Thesis (M. Div.)--International School of Theology, 1991. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-89).

Thesis (M. Div.)--International School of Theology, 1991. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-89).

Thesis (M. Div.)--International School of Theology, 1991. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-89).

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

This dissertation deals with Ibn Taymiyya's theory of the unity of God and of creation, or, as Muslim philosophers have posited the question, the relation between the oneness of God and the diversity that has come out of it. Indeed, Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328) responded to the same ontological question that earlier Muslim philosophers were concerned to answer. Although Ibn Taymiyya was a theologian, he did not encounter quite the same questions as the early kalam theologian whose concern it was to prove the existence of God. The dissertation discusses the forms this question took. / The introduction reviews Ibn Taymiyya's life, works and historical circumstances. The first chapter deals with Ibn Taymiyya's concept of God which is that of a real and actual being. God, for him, is not abstract in the way some Muslim theologians, philosophers and mystics had affirmed. / The second chapter discusses two great Muslim thinkers: al-Ghazali, who attempted to reconcile kalam with Ibn Sina's philosophy, and Ibn Rushd, who criticized both al-Ghazali and Ibn Sina and established a new philosophical approach to the notion of God and the process of creation. In this chapter we touch on the later development of both kalam and philosophy in Islam and show how Ibn Taymiyya, while pursuing the same goal as al-Ghazali in reconciling kalam and philosophy, drew benefit from these developments. / The third chapter goes to the core of Ibn Taymiyya's theory of diversity issuing from the oneness of God. This chapter shows the bold notions that Ibn Taymiyya believed represent the only possible answers to the question of creation: the essence of God as a substrate of generation; the eternity of the world; and God's attributes as species and genera, actualized in our concrete world. / The conclusion illustrates the differences between Ibn Taymiyya and other Muslim philosophers and theologians, as well as his adoption of certain of their ideas.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1996.

This thesis studies al-Ghazali's theory of knowledge, particularly his concept of knowledge of God in his three later works: "The book of Knowledge" of the Ih&dotbelow;ya', al-Munqidh, and Iljam al-`Awamm. From his conception of knowledge of God the first book of the Ih&dotbelow;ya ', to his criticism of various approaches to attaining the knowledge of God in the Munqidh, to his assertion of the best method for attaining the knowledge of God in the Iljam, the aim of the current study is to find out which faculty of man's perception, according to al-Ghazali, is the most appropriate for accessing Divinity. Since al-Ghazali's three works studied here---were composed in different periods, and since the Iljam was completed only a few days before his death, the objective of this study is then to see if there is any change, or development, in al-Ghazali's position regarding the issue of knowledge of God during the later period of his life.

Thesis (M.A.)--Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries, 1991. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-82).