Ibn Sina’s Encounter with Suhrawardi Concerning the Problem of Divine Knowledge and the Rise of a Supreme Wisdom

Most of the debates on the topic of divine knowledge target Almighty Necessary’s knowledge of what is other than Him. This paper aims to provide an answer to the question of which model of explaining the divine knowledge could not only demonstrate all levels of knowledge for God but also be compatible with His being the Necessary Being. In order to provide an answer to this question, Ibn Sina provides a model with imprinted forms at its center and, in this way, demonstrates God’s acquired knowledge of what is other than Himself. To explain the quality of divine agency, Ibn Sina once more focuses on divine knowledge and, through posing the idea of agency through fore-knowledge, maintains that, the creation of existents is the result of God’s active knowledge of the world and His satisfaction with the best order. However, Suhrawardi challenges the Sinan model in his philosophy. He believes that Ibn Sina’s explanation not only contradicts the simplicity of the essence of Almighty Truth but is also limited to the demonstration of a single faculty for God. Nevertheless, Mulla Sadra criticizes both of them and, based on the principle of simple truth, presents a transcendent explanation regarding the issue which neither suffers from the problem of the subjectivity of the Sinan imprinted forms nor, similar to Suhrawardi’s explanation, is incapable of proving God’s fore-knowledge. He demonstrates that all existents and types of knowledge are included in God’s existence and His knowledge of His Essence.