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Kumūn, İstiḥāla, and Khalq: Three Concepts in Ibn Ḥazm's Cosmology

Year 2011, Volume: 2 Issue: 1, 83 - 109, 01.06.2011
https://doi.org/10.12730/13091719.2011.21.29

Abstract

The Kalām’s cosmology essentially depends on the theory of atomism
which suggests that everything in the world is composed of atoms
and accidents inherent in atoms, all created by God. Atomism is,
however, not the only theory of nature in kalām to support creationism.
An alternative theory to it is the theory of latency, kumūn, which
is formulated in the two different versions, the comprehensive and
the limited one, and is mostly attributed to Muʿtazilī theologian al-
Naẓẓām. Nevertheless this theory is not accepted by all opponents of
atomism like Ibn Ḥazm. The present article attempts to examine Ibn
Ḥazm’s views on the theory of latency in particular, and on the creation
in general with a comparison to al-Naẓẓām’s ideas, and also to
seek Ibn Ḥazm’s cosmology in the three key concepts: latency (kumūn),
transformation (istiḥāla), and creation (khalq). The article
points out that although Ibn Ḥazm gives some examples in accordance
with the theory of latency, it does not mean that he approves
the theory attributed to al-Naẓẓām as a whole with its theoretical
background.

References

  • Abū Rīda, Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Hādī, Min shuyūkh al-Muʿtazila Ibrāhīm ibn Sayyār al-Naẓẓām wa-ārāʾuhū l-kalāmiyya al-falsafiyya (2nd ed., Cairo: Dār al-Nadīm, 1989).
  • al-Alousi, Husam Muhi Eldin, The Problem of Creation in Islamic Thought: Qurʾān, Hadīth, Commentaries, and Kalām (Cambridge: The National Printing and Publishing Co., 1965).
  • al-Āmidī, Abū l-Ḥasan Sayf al-Dīn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad, al-Mubīn fī sharḥ maʿānī alfāẓ al-ḥukamāʾ wa-l-mutakallimīn (ed. Ḥasan Maḥmūd al-Shāfiʿī; Cairo: Maktabat Wahba, 1993).
  • al-Ashʿarī, Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Ismāʿīl, Maqālāt al-Islāmiyyīn wa-khtilāf al-muṣallīn, 2 vols., (ed. Hellmut Ritter; Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1963).
  • al-Baghdādī, Abū Manṣūr ʿAbd al-Qāhir ibn Ṭāhir, al-Farq bayna l-firaq (ed. Muḥammad Muḥyī al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd; Beirut: al-Maktaba al-ʿAṣriyya, 1993).
  • al-Bāqillānī, Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn al-Ṭayyib, Kitāb al-tamhīd (ed. Richard J. McCarthy; Beirut: al-Maktaba al-Sharqiyya, 1957).
  • Dhanani, Alnoor, The Physical Theory of Kalām: Atoms, Space, and Void in Basrian Muʿtazilī Cosmology (Leiden, New York & Köln: E. J. Brill, 1994).
  • Ess, Josef van, The Flowering of Muslim Theology (trans. Jane Marie Todd; Cambridge, Mass. & London: Harvard University Press, 2006).
  • Ess, Josef van, "Kumūn," Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, V, 384-385.
  • Frank, Richard M., "Bodies and Atoms: The Ashʿarite Analysis," in Michael E. Marmura (ed.), Islamic Theology and Philosophy: Studies in Honor of George F. Hourani (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1984), 39-53, 287-293.
  • Ibn Ḥazm, Abū Muḥammad ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad, al-Faṣl fī l-milal wa-l-ahwāʾ wa-l-niḥal, 5 parts in 3 vols., (Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifa, 1975).
  • Ibn Ḥazm, al-Uṣūl wa-l-furūʿ, 2 vols., (eds. Muḥammad ʿĀṭif al-ʿIrāqī et al.; Cairo: Dār al-Nahḍa al-ʿArabiyya, 1978).
  • Ibn Mattawayh, Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥasan ibn Aḥmad al-Najrānī, al-Tadhkira fī aḥkām al-jawāhir wa-l-aʿrāḍ (eds. Sāmī Naṣr Luṭf and Fayṣal Budayr ʿAwn; Cairo: Dār al-Thaqāfa li-l-Ṭibāʿa wa-l-Nashr, 1975).
  • Ibn Sīnā, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh, Kitāb al-najāt fī l-ḥikma al-manṭiqiyya wa-l-ṭabīʿiyya wa-l-ilāhiyya (ed. Mājid Fakhrī; Beirut: Dār al-Āfāq al-Jadīda, 1985).
