Causality as a ‘Veil’: The Ashʿarites, Ibn ʿArabī (1165–1240) and Said Nursī (1877–1960)

ABSTRACT

This article explores the development of the idea of causality as a ‘veil’ within the Islamic tradition. More specifically, it examines how the rejection of the necessary connection between cause and effect in the writings of the Ashʿarites led to a highly sophisticated reconstruction of causality in Ibn ʿArabī (1165–1240) and Said Nursī (1877–1960). It also indicates some of the possible bearings of the idea of causality-as-a-veil for the contemporary discussion on the reconciliation of religious and scientific claims on the nature of causality.

KEYWORDS:

• Ibn ʿArabī
• Ashʿarite
• causality
• occasionalism
• Said Nursī
• veil
• science

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. It must be noted that in modern scholarship there is a divergence of opinion as to whether he truly rejected the necessity of causality.

2. Al-Ashʿarī holds that a verse from the Qur’an indicates the limited number of these atoms: ‘And everything has been numbered by us’ (Q 36.12–13) (McCarthy 1953, 92 [Arabic text], 127 [English translation]). See also Günaltay 2008, 63.

3. As Richard Frank (1994, 148) observes, ‘[P]ositing man as the creator of his deeds implies that there is another power beside God’s. This was tantamount to polytheism or at the very least, dualism.’

4. Here I use the term ‘theosophy’ to mean a branch of philosophy that explores the nature of divinity by starting from the sacred texts, the natural phenomena, and religious experiences.

5. I have consulted here the translation in Chittick 1998. See also Ibn ʿArabī, 1972–1991, vol. 1, 160.4; vol. 4, 288.1; vol. 3, 373.1, vol. 2, 69.32, vol. 2, 61.10, vol. 2, 580.19, vol. 3, 397.8, vol. 2, 122.29, vol. 2, 480.33, vol. 2, 34.1, vol. 2, 93.19; Ibn ʿArabī 1946, 65; see also Chittick’s (1989, 41–48) translations and comments; also Izutsu 1983, 63, 98–100, 208; Chittick 2014.

6. The concept of loci must be properly understood here. The divine qualities are reflected on the loci of nothingness (ʿadam al-muṭlaq).

7. See, for example, Nursī 2009, 64. Thus, studying nature is the same as studying some character traits of God.

8. Along the same lines, the Flemish occasionalist Arnold Geulincx (1624–1669) wrote: ‘You are not the cause of that which you do not know how to bring about’ (Geulincx 1893, 150–151).

9. See, for example:

Nothing can exist without everything else. Throughout the universe the mystery of co-operation is both concealed and pervasive; intimated in every part of it are mutual assistance and the reciprocal answering of needs. Only an all-encompassing power could do this, and create the particle, situating it suitably to all its relations. Every line and word of the book of the world is living; need drives each, acquaints one with the other. Wherever they come from, they respond to the call for help; in the name of Divine unity, they meet with their surroundings. Every living word has a face and eye that looks to all the sentences. (Nursī 2005, 731)

10. I soon hope to submit a more extensive second essay on this topic.

11. For a discussion of this problem, see, for example, Kaufman 1972, 134, 271.

12. There are a number of excellent works on the history of the discussion. See, for example, Barbour 2000; Peters 1998.

13. See, for example, Polkinghorne 1998; Saunders 2002.

14. For a defence of this position, see Polkinghorne 1989, 1999.

15. See, for example, Murphy 1997; Russell, Murphy, and Peacocke 1995.