An Evidential Argument for Islamic Theism
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24204/ejpr.v10i4.2515Keywords:
Islam, Islamic PhilosophyAbstract
In this paper, I argue that Islamic theism is best explained by the hypothesis of Divine Commission (HDC), whereby Muhammad is viewed as being divinely commissioned to serve the overall salvific purposes of God. To this end, I present three observation reports relating to Islamic theism and evaluate HDC against an alternative hypothesis, the hypothesis of Non-Commission (NC) whereby Muhammad is not viewed as being divinely commissioned. I argue that the probability of the observation reports is greater on the assumption that HDC is true than on the assumption that NC is true. Accordingly, this gives us reason to prefer HDC as a better explanation of Islamic theism.
References
Afsar, Ayaz. 2006. “Plot Motifs in Joseph/Yūsuf Story: A Comparative Study of Biblical and Qur’ānic Narrative”. Islamic Studies 45, no 2: 167–189.
Afsaruddin, Asma . 2013. Striving in the Path of God: Jihad and Martyrdom in Islamic Thought. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
Aijaz, Imran. 2018. Islam: A Contemporary Philosophical Investigation. New York, NY: Routledge.
Ali, Abdullah Yusuf. 1991. The meaning of the Holy Qur’an. Brentwood, MD: Amana.
Ali, Zain. 2016. “Concepts of God in Islam”. Philosophy Compass 11, no. 12: 892–904.
Ali, Zain. 2013. Faith, Philosophy and the Reflective Muslim. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Arberry, A.J. 1953. The Holy Koran: An Introduction with Selections. London: Routledge.
Barlas, Asma. 2002. Believing Women in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur’an. Austin: Univ. of Texas Press.
Buehler, Arthur F. 1998. Sufi Heirs of the Prophet: The Indian Naqshbandiyya and the Rise of the Mediating Sufi Shaykh. Columbia: Univ. of South Carolina Press.
Brown, Jonathan. 2003. “The social context of pre-Islamic poetry: poetic imagery and social reality in the Muallaqat”. Arab Studies Quarterly 25, no. 3: 29–50.
Can, Sefik. 2004. Fundamentals of Rumi’s Thought: A Mevlevi Sufi Perspective. New Jersey: Tughra Books.
Colby, Anne and Damon, William. 2010. Some Do Care. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Crone, Patricia. 2003. Slaves on horses: the evolution of the Islamic polity. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.
Davis, Stephen T. 2009. “Revelation and Inspiration”. In The Oxford Handbook of Philosophical Theology. Edited by Thomas P. Flint and Michael Rea. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
Draper, Paul. 1989. “Pain and pleasure: An evidential problem for theists,” Noûs, 23: 331–350.
—. 1992. “Probabilistic arguments from evil”. Religious Studies 28, no 3: 303–317.
Ernst, Carl W. 2011. How to Read the Quran: A New Guide, with Select Translations. Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Press.
Fleischacker, Samuel. 2011. Divine Teaching and the Way of the World: A Defense of Revealed Religion. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
Graham, William A. and Kermani. Navid. 2006. “Recitation and aesthetic reception”. In The Cambridge Companion to the Quran. Edited by Jane Dammen McAuliffe. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. 114–141.
Haleem, MAS Abdel. 1990. “The story of Joseph in the Qur’an and the old testament,’ Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 1, no. 2: 171–191.
Hoffman, Valerie J. 1999. “Annihilation in the Messenger of God: the development of a Sufi practice”. International Journal of Middle East Studies 31, no 3: 351–369.
Hoyland, Robert G. 1995. “Sebeos the Jews and the Rise of Islam”. In Medieval and Modern Perspectives on Muslim-Jewish Relations. Edited by R.L Nettler. Luxembourg: Harwood. 89–102
—. 1997. Seeing Islam as others saw it: a survey and evaluation of Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian writings on early Islam. Princeton: The Darwin Press.
