Arabic and Islamic Philosophy

Many philosophers of theistic religions claim (1) that there are powerful a posteriori arguments for God’s existence that make it rational to believe that He exists and at the same time maintain (2) that God always has the freedom to do otherwise. In this article, I argue that these two positions are inconsistent because the empirical evidence on which the a posteriori arguments for God’s existence rest can be explained better by positing the existence of a God-like being without the (...) freedom to do otherwise. (shrink)

As the scope of innovative technologies is expanding, their implications and applications are increasingly intersecting with various facets of society, including the deeply rooted traditions of religion. This paper embarks on an exploratory journey to bridge the perceived divide between advancements in technology and faith, aiming to catalyze a dialogue between the religious and scientific communities. The former often views technological progress through a lens of conflict rather than compatibility. By utilizing a technology-centric perspective, we draw metaphorical parallels between the (...) functionalities of new technologies and some theological concepts of Islam. The purpose is not to reinterpret religious concepts but to illustrate how these two domains can coexist harmoniously. This comparative analysis serves as a conversation starter with an intention to mitigate any apprehensions towards technology by highlighting its potential to align with religious concepts. By fostering an environment where technological innovations are seen as tools for enhancement rather than threats to tradition, we contribute to a more inclusive discourse that encourages the religious community to engage with and potentially embrace contemporary technological advancements. (shrink)

This paper aims to explain some economic aspects of sharia by using a widely grasped philosophical approach. The paper presents an Islamic position on business ethics as it is in Qu-ran and in interpretations of sharia elaborated by Islamic thinkers, first of all Indonesian ones. Following results given in selected positions of the literature of the subject the authors come to the following theses and conclusions: Humans must pay attention to few possessions that are basic needs. Humans must avoid prioritizing (...) secondary needs by ignoring basic needs because this is contrary to the maqashid of sharia. Property management must be carried out about a predetermined plan and people who have property should not hoard it. (shrink)

The absence of Islam from recent scholarship on Hegel's account of world religions is puzzling. In the first part of the article, we argue that Hegel's neglect of Islam in his systematic account of religious phenomena is not accidental and that he did not think of Islam as a determinate religion. Its size and believers aside, we suggest that it is not possible to assign any determinacy to Islam as a world-historical phenomenon under Hegel's rubric, because such determinacy that applies (...) to other religions would be in conflict with what Hegel takes to be Islam's emphasis on the negative moment of truth, its revolutionary tendencies, and its lack of any novel conceptual content as a response to Christianity. In the second part of the article, we point out how one could respond to Hegel's characterization of Islam when it is mentioned in relation to other religious traditions. First, we argue that Hegel overemphasizes the significance of Islam qua religion in explaining the history of Muslim peoples. More than that, Hegel does not see that the history of Islamic philosophy and science can be characterized by sublation and that it can be integrated into conceptual developments in the West on these terms. However, our critique of Hegel's Eurocentrism does not remain at this level, for in the third part of the article we argue for the significance of considering the response of Muslim philosophers to Hegel. In particular, we look at the responses by Mohammed al-Khosht and Mahmoud Haider, respectively. We conclude that Hegel's exclusion of Islam from any involvement in the history of the Concept indicates an undialectical commitment on his part and that to this extent being Hegelian today requires that we rectify this oversight. (shrink)

In recent years, preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) of IVF embryos have gained much traction in clinical assisted reproduction for preventing various genetic defects, including Down syndrome. However, such genetic tests inevitably reveal the sex of IVF embryos by identifying the sex (X and Y) chromosomes. In many countries with less stringent IVF regulations, information on the sex of embryos that are tested to be genetically normal is readily shared with patients. This would thus present Muslim patients with unintended opportunities for (...) sex selection based on personal or social biases without any pressing need or valid medical reason. Additionally, there are other patients who claim using PGT for preventing genetic defects as a pretext or “convenient excuse,” with a secret intention to do sex selection when it is banned in their home country. Currently, non-medical sex selection is a highly-controversial and hotly debated issue in Islam, because there is generally a strong preference for having sons over daughters due to widespread cultural norms of elderly parents depending on their sons for financial support, as well as the need for male heirs to continue the family lineage within the backdrop of local patriarchal cultures. There is a risk of gender imbalance and social disequilibrium occurring in Islamic societies due to prevalent sex selection. Hence, the question is whether opportunistic sex selection with PGT would contravene Islamic ethics and principles, which will thus be discussed here. (shrink)

Arabic lanaguage; history and criticism.

