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Islamic
Philosophy
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 A
Brief Introduction to Islamic Philosophy by
Oliver Leaman
Description: Although Islamic philosophy represents
one of the most important philosophical traditions in the world, it has
only recently begun to receive the attention it deserves in the
non-Islamic world. This important text provides a concise and accessible
introduction to the major movements, thinkers and concepts within that
tradition, from the foundation of Islam to the present day. Ever since
the growth of Islam as a religious and political movement, Muslim
thinkers have sought to understand the theoretical aspects of their
faith by using philosophical concepts. Leaman outlines this history and
demonstrates that, although the development of Islamic philosophy is
closely linked with Islam itself, its form is not essentially connected
to religion, and its leading ideas and arguments are of general
philosophical significance. The author illustrates the importance of
Islamic thought within philosophy through the use of many modern
examples. He describes and contrasts the three main movements in Islamic
philosophy - Peripatetic, Sufi and Illuminationist - and examines the
Persian as well as the Arabic philosophical traditions.
Comprehensive coverage is given to key aspects of
Islamic philosophy, including epistemology, ontology, politics, ethics
and philosophy of language, providing readers with a full and rounded
view of the discipline. The main markets for this book are in the areas
of philosophy, Islamic studies, Middle Eastern studies, cultural
studies, religious studies and theology. It will be accessible to
second-year undergraduates and upwards and to the lay reader interested
in philosophical and religious issues. Author Description: Oliver Leaman
is Professor of Philosophy at Liverpool John Moores University.
Contents: Preface. Author's Note. Abbreviations. 1. A Short History of
Islamic Philosophy. 2. Main Controversies. 3. Knowledge. 4. Mysticism.
5. Ontology. 6. Ethics. 7. Politics. 8. The Question of Transmission. 9.
Language. References and Bibliography. A Guide to Further Reading.
Index.
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 Philosophical
Instructions: An Introduction to Contemporary Islamic Philosophy
by Ayatullah Muhammad Taqi Misbah Yazdi
This textbook is compiled for the purpose of
introducing the students of the Islamic seminaries in Qom to the
rudiments of Islamic philosophy. It is arranged in the form of seventy
short lessons which cover the breadth of Islamic philosophy, including
discussions of the history of philosophy, epistemology, metaphysics and
philosophical theology. The lectures were originally presented and taped
at the Dar Rah-e Haqq Institute in Qom in 1981 and 1982, the
transcriptions of the tapes were revised and edited by Prof. Misbah and
published in two volumes by the Islamic Propagation Organization in Qom.
The book was not written for an English speaking audience, and for this
very reason it serves that audience as a very good introduction to
Islamic philosophy as it is seen from within the seminaries of Qom. The
author, Ayatullah Misbah Yazdi, is one of the most highly respected
clerics on the Shi'i world, and a revered professor of philosophy. His
Philosophical Instructions is a unique work, not only because of its
survey of the topics of Islamic philosophy, but because the author
self-consciously attempts to defend his considered views from opponents
at home and abroad. So, the work is polemical as well as instructional.
What is defended is a controversial way of looking at Islamic philosophy
as a foundation for religious thought.
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 Islam
and Religious Pluralism by Muhammad Legenhausen
The phenomenon of religious diversity is one of the
questions with which today's religious thought is faced. Muslim thinkers
have tried to deal with this question according to their intellectual
tendencies and positions. Obviously none of the answers proposed is
perfectly right and ultimate, and so ... more ...
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Click
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Click
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The Islamic Interlink project is at present an attempt
to catalog and index Islamic content on the Internet and to make it
easily accessible to all. It is our hope that this will be a useful
resource for Muslims everywhere, as well as a useful tool for anyone
trying to access Islamic materials. Alhamdulillah, the current site is
the product of months of development, and all entries are carefully
reviewed.
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This site, in several languages, offers a wide variety
of information and resources on Islam.
Site Includes:
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Excerpt:
By philosophy we mean here the rational study of the
nature of Existence. The foundation of Islamic philosophy - like the
foundation of Islamic Science - is Allah, the supreme Being. That is,
Islamic philosophy starts from an acceptance of the premise that
Existence, or reality, actually and already exists, external to and
independent from ourselves as human beings, and it names the very Being
of Existence itself as Allah. This may be said to be the first
fundamental principle of Islamic philosophy.
