 3. Criteria to be met in appointing an Imam.

4a. The rightful Imam after the Prophet: Abu Bakr in Sunni doctrine -- 4b. The rightful Imam after the Prophet: 'Ali in Shi'ah doctrine -- 5. The excellence of the Companions -- Table of Romanization -- Glossary -- Illustrations to Book 1, Section 3 -- Bibliography -- Index.