Introduction. The article is devoted to the phenomenon of symbiosis of the state apparatus of the Republic of Indonesia and Islam. Theoretical analysis. Throughout its independence from 1949 to the present, the State power and Islamic religious organizations have been in close symbiosis. The article highlights three stages in relation to Islam and the state. Empirical analysis. The first stage was the subordination of Islam to the state apparatus from 1975 to 1997. In 1975, the main coordinating body of Muslims (...) in Indonesia, the Indonesian Ulema Council (ISU), was established. The second stage is the period of struggle for influence in the state during the presidential term of Abdurahman Wahid (1998–2001), who was formerly the leader of the country’s largest Islamic organization Nahdatul Ulama (NU). The third stage of the relationship is a time of symbiosis of the Indonesian state apparatus and Islamic organizations. It began in 2005 after the speech made by the President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on granting autonomy to the Indonesian Ulema Council. Conclusion. The religious and political situation in Indonesia is a unique phenomenon. Despite all the attempts of the democratic government to remove Islam from political and social decisions, it failed. (shrink)

This is the first study to compare the philosophical systems of secular scientific philosopher Mario Bunge (1919-2020), and Moroccan Islamic philosopher Taha Abd al-Rahman (b.1945). In their efforts to establish the philosophical underpinnings of an ideal modernity these two great thinkers speak to the same elements of the human condition, despite their opposing secular and religious worldviews. While the differences between Bunge’s critical-realist epistemology and materialist ontology on the one hand, and Taha’s spiritualist ontology and revelational-mystical epistemology on the other, (...) are fundamental, there is remarkable common ground between their scientific and Islamic versions of humanism. Both call for an ethics of prosperity combined with social justice, and both criticize postmodernism and religious conservatism. The aspiration of this book is to serve as a model for future dialogue between holders of Western and Islamic worldviews, in mutual pursuit of modernity’s best-case scenario. (shrink)

Kitāb al-Mabādiʼ wa-al-ghāyāt fi-̄mā tataḍammanah ḥurūf al-muʻjam min al-ʻajāʼib al-āyāt -- Kitāb Mīm wa-al-wāw wa-al-nūn -- Kitāb al-Alif, wa-huwa kitāb al-aḥadīyah -- Kitāb al-bāʼ, wa-huwa Kitāb al-ḥaqāʼiq al-ilahīyah -- Risālat al-ḥarf wa-al-maʻná, wa-huwa tafhīm maʻānī al-ḥurūf -- Kitāb al-yāʼ, wa-huwa Kitāb al-hūw -- Risālat al-kalām fi ̄ḥurūf al-muʻjam wa-maʻānīhā -- Risālat al-ʻiqd al-manẓūm fī khawāṣṣ al-ḥurūf.

Dialogues for the Future provides a sneak peek at the long philosophic journey of the renowned Arab scholar Taha Abderrahmane. The author looks at different thorny issues such as traditions, philosophy, ethics, globalization, and logic through a local prism that is not directedly tainted by the Western epistemic and ontological worldview. While seemingly addressing audiences with a background in the philosophy of language and Islamic philosophy, Taha's intellectual project tackles many questions that wider readerships might have about the Muslims' and (...) Arabs' contribution to knowledge in the past and present. The translator's introduction "on Dialogue, Ethics and Traditions" contextualizes Taha's book within the plethora of his academic work, allowing English-speaking readers to engage with the open canvas of dialogue Taha has resiliently initiated. (shrink)

Unveils the profound influence of medieval Islamic philosophy on the thought of Leo Strauss.

