Examining the possibility or denial of divine power in impossible matters (Focusing on the news of the sects, including reciprocal responses)

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Faculty member, Faculty of Theology and Religions, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.

2 Master's student in Islamic Studies, Faculty of Theology and Religions, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.

10.22111/jrm.2025.51772.1280

Abstract

The question of the possibility or denial of divine power over impossible matters is one of the important challenges of belief that has been reflected in Islamic hadith texts, both in Shia and Sunni sources.This article focuses on the narrations in which the criterion of distinction between opposing groups (such as the wise and the foolish, the scholar and the worshipper, or the prophet and the devil) is considered to be the belief in the possibility of divine power over impossible matters or its denial. Thus, it should be said that the present article seeks to answer the question of whether divine power is also applicable to performing impossible matters?This purpose has been pursued with a descriptive, analytical and critical method and has led to the conclusion that there is a group of reports regarding this issue in the sources of the sects, which originate from the belief of some people that divine power does not belong to impossible matters, their possession of reason or the status of prophethood. In contrast, a group that can be joined to the dead by clinging to some reports, are caught in a degree of stupidity that they think that even impossible matters (such as the world sinking into an egg or the creation of a likeness for God) belong to divine power, and perhaps they are worshippers whose worship does not stem from proper knowledge of God and who have reached the illusion that denying the possibility of God creating impossible things requires attributing to Him some kind of weakness and imperfection. The analysis and criticism contained in the present article are presented in the form of documentary, source, and evidence studies of the above narrations, and by paying attention to the narrative and intellectual aspects supporting and opposing each of those narrations.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Comparative Study of Religions and Mysticism

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 15 February 2026

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History

  • Receive Date: 01 May 2025
  • Revise Date: 15 May 2025
  • Accept Date: 28 May 2025

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