Being in Islamic Philosophy
Necessary and contingent being: Ibn Sina’s most influential metaphysical distinction: the wajib al-wujud (necessary being) — that which cannot not exist, whose non-existence is impossible — is Allah alone. Everything else is mumkin al-wujud (contingent being) — it could exist or not exist; it requires a cause for its existence. This distinction became the framework for Islamic philosophical theology’s proof of Allah’s existence.
Existence and essence: Ibn Sina further distinguished existence (wujud) from essence (mahiyya) in contingent things — what a thing is and that it is are two distinct considerations. Only in Allah are existence and essence identical; everything else has an essence that does not by itself include existence. Al-Ghazali attacked this distinction as one of the philosophers’ dangerous errors; al-Tusi defended it.
See also: Ibn Sina, Al Farabi, Al Ghazali, Tawhid Divine Unity
Ibn ‘Arabi and Wahdat al-Wujud
Unity of being: Ibn ‘Arabi’s wahdat al-wujud (unity of being) is often misunderstood as pantheism (God = the world). His more careful claim: there is only one Wujud — Allah’s Being — and the apparent multiplicity of things is this one Being’s self-manifestation (tajalli) in an infinite variety of forms. The things of the world are not nothing, but their being is not their own — it is borrowed from the one Being that belongs to Allah alone.
The controversy: Wahdat al-wujud remains theologically contested. Critics charge it dissolves the distinction between Creator and creation; defenders argue it actually most radically affirms divine transcendence — the world has no independent being of its own. Ibn ‘Arabi explicitly denied pantheism; his most careful interpreters follow him.
See also: Ibn Arabi, Tasawwuf, Tawil Esoteric Interpretation, Al Haqq
Ismaili Metaphysics — Beyond Being
Above Wujud: Ismaili metaphysics pushes further than even Ibn Sina’s distinction: Allah is not merely the wajib al-wujud (necessary being) — to say Allah is already applies a predicate to the divine that the divine transcends. The Ismaili doctrine insists that Allah is above being and non-being, above all categories, including existence. The first creative act (ibda’) produces the Universal Intellect — which is the first being, the first wujud.
The apophatic ascent: This produces a radical apophatic theology: nothing can be predicated of the divine essence — not existence, not knowledge, not will. Every positive statement fails. The appropriate response to the divine is silence. Yet the Imam, as the mazhar (manifestation) of the divine in the world of being, makes the otherwise inaccessible accessible.
See also: Ismaili Philosophy, Fayd, Al Khalq, Al Nasut, Tawhid Divine Unity, Imamah
See also: Ibn Sina, Al Farabi, Al Ghazali, Tawhid Divine Unity, Ibn Arabi, Tasawwuf, Tawil Esoteric Interpretation, Al Haqq, Ismaili Philosophy, Fayd, Al Khalq, Al Nasut, Imamah