One of the most enduring points of debate among Islamic philosophers
and Islamic theologians has been the attributes of God, particularly His
attribute of knowledge. In the early stages of the formation of schools
of thought in Islamic philosophy, while the relationship between God
and His attributes was being debated-based in part on the attribute of
knowledge (namely, whether the attributes are identical to or distinct
from His essence)-Avicenna, an Islamic philosopher of the Peripatetic
and Neoplatonic schools, was the first to develop a different perspective
regarding God’s attribute of knowledge.
Human beings know particulars through sensory perception as corporeal
entities, which is bound to a specific time and place. While this is
true of humans, God is transcendent not only of sensory perceptions
but also of time, space and matter. Seeking an answer to the question
of how God can know individual entities-which are material, bound by
time and space, and knowable only through the senses-Avicenna advances
the thesis that God knows these individual entities not as we do,
but in universally.
Avicenna’s thesis was systematically criticized by al-Ghazzali-a figure
held in high esteem throughout the Islamic world, whose ideas were
highly influential, and who was recognized as an authority in the religious
sciences of his time in his works Makâsid al-falasifa, al-Munkiz min
al-dalâl and Tahâfüt al-falasifa. From al-Ghazzali’s perspective, to say
that one knows a particular as a universal is a meaningless statement,
and this amounts to nothing other than the implication that “God does
not know particulars.”
According to al-Ghazzali, philosophers claim that the universe is eternal,
that God does not know particulars, and that they deny the physical
resurrection; with these three views, they have fallen into unbelief. In
this study, we will draw on primary sources to objectively present the
views and ideas of both sides.
Keywords: Knowledge of God; Particular; To Declare Someone Unbeliever;
Avicenna; al-Gâzâlî; Everroes