Analysis of the Relationship between God's Essence and His Attributes in the Theological Perspective of Sheikh Mofid

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 PhD Student in Islamic Philosophy and Theology, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

2 Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

3 Professor, Department of Philosophy, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran,

Abstract

There are few issues in the history of human thought that have made people reflect as much as the cognition of God and his attributes. Trying to answer this question has always been one of the serious efforts of thinkers of every era. In the theological thought of Imamiyyah, the opinion of Sheikh Mofid, which is one of the most influential and stable ideas in the field of theology and has caused deep intellectual changes after him, has special privileges in answering the mentioned issue. This article seeks to examine the foundations of Sheikh Mofid regarding the most important issue of divine attributes, i.e. "analysis of the relationship between God's essence and His names and attributes" by referring to his theological thought in the Shia intellectual system. After examining some views of Muslim theologians on this issue, such as "excess", "substitution" and "state theory" as well as analyzing the opinions of supporters and opponents of the Imamiyyah view, i.e. "the identity of the essence with attributes", we try to show the lack of conflict in Sheikh Mofid's statements in proving the principle of identity, considering the principles extracted from his opinions on the aforementioned issue. Finally, we emphasize the superiority of monotheism in Shiite thought as the basis of Sheikh Mofid's view and the final finding of this research, which has been the common feature among Imami theologians after him.

Keywords

References

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Shi`a Pajoohi
Volume 8, Issue 22
August 2022
Pages 139-157

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