38 M. Sait Özervarli
ous works of mine I gave examples of Ibn Taymiyya’s critical approach
in theology, on issues such as arguments for the existence of God, Divine
Will and human responsibility, causality etc.^3 In this chapter I will high-
light Ibn Taymiyya’s focus on the extent of divine wisdom in creation
and its relationship to human free will and agency in connection with
human nature (fiṭra). Moreover, I will identify the place of the love of
God, which in his thought provides a more profound acknowledgement
of divine wisdom than rational argumentations do.
1. God’s Wisdom and Human Capacity
An important point of emphasis by Ibn Taymiyya regarding God’s
relationship with the universe and human beings is the issue of wis-
dom (ḥikma) in divine actions. All Muslim theologians accepted that
the actions of God were purposeful and meaningful and that they
did not happen accidentally or for no reason. Not all of them, how-
ever, viewed the existence of causes and aims for God’s actions: the
Ashʿarīs in particular, unlike the Muʿtazilīs, argued that causes would
limit the supremacy and authority of God and would mean dependen-
cy on those causes. According to the Ashʿarīs nothing should imply
any kind of underestimation of God’s omnipotence or impose upon
Him a necessity to perform an action. They put more emphasis on His
power and considered that a possible correlation may lead to a sort
of limitation of divine infinity. God’s power could not be limited or
surpassed, in the Ashʿarī approach, for the sake of wisdom. Causation
may explain His wisdom in understanding various divine actions in a
better way, but it would generate a direct or indirect dependency on
that specific cause for God. God may be seen as needing that cause in
York 1997, pp. 119–137 and Jokisch, Bejamin: Islamisches Recht in Theorie
und Praxis. Analyse einiger kaufrechtlicher Fatwas von Taqī ’d-Dīn Aḥmad b.
Taymiy ya, Berlin 1996. For a long list of Ibn Taymiyya’s distinctive fatwas, see
Ibn Rajab, Dhayl ʿalā ṭabaqāt al-ḥanābila, vol. 2, pp. 404–405, and al-Karmī,
Marʿī b. Yūsuf: al-Kawākib al-durriyya fī manāqib al-mujtahid Ibn Taymiyya,
edited by Najm ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Khalaf, Beirut 1986, pp. 141–145.
3 Özervarlı, M. Sait: I ̇bn Teymiyye’nin Düşünce Metodolojisi ve Kelamcılara
Eleştirisi, Istanbul 2008, pp. 118–161; idem: The Qurʾānic Rational Theology of
Ibn Taymiyya and His Criticism of the Mutakallimūn, in: Yossef Rapoport and
Shahab Ahmed (eds.): Ibn Taymiyya and His Times, Karachi 2010, pp. 78–100.
See also Hoover, Jon: Ibn Taymiyya’s Theodicy of Perpetual Optimism, Leiden
and Boston 2007.
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