WHY THE MUSLIMS NEED TO STUDY PHILOSOPHY AT ALL? PROF HAMID NASEEM RAFIABADI (It is in response to the write up “Why Muslims Need Philosophy Literacy?”By MUHAMMAD MAROOF SHAH, Greater Kashmir, 14 NOVEMBER 2013) First of all let me ask Dr Maroof Shah that who is Henry Corbin to tell Muslims what to read and what not to read? .Moreover ,how can we suggest the syllabi for religious seminaries as they have enough intellect to decide what to read and what to include in their syllabi ? Why our darul ulooms should teach philosophy .If not the law or Shariah then what in the view of Dr Maroof “is the exhaustive expression of Islam”. Does Dawah work need philosophical training, or it requires sincerity and natural ways of common sense approach described in the Quran as muwazat ul al hasanah, hikmat and mujadilah, where from you have brought the philosophy in this scheme when Allah has not included it in the prerequisites of Islamic Dawah in the Quran? Can you tell me how many people have come into the fold of Islam by getting replies to their philosophical questions? The language of philosophy and logic is not universal as claimed by Dr Maroof, because there are so many philosophies and various types of logic and which philosophy do you suggest and whose logic do you recommend for training of people of Dawah Dr .Maroof? Have you gone through Ibn Taimiyah as he would have convinced you that Greek logic is an invention of a single person named Aristotle and is not universal in its application? Dr Maroof says “Regarding the Qur’anic foundations for seeing philosophy as essentially Islamic discipline it is sufficient to note that the function of the Prophet includes teaching Hikmah. Various speculations regarding the import or meaning of the term notwithstanding, Corbin is able to show, with strong arguments, that “the term Hikmah is the equivalent of the Greek Sophia, and the term hikmat ilahlyah is the literal equivalent of the Greek theosophia. Metaphysics is generally defined as being concerned with the ilahiyat, the Divinalia.” But I fail to understand how the Qur’anic term can be used as an equivalent to Philosophy ,one being mentioned in the Quran as the functioning of the very office of Prophethood and second being coined by philosophers to justify their ratiocination without caring whether their views conform to divine writ or not? What will be the reply of Dr Maroof to the sayings of Ibn Salah a great Muhaddith who says: man tafalsafah tata zandaqah whosoever philosophises becomes a zindiq (an athesit) and man tamantaqa tata zandaqah, one who indulges in logical discourse, commits zandaqah. The Quran has used Hikmah in the following manner and never in the so-called philosophical sense Dr.Maroof wants us to believe in : “To reach to the truth through reason and knowledge and when it is used attributing to Allah it means to have the knowledge and to bring these to existence in the best way and when attributed to man then to know the existences and act on righteous ways thus when we use hakim for God it has some meaning but when used for man it has different conotations.The Quran has been called Hakim because there are wise sayings in it. When the Hikmah is used in respect of the prophet it means that he is teaching them Hikmah which means the knowledge. Secondly it means the arguments and wisdom behind the commandments of the Quran. Thirdly it means the Qur’anic realities and truths, etc.nasikh and Mansukh and Muhkamat and Mutashabiat” What is more important, in practical terms, is that we refer to the Quran for our terms, for our concepts - as well as for the subjects like Hikmah and al-Ilm in the first case and we may refer to others schools of thought only after we have established the Islamic credentials of these vital Qur’anic terms first. Because by resorting to the terms of Greek philosophy - or modern Western, philosophy while elucidating these subjects is incorrect and fraught with erroneous consequences as these Islamic terms are interdependent on other Islamic subjects and can be understood properly only in their context . Therefore this dangerous trend to seek to interpret, or re-interpret, the Quran, and even the Sunnah, in the backdrop of any alien thought and philosophy like Greek or modern western terminology is not warranted and desirable for the real understanding of the actual massage of the Holy Quran. As the Quran says: The genesis of truth is Allah alone, so do not be among those who do not believe. (3:60) Previously I was fascinated by the great contributions of Muslim philosophers like Ibn Sina Al –Farabi Ibn Rushd and even Al-Ghazzali and I was more interested in Ghazzali as a philosopher rather than as a theologian or mystic .But after delving deep into the realms of Greek ,Muslim and Western Philosophies and realising the inherent inconsistencies ,shortcomings and contradictions of the philosophical speculation ,I got convinced that Islam did not need support from Philosophy or science for that matter as it develops its own logic and rationality for upholding and espousing its doctrines .I could also realise why the deep rooted Islamic Ulama like Ibn Taimiyah Ibn Qa’im Ibn Salah and even Ghazzali were opposing philosophical speculations tooth and nail when it comes to defending Islamic teachings . For example according to Ibn Taimiyah Hikmah means a combination of ilm and amal. Ibn Qutaibah thinks that Hikmah according to Arabs is both knowledge and acting upon it .Not just the Hellenised concept of al Nazari and every nation and community possesses some element of Hikmah in this specific sense. According to a report Malik was asked about Hikmah he said it is knowledge of religion and acting on it accordingly (Marifat al Din wal amal bihi) Dr Maroof writes: “Ibn Taimiyah, the great theologian whom our modern day opponents of philosophy acknowledge as ideological inspiration, wrote a great book on logic and had great knowledge of philosophical tradition. Even the great Ghazali, the author of Tahafatul Falasifah (Destruction of Philosophers) was a philosopher of a sort and refuted certain philosophical opponents on philosophical grounds” This statement of my learned friend is most illogical and not based on truth .Ibn Taimiyah of course wrote a book Al Radd Alal Mantiqiin on logic but that was in refutation of it not to establish its authority .In the same way Ghazzali demolished philosophy by writing this book Tahafut al Falasifah not to accept the views of philosophers but rather discredited them as infidels on three beliefs of them ,i.e,resurection of the souls at the expense of bodies ,God being knowledgeable only about universals at the expense of particulars and eternity of the world as believed by philosophers. He considered philosophers heretical about their other 17 doctrines including their denial of miracles on the basis of their belief in necessity of causation. What is more amazing that Mr Maroof included Hazrat Ali (RA) among the metaphysician while as metaphysics as envisaged by philosophers has been called by Ghazzali the hotbed of atheism. I wonder how Dr Maroof could dare to call a companion of the prophet (SAW) a metaphysician .It is a category mistake to say the least. I think before adventuring to write on such delicate issues, we need to do our home work seriously and at least to ask from the experts if we are still fond of scribing such pieces without the alphabetic knowledge of such subjects .To allow every Tom Dick and Harry to be expert on Islam is not advisable in any case and before publishing such articles, the opinion of the experts of the subject should be sought. Islamic studies is not as orphaned as some people think that anything can be passed on the name of Islam as genuine scholarship !
Posted on: Mon, 31 Mar 2014 13:30:55 +0000
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