A Critical Analysis of the “Agent by Satisfaction” Theory from the Perspective of the Narrations of Imam ʿAlī (a.s.)

According to the “Agent by Satisfaction” (Fāʿil bi’l-Riḍā) theory, God brought the “world of existence” into being through the “illumination of light,” and the external forms of beings are identical with His detailed knowledge, while prior to creation, the knowledge of the Aseity (Wājib al-Wujūd) concerning things exists as undifferentiated knowledge. Suhrawardī’s view in this regard can be divided into two parts. The first part concerns the state after creation, wherein the Master of Illumination (Shaykh al-Ishrāq) conceives the relation between the Aseity and the created entities as an illuminative relation (iḍāfa ishrāqiyya), meaning that God knows all beings in their own domains through this illuminative connection. This part of Suhrawardī’s view finds support in the narrations
of Imam ʿAlī (a.s.). The second part, which pertains to the state before creation, is problematic, since Suhrawardī considers God’s pre-creational knowledge to be “undifferentiated” (ʿilm ijmālī). This, however, implies a deprivation of the Divine Essence from “detailed knowledge” (ʿilm tafṣīlī) of the existents—whereas the very foundation of Divine agency and creative activity rests upon pre-creational knowledge. In the narrations of Imam ʿAlī (a.s.), this part of Suhrawardī’s theory is subject to criticism because the narrations: (1) affirm that the object of God’s single, essential knowledge prior to creation encompasses all things in a detailed manner; (2) emphasize that Divine knowledge does not increase after the creation of beings; and (3) assert that the creation of beings does not take place based on newly occurring knowledge. Taken together, these three groups of narrations indicate that the form of knowledge and agency Suhrawardī attributes to God is unbefitting of the rank of the Aseity. The present study employs the method of istinbāṭ (inference and deduction) and istiẓhār (textual elicitation) in analyzing the narrations of Imam ʿAlī (a.s.), and uses an analytical-rational approach in comparing and evaluating the Fāʿil bi’l-Riḍā theory with those narrations. Overall, the conception of Divine knowledge and agency that Suhrawardī posits for the Aseity, based on his philosophical foundations, contains deficiencies and is not worthy of the exalted station of the Divine Essence.