Hick, the real and al-aqq

Abstract

In this paper, the concepts of ‘the Real’ and ‘al-aqq’ employed by John Hick in his religious pluralism are examined. After briefly reviewing Hick's concept of the Real, it will be argued that the concept of God in Islam (conceived as Allah or al-

aqq does not subsume under the distinction Hick draws between the Real an sich and the Real as experienced and conceptualized by human beings. It will be also shown that Hick, in so arguing, does not give a proper description of the concept of God in Islam because he ignores the relevant qur'anic context. It is then concluded that the parallelism Hick draws between the Real and al-aqq (and hence Allah) is not justified.

Notes

And it is a question whether Hick, in so arguing, is guilty of committing the quantifier-shift fallacy. Surely, as Ward points out, from the premises that ‘I do not know what X is’ and ‘I do not know what Y is’ it does not follow that ‘X must be the same as Y’ (Ward, 1990, p. 113).

In the Islamic tradition Divine names are understood as Divine properties to the extent that they are, unlike ordinary names, descriptive of Divine nature.

Although whether God can be subject to sense perception, such as ‘seeing’, in the afterlife has been a controversial issue in Islamic theology.

Hick seems to have mistaken this verse (Q 6.100) for (Q 6.101). The relevant verse is the former.