Mental Arguments for the Existence of God A study of religious text

Aqeel Al-Bandar

Summary
This study deals with two main things: First, the seeking of mental arguments in the Islamic texts that prove the existence of God, and defining the essence and nature of these arguments. The second is the study of the relation between text and reason, and knowing the limits and dimensions of this relation. The study comes in an introduction, two main sections, and a conclusion. The introduction contains a general definition of the study, with reference to the history of discussing this subject and its first steps. The first section discusses the nature of the relation between text and reason, reviewing the most prominent views that define the essence and nature of that relation, while the second section reviews the religious texts to find out mental arguments for the existence of the Creator. In this section, the discussion comes in two fields: the first is to deduce mental arguments from Qur’anic verses, and the second is to deduce mental arguments from traditions (hadiths), and finally the talk about the arguments, whether they are pure mental arguments or like a witness of an unseen thing, or they represent a special way of nothing other than the text in dealing with the matter of proving the existence of the Creator, in an attempt to identify the nature of the arguments mentioned in religious texts. And then comes the conclusion to show the main points discussed in the study.

Religious texts have tried to prove the existence of God since the beginning, and since the very advent of the Mission. The reasoning for the existence of Allah was clear through the Qur’anic verses in different ways. Proving the existence of the Creator is one of the most important matters that have occupied man’s mind in general, and religious philosophical mentality in particular. Choosing appropriate tools to prove this matter has become a great concern to sages and theologians, and the most prominent tools used by them to prove the existence of the Creator is religious texts, which have been deeply studied and interpreted in order to conclude what might lead to this matter.

This study tries to show the nature of the arguments found in religious texts that prove the existence of God, and know the correlation between religious texts and reason for proving this matter. So have the religious texts - Quranic Verses and prophetic traditions - relied on reason to infer the existence of God or not? And what is the way that holy texts have followed to show that?

Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)