Early Islamic philosophy began withal-Kindi in the 2nd century of theIslamic calendar (early 9th century CE) and declined withIbn Rushd (Averroes) in the 6th century AH (late 12th century CE), broadly coinciding with the period known as theIslamic Golden Age. The death of Ibn Rushd effectively marked the end of a specific discipline of Islamic philosophy usually called the Islamic peripatetic school, and philosophical activity declined significantly in the west of the Islamic world, includingal-Andalus and theMaghreb.
Islamic philosophy had a major impact inChristian Europe, where translation ofArabic philosophical texts intoLatin "led to the transformation of almost all philosophical disciplines in the medieval Latin world", with a particularly strong influence of Muslim philosophers being felt innatural philosophy,psychology andmetaphysics.[2]
Islamic philosophy refers to philosophy produced in an Islamic society. As it is not necessarily concerned with religious issues, nor exclusively produced byMuslims,[3] many scholars prefer the term "Arabic philosophy."[4]
Islamic philosophy is a generic term that can be defined and used in different ways. In its broadest sense it means the world view of Islam, as derived from the Islamic texts concerning the creation of the universe and the will of the Creator. In another sense it refers to any of the schools of thought that flourished under the Islamic empire or in the shadow of the Arab-Islamic culture and Islamic civilization. In its narrowest sense it is a translation ofFalsafa, meaning those particular schools of thought that most reflect the influence of Greek systems of philosophy such asNeoplatonism andAristotelianism.
Some schools of thought within Islam deny the usefulness or legitimacy of philosophical inquiry. Some argue that there is no indication that the limited knowledge and experience of humans can lead to truth. It is also important to observe that, while "reason" ('aql) is sometimes recognised as a source of Islamic law, it has been claimed that this has a totally different meaning from "reason" inphilosophy.[citation needed]
The historiography of Islamic philosophy is marked by disputes as to how the subject should be properly interpreted. Some of the key issues involve the comparative importance of eastern intellectuals such as Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and of western thinkers such as Ibn Rushd,[5] and also whether Islamic philosophy can be read at face value or should be interpreted in anesoteric fashion. Supporters of the latter thesis, likeLeo Strauss, maintain that Islamic philosophers wrote so as to conceal their true meaning in order to avoidreligious persecution, but scholars such asOliver Leaman disagree.[6]
The main sources of classical or early Islamic philosophy are the religion of Islam itself (especially ideas derived and interpreted from theQuran)[7] andGreek philosophy which the early Muslims inherited as a result of conquests, along with pre-IslamicIndian philosophy andPersian philosophy. Many of the early philosophical debates centered around reconciling religion and reason, the latter exemplified by Greek philosophy.
One of the first debates was that between partisans of theQadar (قدر meaning "Fate"), who affirmedfree will; and theJabarites (جبر meaning "force", "constraint"), who believed infatalism.
At the 2nd century of theHijra, a new movement arose in the theological school ofBasra,Iraq. A pupil ofHasan of Basra,Wasil ibn Ata, left the group when he disagreed with his teacher on whether a Muslim who has committed a major sin invalidates his faith. He systematized the radical opinions of preceding sects, particularly those of the Qadarites and Jabarites. This new school was calledMu'tazilite (fromi'tazala, to separate oneself).
The Mu'tazilites looked in towards a strictrationalism with which to interpret Islamic doctrine. Their attempt was one of the first to pursue arational theology in Islam. They were however severely criticized by other Islamic philosophers, bothMaturidis andAsharites. The great Asharite scholarFakhr ad-Din ar-Razi wrote the workAl-Mutakallimin fi 'Ilm al-Kalam against the Mutazalites.
In later times,Kalam was used to mean simply "theology", i.e. theduties of the heart as opposed to (or in conjunction with)fiqh (jurisprudence), theduties of the body.[9]
During theAbbasid caliphate, a number of thinkers and scientists, some of themheterodox Muslims or non-Muslims, played a role in transmitting Greek,Hindu and other pre-Islamic knowledge to theChristianWest. Three speculative thinkers, Al-Farabi, Avicenna andAl-Kindi, combinedAristotelianism andNeoplatonism with other ideas introduced through Islam.
Ahmad Sirhindi, 17th century Indian Islamic scholar, has viewed that the Greek philosophy about creations are incompatible with Islamic teaching by quoting several chapters ofQuran.[10] Furthermore, Sirhindi criticize the method of interpretating the meaning of Quran with philosophy.[11]
By the 12th century,Kalam, attacked by both the philosophers and the orthodox, perished for lack of champions. At the same time, however,Falsafa came under serious critical scrutiny. The most devastating attack came fromAl-Ghazali, whose workTahafut al-Falasifa (The Incoherence of the Philosophers) attacked the main arguments of the Peripatetic School.[12]
Averroes,Maimonides' contemporary, was one of the last of the Islamic Peripatetics and set out to defend the views of theFalsafa against al-Ghazali's criticism. The theories of Ibn Rushd do not differ fundamentally from those ofIbn Bajjah andIbn Tufail, who only follow the teachings of Avicenna and Al-Farabi. Like all Islamic Peripatetics, Averroes admits the hypothesis of the intelligence of the spheres and the hypothesis of universal emanation, through which motion is communicated from place to place to all parts of the universe as far as the supreme world—hypotheses which, in the mind of the Arabic philosophers, did away with the dualism involved in Aristotle's doctrine of pure energy and eternal matter.
But while Al-Farabi, Avicenna, and other Persian and Muslim philosophers hurried, so to speak, over subjects that trenched on traditional beliefs, Ibn Rushd delighted in dwelling upon them with full particularity and stress. Thus he says, "Not only is matter eternal, but form is potentially inherent in matter; otherwise, it were a creationex nihilo" (Munk, "Mélanges," p. 444). According to this theory, therefore, the existence of this world is not only a possibility, as Avicenna declared, but also a necessity.
In early Islamic philosophy,logic played an important role.Sharia (Islamic law) placed importance on formulating standards of argument, which gave rise to a novel approach to logic inKalam, but this approach was later displaced by ideas fromGreek philosophy andHellenistic philosophy with the rise of theMu'tazili philosophers, who highly valuedAristotle'sOrganon. The works of Hellenistic-influenced Islamic philosophers were crucial in the reception of Aristotelian logic in medieval Europe, along with the commentaries on theOrganon byAverroes. The works ofal-Farabi,Avicenna,al-Ghazali and other Muslim logicians who often criticized and corrected Aristotelian logic and introduced their own forms of logic, also played a central role in the subsequent development of European logic during theRenaissance.
For the Islamic philosophers, logic included not only the study of formal patterns ofinference and their validity but also elements of the philosophy of language and even ofepistemology andmetaphysics. Because of territorial disputes with the Arabic grammarians, Islamic philosophers were very interested in working out the relationship between logic and language, and they devoted much discussion to the question of the subject matter and aims of logic in relation to reasoning and speech. In the area of formal logical analysis, they elaborated upon the theory ofterms,propositions andsyllogisms as formulated in Aristotle's Categories, De interpretatione and Prior Analytics. In the spirit of Aristotle, they considered the syllogism to be the form to which all rational argumentation could be reduced, and they regarded syllogistic theory as the focal point of logic. Even poetics was considered as a syllogistic art in some fashion by most of the major Islamic Aristotelians.
Important developments made by Muslim logicians included the development of "Avicennian logic" as a replacement of Aristotelian logic.Avicenna'ssystem of logic was responsible for the introduction ofhypothetical syllogism,temporalmodal logic andinductive logic. Other important developments in early Islamic philosophy include the development of a strictscience of citation, theisnad or "backing", and the development of a method to disprove claims, theijtihad, which was generally applied to many types of questions.
Early forms ofanalogical reasoning,inductive reasoning and categoricalsyllogism were introduced inFiqh (Islamic jurisprudence),Sharia andKalam (Islamic theology) from the 7th century with the process ofQiyas, before the Arabic translations of Aristotle's works. Later, during theIslamic Golden Age, there was debate among Islamic philosophers, logicians and theologians over whether the termQiyas refers to analogical reasoning, inductive reasoning or categorical syllogism. Some Islamic scholars argued thatQiyas refers to inductive reasoning.Ibn Hazm (994–1064) disagreed, arguing thatQiyas does not refer to inductive reasoning but tocategorical syllogistic reasoning in areal sense and analogical reasoning in ametaphorical sense. On the other hand,al-Ghazali (1058–1111; and, in modern times,Abu Muhammad Asem al-Maqdisi) argued thatQiyas refers to analogical reasoning in a real sense and categorical syllogism in a metaphorical sense. Other Islamic scholars at the time, however, argued that the termQiyas refers to both analogical reasoning and categorical syllogism in a real sense.[13]
The first original Arabic writings on logic were produced byal-Kindi (Alkindus) (805–873), who produced a summary on earlier logic up to his time. The first writings on logic with non-Aristotelian elements was produced byal-Farabi (Alfarabi) (873–950), who discussed the topics of futurecontingents, thenumber and relation of thecategories, the relation betweenlogic andgrammar, and non-Aristotelian forms ofinference.[14] He is also credited for categorizing logic into two separate groups, the first being "idea" and the second being "proof".
