Islamic philosophy is philosophy that emerges from the Islamic tradition. Two terms traditionally used in the Islamic world are sometimes translated as philosophy—falsafa ( lit. ' philosophy ' ), which refers to philosophy as well as logic , mathematics , and physics ; and Kalam ( lit. ' speech ' ), which refers to a rationalist form of Scholastic Islamic theology which includes the schools of Maturidiyah , Ashaira and Mu'tazila .
183-1210: Early Islamic philosophy began with Al-Kindi in the 2nd century of the Islamic calendar (early 9th century CE) and ended with Ibn-Rushd (Averroes) in the 6th century AH (late 12th century CE), broadly coinciding with the period known as the Golden Age of Islam . The death of Averroes effectively marked the end of a particular discipline of Islamic philosophy usually called the Peripatetic Islamic school, and philosophical activity declined significantly in Western Islamic countries such as Islamic Iberia and North Africa . Islamic philosophy persisted for much longer in Muslim Eastern countries, in particular Safavid Persia, Ottoman , and Mughal Empires, where several schools of philosophy continued to flourish: Avicennism , Averroism , Illuminationist philosophy, Mystical philosophy, Transcendent theosophy , and Isfahan philosophy. Ibn Khaldun , in his Muqaddimah , made important contributions to
366-642: A mutakallim (plural mutakallimun ), a role distinguished from those of Islamic philosophers and jurists . After its first beginnings in the late Umayyad period , the Kalām experienced its rise in the early Abbasid period, when the Caliph al-Mahdi commissioned Mutakallimūn to write books against the followers of Iranian religions, and the Barmakid vizier Yahya ibn Khalid held Kalām discussions with members of various religions and confessional groups in his house. Until
549-421: A real sense and analogical reasoning in a metaphorical sense. On the other hand, al-Ghazali (1058–1111; and, in modern times, Abu Muhammad Asem al-Maqdisi ) argued that Qiyas 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 term Qiyas refers to both analogical reasoning and categorical syllogism in
732-537: A "speaker with a specific function". In the anonymous Aḫbār al-ʿAbbās wa-waladihī , which dates from the eighth century, it is reported that when Abu Muslim (d. 755) wanted to establish himself in Merv , he sent mutakallimūn from his followers into the city to win the population over to their cause and make it clear to them that they were following the Sunnah and acting according to the truth. Shlomo Pines has concluded that
915-469: A 5-volume book called ذم الكلام وأهله and Imam Ghazali wrote a book called تهافت الفلاسفة. Besides, Imam Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn al-Qayyim, among other Muslim scholars have discussed in detail that 'Ilmul Kalam' and 'Falsafa' do not represent the correct Islamic belief. Similar sentiment were also stated by ʻUthmān ibn Jumʻah Ḍumayrīyah, an Islamic theology professor of University of Sharjah and Umm al-Qura University ; that kalam science inherently contradicts
1098-565: A central role in the subsequent development of European logic during the Renaissance . According to the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy : For the Islamic philosophers, logic included not only the study of formal patterns of inference and their validity but also elements of the philosophy of language and even of epistemology and metaphysics . Because of territorial disputes with
1281-428: A chain of cause and effect – to produce the desired result. In reality, these intermediary agents do not "act" at all, they are merely a conduit for God's own action. This is especially significant in the development of Islamic philosophy, as it portrayed the "first cause" and "unmoved mover" of Aristotelian philosophy as compatible with the concept of God according to Islamic revelation. Al-Kindi theorized that there
1464-449: A circle. On the other hand, Euclidean optics provided a geometric model that was able to account for this, as well as the length of shadows and reflections in mirrors, because Euclid believed that the visual "rays" could only travel in straight lines. For this reason, al-Kindi considered the latter preponderant. Al-Kindi's primary optical treatise "De aspectibus" was later translated into Latin. This work, along with Alhazen 's Optics and
1647-473: A different approach in medicine. Ibn Sina contributed inventively to the development of inductive logic , which he used to pioneer the idea of a syndrome . In his medical writings, Avicenna was the first to describe the methods of agreement, difference and concomitant variation which are critical to inductive logic and the scientific method . Ibn Hazm (994–1064) wrote the Scope of Logic , in which he stressed on
1830-441: A distance. This dichotomy is duplicated in his writings on optics . Some of the notable astrological works by al-Kindi include: Al-Kindi was the first major writer on optics since antiquity. Roger Bacon placed him in the first rank after Ptolemy as a writer on the topic. In the apocryphal work known as De radiis stellarum , is developed the theory "that everything in the world ... emits rays in every direction, which fill
2013-553: A heterodox theological movement and extreme rationalists. The group would continue to exist and primarily follow Shia and Ibadi . The most influential work of the post-classical Kalām was the Kitāb al-Mawāqif by the Iranian Shafi'i theologian Adud al-Din al-Iji (d. 1355). It received a total of five commentaries and 32 supercommentaries and became part of the Dars al-Nizāmī curriculum in
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#17328734009902196-743: A novel approach to logic in Kalam , but this approach was later displaced by ideas from Greek philosophy and Hellenistic philosophy with the rise of the Mu'tazili philosophers, who highly valued Aristotle 's Organon . The works of Hellenistic-influenced Islamic philosophers were crucial in the reception of Aristotelian logic in medieval Europe, along with the commentaries on the Organon by Averroes . The works of al-Farabi , Avicenna , al-Ghazali and other Muslim logicians who often criticized and corrected Aristotelian logic and introduced their own forms of logic, also played
2379-462: A particularly strong influence of Muslim philosophers being felt in natural philosophy , psychology and metaphysics . Islamic philosophy refers to philosophy produced in an Islamic society. As it is not necessarily concerned with religious issues, nor exclusively produced by Muslims , many scholars prefer the term "Arabic philosophy." Islamic philosophy is a generic term that can be defined and used in different ways. In its broadest sense it means
2562-487: A prophet and a mere pretender to prophethood. Argument could not be distinguished from deceit and proof could not be distinguished from apparent proof. The art of the Kalam was preferable to every other art and education , which is why it was made the standard for all philosophical speculation and the basis of every syllogism . It was only held in such high esteem because every scholar needed it and could not do without it. Until
2745-413: A range of subjects ranging from metaphysics , ethics, logic and psychology , to medicine, pharmacology , mathematics, astronomy , astrology and optics , and further afield to more practical topics like perfumes, swords, jewels, glass, dyes, zoology, tides, mirrors, meteorology and earthquakes . In the field of mathematics , al-Kindi played an important role in introducing Hindu numerals to
2928-461: A real sense. The first original Arabic writings on logic were produced by al-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 by al-Farabi (Alfarabi) (873–950), who discussed the topics of future contingents , the number and relation of the categories , the relation between logic and grammar , and non-Aristotelian forms of inference . He
3111-442: A religious nature, there would be many Islamic thinkers who were not as enthusiastic about its potential. But it would be incorrect to assume that they opposed philosophy 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 al-Ghazali , who
3294-703: A report quoted by Ibn Babawayh , Yahya ibn Khalid used to hold a discussion group (maǧlis) at his place on Sundays, in which mutakallimūn from every sect (firqa) and religious community (milla) participated, who then debated with each other about their religions and put forward arguments against each other. This discussion group is also mentioned by al-Masʿūdī . According to his report, many Islamic mutakallimūn participated in this discussion, including Muʿtazilites such as Abu l-Hudhail , Ibrahim al-Nazzam and Bishr ibn al-Muʿtamir , Imamites such as Hisham ibn al-Hakam , one Kharijite and one Murjite each , as well as representatives of other worldviews and faiths, including
3477-420: A result of conquests, along with pre-Islamic Indian philosophy and Persian philosophy . Many of the early philosophical debates centered around reconciling religion and reason, the latter exemplified by Greek philosophy. In early Islamic thought, which refers to philosophy during the " Islamic Golden Age ", traditionally dated between the 8th and 12th centuries, two main currents may be distinguished. The first
3660-537: A slightly modified form, this definition was also adopted by the Ottoman scholar Tashköprüzāde (d. 1561) and the Indian scholar at-Tahānawī (c. 1745). For al-Taftazani (d. 1390), Kalām is "the knowledge of religious dogmas based on certain evidence", for Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406) "a science that includes the disputation of the dogmas of faith with rational arguments" and for Morteza Motahhari (d. 1979) "a science that discusses
3843-538: A strict rationalism with which to interpret Islamic doctrine. Their attempt was one of the first to pursue a rational theology in Islam. They were however severely criticized by other Islamic philosophers, both Maturidis and Asharites . The great Asharite scholar Fakhr ad-Din ar-Razi wrote the work Al-Mutakallimin fi 'Ilm al-Kalam against the Mutazalites. In later times, Kalam was used to mean simply "theology", i.e.
