विश्वासों और मतों की पुस्तक

परिचय

Saadia Gaon, head of the rabbinic academy of Sura in Babylonia, wrote the book around 933 in Judaeo-Arabic, Arabic written in Hebrew script; Judah ibn Tibbon’s Hebrew translation of 1186 (Emunot ve-Deot) made it known to later generations. The introduction lists the sources of knowledge and argues that revelation and reason agree, since reason can in principle reach what revelation teaches, only more slowly. Ten treatises then discuss creation from nothing, God’s unity and attributes, the commandments and their rational grounds, free will, the soul, resurrection, redemption and the best way of life. Saadia adopts methods of Islamic kalam theology, especially of the Mutazila, and argues against Christian, dualist and sceptical positions.