60 M. Sait Özervarli
necessary or dependent on human will. By definition, necessity can-
not be a subject of argumentation or proving, and seems to contradict
the existence of unbelievers, no matter how few they may be. Rāghib
al-Iṣfahānī seems to be aware of this problem and suggests that the
denial of divinity by some people is not about its existence per se, but
about its description, attributes, and unity;^76 many Koranic verses,
however, clarify that belief in God is a voluntary action. Besides, the
repeated recommendations of the Koran to reflect on the signs of God
suggest that human nature needs to be interpreted as a capacity of ten-
dency toward belief, but not a faculty necessitating belief, which may
reach toward strict fideism. Furthermore, as an inner ability of human
nature, Ibn Taymiyya gives a primary role to the love of God in human
discovery and comprehension of divine wisdom by providing a direct
relationship between it and His grace and mercy. This, in his view,
gives the human being serenity and inner peace.
Consequently, in light of Ibn Taymiyya’s general theological thought
and the above considerations, human nature needs to be understood as
the ability to accept the truth, believe in God, or do good actions, and
not the necessity to do so – otherwise there would not be free choice
of belief for humans. Ability to have faith through inner nature is like
the capacity of human physical organs to see, taste, feel, touch, or hear
in normal conditions; similarly, the ability to discern between basic
rights and wrongs, and the potentiality for searching for the aim and
the source of existence is meaningful only if it is based on human free
will and agency.
76 Al-Iṣfahānī, al-Iʿtiqādāt, p. 38.
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