For the relationship between reason and divine knowledge

(Proof of possibility and necessity)

Abstract

Multiple rational proofs have been established for the existence of God Almighty, according to the rational principles of the various schools of thought and their trends, the most famous of them are the proof of possibility and necessity for the Peripatetic wisdom, the proof of the truthful ones for the transcendent wisdom, the proof of occurrence for the earlier theologians, and the proof of the systems for the later ones. The first two are for philosophers, and the last two are for theologians.

After the merging of philosophy and theology during the fourth century at the hands of Khawaja al-Tusi, the proof of possibility and necessity found its way into Imami theology, and the Khawaja adopted it in abstraction, The scholar Al-Hilli chose it in his explanation, and explained the reason for Al-Khawaja’s turning away from the proof of eternity and occurrence, which is known to theologians, by saying that it only conforms and is upright with the principles of proof of possibility and necessity, His reasoning for this is evident in his satisfaction and choice of proof, and then those who came after them followed them until the later theologians turned to the fact that the proof is purely philosophical, It relies on purely philosophical principles, with no reference to it in the books of the predecessors, so they took another path, They established a new proof based on verbal principles that became known as the proof of systems, which faced a torrent of problems that prompted their later scholars to adopt the proof of transcendent wisdom known to them as the proof of the two truthful ones.

These are the most famous rational proofs of the existence of the Almighty Creator, and although they share some rational principles, regardless of whether these principles are philosophical or verbal, what is important among them is the first, that is, possibility and necessity. Therefore, the reference will be limited to it; In order to reveal its material, the origin of this material, its arrangement, and the effect of transmission on it.