Islamic philosophy

Islamic philosophy (الفلسفة الإسلامية) is a part of the Islamic studies, and is a longstanding attempt to create harmony between faith, reason or philosophy, and the religious teachings of Islam. A Muslim engaged in this field is called a Muslim philosopher.

Definition

The attempt to fuse religion and philosophy is difficult because there are no clear preconditions. On the other hand, classical religious believers have a set of religious principles that they hold to be fact. Indeed, due to these divergent goals and views, some hold^{[citation needed]} that one cannot simultaneously be a philosopher and a true adherent of Islam, which is believed to be a revealed religion by its adherents. In this view, all attempts at synthesis ultimately fail.

However, others believe that a synthesis between Islam and philosophy is possible. One way to find a synthesis is to use philosophical arguments to prove that one's preset religious principles are true. This is a common technique found in the writings of many religious traditions, including Judaism, Christianity and Islam, but this is not generally accepted as true philosophy by philosophers. Another way to find a synthesis is to abstain from holding as true any religious principles of one's faith at all, unless one independently comes to those conclusions from a philosophical analysis. However, this is not generally accepted as being faithful to one's religion by adherents of that religion. A third, rarer and more difficult path is to apply analytical philosophy to one's own religion. In this case a religious person would also be a philosopher, by asking questions such as:

• What is the nature of God? How do we know that God exists?
• What is the nature of revelation? How do we know that God reveals his will to mankind?
• What is the nature of divinely guided Messengers vis à vis philosophers?
• What is the nature of Imamat or vicegerency of humans on earth?
• Which of our religious traditions must be interpreted literally?
• Which of our religious traditions must be interpreted allegorically?
• What must one actually believe to be considered a true adherent of our religion?
• How can one reconcile the findings of philosophy with religion?
• How can one reconcile the findings of science with religion?

Introduction

Islamic philosophy may be defined in a number of different ways, but the perspective taken here is that it represents the style of philosophy produced within the framework of Islamic culture. This description does not suggest that it is necessarily concerned with religious issues, nor even that it is exclusively produced by Muslims.[Oliver Leamman, Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy]

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 Quran - and the Greek philosophical heritage which the early Muslims inherited as a result of conquests when Alexandria, Syria and Academy of Gundishapur|Jundishapur came under Muslim rule. Many of the early philosophical debates centered around reconciling religion and reason, the latter exemplified by Greek Philosophy.

Also pre-Islamic Iranian and Indian influences are worth mentioning.

Early Islamic philosophy

Early Muslim philosophy is considered influential in the rise of modern philosophy. Thomas Aquinas knew of at least some of the Mu'tazilite work and the Renaissance and the use of empirical methods were inspired at least in part by Muslim works taken in Spain in 1492. The most significant achievements of early Muslim philosophers are:

• the development of a strict scientific citation, the isnad or "backing"
• the development of a scientific method to disprove claims, the ijtihad, which could be generally applied to many types of questions (although which to apply it to is an ethical question)
• willingness to both accept and challenge authority within the same process
• recognition that science and philosophy are both subordinate to morality, and that moral choices are prior to any investigation or concern with either.

Early Muslim philosophy can be starkly divided into four clear sets of influences, listed below.

Muhammad

The life of Muhammad or sira which generated both the Qur'an (revelation) and hadith (his daily utterances and discourses on social and legal matters), during which philosophy was defined by acceptance or rejection of his message. Together the sira and hadith constitute the sunnah and are validated by isnad ("backing") to determine the likely truth of the report of any given saying of Muhammad. Key figures are Imam Bukhari, Imam Muslim, Al-Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah, Abu Dawud and Al-Nasa'i. Each sifted through literally millions of hadith to accept a list of under 10,000. This work, which was not completed until the 10th century, began shortly after The Farewell Sermon in 631, after which Muhammad could not mediate disputes. After his death Abu Bakr began to collect all fragments of his sayings. In this period, Muhammad was simply authority and philosophy distinguished from his personal style only by the revelation.

Dominance of Kalam

With Kalam (Islamic term), in which questions about the sira and hadith, as well as science and law, began to be investigated beyond the scope of Muhammad's beliefs. This period is characterized by emergence of ijtihad and the first fiqh. As the Sunnah became published and accepted, philosophy separate from Muslim theology was discouraged due to a lack of participants. During this period, traditions similar to Socratic method began to evolve, but philosophy remained subordinate to religion.

