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On the incompatibility of God's knowledge of particulars and the doctrine of divine immutability: towards a reform in Islamic theology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2020

EBRAHIM AZADEGAN Open the ORCID record for EBRAHIM AZADEGAN [Opens in a new window]
EBRAHIM AZADEGAN*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy of Science, Sharif University of Technology, Azadi Street, Tehran, Iran School of Analytic Philosophy, Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM), Niavaran Square, Tehran, Iran
*
e-mail: azadegan@sharif.ir
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Abstract

Affirming that divine knowledge of occurrent changes among particulars is incompatible with the doctrine of divine immutability, this article seeks to resolve this tension by denying the latter. Reviewing this long-running debate, I first formalize the exchange between al-Ghazālī and Avicenna on this topic, and then set out the ways in which contemporary Sadrāean philosophers have tried to resolve the incompatibility. I argue that none of the cited Sadrāean attempts to resolve the incompatibility between divine omniscience and immutability is successful. Then, by reference to certain principles drawn from Shia theology, I indicate how one might seek to reject the dogma of divine immutability. I conclude that by emancipating ourselves from that dogma, new horizons could be opened for Islamic philosophy, free from traditional Hellenistic constraints.

Type
Original Article
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 58 , Issue 2 , June 2022 , pp. 327 - 344
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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