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#17328734009904026-458: A totally different meaning from "reason" in philosophy . 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, and also whether Islamic philosophy can be read at face value or should be interpreted in an esoteric fashion. Supporters of
4209-508: Is Kalam , which mainly dealt with Islamic theological questions, and the other is Falsafa , which was founded on interpretations of Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism . There were attempts by later philosopher-theologians at harmonizing both trends, notably by Ibn Sina (Avicenna) who founded the school of Avicennism , Ibn Rushd (Averroes) who founded the school of Averroism , and others such as Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) and Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī . ʿIlm al-Kalām ( Arabic : علم الكلام )
4392-429: Is God's absolute oneness , which he considers an attribute uniquely associated with God (and therefore not shared with anything else). By this he means that while we may think of any existent thing as being "one", it is in fact both "one" and many". For example, he says that while a body is one, it is also composed of many different parts. A person might say "I see an elephant", by which he means "I see one elephant", but
4575-507: 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
4758-458: 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 from al-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
4941-619: Is also found in the catalogue of the Ottoman Palace Library from the beginning of the 16th century, where the section containing the books on kalām was entitled "Section of the Books of the Science of the Foundations of Religion, i.e. the Science of Kalām". This classification probably also influenced the Ottoman scholars Taşköprüzade and Saçaklızāde (d. 1732), who also equated kalām science and
5124-510: Is also found within the Zahiri school.; The modern Wahhabi and Salafi movements generally consider kalam to be an innovation and reject its usage. The Hanbali Sufi , Khwaja Abdullah Ansari wrote a treatise entitled Dhamm al-Kalam where he criticized the use of kalam. Ibn al-Jawzi , 12th AD Hanbali scholar; has explained that that Ulama and Fiqh of his contemporary have considered kalam as "..useless discipline.." . He described
5307-472: Is an accident of accidents" and also anticipated Alexius Meinong 's "view about nonexistent objects ." He also provided early arguments for "a " necessary being" as cause of all other existents ." The idea of "essence preced[ing] existence" is a concept which dates back to Avicenna and his school as well as Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi and his Illuminationist philosophy . " Existence preced[ing] essence ",
5490-514: Is based on Hindu and Greek philosophy. On the other hand, the main source of Tawheed is revelation. Moreover, Ilmul Kalam includes restlessness, imbalance, ignorance and doubt. That is why the Salaf Saleheen condemned Ilmul Kalam. And Tawheed is based on knowledge, conviction and faith,….. Another reason can be said that the foundation of philosophy is based on assumptions, false beliefs, imaginary thoughts and superstitious ideas". Imam Harawi wrote
5673-481: Is credited with being the first real Muslim philosopher . His own thought was largely influenced by the Neo-Platonic philosophy of Proclus , Plotinus and John Philoponus , amongst others, although he does appear to have borrowed ideas from other Hellenistic schools as well. He makes many references to Aristotle in his writings, but these are often unwittingly re-interpreted in a Neo-Platonic framework. This trend
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5856-490: Is famous for his critique of the philosophers, was himself an expert in philosophy and logic . And his criticism was that they arrived at theologically erroneous conclusions. The three most serious of these, in his view, 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 (not all philosophers subscribed to these same views). During his life, al-Kindi
6039-493: Is filled with light. When these criteria are met, the "sensible form" of the object is transmitted through the medium to the eye. On the other hand, Euclid proposed that vision occurred in straight lines when "rays" from the eye reached an illuminated object and were reflected back. As with his theories on Astrology, the dichotomy of contact and distance is present in al-Kindi's writings on this subject as well. The factor which al-Kindi relied upon to determine which of these theories
6222-476: Is hardly a Kalam scholar who understands more than the Kalam questions of a book, and the science of Kalam is limited to the study of the commentary on the ʿAqāʾid of Najm al-Dīn Abū Hafs an-Nasafī (d. 1142) and on the ʿAqāʾid of ʿAdud al-Dīn al-Īji (d. 1355). Mulla Sadra, 17th AD Twelver Shia philosopher and mystic; has felt that he owed to the greek philosophy, for the development of kalam as Islamic discourse. Modern philosopher Federico Campagna has suspected
6405-402: Is impossible. There is no process by which water or snow can be made to pass through glass. In explaining the natural cause of the wind , and the difference for its directions based on time and location, he wrote: When the sun is in its northern declination northerly places will heat up and it will be cold towards the south. Then the northern air will expand in a southerly direction because of
6588-461: Is knowledge of God. For this reason, he does not make a clear distinction between philosophy and theology, because he believes they are both concerned with the same subject. Later philosophers, particularly al-Farabi and Avicenna , would strongly disagree with him on this issue, by saying that metaphysics is actually concerned with being qua being, and as such, the nature of God is purely incidental. Central to al-Kindi's understanding of metaphysics
6771-437: Is matter eternal, but form is potentially inherent in matter; otherwise, it were a creation ex 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
6954-465: Is most obvious in areas such as metaphysics and the nature of God as a causal entity. Experts have suggested that he was influenced by the Mutazilite school of theology, because of the mutual concern both he and they demonstrated for maintaining the singularity ( tawhid ) of God. A minority view however holds that such agreements are considered incidental. According to al-Kindi, the goal of metaphysics
7137-696: Is now Mauritania . A particularly zealous follower of the Kalam was the Ash'arite scholar Muhammad ibn 'Umar al-Bartallī (d. 1696) in Walatah . A West African biography collection reports that he was one of the famous Mutakallimūn and was constantly busy reading, copying and teaching Kalam books. The Kalām was also promoted among the Volga-Ural Tatars in Russia . At the end of the 18th century, it became an integral part of madrasa scholarship in villages and small towns, even if it
7320-452: Is particularly evident in the philosophers al-Farabi (d. 950) and Abu al-Hassan al-Amiri (d. 992). The former sees it as a mental ability through which man can refute everything that contradicts the views and actions established by the founder of the religion, the latter as "the defence of religion with the tongue". In the definitions of the Ashʿarite scholar Adud al-Din al-Iji (d. 1355),
7503-405: Is probably De Gradibus , in which he demonstrates the application of mathematics to medicine, particularly in the field of pharmacology. For example, he developed a mathematical scale to quantify the strength of a drug, and a system (based on the phases of the moon) that would allow a doctor to determine in advance the most critical days of a patient's illness. According to Plinio Prioreschi, this
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7686-509: Is taken up with arguing that contingent existents cannot stand alone and must end up in a Necessary Existent." Theologians, particularly among the Muʿtazilites , 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
7869-547: Is the philosophy that seeks Islamic theological principles through dialectic . In Arabic , the word literally means "speech". One of the first debates was that between partisans of the Qadar ( قدر meaning "Fate"), who affirmed free will ; and the Jabarites ( جبر meaning "force", "constraint"), who believed in fatalism . At the 2nd century of the Hijra , a new movement arose in
8052-410: Is the scholastic, speculative, or rational study of Islamic theology ( aqida ). It can also be defined as the science that studies the fundamental doctrines of Islamic faith ( usul al-din ), proving their validity, or refuting doubts regarding them. Kalām was born out of the need to establish and defend the tenets of Islam against the philosophical doubters. A scholar of kalam is referred to as
8235-466: Is to find a different plaintext of the same language long enough to fill one sheet or so, and then we count the occurrences of each letter. We call the most frequently occurring letter the "first", the next most occurring letter the "second", the following most occurring letter the "third", and so on, until we account for all the different letters in the plaintext sample. Then we look at the cipher text we want to solve and we also classify its symbols. We find
8418-519: Is without description or definition and, in particular, without quiddity or essence ( la mahiyya lahu ). Consequently, Avicenna's ontology is ' existentialist ' when accounting for being– qua –existence in terms of necessity ( wujub ), while it is essentialist in terms of thinking about being– qua –existence in terms of "contingency– qua –possibility" ( imkan or mumkin al-wujud , meaning "contingent being"). Some argue that Avicenna anticipated Frege and Bertrand Russell in "holding that existence