The fundamental quest of Islamic philosophy is
therefore to understand the nature of Allah, our own relation to Allah,
and in general how the nature of all beings relate to the Being which is
named Allah.
The Being which is Allah is the fundamental Being from
which all beings - all things which exist or have existed - derives. We
must understand that Being is independent of our 'minds' and our bodies,
and must be apprehended and understood through its nature, its
essence, and not through the limitation (or appearance, or form) of our
own being...
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Official site of this center founded by Shia scholar Mulla Sadra includes a biography, a thorough introduction to his theories and related links.
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The chapters in this book include:
Introduction: The Social Issue
Part One: The Theory of Knowledge,
Chapter One: The Primary Source of Knowledge
Chapter Two: The Value of Knowledge
Part Two: The Philosophical Notion concerning the World,
Chapter One: Preliminary Notes
Chapter Two: Dialectics or Disputation
Chapter Three: The Principle of Causality
Chapter Four: Matter or God
Chapter Five: Knowledge
You can see a full list of all resources at: http://al-islam.org/index/
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Ibrahim Bayyumi Madkour
translated from Persian by Shahyar Sa'adat Vol. 1, No. 1 (Muharram
1404 AH)
Excerpt
For a long time Islamic philosophy was under a cloud
of doubt and uncertainty. Some people denied its existence while others
affirmed it. This uncertainty continued all through the nineteenth
century. Those who denied the very existence of an Islamic philosophy
feigned ignorance and maintained that the teachings of Islam opposed all
free discussion and investigation, and therefore Islam has never risen
to the aid of philosophy and science throughout the centuries of its
existence. The only fruits Islam has borne for its followes have been
intellectual despotism and dogmatism, they said. Christianity, in
comparison, has been the cradle of free thought and discussion, they
maintained, patronizing art and literature, encouraging the sciences,
and becoming a fertile ground for the germination of new philosophy and
helping it to develop and bear fruit...
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By Macksood A. Aftab, BA
Department of Philosophy
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Excerpt:
Relative to Western philosophy, the field of Islamic
philosophy has remained largely dormant for the past few hundred years.
The rigor of intellectual thought in Islam has been lost and
contemporary Muslim thinkers are faced with the enormous challenge of
re-interpreting and integrating the tremendous intellectual achievements
of the West with that of earlier Islamic thinkers and the Quran (the
Muslim holy book).
This endeavor is of crucial importance to any new Islamic intellectual
renaissance. With the rise of Western science and
philosophy, serious new challenges have been posed to the very
fundamental principles of epistemology, metaphysics, and ethics,
espoused by the classical thinkers of Islam. These issues
need to be addressed, as Muhammad Iqbal, perhaps the first modern Muslim
philosopher to deal with these problems in any comprehensive manner,
writes:
“With the reawakening of Islam, therefore, it is
necessary to examine, in an independent spirit, what Europe has
thought and how far the conclusions reached by her can help us in the
revision and if necessary, reconstruction, of theological thought in
Islam.” (Iqbal 6)
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By R.J. Kilcullen, Copyright
© 1996
Excerpt:
Islam is based on the Koran (a revelation from God to
the prophet Muhammad) supplemented by the sunnah (a set of traditions
about Muhammad's words and deeds). Muslims recognize Judaism and
Christianity as revelations from God (just as Christianity recognizes
Judaism), but hold that the revelation made to Muhammad completes and
supersedes earlier revelations. Muslims reject the Christian doctrines
that Jesus was God and that God is in three persons (Father, Son, Holy
Spirit); they believe that Jesus was a prophet and that God is one...
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Chronicles the life of the 12th century Sufi mystic who made major contributions to philosophy and Islamic mysticism.
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Excerpt:
Abu Ali al-Hussain Ibn Abdallah Ibn Sina was born in
980 C.E. at Afshana near Bukhara. The young Bu Ali received his early
education in Bukhara, and by the age of ten had become well versed in
the study of the Qur'an and various sciences. He started studying
philosophy by reading various Greek, Muslim and other books on this
subject and learnt logic and some other subjects from Abu Abdallah
Natili, a famous philosopher of the time. While still young, he attained
such a degree of expertise in medicine that his renown spread far and
wide. At the age of 17, he was fortunate in curing Nooh Ibn Mansoor, the
King of Bukhhara, of an illness in which all the well-known physicians
had given up hope. On his recovery, the King wished to reward him, but
the young physician only desired permission to use his uniquely stocked
library...
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