Alhassanain(p) Network for Heritage and Islamic Thought

A Commentary on Theistic Arguments

This book is corrected and edited by Al-Hassanain (p) Institue for Islamic Heritage and Thought

• About the Author
• Translator’s Word
• Acknowledgements and Dedication
• The Author’s Preface
• Chapter One: Knowledge and Sophistry
• Priority of Ontology over Epistemology
• Metaphysical Sources of Knowledge
• Open and Latent Skepticism
• Incorporeality, Universality, Immutability, and Continuity of Knowledge
• Corollaries of Knowledge
• Knowledge and Mental Existence
• Divisions of Knowledge
• Knowledge, Faith, and Theoretical and Practical Reasons
• Self-evident and Primary Cognitions
• Necessary Truth of Primary Propositions
• Difference between Epistemic Certitude and Psychological Certitude
• Epistemic Certitude, Probability, and Social Conventions
• Foundation of Discursive Propositions on Primary and Self-Evident Propositions
• Primariness of the First Figure
• The Principle of Non-Contradiction
• The Principle of Non-Contradiction and the Validity of the First Figure
• The Principle of Non-Contradiction and Multiplicity of Definite Propositions
• The Principle of Non-Contradiction in the Traditions
• Abu Sa‛eed Abu al-Khayr’s Criticism of the Use of Syllogism
• Intuitive Knowledge and its Categories
• Soul and the Intuitive Knowledge thereof
• Abstraction and Universalization of Causation
• Knowledge and Epistemology
• Philosophy in its General and Specific Senses
• Philosophy and Particular Disciplines
• Chapter Two: Faith and Reason
• Sophistic Impartations and the Denial of Commensurability of Faith with Reason
• The Mutual Existential Necessitation between Faith and Reason in the Islamic Traditions
• The Ignorant Devout and the Unlearned Pious
• First Knowledge is the Cognition of the Almighty
• Disparagement of Acquired Knowledge and Mistrust of Theoretical Disciplines
• The Commensurability of Religious Tenets with Philosophic Arguments
• Rational Arguments in the Islamic Scriptures
• The Legacy of Nahj al-Balāgha to the History of Islamic Thought
• Non-questionability of Monotheism and Indemonstrability of Atheism
• Difference between the Arguments of Divine Existence and the Arguments of His Attributes
• Chapter Three: The Demonstration of Contingency and Necessity
• Notions of Contingency and Necessity and Signs of Contingency
• Argument from Contingents to the Necessary
• Instrumentality of the Mediates and the Efficacy of the Necessary
• Hudūth of the Mediates and Eternity of the Divine Grace
• Criticisms and Evaluations
• Evaluation of Hume’s Criticism
• The Denial of Philosophic Meaning of Necessity and its Answer
• Evaluation of the Epistemological Criticism
• Chapter Four: The Arguments from Motion and Huduth
• Premises of the Arguments from Motion and Hudūth
• Evaluation of the Argument from Causality
• Limitations of the Arguments from Motion and Hudūth
• Evaluation of Criticisms of the Arguments from Motion and Hudūth
• Chapter Five: The Demonstration of Contingency of Impoverishment
• Transition from Quidditative Contingency to Contingency of Impoverishment
• Contingency of Impoverishment and the Essential Independence of the Necessary
• Unique Qualities of the Demonstration of Contingency of Impoverishment
• Chapter Six: The Ontological Argument of Anselm
• Argument in the Form of Reductio ad Absurdum
• Gaunilo’s Criticism and its Adduction
• The Fundamental Flaw of Anselm’s Argument
• Failure to Make Distinction between Concept and Extension in the Demonstrations of Gnostics
• The Evaluation of Kant’s Tripartite Criticism of Anselm’s Argument
• Addendum
• Chapter Seven: The Demonstration of the Veracious
• The Demonstration of the Veracious in Ibn Sīnā’s Works
• The Demonstration of the Veracious in Transcendent Wisdom
• The Demonstration of the Veracious in ‛Allāmah Tabātabā’i’s Works
• Allamah Tabātabā’i’s Exposition of the Demonstration
• The Qualities of the Demonstration of the Veracious
• Chapter Eight: The Argument from Design
• What is Order?
• Does Order Exist?
• Why does Order Exist?
• The Argument from Design and the Noble Qur’ān
• The Argument from Design and the Problem of Evil
• Chapter Nine: The Argument from Miracles
• Miracles in the View of Islamic Philosophers and Western Theologians
• Extraordinary Events: Mu‛jiza, Karāma, I‛āna, and Ihāna
• Miracles as Rational Proofs
• Rational Possibility and Ordinary Impossibility of Miracles
• Chapter Ten: The Argument from Religious Experience
• Religious Experience and Demonstrative Reasoning
• Definite and Indefinite Shuhūds
• Deviation from Rational Cognition and Decline into Open and Latent Skepticism
• Chapter Eleven: The Moral Arguments
• Discursive Arguments based on Moral Commands
• The Common Criticism of the Moral Arguments
• The Affirmation of Incorporeal Existence through Analysis of Reason
• Kant’s Moral Arguments
• The First Criticism of Kant’s Moral Argument
• The Second Criticism of Kant’s Moral Argument
• Chapter Twelve: The Demonstration of Primordial Nature
• Usage of Reciprocity in the Demonstration of Primordial Nature
• Two Expositions of the Demonstration of Primordial Nature
• The Minor Premise of the Demonstration of Primordial Nature
• A Criticism and Its Evaluation
• The Demonstration of Primordial Nature in The Noble Qur’ān
• Notes