Draft: this lesson was written with AI help and has not yet been read by a human editor.
1 What your class asks
This lesson asks you to define terms that are central to the big questions. Here the terms are soul and decree. The museum gives the soul as one report in al-Mas'udi and the decree as the statements of two authors, each attributed to its source. It does not trace how the terms changed over time, so your class will add that. 1
Curriculum expectations, with their official codes
- B3.1 define terms central to philosophical discussions of the big questions […]
2 Before you start
A thought to carry into the lesson.
3 The lesson
Do the authors mean the same by the same word?
Read what each record attributes to its source and list the words used for the same thing. Note where two authors use one word differently, and say who is speaking each time.
Go deeper
Read how one text defines a word. In al-'Aqida al-Wasitiyya, as the record of qadar reports, Ibn Taymiyya says: "Belief in the decree is in two degrees, each containing two things" 2. The first is God's knowledge of what the creatures will do by His eternal knowledge, then His writing the creatures' measures in the Preserved Tablet. The second is God's operative will and encompassing power: belief that what God wills is, and what He does not will is not, and that there is no creator but Him 3. Al-Tahawi, in the same record, names the words one by one: everything proceeds by His will, knowledge, judgement and decree 4. Notice that one text groups the words into two degrees and the other names them one by one. Ask which of the words a reader would have to define first.
Often misunderstood
The record of Plato files a definition of the soul under the heading "Thought". Read the sentence itself. Al-Mas'udi attributes to some people the claim that the soul is a substance that is not a body, living, knowing and governing bodies, and that its death is its passing from one body to another 5. The sentence names "some people", not Plato. Before using it as Plato's definition, a student would have to find a source that gives it to him; the records read here do not.
How do we know?
The record of qadar attributes each position to its own book: al-Tahawi's creed, Ibn Qudama's Lum'at al-I'tiqad, Ibn Taymiyya's al-Wasitiyya, and what al-Ash'ari related in Maqalat al-Islamiyyin of the people of hadith and sunna, ending: "And in all we have mentioned of their saying we speak, and to it we go" 6. The record says the sayings of the Maturidis and of the remaining Sunni and non-Sunni schools from their own books have not yet been added, and that the entry needs specialist review before promotion. A definition drawn only from these books reflects these books.
Think about it
Which word would you define first, freedom or decree, and why? Use the way the records define one of them: if decree is defined by two degrees, knowledge with writing and will with power, does that leave room to define freedom separately?
Into the museum
Try this
Write a one-sentence definition of the soul and one of the decree, each using only words from the record of Plato and qadar, and name the author each time.
4 Carry it further
Where this lesson leads in the museum.
5 Check yourself
Nothing here is marked or sent anywhere. It is for you.
In your own words: what does Plato (Aflatun) have to do with this lesson?
Compare with the card
A soul that is not a body. Al-Mas'udi attributes to some people the claim that the soul is a substance that is not a body, living, knowing and governing bodies, and that its death is its passing from one body to another. How would you define the soul using only these words?
In your own words: what does Qadar (divine decree) have to do with this lesson?
Compare with the card
The servant's deed and the decree. On human acts and the decree, Ibn Qudama holds in Lum'at al-I'tiqad that the servant has a deed and an acquisition, requited for its good with reward and its evil with punishment, occurring by God's decree. Ibn Taymiyya holds in al-'Aqida al-Wasitiyya that servants have power over their deeds and will, and God is the creator of their power and will. Which word would you define first, freedom or decree?
I can now
Notes
- 1. Ontario Ministry of Education, The Ontario Curriculum: Social Sciences and Humanities
- 2. al-Aqida al-Wasitiyya, Ibn Taymiyya (al-Matba'a al-Salafiyya), p. 21
- 3. al-Aqida al-Wasitiyya, Ibn Taymiyya (al-Matba'a al-Salafiyya), p. 22
- 4. al-Aqida al-Tahawiyya, Dar Ibn Hazm 1995, p. 27
- 5. Muruj al-Dhahab — al-Masʼudi, p.542-547
- 6. Maqalat al-Islamiyyin, al-Ash'ari (ed. Muhammad Muhyi al-Din Abd al-Hamid), p. 350