The Relationship between God's Negated Attributes with His Expressibility according to Avicenna and Allamah Helli

Abstract

Several methods have long been proposed regarding the discussion of divine attributes, and they are divided into two general types: negated and affirmative ones, each with its own subsets and subdivisions. For example, the negated method is divided into the negation and silence, the comparative-negated, and the negated- affirmative methods. The present paper seeks to review the negated-affirmative method and its relationship with God's expressibility, because scholars have proposed different interpretations and meanings for this method, some of which contradict God's inexpressibility. The question that rises is: what is Allamah Helli and Avicenna's view about the meaning of negated-affirmative method and its relationship with God's inexpressibility? In terms of divine essence and attributes, Avicenna interprets God's necessary attributes through negation and relation and does not accept inexpressibility of divine attributes and essence. Allamah Helli believes in a certain interpretation from affirmative to negated, recognizes affirmative attributes through negating their opposites, and restricts expressibility in attributes to their conditionality. While reviewing the different meanings of the negated-affirmative method according to scholars such as Avicenna and Allamah Helli, this paper explains the former's general view which holds that all divine attributes are interpreted through negation and relation.