A Comparative Study of Divine Foreknowledge from Ibn Sina and Qunawi's Perspective

Divine foreknowledge is aong important problem of kalam, philosophy and mysticism. The present article is an attempt to make a comparison between views of Ibn Sina and Qunawi on the problem of foreknowledge. Ibn Sina offered demonstrations for this attribute of God as eternal, essential, and as act attribute which is posterior to the Divine Essence. But he could not envisage clearly a place for representational forms outside of the Essence. Qunawi however acknowledged the same characteristics of this divine attribute and managed to present a peculiar status for representational forms as well as immutable archetypes and quiddities not in Divine Essence but in realm of the second delimitation. Hence both philosophers share the view that foreknowledge is not identical to the Essence of God but it is posterior to it.