Mutazilite school

The rise of the Mutazilites, which built on Greek philosophy to challenge the kalam, integrate Plato and Aristotle in particular, and expand the use of ijtihad ("independent thought") to open questions of science and society, and what we today call modern philosophy. During this period the procedural traditions of Islam were highly developed. Ijtihad had strong influences on the development of the modern scientific method, while isnad is indistinguishable in form from modern scientific citation. With these tools, the Mutazilites were able to revive Greek views, and correct them. Early Muslim medicine and Early Muslim sociology in particular benefited from the Mutazilite approach, but it led to very strong reaction.

Rise of the Asharite school

The Asharites put an end to philosophy as such in the Muslim world, but permitted these methods to continue to be applied to science and technology. This marked the 12th-to-14th century peak of innovation in Muslim civilization, after which lack of improvements in the basic processes and confusion with theology and law had degraded methods. During this period many remarkable achievements of engineering and social organization were made, and the Ulema began to generate a fiqh based on taqlid ("emulation") rather than on the old ijtihad. An influential 12th-century work, "The Incoherence of the Philosophers", by Al-Ghazali, laid the groundwork to "shut the door of ijtihad" later on in the 15th-century, with the assistance of the new Ottoman Empire.

The Classical Period

In the early Islamic thought two main currents may be distinguished. The first is Kalam, that mainly dealt with theological questions and the other is Falsafa, that was founded on the reception of Greek thought.

Kalam

Independent minds exploiting the methods of ijtihad sought to investigate the doctrines of the Qur'an, which until then had been accepted in faith on the authority of divine revelation. One of first debates was that between partisan of the Qadar (Arabic language: qadara, to have power), who affirmed free will, and the Jabarites (jabar, force, constraint), who maintained the belief in fatalism.

At the second century of the Hegira, 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 orthodox Islamic tradition and became leader of a new school, and systematized the radical opinions of preceding sects, particularly those of the Qadarites. This new school was called Mutazilite (from i'tazala, to separate oneself, to dissent). Its principal dogmas were three:

1. God is an absolute unity, and no attribute can be ascribed to Him.
2. Man is a free agent. It is on account of these two principles that the Mu'tazilites designate themselves the "Partisans of Justice and Unity".
3. All knowledge necessary for the salvation of man emanates from his reason; humans could acquire knowledge before, as well as after, Revelation, by the sole light of reason. This fact makes knowledge obligatory upon all men, at all times, and in all places.

The Mutazilites, compelled to defend their principles against the orthodox 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. The first Mutakallamin had to debate both the orthodox and the non-Muslims, and they may be described as occupying the middle ground between those two parties. But subsequent generations were to large extent critical towards the Mutazilite school, especially after formation of the Asharite concepts.

Falasafa

Image:Averroes_statue.jpg|right|thumb|180px|Ibn Rushd a.k.a. Averroes (1126-1198), is one of the most celebrated Muslim philosophers and commentator of Aristotle and a prolific writer. From the ninth century onward, owing to Caliph al-Ma'mun and his successor, Greek philosophy was introduced among the Persians and 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.

During the Abbasid caliphate a number of thinkers and scientists, many of them non-Muslims or heretical Muslims, played a role in transmitting Greek, Hindu, and other pre-Islamic knowledge to the Christian Western world. They contributed to making Aristotle known in Christian Europe. Three speculative thinkers, the two Persians al-Farabi and Avicenna and the Arab al-Kindi, combined Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism with other ideas introduced through Islam. They were considered by many as highly unorthodox and by some were even described as non-Islamic philosophers.

From Spain Arabic philosophic literature was translated into Hebrew and Latin, contributing to the development of modern European philosophy. The philosophers Moses Maimonides (a Jew born in Al Andalus) and precursor of sociology and historiography Ibn Khaldun (born in modern-day Tunisia) were also important.

