50 M. Sait Özervarli
respond to each other, neither in methods nor in objectives. Indeed the
Koranic method indicates to us that it is primordial and approachable,
enabling us to reach the specific goal. [In contrast] the other is analogi-
cal and distant, allowing us only to reach a type of goal, not the essence.
As for the goals, the Koran informs about knowledge and the practice
of it. It thus combines the two human faculties of knowledge and prac-
tice, which are sensation and motion; intentional perception and reliance;
along with oral and practical. As God says, “Worship your Lord.” Wor-
ship necessarily entails knowledge of Him, having penitence and humili-
ty before Him, and impoverishment for Him. This is the goal. The kalām
method secures only the benefit of affirmation and admission of God’s
existence.^44According to Ibn Taymiyya, the revealed and transmitted sources
contain their own rational foundations, which are suitable for the
logic of the divine message and satisfy people of different educational
backgrounds. They also contain the evidence required to verify the
principles of religion and therefore have no need for extraneous theo-
ries, whether by theologians or philosophers. For example, rational
proofs of the existence of God and of resurrection after death, which
are based on observation of the natural world, can easily be derived
from some Koranic verses. The theologians use abstract methods to
reach a conclusion that normally could have been taken directly from
the revealed text. They prove the existence of God in a way that tests
human rationality beyond its bounds, speculating by means of a com-
plicated cosmological argument. This theory however, raises difficul-
ties in reconciling the eternity of God with His creation in time. The
Muslim Peripatetic philosophers tried to solve the problem by propos-
ing the eternity of the universe in time but not in essence. Ibn Taymiy-
ya completely rejects the eternity of the universe in any form, but also
criticizes the theologians for denying any cause or purpose in creation.
In his view, God brings things into existence purposefully, through
His absolute will and power, as observed in the physical world. There-
fore, while rejecting the possibility of eternity for any created being,
he accepts the eternity of creation, which does not mean in his opinion
an endless chain of causes, but rather the continuity of God’s perpetual
acting and creating.^45
44 Ibn Taymiyya, Majmūʿ Fatāwā, vol. 2, p. 12.
45 Ibn Taymiyya, Darʾ taʿāruḍ al-ʿaql wal-naql, vol. 1, pp. 354–367; Ibn Taymiyya,
Majmūʿ Fatāwā, vol. 18, pp. 222–230. On the differences between Ibn Taymiyya’s
views on creation and those of the philosophers and theologians, see Hoover,
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