Ibn-Sinā and the Scope of the Divine Knowledge

For Ibn-Sina, the Almighty Creator knows everything, whether particular or universal, before they are created. He considers such knowledge to be a requisite of His knowledge of His essence. It encompasses other things through their causes and by the imprinting of their forms in His essence. The theory of “imprinting” in Divine knowledge has raised criticisms from both Muslim philosophers and theologians (mutakallimin).The author in this article tries to show that Ibn-Sina was aware of such possible misunderstandings about the theory of “imprinting”, and explained the theory in a way that does not imply the affectedness of His essence from others. The article accomplishes this task by reviewing Ibn-Sina’s viewpoints and his explanations of the theory of “imprinting” in his different works.