The Sharing Group Discussion: Did the Contention That the Universe Had No Beginning Come from Wahdat al-Wujud?

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ 

The following was posted, by Brother Mansoor Rizvi, on The Sharing Group, on the 21st September 2020: “I am curious to understand from a Sunni philosophical and theological perspective the philosophers who believe that the universe has no beginning, and I realise this concept is connected to wahdat al wujud.  How is it that these philosophers say that the universe has no beginning?  Is this what Shaykh Muhyi ad-Din Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn ‘Ali ibn ‘Arabi (q.s.) taught, and if so, what was his rationale?  Also that of other philosophers? 

Brother Phil Herndon: Technically, when reading the Torah, the first books of the Tanakh, in Genesis, the universe already existed when God got started on the world.  This may have influence on thought.  Many, including Albert Einstein, believe in a static universe. 

Brother Ariffin Yeop: Since Allah (s.w.t.) Created the universe, Allah (s.w.t.), then, is the beginning of the universe.  And He is without beginning 

Brother Mansoor Rizvi: Brother Ariffin Yeop, many Muslim philosophers say the universe has no beginning.  I am trying to understand how they came to that conclusion. 

Brother Ariffin Yeop: Brother Mansoor Rizvi, I thought the above would have explained it. 

Brother Mansoor Rizvi: Brother Ariffin Yeop, no, it is not clear to me.  The way you explained it gives credence to the idea that the universe does have a beginning. 

Brother Ariffin Yeop: Brother Mansoor Rizvi, the beginning of the universe is with the One with no beginning.  And since nothing exists except Allah (s.w.t.) … 

Brother Adam Badi: Is akhirah not beyond the universe? 

Brother Ariffin Yeop: Brother Adam Badi, in my understanding. yes.  The hereafter is beyond comprehension though we do get descriptions of it. 

Sister Deborah Antoniazzi: Since the universe is Created, it cannot be without beginning, in my understanding. 

Brother Terence Kenneth John Nunis: This concept is not related to wahdat al-wujud.  Wahdat al-wujud and wahdat ash-shuhud are greatly misunderstood by most Muslim preachers, let alone the ordinary people. 

Wahdat al-wujud, the oneness in being is an expansion of the theological concept of Divine Unity in Attributes.  For example, when iron is heated, it turns red and hot.  It acquires the attributes of fire. However, at no time does it become fire.  Iron and fire are distinct.  All Creation has attributes that reflect Divine Attributes.  It is impossible for anything to possess a fundamental attribute Allah (s.w.t.) does not.  We are kind, as a reflection of Divine Kindness, for example.  Iron is firm, as a Reflection of Divine Firmness.  The sunrise is beautiful as a reflection of Divine Beauty. 

However, this precludes the universe from having no beginning, since it still exists within time.  Allah (s.w.t.) is Omnipresent.  His Omnipresence precludes time, since time is the interval between moments, and moments are created by movement.  Allah (s.w.t.) does not “move” since there is nowhere He is not, for Him to arrive at.  Anything else is not Absolute.  Since atoms have to move, and spin, time is created.  And since time is Created, it must have a beginning.  There is no Sunni theological concept that believes the universe had no beginning.  This was an idea entertained by some of the Mu’tazilah, and refuted by Sunni theologians. 

Brother Jonathan Joseph Muhsin Bray: May I ask how do we know Allah (s.w.t.) is Omnipresent?  Is that not pantheism? 

Brother Terence Kenneth John Nunis: If Allah (s.w.t.) is not Omnipresent, it would be shirk.  That would imply a idol that is not present, and needs to move.  Pantheism is the belief that Allah (s.w.t.) is physically present in Creation, which is shirk, since it assumes that Allah (s.w.t.) has a physical presence, or can take a physical presence; and that Creation can hold Him, meaning that the Infinite can be limited to the finite. 

Omnipresence is a condition for Omniscience, since an Omniscient Divine cannot be absent from any portion of Creation, and is the true Reality, whereas Creation is a mere reflection of the Divine Reality, and does not exist independently.  For example, when we see our reflection in the mirror, it seems to move, to speak, to hear, to breathe, to live, to exist.  However, we recognise that this is an illusion, and that reflection possesses none of the attributes of the person it is reflecting. 

Brother Adam Badi: The example I have heard is that our existence is similar to the dust you can see in sunlight.  That Allah (s.w.t.) is the Cause that gives existence, and without Him, we cannot exist.  He can never be part of Creation, and this means we are limiting Him but Creation is the effect of the Cause being Him. 

Brother Mansoor Rizvi: Brother Terence Kenneth John Nunis, thanks for sharing.  Would you say the Muslim philosophers who have taken this position, post-Mu’tazilah, were doing this as an influence of the Mu’tazilah. or their own independent conclusions, independent of Sunni theology, even if they were Sunni?  If I am not mistaken, philosophers like Imam ibn Sina (r.a.) took this position.  I personally do not understand it myself, but I am trying to understand its basis. 

Brother Terence Kenneth John Nunis: While Imam Abu ‘Ali al-Husayn ibn ‘Abdullah ibn Sina (r.a.) was a great scholar, and a jurist of the Hanafi madzhab, his theological positions were not orthodox Sunni, and open to interpretation.  There were those who claim he was Isma’ili Shi’ah, and those who claim he was Sunni.  He was a brilliant thinker, and an independent theologian.  It is a challenge to pin down his firqat, since his positions do not fit neatly into any established school of theology. 

Brother Mansoor Rizvi: Brother Terence Kenneth John Nunis, from what you know about him, and philosophers like him, who ascribe to the concept that the universe has no beginning, do you know what their basis behind it is? 

Brother Terence Kenneth John Nunis: It is likely because of their interpretation of the Attributes.  Theological schools of Sunni Islam, both the Ash’ari and the Maturidi, hold that the Attributes are Eternal, and Uncreated.  What some of the Mu’tazilah and the Ahl al-Falasifah have done is take a more literal understanding of this, and since the Attributes are Eternal, the reflections of the Attributes are Eternal, and thus, it is only logical that said reflection, Creation, must have always existed.



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