Islam

Islamic philosophy is a branch of Islamic studies on the Quran. It is the continuous search for Hikma (Arabic: حكمة‎), meaning wisdom, in the light of the Islamic view of life, the universe, ethics, society, and so on. Islamic philosophy, understood as a "project of independent philosophical inquiry" began in Baghdad in the middle of the eighth century.^[1]

Introduction

Islamic philosophy refers to philosophy produced in an Islamic society. It is not necessarily concerned with religious issues, nor exclusively produced byMuslims. [Oliver Leaman, Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy]

[edit]Formative influences

Islamic philosophy as the name implies refers to philosophical activity within the Islamic milieu. The main sources of classical or early Islamic philosophy are the religion of Islam itself (especially ideas derived and interpreted from the Quran), Greek philosophy which the early Muslims inherited as a result of conquests when Alexandria, Syria and Jundishapur came under Muslim rule, along with pre-Islamic Indian philosophy and Iranian philosophy. Many of the early philosophical debates centered around reconciling religion and reason, the latter exemplified by Greek philosophy. One aspect which stands out in Islamic philosophy is that, the philosophy in Islam travels wide but comes back to conform it with the Quran and Sunna.

[edit]Early Islamic 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 is Kalam, that mainly dealt with Islamic theological questions, and the other is Falsafa, that 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 (Averroës) who founded the school of Averroism, and others such as Ibn al-Haytham (Alhacen)and Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī,

[edit]Kalam

Kalām (Arabic: علم الكلام‎) is the philosophy that seeks Islamic theological principles through dialectic. In Arabic the word literally means "speech". One of first debates was that between partisan of the Qadar (Arabic: qadara‎, to have power), who affirmed free will, and the Jabarites (jabar, force, constraint), who believed in fatalism.

At the second century of the Hijra, a new movement arose in the theological school of Basra, Iraq. A pupil, Wasil ibn Ata, who was expelled from the school because his answers were contrary to then Sunni tradition and became leader of a new school, and systematized the radical opinions of preceding sects, particularly those of the Qadarites and Jabarites. This new school was called Mutazilite (from i'tazala, to separate oneself).

The Mutazilites, compelled to defend their principles against the Sunni Islam of their day, looked for support in philosophy, and are one of the first to pursue a rational theology called Ilm-al-Kalam (Scholastic theology); those professing it were called Mutakallamin. This appellation became the common name for all seeking philosophical demonstration in confirmation of religious principles. But subsequent generations were to large extent critical towards the Mutazilite school, especially after formation of the Asharite concepts.

More simply put Kalam means duties of the heart as opposed to (or in conjunction with) fikh duties of the body. Theology verses jurisprudence.^[2]

[edit]Falsafa

Falsafa is a Greek loanword meaning "philosophy" (the Greek pronunciation philosophia became falsafa).

[edit]Divisions of the philosophic sciences

These sciences, in relation to the aim we have set before us, may be divided into six, sections:^[3]

(1) Mathematics

(2) Logic

(3) Physics (The object of this science is the study of the bodies which compose the universe: the sky and the stars, and, here below, simple elements such as air, earth, water, fire, and compound bodies animals, plants, and minerals; the reasons of their changes, developments, and intermixture.) also includes medicine.

(4) Metaphysics

(5) Politics

(6) Moral Philosophy (ethics)

From the ninth century onward, owing to Caliph al-Ma'mun and his successor, Greek philosophy was introduced among the Arabs, and the Peripatetic school began to find able representatives among them; such were Al-Kindi, Al-Farabi, Ibn Sina (Avicenna), and Ibn Rushd (Averroës), all of whose fundamental principles were considered as criticized by the Mutakallamin. Another trend, represented by 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. They contributed to making Aristotle known in Christian Europe. Three speculative thinkers, al-Farabi, Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and al-Kindi, combined Aristotelianism andNeoplatonism with other ideas introduced through Islam.

From Spain Arabic philosophic literature was translated into Hebrew and Latin, contributing to the development of modern European philosophy.