RELIGST 2Q03 Lecture Notes - MuʿTazila, Anthropomorphism, Theodicy

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Religious Studies
• Course: RELIGST 2Q03
• Professor: Liyakat Takim

Document Summary

Good and evil are independent of revelation; we all know what is good and evil even if we do not know. If something co-exists eternally; then it compromises the concept of oneness of god; Five principles: tawhid, justice (adl, grave sinner, punishment and rewards (promises and threats, enjoining the good and oppose evil. The qur an has anthropomorphic verses: the hand of god, the face of god, these ideas are anthropomorphic; Then he needs space anything which has a hand occupies a space and it needs something. Then you have god and his attributes (two things co-existing) and only god can exist eternally. Issue that mutazili were trying to avoid was duality: what the mutazili s did is that god acknowledged into his essence. Two types of attributes: argued this on reason; Essential life (can t have a dead god ) Power (can t have a god who is powerless )