8601-550: The Book of Cryptographic Messages , which contains the first use of permutations and combinations to list all possible Arabic words with and without vowels. In a treatise entitled as Risala fi l-Illa al-Failali l-Madd wa l-Fazr ( Treatise on the Efficient Cause of the Flow and Ebb ), al-Kindi presents a theory on tides which "depends on the changes which take place in bodies owing to
8784-677: The House of Wisdom ; others refer to al-Mutawakkil's often violent persecution of unorthodox Muslims (as well as of non-Muslims); at one point al-Kindi was beaten and his library temporarily confiscated. Henry Corbin , an authority on Islamic studies, says that in 873, al-Kindi died "a lonely man", in Baghdad during the reign of al-Mu'tamid ( r. 870–892 ). After his death, al-Kindi's philosophical works quickly fell into obscurity; many were lost even to later Islamic scholars and historians. Felix Klein-Franke suggests several reasons for this: aside from
8967-521: The Illuminationist school , founded by Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi (1155–1191), who developed the idea of "decisive necessity", an important innovation in the history of logical philosophical speculation, and in favour of inductive reasoning . Avicenna 's proof for the existence of God was the first ontological argument , which he proposed in the Metaphysics section of The Book of Healing . This
9150-526: The Kitāb Kīmiyāʾ al-ʿiṭr wa-l-taṣʿīdāt ("The Book of the Chemistry of Perfume and Distillations"), contains one of the earliest known references to the distillation of wine. The work also describes the distillation process for extracting rose oils , and provides recipes for 107 different kinds of perfumes. Al-Kindi authored works on a number of important mathematical subjects, including arithmetic, geometry,
9333-624: The Muʿtazila and the Qadariya , with Wasil ibn Ata again playing the decisive role. However, neither Wasil ibn Ata nor any other persons mentioned here have recorded book titles or sayings that indicate that they themselves used the term kalām as a name for a particular science or knowledge culture. According to a report quoted by al-Masudi (d. 956) in his work The Meadows of Gold , the Abbasid CaliphateAbbasid caliph al-Mahdi (r. 775–785)
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#17328734009909516-560: The Muʿtazila . Historian Daniel W. Brown describes Ahl al-Kalām as one of three main groups engaged in polemical disputes over sources of authority in Islamic law during the second century of Islam: the Ahl al-Ra'y and Ahl al-Hadith being the other two. (Brown also describes the Muʿtazila as "the later ahl al-Kalām ", suggesting the ahl al-Kalām were forerunners of the Muʿtazilites. ) In
9699-476: The Tunisia such as Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani and Abu al-Hassan al-Qabisi . In al-Andalus, Ash'arism was flourishing since the time of the theologian-philosopher Ibn Hazm (d. 1064). The theologian Abu Bakr al-Baqillani's works were widely circulated in the region, which helped fostered the growth of Ash'arite theology and sparked debates. Eventually, Mu'tazilite beliefs in the region were subdued. Shortly after,
9882-465: The active intellect , which he believed to be the hypostasis by which God communicates truth to the human mind and imparts order and intelligibility to nature . His "Floating Man" thought experiment tells its readers to imagine themselves suspended in the air, isolated from all sensations , which includes no sensory contact with even their own bodies. He argues that, in this scenario, one would still have self-consciousness . He thus concludes that
10065-685: The duties of the heart as opposed to (or in conjunction with) fiqh (jurisprudence), the duties of the body . Falsafa is a Greek loanword meaning "philosophy" (the Greek pronunciation philosophia became falsafa ). From the 9th century onward, due to Caliph al-Ma'mun and his successor, ancient Greek philosophy was introduced among the Arabs and the Peripatetic School began to find able representatives. Among them were Al-Kindi , Al-Farabi , Avicenna and Averroes . Another trend, represented by
10248-438: The immortality of the human soul, using both demonstrative reasoning and material from the hadith corpus as forms of evidence . Later Islamic scholars viewed this work as a response to Avicenna 's metaphysical argument on spiritual resurrection (as opposed to bodily resurrection), which was earlier criticized by al-Ghazali . The Muslim physician -philosophers, Avicenna and Ibn al-Nafis , developed their own theories on
10431-501: The "form" of something without needing to perceive the physical entity to which it refers. Therefore, it would seem to imply that anyone who has purified themselves would be able to receive such visions. It is precisely this idea, amongst other naturalistic explanations of prophetic miracles that al-Ghazali attacks in his Incoherence of the Philosophers . While al-Kindi appreciated the usefulness of philosophy in answering questions of
10614-637: The "impossibility of the existence of an actual infinite" and of the "impossibility of completing an actual infinite by successive addition". In metaphysics , Avicenna (Ibn Sina) defined truth as: What corresponds in the mind to what is outside it. Avicenna elaborated on his definition of truth in his Metaphysics : The truth of a thing is the property of the being of each thing which has been established in it. Al-Kindi Abū Yūsuf Yaʻqūb ibn ʼIsḥāq aṣ-Ṣabbāḥ al-Kindī ( / æ l ˈ k ɪ n d i / ; Arabic : أبو يوسف يعقوب بن إسحاق الصبّاح الكندي ; Latin : Alkindus ; c. 801–873 AD )
10797-415: The "science of the foundations of religion" in their Arabic scientific encyclopedias. At-Tahānawī explains this equation by saying that the Kalām is the basis of the religious legal sciences and that they are based on it. Some later scholars defined the kalām science of dogmas. For Adud al-Din al-Iji (d. 1355), kalām is "the science of proving religious dogmas by citing arguments and removing doubts." In
10980-650: The 10th century, the Muʿtazilites were considered the real "masters of the Kalām". Later, two important Sunni Kalām schools emerged: the Ashʿariyya and the Maturidiyya . They positioned the Kalām particularly against the growing Neoplatonic and Aristotelian philosophy and elevated the "Kalām science" (ʿilm al-kalām) to the highest ranking science in Islam. Some of the arguments of the Mutakallimūn also found their way into Jewish and Christian theological discussions in
11163-638: The 7th century with the process of Qiyas , before the Arabic translations of Aristotle's works. Later, during the Islamic Golden Age , there was debate among Islamic philosophers, logicians and theologians over whether the term Qiyas refers to analogical reasoning, inductive reasoning or categorical syllogism. Some Islamic scholars argued that Qiyas refers to inductive reasoning. Ibn Hazm (994–1064) disagreed, arguing that Qiyas does not refer to inductive reasoning but to categorical syllogistic reasoning in
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#173287340099011346-512: The Aqeedah studies "Ilmul Kalam" and the philosophers called "Al-Falsafa al-Islamiyyah" or Islamic philosophy, "Al-Ilahiyat" and "Metaphysics" (supernaturalism). About the latter names, Dr. Nasser al-Aql and many others say that it is not pure to call the Islamic Aqeedah by these names. Explaining the reason, Muhammad Ibrahim Al Hamad said, "Because the source of Ilmul Kalam is human intellect, which
11529-503: 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 of terms , propositions and syllogisms as formulated in Aristotle's Categories, De interpretatione and Prior Analytics. In
11712-507: The Arabic language), he successfully incorporated Aristotelian and (especially) neo-Platonist thought into an Islamic philosophical framework. This was an important factor in the introduction and popularization of Greek philosophy in the Muslim intellectual world. Al-Kindi took his view of the solar system from Ptolemy , who placed the Earth at the centre of a series of concentric spheres, in which
11895-459: The Arabic translations of Ptolemy and Euclid's Optics , were the main Arabic texts to affect the development of optical investigations in Europe, most notably those of Robert Grosseteste , Vitello and Roger Bacon . There are more than thirty treatises attributed to al-Kindi in the field of medicine, in which he was chiefly influenced by the ideas of Galen . His most important work in this field
12078-474: The Ash'ari doctrine to the Holy Sanctuary of Mecca . Among the hundreds of Andalusi and Maghrebi pupils that Abu Dharr al-Harawi trained to become jurists and judges , and who helped Ash'arism expand to their home countries are Abu al-Walid al-Baji and Abu Imran al-Fasi . However, research shows that his students weren't the first to introduce Ash'arism as there were already known Ash'ari presence in
12261-701: The Ash'ari theology became the mainstream doctrine of the Maliki school. The Mu'tazila , also known as the Ahl al-Tawhid wal-'Adl, or the "People of Divine Unity and Justice," were originally the dominant school of kalam, but by the tenth century, two madhabs—the Ash'ariyya and the Maturidiyya—rose in fierce opposition to the Mu'tazila. Each school bore the names of its founders, Abu Hasan al-Ash'ari and Abu Mansur al-Maturidi , and represented Ahl al-Sunnah (People of Prophetic ways). In