—. 2007. “Writing the biography of the Prophet Muhammad: Problems and solutions”. History Compass 5, no 2: 581–602.
King, Rolfe. 2008. Obstacles to Divine Revelation: God and the Reorientation of Human Reason. London: Continuum.
Knish, Alexander. 2006. “Multiple areas of Influence”. In The Cambridge Companion to the Quran.Edited by Jane Dammen McAuliffe. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.
Leaman, Oliver, ed. 2006. The Qur’an: an Encyclopedia. London: Routledge.
Lecker, Michael. 2003. “King Ibn Ubayy and the Qussas”. in Herbert Berg (ed.), Method and Theory in the Study of Islamic Origins. Leiden: Brill. 29–72.
Lings, Martin. 1980. Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources. Delhi, India: Millat Book Centre.
Lugioyo. Brian. 2010. Martin Bucer’s Doctrine of Justification: Reformation Theology and Early Modern Irenicism. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
Meister. Chad and Dew, James K, eds. 2013. God and evil: The case for god in a world filled with pain. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
Mir, Mustansir. 1986. “The Qur’anic Story of Joseph: Plot, Themes, and Characters”. The Muslim World 76, no 1: 1–15.
—. 2000. “Irony in the Quran: A Study of the Story of Joseph”. In Literary Structures of Religious Meaning in the Quran, Edited by Issa J Boullata. Richmond, Surrey, England: Curzon. 173–187.
Monroe. James T. 1972. “Oral composition in pre-Islamic poetry”, Journal of Arabic Literature 3: 1–53.
Moosa, Ebrahim. 2005. Ghazali and the Poetics of Imagination. Chapel Hill, NC: Univ of North Carolina Press.
Neuwirth, Angelika. 2014. Scripture, Poetry, and the Making of a Community: Reading the Quran as a Literary Text. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
Otte, Richard. 2003. Book Review: The Resurrection of God Incarnate. Richard Swinburne. 2003. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. https://ndpr.nd.edu/news/the-resurrection-of-god-incarnate/
Paret, Rudi. 1983. “The Quran — I”. In Arabic literature to the end of the Umayyad period. Edited by A. F. L Beeston. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.186–227.
Ringgren, Helmer. 1952. “The Concept of Sabr in Pre-Islamic Poetry and in the Quran”. Islamic Culture 26: 75–90.
Robinson, Francis, ed. 1996. The Cambridge illustrated history of the Islamic world. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.
Saeed, Abdullah. 1999. “Rethinking ‘Revelation’ as a Precondition for Reinterpreting the Qur’an: A Qur’anic Perspective”. Journal of Qur’anic Studies 1, no. 1: 93–114.
Siniscalchi, Glenn B. 2014. “The Probability of Certain Types of Divine Revelation”. The Heythrop Journal 55, no. 1: 31–44.
Sperl, Stefan and Shackle, C. 1996. Qasida poetry in Islamic Asia and Africa: Eulogy’s bounty, meaning’s abundance an anthology. vol.2. Leiden: Brill.
Stein, Peter. 2009. “Literacy in Pre-Islamic Arabia: An Analysis of the Epigraphic Evidence”. In The Quran in context: historical and literary investigations into the Quranic milieu. Edited by Neuwirth, Angelika, Nicolai Sinai, and Michael Marx. Leiden: Brill. 255–280.
Stump. Eleonore. 2010. Wandering in darkness: Narrative and the problem of suffering. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
Swinburne, Richard. 2003. The Resurrection of God Incarnate. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
Volf, Miroslav, et al., eds. 2010. A common word: Muslims and Christians on loving God and neighbor. Yarrington Grand Rapids and Cambridge: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.
Ward, Keith. 1994. Religion and revelation: A theology of revelation in the world’s religions. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Watt, Montgomery. 1956. Muhammad in Medina. Oxford: The Clarendon Press.
Wellhausen, Julius and Wensinck, A. J. 1982. Muhammad and the Jews of Medina. Berlin: W.H. Behn.
