Tawhid al-Mufaddal

rdf:langString Tawhid al-Mufaddal

rdf:langString

rdf:langString Twelver Shi'ism

rdf:langString

rdf:langString unknown

rdf:langString Ja'far al-Sadiq

rdf:langString Early Shi'ism

rdf:langString Syriac Christian literature

rdf:langString Teleological proof of the existence of God

rdf:langString Author

rdf:langString Dating

rdf:langString Language

rdf:langString Tradition

rdf:langString

rdf:langString Attributed to

rdf:langString Alternate title

rdf:langString Subject

rdf:langString Influenced by

rdf:langString Preserved in

rdf:langString Related texts

rdf:langString The Tawḥīd al-Mufaḍḍal (توحيد المفضل, 'Declaration by al-Mufaddal of the Oneness of God'), also known as the Kitāb fī badʾ al-khalq wa-l-ḥathth ʿalā al-iʿtibār ('Book on the Beginning of Creation and the Incitement to Contemplation'), is a ninth-century treatise concerned with proving the existence of God, attributed to the early Shi'i Muslim leader al-Mufaddal ibn Umar al-Ju'fi (died before 799). The work presents itself as a dialogue between al-Mufaddal and the Shi'i Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq (c. 700–765), who is the main speaker. Like most other works attributed to al-Mufaddal, the Tawḥīd al-Mufaḍḍal was in fact written by a later, anonymous author who took advantage of al-Mufaddal's status as one of the closest confidants of Ja'far al-Sadiq in order to ascribe their own ideas to the illustrious Imam. However, it differs from other treatises attributed to al-Mufaddal by the absence of any content that is specifically Shi'i in nature, a trait it shares with only one other Mufaddal work—also dealing with a rational proof for the existence of God—the Kitāb al-Ihlīlaja ('Book of the Myrobalan Fruit'). Though both preserved by the 17th-century Shi'i scholar Muhammad Baqir al-Majlisi (died 1699), the only thing that connects the Tawḥīd al-Mufaḍḍal and the Kitāb al-Ihlīlaja to Shi'ism more generally is their ascription to Ja'far al-Sadiq and al-Mufaddal. Rather than by Shi'i doctrine, their content appears to be influenced by Mu'tazilism, a rationalistic school of Islamic speculative theology (kalām). The Tawḥīd al-Mufaḍḍal is a revised version of a work falsely attributed to the famous Mu'tazili litterateur al-Jahiz (died 868) under the title Kitāb al-Dalāʾil wa-l-iʿtibār ʿalā al-khalq wa-l-tadbīr ('Book of Proofs and Contemplation on Creation and Administration'). Both the Tawḥīd al-Mufaḍḍal and pseudo-Jahiz's Kitāb al-Dalāʾil likely go back on an earlier 9th-century text, which has sometimes been identified as the Kitāb al-Fikr wa-l-iʿtibār ('Book of Thought and Contemplation') written by the 9th-century Nestorian Christian Jibril ibn Nuh ibn Abi Nuh al-Nasrani al-Anbari. The teleological argument for the existence of God used in the Tawḥīd al-Mufaḍḍal is inspired by Syriac Christian literature (especially commentaries on the Hexameron), and ultimately goes back on Hellenistic models such as the pseudo-Aristotelian De mundo ('On the Universe', 3rd/2nd century BCE) and Stoic theology as recorded in Cicero's (106–43 BCE) De natura deorum.

rdf:langString background:#cfbcfd