Taalluq al-Aqaid bil-Zaman wal-Makan - ضمن "Athar al-Muallimi
- Author died
- 1386 AH
- Editions
- Dār ‘Ālam al-Fawā’id lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzī‘
Taalluq al-Aqaid bil-Zaman wal-Makan (The Relation of Creeds to Time and Space) is a brief theological treatise by the Yemeni scholar Abd al-Rahman al-Muallimi al-Yamani (1312–1386 AH / 1894–1966 CE) examining the concepts of time, place, and void in relation to Islamic theology .
Title and Scope
The author did not assign an explicit title to the text in the manuscript; the title was designated in the catalog of the Library of the Holy Mosque in Mecca (Maktabat al-Haram al-Makki) to reflect its subject matter . The extant text represents only a surviving portion of the work, opening with an emphasis on the necessity of investigating space and time due to their close connection to creedal doctrines .
Content and Method
Al-Muallimi begins by defining "place" (al-makan) as either the location of settling or the locus of being, and clarifies the nature of "space" or "void" (al-fada), distinguishing it from "air" (al-hawa) on the grounds that air is a physical body occupying space whereas space remains conceivable even if air were eliminated .
He then addresses the debate over whether space is existent (mawjud) or non-existent (madum), noting the consensus attributed to the theologians (al-mutakallimun) that it is non-existent—termed an "imagined extension" (bud mawhum)—against the philosophers and later speculative scholars who argued that its existence is self-evident by necessity (darurah) . Al-Muallimi quotes the arguments for its necessary existence presented by Adud al-Din al-Iji in al-Mawaqif and refutes them through rational arguments, contending that speculative thinkers often mistake imaginary notions (al-wahmiyyat) for self-evident truths (al-daruriyyat) . Employing hypothetical thought experiments involving the boundary outside the physical cosmos, al-Muallimi concludes that spatial distance simply signifies non-contact (adam al-tamass) rather than an independently existing entity, referencing the glosses on al-Mawaqif by Abd al-Hakim al-Siyalkuti .
Manuscript and Publication
The treatise survives in a single manuscript written in al-Muallimi’s own handwriting, preserved in a notebook alongside three other treatises in Maktabat al-Haram al-Makki (no. 4658/4), spanning pages 11 to 13 with over ten lines per page . It was published as the tenth treatise within the theological compendium in the sixth volume of Athar Abd al-Rahman ibn Yahya al-Muallimi al-Yamani, spanning five printed pages .
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