On the creation theory and the issue of nihilism in Arabic-Islamic philosophy
On the creation theory and the issue of nihilism in Arabic-Islamic philosophy

Summary/Abstract: In the broad scope of issues considered in Arabic-Islamic philosophy of tasawwuf, issues thought to be significant for the establishment of “Islamic ontological realism”, the creation theory occupies an important place. Occupying the middle ground between Arabic-Islamic philosophy on the one hand, and the members of Kalām school on the other, the issue of the creation was in this environment subject of polemic and differentiation amongst the philosophers (the works of Al-Ghazali, for instance) usually resulting in radical approaches to the Book’s appreciative understanding which came as a necessity in certain social and historical circumstances and practice. The way in which this issue developed and was articulated in Arabic- Islamic philosophy was, however, highly distinctive and varied from thinker to thinker although for the point of departure most of them used the same monotheistic principle of at-tawhīd which was of the basic principles of their scholastic and philosophical efforts. The reason for this can usually be found in the opposing influences worked upon them by the ancient Greek and Indo-Iranian philosophy as well. Because the creation theory in Islam is based on the well-known viewpoint of creation ex nihilo (al-kalq mina l-‘adam), as opposed to the metaphysical viewpoint of ex nihilo nihili fit, these thinker attempted to solve that logical dilemma in a painless way by bridging the gap between religion and philosophy, as well as by providing a logical justification to religious attitudes. These attempts are, in fact, the subject of investigation of this essay whose purpose is to examine the emergence of the creation theory from the earliest endeavors as to interpretation of the Qur’an on the pert of the pioneers of the hermeneutic approach to Qur’an. In the further analysis, our purpose was to shad the light on the mu‘tazilits, the issue of rationality of being and the teachings on being and nonbeing which was, amongst other things, the rational for their disqualification and the fractions within the school of Kalām.

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