Some differences between Kalam and Falsafa

Aristotle attempted to demonstrate the unity of God; but from the view which he maintained, that matter was eternal, it followed that God could not be the Creator of the world. To assert that God's knowledge extends only to the general laws of the universe, and not to individual and accidental things, is tantamount to denying prophecy. One other point shocked the faith of the Mutakallamin — the theory of intellect. The Peripatetics taught that the human soul was only an aptitude — a faculty capable of attaining every variety of passive perfection — and that through information and virtue it became qualified for union with the active intellect, which latter emanates from God. To admit this theory would be to deny the immortality of the soul.

Wherefore the Mutakallamin had, before anything else, to establish a system of philosophy to demonstrate the creation of matter, and they adopted to that end the theory of atoms as enunciated by Democritus. They taught that atoms possess neither quantity nor extension. Originally atoms were created by God, and are created now as occasion seems to require. Bodies come into existence or die, through the aggregation or the sunderance of these atoms. But this theory did not remove the objections of philosophy to a creation of matter.

For, indeed, if it be supposed that God commenced His work at a certain definite time by His "will," and for a certain definite object, it must be admitted that He was imperfect before accomplishing His will, or before attaining His object. In order to obviate this difficulty, the Motekallamin extended their theory of the atoms to Time, and claimed that just as Space is constituted of atoms and vacuum, Time, likewise, is constituted of small indivisible moments. The creation of the world once established, it was an easy matter for them to demonstrate the existence of a Creator, and that God is unique, omnipotent, and omniscient.

Jewish philosophy in the Arab world in the classical period

The oldest Jewish religio-philosophical work preserved is that of Saadia Gaon (892-942), Emunot ve-Deot, "The Book of Beliefs and Opinions". In this work Saadia treats the questions that interested the Mutakallamin, such as the creation of matter, the unity of God, the divine attributes, the soul, etc. Saadia criticizes other philosophers severely. For Saadia there was no problem as to creation: God created the world ex nihilo, just as the Bible attests; and he contests the theory of the Mutakallamin in reference to atoms, which theory, he declares, is just as contrary to reason and religion as the theory of the philosophers professing the eternity of matter.

To prove the unity of God, Saadia uses the demonstrations of the Mutakallamin. Only the attributes of essence (sifat al-dhatia) can be ascribed to God, but not the attributes of action (sifat-al-fi'aliya). The soul is a substance more delicate even than that of the celestial spheres. Here Saadia controverts the Mutakallamin, who considered the soul an "accident" 'arad (compare Guide to the Perplexed i. 74), and employs the following one of their premises to justify his position: "Only a substance can be the substratum of an accident" (that is, of a non-essential property of things). Saadia argues: "If the soul be an accident only, it can itself have no such accidents as wisdom, joy, love," etc. Saadia was thus in every way a supporter of the Kalam; and if at times he deviated from its doctrines, it was owing to his religious views; just as the Jewish and Muslim Peripatetics stopped short in their respective Aristotelianism whenever there was danger of wounding orthodox religion.

Main protagonists of falsafa and their critics

The twelfth century saw the apotheosis of pure philosophy and the decline of the Kalam, which latter, being attacked by both the philosophers and the orthodox, perished for lack of champions. This supreme exaltation of philosophy may be attributed, in great measure, to Al-Ghazali (1005-1111) among the Persians, and to Judah ha-Levi (1140) among the Jews. It can be argued, that the attacks directed against the philosophers by Ghazali in his work, "Tahaafut al-Falaasifa" (The Destruction of the Philosophers), not only produced, by reaction, a current favorable to philosophy, but induced the philosophers themselves to profit by his criticism, they thereafter making their theories clearer and their logic closer. The influence of this reaction brought forth the two greatest philosophers that the Islamic Peripatetic school ever produced, namely, Ibn Bajjah (Avempace) and Ibn Rushd (Averroes), both of whom undertook the defense of philosophy.