al-Mujallad al-awwal. Muqaddimāt al-taḥqīq wa-muqaddimat al-Imām al-Zubaydī lil-Itḥāf -- al-mujallad al-thānī. Kitāb al-ʻIlm ilá nihāyat al-bāb al-thālith -- al-mujallad al-thālith. Tatimmat kitāb al-ʻilm min al-bāb al-rābiʻ ilá ākhir al-kitāb -- al-mujallad al-rābiʻ. Kitāb Qawāʻid al-ʻaqāʼid -- al-mujallad al-khāmis. Kitāb Asrār al-ṭahārah -- al-mujallad al-sādis. Kitāb Asrār al-ṣalāh ilá nihāyat shurūṭ al-jumʻah min al-bāb al-khāmis -- al-mujallad al-sābiʻ. Tatimmat kitāb asrār al-ṣalāh min ādāb al-jumʻah ilá ākhir al-kitāb -- al-mujallad al-thāmin. Kitābā Asrār al-zakāh wa-asrār al-ṣawm -- al-mujallad al- tāsiʻ. Kitāb asrār (...) al-ḥajj -- al-mujallad al-ʻāshir. Kitābā ādāb tilāwat al-Qurʼān wa-al-adhkār wa-al-daʻawāt -- al-mujallad al-ḥādī ʻashar. Kitābā tartīb al-awrād wa-tafḍīl iḥyāʼ al-layl wa-ādāb al-akl -- al-mujalladal-thānī ʻashar. Kitābā ādāb al-Nikāḥ wa-ādāb al-Kasb wa-al-maʻāsh -- al-mujallad al-thālith ʻashar. Kitāb al-Ḥalāl wa-al-ḥarām -- al-mujallad al-rābiʻ ʻashar. Kitāb al-Ulfah wa-al-ukhuwwah -- al-mujallad al-khāmis ʻashar. Kitābā ādāb al-ʻUzlah wa-ādāb al-Safar -- al-mujallad al-sādis ʻashar. Kitābā ādāb al-Samāʻ wa-al-wajd wa-al-Amr bi-al-maʻrūf wa-al-nahy ʻan al-munkar -- al-mujallad al-sābiʻ ʻashar. Kitābā ādāb al-maʻīshah wa-akhlāq al-nubūwah wa-sharḥ ʻajāʼib al-qalb -- al-mujallad al-thāmin ʻashar. Kitābā riyāḍat al-nafs wa-tahdhīb al-akhlāq wa-kasr al-shahwatayn -- al-mujallad al-tāsiʻ ʻashar. Kitābā āfāt al-lisān wa-dhamm al-ghaḍab -- al-mujallad al-ʻishrūn. Kitābā dhamm al-dunyā wa-dhamm al-bukhl -- al-mujallad al-ḥādī wa-al-ʻishrūn. Kitābā dhamm al-jāh wa-dhamm al-kibr wa-al-ʻajab -- al-mujallad al-thānī wa-al-ʻishrūn. Kitābā dhamm al-ghurūr wa-al-tawbah -- al-mujallad al-thālith wa-al-ʻishrūn. Kitābā al-ṣabr wa-al-shukr -- al-mujallad al-rābiʻ wa-al-ʻishrūn. Kitābā al-rajā wa-al-khawf -- al-mujallad al-khāmis wa-al-ʻishrūn. Kitāb al-zuhd wa-al-faqr -- al-mujallad al-sādis wa-al-ʻishrūn. Kitāb al-tawḥīd wa al-tawakkul -- al-mujallad al-sābiʻ wa-al-ʻishrūn. Kitāb al-maḥabbah wa-al-shawq wa-al-uns wa-al-riḍā -- al-mujallad al-thāmin wa-al-ʻishrūn. Kutub al-ikhlāṣ wa-al-nīyah wa-al-murāqabah wa-al-muḥāsabah wa-al-tafakkur -- al-mujallad al- tāsiʻ wa-al-ʻishrūn. Kitāb dhikr al-mawt wa-mā baʻdih ilá nihāyat al-bāb al-thāmin -- al-mujallad al-thalāthūn. Kitāb dhikr al-mawt wa-mā baʻdih ilá ākhar al-kitāb wa-yalīhi maṣādir al-taḥqīq. (shrink)

