A Study of the Attribution of the Theory of Perpetual Createdness to Jalāl al-Dīn Dawānī

The belief in the createdness of the world is the essence of a proposition which, after believing in the One God, is the most significant of all divine beliefs. Mīr Dāmād’s particular view in this regard entails the demonstration of a real commencement and trans-temporal origination for the world of being. Through referring to the failure of his preceding philosophers regarding the rational explanation of the problem of the appearance of the world, Mīr Dāmād maintains that the content of the modified version of the theory of “perpetual createdness” (ḥudūth dahrī) is among his innovations and the most important fruit of Yamani wisdom. On the other hand, Mullā Moḥammad Ismā‘īl Khwajūī in his treatise of Ibṭāl al-zamān al-mawhūm attributes this theory to Jalāl al-Dīn Dawānī, matches his view with the theory of perpetual createdness and, in this way, implies that Mīr Dāmād adopted this theory from Dawānī’s works. The present study examines Khwajūī’s claim through investigating a number of metaphysical analyses.