An Overview on the Duality of Allah's Exclusive Agency and Causality of Things in the light of Transcendent Wisdom

Allah's exclusive agency from one side and the simultaneous causation of things on the other side is one of the most profound and difficult theological issues for thinkers to face. Commentators, theologians, philosophers and mystics have tried to analyze the issue in one way or another. The complexity of this question has made some who defend Allah's efficiency attribute the agency exclusively to Him denying the causality of things. On the contrary, some others have delegated the efficacy and agency entirely to things and human voluntary acts abandoning or denying Allah's efficiency completely. Relying on intellectual proofs and benefiting from revelations and mystical visions, Mulla Sadra considers Allah's efficiency to be compatible with that of things. In his paper, the author has explained the issue through two philosophical and mystical approaches. In the philosophical approach, he has adopted a realistic attitude, based himself on the principle of causality, that the system of causes and effects is hierarchical and separated the real agent from preparing causes. In the mystical approach, having related the principle of causality to manifestation and state theory (i.e. effect is a manifestation or state of the cause) and based himself on the principle of "There is no active agent in existence except Allah", this issue has been investigated, without involving the idea of dualism or polytheism in creation. The examination of this subject in Sadra's theosophy leads to a profound and accurate understanding of many disciplines, such as: ontology, how the world is created and managed, the problem of evil in the world and how to attribute it to God, anthropology, especially human free will. In addition to these cases, such an attitude can be regarded as one of the epistemic foundations for exegeses in understanding verses of the Qur'an as to creation, efficacy, unification of Divine Acts and unity of Lordship. Adopting such an attitude to the agency of Allah Almighty, in addition to the cognitive and theoretical aspects, plays a significant role in wiping polytheism off the globe and training monotheists.