Editing Avicenna (section)

=== Metaphysical doctrine ===
{{Technical|section|date=January 2014}}
Early Islamic philosophy and [[Islamic metaphysics]], imbued as it is with kalam, distinguishes between essence and existence more clearly than Aristotelianism. Whereas existence is the domain of the contingent and the accidental, essence endures within a being beyond the accidental. The philosophy of Avicenna, particularly that part relating to metaphysics, owes much to al-Farabi. The search for a definitive Islamic philosophy separate from [[Occasionalism]] can be seen in what is left of his work.

Following [[al-Farabi]]'s lead, Avicenna initiated a full-fledged inquiry into the question of being, in which he distinguished between essence ({{langx|ar|ماهية|māhiya|link=no}}) and existence ({{langx|ar|وجود|wujūd|link=no}}). He argued that the fact of existence cannot be inferred from or accounted for by the essence of existing things, and that form and matter by themselves cannot interact and originate the movement of the universe or the progressive actualization of existing things. Existence must, therefore, be due to an [[causality|agent-cause]] that necessitates, imparts, gives, or adds existence to an essence. To do so, the cause must be an existing thing and coexist with its effect.<ref name="Islam in Britannica">{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2007 |title=Islam |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica Online |url=https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-69190/Islam |access-date=27 November 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071222082832/https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-69190/Islam |archive-date=22 December 2007 |url-status=live}}</ref>
====Impossibility, contingency, necessity====
{{see also|Necessity and sufficiency|Contingency (philosophy)|Metaphysical necessity|Potentiality and actuality}}
{{further|Modal logic}}
Avicenna's consideration of the essence-attributes question may be elucidated in terms of his ontological analysis of the modalities of being; namely impossibility, contingency and necessity. Avicenna argued that the impossible being is that which cannot exist, while the contingent in itself (''mumkin bi-dhatihi'') has the potentiality to be or not to be without entailing a contradiction. When actualized, the contingent becomes a 'necessary existent due to what is other than itself' (''wajib al-wujud bi-ghayrihi''). Thus, contingency-in-itself is potential beingness that could eventually be actualized by an external cause other than itself. The metaphysical structures of necessity and contingency are different. Necessary being due to itself (''wajib al-wujud bi-dhatihi'') is true in itself, while the contingent being is 'false in itself' and 'true due to something else other than itself'. The necessary is the source of its own being without borrowed existence. It is what always exists.<ref>Avicenna, ''Kitab al-shifa', Metaphysics II'', (eds.) G.C. Anawati, Ibrahim Madkour, Sa'id Zayed (Cairo, 1975), p. 36</ref><ref>[[Nader El-Bizri]], "Avicenna and Essentialism," ''Review of Metaphysics'', Vol. 54 (2001), pp.&nbsp;753–778</ref>

====Differentia====
{{see also|Differentia}}
The Necessary exists 'due-to-Its-Self', and has no quiddity/essence other than existence. Furthermore, It is 'One' (''wahid ahad'')<ref>Avicenna, ''Metaphysica of Avicenna'', trans. Parviz Morewedge (New York, 1973), p. 43.</ref> since there cannot be more than one 'Necessary-Existent-due-to-Itself' without differentia (fasl) to distinguish them from each other. Yet, to require differentia entails that they exist 'due-to-themselves' as well as 'due to what is other than themselves'; and this is contradictory. <!--However, i-->If no differentia distinguishes them from each other, then, in no sense are these 'Existents' not the same.<ref name="Nader El-Bizri 2000">Nader El-Bizri, ''The Phenomenological Quest between Avicenna and Heidegger'' (Binghamton, N.Y.: Global Publications SUNY, 2000)</ref> Avicenna adds that the 'Necessary-Existent-due-to-Itself' has no genus (''jins''), nor a definition (''hadd''), nor a counterpart (''nadd''), nor an opposite (''did''), and is detached (''bari'') from matter (''madda''), quality (''kayf''), quantity (''kam''), place (''ayn''), situation (''wad'') and time (''waqt'').<ref>Avicenna, ''Kitab al-Hidaya'', ed. Muhammad 'Abdu (Cairo, 1874), pp.&nbsp;262–263</ref><ref>Salem Mashran, ''al-Janib al-ilahi 'ind Ibn Sina'' (Damascus, 1992), p. 99</ref><ref>Nader El-Bizri, "Being and Necessity: A Phenomenological Investigation of Avicenna's Metaphysics and Cosmology," in ''Islamic Philosophy and Occidental Phenomenology on the Perennial Issue of Microcosm and Macrocosm'', ed. Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2006), pp.&nbsp;243–261</ref>
====Reception====
Avicenna's theology on metaphysical issues (''ilāhiyyāt'') has been criticized by some [[Islamic scholars]], among them [[al-Ghazali]], [[ibn Taymiyya]], and [[ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya]].<ref>Ibn al-Qayyim, ''Eghaathat al-Lahfaan'', Published: Al Ashqar University (2003) Printed by International Islamic Publishing House: Riyadh.</ref>{{page needed|date=April 2016}} While discussing the views of the theists among the Greek philosophers, namely [[Socrates]], [[Plato]] and [[Aristotle]] in ''Al-Munqidh min ad-Dalal'' "Deliverance from Error", al-Ghazali noted: 
{{quote|[the Greek philosophers] must be taxed with unbelief, as must their partisans among the Muslim philosophers, such as Avicenna and al-Farabi and their likes. None, however, of the Muslim philosophers engaged so much in transmitting Aristotle's lore as did the two men just mentioned. [...] The sum of what we regard as the authentic philosophy of Aristotle, as transmitted by al-Farabi and Avicenna, can be reduced to three parts: a part which must be branded as unbelief; a part which must be stigmatized as innovation; and a part which need not be repudiated at all.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.aub.edu.lb/fas/cvsp/Documents/reading_selections/CVSP%20202/Al-ghazali.pdf |title=al-Munqidh min al-Dalal |last=Ibn Muḥammad al-Ghazālī |first=Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad |publisher=American University of Beirut |year=1980 |location=Boston |page=10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304095350/https://www.aub.edu.lb/fas/cvsp/Documents/reading_selections/CVSP%20202/Al-ghazali.pdf |archive-date=4 March 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref>}}