Averroes (1126–1198), author of the most elaborate commentaries on Aristotelian logic, was the last major logician fromal-Andalus.
Avicenna (980–1037) developed his own system of logic known as "Avicennian logic" as an alternative to Aristotelian logic. By the 12th century, Avicennian logic had replaced Aristotelian logic as the dominant system of logic in the Islamic world.[15]
The first criticisms of Aristotelian logic were written byAvicenna (980–1037), who produced independent treatises on logic rather than commentaries. He criticized the logical school of Baghdad for their devotion to Aristotle at the time. He investigated the theory ofdefinition andclassification and thequantification of thepredicates of categoricalpropositions, and developed an original theory on "temporalmodal" syllogism. Its premises includedmodifiers such as "at all times", "at most times", and "at some time".
Ibn Hazm (994–1064) wrote theScope of Logic, in which he stressed on the importance ofsenseperception as a source of knowledge.[17]Al-Ghazali (Algazel) (1058–1111) had an important influence on the use of logic in theology, making use of Avicennian logic inKalam.[14]
Avicenna's proof for theexistence of God was the firstontological argument, which he proposed in theMetaphysics section ofThe Book of Healing.[19][20] This was the first attempt at using the method ofa priori proof, which utilizes intuition and reason alone. Avicenna's proof of God's existence is unique in that it can be classified as both acosmological argument and an ontological argument. "It is ontological insofar as ‘necessary existence’ in intellect is the first basis for arguing for a Necessary Existent". The proof is also "cosmological insofar as most of it is taken up with arguing that contingent existents cannot stand alone and must end up in a Necessary Existent."[21]
Theologians, particularly among theMuʿtazilites, agreed with Aristotelian metaphysics that non-existence is a thing (s̲h̲ayʾ) and an entity (d̲h̲āt). According to Aristotelian philosophy, non-existence has to be distinguished by absolute non-existence, that is absolute nothingness, and relative non-existence. The latter can refer to the absence of a quality or the potentiality of something.[22] Muʿtazilite thinkers such asal-Fārābī andibn Sīnā hold the position that things had a relative existence prior to creation. God knew what he was going to create and God gave them the accident of existence. Contrarily, Asharites regard existence as essence.[23]
Islamic philosophy, imbued as it is withIslamic theology, distinguishes more clearly thanAristotelianism the difference betweenessence andexistence. Whereas existence is the domain of thecontingent and the accidental, essence endures within abeing beyond the accidental. This was first described byAvicenna's works onmetaphysics, who was himself influenced byal-Farabi.
Some orientalists (or those particularly influenced byThomist scholarship) argued that Avicenna was the first to view existence (wujud) as an accident that happens to the essence (mahiyya). However, this aspect of ontology is not the most central to the distinction that Avicenna established between essence and existence. One cannot therefore make the claim that Avicenna was the proponent of the concept ofessentialismper se, given that existence (al-wujud) when thought of in terms of necessity would ontologically translate into a notion of the "Necessary-Existent-due-to-Itself" (wajib al-wujud bi-dhatihi), which is without description or definition and, in particular, withoutquiddity or essence (la mahiyya lahu). Consequently, Avicenna'sontology is 'existentialist' when accounting for being–qua–existence in terms of necessity (wujub), while it isessentialist in terms of thinking about being–qua–existence in terms of "contingency–qua–possibility" (imkan ormumkin al-wujud, meaning "contingent being").[24]
Ibn al-Nafis wrote theTheologus Autodidactus as a defense of "the system of Islam and the Muslims' doctrines on the missions of Prophets, the religious laws, the resurrection of the body, and the transitoriness of the world." The book presents rational arguments for bodilyresurrection and theimmortality of the human soul, using both demonstrativereasoning and material from the hadith corpus as forms ofevidence. Later Islamic scholars viewed this work as a response toAvicenna'smetaphysical argument on spiritual resurrection (as opposed to bodily resurrection), which was earlier criticized byal-Ghazali.[29]
TheMuslim physician-philosophers,Avicenna andIbn al-Nafis, developed their own theories on the soul. They both made a distinction between the soul and the spirit, and in particular, theAvicennian doctrine on the nature of the soul was influential among theScholastics. Some of Avicenna's views on the soul included the idea that theimmortality of the soul is a consequence of its nature, and not a purpose for it to fulfill. In his theory of "The Ten Intellects", he viewed the human soul as the tenth and finalintellect.
Avicenna and Ibn al-Nafis (Ibn al-Nafis), Islamic philosophers and physicians who followed Aristotle, put forward a different theory about the soul than Aristotle's, and made a distinction between soul (In. spirit) and soul (In. soul). [32] Especially Avicenna's teaching on the nature of the soul had a great influence on the Scholastics. According to Ibn Sina, the soul is a spiritual substance separate from the body, it uses the body as a tool. The famous example given by Ibn Sina to show that the soul is a spiritual substance separate from the material body and to show one's self-awareness, is known as "insan-i tair" (flying person) and was used throughout the West in the Middle Ages. In this example, he asks his readers to imagine themselves suspended in the sky (in the air), without any sensory contact, isolated from all sensations: The person in this state is still realizing himself even though there is no material contact. In that case, the idea that the soul (person) is dependent on matter, that is, any physical object, does not make sense, and the soul is a substance on its own. (Here, the concept of “I exist even though I am not in the dense-rough matter of the world” is treated.) This "proving by reflection" study by Ibn Sina was later simplified by René Descartes and expressed in epistemological terms as follows: “I can isolate myself from all supposed things outside of me. , but I can never (abstract) from my own consciousness.”.[30] According to Ibn Sina, immortality of the soul is not a goal, but a necessity and consequence of its nature.[31]
Avicenna generally supportedAristotle's idea of the soul originating from theheart, whereas Ibn al-Nafis on the other hand rejected this idea and instead argued that the soul "is related to the entirety and not to one or a feworgans." He further criticized Aristotle's idea that every unique soul requires the existence of a unique source, in this case the heart. Ibn al-Nafis concluded that "the soul is related primarily neither to the spirit nor to any organ, but rather to the entire matter whose temperament is prepared to receive that soul" and he defined the soul as nothing other than "what a human indicates by saying ‘I’."[32]
While he was imprisoned in the castle of Fardajan nearHamadhan,Avicenna wrote his "Floating Man"thought experiment to demonstrate humanself-awareness and the substantiality of the soul. He referred to the living humanintelligence, particularly theactive intellect, which he believed to be thehypostasis by which God communicates truth to the humanmind and imparts order andintelligibility tonature. His "Floating Man" thought experiment tells its readers to imagine themselves suspended in the air, isolated from allsensations, which includes nosensory contact with even their own bodies. He argues that, in this scenario, one would still haveself-consciousness. He thus concludes that the idea of theself is not logically dependent on any physicalthing, and that the soul should not be seen inrelative terms, but as a primary given, asubstance.[33]
This argument was later refined and simplified byRené Descartes inepistemic terms when he stated: "I can abstract from the supposition of all external things, but not from the supposition of my own consciousness."[33]
While ancient Greek philosophers believed that the universe had an infinite past with no beginning, earlymedieval philosophers and theologians developed the concept of the universe having afinite past with a beginning. This view was inspired by thecreationism shared byJudaism,Christianity andIslam. TheChristian philosopherJohn Philoponus presented a detailed argument against the ancient Greek notion of an infinite past. Muslim and Arab Jewish philosophers likeAl-Kindi,Saadia Gaon, andAl-Ghazali developed further arguments, with most falling into two broad categories: assertions of the "impossibility of the existence of an actual infinite" and of the "impossibility of completing an actual infinite by successive addition".[34]
What corresponds in the mind to what is outside it.[35]
Avicenna elaborated on his definition of truth in hisMetaphysics:
The truth of a thing is the property of the being of each thing which has been established in it.[36]
In hisQuodlibeta,Thomas Aquinas wrote a commentary on Avicenna's definition of truth in hisMetaphysics and explained it as follows:
The truth of each thing, as Avicenna says in hisMetaphysica, is nothing else than the property of its being which has been established in it. So that is called true gold which has properly the being of gold and attains to the established determinations of the nature of gold. Now, each thing has properly being in some nature because it stands under the complete form proper to that nature, whereby being and species in that nature is.[36]
Ibn al-Haytham (Alhacen) reasoned that to discover the truth about nature, it is necessary to eliminate human opinion and error, and allow the universe to speak for itself.[37] In hisAporias against Ptolemy, Ibn al-Haytham further wrote the following comments on truth:
Truth is sought for itself [but] the truths, [he warns] are immersed in uncertainties [and the scientific authorities (such as Ptolemy, whom he greatly respected) are] not immune from error...[38]
Therefore, the seeker after the truth is not one who studies the writings of the ancients and, following his natural disposition, puts his trust in them, but rather the one who suspects his faith in them and questions what he gathers from them, the one who submits to argument and demonstration, and not to the sayings of a human being whose nature is fraught with all kinds of imperfection and deficiency. Thus the duty of the man who investigates the writings of scientists, if learning the truth is his goal, is to make himself an enemy of all that he reads, and, applying his mind to the core and margins of its content, attack it from every side. He should also suspect himself as he performs his critical examination of it, so that he may avoid falling into either prejudice or leniency.[38]
I constantly sought knowledge and truth, and it became my belief that for gaining access to theeffulgence and closeness to God, there is no better way than that of searching for truth and knowledge.[39]
The issue of free will versus predestination is one of the "most contentious topics in classical Islamic thought."[40] In accordance with the Islamic belief inpredestination, or divine preordainment (al-qadā wa'l-qadar), God has full knowledge and control over all that occurs. This is explained in Qur'anic verses such as "Say: 'Nothing will happen to us except what Allah has decreed for us: He is our protector'..."[41] For Muslims, everything in the world that occurs, good or bad, has been preordained and nothing can happen unless permitted by God. According to Islamic tradition, all that has been decreed by God is written inal-Lawh al-Mahfūz, the "Preserved Tablet".[42]
Atomistic philosophies are found very early in Islamic philosophy, and represent a synthesis of the Greek and Indian ideas. Like both the Greek and Indian versions, Islamic atomism was a charged topic that had the potential for conflict with the prevalent religious orthodoxy. Yet it was such a fertile and flexible idea that, as in Greece and India, it flourished in some schools of Islamic thought.
