There are many ways to explore the question of God’s existence. This is only one approach, rooted in Ibn Sīnā’s reasoning, and does not dismiss other philosophical, mystical, or even skeptical paths.
The Longing for an Anchor
In my work as a transpersonal psychologist, clients rarely come in asking about philosophy. Yet beneath anxiety, disconnection, and the search for meaning, the question is often the same: What is the Source of my existence? Where is home? Where do I belong? Some call it God, some avoid the word entirely, but almost everyone longs for a tether, an anchor, something that provides coherence and integrity in life.
We live in a world where the word “God” has been used to justify harm, conflict, and even war. It is easy to understand why so many feel alienated from it. Yet across mystical traditions, the origin of the universe is described as Love, the force that sustains all that is.
This tension, between disillusionment with religion and the heart’s need for an ultimate Source, is where the work often begins.
Dr. Roy Casagranda’s recent interview (Al Jazeera, 2:22 m) is refreshing (full YouTube interview below). Here is a Western scholar speaking to the world about a rich chapter of Islamic intellectual history. The Arab and Muslim world is often misunderstood, from within, too, or only seen through the lens of conflict.
I share this with some trepidation. Any source or platform carries its own biases, and the act of speaking about the Islamic world through a Western lens is layered with complexity. Still, the insights are valuable, and this interview opens a window rarely seen.
This post is less a polished article than a curated list of resources for those interested in exploring further. Consider this a companion to Part I of my Healing the Soul series, with Part II currently in the works.
Casagranda, in the full interview, highlights how a thousand years ago, if you viewed the earth from space, the Arab and Muslim world would be the only place illuminated by lanterns fueled by petroleum. A millennium later, spirituality is still alive, but the metaphorical light is dim, though the legacy of that intellectual brilliance remains, if we are willing to see it.
From this luminous past arises one of its most profound contributions: Ibn Sīnā’s (980–1037) conception of the Necessary Being [واجب الوجود]. This idea, born from his engagement with Aristotle through al-Fārābī’s commentaries, became both a cornerstone of Islamic metaphysics and a bridge to later Western thought.
Ibn Sīnā and the Necessary Being
Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna, 980–1037) articulated one of the most evident proofs for the existence of God: the Necessary Being [واجب الوجود].
He distinguished three ontological potentialities:
Necessary in itself [واجب الوجود] — exists by its very essence, requiring no cause.
Possible in itself [ممكن الوجود] — contingent, may exist or not, depends on an external cause.
Impossible in itself [ممتنع الوجود] — cannot exist in any scenario.
Everything in the world is possible in itself, a dependent reality borrowing its existence. A chain of contingent beings cannot regress infinitely. There must be a first source, a Necessary Being, whose essence is existence itself.
Dr. Roy Casagranda likens this to a metaphysical singularity, the Source from which all reality flows. Without the Necessary Being, nothing could exist at all.
Influence on Thomas Aquinas
Ibn Sīnā’s reasoning shaped Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274). In Summa Theologica (I.q.2.a.3), Aquinas’s Third Way mirrors Avicenna:
Contingent beings appear and pass away.
If all were contingent, there would have been a time when nothing existed.
From nothing, nothing comes. Therefore, a Necessary Being must exist.
In De Ente et Essentia, Aquinas explicitly cites Avicenna’s distinction between essence (ماهية) and existence (وجود), Christianizing the framework with creation ex nihilo.
From Logic to Mysticism
Ibn Sīnā’s proof seeded centuries of Islamic metaphysics and mysticism:
Suhrawardī (1154–1191) — reframed the Necessary Being as the Light of Lights.
Ibn ʿArabī (1165–1240) — moved beyond proof into Unity of Being [وحدة الوجود], where all forms reflect the One.
Mullā Ṣadrā (1572–1640) — developed the primacy of existence [أصالة الوجود], seeing reality as a graded emanation of the Necessary.
Each of these authors is a world unto themselves, and will be writing about in more detail in my journal reflections.
Critique and Debate
Al-Ghazālī (1058–1111) accepted the Necessary Being but rejected Avicenna’s Neoplatonism in Tahāfut al-Falāsifa.
Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (1149–1209) cautiously integrated the logic into Ashʿarī theology.
Ṭūsī (1201–1274) and Mullā Ṣadrā fully embraced and expanded his metaphysics.
The Necessary Being became a bridge between philosophy and theology, even amid tension with orthodoxy.
A Psychological Anchor
Ibn Sīnā’s Necessary Being is more than a metaphysical idea. It is a reminder that all contingent realities, including our own lives, borrow their existence. In a world hungry for meaning, remembering that there is a Source that cannot not exist can serve as an anchor, a return to integrity.
Behind all contingency stands the One who simply, necessarily, Is.