Since no idea and no literary or philosophical movement ever germinated on Persian or Arabian soil without leaving its impress on the Jews, the Persian Ghazali found an imitator in the person of Judah ha-Levi. This poet also took upon himself to free his religion from what he saw as the shackles of speculative philosophy, and to this end wrote the "Kuzari," in which he sought to discredit all schools of philosophy alike. He passes severe censure upon the Motekallamin for seeking to support religion by philosophy. He says, "I consider him to have attained the highest degree of perfection who is convinced of religious truths without having scrutinized them and reasoned over them" ("Kuzari," v.). Then he reduced the chief propositions of the Mutakallamin, to prove the unity of God, to ten in number, describing them at length, and concluding in these terms: "Does the Kalam (Islamic term) give us more information concerning God and His attributes than the prophet did?" (Ib. iii. and iv.) Aristotelianism finds no favor in Judah ha-Levi's eyes, for it is no less given to details and criticism; Neoplatonism alone suited him somewhat, owing to its appeal to his poetic temperament.

Ibn Rushd (or Ibn Roshd or Averroës), the contemporary of Maimonides, closed the first great philosophical era of the Muslims. The boldness of this great commentator of Aristotle aroused the full fury of the orthodox, who, in their zeal, attacked all philosophers indiscriminately, and had all philosophical writings committed to the flames. The theories of Ibn Roshd do not differ fundamentally from those of Ibn Baja and Ibn Tufail, who only follow the teachings of Ibn Sina and Al-Farabi. Like all Islamic Peripatetics, Ibn Roshd admits the hypothesis of the intelligence of the spheres and the hypothesis of universal emanation, through which motion is communicated from place to place to all parts of the universe as far as the supreme world—hypotheses which, in the mind of the Arabic philosophers, did away with the dualism involved in Aristotle's doctrine of pure energy and eternal matter.

But while Al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, and other Persian and Muslim philosophers hurried, so to speak, over subjects that trenched on religious dogmas, Ibn Rushd delighted in dwelling upon them with full particularity and stress. Thus he says, "Not only is matter eternal, but form is potentially inherent in matter; otherwise, it were a creation ex nihilo (Munk, "Mélanges," p. 444). According to this theory,therefore, the existence of this world is not only a possibility, as Ibn Sina declared—in order to make concessions to the orthodox—but also a necessity.

Driven from the Islamic schools, Islamic philosophy found a refuge with the Jews, to whom belongs the honor of having transmitted it to the Christian world. A series of eminent men—such as the Ibn Tibbon, Narboni, Gersonides —joined in translating the Arabic philosophical works into Hebrew and commenting upon them. The works of Ibn Rushd especially became the subject of their study, due in great measure to Maimonides, who, in a letter addressed to his pupil Joseph ibn Aknin, spoke in the highest terms of Ibn Rushd's commentary.

It should be mentioned that this depiction of intellectual tradition in Islamic Lands is mainly depend upon what West could understand (or wants to understand) from this long era. In contrast, there are some historian and philosophers who do not agree with this proposition & describe this era in a completely different way. Their main difference is on the influence of the some philosophers on Islamic Philosophy, especially the consequence of eastern intellectuals such as Ibn Sina and the effect of western thinkers such as Ibn Rushd. (for more discussion, refer to the history of Islamic Philosophy by Henry Corbin)

Later Islamic philosophy

The death of Ibn Rushd effectively marks the end of a particular discipline of Islamic philosophy usually called Peripatetic Arabic School; and philosophical activity declined significantly in the west of Islamic lands namely in Spain and North Africa, though it held for much longer in the Eastern lands, mainly Iran and India.

Since the political power shift in Western Europe (Spain and Portugal) from Muslim to Christian. Naturally, Muslims did not practice philosophy in Western Europe. Also a disconnect between the 'west' and the 'east' took place. Muslims in the 'east' continued to do philosophy as is evident from the works of Ottoman scholars and especially those living in Muslim kingdoms laying on the teritories of present day Iran and India (like Shah Waliullah and Ahmad Sirhindi). This fact has escaped Pre-modern historians of Islamic (or Arabic) philosophy. Also logic continued to be taught in religious seminaries up to modern times.

After Ibn Rushd, new disciples in Islamic Philosophy arose out. We can mention just some few like Ibn Arabi, Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi and Mulla Sadra schools, these new schools are very important, because there are still active disciplines in Muslim World.

