An Examination and Criticism of the Cognation Between the Cause and Effect in Islamic Philosophy

Abstract

Some theologians in the process of explaining the creation of contingent world, in addition to non-existence in time, have denied the causal relationship between the creator and the created and explained their relation in terms of creative agent. On the contrary, many philosophers believe in the pre-existence of created beings and emphasize on the principle of causality and on the necessary creation and some of them believe that there must be a kind of cognation (ontological homogeneity) between the creator and the creatures. So in explaining the relation between the creatures and the creator three ideas have been offered in general: total difference, sameness, and cognation. The purpose of this article is to examine the necessity of cognation between the cause and the effect in Islamic philosophy. After analyzing and explaining the theory of cognation and examining its objections, the author has come to the conclusion that the necessity of cognation, according to philosophical ontology, is self-evident.