12444-777: The Ash'arite theology as ineffective against philosophical doubts. Al-Albani , prominent figure of Salafism and modern era Hadith scholar; considered kalam doctrine as misguided in the Islamic creed due to their Ta'til methodology, which consequently divesting the Names of God in Islam . Al-Albani stated the notable example was the rejection of kalam scholars of the al-ʿAliyy (Most highest) attribute of God. Manzoor Elahi, 21th century AD Bangladeshi Salafi scholar and academic; has stated in his book "The Importance of Right Aqeedah in Reforming Society" edited by Abubakar Muhammad Zakaria says about Ilmul Kalam, The Mutaqallimin called
12627-730: The Brethren of Purity, used Aristotelian language to expound a fundamentally Neoplatonic and Neopythagorean world view. During the Abbasid caliphate , a number of thinkers and scientists, some of them heterodox Muslims or non-Muslims, played a role in transmitting Greek, Hindu and other pre-Islamic knowledge to the Christian West . Three speculative thinkers, Al-Farabi, Avicenna and Al-Kindi , combined Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism with other ideas introduced through Islam. Ahmad Sirhindi , 17th century Indian Islamic scholar, has viewed that
12810-489: The Creator" in a realm of pure intelligence. In the view of al-Kindi, prophecy and philosophy were two different routes to arrive at the truth. He contrasts the two positions in four ways. Firstly, while a person must undergo a long period of training and study to become a philosopher, prophecy is bestowed upon someone by God. Secondly, the philosopher must arrive at the truth by his own devices (and with great difficulty), whereas
12993-490: The Creator. This means that He acts as both a final and efficient cause. Unlike later Muslim Neo-Platonic philosophers (who asserted that the universe existed as a result of God's existence "overflowing", which is a passive act), al-Kindi conceived of God as an active agent. In fact, of God as the agent, because all other intermediary agencies are contingent upon Him. The key idea here is that God "acts" through created intermediaries, which in turn "act" on one another – through
13176-481: The First Intellect must always be thinking about everything. Once the human intellect comprehends a universal by this process, it becomes part of the individual's "acquired intellect" and can be thought about whenever he or she wishes. Al-Kindi says that the soul is a simple, immaterial substance, which is related to the material world only because of its faculties which operate through the physical body. To explain
13359-430: The First Intellect. The analogy he provides to explain his theory is that of wood and fire. Wood, he argues, is potentially hot (just as a human is potentially thinking about a universal), and therefore requires something else which is already hot (such as fire) to actualize this. This means that for the human intellect to think about something, the First Intellect must already be thinking about it. Therefore, he says that
13542-512: The Greek philosophy about creations are incompatible with Islamic teaching by quoting several chapters of Quran . Furthermore, Sirhindi criticize the method of interpretating the meaning of Quran with philosophy. 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 from Al-Ghazali , whose work Tahafut al-Falasifa ( The Incoherence of
13725-557: The Hindu numbers, the harmony of numbers, lines and multiplication with numbers, relative quantities, measuring proportion and time, and numerical procedures and cancellation. He also wrote four volumes, On the Use of the Hindu Numerals ( Arabic : كتاب في استعمال الأعداد الهندية Kitāb fī Isti`māl al-'A`dād al-Hindīyyah ) which contributed greatly to diffusion of the Hindu system of numeration in
13908-427: The Islamic dogmas [...] in such a way that it explains, proves and defends them". In Arabic , the term Kalām generally means "speech, conversation, debate." There are different theories as to why this term came to be used to describe the discipline that deals with the rational justification of one's own religious doctrines: According to Josef van Ess , the many explanations given by Arab scholars "clearly demonstrate
14091-525: The Islamic world, and their further development into Arabic numerals along with al-Khwarizmi which eventually was adopted by the rest of the world. Al-Kindi was also one of the fathers of cryptography . Building on the work of al-Khalil (717–786), Al-Kindi's book entitled Manuscript on Deciphering Cryptographic Messages gave rise to the birth of cryptanalysis , was the earliest known use of statistical inference , and introduced several new methods of breaking ciphers, notably frequency analysis . He
14274-503: The Kalam (aṣḥāb al-kalām) in Basra : the two Muʿtazilites Amr ibn Ubayd and Wasil ibn Ata , the poet Bashshar ibn Burd , Salih ibn Abd al-Quddus and Abdul Karim bin Abi Al-Awja', and a man from the tribe of Azd who was inclined towards Sumanīya, an Indian doctrine, and who made his house available to the group for their meetings. Since Wāsil died around 748, the Kalām must have existed in
14457-449: The Kalam, since the sole purpose of the Kalam was to silence the adversary and bring the stubborn to their knees. The great Mutakallimūn, on the other hand, drew their doctrines solely from the "lamp of prophethood". Such statements can also be found in al-Ghazali . Thus, in his work Jawahir al-Qur'an (The Jewels of the Qur'an ), he judged that the purpose of the science of kalam was "to protect
14640-524: The Kalām consists of "defensive apology" is also the declared leitmotif of the French handbook Introduction à la théologie musulmane , co-authored by Gardet and M.M Anawati in 1948. The Indian scholar ʿAbd an-Nabī al-Ahmadnagarī (d. 1759) even believed that the value of the Kalam was limited to this apologetic function alone. The great Mutakallimūn, he explains in his encyclopedia Dustūr al-ʿulamā, never justified or authenticated their doctrines with arguments from
14823-563: The Middle Ages. After the Kalām science in the early modern period was essentially limited to the study of manuals and commentaries, from the late 19th century onwards various reform thinkers appeared in British India and the Ottoman Empire who called for the founding of a "new Kalām". According to several of the definitions given above, kalām has an apologetic function: it serves to defend one's own religious views. This apologetic function
15006-478: The Middle-East and the West. In geometry, among other works, he wrote on the theory of parallels. Also related to geometry were two works on optics. One of the ways in which he made use of mathematics as a philosopher was to attempt to disprove the eternity of the world by demonstrating that actual infinity is a mathematical and logical absurdity. Al-Kindi is credited with developing a method whereby variations in
15189-581: The Mobed of the Zoroastrians . The Caliph al-Ma'mun also distinguished himself by promoting the Kalam. Al-Yaʿqūbī reports that he openly professed the "People of Monotheism and Justice" (Ahl al-Tawhid wal 'Adl), that is, the Muʿtazila, attracted Mutakallimūn to his court and paid them maintenance so that their numbers increased. Each one, explains al-Yaʿqūbī, wrote books to defend his own doctrine and to refute his opponents. Al-Jahiz (d. 869), who wrote one of
15372-447: The Ottoman scholar Taşköprüzade (d. 1561) and the Indian scholar at-Tahānawī (around 1745), who worked in Iran, kalām has the task of averting doubts from religious dogmas or truths. Against the background of such definitions, the French orientalist Louis Gardet judged that the function of kalām as a defensive "apology" could not be overestimated. The view that the "fundamental character" of
15555-619: The Philosophers ) attacked the main arguments of the Peripatetic School. Averroes, Maimonides ' contemporary, was one of the last of the Islamic Peripatetics and set out to defend the views of the Falsafa against al-Ghazali's criticism. The theories of Ibn Rushd do not differ fundamentally from those of Ibn Bajjah and Ibn Tufail , who only follow the teachings of Avicenna and Al-Farabi. Like all Islamic Peripatetics, Averroes admits
15738-504: The Rationalists), and bayan muwafaqat al-'aql al-sarih li al-Naql as-Sahiha . Ibn Taymiyya even further criticize Ash'arite rationalists such as al-Ghazali, Fakhr al-Din al-Razi , and al-Shahrastani for their method in discourses by abandoning the scripturalism way. In general, Ibn Taymiyya has detailed his criticism in Ar-Radd 'ala al-Mantiqiyyin . Regarding al-Ghazali in particular, Through
15921-557: The South Asian madrasas . The book also played an important role in Ottoman schools . The Ottoman scholar Sāčaqlızāde recommended it to scholars in the Kalām section of his encyclopedia Tartīb al-ʿulūm , together with the Kitāb al-Maqāṣid by Saʿd ad-Dīn at-Taftāzānī , as a basis for teaching. The work contains an introductory chapter at the beginning in which the author discusses the definition, subject, utility, rank, problems and naming of
16104-433: The absence of a quality or the potentiality of something. Muʿtazilite thinkers such as al-Fārābī and ibn 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. Islamic philosophy, imbued as it is with Islamic theology , distinguishes more clearly than Aristotelianism
16287-404: 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
16470-438: The belief of atomism. But the real role of al-Kindi in the conflict between philosophers and theologians would be to prepare the ground for debate. His works, says Deborah Black , contained all the seeds of future controversy that would be fully realized in al-Ghazali's Incoherence of the Philosophers . Al-Kindi was a master of many different areas of thought and was held to be one of the greatest philosophers. His influence in
