Intro to Muslim Philosophy

Notes Philosophy 2 minutes read

Muslim philosophy is a very bright chapter of the wisdom of humankind. Dr. Iqbal the great philosopher of the East, had extraordinary brilliance in finding similarities between western materialistic and eastern spiritualistic thoughts and he got succeeded pretty much. Although he is totally Muslim philosopher by his characteristics but his age was the age of Modern philosophy that’s why we consider him both, a Muslim Philosopher and a Modern Philosopher.

But in actual the period of Muslim Philosophy is basically from 7th century to 17th. It’s all 1000 years approximately. We’ll go through all this in our series of lectures on Muslim Philosophy. We’ll mostly follow the thesis of Dr. Iqbal “The Development of Metaphysics in Persia”. But there are much more worth listening to in our lectures.

Introduction: Transmission of Greek Philosophy to Muslim Culture

Mutazilism

i. Five Basic Principles of Mutazila

ii. Some leading Mutazilites

(a) Wasil Ibn Ata

(b) Abu al Hudhail Allaf

(c) Al- Nazzam

Asharism

i. Concept of God and the nature of Divine Attribute

ii. Free will

iii. Problem of Evil

iv. Problem of createdness or uncreatedness of the Quran

v. Asharite Atomism

Al-Kindi

i. Reconciliation of Philosophy and Religion

ii. Concept of God

iii. Theory of Intellect

Al- Farabi

i. Theory of Ten Intelligences

ii. theory of the Intellect

Ibn-Sina

i. Theory of Being

ii. Theory of Knowledge/Concept of god

iii. Mind-Body Relationship

Al Ghazali

1. Method

2. Refutation of Philsophers

i. Eternity of the Word

ii. God’s Knowledge of Particulars

iii. Reseruction of the Body

Ibn Rushd

a. Reconciliation between Philosophy and Religion

b. Metaphysics.

c. Way to knowledge

Ibn Arabi

Doctrine of Unity of Being

Book Recommended

1. Abdul Khaliq, Dr. Problems of Muslim Theology, Lahore;

2. Abdul Khaliq, Dr. and Yusaf Shaidaee, هسفلف ملسم . Lahore: Aziz Publishers, 1993.

3. Majid Fakhri. A History of Islamic Philosophy. 2nd edition. New York: Columbia University Press, 1983.

4. M. M. Sharif (ed). A History of Muslim Philosophy, 2 Vols. (reprint) Karachi: Royal Book Co., 1983.

5. Montgomery, W. Watt, Free will and Pre-Destination in Early Islam, London: Luzac & Co., 1948

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