Friday, July 3, 2020

ISLAMIC PHILOSOPHY BY NASR PART V/Islamic Philosophy in Maghreb.

Continued from Part IV






Islamic Philosophy in Maghreb.

Ibn Masarrah of 4th hijri, founder of school of Almeria, he was a mystic and a scholar. He was influenced by Empedocles Anbaduqis, who was thought of as a prophet like figure by many Islamic philosophers. Mararrah formulated a cosmology based on his. Its effects can be seen later in Ibn Arabi.

His pseudo-Empedocles cosmology is based on hierarchal emanations of five substances. The first is Materia prima which is different from Aristotelian concept. Here it means Intelligible Matter and is the first emanation of Divine, while Divine Principle itself is above the schema much like Ismailis Originator Al Mubdi. It is followed by Intellect, Soul, Matter and materia secunda. He also interpreted Empedocles concept of Love and Fear as Love and Qahr, (dominion or victory)

 

Ibn Hazm 5th Hijri, of Cordoba. He was a Zahiri, a sharp critic of Asharite and wrote the first book on comparative religion. (Al Biruni is another one in this category). In addition to being a jurist, moralist, historian, theologian and philosopher, he was a poet. He wrote a book on Platonic love, Tawq al Hamama (Ring of the Dove). It makes him one of the erotic poets fedeli d’amore like Sufis despite certain difference in perspective.

 

Abu Bakr ibn Bajja (Latin Avempace) 6th hijri. Had influence on many including Ibn Rushd.  Hailing from Northern Spain eventually moved to Fez, became a vizier, imprisoned and died. He was a physician, scientist and a philosopher. His works remain incomplete but by the level he was quoted by later sources, it seems that he had a significant impact on development of anti-Ptolemaic astronomy and cosmology and critique of Aristotelian theory of projectile motion.

In philosophy he was drawn on teachings of Al Farabi. His tadbir al mutawahhid, Regimen of Solitary, is one of the most significant works of Islamic philosophy in Maghreb. He speaks of a perfect state created not by external circumstances but by inner transformation of whose who become inwardly united with the Active Intellect, aqlal fa’al.  He opposed Ghazali’s  mysticism and proposed a detached and intellectual form of mystical contemplation.  It still remains within the family of Sufi gnostic. Unfortunately, this work remained incomplete.

 

Abu Bakr ibn Tufayl (Latin Abubacer) of Cadiz.  Also, of 6th Hijri. He was also a scientist, physician and a philosopher and attracted to Ibn Sina. His major opus is Hayy ibn Yaqzan, (Living Son of the Awake) which is considered as the source of inspiration for the Robinson Crusoe story. This title is also borrowed from Sina. It is story of philosophical romance. Here Hayy, the protagonist is the hero of the story and not the Active Intellect.  He mysteriously comes to being from the matter and made spiritually active by the Active Intellect. He is raised by a gazelle as a result of sympathy, goodness in all living beings. Growing up he attains knowledge of physical, spiritual and material world and finally the Divine Principle. At that time, he is joined by Absal from neighboring Island, where he has been instructed in religion and theology. Absal realizes, after learning Hays, language, that whatever he has learnt, Hayy has known it in its purest form. Together they try to educate the people of Absal’s island but few understand. This relationship between philosophy as the inner dimension of truth expounded by the revealed religion is the message of Abubacer, but many have claimed it is a treatise on naturalism denying revelation.

 

Abul Walid Ibn Rushd (Latin Averroes) of Cordoba. 6th Hijri. Most celebrated of Muslim philosophers of Spain.

Although hailed in the West as a free thinker and author of double truth theory (religion and philosophy, as separate sources of knowledge may reach contradictory truths, without detriment to each other), he was a pious person and a religious functionary who tried to harmonize faith and reason. His influence was greater in the West than the East, where later destiny of philosophy was more associated with Sina than his.

He has two distinct destinies. In the West he, as Dante said, was the Great Commentator. It was through his eyes the West sees Aristotle. By mistake, as per Nasr, West know him as the author of Double Truth Theory. He became an inspiration of politicized Averrosim and a symbol of rationalism opposed to religious faith. His work has not survived in Arabic, but in Hebrew and Latin.

In the Muslim world, he has a different destiny. He is considered to have the main aim of harmonizing religion and philosophy. His real thesis was not Double Theory but to explain that there are Not two contradictory truths. But the single truth that is presented by religion, through Tawail, results in philosophical knowledge.

Religion is for everyone but philosophy is only for those who possess necessary intellectual facilities. Yet, one truth is not contradictory from the other.

His major work is the refutation of Ghazali’s Incoherence of the Philosophers, tahafut al faslifah.  Ibn Rush wrote Incoherence of the Incoherence. Tahafat ul tahafat.  Rushd revived Aristotle and opposed many of Sina’s theories. He was opposed to Sina’s theory fo emanation and emphasis on the soul of the spheres.

He banished angels from the cosmos thus helping the secularization of cosmos, preparing the ground for the rise of pure secularized knowledge of the natural order, as we know now scientifically.

With Rushd’s demise, his influence waned, and in the Islamic world, the influence of Sina persisted and prevailed in the form of Ishraqi philosophy which was pointed by Sina as the Orientation of Light.

 

Ibn Sabin of Murcia.7th Hiji. He later spent much of his life in Egypt and North Africa, and later moved to Mecca and died there in mysterious circumstances. He wedded philosophy with Sufism and was the first to use the term wahdat ul wajood, Oneness of Being. He had extensive knowledge of other religions including Hinduism. He had esoteric knowledge in the science of Numbers. With Kabbalistic sentences. His most influential work in the West is the Yemeni Answers to Sicilian Questions. Which he wrote down in response to Emperor Frederick II questions.

 

Ibn Khaldun of Tunis. 8th Hijri. Considered as the founder of the Philosophy of History in East and in the West. His kitab ul Ibar, The Book about Events which Constitute a Lesson) and its Prolegomena, Muqadimmah laid the ground work for this discipline. He introduced the term Mashiyyat Allah to explain the Islamic understanding of the rhythms of sacred history and providence of god.

He criticized Ghazali and Farabi.


Continued_____

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