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IslamQA: Islam vs. Solipsism

Salamu alaikum. Brother, I just read about solipsism and what are your thoughts regarding it?

Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah,

If you mean the philosophical theory, it is based on the idea that there is only one channel of knowledge into the mind. Islam’s answer is that there are two channels. There is the soul which resides outside of our universe and recognizes God, and then there is the conscious mind which exists in this universe. The universe is a simulation like in the film The Matrix. The existence of a soul outside of the universe, which can receive knowledge independently of the mind, nullifies solipsism, since it can receive a kind of true knowledge about the state and reality of the universe independent of the mind. So while rationally it is perfectly plausible to imagine that I am the only real being in the universe, my soul knows this to be false, since it has its own knowledge that tells it that God is real and that other individuals are also real.

For more on my views on theology see my essay: Reconciling Free Will and Predestination in Islam with al-Māturīdī and Ibn Taymiyya

And God knows best.
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