From the Lawfulness of Nature to De-Discrimination: Assessing the Theological Foundations of Ferasat-khah's Theory Regarding Divine Names and Actions

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Quran and Hadith Sciences Department, Faculty of Theology and Islamic Studies, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran.

10.22080/jepr.2026.31085.1321

Abstract

How to reconcile the divine personal agency and the law-based system of nature is one of the fundamental theological challenges in the contemporary world. In response to this challenge, moghsud ferasat-khah, with a sociological motivation, has proposed the theory of reinterpreting divine names and actions into the law of nature. The present study aims to analyze and criticize the foundations and consequences of this theory, and evaluates it using a descriptive-analytical method and relying on Islamic theological and philosophical foundations. The findings show that the aforementioned theory, although it was formed with the concern of making religion more efficient and confronting popular perceptions, leads to challenging results by reducing concepts such as sustenance, healing, and guidance to the outcome of the functioning of the natural system. The most important of these consequences is the depersonalization of God and his transformation into an impersonal system, the emptying of concepts such as prayer and trust from communicative content, and as a result, the denial of the possibility of miracles and the answering of prayers, which is in conflict with the Quranic image of God. In contrast, this article shows that the model of the "longitudinal hierarchy of causes" in transcendental wisdom offers an efficient solution to the problem. By explaining the longitudinal relationship between divine agency and natural causes, this model both preserves the lawfulness of the world and establishes God's position as a living and sustaining agent, as well as the possibility of two-way communication with Him.

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