Darʾ Taʿâroud al-ʿAql wa-n-Naql - Ibn Taimiya - (10/76)

Darʾ Taʿâroud al-ʿAql wa-n-NaqlIbn Taimiya

I would reply to you:

It is clear that your claim that the Creator’s very knowledge is the created thing itself is even more rationally impossible than this. Thus, if identifying knowledge that something will occur with knowledge that it has occurred is false, it is nevertheless more rationally tenable than identifying knowledge with the created thing itself.

Since it is more rationally tenable, accepting it—if the renewal of knowledge is objectionable—is preferable to accepting the latter. If such renewal is not objectionable, then it may be accepted.

[The Seventeenth Argument]

It may be asked:

Why do you say that it is impossible for new knowledge to arise and inhere in the essence of the First after the created thing comes into existence?

As for your statement that He is exalted above that, there is no doubt that He is far exalted above what the wrongdoers say.

Your opponent says:

It is you who are the wrongdoer who fabricates lies against Allah: you have stripped Him of the attributes of perfection, described Him as ignorant, asserted impossibilities concerning Him, and departed from the truth concerning His names and signs in the manner of your misguided sect.

Those who affirm His attributes, however, have described Him with the attributes of perfection. They have upheld the explicit teachings transmitted from the prophets and messengers, what Allah has instilled in the innate nature of all His servants, and what sound human reason clearly demonstrates. They have described their Lord as hearing their speech, seeing their persons, and hearing their secrets and private conversations.

You, however, have described the Lord of all worlds as the opposite of this, and have ascribed to Him no knowledge other than created things.

Yet created things are not knowledge, as all those of sound innate disposition agree. Exalted, then, is the True King above your claims and those of fabricators and deviants like you—the enemies of the prophets, the devils among humankind, who inspire one another with embellished speech to deceive.

قلت لك: معلوم أن قولك: إن نفس علم الخالق هو نفس المخلوق، أشد امتناعاً في العقل من هذا، فعجل العلم بأن سيكون هو العلم بأن قد كان، إن كان باطلاً، فهو أقرب إلى العقل من جعل العلم نفس المخلوق. وإذا كان أقرب إلى العقل، كان التزامه -إن كان تجدد العلم محذوراً- أولى من التزام ذاك، وإن لم يكن محذوراً، التزم ذاك. [الوجه السابع عشر] أن يقال: لم قلت إن استئناف علم يحل ذات الأول بعد وجود المخلوق محال؟. وقولك: إنه يتعالى عن ذلك، فلا ريب أنه يتعالى عما يقول الظالمون علواً كبيراً. ومنازعك يقول: إنك أنت الظالم المفتري على الله، الذي سلبته صفات الكمال، ووصفته بصفة الجهل، وقلت فيه المحال، وألحدت في أسمائه وآياته إلحاد طائفتك الضلال. وأما أهل الإثبات فوصفوه بصفات الكمال، ووافقوا صريح المنقول عن الأنبياء والمرسلين، وما فطر الله عليه عباده أجمعين، وما دلت عليه صرائح عقول الآدميين، ووصفوا ربهم بأنه يسمع كلامهم، ويرى أعيانهم، ويسمع سرهم ونجواهم. وأنت وصفت رب العالمين بنقيض ذلك، ولم تجعل له علماً سوى المخلوقات. والمخلوقات ليست علماً باتفاق أهل الفطر السليمات، فتعالى الملك الحق عن قولك، وقول أمثالك المفترين الملحدين، أعداء الأنبياء، شياطين الإنس، الذين يوحي بعضهم إلى بعض زخرف القول غروراً.