Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī | |
|---|---|
فخر الدين الرازي | |
| Title | Shaykh al-Islam, al-Fakhr al-Razi, Sultanal-Mutakallimin (Sultan of the Theologians),[1] and Imam or Shaykh al-Mushakkikin (the Imam or Teacher of the Skeptics).[2] |
| Personal life | |
| Born | 1149 or 1150 (543 or 544AH) |
| Died | 1209 (606 AH, aged 59 or 60) |
| Era | Islamic Golden Age |
| Region | Persia |
| Main interest(s) | Tafsir,Principles of Islamic jurisprudence,Rhetoric,Kalam,Islamic Philosophy,Logic,Astronomy,Cosmology,Ontology,Physiognomy,Chemistry,Physics,Medicine,Anatomy |
| Notable work(s) | Al-Tafsir al-Kabir (Mafatih al-Ghayb),Asas al-Taqdis |
| Occupation | Scholar andscientist |
| Religious life | |
| Religion | Islam |
| Denomination | Sunni |
| Jurisprudence | Shafi'i[3] |
| Creed | Ash'ari[3][4] |
| Muslim leader | |
Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (Arabic:فخر الدين الرازي) orFakhruddin Razi (Persian:فخر الدين رازی) (1149 or 1150 – 1209), often known by the sobriquetSultan of the Theologians, was an influential Muslimpolymath,scientist and one of the pioneers ofinductive logic.[6][7][8] He wrote various works in the fields ofmedicine,chemistry,physics,astronomy,cosmology,literature,theology,ontology,philosophy,history andjurisprudence. He was one of the earliest proponents and skeptics that came up with the concept ofmultiverse, and compared it with the astronomical teachings ofQuran.[9][10] A rejector of thegeocentric model and theAristotelian notions of a singleuniverse revolving around a single world, al-Razi argued about the existence of theouter space beyond the known world.[10][11]
Al-Razi was born inRay, Iran, and died inHerat,Afghanistan.[12] He left a very rich corpus of philosophical and theological works that reveals influence from the works ofAvicenna,Abu'l-Barakāt al-Baghdādī andal-Ghazali. Two of his works titledMabāhith al-mashriqiyya fī 'ilm al-ilāhiyyāt wa-'l-tabi'iyyāt المباحث المشرقية في علم الإلهيات و الطبيعيات (Eastern Studies in Metaphysics and Physics) andal-Matālib al-'Aliya المطالب العالية (The Higher Issues) are usually regarded as his most important philosophical works.[13]
Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, whose full name wasAbū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar ibn al-Ḥusayn bin Ali al-Razi al-Tabaristani (Arabic:أبو عبد الله محمد بن عمر بن الحسين بن الحسن بن علي الرازي، الطبرستاني), was born in 1149 or 1150 CE (543 or 544AH) inRay (close to modernTehran), whence hisnisba al-Razi.[12]Originally fromTabaristan (Amol), he traveled to Khwarazm, Transoxiana, and Khorasan. According toIbn al-Shaʿʿār al-Mawṣilī (died 1256), one of al-Razi's earliest biographers, his great-grandfather had been a rich merchant inMecca.[14] Either his great-grandfather or his grandfather migrated from Mecca toTabaristan (a mountainous region located on theCaspian coast of northernIran) in the 11th century, and some time after that the family settled in Ray.[14] Having been born into a family of Meccan origin, al-Razi claimed descent from the first caliphAbu Bakr (c. 573–634), and was known by medieval biographers as al-Qurashī (a member of theQuraysh, the tribe of the prophetMuhammad to which also Abu Bakr belonged).[15] However, it is not clear from which precise lines of descent al-Razi envisioned his purported ties with Abu Bakr to result, and the poetIbn ʿUnayn (died 1233) actually praised him as a descendant of the second caliphUmar ibn al-Khattab (died 644).[16]
Fakhr al-Din first studied with his father,Ḍiyāʾ al-Dīn al-Makkī, himself a scholar of some repute whosemagnum opus inkalam has recently been rediscovered in part,[17] and later atMerv andMaragheh, where he was one of the pupils of Majd al-Din al-Jili, who in turn had been a disciple ofal-Ghazali. He was a leading proponent of theAsh'ari school of theology.
