Dimensions of Divine Freedom

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Professor of Philosophy, The Imam Khomeini Education and Research Institute, Qom, Iran.

Abstract

Divine freedom is reviewed with respect to three important themes: fate, revisions in divine decisions, and divine obligations. A study of the first theme yields the conclusion that God is free because He has absolute power and authority. In addition, God is free in relation to human beings in the sense that He can do what they do not expect. This theme is found under the heading of decree and measure, qaḍāʾ and qadar. Theologians have also grappled with the problem that the divine decrees appear to change, and on the tablet containing the divine decrees, there can be changes and erasures. This leads to the second topic, badāʾ, the apparent revision of divine decisions, which the theologians treat as abrogations of commands. God can be understood to foster a relationship with us in which He will appear to us as free to respond to our changing conditions, especially prayer and repentance. Finally, the obligations God sets for Himself and reveals to us through scripture are considered. This indicates a kind of divine freedom that only has meaning in the loving relationship between God and His servants that is cultivated through divine revelation. It is then suggested that these various dimensions of divine freedom can best be understood through complementing philosophical and scriptural approaches to the issues and that the understanding of this kind of synthetic hermeneutics can be deepened through comparative theology.

Keywords


‘Alī, J. (1993). Al-Mufaṣṣal fī Tarīkh al-ʿArab qabl al-Islām. Baghdad: University of Baghdad Press.
al-Salih, S. (Ed.). (1412/1991). Nahj al-Balāgha. Qom: Dar al-Hijrah.
Ayoub, M. (1986). Divine Preordination and Human Hope a Study of the Concept of Badāʾ in Imāmī Shīʿī Tradition. Journal of the American Oriental Society, 106(4), 623-632. doi: 10.2307/603526
Bagnoli, C. (2018). Emotions and the Dynamics of Reasons. Journal of Value Inquiry, 52(3), 347-363. doi:10.1007/s10790-018-9650-0
Bagnoli, C. (2020). Loveʼs Luck-Knot. Emotional vulnerability and symmetrical accountability. Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities, 25(1-2), 195-208. doi: 10.1080/0969725X.2020.171780
Böwering, G. (1997). The Concept of Time in Islam. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 141(1), 55-66. doi: 10.2307/987249
Chittick, W. C. (2013). Divine Love: Islamic Literature and the Path to God. New Haven & London: Yale University Press.
El Kaisy-Friemuth, M. (2019). The Concept of Freedom in Islam. In: G. Tamer & U. Männle (Eds.), The Concept of Freedom in Judaism, Christianity and Islam (pp.101-146). Berlin: de Gruyter.
Ibn Babawayh, M. I. (2009). Kitāb Al-Tawḥīd. (A. R. Rizvi, Trans.) Qom: The Savior Foundation.
Majlisi, M. B. (1387-1392/1956-1972). Biḥār al-Anwār. Tehran: Dār al-Kutūb al-Islamiyah.
Maybudī, R.-D. (2015). The Unveiling of the Mysteries and the Provision of the Pious: Kashf al-Asrār wa ʿUddat al-Abrār. (W. C. Chittick, Ed.) Amman: Fons Vitae.
Misbah Yazdi, M. (1999). Philosophical Instructions. (M. Legenhausen, & Sarvdalir, Trans.) Binghamton: IGCS and Brigham Young University.
Mutahhari, M. (1357/1978). ʿAdl ʾIlāhī (Divine Justice) (10th printing ed.). Qom: Sadra Publications.
Neuwirth, A. (2014). Scripture, Poetry and the Making of a Community: Reading the Qurʾan as a Literary Text. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Plato. (1961). The Collected Dialogues of Plato. (E. H. Cairns, Ed.) Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Rizvi, S. H. (2012). Only the Imam Knows Best The Maktab­e Tafkīkʼs Attack on the Legitimacy of Philosophy in Iran. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 22(3-4), 487-503. doi: 10.1017/S1356186312000417
Rosati, C. (2011). The Importance of Self-Promises. In: H. Sheinman (Ed.), Promises and Agreements (pp.124-155). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sanders, J. & Von Stosch, K. (Eds.). (2022). Divine Action: Challenges for Muslim and Christian Theology. Paderborn: Brill | Schöningh.
doi: 10.30965/9783657791279
Schmidt, J. (2022). Was wir uns schulden: Über Pflichten gegen sich selbst. forthcoming.
CAPTCHA Image