Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Hitit Theology Journal, cilt.24, sa.2, ss.704-730, 2025 (ESCI, Scopus, TRDizin)
This article analyzes the approach of the later Māturīdī theologian Ubayd Allah ibn Mas’ūd Sadr al-Sharīʿa (d. 747/1346) to the issue of the majʿūliyya (made-ness) of quiddities. The issue of the majʿūliyya of quiddities, which was first systematically addressed by Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 606/1210) under a separate heading and subsequently inherited by the literature, has been explored in various aspects by different traditions. In the post-Rāzī period, the issue of whether quiddities are majʿūl or not was evaluated together with the debate about what majʿūliyya means and what a thinker means when he says that quiddities are or are not majʿūl. The debates arose from the reputational differences of the concepts used in the issue of the majʿūliyya of quiddities, and from the divergences brought about by the different paradigmatic grounds from which the debate was approached. The long-debated ground and multifaceted nature of the issue of the majʿūliyya of quiddities necessitates an examination of the ground and the thinker's approach to the issue before investigating a particular thinker's opinion on whether quiddities are majʿūl or not. In this respect, the article first analyzes the approaches to the foundational grounds of the debate on the majʿūliyya of quiddities in terms of “the understandings of mahall al-nizā”. Understandings of mahall al-nizā’ on the majʿūliyya of quiddities center on different points of divergence in a sequence that oscillates between literalism and realism. Some thinkers deal with the debate on the majʿūlity of quiddities at a literal level by associating the issue with the reputation of the absolute quiddity or aspects that can be reduced to it. From this point of view, one cannot talk about a real point of divergence in the debate on the majʿūlity of quiddities. However, some thinkers oppose the reduction of the debate to the literal level, since it is the subject of considerable interest of many names. In this article, al-Rāzī, ‘Adud al-Dīn al-Ījī (d. 756/1355), and Sayyid Sharīf al-Jurjānī’s (d. 816/1413) understanding of mahall al-nizā’ are evaluated as approaches that reduce the discussion to the literal level. On the other hand, ‘Abd al-Hakīm al-Siyālkūtī’s (d. 1067/1657) understanding of mahall al-nizā’ as a name that opposes the reduction of the discussion to the literal level is analyzed. According to Siyālkūtī, the real divergence in the issue of the majʿūliyya of quiddities is based on the distinction between existence and essence; those who accept the distinction between existence and essence argue that quiddities are not majʿūl, while those who reject the distinction argue that quiddities are majʿūl. Finally, this section discusses Shams al-Dīn al-Samarqandī’s (d. 702/1303) interpretation of majʿūliyya as Sadr al-Sharī‘a interlocutor and evaluates his criticisms of al-Samarqandī. This section, which examines the views presented in the literature on the grounds of the discussion of the majʿūliyya of quiddities, aims to provide a framework for analyzing Sadr al-Sharīʿa’s approach. Subsequently, Sadr al-Sharīʿa’s approach is analyzed by taking into account the following two aspects of the issue of majʿūliyya: Whether a quiddity can be subject to the influence of an external agent in terms of being itself, and if so, what this influence means; the relationship between the parts of the quiddity in terms of constituting the quiddity, and whether this relationship is based on causality in itself or whether it is realized through the will of an external agent. According to this framework, Sadr al-Sharīʿa considers the debate on the majʿūliyya of quiddities as a genuine dispute, thinks that the ground of the debate is the distinction between existence and essence as an external phenomenon, and evaluates the issues of the majʿūliyya of quiddities and the shay’iyya of mādum together. As a matter of fact, he argued that quiddities are majʿūl and mādum is not a thing, and he based these judgments on his rejection of the distinction between existence and essence. The article argues that Sadr al-Sharīʿa considers the issue of the made-ness (majʿūliyya) of quiddities in relation to the problem of creation ex nihilo, and that, in his view, the assertion “quiddities are not majʿūl” (al-māhiyyāt ghayr majʿūla) refers to a fixed essence that guides divine power prior to creation and is not itself affected. In order not to compromise the principle of creation ex nihilo, Sadr al-Sharīʿa argued that quiddities were created out of nothing in terms of being themselves, so there was no fixed essence directing the divine power prior to creation, and that the constituent parts of the quiddity formed the quiddity by the composition of Jāʿil, not by causality in itself.