Darʾ Taʿâroud al-ʿAql wa-n-Naql - Ibn Taimiya - (10/278)

Darʾ Taʿâroud al-ʿAql wa-n-NaqlIbn Taimiya

and Allah has no counterpart, He can be known only in the way particular beings are known: through knowledge specific to the one known, inwardly and outwardly—as He guides His believing servants to Him through faith in Him in this world, and as He manifests Himself to them in the Hereafter.

This knowledge accords with what they have heard of how He has described Himself and how His Messenger has described Him. Thus faith and the Quran agree, and demonstration and direct perception accord.

Allah—glory be to Him—has endowed His servants with an innate disposition to acknowledge Him, one that relates specifically to Him rather than to a universal concept shared by Him and others. Likewise, He has endowed sight with the ability to see the sun itself, rather than to know it through a shared concept, as in the definition:

“A star that rises by day.”

Rather, people’s knowledge of the sun is greater than their knowledge of other individual stars or of stars as a kind, if the sun were of the same kind as the stars. How much more so if it is not of their kind!

This is why the proofs of the Creator are signs pointing to Him. A sign is specific to that of which it is a sign. It is not a universal syllogism indicating a general, shared meaning; rather, it points to a particular existent, distinct from others.

Universal syllogistic arguments, for which logicians and those like them reserve the term “demonstration,” indicate only something universal. For example, our statement:

“Human beings come into existence,
and whatever comes into existence has an originator,”

comprises two universal propositions.

The statement “Human beings come into existence” applies to every human being. A person’s knowledge that one particular human being came into existence is like his knowledge that another human being came into existence. His knowledge of this universal proposition is no more complete than his knowledge concerning a particular individual. However, someone may not know what holds true of a particular individual and may therefore infer it from a comparable case.

والله لا نظير له، امتنع أن يعرف إلا بما تعرف به الأعيان من المعارف الخاصة بالمعروف باطناً وظاهراً، كما يهدي إليه به عباده المؤمنين من الإيمان به في الدنيا، وكما يتجلى لهم في الدار الآخرة. وهذه المعرفة تطابق ما سمعوه، مما وصف به نفسه، ووصفه به رسوله، فيتطابق الإيمان والقرآن، ويتوافق البرهان والعيان. والله سبحانه فطر عباده على الإقرار به فطرة تختص به، ليست كلية مشتركة بينه وبين غيره، كما جعل في الإبصار قوة ترى بها الشمس بخصوصها، لا تعرف الشمس معرفة مشتركة. كما يقال في حدها: كوكب يطلع نهاراً. بل معرفة الناس للشمس أعظم من معرفتهم لغيرها من أعيان الكواكب ولنوع الكواكب، لو كانت الشمس من نوع الكواكب، فكيف إذا لم تكن من نوعها؟. ولهذا كانت الدلائل على الخالق آيات له. والآية تختص بما في آية عليه، ليست قياساً كلياً يدل على معنى مشترك عام، بل تدل على معين موجود متميز عن غيره. والأدلة القياسية الكلية التي يخصها باسم البرهان أهل المنطق ونحوهم، لا تدل إلا على أمر كلي. كقولنا: الإنسان محدث، وكل محدث فله محدث: ينتظم قضيتين كليتين. فقول القائل: الإنسان محدث، يعم كل إنسان، وعلمه بحدوث الإنسان المعين كعلمه بحدوث الإنسان الآخر، ليس علمه بهذه القضية الكلية أكمل من علمه بالواحد المعين، إلا أنه قد يجهل الإنسان حكم المعين، فيستدل عليه بنظيره.