Kun fa-yakun. La metafisica dell'esto in Abu Ya'qub al-Sigistani

This research analyzes a peculiar tenet of the 4th/10th century’s Ismā‘Ili cosmology; namely the nature of the divine imperative, ‘be’ (kun), through which God, as stated by the Qur’an, started creating the world with only one word. Abū Yaʽqūb al-Siǧistānī, one of the most outstanding expression of the philosophical Ismā‘ilism, re-formulated the dogma of the Qur’anic fiat in order to secure not only God’s transcendence but also His unity and oneness. The analysis of some passages included in the Book of the Boast (Kitāb al-Iftiḫār) will show how in the al-Siǧistānī’s system the divine imperative comes to be the cause of the creation. Eternally given by God, who is the Originator (mubdi‘) of the world, the divine imperative is conceived as unified to what is ordered; in other words to the Intellect that was considered the cause of multiplicity since it was identified with the one. In so doing al-Siǧistānī, while aiming at safeguarding the divine transcendence, by applying the so-called ‘science of letters’ to the Qur’anic statement kun fa-yakūn (‘be and was’), wanted to ensure the presence of God in the world through His divine imperative.