God is omniscient. A long debate about the nature of God’s knowledge continued for centuries. A long-standing attempt to explain Islamic theology using the reasoning of Greek philosophers such as Aristotle and Plato began during the Abbasid dynasty. The kings and caliphs, attracted by the concept of the philosopher-king, encouraged the movement to explain Islamic theology on the basis of Greek philosophies.
Among the philosophers who came in this line, Ibn Sina (980-1037 CE) occupies a prominent place. His views are one of the most debated aspects of Islamic theology. His views, especially about God’s knowledge of individual events and details that occur in the world, have caused much controversy. Ibn Sina argued that God does not know individual details directly, but knows them in a universal way. That is, instead of knowing each individual event in its small details, he considered that God knows the universal principles and laws that govern those details.
Some theologians considered that the claim that God has no direct knowledge of individual events to be inconsistent with the Islamic doctrine of God’s omniscience and omnipotence. Since the idea that Ibn Sina’s view was derived from the essence of Greek philosophy was widely held in the Islamic world, many considered it to be a departure from the basic tenets of Islamic theology. Imam al-Ghazali (1058–1111 CE) was a harsh critic of Ibn Sina’s philosophy, arguing that it contradicted Islamic principles.
Al-Ghazali asserted that God has direct and complete knowledge of every individual event, great or small. This, he argued, was entirely consistent with the Islamic doctrine of God’s omniscience and omnipotence.
Al-Ghazali considered Ibn Sina’s view to be a comparison of God’s knowledge with human knowledge. He also thought that this belittled God’s greatness and uniqueness.
He argued that philosophy and its systems had limitations in answering theological questions. In particular, he considered Greek philosophy (Aristotle and Plato) and its Islamic interpretations (Ibn Sina and al-Farabi) to be fundamentally at odds with Islamic principles.
Al-Ghazali’s reaction – by comparing Ibn Sina’s philosophy with Islamic principles – was to expose its shortcomings. It reaffirmed Islamic beliefs about the knowledge and omnipotence of God. This debate – between Islamic philosophy and theology – was a crucial conflict. It significantly changed the course of Islamic thought.
However, Ibn Sina’s philosophical views did not become completely obsolete. Over time, Ibn Sina’s epistemological ideas had a great influence on the West.
#RamjanPost : 2/3/2025
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