What Is ""?

Do I contradict mYself? Very well, then, I contradict myself. (I am large, I contain multitudes). -Walt Whitmanl

Sour yrens eco, I attended a dinner at Princeton University where I wit- nessed a revealing exchange between an eminent European philosopher who was visiting from Cambridge, and a Muslim scholar who was seated next to him. The Muslim colleague was indulging in a glass of wine. Evi- dently troubled by this, the distinguished don eventually asked his dining companion if he might be so bold as to venture a personal question. "Do you consider yourself a Muslim?" "Yes," came the reply. "How come, then, you are drinking wine?" The Muslim colleague smiled gently. "My family have been for a thousand years," he said, "during which time we have alwaysbeen drinking wine." An expression of distress appeared on the learned logician's pale countenance, prompting the further clarification: "You see, we are Muslím wine-drinkers." The questioner looked bewildered. "I don't understand," he said. "Yes, I know," replied his native informant, "but I do."

cfi$¡ci*¿þi* some non-Muslim friends of mine spent a long afternoon at the magnificent "New Galleries of the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia" at the Metropolitan Musuem in New york City. They gushed at the dazzling richness and variety ofthe artifacts on display, and expressed the hope that, after seeing first-hand that Muslims were capable of such ex- quisite expressions of beauty, Americans and others would emerge better disposed towards Islam. "But there is just one thing I didn't understand,,, one

Whitman, "Song of Myself," Leares of Grass, New york: Modern Librar¡ 1993 (being .,tne :.y"t, Death-bed Edition ' of r89z), rr3. 4 . What Is Islam?

of them, an executive at tine New York Times, said to me. "If it's not an inap- CHAPTER T propriate question: what did these objects actually mean to the people in the societies where they originate? What is this art actually about? What does it Six Questions about Islam have to do with Islam?"

èå+è&.&*4+Xå Islãm, submission, total surrender (to ) masdar [verbal noun] of the IVth form of the root S L M.The "one who sub- ,{n Arab friend of mine tells the story of her engagement to her South Asian mits to God" is the Muslim. future husband. The prospective fathers-in-laq who had never met, had to -Encyclopaedia of IsIøm1 speak to each other by means of an international telephone call to formalize the matter. Neither spoke the other's native language, both spoke some En- glish-but not especially well-and neither was familiar with the other's cul- ture. The Arab gentleman was a self-declared agnostic, while the south Asian After their Prophet, the people disagreed about many things; practiced a semi-observant sort oftraditional piety ofthe variety I once heard some of them led others astray, while some dis$ociated them- "He characteúzed by the expression says his prayers just often enough to selves from others.Thus, they became distinct groups and dis- keep his wife happy!" Needless to say, given this state of mutual foreignness, parate parties-except that Islam gathers them together and my friend was more than a little apprehensive as to how the conversation encompasses them all. would unfold. "what happened?" she asked her father as soon as it was over, "Did -Abù al-$asan al-Ash'a17 (874-y6 A.D.)' you understand each other?" "of course we understood each other," he replied, "We are both Muslims."

I a¡n snn¡

¡ L. Gardet, "Islam i. Definition and Theories of Meaning," in Ë. van Donzel, B. Lewis, and Ch. Pellat (editors), Encylopaedia of Islam (New Edition), Volume IV, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1978, t7t-t74, al ryL. 'z ikhtalafa al-nas ba'da nabiyyi-him fi ashya' kathlrah dallala ba'du-hum ba'dan wa barraa ba'du-hum'an ba'Qin fa-çaru firaqan mutabayyinln wa ahzaban mutashattitln iIIa anna al-islam yajma'u-hum wa yashtamil 'alay-hìm; Abú al-Hasan 'Ali b. Ismá'il al-Ash'ari, Maqalat al- islamiyyln wa ikhtilaf al-musallln (edihedby Mubyi al-Din 'Abd al-Hamid), Beirut: al-Maktabah al-'Asriyyah, 7ggs, 34. . about Islam 7 6 Chapter 1 Six Questions .'

