Averroes by Averroes' Tahafut al-tahafut (The Incoherence of the Incoherence). Vols. I & II (1954)

Author:Averroes' Tahafut al-tahafut (The Incoherence of the Incoherence). Vols. I & II (1954)
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Publisher: Gibb Memorial Trust
Published: 2008-11-01T00:00:00+00:00

THE FIFTEENTH DISCUSSION

To refute the theory of the philosophers about the aim which moves heaven2

Ghazali says:

The philosophers have also affirmed that heaven is an animal which obeys God by movement and by drawing near Him; for every voluntary movement arises for the sake of an end, since one cannot imagine that an act and a movement can proceed from an animal which does not prefer the act to its omission—indeed, if the act and its omission were to be equipollent, no act could be imagined.

Further, approach to God does not mean seeking His grace and guarding oneself from His wrath, since God is too exalted for wrath and grace; similar words can only be applied to Him metaphorically, and they are used in a metaphorical way when one speaks of His will to punish or to reward.3 Approach cannot mean the seeking of an approach to Him in space, for this is impossible; the only meaning it can have is of an approach in qualities, for God's existence is the most perfect and every other existence is imperfect in relation to His, and in this imperfection there are degrees and distinctions. The angels are nearest to Him in quality, not in place; and this is the meaning of the term ‘the angels in His proximity’ —namely, the intellectual substances which neither change nor alter nor pass away, and which know things as they really are.4 And the nearer man comes to the angels in qualities the nearer he comes to God, and the end of man's nature lies in assimilation to the angels.

And when it is established that this is the meaning of ‘approach to God’, and that it refers to seeking approach to Him in qualities, then* this consists for man in knowledge of the realities of the existents and in his remaining eternally in the most perfect condition possible to him; for indeed permanence in the utmost perfection is God.

As to the angels in His proximity, any perfection that is possible for them is actual with them in their existence, since there is no potency in them which could emerge into act,1 and therefore they are in the utmost perfection in regard to everything but God. And by ‘heavenly angels’ is meant the souls which move the heavens, and in them there is potency, and their perfections are divided into what is actual, like their circular shape and their appearance, which exists always, and what is potential, namely their appearance in a definite position and place; for any definite position is possible to them, but they are not actually in all positions, for to be in all of them at once is impossible.2 And since they cannot be at all times in all particular positions at once, they try to exhaust all these particular positions by being in them specifically,3 so that they do not cease to aim at one position and one place after another; and this potentiality is never ending, nor do these movements ever end.

But

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