The most successful form of Islamic atomism was in theAsharite school of philosophy, most notably in the work of the philosopheral-Ghazali (1058–1111). InAsharite atomism, atoms are the only perpetual, material things in existence, and all else in the world is "accidental" meaning something that lasts for only an instant. Nothing accidental can be the cause of anything else, except perception, as it exists for a moment. Contingent events are not subject to natural physical causes, but are the direct result of God's constant intervention, without which nothing could happen. Thus nature is completely dependent on God, which meshes with other Asharite Islamic ideas oncausation, or the lack thereof.[43]
Other traditions in Islam rejected the atomism of the Asharites and expounded on many Greek texts, especially those of Aristotle. An active school of philosophers in Spain, including the noted commentatorAverroes (1126-1198 AD) explicitly rejected the thought of al-Ghazali and turned to an extensive evaluation of the thought ofAristotle. Averroes commented in detail on most of the works of Aristotle and his commentaries did much to guide the interpretation of Aristotle in later Jewish and Christian scholastic thought.
Do the disbelievers not realize that the heavens and earth were ˹once˺ one mass then We split them apart? And We created from water every living thing. Will they not then believe?
In contrast to ancientGreek philosophers who believed that theuniverse had an infinite past with no beginning,medieval philosophers and theologians developed the concept of the universe having a finite past with a beginning. This view was inspired by thecreation myth shared by the three Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. TheChristian philosopher,John Philoponus, presented the first such argument against the ancient Greek notion of an infinite past. His reasoning was adopted by many, most notably; Muslim philosopher,Al-Kindi (Alkindus); theJewish philosopher,Saadia Gaon (Saadia ben Joseph); and theMuslim theologian,Al-Ghazali (Algazel). They used two logical arguments against an infinite past, the first being the "argument from the impossibility of the existence of an actual infinite", which states:[34]
"An actual infinite cannot exist."
"An infinite temporal regress of events is an actual infinite."
".•. An infinite temporal regress of events cannot exist."
The second argument, the "argument from the impossibility of completing an actual infinite by successive addition", states:[34]
"An actual infinite cannot be completed by successive addition."
"The temporal series of past events has been completed by successive addition."
".•. The temporal series of past events cannot be an actual infinite."
Both arguments were adopted by later Christian philosophers and theologians, and the second argument in particular became famous after it was adopted byImmanuel Kant in his thesis of the first antimony concerning time.[34]
God has placed the Sun at the center of the Universe just as the capital of a country is placed in its middle and the ruler's palace at the center of the city.
Cosmological ideas maintained by scholars such asal-Farabi and Ibn Sina, have strong resemblance with theNeo-Platonisticemanation cosmology. They identified the differentIntellects, dividing the cosmos into different spheres, as similar to the Islamic angels. However, Islamic scholars repeatedly insist that all heavenly spheres as a whole form a single body and are moved by God, in contrast to Aristotelian cosmology in which God only moves the outer sphere.[46] According to ibn Sina, but differing from al-Farabi, God is not part of the scheme of emanation. God emanated things in accordance with his will. In hisTheologia Aristotelis he shows that through the manifestation of God, the intellects are aware of God and their role in the universe. Further Ibn Sina seems to distinguishes between two types of angels: One completely unrelated to matter, and another one, which exists in form of a superior kind of matter. The latter ones can carry messages between the heavenly spheres and the sublunary world, appearing in visions. Therefore, the higher angels dwell inhigher spheres, while their subordinate angels appear in anintermediary realm. Ibn Sina's explanation might imply an attempt to consider revelation as part of the natural world.[47][48] Also Qazwini lists a lower type of angels; earthly angels as indwelling forces of nature, who keep the world in order and never deviate from their duty. Qazwini believed that the existence of these angels could be proved by reason and effects of these angels on their assigned object.[49]
TheMu'tazili scientist and philosopheral-Jahiz (c. 776–869) was the only known medieval Arab philosopher to write on topics related tonatural selection.[50][51] Al-Jahiz's ideas on the struggle for existence in theBook of Animals have been summarized as follows:
Animals engage in a struggle for existence; forresources, to avoid being eaten and tobreed. Environmental factors influenceorganisms to develop new characteristics to ensure survival, thus transforming into new species. Animals that survive to breed can pass on their successful characteristics to offspring.[52]
However, according to Frank Edgerton (2002), the claim made by some authors that al-Jahiz was an early evolutionist is "unconvincing", but the narrower claim that Jahiz "recognized the effect of environmental factors on animal life" seems valid.[53] Rebecca Stott (2013) writes of al-Jahiz's work:
Jahiz was not concerned with argument or theorizing. He was concerned with witnessing;...Jahiz was not trying to work out how the world began or how species had come to be. He believed that God had done the making and that he had done it brilliantly...He also understood what we might call thesurvival of the fittest.[54]
In Chapter 47 ofIndia, entitled "On Vasudeva and the Wars of the Bharata,"Abu Rayhan Biruni attempted to give anaturalistic explanation as to why the struggles described in theMahabharata "had to take place." He explains it usingnatural processes that includebiological ideas related to evolution, which has led several scholars to compare his ideas toDarwinism andnatural selection. This is due to Biruni describing the idea ofartificial selection and then applying it to nature:[55]
The agriculturist selects his corn, letting grow as much as he requires, and tearing out the remainder. The forester leaves those branches which he perceives to be excellent, whilst he cuts away all others. The bees kill those of their kind who only eat, but do not work in their beehive. Nature proceeds in a similar way; however, it does not distinguish for its action is under all circumstances one and the same. It allows the leaves and fruit of the trees to perish, thus preventing them from realising that result which they are intended to produce in the economy of nature. It removes them so as to make room for others.
Theorganisms that can gain the new features faster are more variable. As a result, they gain advantages over other creatures. [...] The bodies are changing as a result of the internal and external interactions.
