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Cultural Relations Between Christianity and Shia Islam 3 - Al-Shia The Scientific and Cultural Website of Shia belief Cultural Relations Between Christianity and Shia Islam 3 2021-06-24 437 Views Islam , Cultural relations , The Christianity In this part of the article “Cultural Relations between Christianity and Shia Islam”, we shall continue with the cultural relations between Christianity and Shia Islam.

8.Divine Attributes: Some of the Mutakallimun (Ashariah) are of the view that Divine Attributes are like the persons in the Christian doctrine of Trinity. For they believe that Divine Attributes are distinct beings separate from the Divine Essence and are eternal as well.

Yet, other Mutakallimun (Mutazilah) and those who followed the School of denied the eternity of the Quran and by meticulous philosophical arguments, so that not to be entrapped into the embodiment and incarnation of Christianity. Of course, they believe in the eternity of Divine Attributes, not as distinct beings, but as identical with Divine Essence and deny any polytheism. Thus, they are free from any shirk.

These scholars of Kalam are of the view that to believe in eternal distinct Divine Attributes would lead to a certain dilemma that Christians face by believing in Trinity. To be eternal and at the same time be distinct from the Divine Essence would result in a belief in many eternal beings which impair Divine Unity (Tawhid), as al- Shaykh al-Mufid held that such an idea would lead to belief in many eternal beings.

(1) 9) In order to believe in eternal and distinct Divine Attributes and at the same time keep on believing in Divine Unity and discard the ascription of any unreal attributes to God, al-Shaykh al-Mufid propounded the following rational matters: “If God is ascribed to the attributes of the living, the powerful, the knowing.

The such attributes contain rational matters that is, they are not identical with Divine Essence.”(2) By the meanings of such matters, he means that attributes are not distinct from the ontological point of view, but are distinct from the epistemological viewpoint, as he says: “By rational matters I mean those matters which are rational in mind not concrete and objective.” (3) With deep insight into al-Mufids views, one can infer that by Maqul, he means something that later on was called by Sabziwari as the primacy of being over quiddity.

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