Post classical Iranian Muslim philosophy

Post classical Islamic philosophy is usually divided into two main categories according to the Shia denomination beliefs and Sunni’s. Of course, there are many contemporary philsophers and thinkers such as Professor Nasr and Imam Musa Sadr who do not agree with this classification. But there is a consensus that we can categorize this era according to the two main approaches: Thinkers who mainly discussed the Shi’a beliefs and thinkers who did not. If we accept this division then we can summarize each part as follows (it should be mentioned that this classification has many overlaps, is not very clear and precise):

Thinkers who mainly did not talk about Shi’a beliefs:

• Philosophers:

1. Abhari ابحرى
2. Ibn Sab’in (d. 1268) ابن سبعين
3. Kateb-e-Qazwini كاتب قزوينى
4. Rashid-al-Din Fazlollah رشيدالدين فضل الله
5. Qutb-al-din Razi قطب الدين رازى

• Theosophers:

1. Fakhr al-Din Razi (d. 1209 ) فخرالدين رازى
2. Iji ايجى
3. Taftazani تفتازانى
4. Jorjani جرجانى

• Anti-Philosophy

1. Ibn Taymiya (d. 1328) and his students ابن تيميه

• History of Philosophies

1. Zakariya Qazwini زكرياى قزوينى
2. Shams al-Din Mohamamd Amuli شمس الدين محمد آملى
3. Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406) ابن خلدون

• Gnostic & Sufis

1. Roz bahan Balqi Shirazi روزبهان بلقى شيرازى
2. Attar|Attar Neyshaburi عطار نيشابورى
3. Umar Suhrawardi عمر سهروردى
4. Ibn Arabi (d. 1240) & his School ابن عربى
5. Najmeddin Kubra نجم الدين كبرى
6. Simnani سمنانى
7. Ali Hamedani على همدانى
8. Mulana Jali al-Din Rumi مولانا
9. Mahmud Shabestari & Shams al-Din Lahiji محمود شبسترى و شمس الدين لاهيجى
10. Abd-al-karim Jili عبدالكريم جيلى
11. Ne’mat-o-allah vali kermani نعمت الله ولى كرمانى
12. Huroofi & Baktashi حروفى و بكتاشى
13. Jami جامى
14. Hossein Kashefi حسين كاشفى
15. abd al-Qani Nablosi عبدالغنى نابلسى
16. Noor ali Shah نورعلى شاه
17. Zahbiyye ذهبيه

Thinkers who mainly talked about Shi’a beliefs:

1. Nasir al-Din Tusi (d.1274) خواجه نصيرالدين توسي
2. Isa’ili اسماعيليان
3. Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi (d. 1191) and Illumination School شهاب الدين سهروردى و مكتب اشراق
4. Jaldaki جلدكى
5. Sadr al-Din Dashtaki and Shiraz School صدرالدين دشتكى و مكتب شيراز
6. Mir Damad (d. 1631) and Isfahan School ميرداماد و مكتب اصفهان
7. Mir Fendereski and his students ميرفندرسكى
8. Mulla Sadra (d. 1640) and Transcendent Philosophy ملاصدرا و حكمت متعاليه
9. Rajab Ali Tabrizi and his students رجب على تبريزى
10. Qazi Sa’id Qumi قاضى سعيد قمى
11. Tehran and Qom School مكتب تهران و قم
12. Khorasan School مكتب خراسان
13. Mulla Hadi Sabzevari and Neyshabor School ملاهادى سبزوارى و مكتب نيشابور

Modern Islamic philosophy

Image:Iqbal.jpg|thumb|right|Dr. Allama Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938) - Noted Muslim philosopher, poet and scholar of Pakistan

Modern Islamic philosophy revives some of the trends of medieval Islamic philosophy, notably the tension between Mutazilite and Asharite view of ethics in science and law, and the duty of Muslims and role of Islam in the sociology of knowledge and in forming ethical codes and legal codes, especially the fiqh (or "jurisprudence") and rules of jihad (or "just war"). See list of Islamic terms in Arabic for a glossary of key terms used in Islam.

Key figures representing important trends include:

• Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi who is credited with creating modern Islamist political thought in the 20th century, argued that science was itself merely re-discovering that all matter and energy obeys laws, and that Kafir claims that humankind was free of obligation to comprehend and obey such laws, had to be resisted by Muslims. Caliphate and Monarchy was his most important work. He established the Jamaat-e-Islami in India. This and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood were revivals of the tarika tradition and committed to religious, political, and intellectual reform of Islam. Nasser exploited the latter to gain power in 1952 but then turned against the Brotherhood, murdering and torturing many members. The leader Sayed Qutb was executed with five others in 1966. But the key difference between the Indian Maududi and the Egyptian Qutb was that the former accepted democratic means, albeit of a limited form. This contrasts with Qutb who developed a liberation theology, requiring "true" Muslims to declare war on anyone who opposed their ultimate goal.