Tusi discusses how organisms are able toadapt to their environments:[56]
Look at the world of animals and birds. They have all that is necessary for defense, protection and daily life, including strengths, courage and appropriate tools [organs] [...] Some of these organs are real weapons, [...] For example, horns-spear, teeth and claws-knife and needle, feet and hoofs-cudgel. The thorns and needles of some animals are similar to arrows. [...] Animals that have no other means of defense (as the gazelle and fox) protect themselves with the help of flight and cunning. [...] Some of them, for example, bees, ants and some bird species, have united in communities in order to protect themselves and help each other.
Al-Dinawari (828–896), considered the founder ofArabic botany for hisBook of Plants, discussedplant evolution from its birth to its death, describing the phases ofplant growth and the production of flowers and fruit.[57]
[These books] state that God first createdmatter and invested it withenergy for development. Matter, therefore, adopted the form ofvapour which assumed the shape of water in due time. The next stage of development wasmineral life. Different kinds ofstones developed in course of time. Their highest form being mirjan (coral). It is a stone which has in it branches like those of a tree. After mineral life evolvesvegetation. The evolution of vegetation culminates with a tree which bears the qualities of an animal. This is thedate-palm. It has male and female genders. It does not wither if all its branches are chopped but it dies when the head is cut off. The date-palm is therefore considered the highest among the trees and resembles the lowest among animals. Then is born the lowest of animals. It evolves into anape. This is not the statement of Darwin. This is what Ibn Maskawayh states and this is precisely what is written in theEpistles of Ikhwan al-Safa. The Muslim thinkers state that ape then evolved into a lower kind of abarbarian man. He then became a superior human being. Man becomes asaint, aprophet. He evolves into a higher stage and becomes anangel. The one higher to angels is indeed none but God. Everything begins from Him and everything returns to Him.[59]
English translations of theEncyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity were available from 1812,[60] whileArabicmanuscripts of theal-Fawz al-Asghar andThe Epistles of Ikhwan al-Safa were also available at theUniversity of Cambridge by the 19th century. These works likely had an influence on 19th-century evolutionists, and possiblyCharles Darwin.[citation needed]
In the 14th century,Ibn Khaldun further developed the evolutionary ideas found in theEncyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity. The following statements from his 1377 work, theMuqaddimah, express evolutionary ideas:
We explained there that the whole of existence in (all) its simple and composite worlds is arranged in a natural order of ascent and descent, so that everything constitutes an uninterrupted continuum. The essences at the end of each particular stage of the worlds are by nature prepared to be transformed into the essence adjacent to them, either above or below them. This is the case with the simple material elements; it is the case with palms and vines, (which constitute) the last stage of plants, in their relation to snails and shellfish, (which constitute) the (lowest) stage of animals. It is also the case with monkeys, creatures combining in themselves cleverness and perception, in their relation to man, the being who has the ability to think and to reflect. The preparedness (for transformation) that exists on either side, at each stage of the worlds, is meant when (we speak about) their connection.[61]
Plants do not have the same fineness and power that animals have. Therefore, the sages rarely turned to them. Animals are the last and final stage of the three permutations. Minerals turn into plants, and plants into animals, but animals cannot turn into anything finer than themselves.[62]
Numerous other Islamic scholars and scientists, including the polymathsIbn al-Haytham andAl-Khazini, discussed and developed these ideas. Translated into Latin, these works began to appear in the West after theRenaissance and may have influencedWestern philosophy and science.
The polymathIbn al-Haytham (Alhacen) is considered a pioneer ofphenomenology. He articulated a relationship between the physical and observableworld and that ofintuition,psychology andmental functions. His theories regarding knowledge andperception, linking the domains of science and religion, led to a philosophy of existence based on the direct observation ofreality from the observer's point of view. Much of his thought on phenomenology was not further developed until the 20th century.[63]
The Arab polymath al-HasanIbn al-Haytham (Alhazen; died c. 1041) presented a thorough mathematical critique and refutation ofAristotle's conception of place (topos) in hisRisala/Qawl fi’l-makan (Treatise/Discourse on Place).
Aristotle'sPhysics (Book IV –Delta) stated that the place of something is the two-dimensional boundary of the containing body that is at rest and is in contact with what it contains. Ibn al-Haytham disagreed with this definition and demonstrated that place (al-makan) is the imagined (three-dimensional) void (al-khala' al-mutakhayyal) between the inner surfaces of the containing body. He showed that place was akin tospace, foreshadowingDescartes's notion of place as space quaExtensio or evenLeibniz'sanalysis situs. Ibn al-Haytham's mathematization of place rested on several geometric demonstrations, including his study on the sphere and other solids, which showed that thesphere (al-kura) is the largest in magnitude (volumetric) with respect to other geometric solids that have equal surface areas. For instance, a sphere that has an equal surface area to that of acylinder, would be larger in (volumetric) magnitude than the cylinder; hence, the sphere occupies a larger place than that occupied by the cylinder; unlike what is entailed byAristotle's definition of place: that this sphere and that cylinder occupy places that are equal in magnitude.[64] Ibn al-Haytham rejectedAristotle's philosophical concept of place on mathematical grounds. Later, the philosopher 'Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi (13th century) tried to defend the Aristotelian conception of place in a treatise titled:Fi al-Radd ‘ala Ibn al-Haytham fi al-makan (A refutation of Ibn al-Haytham's place), although his effort was admirable from a philosophical standpoint, it was unconvincing from the scientific and mathematical viewpoints.[65]
Ibn al-Haytham also discussedspace perception and itsepistemological implications in hisBook of Optics (1021). His experimental proof of the intromission model of vision led to changes in the way thevisual perception of space was understood, contrary to the previousemission theory of vision supported byEuclid andPtolemy. In "tying the visual perception of space to prior bodily experience, Alhacen unequivocally rejected theintuitiveness of spatial perception and, therefore, the autonomy of vision. Without tangible notions of distance and size forcorrelation, sight can tell us next to nothing about such things."[66]
In themedieval Islamic world, an elementary school was known as amaktab, which dates back to at least the 10th century. Likemadrasahs (which referred tohigher education), a maktab was often attached to a mosque. In the 11th century,Ibn Sina (known asAvicenna in the West), in one of his books, wrote a chapter dealing with themaktab entitled "The Role of the Teacher in the Training and Upbringing of Children", as a guide to teachers working atmaktab schools. He wrote that children can learn better if taught inclasses instead of individualtuition from privatetutors, and he gave a number of reasons for why this is the case, citing the value ofcompetition and emulation among pupils as well as the usefulness of groupdiscussions and debates. Ibn Sina described thecurriculum of amaktab school in some detail, describing the curricula for two stages of education in amaktab school.[67]
Ibn Sina wrote that children should be sent to amaktab school from the age of 6 and be taughtprimary education until they reach the age of 14. During which time, he wrote that they should be taught theQur'an,Islamic metaphysics,language,literature,Islamic ethics, and manual skills (which could refer to a variety of practical skills).[67]
Ibn Sina refers to thesecondary education stage ofmaktab schooling as the period of specialization, when pupils should begin to acquire manual skills, regardless of their social status. He writes that children after the age of 14 should be given a choice to choose and specialize in subjects they have an interest in, whether it was reading, manual skills, literature, preaching,medicine,geometry,trade and commerce,craftsmanship, or any other subject or profession they would be interested in pursuing for a futurecareer. He wrote that this was a transitional stage and that there needs to be flexibility regarding the age in which pupils graduate, as the student's emotional development and chosen subjects need to be taken into account.[68]
InThe Model of the Motions, Ibn al-Haytham also describes an early version ofOccam's razor, where he employs only minimal hypotheses regarding the properties that characterize astronomical motions, as he attempts to eliminate from his planetary model thecosmological hypotheses that cannot be observed from Earth.[69]
InAporias against Ptolemy, Ibn al-Haytham commented on the difficulty of attaining scientific knowledge:
Truth is sought for itself [but] the truths, [he warns] are immersed in uncertainties [and the scientific authorities (such as Ptolemy, whom he greatly respected) are] not immune from error...[38]
He held that the criticism of existing theories—which dominated this book—holds a special place in the growth of scientific knowledge:
Therefore, the seeker after the truth is not one who studies the writings of the ancients and, following his natural disposition, puts his trust in them, but rather the one who suspects his faith in them and questions what he gathers from them, the one who submits to argument and demonstration, and not to the sayings of a human being whose nature is fraught with all kinds of imperfection and deficiency. Thus the duty of the man who investigates the writings of scientists, if learning the truth is his goal, is to make himself an enemy of all that he reads, and, applying his mind to the core and margins of its content, attack it from every side. He should also suspect himself as he performs his critical examination of it, so that he may avoid falling into either prejudice or leniency.[38]