  • Ibn Taymiyya, Taqī al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm, Majmūʿ fatāwā Sheikh al-islām Aḥmad Ibn Taymiyya, 36 vols., (ed. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad al-ʿĀṣimī al-Najdī; Riyāḍ: Matābiʿ al-Riyāḍ, 1381 H.).
  • al-Ījī, ʿAḍud al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Aḥmad, al-Mawāqif fī ʿilm al-kalām (Cairo: Maktabat al-Mutanabbī, n.d.).
  • al-Jābirī, Muḥammad ʿĀbid, Binyat al-ʿaql al-ʿArabī: Dirāsa taḥlīliyya naqdiyya li-nuẓum al-maʿrifa fī l-thaqāfa al-ʿArabiyya (6th ed., Beirut: Markaz Dirāsāt al-Waḥda al-ʿArabiyya, 2000).
  • al-Jāḥiẓ, Abū ʿUthmān ʿAmr ibn Baḥr, Kitāb al-ḥayawān, 7 vols., (ed. ʿAbd al-Salām Muḥammad Hārūn; Beirut: Dār al-Jīl, 1988).
  • al-Khayyāṭ, Abū l-Ḥusayn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm ibn Muḥammad, Kitāb al-intiṣār wa-l-radd ʿalā Ibn al-Rāwandī al-mulḥid (ed. Albert Naṣrī Nādir; Beirut: al-Maṭbaʿa al-Kāthūlīkiyya, 1957).
  • al-Khwārazmī, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf, Mafātīḥ al-ʿulūm (ed. Ibrāhīm al-Abyārī; 2nd ed., Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī, 1989).
  • Koloğlu, Orhan Şener, "İbn Hazm'ın Atomculuğu Reddi [Ibn Ḥazm's Refutation of Atomism]," Uludağ Üniversitesi İlâhiyat Fakültesi Dergisi [The Review of the Faculty of Theology, Uludağ University] 16/2 (2007), 169-194.
  • Macdonald, Duncan Black, "Continuous re-Creation and Atomic Time in Muslim Scholastic Theology," Isis 9 (1927), 326-344. https://doi.org/10.1086/358474
  • al-Marghīnānī, Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Abī Bakr, al-Hidāya sharḥ Bidāyat al-mubtadiʾ, 4 parts in 2 vols., (Istanbul: Kahraman Yayınları, 1986).
  • al-Mawṣilī, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Maḥmūd ibn Mawdūd, al-Ikhtiyār li-taʿlīl al-Mukhtār, 5 parts in 1 volume, (Istanbul: Çağrı Yayınları, 1984).
  • al-Nīsābūrī, Saʿīd ibn Muḥammad Abū Rashīd, al-Masāʾil fī l-khilāf bayna l-Baṣriyyīn wa-l-Baghdādiyyīn (eds. Maʿn Ziyāda and Riḍwān al-Sayyid; Beirut: Maʿhad al-Inmāʾ al-ʿArabī, 1979).
  • Pines, Shlomo, Madhhab al-dharra ʿinda l-Muslimīn (translated into Arabic by Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Hādī Abū Rīda; Cairo: Maktabat al-Nahḍa al-Miṣriyya, 1946).
  • al-Qurṭubī, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad, al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 20 parts in 10 vols., (Cairo: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī, 1967).
  • al-Sayyid, M. Ṣāliḥ Muḥammad, Abū Jaʿfar al-Iskāfī wa-ārāuhū l-kalāmiyya wa-l-falsafiyya (Cairo: Dār Qubāʾ, 1998).
  • al-Shahrastānī, Abū l-Fatḥ Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm, al-Milal wa-l-niḥal, 2 vols., (eds. Amīr ʿAlī Mahnā and ʿAlī Ḥasan Fāʿūr; 5th ed., Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifa, 1996).
  • al-Tabrīzī, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr, al-Muqaddimāt al-khams wa-l-ʿishrūn min Dilālat al-ḥāʾirīn (ed. Muḥammad Zāhid al-Kawtharī; Cairo: al-Maktaba al-Azhariyya li-l-Turāth, 1993).
  • al-Tahānawī, Muḥammad Aʿlā ibn ʿAlī, Kashshāf iṣṭilāḥāt al-funūn, 2 vols., (eds. Mawlawī Muḥammad Wajīh et al.; Calcutta: The Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1862).
  • Wolfson, Harry Austryn, The Philosophy of the Kalam (Cambridge, Mass. & London: Harvard University Press, 1976).
  • al-Zamakhsharī, Abū l-Qāsim Jār Allāh Maḥmūd ibn ʿUmar, al-Kashshāf ʿan ḥaqāʿiq ghawāmiḍ al-tanzīl wa-ʿuyūn al-aqāwīl fī wujūh al-taʾwīl, 4 vols., (ed. Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Salām Shāhīn; Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1995).
Year 2011, Volume: 2 Issue: 1, 83 - 109, 01.06.2011
https://doi.org/10.12730/13091719.2011.21.29