In Being Another Way, Dustin Klinger recounts the history of how medieval Arabic philosophers in the Islamic East grappled with the logical role of the copula 'to be,' an ambiguity that has bedeviled Western philosophy from Parmenides to the analytic philosophers of today. Working from within a language that has no copula, a group of increasingly independent Arabic philosophers began to critically investigate the semantic role that Aristotle, for many centuries their philosophical authority, invested in the copula as the basis (...) of his logic. Drawing on extensive manuscript research, Klinger breaks through the thicket of unstudied philosophical works to demonstrate the creativity of postclassical Islamic scholarship as it explored the consequences of its intellectual break with the past. Against the still widespread view that intellectual ferment all but disappeared during the period, Klinger shows how these intellectuals over the centuries developed and refined a sophisticated philosophy of language that speaks to core concerns of contemporary linguistics and philosophy. (shrink)

This handbook provides a comprehensive overview of Islamic ethical issues within a wide spectrum of philosophy of science topics, examining the development of the model of moral inclusiveness in economics, science and society from ontological, epistemological and analytical perspectives. This paradigm takes the view that ethics is systemically endogenous, and can be studied by the most rigorous scientific analysis pertaining to diverse issues and problems of ethicality in socio-scientific inquiry. This handbook takes a sweeping transdisciplinary approach that is deeply phenomenological, (...) to the nature and logic of scientific inquiry of, and in, the Qur’an. Such an approach invokes the episteme of the unity of knowledge in the socio-scientific systemic sense. The volumes' respective sections focus on the nature, logic, and role that ethics plays in formulating new vistas of alternative epistemic futures in Islamic economics, finance, and the social sciences. The ideas presented are situated within the broader context of the post-modernist, post-pandemic, and the post-Covid-19 epoch, while being aimed at conceptualising a distinctive new outlook of transdisciplinary intellection in Islamic philosophy. The content is rigorously conceptual, qualitative, quantitative, and applied. Covering a diversity of subject areas from philosophy of science, to economics and in socio-scientific context within the realm of Islamic philosophy, this forms a key text for scholars in these respective arenas, led by pioneering scholarship in Islamic studies. (shrink)

Consciousness is one of the most vital states of human existence. One of its roles is to explain the context of life in the uncertainty of life itself. The most influential aspect of this means is the human fundamental religious state. This paper aimed to find clarity of humans’ consciousness and religious well-being relation and to obtain an existential ground for a progressive scheme for both subjects as well. This research will use a philosophicalhermeneutic approach with existential uncertainty as to (...) its material object and Sufistic consciousness as the formal object. This research showed that human religious well-being can be used as Sufistic consciousness ground to adjust human existential dilemma. The scheme used is to determine the position of each divine theophany (tajalliy) element on its impact on the level of human psychological consciousness. Al-a'yan ats-tsabitah has taken a leading role in this research, especially in explaining the impossible and possible things for the human condition. (shrink)

Prof. Dr. Mustafa Demirci's monograph "Black Rage: The Rebellion of Negro Slaves in the Medieval Islamic World (869-883)" on the 'Zanj rebellion' that took place between 869-883 A.D., during the Abbasid period, and was led by the Ali b. Muhammad, is one of the most important studies both in terms of its subject matter and the author's approach and perspective on the subject. The study, which was prepared with a rich academic literature using basic sources and modern research on the (...) subject, deals with issues such as the geography of the event, the causes and spread of the rebellion, the wars and warfare techniques to suppress the rebellion, the short and long-term effects of the damage left behind by the rebellion from an academic perspective in chronological order. The Zanj revolt started in the marshes of Basra in 869 as a result of Ali b. Muhammad (d. 883), who was originally white and claimed to be a descendant of Ali, organizing black slaves working under difficult conditions in the large farms in and around Basra, and the rebellion grew and spread in a short time. Muwaffak Billāh (843-891), the brother of the Abbasid Caliph Mu’temid Alallâh (843-892), who was assigned to suppress the revolt, was victorious against the rebels after tough struggles, and the revolt ended with the killing of the leader of the rebellion, Ali b. Muhammad, in 883. (shrink)