16653-525: The beliefs of the masses from disruption by innovators". On the other hand, this science was never about "revealing the truths". Several Muslim authors defined kalām by its relationship to the "fundamentals of religion" (Uṣūl al-Dīn). For example, Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi (d. 1023) described the science of kalām as "a way of contemplating the fundamentals of religion in which deliberation is based on reason alone." Abu al-Yusr al-Bazdawi (d. 1099) defined it as "the explanation of those questions which constitute
16836-429: The category of necessity and is usually the preserve of qualified scholars, eliciting limited interest from the masses or common people. The early Muslim scholar al-Shafi'i held that there should be a certain number of men trained in kalam to defend and purify the faith, but that it would be a great evil if their arguments should become known to the mass of the people. Similarly, the Islamic scholar al-Ghazali held
17019-677: The city who were carrying heavy loads on their heads or backs and at the same time arguing about the interpretation of the Quran and questions of the Kalam. During the course of the 10th century, the Kalam also spread more widely to the eastern regions of the Islamic Empire. One of the early Kalam scholars representing the Mu'tazila in Khorasan was Abū al-Qāsim al-Balkhī (d. 931). Other Kalam scholars such as Al-Qadi Abd al-Jabbar (d. 1024) settled in Rayy . In
17202-418: The development of Arabic terminology itself". Louis Gardet and M.-M. Anawati considered the first possibility of derivation mentioned by Ibn at-Tilimsānī to be the most likely and suspected that kalām initially meant "speech about..." and then, through antonomasia, became "discourse" per se (about the things of God). W. Montgomery Watt took a similar path of explanation to Ibn Taymiyyah when he wrote about
17385-459: The difference between essence and existence . Whereas existence is the domain of the contingent and the accidental, essence endures within a being beyond the accidental. This was first described by Avicenna 's works on metaphysics , who was himself influenced by al-Farabi . Some orientalists (or those particularly influenced by Thomist scholarship) argued that Avicenna was the first to view existence ( wujud ) as an accident that happens to
17568-687: The dominant system of logic in the Islamic world. The first criticisms of Aristotelian logic were written by Avicenna (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 of definition and classification and the quantification of the predicates of categorical propositions , and developed an original theory on " temporal modal " syllogism. Its premises included modifiers such as "at all times", "at most times", and "at some time". While Avicenna (980–1037) often relied on deductive reasoning in philosophy, he used
17751-651: The early 10th century, the Kalam was essentially limited to Iraq and Greater Khorasan . A very important center of the Kalam culture was the Muʿtazilite stronghold of ʿAskar Mukram in Khuzistan , the place of work of Al-Jubba'i and his son Abu Hashim al-Jubba'i . The geographer Ibn Hauqal (d. 977) reports that members of the common people also practiced the Kalam method here and achieved such mastery that they could compete with scholars from other cities. Ibn Hawqal reprots in his book Surat Al-Ard that he saw two porters in
17934-418: 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 ’." While he was imprisoned in the castle of Fardajan near Hamadhan , Avicenna wrote his "Floating Man" thought experiment to demonstrate human self-awareness and the substantiality of the soul. He referred to the living human intelligence , particularly
18117-463: 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 of essentialism per 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
18300-561: The fields of physics, mathematics, medicine, philosophy, and music were far-reaching and lasted for several centuries. Ibn al-Nadim in his Kitab al-Fihrist praised al-Kindi and his work stating: The best man of his time, unique in his knowledge of all the ancient sciences. He is called the Philosopher of the Arabs. His books deal with different sciences, such as logic, philosophy, geometry, arithmetic, astronomy etc. We have connected him with
18483-426: The first treatises on the kalam, praised the art of the kalam as a "precious jewel" (juhar tamīn), as "the treasure that never perishes" (al-kanz allaḏī lā yafnā wa-lā yablā) and as the "companion who does not bore and does not deceive". It is the standard for every other art, the rein for every expression, the scales with which one can clarify the lack or excess of every thing, and the filter with which one can recognize
18666-466: The frequency of the occurrence of letters could be analyzed and exploited to break ciphers (i.e. cryptanalysis by frequency analysis ). His book on this topic is Risāla fī Istikhrāj al-Kutub al-Mu'ammāh (رسالة في استخراج الكتب المعماة; literally: On Extracting Obscured Correspondence , more contemporarily: On Decrypting Encrypted Correspondence ). In his treatise on cryptanalysis, he wrote: One way to solve an encrypted message, if we know its language,
18849-480: The fundamentals of religion, which it is an individual duty to learn." Ibn al-Athir (d. 1233) in his book al-Lubāb fī Tahḏīb al-Ansāb was the first to define kalām science as "the science of the foundations of religion" (ʿilm Uṣūl al-Dīn). Ibn Khallikan (d. 1282) and Siraj al-Din Urmavi (d. 1283) even equated kalām science with the foundations of religion itself. The equation of ʿilm al-kalām and ʿilm uṣūl al-dīn
19032-639: The heat due to the contraction of the southern air. Therefore most of the summer winds are merits and most of the winter winds are not. Al-Kindi was the first great theoretician of music in the Arab-Islamic world. He is known to have written fifteen treatises on music theory , but only five have survived. He added a fifth string to the 'ud . His works included discussions on the therapeutic value of music and what he regarded as "cosmological connections" of music. While Muslim intellectuals were already acquainted with Greek philosophy (especially logic ), al-Kindi
19215-432: The heavenly realm. These forms are really abstract concepts such as a species, quality or relation, which apply to all physical objects and beings. For example, a red apple has the quality of "redness" derived from the appropriate universal. However, al-Kindi says that human intellects are only potentially able to comprehend these. This potential is actualized by the First Intellect, which is perpetually thinking about all of
19398-609: 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
19581-442: The idea of the self is not logically dependent on any physical thing , and that the soul should not be seen in relative terms , but as a primary given, a substance . This argument was later refined and simplified by René Descartes in epistemic terms when he stated: "I can abstract from the supposition of all external things, but not from the supposition of my own consciousness." While ancient Greek philosophers believed that
19764-463: The importance of sense perception as a source of knowledge. Al-Ghazali (Algazel) (1058–1111) had an important influence on the use of logic in theology, making use of Avicennian logic in Kalam . Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (b. 1149) criticised Aristotle's " first figure " and developed a form of inductive logic , foreshadowing the system of inductive logic developed by John Stuart Mill (1806–1873). Systematic refutations of Greek logic were written by
19947-585: The important aspect of literal meanings, while it kept al-Ghazali busy with irrelevant semantic argumentations. Al-Shawkani , a 18th AD Atharism, Zahiri scholar, early Salafi movement figure, and Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab contemporary; has expressed his view for literal theological interpretation and opposition to kalam (speculative theology) Siddiq Hasan Khan , 19th AD North Indian Salafi scholar, co-founder of Ahl-i Hadith movement, and also Nawab (viceroy) of Bhopal State ; has rejected kalam as he regards it as "full of speculations". It
20130-449: The influence of Greek systems of philosophy such as Neoplatonism and Aristotelianism . 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
20313-502: The innquisition against the Sunnis be released. According to Al-Shahrastani , the golden age of the science of kalam began with the caliphs Harun al-Rashid (r. 786–809), al-Ma'mun (r. 813–833), al-Mu'tasim (r. 833–842), al-Wathiq (r. 842–847) and al-Mutawakkil (r. 847–861) and ended in the time of Sahib ibn Abbad , who served as vizier of the Buyids of Ray from 979 to 995. One of
20496-404: The island), as they will invariably be taken away from us (when the ship sets sail again). He then connects this with a Neo-Platonist idea, by saying that our soul can be directed towards the pursuit of desire or the pursuit of intellect; the former will tie it to the body, so that when the body dies, it will also die, but the latter will free it from the body and allow it to survive "in the light of
20679-422: The kalam scholars progression was at first "because they were exposed to foreign literatures about philosophy...", then in the end they established kalam, which in practice damaged their creed of Islam. Ibn Qudama , 13th AD Hanbali scholar; harshly criticized kalam as one of the worst of all heresies. He characterized their scholars, the mutakallimūn , as innovators and heretics who had betrayed and deviated from