Abstract

References

  • Abū Rīda, Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Hādī, Min shuyūkh al-Muʿtazila Ibrāhīm ibn Sayyār al-Naẓẓām wa-ārāʾuhū l-kalāmiyya al-falsafiyya (2nd ed., Cairo: Dār al-Nadīm, 1989).
  • al-Alousi, Husam Muhi Eldin, The Problem of Creation in Islamic Thought: Qurʾān, Hadīth, Commentaries, and Kalām (Cambridge: The National Printing and Publishing Co., 1965).
  • al-Āmidī, Abū l-Ḥasan Sayf al-Dīn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad, al-Mubīn fī sharḥ maʿānī alfāẓ al-ḥukamāʾ wa-l-mutakallimīn (ed. Ḥasan Maḥmūd al-Shāfiʿī; Cairo: Maktabat Wahba, 1993).
  • al-Ashʿarī, Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Ismāʿīl, Maqālāt al-Islāmiyyīn wa-khtilāf al-muṣallīn, 2 vols., (ed. Hellmut Ritter; Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1963).
  • al-Baghdādī, Abū Manṣūr ʿAbd al-Qāhir ibn Ṭāhir, al-Farq bayna l-firaq (ed. Muḥammad Muḥyī al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd; Beirut: al-Maktaba al-ʿAṣriyya, 1993).
  • al-Bāqillānī, Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn al-Ṭayyib, Kitāb al-tamhīd (ed. Richard J. McCarthy; Beirut: al-Maktaba al-Sharqiyya, 1957).
  • Dhanani, Alnoor, The Physical Theory of Kalām: Atoms, Space, and Void in Basrian Muʿtazilī Cosmology (Leiden, New York & Köln: E. J. Brill, 1994).
  • Ess, Josef van, The Flowering of Muslim Theology (trans. Jane Marie Todd; Cambridge, Mass. & London: Harvard University Press, 2006).
  • Ess, Josef van, "Kumūn," Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, V, 384-385.
  • Frank, Richard M., "Bodies and Atoms: The Ashʿarite Analysis," in Michael E. Marmura (ed.), Islamic Theology and Philosophy: Studies in Honor of George F. Hourani (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1984), 39-53, 287-293.
  • Ibn Ḥazm, Abū Muḥammad ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad, al-Faṣl fī l-milal wa-l-ahwāʾ wa-l-niḥal, 5 parts in 3 vols., (Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifa, 1975).
  • Ibn Ḥazm, al-Uṣūl wa-l-furūʿ, 2 vols., (eds. Muḥammad ʿĀṭif al-ʿIrāqī et al.; Cairo: Dār al-Nahḍa al-ʿArabiyya, 1978).
  • Ibn Mattawayh, Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥasan ibn Aḥmad al-Najrānī, al-Tadhkira fī aḥkām al-jawāhir wa-l-aʿrāḍ (eds. Sāmī Naṣr Luṭf and Fayṣal Budayr ʿAwn; Cairo: Dār al-Thaqāfa li-l-Ṭibāʿa wa-l-Nashr, 1975).
  • Ibn Sīnā, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh, Kitāb al-najāt fī l-ḥikma al-manṭiqiyya wa-l-ṭabīʿiyya wa-l-ilāhiyya (ed. Mājid Fakhrī; Beirut: Dār al-Āfāq al-Jadīda, 1985).
  • Ibn Taymiyya, Taqī al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm, Majmūʿ fatāwā Sheikh al-islām Aḥmad Ibn Taymiyya, 36 vols., (ed. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad al-ʿĀṣimī al-Najdī; Riyāḍ: Matābiʿ al-Riyāḍ, 1381 H.).
  • al-Ījī, ʿAḍud al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Aḥmad, al-Mawāqif fī ʿilm al-kalām (Cairo: Maktabat al-Mutanabbī, n.d.).
  • al-Jābirī, Muḥammad ʿĀbid, Binyat al-ʿaql al-ʿArabī: Dirāsa taḥlīliyya naqdiyya li-nuẓum al-maʿrifa fī l-thaqāfa al-ʿArabiyya (6th ed., Beirut: Markaz Dirāsāt al-Waḥda al-ʿArabiyya, 2000).
  • al-Jāḥiẓ, Abū ʿUthmān ʿAmr ibn Baḥr, Kitāb al-ḥayawān, 7 vols., (ed. ʿAbd al-Salām Muḥammad Hārūn; Beirut: Dār al-Jīl, 1988).
