Document Type : Reveiw Article
Author
Assistant Professor, Department of Comparative Theology, Research Institute of Theology and Family, Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies (ISCA), Isfahan, Iran.
Abstract
Unlike divine attributes such as knowledge (ʿilm) and will (Irādah), whose various aspects have been the subject of numerous philosophical and theological investigations, the attribute of God’s power (Qudrah) and its different dimensions have received comparatively less scholarly attention. The present research, through a thorough examination of the works of prominent early Imāmī theologians, investigates their views and arguments concerning divine power. This study reveals a significant difference between the interpretation and arguments of traditionist‑theologians (Muḥaddith‑Mutakallimūn) following the transmitted‑theological school (Kalām Naqlī) and those of the rationalist theologians of the Baghdad School regarding divine power. Al‑Kulaynī and al‑Ṣadūq maintained that a negative (Salbī) interpretation of divine power should be presented, negating its opposite from the divine essence; thus, God’s being powerful means that He is not incapable or impotent. In contrast, the theologians of the Baghdad School adopted a positive (Ījābī) interpretation of divine power, asserting that God’s being powerful means that the performance of acts and deeds is possible for Him. In their view, the only way to prove God’s power is by reference to His actions. Accordingly, they advanced an argument for God’s power based on analogy from the visible to the unseen (Qiyās al-Ghāʾib bi al-Shāhid). Conducting a historical‑descriptive investigation of the ḥadīth and theological works surviving from the fourth and fifth centuries AH, the present study provides a historical account of the different approaches of Imāmī theologians in explaining and proving divine power, thereby offering a clearer picture of the evolution of discussions concerning divine power in the early periods of Imāmī theology.
Keywords
Nahj al-Balāghah.
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