Tarix boyu insanlar bir birləri ilə ünsiyyət qurmaq üçün müxtəlif vasitələrdən istifadə etmişdir. Bu ünsiyyət vasitələri təsrif olunarkən dörd kateqoriyaya bölünür. Sözlü, sözsüz, yazılı və şəkli ünsiyyət vasitələri. İnsanlar duyğularını, hiss və həyəcanlarını bu vasitələrlə qarşısındakılara çatdırırlar. Sözlü vasitə zamanı insanlar dil vasitəsilə ünsiyyət qurur. Sözlü vasitə daim yenilənməyə, inkişaf etməyə məruz qalan, canlı bir ünsiyyət növüdür. Zaman keçdikçə yeni sözlərin yaranması, ünsiyyət qurmaq üçün insanların artıq bir birinə daha yaxın olması (sosial şəbəkələrin varlığı) müasir dövrümüzdə yeni dilləri öyrənməyə maraq (...) yaradır. Yeni dillərə maraq yaranarkən, sözlü vasitə ilə yazılı vasitə, demək olar ki, paralel inkişaf edir. Özünü ifadə, natiqliq, ritorika haqqında təlimlərdə iştirakçılara verilən məsləhətlərdən birincisi bu mövzuda (danışdığı dildə xitab mövzusunda) təhsil almaq olursa, ikincisi mütləq və mütləq sosial olmaq olur, yəni öyrəndiyi, xitab etdiyi, fikrini çatdırdığı dilə məruz qalıb, qarşılıqlı söhbətləri daimi hala çevirmək. Çünki dil həm canlı həm də passiv olma xüsusiyyəti daşıyır. (shrink)

The phenomenon of “Muslim Democracy” has been analyzed by scholars for a number of years, at least since the mid-1990s. The standard view about Muslim Democracy is that (perhaps like its European counterpart Christian Democracy) it represents a nonideological, or postideological, pragmatic approach to electoral politics. The purpose of this article is to advance two primary arguments. The first is that the turn to Muslim Democracy as an ideology and practice should first be understood as a way of thinking about (...) politics that breaks with the sovereigntist imaginary that dominated modern Islamic political thought. Second, Muslim Democrats do not forswear the use of democratic means to advance goals derived from religious commitment as part of their recognition of pluralism and constitutional democracy. Their attitude toward politics should thus be seen as a form of agonistic pluralism. This article thus proposes an interpretation of Muslim Democracy as post-sovereigntist agonistic political Islam. (shrink)

The one of goals that religious provisions aim to achieve is the preservation of the generation. For this reason, Islam recommends marriage and prohibits all illegitimate relationships outside of marriage. He also ordered the parties to respect each other's rights and fulfill their responsibilities in order to maintain the marriage union. He requested that all attitudes and behaviors that would disrupt the marriage union be avoided. How ever, from time to time, a word said or a behavior exhibited by one (...) or both spouses shakes the marriage union and even leads to its end. Situations that can be described as severe disagreements that occur between spouses and make the continuation of the marital union almost impossible are expressed with the concept of “shiqàq” in fiqh. Failure of the parties to observe marriage law in domestic relations is one of the main reasons that lead to “shiqàq”. Although the reasons for the “shiqàq” that leads the spouses to discord are not explained in the relevant verse, it is recommended that in case of “shiqàq”, the institution of arbitration should be applied and the arbitrators should first reconcile the relationship between the spouses and prevent the breakdown of the marital union. On the other hand, it is controversial among the sects whether arbitrators have the authority to terminate a marriage union that they do not find beneficial to continue. While the fuqaha, who argue that arbitrators are in the position of attorneys, say that referees cannot separate the spouses without the consent of the spouses, those who say that arbitrators are in the power of judges are of the opinion that arbitrators have the authority to separate husband and wife regardless of the consent of the spouses. In addition, in case of “shiqàq”, the man can directly divorce his wife, and the woman can request the judicial authorities to separate from her husband. In this study, which deals with the issue of “shiqàq” in the context of family law, first of all, the meaning of “shiqàq”, the issues that cause this situation and the legal consequences attached to this concept will be revealed. (shrink)

