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Negative Theology

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Negative Theology or Apophatic Theology (Arabic: اللاهوت السلبي) is a perspective regarding Divine Attributes according to which one can speak about God only in a negative manner. According to this approach, all Positive Attributes of God are reduced to Negative Attributes. Proponents of this view, such as al-Shaykh al-Saduq, Ya'qub b. Ishaq al-Kindi, Mulla Rajab Ali al-Tabrizi, and the majority of the Mu'tazila, cite verses such as "Nothing is like Him" (Arabic: لَیْسَ کَمِثْلِهِ شَیْءٌ) and hadiths negating attributes to avoid likening God to creatures (tashbih) and to prevent polytheism.

This approach has been criticized; Muslim scholars including Murtada Mutahhari and Muhammad Taqi Misbah Yazdi believe that human reason is capable of knowing God's attributes, and interpreting positive attributes as negative meanings is incorrect and incomplete. Furthermore, this view is inconsistent with verses and hadiths that affirm attributes for God.

Position and Conceptology

Negative theology is one of the viewpoints regarding the possibility of knowing God's Attributes.[1] Proponents of this view believe that one can only speak about God and His attributes in a negative manner.[2] In their view, human beings are incapable of knowing the positive attributes of God and can only comprehend His negative attributes. In this approach, God's positive attributes are reduced to negative meanings; for example, God being All-Knowing means He is not ignorant, and His being All-Powerful means He is not incapable.[3] According to al-Shaykh al-Saduq, whenever we describe God with the attributes of Essence, we are in fact negating their opposites from Him; for instance, by describing God with knowledge, the opposite, i.e., ignorance, is negated, and by describing Him with power, the opposite, i.e., incapacity, is negated from Him.[4] Ya'qub b. Ishaq al-Kindi, considering the Intellect incapable of knowing God, also believed that a philosopher cannot speak about God affirmatively and can only know God through negative propositions.[5]

Al-Shaykh al-Saduq,[6] Ya'qub b. Ishaq al-Kindi (a philosopher of the 3rd/9th century),[7] Qadi Sa'id al-Qummi (a Shi'a gnostic of the 12th/18th century),[8] Mulla Salih al-Mazandarani,[9] and the majority of the Mu'tazila[10] are counted among the proponents of negative theology. Mulla Rajab Ali al-Tabrizi is considered one of the most important theorists of apophatic theology in Shi'a wisdom,[11] who denied the identity of the Divine Essence and Attributes.[12] Negative theology also has proponents in other Divine religions such as Judaism and Christianity, such as Maimonides.[13]

This discussion has been raised in Islamic Theology, Irfan (Mysticism), and New Theology.[14]

Arguments

Followers of negative theology have presented arguments to prove their view,[15] some of which are:

  • Avoiding likening God to creatures (Tashbih):[16] Any attribute affirmed for God might be derived from the characteristics of creatures and considered as likening Him to creatures.[17] This view is based on the limitation of human reason in knowing God and its inability to comprehend Divine attributes.[18]
  • Avoiding Polytheism and the Trinity:[19] Not falling into shirk (polytheism) or the doctrine of the Trinity is a main concern of the proponents of negative theology.[20]
  • Avoiding Composition in God: God is Simple (Basīṭ) and not composite; thus, He has no attribute that would cause composition in Him. This argument has been presented by citing the first sermon of Nahj al-Balagha.[21]

Verses and Hadiths

Quranic verses[22] and hadiths[23] have also been used to support negative theology, such as "Nothing is like Him" (Quran 42:11)[24] and verses in which the word "Subḥān" (Glory be to Him/He is free from...) is used.[25]

In a hadith narrated from Imam Ali (a)[26] and Imam al-Rida (a),[27] it is stated that the system of Tawhid (Monotheism) is based on the negation of attributes from God; because every attribute and described object is a creature, and every creature has a creator who lacks that attribute and description. Qadi Sa'id al-Qummi has interpreted the negation of attributes in this narration as the reduction of all positive attributes to negative attributes.[28]

Critiques

Most Muslim philosophers and theologians consider human reason capable of knowing the Divine Names, Attributes, and Acts.[29] Based on this view, some Muslim scholars have criticized the negative approach to theology and God's attributes. Murtada Mutahhari believes that avoiding likening the Creator to the creature should not lead to denying any attribute applicable to creatures from God. He considers the difference between the Creator and the creature to be in Necessity and Possibility (Wujub and Imkan), Infinitude and Finitude, and being Essential (bi l-dhat) versus being Derived (bi l-ghayr). For example, God's Knowledge and human knowledge are both knowledge; however, God's knowledge is independent, essential, infinite, and absolute.[30] Mutahhari believes that negative theology renders human reason incapable of knowing God and ultimately leads to the denial of God and His Oneness.[31]

Muhammad Taqi Misbah Yazdi believes that interpreting positive attributes as negative meanings is an incorrect understanding of absolute Tanzih (transcendence). According to him, negating one of two contradictories means affirming the other contradictory; for instance, if knowledge and ignorance are contradictories, by negating ignorance from God, God's knowledge is affirmed.[32] He explains that negating ignorance without understanding knowledge renders the meaning incomplete, and to understand "non-ignorance", knowledge must first be proven.[33]

Ja'far Subhani, while accepting the limitation of human reason in knowing God and negative attributes, believes that reducing positive attributes to negative ones is inconsistent with Quranic verses that describe God with positive attributes.[34] According to Misbah Yazdi, the existence of a large number of verses in the Quran regarding God's attributes and the Quran's encouragement of reflection and contemplation indicate that humans have the ability to understand and comprehend Divine attributes.[35]

