Eighth to the Sixteenth Century - Rashid Islamic Center

The Mosque, the Laboratory, and the Market • 111scales (from nonexistence to existence) at the moment of creation forthe world to be created.In response to this argument, advocates of creation pointed outthat since time did not exist prior to its creation, before and after haveno meaning. Following al-Ghazali, Fakhr al-Din al-Razi also offersanother argument as a response to advocates of eternity: it is in thenature of God’s will to choose a particular time for creation; He canwill something irrespective of determinant factors; His knowledgedetermines the appropriate time for creation (Ceylan 1996, 52). Al-Ghazali’s other response to the argument was as follows:With what [argument] would you deny one who says: “Theworld was temporally created by an eternal will that decreed itsexistence at the time in which it came to be; that [the preceding]nonexistence continued to the point at which [the world] began;that existence prior to this was not willed and for this reasondid not occur; that at the time at which [the world] was createdit was willed by the eternal will to be created at that time andfor this reason it was created then?” What is there to disallowsuch a belief and what would render it impossible? (al-Ghazali,tr. 2000, 15)The standard kalam proof for creation was offered from accidents.Since accidents are necessary concomitants of bodies and are subjectto generation, bodies too must be subject to generation; since theuniverse is a body, it must therefore have been generated. This proofwas already current in the ninth century (it can be found in thework of Abu al-Hudhayl, who died in 849), and remained a standardresponse to the advocates of eternity for the next several centuries.Before closing this section dealing with the pre-Mongol period, weneed to mention one more cosmology in some detail, because it is themost important mystical understanding of the cosmos developed inIslamic thought—the cosmological scheme of Ibn al-‘Arabi (d. 1240).Mystical Aspects of Islamic CosmologyBorn in Murcia, southeastern Spain, fifty-four years after al-Ghazali’sdeath in 1111, Muhammad bin Ali bin Muhammad Ibn al-‘Arabial-Ta‘i al-Hatim was to become a bridge between the pre- and post-