• Muhammad Iqbal sought an Islamic revival based on social justice ideals and emphasized traditional rules, e.g. against usury. He argued strongly that dogma, territorial nationalism and outright racism, all of which were profoundly rejected in early Islam and especially by Muhammad himself, were splitting Muslims into warring factions, encouraging materialism and nihilism. His thought was influential in the emergence of a movement for independence of Pakistan, where he revered as the national poet. Indirectly this strain of Islam also influenced Malcolm X and other figures who sought a global ethic through the Five Pillars of Islam. Iqbal can be credited with at least trying to reconstruct Islamic thought from the base, though some of his philosophical and scientific ideas would appear dated to us now. His basic ideas concentrated on free-will, which would allow Muslims to become active agents in their own history. His interest in Nietzsche (who he called 'the Wise Man of Europe') has led later Muslim scholars to criticise him for advocating the dangerous ideals, that according to them have eventually formed in certain strains of pan-Islamism. Some claim that the Four Pillars of the Green Party honor Iqbal and Islamic traditions.

• Ismail al-Faruqi looked more closely at the ethics and sociology of knowledge, concluding that no scientific method or philosophy could exist that was wholly ignorant of a theory of conduct or the consequences a given path of inquiry and technology. His "Islamization of knowledge" program sought to converge early Muslim philosophy with modern sciences, resulting in, for example, Islamic economics and Islamic sociology.

• Seyyed Hossein Nasr, a political ecologist, argues that khalifa in Islam is fundamentally compatible with ideals of the ecology movement and peace movement, more so than conventional interpretations of Islam. He argues for an ecology-based ecumenism that would seek unity amongst the faiths by concentrating on their common respect for life as a Creation, i.e. the Earth's biosphere, Gaia (mythology), or whatever name. Pope John Paul II has made similar suggestions that "mankind must be reconciled to the Creation", and there is a Parliament of World Religions seeking a "global ethic" on similar grounds.

• Fazlur Rahman was professor of Islamic thought at University of Chicago, and an expert in Islamic philosophy. Not as widely known as his scholar-activist contemporary Ismail Raji al-Faruqi, he is nonetheless considered an important figure for Islam in the 20th-century. He argued that the basis of Islamic revival was the return to the intellectual dynamism that was the hallmark of the Islamic scholarly tradition (these ideas are outlined in Revival and Reform in Islam: A Study of Islamic Fundamentalism and his magnum opus, Islam). He sought to give philosophy a free-reign, and was keen on Muslims appreciating how the modern nation-state understood law, as opposed ethics; his view being that the shari'ah was a mixture of both ethics and law. He was critical of historical Muslim theologies and philosophies for failing to create a moral and ethical worldview based on the values derived from the Qur'an: 'moral values', unlike socioeconomic values, 'are not exhausted at any point in history' but require constant interpretation. Rahman was driven to exile from his homeland, Pakistan, where he was part of a committee which sought to interpret Islam for the fledging modern state. Some of his ideas from English (which he claimed were from the Islamic tradition) were reprinted in Urdu and caused outrage among conservative Muslim scholars in Pakistan. These were quickly exploited by opponents of his political paymatser, General Ayyub Khan, and led to his eventual exile in the United States of America.

• Morteza Motahhari was a lecturer at Tehran University. Motahhari is considered for developing the ideologies of the Islamic Republic. He wrote on exegesis of the Qur'an, philosophy, ethics, sociology, history and many other subjects. In all his writings the real object he had in view was to give replies to the objections raised by others against Islam, to prove the shortcomings of other schools of thought and to manifest the greatness of Islam. He believed that in order to prove the falsity of Marxism and other ideologies like it, it was necessary not only to comment on them in a scholarly manner but also to present the real image of Islam.

