Abdal Hakim Murad - The Cambridge Companion to Islamic Theology

202 Ayman Shihadeh
hence such qur’anically inspired arguments are not premised on
the revealed nature of the text, which otherwise would entail circularity.
18
Numerous works have been dedicated to the argument from design;
yet we still have a very sketchy understanding of its history in Islam.
One early book plausibly attributed to al-Jah _
iz _
(d. 869), the Mu‘tazilite
theologian and litterateur, draws on pre-Islamic Greek sources, 19
whereas another by his contemporary al-Qasim ibn Ibrahım (d. 860) has
a primarily qur’anic inspiration. 20 The list of exponents of the argument
from design later comes to include some of the foremost philosophers
and theologians in medieval Islam, including Abu Bakral-Razı (d.925),
Ibn H _
azm (d. 1064), al-Ghazalı, Averroes, and Fakhr al-Dın al-Razı.
In what follows, we will focus on discussions of this argument by
Fakhr al-Dın al-Razı. On this he writes:
Whoever contemplates the various parts of the higher and lower
worlds will find that this world is constructed in the most
advantageous and best manner, and the most superlative and perfect
order (tartıb). The mind unambiguously testifies that this state of
affairs cannot be except by the governance (tadbır) of a wise and
knowledgeable [being]. 21
Here and in other places, Razı distinguishes between two types of
evidence of design. First, he refers to signs of providence, that is,
advantages (manafi‘) provided to conscious beings, which indicate the
existence of a God attributed with beneficence (ih _
san), who is responsible
for them. Second, he refers to signs of order, or masterly production
(ih _
kam, itqan), in the world, which point to a God possessed of wisdom
(h _
ikma) and power. When explicated in detail, the latter signs of order or
beauty observable to us in the created world are often referred to as
‘‘marvels’’ (‘aja’ib), or ‘‘wonders’’ (bada’i‘). 22
These signs may be gleaned, according to Razı, by directing attention
to different ‘‘loci of discernment’’ (sing. mah _
all al-i‘tibar) inthe
cosmos. In the lower world, these are: (a) the human body, (b) the human
psyche, (c) animals, (d) plants, (e) minerals, (f) meteorological phenomena,
(g) the elements, and (h) ‘‘marvels that occur because of the discernable
expediencies among these things, and the manner in which
each assists in preserving the species of the other’’. 23 In the higher world,
they are: (i) the natures of the celestial spheres and the planets, (j) the
magnitudes of each, (k) their complex motions and the way in which
these motions influence the lower world in a manner advantageous to
creatures, (l) the way in which daily, monthly and annual cycles are
Cambridge Collections Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008