THE NOTION OF FREE WILL AND ETHICAL CHOICE IN THE WORK “SHARH AL- 'AQA'ID” OF SA'AD AD-DIN TAFTAZANI

Abstract

The article provides an in-depth analysis of Sa’ad ad-Din Taftazani’s philosophical and ethical views on kalam (a popular speculative discipline of medieval Muslim literature that provides any reasoning on religious and philosophical topics) based on rational thinking. In particular, it aims at looking through one of the puzzling issues of kalam philosophy – freedom of will and ethical (moral) choice of a man discussed in “Sharh al- ‘Aqa’id” written by the great thinker. The work of Taftazani describes some features of the Creator as kindness and good deeds originally appeared from His creativity and instructs people to refrain from various actions that may occur due to undesirable human behavior. In this article, we analyze the conceptual ideas and views on the freedom of will and ethical (moral) choice of a man. We presented them as the biggest problems in the outstanding thinker’s spiritual heritage based on the philosophy of time and space. To be specific, the thinker considers the inadequacy of sin and apostasy as the features of disrespectful behavior and social morality. Furthermore, various religious and moral guidelines for testing people through their actions prohibited by socio-moral norms have been substantiated based on intellectual and metaphorical sources. Taftazani perfectly illustrated that the Creator has always commanded the human community to do only good deeds. Next, He commanded to be abstinent from restricted things and actions. He kept the freedom of man under moral criteria as obedience or disobedience to Shari’ah commands. The research discusses the harmony and disproportions in modern philosophy with the philosophical views of the thinker Taftazani in the management of human destiny and freedom of will. It thoroughly compares the notions of voluntarism and fatalism existing in modern philosophical terminology with Taftazani’s views on the issue related to freedom of will and moral choice. Additionally, I provide a comparative analysis on the interrelationship and differences between European philosophers’ views on the subject and Taftazani’s ideas. We have tried to express our views on the issue of freedom of will and ethical (moral) choice using the copy of “Sharh al- ‘Aqa’id” published in Great Britain.