The Classical Islamic Arguments for the Existence of God (original) (raw)

"Approaches to the Knowledge of God in Classical Islamic Thought"

The Modern Experience of the Religious, 2023

This article explores and discusses different approaches—the theological, the philo- sophical, and the Sufi—to the knowledge and experience of God within the Islamic intellectual tradition. Throughout the discussion the question that arises is to what kind of knowledge or experience of God do each of these approaches lead. The mutakallimūn (theologians) and the philosophers formulate convincing arguments for the existence of God and His nature. However, the deductive reasoning they both employ has its limits, and their methods contrast with theoretical or speculative Sufism, whose aim is to engage deeply in the systematic account of the experiential knowledge of God. After revising the scope of the arguments for the existence of God of al-Ashʿarī and al-Ghazālī, and then, the arguments of some Peripatetic philosophers of the Islamic classical period, I focus the debate on the contrast between the deduc- tive reasoning and the intuitive knowledge of God according to theoretical or specula- tive Sufism, introducing Suhrawardī and Ibn ʿArabī. Finally, the article concludes with some remarks and a brief disquisition on what could be the correct path to the knowl- edge of God.