  • al-Khayyāṭ, Abū l-Ḥusayn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm ibn Muḥammad, Kitāb al-intiṣār wa-l-radd ʿalā Ibn al-Rāwandī al-mulḥid (ed. Albert Naṣrī Nādir; Beirut: al-Maṭbaʿa al-Kāthūlīkiyya, 1957).
  • al-Khwārazmī, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf, Mafātīḥ al-ʿulūm (ed. Ibrāhīm al-Abyārī; 2nd ed., Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī, 1989).
  • Koloğlu, Orhan Şener, "İbn Hazm'ın Atomculuğu Reddi [Ibn Ḥazm's Refutation of Atomism]," Uludağ Üniversitesi İlâhiyat Fakültesi Dergisi [The Review of the Faculty of Theology, Uludağ University] 16/2 (2007), 169-194.
  • Macdonald, Duncan Black, "Continuous re-Creation and Atomic Time in Muslim Scholastic Theology," Isis 9 (1927), 326-344. https://doi.org/10.1086/358474
  • al-Marghīnānī, Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Abī Bakr, al-Hidāya sharḥ Bidāyat al-mubtadiʾ, 4 parts in 2 vols., (Istanbul: Kahraman Yayınları, 1986).
  • al-Mawṣilī, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Maḥmūd ibn Mawdūd, al-Ikhtiyār li-taʿlīl al-Mukhtār, 5 parts in 1 volume, (Istanbul: Çağrı Yayınları, 1984).
  • al-Nīsābūrī, Saʿīd ibn Muḥammad Abū Rashīd, al-Masāʾil fī l-khilāf bayna l-Baṣriyyīn wa-l-Baghdādiyyīn (eds. Maʿn Ziyāda and Riḍwān al-Sayyid; Beirut: Maʿhad al-Inmāʾ al-ʿArabī, 1979).
  • Pines, Shlomo, Madhhab al-dharra ʿinda l-Muslimīn (translated into Arabic by Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Hādī Abū Rīda; Cairo: Maktabat al-Nahḍa al-Miṣriyya, 1946).
  • al-Qurṭubī, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad, al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 20 parts in 10 vols., (Cairo: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī, 1967).
  • al-Sayyid, M. Ṣāliḥ Muḥammad, Abū Jaʿfar al-Iskāfī wa-ārāuhū l-kalāmiyya wa-l-falsafiyya (Cairo: Dār Qubāʾ, 1998).
  • al-Shahrastānī, Abū l-Fatḥ Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm, al-Milal wa-l-niḥal, 2 vols., (eds. Amīr ʿAlī Mahnā and ʿAlī Ḥasan Fāʿūr; 5th ed., Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifa, 1996).
  • al-Tabrīzī, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr, al-Muqaddimāt al-khams wa-l-ʿishrūn min Dilālat al-ḥāʾirīn (ed. Muḥammad Zāhid al-Kawtharī; Cairo: al-Maktaba al-Azhariyya li-l-Turāth, 1993).
  • al-Tahānawī, Muḥammad Aʿlā ibn ʿAlī, Kashshāf iṣṭilāḥāt al-funūn, 2 vols., (eds. Mawlawī Muḥammad Wajīh et al.; Calcutta: The Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1862).
  • Wolfson, Harry Austryn, The Philosophy of the Kalam (Cambridge, Mass. & London: Harvard University Press, 1976).
  • al-Zamakhsharī, Abū l-Qāsim Jār Allāh Maḥmūd ibn ʿUmar, al-Kashshāf ʿan ḥaqāʿiq ghawāmiḍ al-tanzīl wa-ʿuyūn al-aqāwīl fī wujūh al-taʾwīl, 4 vols., (ed. Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Salām Shāhīn; Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1995).
There are 33 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Subjects Religious Studies
Journal Section Research Articles
Authors

Orhan Şener Koloğlu

Publication Date June 1, 2011
Submission Date June 30, 2011
Published in Issue Year 2011 Volume: 2 Issue: 1

Cite

ISNAD Koloğlu, Orhan Şener. “Kumūn, İstiḥāla, and Khalq: Three Concepts in Ibn Ḥazm’s Cosmology”. Ilahiyat Studies 2/1 (June 2011), 83-109. https://doi.org/10.12730/13091719.2011.21.29.
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