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, The Essential Ideas of Islamic Philosophy

A Brief Survey
By

Prof. Mashhad Al-Allaf

The Edwin Mellen Press, USA, 2006
ISBN: 0-7734-5848-4, HC, 345 pp.
Proofs of the Existence of God (the One God) Al-Kind presents three kinds of proof for the existence of God: 1. the proof of essence and generation of the universe, 2. the proof of unity and multiplicity, and 3. the proof of design. My discussion focuses on the first proof of essence and generation, because it represents a new aspect of Islamic philosophy. This argument is related to Islamic scholastic theology (cilm al-kalm), in that it shares terminology such as cause, effect, and generation. In this argument, alKind tries to show that the universe cannot be caused by itself. In other words, the universe cannot generate its own existence. The second argument of unity and multiplicity focuses more on proving that the cause is one than in proving its existence. Al-Kinds proof of essence and generation (al-mhiyya walHudth) It is impossible for a thing to be the cause of the generation of its essence.

70 Al-Kind already proved that the idea of the eternity of the world is self-canceling, and it is a contradiction on both mathematical and logical levels. Thus al-Kind proved that the world is not eternal, in other words, it came into existence, or its existence was generated. Al-Kind went beyond this to prove that the world, as an originated phenomenon, cannot be the cause of its existence (its essence), and thus must have been brought into existence by something else other than itself: God. Al-Kinds argument It is not possible for a thing to be the cause of the generation of its essence, its becoming a being is either from something or from nothing. Thus, we have four possibilities:62 First: a nonexistent thing and its essence is nonexistent Second: a nonexistent thing and its essence is existent Third: an existent thing and its essence is nonexistent Fourth: an existent thing and its essence is existent The first (a nonexistent thing and its essence is nonexistent) is impossible, because it is nothing and its essence is nothing. Nothing is neither a cause nor an effect (cause and effect are predicated only of something). Therefore, it is not the cause of the generation of its essence. The second (a nonexistent thing and its essence is existent), of course, with a similar proof, is impossible. It is also impossible by another proof based on the law of identity. Al-Kind says,63

62

Al-Kind, Al-Kinds metaphysics (trans. Ivry), p.76.

71 1. If it is nonexistent and its essence is existent, then its essence is different from the thing itself. 2. Thus, its essence would not be it (the thing). 3. However, the essence of everything is that thing itself. 4. Therefore, a thing would not be itself and it would be itself, but this is an impossible contradiction (according to the law of identity). 5. Therefore, a thing cannot be the cause of the generation of its essence. The third is impossible (an existent thing and its essence is nonexistent) for the reason above, according to the law of identity. The fourth (an existent thing and its essence is existent) is also impossible, al-Kind says,64 1. If the thing is an existent thing and its essence is existent, and it were the cause of the generation of its essence, then its essence would be its effect. 2. But the cause is different from the effect. 3. Therefore, it would be the cause of its essence while its essence would be its effect. 4. Thus, its essence would not be it (the thing). However, the essence of everything is that thing itself (according to the law of identity). 5. But from this argument it follows that it would not be itself, and that it would be itself. This is an impossible contradiction.
63 64

Ibid., p.77. Ibid.

72 6. Therefore, a thing cannot be the cause of the generation of its essence. Clarification Let us take gold as an example. If the essence of gold is its atomic number in the periodic table in chemistry which is 79, then the thing which is gold with its physical and chemical characteristics such as its yellow color, its malleability, and so on, cannot generate and give existence to its essence which is the atomic structure. In fact the atomic structure itself is what gives gold its characteristics, and if this essence changed to more or less than 79, then a different thing with different qualities will appear. Therefore, a thing cannot generate its essence, otherwise the existence of the thing will be prior to its existence, and this is contradictory. Another example is that humans cannot generate their own existence, if we are the cause of the generation of our existence, then we will not die (because we can give ourselves existence), but we know that we die and perish, therefore we are not the cause of our own existence. Conclusion Al-Kind concludes from previous arguments that the world is not eternal and cannot come into existence on its own. The world cannot be a cause of the generation of its essence. Thus it came into existence by a cause other than its essence and that cause is God who created the world from nothing.