Ibn Khaldūn on Attributes and Predestination

Abstract

IBN KHALDfUN opens his sketch of the science of the Kalam with a discussion of two topics, the of God and the power of God. His purpose is to show that the belief in the of God is not incompatible with the belief that attributes are real incorporeal beings, eternally subsisting in God, and that the belief in the power of God, that is, in predestination, is not incompatible with divine justice in its holding man responsible for his actions. These were two distinct problems in Muslim religious philosophy. He combines these two problems and tries to solve them by one common argument. The one common argument by which he tries to solve these two problems may be briefly stated. Throughout the history of philosophy, the and power of God were treated as corollaries deducible from the proofs of the existence of God. So Ibn Khalduin says to himself: Let us examine the proofs for the existence of God and see what kind of of God and what kind of power of God are established thereby, and then let us see whether that kind of is compatible with divine attributes and whether that kind of power is compatible with divine justice. Accordiingly, at the very beginning of his discussion of the Kalam, after stating that the unity of God is the core of the articles of faith and after declaring that he was going to prove the of God in a method and manner which is most direct,' he proceeds to prove not the of God but the existence of God. Let us study Ibn Khaldtin's proof of the existence of God. In Arabic philosophy, by the time of Ibn Khalduin (1332-1406), the proofs used for the existence of God were mainly of two types. Both of these types were of the cosmological kind. We may characterize them, with reference to their ultimate philosophical origin, as the Platonic type of argument and the Aristotelian type of argument. The Platonic type of argument starts with the assumption that the world came to be (-yvyvo,yevov) after it had not been,2 or as the Muslim theologians have come to express this view, the world was created (makhliiq). Then, adding the principle that everything created must have a creator, it directly infers that there must be a Creator. The Aristotelian type of argument starts with the assumption that the world is eternal. Then, by an empirical study of the world, it arrives at the conclusion, first, that every form of coming into being within the world is effected by a cause and, second, that since the world is eternal, the series of causes and effects would have to be infinite. Then, adding