A Critical Review of Ibn Ḥazm’s Viewpoint on the Issue of God’s Efficient Causation Based on Mullā Ṣadrā’s Fundamentals

   Ibn Ḥazm (Arabic: إِبْن حَزْم) is a well-known theologian whose views are now being paid attention to by Muslim thinkers in the Arab world, necessitating an analytical re-reading of his views. He does not consider God to be the cause of the universe, because on the one hand, he believes that the Divine Names are non-restricted (Arabic: تَوقیفی, romanized: tawqīfī), and on the other hand, he considers God’s causality to require impossible things such as negation of God’s will, the limitation of Divine power and action, the passivity of the Truth (Arabic: حَقِّ تَعالی), the eternity of the world, and the potential existence of the world in the essence of God. Ibn Ḥazm expresses most of his views on this issue in his criticisms of al-Kindī (Arabic: الْکِنْدی), without the individual al-Kindī being significant, and he denies the principle of causality from God while excommunicating (Arabic: تَکْفِیر, romanized: takfīr) him. On the other hand, Mullā Ṣadrā (Arabic: مُلّا صَدْرا), based on his fundamentals, which critique Ibn Ḥazm’s views, does not only consider the Divine Names to be non-restricted, but he also affirms every attribute of perfection and existence for the Truth, after eliminating any additional qualifications. Mullā Ṣadrā’s intellectual foundations completely reject Ibn Ḥazm’s views and do not consider causality to be the cause of the negation of God’s will or the limitation of His power. The passivity of the cause in relation to the effect is only applicable in the material world, and even then, in a manner distinct from the effect of the cause. This article has been written in a documentary way and in processing the data in a descriptive way and with a logical and rational analysis of them.