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Series:   Elements in Religion and Monotheism

Necessary Existence and Monotheism

An Avicennian Account of the Islamic Conception of Divine Unity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2022

Mohammad Saleh Zarepour
Mohammad Saleh Zarepour
Affiliation:
University of Manchester

Summary

Avicenna believes that God must be understood in the first place as the Necessary Existent (wâǧib al-wuǧûd). In his various works, he provides different versions of an ingenious argument for the existence of the Necessary Existent—the so-called Proof of the Sincere (burhân al-ṣiddîqîn)—and argues that all the properties that are usually attributed to God can be extracted merely from God's having necessary existence. Considering the centrality of tawḥîd to Islam, the first thing Avicenna tries to extract from God's necessary existence is God's oneness. The aim of the present Element is to provide a detailed discussion of Avicenna's arguments for the existence and unity of God. Through this project, the author hopes to clarify how, for Avicenna, the Islamic concept of monotheism is intertwined with the concept of essential existence.
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Keywords

AvicennamonotheismNecessary Existent theologyProof of the Sincere
Type
Element
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Series: Elements in Religion and Monotheism
Online ISBN: 9781108938112
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication: 09 June 2022

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