See Also

Notes

  1. ↑ See: ʿAlī Khānī, "Ilāhiyyāt-i salbī; sayr-i tārīkhī wa barrasī-yi dīdgāh-hā", pp. 90-91.
  2. ↑ ʿAlī Khānī, "Ilāhiyyāt-i salbī; sayr-i tārīkhī wa barrasī-yi dīdgāh-hā", p. 91.
  3. ↑ Muṭahharī, Majmūʿa-yi āthār, 1390 Sh, vol. 6, p. 1031.
  4. ↑ Ṣadūq, Al-Tawḥīd, 1398 AH, p. 148.
  5. ↑ Tavakkulī, "Ilāhiyyāt-i salbī", p. 97.
  6. ↑ Ṣadūq, Al-Tawḥīd, 1398 AH, p. 148; Miṣbāḥ Yazdī, Khudā-shināsī, 1389 Sh, p. 132.
  7. ↑ Tavakkulī, "Ilāhiyyāt-i salbī", p. 97.
  8. ↑ ʿAlī Khānī, "Ilāhiyyāt-i salbī; sayr-i tārīkhī wa barrasī-yi dīdgāh-hā", p. 100; Tavakkulī, "Ilāhiyyāt-i salbī", p. 98.
  9. ↑ Miṣbāḥ Yazdī, Khudā-shināsī, 1389 Sh, p. 132.
  10. ↑ Miṣbāḥ Yazdī, Khudā-shināsī, 1389 Sh, p. 132.
  11. ↑ Fanā, "Tabrīzī, Mullā Rajab-ʿAlī", vol. 6, p. 420.
  12. ↑ Fanā, "Tabrīzī, Mullā Rajab-ʿAlī", vol. 6, p. 420.
  13. ↑ Tavakkulī, "Ilāhiyyāt-i salbī", pp. 93-94.
  14. ↑ ʿAlī Khānī, "Ilāhiyyāt-i salbī; sayr-i tārīkhī wa barrasī-yi dīdgāh-hā", p. 90.
  15. ↑ See: Tavakkulī, "Ilāhiyyāt-i salbī", pp. 99-104.
  16. ↑ See: Ṣadūq, Al-Tawḥīd, 1398 AH, p. 148.
  17. ↑ Muṭahharī, Majmūʿa-yi āthār, 1390 Sh, vol. 6, p. 1031; ʿAlī Khānī, "Ilāhiyyāt-i salbī; sayr-i tārīkhī wa barrasī-yi dīdgāh-hā", p. 91.
  18. ↑ Tavakkulī, "Ilāhiyyāt-i salbī", pp. 102-103.
  19. ↑ Tavakkulī, "Ilāhiyyāt-i salbī", p. 96.
  20. ↑ Tavakkulī, "Ilāhiyyāt-i salbī", p. 106.
  21. ↑ Tavakkulī, "Ilāhiyyāt-i salbī", pp. 99-100.
  22. ↑ For example see: Qur'an, 42:11; Qur'an, 37:180; Qur'an, 23:91.
  23. ↑ Ibn Shuʿba al-Ḥarrānī, Tuḥfat al-ʿuqūl, 1404 AH, p. 61; Ṣadūq, Al-Tawḥīd, 1398 AH, pp. 35, 57; Sayyid Raḍī, Nahj al-balāgha, Sermon 1, p. 39.
  24. ↑ Quran, 42:11.
  25. ↑ Tavakkulī, "Ilāhiyyāt-i salbī", p. 96.
  26. ↑ Ibn Shuʿba al-Ḥarrānī, Tuḥfat al-ʿuqūl, 1404 AH, p. 61.
  27. ↑ Ṣadūq, Al-Tawḥīd, 1398 AH, p. 35.
  28. ↑ Qummī, Sharḥ tawḥīd al-Ṣadūq, 1415 AH, vol. 1, p. 116.
  29. ↑ Saʿīdī-Mihr, Āmūzish-i kalām-i Islāmī 1, 1388 Sh, pp. 196-197.
  30. ↑ Muṭahharī, Majmūʿa-yi āthār, 1390 Sh, vol. 6, p. 1034.
  31. ↑ Muṭahharī, Majmūʿa-yi āthār, 1390 Sh, vol. 6, p. 1035.
  32. ↑ Miṣbāḥ Yazdī, Āmūzish-i falsafa, 1390 Sh, vol. 2, p. 460.
  33. ↑ Miṣbāḥ Yazdī, Āmūzish-i falsafa, 1390 Sh, vol. 2, p. 460.
  34. ↑ Subḥānī, Al-Ilāhiyyāt, 1413 AH, vol. 2, p. 8.
  35. ↑ Miṣbāḥ Yazdī, Khudā-shināsī, 1389 Sh, p. 134.

References

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  • Subḥānī, Jaʿfar. Al-Ilāhiyyāt ʿalā hudā al-Kitāb wa al-Sunna wa al-ʿaql. Qom, Muʾassisa al-Imām al-Ṣādiq (a), 4th ed., 1413 AH.
  • Tavakkulī, Ghulāmḥusayn. "Ilāhiyyāt-i salbī". Pazhūhishnāma-yi Falsafa-yi Dīn. No. 1, Bahār wa Tābistān 1386 Sh.
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