Baber Johansen

25
(jawhar) and accident (ÝaraÃ). Then he subdivides the accidents
into those for which life is a condition, such as knowledge, will,
the capacity to act, speech, hearing and vision (baÒar) and into
those which are independent of life […]. He subdivides the
substance into animals, plants, and minerals and explains that
their differences arise from [the differences between] the species
or the accidents. Then he looks into the eternal and explains that it
is not multiple and is not subdivided in the way entities that
sprung into existence in time are subdivided, but that it rather is
one, and that it is distinguished from entities that sprung into
existence in time through qualities which necessarily belong to it
and through things that are inconceivable with regard to it and
through qualifications (aÎkÁm) that are applicable to it but are
neither necessary nor inconceivable. He [the theologian] separates
between what is admissible, obligatory, and inconceivable
concerning the eternal. Then he explains that the foundational
quality of acting (aÒlu l-fiÝl) is admissible with regard to [the
divine] and that the world is its admissible act and that it [i.e. the
divine or the world], because that is admissible, was in need of
created entities (muÎdath) and that sending the Prophets is among
His [God’s] admissible acts, that He is capable of it and of
establishing their truthfulness through miracles and this [category
of] the admissible has in fact become reality. Here, the [rational
and authoritative] speech of the theologian breaks off and the
[free] use of reason ends. Rather, reason indicates the truthfulness
of the Prophet, then it sets itself aside and acknowledges that it
received and accepted from the Prophet what he says on God and
the last day, [things] that reason cannot by itself comprehend but
which it also cannot declare to be inconceivable. The sacred law
(sharÝ) here brings what reason by itself is unable to comprehend,
as reason independently cannot comprehend that obedience [to
God] is the cause for happiness in the world to come, and that
disobedience is the cause of misery [in the hereafter]. 79