312 Anke von Kügelgen
the secondary causes as acting on their own,^249 Ibn Taymiyya views
God, as Hoover has shown, as perpetually creating the secondary
causes and their effects or impediments in compliance with His wise
purpose.
In one passage of al-Radd ʿalā al-manṭiqiyyīn concerning evil, this
view is also very explicit. Ibn Taymiyya maintains that, when He
knotted the causes of evil (inʿiqād asbāb al-sharr), God instructed the
prophet Muḥammad which pious acts, such as prayers, repentance,
or almsgiving, could repel its effect (mūjab).^250 Thus, an evil cause
can be prevented from producing its evil effect due to the nature
with which God bestowed the evil cause, but the actual connection
between the causes and their effects, for instance an invocation of
God that provokes the repelling of the enemy, depends on God’s
will and power.^251
249 For a concise summary of these metaphysical holdings of the philosophers,
see Fakhry, Islamic Philosophy, pp. 136–142, 158–166, 320–325; for a thorough
analysis of the implied theories and their discussions, see Davidson, Herbert
A.: Proofs for Eternity, Creation and the Existence of God in Medieval Islamic
and Jewish Philosophy, New York and Oxford 1987.
250 In his Risālat al-Wāsiṭa bayna al-khalq wal-ḥaqq, Ibn Taymiyya also upholds
that God is the one who creates causes and effects and counts invocation
among the causes decreed by Him (Michot, Yahya J.: Ibn Taymiyya. Les inter-
médiaires entre dieu et l’homme (Risâlat al-wâsiṭa bayna l-khalq wa l-ḥaqq).
traduction française suivie de “Le Shaykh de l’Islam Ibn Taymiyya; chronique
d’une vie de théologien militant”, in: Le Musulman Numéro hors-série de la
revue (1417/1996), pp. 1–27, here p. 8; I am indebted to the author for this
reference).
251 Ibn Taymiyya, al-Radd, pp. 271–272. Noticeably, Ibn Taymiyya here in no
way tries to confront the falāsifa, but instead even cites a statement of Ptolemy
concerning the influence of prayer on the stars as evidence (Ibn Taymiyya,
al-Radd, p. 272; I did not verify whether the citation is from Ptolemy; it
could be from his authentic astrological handbook or the apocryphal one (see
Endress, Die wissenschaftliche Literatur, vol. 3, p. 105)). In Minhāj al-sunna
Ibn Taymiyya explains God’s wise purpose behind seemingly bad things as
leading to “invocation, humility, repentance ... and softening of the heart”
(Hoover, Ibn Taymiyya’s Theodicy, p. 132). The same author has now thor-
oughly studied Ibn Taymiyya’s view of the origin of evil (Ibn Taymiyya’s
Theodicy, pp. 177–210).
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