Ibn al-Haytham attributed his experimentalscientific method andscientific skepticism to his Islamic faith. He believed that human beings are inherently flawed and that only God is perfect. He reasoned that to discover the truth about nature, it is necessary to eliminate human opinion and error, and allow the universe to speak for itself.[37] InThe Winding Motion, Ibn al-Haytham further wrote thatfaith should only apply toprophets of Islam and not to any other authorities, in the following comparison between the Islamic prophetic tradition and the demonstrative sciences:
From the statements made by the nobleShaykh, it is clear that he believes inPtolemy's words in everything he says, without relying on a demonstration or calling on a proof, but by pure imitation (taqlid); that is howexperts in the prophetic tradition have faith in Prophets, may the blessing of God be upon them. But it is not the way that mathematicians have faith in specialists in the demonstrative sciences.[70]
Ibn al-Haytham described his search for truth and knowledge as a way of leading him closer to God:
I constantly sought knowledge and truth, and it became my belief that for gaining access to theeffulgence and closeness to God, there is no better way than that of searching for truth and knowledge.[39]
His contemporaryAbū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī also introduced an early scientific method in nearly every field ofinquiry he studied. For example, in his treatise onmineralogy,Kitab al-Jamahir (Book of Precious Stones), he is "the mostexact of experimental scientists", while in the introduction to hisstudy of India, he declares that "to execute our project, it has not been possible to follow the geometric method" and developscomparative sociology as a scientific method in the field.[71] He was also responsible for introducing the experimental method intomechanics,[72] the first to conduct elaborate experiments related toastronomical phenomena,[73] and a pioneer ofexperimental psychology.[74]
Unlike his contemporaryAvicenna's scientific method where "general and universal questions came first and led to experimental work", al-Biruni developed scientific methods where "universals came out of practical, experimental work" and "theories are formulated after discoveries."[71] During his debate with Avicenna onnatural philosophy, al-Biruni made the first real distinction between a scientist and aphilosopher, referring to Avicenna as a philosopher and considering himself to be a mathematical scientist.[75]
Al-Biruni's scientific method was similar to the modern scientific method in many ways, particularly his emphasis on repeated experimentation. Biruni was concerned with how to conceptualize and prevent bothsystematic errors andrandom errors, such as "errors caused by the use of small instruments and errors made by human observers." He argued that if instruments produce random errors because of their imperfections or idiosyncratic qualities, then multiple observations must be taken,analyzed qualitatively, and on this basis, arrive at a "common-sense single value for theconstant sought", whether anarithmetic mean or a "reliableestimate."[76]
Avicenna (Ibn Sina) is considered the father of modernmedicine,[77] for his introduction ofexperimental medicine andclinical trials,[78] the experimental use andtesting of drugs, and a precise guide for practical experimentation in the process of discovering and proving the effectiveness of medicalsubstances,[79] in his medical encyclopedia,The Canon of Medicine (11th century), which was the first book dealing with experimental medicine. It laid out the following rules and principles for testing the effectiveness of newdrugs ormedications, which still form the basis of modern clinical trials:[78]
"The drug must be free from any extraneous accidental quality."
"It must be used on a simple, not a composite, disease."
"The drug must be tested with two contrary types of diseases, because sometimes a drug cures one disease by Its essential qualities and another by its accidental ones."
"The quality of the drug must correspond to the strength of the disease. For example, there are some drugs whose heat is less than the coldness of certain diseases, so that they would have no effect on them."
"The time of action must be observed, so that essence and accident are not confused."
"The effect of the drug must be seen to occur constantly or in many cases, for if this did not happen, it was an accidental effect."
"The experimentation must be done with the human body, for testing a drug on a lion or a horse might not prove anything about its effect on man."
The first documented description of apeer review process is found in theEthics of the Physician written byIshaq bin Ali al-Rahwi (854–931) ofal-Raha,Syria, who describes the firstmedical peer review process. His work, as well as laterArabic medical manuals, state that a visiting physician must always make duplicate notes of a patient's condition on every visit. When the patient was cured or had died, the notes of the physician were examined by a local medical council of other physicians, who wouldreview the practising physician's notes to decide whether his/her performance have met the required standards of medical care. If their reviews were negative, the practicing physician could face alawsuit from a maltreated patient.[80]
Avicenna's most influential theory inepistemology is his theory of knowledge, in which he developed the concept oftabula rasa. He argued that the "human intellect at birth is rather like a tabula rasa, a pure potentiality that is actualized through education and comes to know" and that knowledge is attained through "empirical familiarity with objects in this world from which one abstracts universal concepts" which is developed through a "syllogistic method ofreasoning; observations lead to prepositional statements, which when compounded lead to further abstract concepts."[81]
Islamiceschatology is concerned with theQiyamah (end of the world;Last Judgement) and thefinal judgement of humanity.Eschatology relates to one of the six articles of faith (aqidah) of Islam. Like the otherAbrahamic religions, Islam teaches the bodilyresurrection of the dead, the fulfillment of a divine plan for creation, and the immortality of the human soul (though Jews do not necessarily view the soul as eternal); the righteous are rewarded with the pleasures ofJannah (Heaven), while the unrighteous are punished inJahannam (Hell). A significant fraction (one third, in fact) of the Quran deals with these beliefs, with manyhadith elaborating on the themes and details. Islamic apocalyptic literature describing the Armageddon is often known asfitna (a test) andmalahim (orghayba in theShi'a tradition).
Ibn al-Nafis dealt with Islamic eschatology in some depth in hisTheologus Autodidactus, where herationalized the Islamic view of eschatology using reason andscience to explain the events that would occur according to Islamic eschatology. He presented his rational and scientific arguments in the form ofArabic fiction, hence hisTheologus Autodidactus may be considered the earliestscience fiction work.[83]
Sharia (Arabic:شَرِيعَةٌ) refers to the body of Islamiclaw. The term means "way" or "path"; it is the legal framework within which public and some private aspects of life are regulated for those living in a legal system based on Islamic principles of jurisprudence. Fiqh is the term for Islamic jurisprudence, made up of the rulings of Islamic jurists. A component of Islamic studies, Fiqh expounds the methodology by which Islamic law is derived from primary and secondary sources.
Mainstream Islam distinguishfiqh, which means understanding details and inferences drawn by scholars, fromsharia that refers to principles that lie behind the fiqh. Scholars hope thatfiqh andsharia are in harmony in any given case, but they cannot be sure.[84]
The Islamic philosophers,Ibn Tufail (Abubacer)[85] andIbn al-Nafis,[86] were pioneers of thephilosophical novel. Ibn Tufail wrote the first fictionalArabic novelHayy ibn Yaqdhan (Philosophus Autodidactus) as a response toal-Ghazali'sThe Incoherence of the Philosophers, and then Ibn al-Nafis also wrote a fictionalnovelTheologus Autodidactus as a response to Ibn Tufail'sPhilosophus Autodidactus. Both of these novels hadprotagonists (Hayy inPhilosophus Autodidactus and Kamil inTheologus Autodidactus) who wereautodidactic individualsspontaneously generated in a cave and living in seclusion on adesert island, both being the earliest examples of a desert island story. However, while Hayy lives alone on the desert island for most of the story inPhilosophus Autodidactus, the story of Kamil extends beyond the desert island setting inTheologus Autodidactus, developing into the first example of ascience fiction novel.[83][87]
Ibn al-Nafis described his bookTheologus Autodidactus as a defense of "the system of Islam and the Muslims' doctrines on the missions of Prophets, the religious laws, the resurrection of the body, and the transitoriness of the world." He presents rational arguments for bodilyresurrection and theimmortality of the human soul, using both demonstrativereasoning and material from the hadith corpus to prove his case. Later Islamic scholars viewed this work as a response to themetaphysical claim of Avicenna and Ibn Tufail that bodily resurrection cannot be proven through reason, a view that was earlier criticized by al-Ghazali.[88]
A Latin translation ofPhilosophus Autodidactus was published in 1671, prepared byEdward Pococke the Younger.[89] The first English translation bySimon Ockley was published in 1708, andGerman andDutch translations were also published at the time.Philosophus Autodidactus went on to have a significant influence onEuropean literature,[90] and became an influential best-seller throughout Western Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries.[91] These translations later inspiredDaniel Defoe to writeRobinson Crusoe, which also featured a desert island narrative and was regarded as thefirst novel in English.[90][92][93][94]
Early Islamicpolitical philosophy emphasized an inexorable link between science and religion, and the process ofijtihad to find truth—in effectall philosophy was "political" as it had real implications for governance. This view was challenged by theMutazilite philosophers, who held a moresecular view and were supported by secular aristocracy who sought freedom of action independent of theCaliphate. The onlyGreek political treatise known to medieval Muslims at the time wasPlato'sRepublic and theLaws. By the end of theIslamic Golden Age, however, theAsharite view of Islam had in general triumphed.
