Researcher in Hawza Elmiyya (Theological Center)of Qom
Abstract
In Ibn al-Arabi’s view determinism is to be rejected on the basis of the “mystery of predestination” and the free will on the ground of “mystery of the mystery of predestination”. In his view each and every thing is attributed to God with reference to existentiation and manifestation, and to human being with reference to receptivity and reception. The distinction between existentiation aspect and that of reception in the word of Muhyi Al-deen Al-Arabi and his followers is based on the division of agency features into eistentiative and receptive, not based on mere separation of agent and receiver. It is also not the same as vertical agency and attribution of events to proximate and remote agents. To Ibn Al-Arabi the “intermediate position” has the same meaning. In some of his statements Ibn Al-Arabi explicitly rejects both determinism and “utterly free will” and in some others he puts the position of mystics in opposition to the positions taken by Mu‛tazilites, Asha‛rites and philosophers.
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