20862-549: The known heavenly bodies (the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and the stars) are embedded. In one of his treatises on the subject, he says that these bodies are rational entities, whose circular motion is in obedience to and worship of God. Their role, al-Kindi believes, is to act as instruments for divine providence. He furnishes empirical evidence as proof for this assertion; different seasons are marked by particular arrangements of
21045-678: The late 10th century, the two renowned Ash'ari Kalam scholars, Ibn Furak and Abu Ishaq al-Isfarayini (d. 1027) having studied in Baghdad arrived to teach in Khurasan at this time. Some of the prominent Shafi'i families in Nishapur took up the cause of Ash'arism and it became well-established in the city, which developed into the main hub of Shafi'ite learning in the East. Ash'arism swiftly proliferated throughout Iran's other Shafi'ite communities. It developed into
21228-409: The late Umayyad period if this report is authentic. In two narrations cited by Abdullah Ansari (d. 1089), Amr ibn Ubayd is identified as the one who "invented these innovations of kalām". Abu Hanifa is said to have cursed ʿAmr ibn ʿUbaid for "opening the way for people to speak (kalām) about what it is not their business to speak about." Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328), on the other hand, believed that
21411-465: The latter thesis, like Leo Strauss , maintain that Islamic philosophers wrote so as to conceal their true meaning in order to avoid religious persecution , but scholars such as Oliver Leaman disagree. The main sources of classical or early Islamic philosophy are the religion of Islam itself (especially ideas derived and interpreted from the Quran ) and Greek philosophy which the early Muslims inherited as
21594-494: The main leader of the Iranian Revolution ; has used kalam to facilitate his socio-religious revival of moral spirit of the masses. As he formulate the revolutionary system on his states building, Khomeini's political thoughts was closely linked with kalam discourse. Including: Although seeking knowledge in Islam is considered a religious obligation, the study of kalam is considered by Muslim scholars to fall beyond
21777-601: The mainstream Shafi'ite ideology in the Islamic world during the Seljuk era . In the Maghreb and al-Andalus, on the other hand, the Kalam was not yet a topic of discussion until the early 11th century. Al-Baqillani a Maliki jurist contributed to the propagation of Ash'arism within the Maliki circles in North Africa. One of his students, Abu Dharr al-Harawi was the first to introduce
21960-492: The mid-twentieth century in a Turkish library. His greatest contribution to the development of Islamic philosophy was his efforts to make Greek thought both accessible and acceptable to a Muslim audience. Al-Kindi carried out this mission from the House of Wisdom (Bayt al-Hikma), an institute of translation and learning patronized by the Abbasid Caliphs, in Baghdad. As well as translating many important texts, much of what
22143-540: The militant orthodoxy of al-Mutawakkil, the Mongols also destroyed countless libraries during their invasion of Persia and Mesopotamia . However, he says the most probable cause of this was that his writings never found popularity amongst subsequent influential philosophers such as al-Farabi and Avicenna , who ultimately overshadowed him. His philosophical career peaked under al-Mu'tasim, to whom al-Kindi dedicated his most famous work, On First Philosophy , and whose son Ahmad
22326-530: The most important promoters of kalam discussions in the early Abbasid period was the Barmakid Yahya ibn Khalid , who served as vizier under Harun al-Rashid . Al-Yaʿqūbī (d. after 905) reports that he loved kalam and discussion (Naẓar), and that in his days the mutakallimūn became numerous and they debated with each other and wrote books. Al-Yaʿqūbī cites Hisham ibn al-Hakam and Dirar ibn Amr (d. 815) as examples of mutakallimīn of this period. According to
22509-410: The most occurring symbol and change it to the form of the "first" letter of the plaintext sample, the next most common symbol is changed to the form of the "second" letter, and the following most common symbol is changed to the form of the "third" letter, and so on, until we account for all symbols of the cryptogram we want to solve. Al-Kindi was influenced by the work of al-Khalil (717–786), who wrote
22692-489: The natural philosophers because of his prominence in Science. Al-Kindi's major contribution was his establishment of philosophy in the Islamic world and his efforts in trying to harmonize the philosophical investigation along with the Islamic theology and creed. The philosophical texts which were translated under his supervision would become the standard texts in the Islamic world for centuries to come, even after his influence has been eclipsed by later Philosophers. Al-Kindi
22875-609: The nature of God, the soul and prophetic knowledge . Al-Kindi was born in Kufa to an aristocratic family of the Arabian tribe of the Kinda , descended from the chieftain al-Ash'ath ibn Qays , a contemporary of Muhammad . The family belonged to the most prominent families of the tribal nobility of Kufa in the early Islamic period, until it lost much of its power following the revolt of Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn al-Ash'ath . His father Ishaq
23058-463: The nature of our worldly existence, he (borrowing from Epictetus ) compares it to a ship which has, during the course of its ocean voyage, temporarily anchored itself at an island and allowed its passengers to disembark. The implicit warning is that those passengers who linger too long on the island may be left behind when the ship sets sail again. Here, al-Kindi displays a stoic concept, that we must not become attached to material things (represented by
23241-451: The one hand and "divine justice" on the other (some asserting that to be punished for what is beyond someone's control is unjust). Also Kalam sought to make "a systematic attempt to bring the conflict in data of revelation (in the Quran and the Traditions ) into some internal harmony". Other factors that might have led the establishment of kalam was an effort by some Islamic scholars to oppose
23424-536: The opposite (existentialist) notion, was developed in the works of Averroes and Mulla Sadra 's transcendent theosophy . Ibn al-Nafis wrote the Theologus 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 bodily resurrection and
23607-402: The other (though in fact he rejected speculative theology). Despite this, he did make clear that he believed revelation was a superior source of knowledge to reason because it guaranteed matters of faith that reason could not uncover. And while his philosophical approach was not always original, and was even considered clumsy by later thinkers (mainly because he was the first philosopher writing in
23790-529: The people. Indeed, I love to speak with the Shia ." The fact that the verb kallama is used here for "to speak with", from which the word kalām is derived, is seen by Josef van Ess as an indication that the specifically theological meaning of the kalām concept may have already developed at this time. According to a report quoted in the Kitab al-Aghani by Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani (d. 967), there were six representatives of
23973-416: The perplexity of native philologists and theologians when faced with the term kalām ". As for Western scholarship, Tjitze de Boer and Duncan Black MacDonald suggested that the term kalām was derived from the Greek word logos. Arent Jan Wensinck , on the other hand, rejected the view that the term kalām could have anything to do with logos or its derivatives in 1932, and argued that it had arisen "through
24156-517: The philosophy of history. Interest in Islamic philosophy revived during the Nahda ("Awakening") movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and continues to the present day. Islamic philosophy had a major impact in Christian Europe , where translation of Arabic philosophical texts into Latin "led to the transformation of almost all philosophical disciplines in the medieval Latin world", with
24339-407: The planets and stars (most notably the sun); the appearance and manner of people varies according to the arrangement of heavenly bodies situated above their homeland. However, he is ambiguous when it comes to the actual process by which the heavenly bodies affect the material world. One theory he posits in his works is from Aristotle, who conceived that the movement of these bodies causes friction in
24522-420: The point where the Quran and hadith would only be accepted if it aligned with their interpretation of rationalism. The Hanbali school and followers of Ahmed Ibn Hanbal would generally avoid kalam and philosophical talk all together, seeing it as an innovation, and only address it out of necessity. However, Ahmad ibn Hanbal also provided an episode of long feud of Mu'tazila Quran creationism doctrine opposed by
24705-406: The prophet has the truth revealed to him by God. Thirdly, the understanding of the prophet – being divinely revealed – is clearer and more comprehensive than that of the philosopher. Fourthly, the way in which the prophet is able to express this understanding to the ordinary people is superior. Therefore, al-Kindi says the prophet is superior in two fields: the ease and certainty with which he receives
24888-415: The purity or impurity of every thing. All scholars depend on it, and it is the tool and model for every acquisition. What could be more important than something without which one cannot prove the glory of God or prophethood, and without which one cannot distinguish the true argument from the false argument and the proof from the false proof. The kalam makes it possible to distinguish the community (jama'a) from
