what is substances and accidents

[asharee_salafi]

Assalaam'ualykum

I have heard this continual talk of substances and accidents, I don't understand what it means fullly, I understand the concpets of space and time, and the comcpet of bodies and infinite regress with change I get that in a way.
But not substances and accidents.

Pls explain

[abudurrah]

mee too i dont understand accidents

[Abuz Zubair]

Ok... The theory of accidents and substances is basically an Islamicised version of Aristotle's categorisation of reality.

The simplest way of putting it is like this:

A Substance is that which exists by itself, such as a stone, a car, a piece of wood, etc.

An Accident is that which cannot exist by itself, and therefore, it must subsist in a substance, such as colours, movement, etc...

A Body is a collection of two or more substances, according to the majority of the Ash'aris.

For more information on the subject, refer to this link:

http://www.aquinasonline.com/Topics/substacc.html

[WM]

Abuz Zubair, maybe this is naive, but is there anything wrong with just being a common muslim, knowing basic aqida and fiqh, reading qur'an and its tafsir and praying to Allah? To me, spending time studying kalam etc seems too much of a burden- can't we just be 'normal' people?

[Abuz Zubair]

Abuz Zubair, maybe this is naive, but is there anything wrong with just being a common muslim, knowing basic aqida and fiqh, reading qur'an and its tafsir and praying to Allah? To me, spending time studying kalam etc seems too much of a burden- can't we just be 'normal' people?
You are right... it reminds us of Ibn 'Aqil's statement (who himself was one of the leading intellectuals of his time):

I say with utmost certainty that the Companions died having no knowledge of the substance (jawhar) or accidents (‘aradh). Hence, if you feel that you should be like them, then be! But, if you think that the way of the Doctors of Kalam is better than the way of Abu Bakr and ‘Umar, then how evil is what you think!

[abudurrah]

good reply

substance. accident, body all this is a load of nonsense really isnt it
i gave up on it when i read ibn al arabis nonsense (seemed like absolute jiberish)


there are muslims out there who still think like this....so its good for few muslims in the community to know it so that they can refute it, so its good that you know it,

ive met some non muslims in the dawah field who are philosophical and becasue no one can refute them they remain stuck to deviant thought

we dont want history to repeat itself do we 'the believer is not stung from the same hole twice'