Islamic political philosophy, was, indeed, rooted in the very sources of Islam, i.e. theQur'an and theSunnah, the words and practices of Muhammad. However, in the Western thought, it is generally known that it was a specific area peculiar merely to the great philosophers of Islam:al-Kindi (Alkindus),al-Farabi (Alfarabi),İbn Sina (Avicenna),Ibn Bajjah (Avempace),Ibn Rushd (Averroes), andIbn Khaldun. The political conceptions of Islam such as kudrah, sultan, ummah, cemaa -and even the "core" terms of the Qur'an, i.e. ibada, din, rab and ilah- is taken as the basis of an analysis. Hence, not only the ideas of the Muslim political philosophers but also many otherjurists andulama posed political ideas and theories. For example, the ideas of theKhawarij in the very early years ofIslamic history onKhilafa andUmmah, or that ofShia Islam on the concept ofImamah are considered proofs of political thought. The clashes between theEhl-i Sunna and Shia in the 7th and 8th centuries had a genuine political character.
The 14th-centuryArab scholarIbn Khaldun is considered one of the greatest political theorists. The British philosopher-anthropologistErnest Gellner considered Ibn Khaldun's definition ofgovernment, "an institution which prevents injustice other than such as it commits itself", the best in the history of political theory.[104]
Franz Rosenthal wrote in theHistory of Muslim Historiography:
Muslim historiography has at all times been united by the closest ties with the general development of scholarship in Islam, and the position of historical knowledge in MusIim education has exercised a decisive influence upon the intellectual level of historicai writing... The Muslims achieved a definite advance beyond previous historical writing in thesociological understanding ofhistory and the systematisation ofhistoriography. The development of modern historical writing seems to have gained considerably in speed and substance through the utilization of a Muslim Literature which enabled western historians, from the 17th century on, to see a large section of the world through foreign eyes. The Muslim historiography helped indirectly and modestly to shape present day historical thinking.[108]
There is an important question on the relation of religion and philosophy, reason and faith and so on. In one hand there is extraordinary importance attached to religion in Islamic civilization and in other hand they created certain doctrines in respect to reason and religion.[109]
Ibn Khaldun is considered the "father ofsociology", "father ofhistoriography", and "father of thephilosophy of history" by some, for allegedly being the first to discuss the topics of sociology, historiography and the philosophy of history in detail.[110]
Islamic philosophy found an audience with the Jews, to whom belongs the honor of having transmitted it to the Christian world. A series of eminent men—such as theIbn Tibbons,Narboni,Gersonides—joined in translating the Arabic philosophical works into Hebrew and commenting upon them. The works of Ibn Rushd especially became the subject of their study, due in great measure to Maimonides, who, in a letter addressed to his pupilJoseph ben Judah, spoke in the highest terms of Ibn Rushd's commentary.
The oldest Jewish religio-philosophical work preserved in Arabic is that ofSaadia Gaon (892–942),Emunot ve-Deot, "The Book of Beliefs and Opinions". In this work Saadia treats the questions that interested the Mutakallamin, such as the creation of matter, the unity of God, the divine attributes, the soul, etc. Saadia criticizes other philosophers severely. For Saadia there was no problem as to creation: God created the worldex nihilo, just as theBible attests; and he contests the theory of the Mutakallamin in reference to atoms, which theory, he declares, is just as contrary to reason and religion as the theory of the philosophers professing the eternity of matter.
To prove the unity of God, Saadia uses the demonstrations of the Mutakallamin. Only the attributes of essence (sifat al-dhatia) can be ascribed to God, but not the attributes of action (sifat-al-fi'aliya). The soul is a substance more delicate even than that of thecelestial spheres. Here Saadia controverts the Mutakallamin, who considered the soul an "accident" 'arad (compareGuide for the Perplexed i. 74), and employs the following one of their premises to justify his position: "Only a substance can be the substratum of an accident" (that is, of a non-essential property of things). Saadia argues: "If the soul be an accident only, it can itself have no such accidents as wisdom, joy, love," etc. Saadia was thus in every way a supporter of the Kalam; and if at times he deviated from its doctrines, it was owing to his religious views.
Since no idea and no literary or philosophical movement ever germinated on Persian or Arabian soil without leaving its impress on the Jews,Al Ghazali found an imitator in the person of Judah ha-Levi. This poet also took upon himself to free his religion from what he saw as the shackles of speculative philosophy, and to this end wrote the "Kuzari," in which he sought to discredit all schools of philosophy alike. He passes severe censure upon the Mutakallimun for seeking to support religion by philosophy. He says, "I consider him to have attained the highest degree of perfection who is convinced of religious truths without having scrutinized them and reasoned over them" ("Kuzari," v.). Then he reduced the chief propositions of the Mutakallamin, to prove the unity of God, to ten in number, describing them at length, and concluding in these terms: "Does theKalam give us more information concerning God and His attributes than the prophet did?" (Ib. iii. and iv.) Aristotelianism finds no favor inJudah ha-Levi's eyes, for it is no less given to details and criticism; Neoplatonism alone suited him somewhat, owing to its appeal to his poetic temperament.
Similarly the reaction in favour of stricter Aristotelianism, as found inAverroes, had its Jewish counterpart in the work ofMaimonides. Later Jewish philosophers, such asGersonides andElijah Delmedigo, followed the school of Averroes and played a part in transmitting Averroist thought to medieval Europe.
In Spain and Italy, Jewish translators such asAbraham de Balmes andJacob Mantino translated Arabic philosophic literature intoHebrew andLatin, contributing to the development of modern European philosophy.
Since the political power shift in Western Europe (Spain andPortugal) from Muslim to Christian control, the Muslims naturally did not practice philosophy in Western Europe. This also led to some loss of contact between the 'west' and the 'east' of the Islamic world. Muslims in the 'east' continued to do philosophy, as is evident from the works ofOttoman scholars and especially those living in Muslim kingdoms within the territories of present-day Iran and India, such as Shah Waliullah andAhmad Sirhindi. This fact has escaped most pre-modern historians of Islamic (or Arabic) philosophy. In addition, logic has continued to be taught in religious seminaries up to modern times.
After Ibn Rushd, there arose many later schools of Islamic Philosophy such as those founded byIbn Arabi and Shi'iteMulla Sadra. These new schools are of particular importance, as they are still active in the Islamic world. The most important among them are:
Transcendent theosophy is the school of Islamic philosophy founded byMulla Sadra in the 17th century. His philosophy andontology is considered to be just as important to Islamic philosophy asMartin Heidegger's philosophy later was toWestern philosophy in the 20th century. Mulla Sadra bought "a new philosophical insight in dealing with the nature ofreality" and created "a major transition fromessentialism toexistentialism" in Islamic philosophy, several centuries before this occurred in Western philosophy.[113]
For Mulla Sadra, "existence precedes the essence and is thus principle since something has to exist first and then have an essence." This is primarily the argument that lies at the heart of Mulla Sadra'sTranscendent Theosophy. Sayyid Jalal Ashtiyani later summarized Mulla Sadra's concept as follows:[115]
The existent being that has an essence must then be caused and existence that is pure existence ... is therefore a Necessary Being.
More careful approaches are needed in terms of thinking about philosophers (and theologians) in Islam in terms ofphenomenological methods of investigation inontology (or onto-theology), or by way of comparisons that are made withHeidegger's thought and his critique of the history of metaphysics.[116]
The tradition of Islamic philosophy is still very much alive today, particularly among followers ofSuhrawardi'sHikmat al-Ishraq (Illumination Philosophy) andMulla Sadra'sHikmat-e-Mota'aliye (Transcendent Theosophy). Another figure isMuhammad Iqbal, who reshaped and revitalized Islamic philosophy among the Muslims of the Indian sub-continent in the early 20th century.[118] HisThe Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam[119] is a prominent work in the modern political philosophy of Islam.[120]
In contemporary Islamic regions, the teaching ofhikmat orhikmah has continued to flourish.
Abdolkarim Soroush, born 1945, Iranian philosopher and religious reformist, exponent ofKantian categories within Islamic thought.[121]
Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic ofIran, was a teacher of the philosophical school of Hikmat-ul-Mutaliya. Before the Islamic Revolution, he was one of the few who formally taught philosophy at the Religious Seminary at Qom.