25071-404: The rejection that their discipline experiences in society, and for even being willing to accept the sacrifice of poverty and lack of career opportunities as a Qadi . In another writing, al-Jahiz stated that without the Kalam, there would be no religion for God and no one would be distinguished from the heretics . There would be no difference between falsehood and truth and no separation between
25254-442: The rise and fall of temperature." In order to support his argument, he gave a description of a scientific experiment as follows: One can also observe by the senses... how in consequence of extreme cold air changes into water. To do this, one takes a glass bottle, fills it completely with snow, and closes its end carefully. Then one determines its weight by weighing. One places it in a container... which has previously been weighed. On
25437-624: The said matter about the nature of Quran. The Hanbali scholars and followers of Ahmad ibn Hanbal rarely mention about kalam in their teaching, as they consider it as bid'ah (heresy). After the longtime persecution of Mihna towards the Ahl a-Hadith since the time of his great-grandfather, caliph al-Mutawakkil changed the caliphate policy by restoring them to favor, while abandoning Mu'tazilites led by Ahmad ibn Abi Du'ad. The caliph also attempted to reconcile with Ahmad ibn Hanbal, and finally, in March 852, he ordered that all prisoners held on account of
25620-449: The science of Kalām. At the end of the 14th century, Ibn Khaldun believed that the science of Kalam was no longer necessary for students of his time, because the heretics and innovators had since perished and it was sufficient to study what the Sunni imams had written to defend themselves against them. However, the science of Kalam experienced a revival in the 17th and 18th centuries in what
25803-476: The scripturalists (Atharism) doctrine that Quran as shifat (attribution) of God which championed by Ahmad ibn Hanbal , the founder of Hanbali school . Ibn Battah has recorded in his work, Al-Ibāna , that Ahmad ibn Hanbal has instructed his students of total academic boycott against the scholars of kalam. Furthermore, Ahmad ibn Hanbal also recorded engaged in long debates against the leading Mu'tazilite and qadi of caliphate, Ahmad ibn Abi Du'ad regarding
25986-489: The sect (firqa) and the Sunnah from the Bid'ah . Al-Jahiz also compares the kalam to a border fortress, the defence of which requires great personal commitment. It is like a border fortress because all people are hostile towards its followers. Whoever gives this science its due can expect a corresponding reward. [ 85 ] Al-Jāhiz praises the Mutakallimūn for remaining loyal to their discipline out of conviction of its high value, despite
26169-431: The seventh chapter of his book, Mi'yar Al-'Ilm , Ibn Taymiyyah wrote that although he recognized that al-Ghazali's intention are not inherently bad in his attempt to describe the limit of human's mind in metaphysical and esoterical concepts, as it was aimed to oppose the core idea of kalam scholars that everything must be grasped by logic; although he still held that such discourse are moot as it only distract al-Ghazali from
26352-526: The similarity between the unique cosmological kalam philosophy taught by Mulla Sadra with Hindu Vedic Upanishads philosophy. In retrospect, Muhammad Kamal from Islamic studies at the Melbourne institute has stated Mulla Sadra philosophy was influenced by Avicenna and Ibn Arabi . Ruhollah Khomeini , Iranian Islamic revolutionary, politician, religious leader who served as the first Supreme Leader of Iran , founder of modern day Islamic Republic of Iran and
26535-428: The simple and pious faith of the early Muslims. Al-Dhahabi, 14th AD Hanbali scholar and historian; has made his derogatory statement towards kalam scholar by comparing them with Abu Jahl , the reviled figure in Islam during the time of Muhammad. Ibn Taymiyya, 14th AD Hanbali scholar; was notable for his bold stance against the doctrines of Mutakallimin in his works such as ar-Radd 'ala al-mantiqiyyın (Refutation of
26718-434: The soul originating from the heart , 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 few organs ." 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
26901-514: The soul. They both made a distinction between the soul and the spirit, and in particular, the Avicennian doctrine on the nature of the soul was influential among the Scholastics . Some of Avicenna's views on the soul included the idea that the immortality 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
27084-496: The special type of argumentation that characterizes the Kalam first appeared at the beginning of the second Islamic century with Jaʿd ibn Dirham (d. 724) and Jahm bin Safwan (d. 746). From them it then reached Amr ibn Ubayd and Wasil ibn Ata . According to the Ottoman scholar Taşköprüzade (d. 1561), the spread of the Kalam began as early as the year 100 of the Hijra (= 718/19 AD) through
27267-464: 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 's system of logic
27450-514: The sub-lunar region, which stirs up the primary elements of earth, fire, air and water, and these combine to produce everything in the material world. An alternative view found in the treatise On Rays ( De radiis ) is that the planets exercise their influence in straight lines; but this treatise, written by a Latin author, probably around the middle of the 13th century, is apocryphal. In each of these, two fundamentally different views of physical interaction are presented; action by contact and action at
27633-411: The surface of the bottle the air changes into water, and appears upon it like the drops on large porous pitchers, so that a considerable amount of water gradually collects inside the container. One then weighs the bottle, the water and the container, and finds their weight greater than previously, which proves the change. [...] Some foolish persons are of opinion that the snow exudes through the glass. This
27816-465: The tenth and eleventh centuries, the Maturidites flourished in Khurasan and Central Asia, while the Ash'arites posed a threat to Mu'tazila hegemony in central Iraq and Iran. Both schools use kalam to defend what we now refer to as "orthodox Islam" or traditionalist Islamic theological doctrine. Mu'tazalism would eventually fall because of this. This is noted by Western historians, who label the Mu'tazila as
27999-460: The tenth and final intellect . 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
28182-424: The term 'elephant' refers to a species of animal that contains many. Therefore, only God is absolutely one, both in being and in concept, lacking any multiplicity whatsoever. Some feel this understanding entails a very rigorous negative theology because it implies that any description which can be predicated to anything else, cannot be said about God. In addition to absolute oneness, al-Kindi also described God as
28365-413: The term mutakalli : "Undoubtedly this was once a derisive name, perhaps creating the image of people 'who talk forever.' Eventually, however, it became accepted as a neutral term." In fact, the origins of the kalām are obscure. This is also due to the fact that the specifically theological meaning of the words kalām and mutakallim was very slow to gain acceptance. Mutakallim initially only referred to
28548-553: The term originally arose in Abū Muslim's army and referred to political and religious propagandists such as the Dawah . However, there are reports that indicate that the culture of kalām existed before this. The Arab historian Abu Zakariya al-Azdi (d. 945) cites a report according to which the Umayyad caliph Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz (r. 717–720) is said to have said: "I have argued and spoken with
28731-491: The theological school of Basra , Iraq . A pupil of Hasan 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 called Mu'tazilite (from i'tazala , to separate oneself). The Mu'tazilites looked in towards
28914-543: The thoughs of Zandaqa in the Islamic world. Later schools of Kalam like the Kullabis , Asharites and Matuiridis representing as Sunni Islam would develop systems that would defend the core orthodox creedal points of Islam completely on rational grounds, and were open to engaging in kalam in accordance to the Quran and Sunnah . This was unlike the Mutazilites , whose kalam instead prioritised reason over revelation to
29097-467: The times of the Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258 CE), the discipline of Kalām arose in an "attempt to grapple" with several "complex problems" early in the history of Islam , according to historian Majid Fakhry. One was how to rebut arguments "leveled at Islam by pagans, Christians and Jews". Another was how to deal with (what some saw as the conflict between) the predestination of sinners to hell on
29280-509: The translation of Greek scientific and philosophical texts into the Arabic language . This contact with "the philosophy of the ancients" (as Hellenistic philosophy was often referred to by Muslim scholars) had a profound effect on him, as he synthesized, adapted and promoted Hellenistic and Peripatetic philosophy in the Muslim world . He subsequently wrote hundreds of original treatises of his own on
29463-746: The truth, and the way in which he presents it. However, the crucial implication is that the content of the prophet's and the philosopher's knowledge is the same . This, says Adamson, demonstrates how limited the superiority al-Kindi afforded to prophecy was. In addition to this, al-Kindi adopted a naturalistic view of prophetic visions. He argued that, through the faculty of "imagination" as conceived of in Aristotelian philosophy, certain "pure" and well-prepared souls, were able to receive information about future events. Significantly, he does not attribute such visions or dreams to revelation from God, but instead explains that imagination enables human beings to receive
