The doctrine of the creation of the world in Algazel / La Doctrina de la Creación del Mundo en Algazel / The Doctrine of the Creation of the World in Algazel

Abstract

Algazel considered dangerous the doctrine of the eternity of the world such as it was defended by the philosopheres, as well as harmfull for the islamic religion and even the drowning of the Islam. That is why he refuted it to a great extent in his book Tahâfut al-falâsifa. In his opinion the idea of an eternal creation is both absurd and contradictory.His Tahâfut gathers as many arguments as he could find to prove that God created the world along the time and that the philosophers denied in fact the divine creation. This proof does not take place in the Tahâfut, where the persian theologe just insists on the meakness of the proof of the philosophers and the inconsistency thereof. He does it in others works such as the Ihyâ, where he proves the existence of God by the creation of the world along the time. This is the endavour of the present article, which intends to bring us near his true doctrine about the origin of the world. At the same time, the persian theologue does not neglect the fierce criticisme to the statement of the philosophers about an eternal world.