• Ali Shariati was a sociologist and a Professor of Tehran University. He was one of the most influential figures in Islamic world in 20th century. He attempted to explain and provide solutions for the problems faced by Muslim societies through traditional Islamic principles interwoven with and understood from the point of view of modern sociology and philosophy. Shariati was also deeply influenced by Rumi|Mowlana and Muhammad Iqbal.

• Musa al-Sadr was a prominent Muslim intellectual and one of the most influential muslim philosophers of 20th century. He is most famous for his political role, but he was also philosopher who had been trained by Allameh Tabatabaei. As Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr said: "his great political influence and fame was enough for people to not consider his philosophical attitude, although he was a well-trained follower of long living intellectual tradition of Islamic Philosophy". One of his famous writings is a long introduction for the Arabic translation of Henry Corbin's, History of Islamic Philosophy.

• Liberal movements within Islam have attempted to reconcile Islamic sharia law with feminism and human rights norms of international law. Numerous efforts have been made in Iran among other countries to make democracy and religion compatible. Mohammad Khatami voiced concepts like civil society, democracy and tolerance in Iran and other parts of Islamic world. Modern efforts in Indonesia, Afghanistan and the proposed state of Proposals for a Palestinian state have often emphasized the traditional role of women's control of the household finances. In Bangladesh the Grameen Bank has been involved in microcredit financing of small businesses run exclusively by women.

• Modern Islamists movements are considered the 'dominant' voice today, though this belies the reality. Some Islamists (the word itself has yet to be well-defined, since there is no overall global "Islamist" movement) have entered the limited democratic processes in the Persian Gulf States, and others, such as those in Pakistan, have long been on the political stage. The vast majority of Muslims remain within, what has been termed, Traditional Islam, which is largely apolitical and accomodationist (and so a subject of criticism from certain activists). Advocates of violence, like Qutb, were opposed to the traditional scholars of al-Azhar, because they regard them as complicit in the crimes of the secular state. One general feature of Islamist movements is that they advocate creation of "the Islamic state", though this often means "Islamisation" of the modern nation-state.

In general, the first two trends are more commonly understood in the Islamic World whereas the latter trends, are more known in non-Muslim and Muslim-minority nations, or ones receiving substantial aid from developed nations. Some argue that this suggests that these trends are insincere and that alternations between fundamentalism and secular military dictators are somehow inherently part of the politics of the Arab World in particular. One response is that such trends were likewise observed in other regions, e.g. Latin America, with Communism as a form of fundamentalism, and that those regions often democratize once outside interference is limited.

External links

• Islamic Aid Islamic Aid is working to help alleviate poverty and suffering of the world's poorest communities. Islamic Aid has developed and implemented some very innovative income generation projects based on Islamic financing principles.
• Modern Islamic Philosophy by Oliver Leaman
• Islamic Philosophy by Oliver Leaman

Sub articles

• Muslim philosophers
• Islamic theology
• Islamic eschatology

See also

• Islamic scholars
• Islamic Golden Age
• Islamic science
• Modern Islamic philosophy
• Islamic Institute of Philosophy
• The concept of Teleportation in Islam (teleportation)

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Further reading

1. Islamic Philosophy Online http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/
2. History of Islamic Philosophy by Henry Corbin
3. History of Islamic Philosophy (Routledge History of World Philosophies) by Seyyed Hossein Nasr and Oliver Leaman [ed.]
4. History of Muslim Philosophy: With Short Accounts of Other Disciplines and the Modern Renaissance in Muslim Lands by M. M. Sharif http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/hmp/default.htm
5. History of Islamic Philosophy by Majid Fahkry
6. Islamic Philosophy by Oliver Leaman http://www.rep.routledge.com/article/H057
7. Modern Islamic Philosophy by Oliver Leaman http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ip/rep/h008.htm
8. The Study of Islamic Philosophy by Ibrahim Bayyumi Madkour
9. Falsafatuna (Our Philosophy) by Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr

External links

• History of Philosophy in Islam
• http://www.al-islam.org/al-tawhid/study-philosophy.htm
• http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/pd/d-intro.htm

Category:Philosophy and religion

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• Islamic_philosophy  ^history
• Early_Islamic_philosophy  ^history
• Modern_Islamic_philosophy  ^history

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• History of "Islamic philosophy"

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