29646-488: The universals. He argues that the external agency of this intellect is necessary by saying that human beings cannot arrive at a universal concept merely through perception. In other words, an intellect cannot understand the species of a thing simply by examining one or more of its instances. According to him, this will only yield an inferior "sensible form", and not the universal form which we desire. The universal form can only be attained through contemplation and actualization by
29829-573: The universe had an infinite past with no beginning, early medieval philosophers and theologians developed the concept of the universe having a finite past with a beginning. This view was inspired by the creationism shared by Judaism , Christianity and Islam . The Christian philosopher John Philoponus presented a detailed argument against the ancient Greek notion of an infinite past. Muslim and Arab Jewish philosophers like Al-Kindi , Saadia Gaon , and Al-Ghazali developed further arguments, with most falling into two broad categories: assertions of
30012-485: The view that the science of kalam is not a personal duty on Muslims but a collective duty. Like al-Shafi'i, he discouraged the masses from studying it and that only the most able do so. Despite the dominance of kalam as an intellectual tradition within Islam, some scholars were critical of its use. For example, Hanbali school and followers of Ahmed Ibn Hanbal would generally avoid kalam and philosophical talk all together, seeing it as an innovation . The same sentiments
30195-425: The whole world." This theory of the active power of rays had an influence on later scholars such as Ibn al-Haytham , Robert Grosseteste and Roger Bacon . Two major theories of optics appear in the writings of al-Kindi: Aristotelian and Euclidean . Aristotle had believed that in order for the eye to perceive an object, both the eye and the object must be in contact with a transparent medium (such as air) that
30378-418: 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 of Falsafa , meaning those particular schools of thought that most reflect
30561-442: 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.”. According to Ibn Sina, immortality of the soul is not a goal, but a necessity and consequence of its nature. Avicenna generally supported Aristotle 's idea of
30744-446: Was a separate, incorporeal and universal intellect (known as the "First Intellect"). It was the first of God's creation and the intermediary through which all other things came into creation. Aside from its obvious metaphysical importance, it was also crucial to al-Kindi's epistemology , which was influenced by Platonic realism . According to Plato, everything that exists in the material world corresponds to certain universal forms in
30927-424: Was able to create a scale that would enable doctors to gauge the effectiveness of their medication by combining his knowledge of mathematics and medicine. The central theme underpinning al-Kindi's philosophical writings is the compatibility between philosophy and other "orthodox" Islamic sciences, particularly theology, and many of his works deal with subjects that theology had an immediate interest in. These include
31110-694: Was also an important figure in medieval Europe . Several of his books got translated into Latin influencing western authors like Robert Grosseteste and Roger Bacon . The Italian Renaissance scholar Geralomo Cardano (1501–1575) considered him one of the twelve greatest minds. In 1986, the Royal Commission for Riyadh City inaugurated the Al Kindi Plaza in the Diplomatic Quarter district of Riyadh , Saudi Arabia . Kalam Ilm al-kalam or ilm al-lahut , often shortened to kalam ,
31293-537: Was also well known for his beautiful calligraphy , and at one point was employed as a calligrapher by Caliph al-Mutawakkil ( r. 847–861 ). When al-Ma'mun died, his brother, al-Mu'tasim became caliph. Al-Kindi's position would be enhanced under al-Mu'tasim, who appointed him as a tutor to his son. But on the accession of al-Wathiq ( r. 842–847 ), and especially of al-Mutawakkil, al-Kindi's star waned. There are various theories concerning this: some attribute al-Kindi's downfall to scholarly rivalries at
31476-403: Was an Arab Muslim polymath active as a philosopher , mathematician , physician , and music theorist . Al-Kindi was the first of the Islamic peripatetic philosophers , and is hailed as the "father of Arab philosophy ". Al-Kindi was born in Kufa and educated in Baghdad . He became a prominent figure in the House of Wisdom , and a number of Abbasid Caliphs appointed him to oversee
31659-568: Was fortunate enough to enjoy the patronage of the pro- Mutazilite Caliphs al-Ma'mun and al-Mu'tasim , which meant he could carry out his philosophical speculations with relative ease. In his own time, al-Kindi would be criticized for extolling the "intellect" as being the most immanent creation in proximity to God, which was commonly held to be the position of the angels. He also engaged in disputations with certain Mutazilites, whom he attacked for their belief in atoms, as not all Mutazilites accepted
31842-423: Was limited to commentaries and glosses. However, the early modern period was a phase of "frozen conservatism" for Kalām science, as Louis Gardet writes. Muslim scholars also diagnosed a decline in this discipline. The Ottoman-Turkish scholar İsmail Hakkı İzmirli (d. 1946), for example, complained that in his time there were very few people who really knew the Kalām problems and understood the Kalām riddles. There
32025-412: Was most correct was how adequately each one explained the experience of seeing. For example, Aristotle's theory was unable to account for why the angle at which an individual sees an object affects his perception of it. For example, why a circle viewed from the side will appear as a line. According to Aristotle, the complete sensible form of a circle should be transmitted to the eye and it should appear as
32208-611: Was responsible for the introduction of hypothetical syllogism , temporal modal logic and inductive logic . Other important developments in early Islamic philosophy include the development of a strict science of citation , the isnad or "backing", and the development of a method to disprove claims, the ijtihad , which was generally applied to many types of questions. Early forms of analogical reasoning , inductive reasoning and categorical syllogism were introduced in Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), Sharia and Kalam (Islamic theology) from
32391-470: Was stated by himself that his opposition towards kalam were influenced by the thoughts of Al-Shawkani, Al-San'ani and Ibn Taymiyya. Rashid Rida , 19th century AD reformer of Islamics school; in his later years of life has perceived the Athari theology as more rational than Kalam and actively condemning Kalam, as he view the Athari methodology had stronger religious foundations of Islam. Furthermore, he also saw
32574-475: Was the governor of Basra and al-Kindi received his preliminary education there. He later went to complete his studies in Baghdad, where he was patronized by the Abbasid caliphs al-Ma'mun ( r. 813–833 ) and al-Mu'tasim ( r. 833–842 ). On account of his learning and aptitude for study, al-Ma'mun appointed him to the House of Wisdom , a recently established center for the translation of Greek philosophical and scientific texts, in Baghdad. He
32757-485: Was the first attempt at serious quantification in medicine. Al-Kindi denied the possibility of transmuting base metals into precious metals such as gold and silver, a position that was later attacked by the Persian alchemist and physician Abu Bakr al-Razi ( c. 865 – c. 925 ). One work attributed to al-Kindi, variously known as the Kitāb al-Taraffuq fī l-ʿiṭr ("The Book of Gentleness on Perfume") or
32940-420: Was the first attempt at using the method of a 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 a cosmological 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
33123-531: Was the first ruler to commission Mutakallimūn representing Islam to write books against Mulhid from the circle of the Manichaeans , Bardesanites and Marcionites and to refute their arguments. The reason for this was that at that time writings of these groups had spread and were being translated from New Persian and Middle Persian into Arabic. In early Islam, the Ahl al-Kalām or "Kalamites" essentially referred to
33306-411: Was to become standard Arabic philosophical vocabulary originated with al-Kindi; indeed, if it had not been for him, the work of philosophers like al-Farabi , Avicenna , and al-Ghazali might not have been possible. In his writings, one of al-Kindi's central concerns was to demonstrate the compatibility between philosophy and natural theology on the one hand, and revealed or speculative theology on
33489-551: Was tutored by al-Kindi. According to Arab bibliographer Ibn al-Nadim , al-Kindi wrote at least two hundred and sixty books, contributing heavily to geometry (thirty-two books), medicine and philosophy (twenty-two books each), logic (nine books), and physics (twelve books). Although most of his books have been lost over the centuries, a few have survived in the form of Latin translations by Gerard of Cremona , and others have been rediscovered in Arabic manuscripts; most importantly, twenty-four of his lost works were located in
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