Ash’arism, which emerged in the first quarter of the fourth century of Hijra, is a theological sect that has been accepted by the majority of hadith scholars throughout Islamic history. This fact, which has important consequences for the history of hadith, raises the question of the extent to which the hadith scholars belonging to the Ash’arite sect were interested in theology. This is because theology, which is considered an heretical innovation according to the traditional understanding of Ahl al-hadīth, was severely (...) criticised by hadith scholars representing Salafī thought and positioned as the opposite pole of hadith. Accordingly, Ash’arism could not escape from being the target of the anti-theological Ahl al-hadīth. However, this did not prevent the adoption of the Ash’arite sect by hadith scholars and the emergence of a group of Ash’arite hadith scholars who engaged in theology. Thus, from the fourth century of Hijra, Ash’arite theology, like other Islamic sciences, became a natural part of education and teaching activities. Andalusia and the Maghrib, one of the regions where the Ash’arite sect was widespread, provide a favourable ground for determining the place of theology in the scholarly life of the hadith scholars. The famous hadith scholars who lived in this region in the fifth and sixth centuries of Hijra are analysed in this study in terms of their affiliation with Ash’arism and their interest in the science of kalām. By analysing the education and training lives of the hadith scholars subject to the research, the details that highlight their Ash’arite identities were determined. Issues such as how the Ash’arite tradition was inherited by hadith scholars in the Western Islamic region, what roles hadith scholars played in the spread of the Ash’arite sect in this region, which books were most widely used by hadith scholars in the study of kalām, and which methods were used to read and transmit theological texts are clarified within the framework of available data. As a result, it was revealed that in the Western Islamic world of the fifth and sixth centuries of Hijra, the science of kalām was in great demand among the Ash’arite hadith scholars and that important texts of Ash’arite theology remained in circulation among hadith scholars through reading and transmission. (shrink)

El presente artículo es un estudio sobre las diferenciaciones (aqsām) del amor, uno de los puntos más importantes del principal escrito que Ibn ʿArabī dedicó a la cuestión amorosa, el capítulo 178 de Las Iluminaciones de La Meca (al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya). A través de un juego de oscilación y equilibrio entre perspectivas ontológicas y epistemológicas aparentemente enfrentadas –incomparabilidad/similaridad, oculto/manifiesto, unidad/multiplicidad, espíritu/cuerpo– y un recurrente manejo del lenguaje de las alusiones (išāra), el maestro andalusí distingue entre amor divino (ilāhī), espiritual (rūḥānī), natural (...) (ṭabī‘ī) y elemental (ʿunṣurī). Se ofrece un análisis y comentario del texto akbarí que pretende aclarar la especificidad de cada una de estas nociones, así como su íntima relación con el discurso amoroso del autor. (shrink)

The paper seeks to show that the period between the years 756 and 1031, a period officially recognized as the domination of the Umayyad dynasty in the Iberian Peninsula, saw the emergence of the most important movement for the recovery of classical Greek works known, and offered the foundations for the second Renaissance, the Italian. It also shows that translation is a process that can fundamentally alter original works, as they depend on the translator's interpretation, as well as the existence (...) of equivalent words and concepts in the language to be translated. Both problems were identified in the recovery of classical Greek works by the Toledo School of Translators. The result was that Italian Renaissance was, in fact based on what had been made available by the Toledo School of Translators, which confirms the thesis that the first Renaissance was the Islamic one and that the Italian Renaissance was a later movement. (shrink)