Abdollah Javadi-Amoli, Grand Ayatollah is an IranianTwelver Shi'aMarja. He is a conservative Iranian politician and one of the prominent Islamic scholars of theHawza (seminary) inQom.[122]
Ahmad Milad Karimi, Afghan philosopher of religion and professor of Islamic Philosophy at the University of Münster in Germany.
Hamka or Haji Abdul Malik Karim Amirullah was a prominent Indonesian author,Ulema politician, philosophical thinker, and author of Tafir Al Azhar. He was head of Indonesia'smufti council (MUI). He resigned when hisfatwa against the celebration of Christmas by Muslims was condemned by theSuharto regime. Highly respected in his country, he was also appreciated inMalaysia andSingapore.[citation needed]
Murtaza Motahhari, the best student ofAllamah Tabatabai, a martyr of theIranian Revolution in 1979, and author of numerous books (an incomplete compilation of his works comprises 25 volumes). He, like his teachersAllama Tabatabai and Ayatollah Khomeini, belong to the philosophical schools of Hikmat-ul-Mutaliya
Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, who is credited with creating modernIslamist political thought in the 20th century, was the founder ofJamaat-e-Islami and spent his life attempting to revive the Islamic intellectual tradition.
Israr Ahmed, (1932–2010) was a Pakistani Islamic theologian followed particularly inSouth Asia and also among the South Asian diaspora in the Middle East, Western Europe, and North America. Founder of theTanzeem-e-islami, an offshoot of the Jamaat-e-Islami, he was significant scholar of Islam and the Quran.
Wahid Hasyim first Indonesian minister of religious affairs. Former head of Indonesian Nahdwatul Ulema, and founder of Islamic state universities in Indonesia. He is best known for reformation of theMadrasah curriculum.
Mohammad Baqir al-Sadr (died 1980) was an Iraqi Shi'ite Grand Ayatollah and one of the most influential Islamic philosophers of the 20th century. His two most important contributions to philosophy are his books "Our Philosophy" and "The Logical Foundations of Induction." He is also widely known for his work on economics, including "Our Economics" and "The Non-Usury Banking System" which are two of the most influential works in contemporary Islamic economics.[citation needed]
Muhammad Iqbal rejects the traditional arguments for the existence of God (ontological, cosmological, teleological) as logically unsound.[123] Under the assumption of substance monism, Iqbal constructs a new argument to prove God's existence, inspired by Berkeley, Russel, Whithead, Albert Einstein, and Henri Bergson. The Quranic foundation for his argument is the verse 57:3: "He is the First and the Last, the Ascendant and the Intimate, and He is, of all things, Knowing."[124] Nonetheless, he criticizes the authors whenever he finds their arguments illogical or at odds with his understanding of the Quran. For example, he rejects Bergson's determinism. For Iqbal, the Quranic portrayal of the universe does not follow a determined plan but unravels in an inductive process of creation.[125]
Iqbal understands the Quranic portrayal of the world as a created whole, in which both real and the ideal intersect.[126] It is an actualization of a rational concept in an ongoing process of creation. Humans, according to Iqbal as the most dynamic element in the world is God's most important tool for bringing the infinite possibilities of the world into reality.[127] For Iqbal, time and space cannot sufficiently explain all elements of the universe. Rather, it requires the presence of a self. The final truth of the universe would need a unity, consciousness, life, and a personal self. Since no self can exist without personality, "nature in relation to the divine Self is what is the human personality to human self."[128]
The importance of an individual self, so Iqbal, derives from the Quran. Humans were made to be divinely appointed governors of the Earth. Rejecting the Christian doctrine of original sin, the Quran emphazize the importance of individual moral responsibility.[129] Unlike many past Muslim philosophers, Iqbal rejects body-mind dualism as an import from Greek philosophy. According to Iqbal, the Quranic concept of the self forms a unity.[130]
In the contemporary era, some people like the Ali Shariati have considered Islamic philosophy as realism.[131][132] But there is also a belief that Islam is beyond all of (other) "isms".[133][134]
Philosophy has not been without criticism amongst Muslims, both contemporary and past. The imamAhmad ibn Hanbal, for whom theHanbali school of thought is named, rebuked philosophical discussion, once telling proponents of it that he was secure in his religion, but that they were "in doubt, so go to a doubter and argue with him (instead)."[135] Today, Islamic philosophical thought has also been criticized by theSalafi andWahhabi movements.[136][137] Some Wahhabi scholars have historically excommunicated philosophers as heretics and even athiests.[136]
There would be many Islamic thinkers who were not enthusiastic about the potential of philosophy, but it would be incorrect to assume that they opposed it simply because it was a "foreign science".Oliver Leaman, an expert on Islamic philosophy, points out that the objections of notable theologians are rarely directed at philosophy itself, but rather at the conclusions the philosophers arrived at. Even the 11th centuryal-Ghazali, known for hisIncoherence of the Philosophers critique of philosophers, was himself an expert in philosophy andlogic. His criticism was that they arrived at theologically erroneous conclusions. In his view the three most serious of these were believing in the co-eternity of the universe with God, denying the bodily resurrection, and asserting that God only has knowledge of abstract universals, not of particular things, though not all philosophers subscribed to these same views.[138]
In recent studies by Muslim contemporary thinkers that aim at "renewing the impetus of philosophical thinking in Islam," the philosopher and theoristNader El-Bizri offers a critical analysis of the conventions that dominate mainstream academic and epistemic approaches in studying Islamic philosophy. These approaches, of methodology andhistoriography are looked at from archival standpoints within Oriental and Mediaevalist Studies, fail to recognize the fact that philosophy in Islam can still be a living intellectual tradition. He maintains that its renewal requires a radical reform inontology andepistemology within Islamic thought. El-Bizri's interpretations ofAvicenna (Ibn Sina) from the standpoint ofHeidegger's critique of the history of metaphysics, and specifically against the background of the unfolding of the essence of technology, aim at finding new pathways in ontology that are not simply Avicennian nor Heideggerian, even though El-Bizri's approach in rethinkingfalsafa amounts to a "Neo-Avicennism" that carries resonances with novel modern philosophical ways of reading Aristotelianism and Thomism. El-Bizri engages contemporary issues in philosophy through a fundamental critical analytic of the evolution of key concepts in the history of ontology and epistemology.Nader El-Bizri is a modernist in outlook since he aims at bringing newness to the tradition rather than simply reproduce it or being in rupture with it.[139]
Maani’ Hammad al-Juhani, (a member of the Consultative Council and General Director, World Assembly of Muslim Youth)[140] is quoted as declaring that because philosophy does not follow the moral guidelines of theSunnah, "philosophy, as defined by the philosophers, is one of the most dangerous falsehoods and most vicious in fighting faith and religion on the basis of logic, which it is very easy to use to confuse people in the name of reason, interpretation and metaphor that distort the religious texts."[141]
^Simon van den Bergh, in his commentary onAverroes'Incoherence of the Incoherence, argues that Kalām was influenced by GreekStoicism and that the termmutakallimun (those who speak to each other, i.e. dialecticians) is derived from the Stoics' description of themselves asdialektikoi.
^Ahmed Sirhindi Faruqi. "7: The alams and everything were created from nothing. Greek philosophers.".Maktubat Imam Rabbani (Shaykh Ahmed Sirhindi) (in English and Punjabi). Archived fromthe original on 2009-08-10. Retrieved22 November 2023.
^Ahmed Sirhindi Faruqi. "3: It is not permissible to confine the meanings in Qur'an al-karim within philosophers' views.".Maktubat Imam Rabbani (Shaykh Ahmed Sirhindi) (in English and Punjabi). Archived fromthe original on 2009-08-10. Retrieved22 November 2023.
^Leaman, 25, 27. "In this book [Intentions of the philosophers] he seeks to set out clearly the views of his opponents before demolishing them, in the subsequentIncoherence of the philosophers."
^Wael B. Hallaq (1993),Ibn Taymiyya Against the Greek Logicians, p. 48. Oxford University Press,ISBN0-19-824043-0.
^Another systematic refutation of Greek logic was written byIbn Taymiyyah (1263–1328), theAr-Radd 'ala al-Mantiqiyyin (Refutation of Greek Logicians), where he argued against the usefulness, though not the validity, of thesyllogism See pp. 253–54 ofStreet, Tony (2005), "Logic", in Peter Adamson; Richard C. Taylor (eds.),The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, pp. 247–65,ISBN978-0-521-52069-0
^Steve A. Johnson (1984), "Ibn Sina's Fourth Ontological Argument for God's Existence",The Muslim World74 (3–4), 161–71.
