Bases of Negative Theology

Several factors have caused the tendency of religious thinkers in the meaning of God's inherent attributes to negative theology, which can be named as the bases of this theology. The most important factor is monotheism and the oneness of God's essence. Its three interpretations, namely negation of analogy, negation of partner, and negation of combination, are three important bases in the tendency towards negative theology. Tanzīh (purifying God of imperfect attributes) and negation of similitude caused some thinkers to defend negative theology. The second basis is that one should not associate a partner with God's essence, and therefore the Ashʿarī theory of ziyādah al-ṣifāt (the attributes added to the Essence), which is belief in the multiplicity of the eternals, is invalid. Affirmative theology is directly related to this theory and therefore negative theology is a suitable solution to stay away from this problem. The third basis is simplicity and negation of composition. Based on this, thinkers like Ḳāḍī Saʿīd Qomī did not accept the theory of the sameness of Essence and attributes, and by negating attributes, they have tended towards negative theology. The fourth basis is the lack of imagination of God's attributes, which has caused theologians like ʿAllāmeh Madjlisī to believe in negative theology despite basically accepting attributes for God. The fifth basis is that the word wudjūd (lit. existence) is a homonym with different meanings, and this basis has led some theologians to negative theology.