A Comparative Study of the Relationship between Divine Knowledge and the Tradition of Affliction from the Perspective of Allameh Tabatabai and Fakhr Razi

The issue of knowledge, one of the essential attributes of God the Exalted, is one of the most important philosophical and theological issues with a special position in the works of philosophers and theologians, and various opinions have been presented about it. A superficial attitude towards the attributes of God, including knowledge and lack of attention to and sufficient understanding of the philosophy of afflictions has led to questions that have been discussed in detail by great figures such as Fakhr Razi and Allameh Tabatabai in their works. The ideas of these two commentators is due to the fundamental difference between their principles and viewpoints. Fakhr Razi has a deterministic view of the subject of the divine test, whereas Allameh Tabatabai emphases on the issue of man’s free will. Arguing for the eternal divine knowledge, Allameh believes that the divine knowledge is the entity of essence and eternally, in a non-detailed yet detailed way, includes all the information and secrets of beings, and man’s affliction, despite free will, has been in the realm of divine knowledge. However, Fakhr Razi considers the divine knowledge to be related to the essence and believes that the divine knowledge has eternally been detailed to the beings. He does not believe in human affliction because it would indicate ignorance in the divine realm. He also considers the acceptance of divine foreknowledge to be the basis of determinism. Allameh considers this idea to be distorted and believes that Fakhr-e-Razi’s mistake lies in the idea that God’s knowledge is acquired. Allameh believes that all creation is in the presence of God and is subject to the intuitive knowledge of God.