Divine Agency in the World from Ibn Sina’s

Ibn Sina made extra efforts to prove divine agency, as one of the most challenging issues in theology and philosophy. In his explanation, he is, on the one hand, in conflict with the Peripatetic philosophers considering the fact that he himself is a follower of the same philosophical school and on the other hand he is engaged in controversy and denial of the Shari'a law concerning this issue. He considers the issue of the world being "created or eternal", as one of the main foundations of this issue, "controversial”, implying that there are arguments for and against it. In his debate with the peripatetic philosophers, he refutes the primordiality of matter as believed by the Aristotelians and, consequently, proves the temporality of the universe. In his opposition to the theologians, he has tried to distinguish between the intrinsic occurrence of the universe and its temporal occurrence. He states that, like theologians, he believes that there is only one ancient intrinsic being, that is, God. Since eternal existents by virtue of time (different minds) are, in essence, possible beings and by necessity contingent. There should be no illusion that they are not free of an antecedent cause. To claim, like theologians, that there are eternal existents other than God is incompatible with divine unity. The present study adopted a descriptive analytical method with a focus on Ibn Sina’s original texts.