ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Theological Instructions LESSON SEVEN: PROOFS OF NECESSARY EXISTENT Introduction In the previous lessons we have indicated that the philosophers and the scholars of theology (mutakallimīn) have established several arguments for the proof of God. In this lesson we have brought one of their many arguments, because of the fact that it is elementary, simple and requires less of an introduction in order to establish an existence as necessary (wājib).

However the validity of this argument is only for proving necessary existent (wājib al-wujūd), i.e. an existent which does not need, require or depend upon any other existent for coming into being and in order to proof its positive attributes (knowledge, omnipotence, and being above time and space) requires additional arguments. Text of the proof Existence through intellectual perception is either necessary existence or possible existence.

Intellectually, no existent lies outside these two assumptions and every existent cannot be known as a possible existent because a possible existent always needs a cause (‘illah). If all the causes were possible existents, each one of them in turn requiring a cause, no existent would ever come into being, in other words an infinite series (tasalsul) of causes is impossible (muhāl).

Therefore an infinite series (back wards) of causes is compelled to terminate in an existent (mawjūd), which is not a caused thing (ma’lūl) of any other existent, i.e. the necessary existent. This argument is the simplest argument in philosophy for proving the existence of God. This argument has been constructed with a few intellectual syllogisms and does not need any form of sense perception or experimental sciences as premises.

However it has used philosophical concepts and terminologies, hence it requires an explanation about these premises and terminologies mentioned in the argument. Possibility and necessity All propositions have two fundamental concepts (subject and predicate) regardless of them being simple or complex, for example in the following axiom, ‘The sun shines’, which establishes shining for the sun, ‘sun’ is the subject and ‘shining’ is the predicate.