Islam and the Contemporary World

Islam and the Contemporary World

Revisiting Divine Impassibility through Tabatabaʾi Notion of ‘Perfect Human’

Document Type : Short Article

Author
Mohammad Mahdi Fallah
Postdoctoral Researcher, College of Fellows, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
10.22034/icwj.2024.462183.1022
Abstract
In the realm of analytic philosophy, the prevailing concept of Allah underscores Divine impassibility owing to His inherent necessity. Nevertheless, the Qurʾan attributes characteristics such as consent (e.g., 5:119; 9:100; 48:18) and anger (e.g., 2:61; 4:93; 48:6; 60:13) to Allah. In light of certain statements attributed to the Infallibles, theologians have attempted to address this paradox through a two-fold approach: (1) distinguishing between two categories of God's attributes, namely those intrinsic to His essence and those abstracted from His actions, with the latter category deemed relational and contingent in nature, and (2) interpreting these attributes as consequential outcomes, where anger represents a form of punishment and consent signifies a reward. While Tabatabaʾi appears to support these solutions, he acknowledges this problem and alludes to other statements attributed to the Infallibles, asserting the role of the “Perfect Human” in ascribing these attributes to God. In the context of this discourse, Tabatabaʾi seeks to address the origin of Allah's attributes, suggesting that Allah experiences anger when the Perfect Human is dissatisfied and expresses consent when pleased. By invoking the notion of mediation, this approach appears to reconcile Allah's impassibility, as He remains unaffected by the contingent, while still permitting the ascription of emotional attributes. This article aims to articulate and evaluate this solution within the framework of Shia theoretical mysticism to determine its validity.
Keywords
Divine impassibility
perfect human
Muhammad Husayn Tabatabaʾi
Subjects
Al-Rāzī, Fakhr al-Dīn. 1990. al-Maṭālib al-ʿĀliyya min al-ʿIlm al-Ilāhī. Edited by Ahmad Hijazi al-Saqa. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿArabī. (In Arabic)
Al-Rāzī, Fakhr al-Dīn. 1994. al-Muḥaṣṣal. Cairo: Maktab Dār al-Turāth. (In Arabic)
Al-Ṣadūq, Muḥammad ibn Ali ibn Bābawayh (al-Shaykh al-Saduq). 2008. al-Tawẖīd. Edited by Seyyed Hashem Hosseini Tehrani. Qom: Muʾassasa al-Nashr al-Islāmī. (In Arabic)
Baḥrānī, Ibn Maytham. 1985. Qawāʿid al-Marām fī ʿIlm al-Kalām. Edited by Al-Sayyid Ahmad al-Husayni. Qom: Maktaba Ayatollah Marʿashī Najafī. (In Arabic)
Castelo, Daniel. 2019. “Qualified Impassibility.” In Divine Impassibility, edited by Robert J. Matz and A. Chadwick Thornhill. Downer Grove: InterVarsity Press.
Dolezal, E. James. 2019. “Strong Impassibility.” In Divine Impassibility, edited by Robert J. Matz and A. Chadwick Thornhill. Downer Grove: InterVarsity Press.
Fāḍil Miqdād, Miqdād ibn ʿAbdullah. 2003. al-Lawāmiʿ al-Ilāhiyya fī al-Mabāḥith al-Kalāmiyya. Qom: Majmaʿ al-Fikr al-Islāmī. (In Arabic)
Ḥillī, Ḥasan ibn Yūsuf (al-Allama al-Hilli). 2009. Kashf al-Murād fī Sharḥ Tajrīd al-Iʿtiqād. Qom: Muʾassasa al-Nashr al-Islāmī. (In Arabic)
Ibn Sina (Avicenna). 1997. al-Ilāhiyyāt min Kitāb Shifāʾ. Edited by Hassan Hassanzadeh Amoli. Qom: Markaz al-Nashr al-Islāmī al-Tābiʿ li Maktab al-Iʿlām al-Islāmī. (In Arabic)
Imam Ali ibn Abu Talib. 2009. Peak of Eloquence; Nahjul-Balagha. Edited by Yasin T. Al-Jibouri. New York: Tahrike Tarsile Qurʾan, Inc.
Kulaynī, Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb (Al-Kulayni). 1987. al-Kāfī, Vol. 1. Edited by Aliakbar Ghaffari & Mohammad Akhoundi. Tehran: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmiyya. (In Arabic)
Leftow, Brain. 2014. “Immutability.” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, edited by Edward. N. Zalta. URL=< https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/immutability>.
Mosley, J. K. 1926. The Impassibility of God: Survey of Christian Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Owen, H. P. 2006. “Concept of God.” In Encyclopedia of Philosophy, edited by Donald M. Borchert. Michigan: Thomson Gale.
Qalqashandī, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdullah. 2006. Itḥaf al-Saʾil bi-Ma li-Faṭima min al-Manāqib wa-l-Faḍāʾil. Edited by Mohammad Kazem Mousavi. Tehran: Majmaʿ-i Jahānī-yi Taqrīb-i Mazāhib-i Islāmī. (In Arabic)
Tabatabaʾi, Muhammad Husayn. 1973. Al-Mīzān fī Tafsīr al-Qurʾān. Qom: Manshūrāt Ismāʿīliyān. (In Arabic)
Tabatabaʾi, Muhammad Husayn. 1986. Risāla al-Wilāya. Beirut: Dār al-Taʿāruf li-l-Maṭbūʿāt. (In Arabic).
Tabatabaʾi, Muhammad Husayn. 2002. al-ʿAqāid al-Islāmiyya. Prepared and Edited by Qasem al-Hashemi. Beirut: Muʾassasa al-Aʿlamī li-l-Maṭbūʿāt. (In Arabic)
Tabatabaʾi, Muhammad Husayn. 2006. Nihāya al-Ḥikma, Vol. 2. Edited by Abbas Ali Zarei Sabzevari. Qom: Muʾassasa al-Nashr al-Islāmī. (In Arabic)
Tabatabaʾi, Muhammad Husayn. 2007. Majmūʿa Rasāʾil al-ʿAllāma Ṭabāṭabāʾī (Collected Treatises of Muhammad Husayn Tabatabaʾi). Qom: Nashr-i Bāqīyāt. (In Arabic)
Tūsī, Naṣīr al-Dīn (al-Tusi). 2018. Talkhīṣ al-Muḥaṣṣal (Naqd al-Muḥaṣṣal). Edited by Mohsen Bidarfar. Qom: Maktaba al-Bīdār. (In Arabic)