The transition from the unique one to the many: Essence and creation theories in the formation of the world

When it comes to Islamic intellectual history, the emanation (sudur) and creation (hudus) theories are very important theories that can be pursued in multiple schools of thought such as kalam, philosophy and mysticism. This study aims to investigate and compare the two. In the first chapter, we examined the emanation theory from three philosophers' point of view. Plotinus, who unlike the greek philoshophers that came before him, searched for a source from which the universe emanated from, and was the first philosopher to do so, thought up a system made up of three hypostases, with the First being the first source of emanation, a mystical system of looping ascendence and descendence. Whereas in Islamic philosophy, Alpharabius built upon the theory of emanation with cosmology and incorporated it into philosophy, and Aviccenna built upon it even further incorporating his firm belief of causation and correlation, turning it into a theory with long lasting effects on Islamic thought. In the second chapter, we examine the creation theory which represents the concept of cosmology in kalam. First, we tried to provide the reasons which led to the mutakallimun (scholars of kalam) having to define their own views on cosmology. Afterwards, we examined the ideas and arguments that came before a widely accepted cosmological system from the viewpoints of multiple important figures. As for the last part of the second chapter, we evaluated the core tenets of the theory of creation, providing an all encompassing look on the theory and its details. In the final part of this thesis, we compared the theories and the main arguments they put forward, and brought attention to their views on Allah himself, nature and people; and on the points at which the two theories' views collided with eachother.