LessonsDivine Will: Eternity, Specification of Possibilities and Free AgencyQuiz

Relation (taʿalluq) denotes how an attribute is considered with respect to its object. It should not automatically be imagined as a bodily motion or a new state arising in the divine essence.

When a creature begins at a given time, that is a change in the creature's condition. It does not follow that an analogous temporal change occurs within God. Treating the divine attribute like a changing created object is a category error within this framework.

The same caution applies to knowledge: an object being nonexistent and later existent does not, merely by that transition, prove the origination of divine knowledge.

Opening interactive controls...

Understanding the relation of will

Divine Will: Eternity, Specification of Possibilities and Free Agency

Relation (taʿalluq) denotes how an attribute is considered with respect to its object. It should not automatically be imagined as a bodily motion or a new state arising in the divine essence.

When a creature begins at a given time, that is a change in the creature's condition. It does not follow that an analogous temporal change occurs within God. Treating the divine attribute like a changing created object is a category error within this framework.

The same caution applies to knowledge: an object being nonexistent and later existent does not, merely by that transition, prove the origination of divine knowledge.