His commentary on theQuran was the most-varied and many-sided of all extant works of the kind, comprising most of the material of importance that had previously appeared. He devoted himself to a wide range of studies and is said to have expended a large fortune on experiments inalchemy. He taught at Ray (Central Iran) andGhazni (easternAfghanistan), and became head of the university founded by Mohammed ibn Tukush at Herat (western Afghanistan).[18]
In his later years, he also showed interest inmysticism, though this never formed a significant part of his thought.[9] He died inHerat (Afghanistan) in 1209 (606 AH), where his tomb is still venerated today.[12] Many believe he was poisoned by theKarrāmīyah.[19]
One of Imam Razi's outstanding achievements was his unique interpretive work on the Quran calledMafātiḥ al-Ghayb (Keys to the Unseen) and later nicknamedTafsīr al-Kabīr (The Great Commentary), one reason being that it was 32 volumes in length. This work contains much of philosophical interest. One of his "major concerns was theself-sufficiency of the intellect." His "acknowledgment of the primacy of the Qur'an grew with his years." Al-Razi'srationalism undoubtedly "holds an important place in the debate in the Islamic tradition on the harmonization of reason and revelation."[9]
Al-Razi's development ofKalam (Islamic scholastic theology) led to the evolution and flourishing of theology among Muslims. Razi had experienced different periods in his thinking, affected by theAsh'ari school of thought and later by al-Ghazali. Al-Razi tried to make use of elements ofMuʿtazila andFalsafah, and although he had some criticisms on ibn Sina, Razi was greatly affected by him. The most important instance showing the synthesis of Razi's thought may be the problem of the eternity of the world and its relation to God. He tried to reorganize the arguments of theologians and philosophers on this subject, collected and critically examined the arguments of both sides. He considered, for the most part, the philosophers' argument for the world's eternity stronger than the theologians' position of putting emphasis on the temporal nature of the world.[20] According to Tony Street, we should not see in Razi's theoretical life a journey from a youngdialectician to a religious condition.[21] It seems that he adopted different thoughts of diverse schools, such as those of Mutazilite and Asharite, in his exegesis,The Great Commentary.[22]
Al-Razi, in dealing with hisconception of physics and the physical world in hisMatalib al-'Aliya, criticizes the idea of thegeocentric model within the universe and "explores the notion of the existence of amultiverse in the context of his commentary" on theQuranic verse, "All praise belongs to God, Lord of the Worlds." He raises the question of whether the term "worlds" in this verse refers to "multiple worlds within this singleuniverse orcosmos, or to many other universes or a multiverse beyond this known universe."[10]
Al-Razi states:[10]
It is established by evidence that there exists beyond the world a void without a terminal limit (khala' la nihayata laha), and it is established as well by evidence that God Most High has power over all contingent beings (al-mumkinat). Therefore He the Most High has the power (qadir) to create millions of worlds (alfa alfi 'awalim) beyond this world such that each one of those worlds be bigger and more massive than this world as well as having the like of what this world has of the throne (al-arsh), the chair (al-kursiyy), the heavens (al-samawat) and the earth (al-ard), and the sun (al-shams) and the moon (al-qamar). The arguments of the philosophers (dala'il al-falasifah) for establishing that the world is one are weak, flimsy arguments founded upon feeble premises.
Al-Razi rejected theAristotelian andAvicennian notions of a single universe revolving around a single world.[10][11] He describes their main arguments against the existence of multiple worlds or universes, pointing out their weaknesses and refuting them. This rejection arose from his affirmation ofatomism, as advocated by theAsh'ari school ofIslamic theology, which entails the existence of vacant space in which the atoms move, combine and separate.[citation needed] He discussed more on the issue of thevoid – the empty spaces between stars and constellations in theuniverse, that contain few or no stars – in greater detail in volume 5 of theMatalib.[10] He argued that there exists an infiniteouter space beyond the known world,[23] and that God has the power to fill thevacuum with an infinite number of universes.[9][24]
Al-Razi had written over a hundred works on a wide variety of subjects. His major works include:
Note: Not to be confused with the book of Tafsir by Imam Nasir al-Din al-BaydawiQadi Baydawi called: Anwaar at-Tanzeel wa Asraar at-Ta'weel (The Lights of Revelation and The Secrets of Interpretation) or more commonlyTafsir al-Baydawi
In spite of his adherence to the Hanafite school of law, he clearly inclined to Asḥʿarism in theology and was an admirer of Ḡazālī and Faḵr-al-Dīn Rāzī.
This was followed by Fakhr al-Din al-Razi's (1149–1209) publication of his treatise Matalib, which dealt with conceptual physics. In it, he rejected the notion of the Earth's centrality within the universe and instead proposed a cosmology in which there were a "thousand thousand worlds beyond this world..."
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) (on his treatise onphysiognomy)
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