^Morewedge, P. (1970), "Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and Malcolm and the Ontological Argument",Monist,54 (2):234–49,doi:10.5840/monist197054212
^Bergh, S. van den, “ʿAdam”, in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs. Consulted online on 17 August 2023doi:10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_0296 First publishedonline: 2012 First print edition:ISBN9789004161214, 1960-2007
^Bergh, S. van den, “ʿAdam”, in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs. Consulted online on 17 August 2023doi:10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_0296First published online: 2012First print edition:ISBN9789004161214, 1960-2007
^For recent discussions of this question, see Nader El-Bizri, "Avicenna and Essentialism",The Review of Metaphysics, Vol. 54 (June 2001), pp. 753–78.
^Seyyed Hossein Nasr and Oliver Leaman (1996), History of Islamic Philosophy, p. 315, Routledge, ISBN 0-415-13159-6.
^Emanasyon görüşüne göre, maddi evren, her şeyin kaynağı Tanrı'nın kendini kademe kademe açığa vuruşu, tezahür edişi ya da yansımasıdır. Catholic Encyclopedia/ Emanation, Jewish Encyclopedia/Emanation , 22 Eylül 2008 tarihinde erişild
^abcdCraig, William Lane (June 1979), "Whitrow and Popper on the Impossibility of an Infinite Past",The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science,30 (2): 165–70 [165–66],doi:10.1093/bjps/30.2.165
^Osman Amin (2007), "Influence of Muslim Philosophy on the West",Monthly Renaissance17 (11).
^abJan A. Aertsen (1988),Nature and Creature: Thomas Aquinas's Way of Thought, p. 152. BRILL,ISBN90-04-08451-7.
^abcBradley Steffens (2006).Ibn al-Haytham: First Scientist, Morgan Reynolds Publishing,ISBN1-59935-024-6. (cf. Bradley Steffens, "Who Was the First Scientist?",Ezine Articles.)
Cohen-Mor (2001, p. 4): "The idea of predestination is reinforced by the frequent mention of events 'being written' or 'being in a book' before they happen: 'Say: "Nothing will happen to us except what Allah has decreed for us..." ' "
Ahmet T. Karamustafa. "Fate".Encyclopaedia of the Qur'an Online.: The verbqadara literally means "to measure, to determine". Here it is used to mean that "God measures and orders his creation".
^Syrinx von Hees Enzyklopädie als Spiegel des Weltbildes: Qazwīnīs Wunder der Schöpfung: eine Naturkunde des 13. Jahrhunderts Otto Harrassowitz Verlag 2002ISBN978-3-447-04511-7 page 263
^Conway Zirkle (1941). Natural Selection before the "Origin of Species",Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society84 (1), pp. 71–123.
^Mehmet Bayrakdar (Third Quarter, 1983). "Al-Jahiz And the Rise of Biological Evolutionism",The Islamic Quarterly. London.
^Jan Z. Wilczynski (December 1959), "On the Presumed Darwinism of Alberuni Eight Hundred Years before Darwin",Isis,50 (4): 459–66 [459–61],doi:10.1086/348801,S2CID143086988
^Muhammad Hamidullah and Afzal Iqbal (1993),The Emergence of Islam: Lectures on the Development of Islamic World-view, Intellectual Tradition and Polity, pp. 143–44. Islamic Research Institute, Islamabad.
^"Ikhwan as-Safa and their Rasa'il: A Critical Review of a Century and a Half of Research", by A. L. Tibawi, as published in volume 2 ofThe Islamic Quarterly in 1955; pp. 28–46
^Nader El-Bizri, 'A Philosophical Perspective on Alhazen's Optics', Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 15 (2005), 189–218;Nader El-Bizri,'La perception de la profondeur: Alhazen, Berkeley, et Merleau-Ponty', Oriens-Occidens: Cahiers du centre d'histoire des sciences et des philosophies arabes et médiévales, CNRS. 5 (2004), 171–184; and see a short essay by Valérie Gonzalez, "Universality and Modernity",The Ismaili United Kingdom, December 2002, pp. 50–53.
^Nader El-Bizri, "In Defence of the Sovereignty of Philosophy: al-Baghdadi's Critique of Ibn al-Haytham's Geometrisation of Place",Arabic Sciences and Philosophy (Cambridge University Press), Vol. 17, Issue 1 (2007): 57–80.
^El-Bizri (2007) and handouts of El-Bizri's lectures at the Dept. of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge[1]
^abDr. Abu Shadi Al-Roubi (1982), "Ibn Al-Nafis as a philosopher",Symposium on Ibn al-Nafis, Second International Conference on Islamic Medicine: Islamic Medical Organization, Kuwait (cf.Ibn al-Nafis As a PhilosopherArchived 2008-02-06 at theWayback Machine,Encyclopedia of Islamic World).
^On the Sources of Islamic Law and Practices, The Journal of law and religionISSN0748-0814 Souaiaia 2005 vol: 20 iss:1 p:123
^Muhsin Mahdi (1974), "The Theologus Autodidactus of Ibn at-Nafis by Max Meyerhof, Joseph Schacht",Journal of the American Oriental Society94 (2), pp. 232–34.
^Nahyan A. G. Fancy (2006), "Pulmonary Transit and Bodily Resurrection: The Interaction of Medicine, Philosophy and Religion in the Works of Ibn al-Nafīs (died 1288)", p. 95–101,Electronic Theses and Dissertations,University of Notre Dame.[2]Archived 2015-04-04 at theWayback Machine
^Nahyan A. G. Fancy (2006), "Pulmonary Transit and Bodily Resurrection: The Interaction of Medicine, Philosophy and Religion in the Works of Ibn al-Nafīs (d. 1288)", pp. 42, 60,Electronic Theses and Dissertations,University of Notre Dame.[3]Archived 2015-04-04 at theWayback Machine
^Nawal Muhammad Hassan (1980),Hayy bin Yaqzan and Robinson Crusoe: A study of an early Arabic impact on English literature, Al-Rashid House for Publication.
^Amber Haque (2004), "Psychology from Islamic Perspective: Contributions of Early Muslim Scholars and Challenges to Contemporary Muslim Psychologists",Journal of Religion and Health43 (4): 357–77 [369].
^Dominique Urvoy, "The Rationality of Everyday Life: The Andalusian Tradition? (Aropos of Hayy's First Experiences)", in Lawrence I. Conrad (1996),The World of Ibn Tufayl: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Ḥayy Ibn Yaqẓān, pp. 38–46,Brill Publishers,ISBN90-04-09300-1.
^Muhammad ibn Abd al-MalikIbn Tufayl and Léon Gauthier (1981),Risalat Hayy ibn Yaqzan, p. 5, Editions de la Méditerranée.[4]
^For recent studies that engage in this line of research with care and thoughtful deliberation, see:Nader El-Bizri,The Phenomenological Quest between Avicenna and Heidegger (Binghamton, N.Y.: Global Publications SUNY, 2000); andNader El-Bizri, 'Avicenna and Essentialism',Review of Metaphysics 54 (2001), 753–78; andNader El-Bizri, 'Avicenna's De Anima Between Aristotle and Husserl', inThe Passions of the Soul in the Metamorphosis of Becoming, ed. Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003), 67–89
^Leaman, O. (1999).A Brief Introduction to Islamic Philosophy Polity Press. p 21.
^Nader El-Bizri, "The Labyrinth of Philosophy in Islam", inComparative Philosophy 1.2 (2010): 3–23. Refer also to his article:Nader El-Bizri, 'Le renouvellement de la falsafa?',Les Cahiers de l’Islam I (2014): 17–38. See also references above in this section of the footnotes to some ofNader El-Bizri's other related earlier studies.
Glick, Thomas F.; Livesey, Steven John; Wallis, Faith (2005),Medieval Science, Technology, and Medicine: An Encyclopedia, Routledge,ISBN0-415-96930-1,OCLC218847614
Morelon, Régis; Rashed, Roshdi (1996).Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science. Vol. 3. London: Routledge.ISBN9780203086537.
McGinnis, Jon & Reisman, David C. (eds.),Classical Arabic Philosophy. An Anthology of Sources, Indianapolis: Hackett, 2007.
Schuon, Frithjof.Islam and the Perennial Philosophy. Trans. by J. Peter Hobson; ed. by Daphne Buckmaster. World of Islam Festival Publishing Co., 1976, cop. 1975. xii, 217 p.ISBN0-905035-22-4 pbk
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