Although humans possess free will (or more accurately, freedom of intention ), they have no power to create anything in the material world as this is entirely the province of God. This doctrine is now known in Western philosophy as occasionalism.
Man does not posses free will in the strictest sense, but does have the capacity to acquire, through an act of acceptance, the actions that God has already created for him.
Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari was noted for his teachings on atomism, among the earliest Islamic Philosophies, and for al-Ash'ari this was the basis for propagating a deterministic view that Allah created every moment in time and every particle of matter. Thus, cause and effect was an illusion. He nonetheless believed in free will, elaborating the thoughts of Dirar ibn Amr' and Abu Hanafi into a "dual agent" or "acquisition" (iktisab) account of free will.
While al-Ash'ari was opposed to the views of the Mu'tazili school for its over-emphasis on reason, he was also opposed to the views of certain orthodox schools such as the Zahiri (literalist), Mujassimite (anthropomorphic) and Muhaddithin (traditionalist) schools for their over-emphasis on taqlid (imitation) in his Istihsan al‑Khaud
In Asharite atomism, atoms are the only perpetual, material things in existence, and all else in the world is "accidental" meaning something that lasts for only an instant. Nothing accidental can be the cause of anything else, except perception, as it exists for a moment. Contingent events are not subject to natural physical causes, but are the direct result of God's constant intervention, without which nothing could happen. Thus nature is completely dependent on God, which meshes with other Asharite Islamic ideas on causation, or the lack thereof (Gardet 2001).
All above via.
Last week I had to present on the Ash'ari School of Islamic theology as a reaction to the Mu'tazilte School. I found both extremely interesting, and, Asharite atomism in particular. While researching for my presentation, I felt like I was back in my high school AP Spanish Language class discussing libre albedrío with the astounding Dr. Gregoire. It felt nice to ponder about these things once again.
Accordingly, I'm adding two new reads to my summer list:
Al-Ghazali's The Incoherence of the Philosophers (تهافت الفلاسفة):
Ibn Rushd's (Averroes)The Incoherence of the Incoherence (تهافت التهافت) as a reaction.
Led Zeppelin "Kashmir"
-melidee
All above via.
...
Last week I had to present on the Ash'ari School of Islamic theology as a reaction to the Mu'tazilte School. I found both extremely interesting, and, Asharite atomism in particular. While researching for my presentation, I felt like I was back in my high school AP Spanish Language class discussing libre albedrío with the astounding Dr. Gregoire. It felt nice to ponder about these things once again.
Accordingly, I'm adding two new reads to my summer list:
Al-Ghazali's The Incoherence of the Philosophers (تهافت الفلاسفة):
Ibn Rushd's (Averroes)The Incoherence of the Incoherence (تهافت التهافت) as a reaction.
Led Zeppelin "Kashmir"
-melidee
