Ibn Sina’s Difficulties on the Adoption or Rejection of Bodily Resurrection

Abstract

Ibn Sina has had two completely different positions on bodily resurrection. At times, after rational demonstration of spiritual resurrection, he declared that he merely accepts bodily resurrection by trusting the saying of Prophet and sometimes by criticizing those who believe in the resurrection of body and soul, he only accepts the resurrection of souls. The problem here is that he can believe in the corporeality of resurrection in this way only if he regards it possible and already has shown its possibility. But he has not proposed the possibility of bodily resurrection. After Ibn Sina, some theologians and philosophers have shown the possibility of bodily resurrection before asserting revealed arguments for it. Another difficulty of Ibn Sina is that he rejects bodily resurrection whereas it is confirmed by Quranic verses and valid traditions. He believes that the prophet, by taking into account the situation of general audience who do not have the ability of understanding rational concepts and true happiness and wickedness, should encourage them by stating tangible pleasures and punishments and frighten them of disobedience and wrong doing. By proposing the theory of analogy as a particular method for teaching people the religious truth, Ibn Sina has regarded the literal meanings of Quranic verses as signs of higher Quranic concepts to people. So, beyond the literal meanings of these verses, there is some esoteric and rational ones that should be attained by way of esoteric interpretation. Many theologians have not accepted this solution by asserting that the verses are not liable to allegorical interpretation.

Keywords

• bodily resurrection
• possibility
• model of analogy
• allegorical interpretation