The Compatibility between Cause and Effect According to the Theologies Suggested by Sadra and Tafká¿k

• Main Authors: Behnaz Tbibian, MohammadMahdi Meshkati
• Format: Article
• Language: fas
• Published: University of Isfahan 2015-02-01
• Series: Comparative Theology
• Subjects: Compatibility; Cause and Effect; Existence; MulāṢadrā; TafkῙk
• Online Access: http://coth.ui.ac.ir/article_15768_800213f2f51bc3b0364ffc4253aad439.pdf

The question of why different events have occurred has always been in human being's mind and challenged his curiosity. The question word "why" is used to ask about the cause of a phenomenon,and if man was not aware of the law of causality and did not confirm that every phenomenon needed a cause, he could not imagine any questions with "why". About this law and its related subjects such as compatibility between cause and effect, many schools and theories have emerged, among which, the schools of Tafká¿k(Segregation) and MulÄá¹¢adrÄare of special importance. The proponents of Tafká¿k believe in the segregation of philosophical – theosophical instructions and religious contents. They reject many of the principles of philosophy by referring to Quran and Hadiths and conclude that philosophy is in contradiction with Quranic teachings. The school of MulÄá¹¢adrÄ however, has a comprehensive view and incudes as its principles all teachings gained from wisdom, texts, theosophy and reasoning. One of the controversial issues discussed by both schools is the subject of compatibility between cause and effect. It is obvious that every effect does not stem from any cause and even there is not always causal relation between concurrent and subsequent phenomena, rather the causality exists only between specific beings. In other words, there must be specialcongruencybetween cause and effect which is referred to as compatibility between cause and effect. Since cause is what brings about the existence of effect and gives it reality, then it itself should possess the existence which it gives to the effect. When one object lacks something, it cannot give it to the other. Because by giving existence to the effect, the existence of cause will not be negated, it becomes clear that cause possesses the existence in a perfect way so that the existence of effect is regarded as a beam of light radiated from cause. The scholars of the school of Tafká¿khowever, believe that compatibility between cause and effect may lead to some clearly rejected consequences such as rejection of monotheism, oxymoron and …. As a result they refuse this law. In this study, the subject of compatibility between cause and effect according to the schools of Tafká¿k and MulÄá¹¢adrÄhas been compared. First, the influence of compatibility between cause and effect on God's cognition in both schools has been discussed, then the bases and reasons for which these schools either confirmor reject the idea of compatibility have been introduced and compared with Quranic and traditional proofs. In the end, two principles of "Indivisible Reality" and "The object causing something cannot devoid of it" will be offered as two proofs necessitating compatibility.