and thus of the human experience at large.3 If I hold sects and the variations in practice from region to region?"s out a salvific prospect, ers the various it is the altogether more study of religion, Wil- modest but, perhaps, no less elusive one, of analyti- órr. of tn. most important figures in the comparative cal clarity. observed: " 'Islam' could perhaps fairly readily be under- fred Cantwell Smith, This book stems from a certain dissatisfaction existed in such abundant actuality, at differing times with the prevailing con- stood if only it had not ceptualizations of "Islam" as object, "Islam" and hearts of differing persons, in the and of as categor¡ which, in my and in differing areas, in the minds vieq critically evolving of different impair our ability to recognize central and crucial aspects of and forms of differing societies, in the the historical reality of the very object-phenomenon "Islam" scale and nature of the phenomenon of ttariety in that our concep- stages."é In considering the tualizations seek to denote, "any religion"), it is well to bear in mind but fall short ofso doing.a By "conceptualizationj' Islam (in comparison to that of other I mean a general "object" "Islamic as history"T Mar- idea by which the Isram may be identified and clas- that, as the pioneer of the study of history sified, such that "Islam" "Islam among the religious tradi- the connection to of a[ those things purportedly shall G. s. Hodgson pointed out, is unique encompassed is also helpful to by, consequent upon or otherwise related to the concept-what tions for the diversity of peoples that have embraced itl'8 It is to "civilization" has be expressed by the word "Islamic"-may coherently be known, charac- bear in mind that, as a leading scholar of the concept of terized and times, Islam was valorized. Any act ofconceptualizing any object is necessarily an noted, "among the major civilizational of premodern attempt to identify a general theory or rule to which all phenomena affiliated no doubt the most emphatically multi-societal."e As one political scientist with that object somehow cohere as a category for meaningful analysis- computed, "There are at least three hundred ethnic groups in the world today whether we locate that general rule in idea, practice, substance, relation, or whose populations are wholly or partly Muslim."1o It is thus not surprising process. A meaningful conceptualization of "Islam" as theoretical object and that, already in rg55, in a volume entitled LJnity and variety ín Muslim civili- analytícal category must come to terms with-indeed,be coherentwith-the zation comprising essays authored by the orientalist luminaries of the age, capaciousness, complexity, and, often, outright contradiction that obtains Gustave E. von Grunebaum posited "The Problem: unity in Diversityi' asking, .,what within the historical phenomenon that has proceeded from the human en- does, say, a North African Muslim have in common with a Muslim gagement with the idea and reality of Divine communication very question that the acclaimed anthropologist clifford to M 'hammad, from Java?"ll-the the Messenger of God. It is precisely this correspondence and coherence be- Geertzwould in 1968 address in his /s/am Observed: Religious Dewlopment in tween Islam as theoretical object or analytical category and Islam as real his- anillndonesia.l2 Twenty-five years later, in a study entitled Islam and toricøl phenomenon that is considerably and crucially lacking in the prevalent the Heroic Image: Themes in and the Visual Arts,John Renard set out conceptualizations of the term "Islam/Islamicj' It is just such a coherent con- by underlining that "One must ask . . . in what sense one can apply the term ceptualization of Islam that I aim to put forward in this book. The greatest challenge to a coherent conceptuarization oflslam has been s W. Montgomery WaIL What Is Islam? London: Longman, ry68' 152-153' 6 End of Religion, San Francisco: Harper and Row, posed by the sheer diversity of-that is, range of differences between-those Wilfred Cantwell Smifh, The Meaning and r962, and Minneapolis: Fortress Press, r99r, r45. societies, persons, ideas and practices that identify themselves with "Islamj' ? The phrase is that of Edmund Burke III, "Islamic History as World History: Marshall G. S. This S. analytical dilemma has regularly been presented in terms of how, when Hodgson and the The Venture of Islam," published as a "Conclusion" to Marshall G. Hodgson, on Europe, Islam, and World History, Cambidge: Cambridge conceptualizing Islam, to reconcile the relationship between "universal', and Rethinking World History: Essays "local," University Press, 7993, 3o7-328. between "unity" and "diversity." Thus, the archdeacon of Islamic stud_ s Marshall G. S. Hodgson, Tlre Venture of Islam: Conscíence and History in a World Civilization, ies in the post-world war II united Kingdom, w. Montgomery w'att, asked Chicago: University of Chicago Pless, 1974, r:75. in a 1968 n "Civilizational Patterns and Civilizing Processes," Internøtional Sociol- work entitled, like the present one, what is Islam?: "In what sense ¡ãhann P. Arnason, can Islam ogy ú (zool 387-4o5, aT 395. or any other religion be said to remain a unity . . . when one consid- 10 sharon siddique, "conceptualizing contemporary Islam: Religion or Ideology?" Annual Reúew of the Social ofReligion 5 (tg9r) zog-223, aT zo8' straightforwardiy: "The tt Gustave E. von Grunebaum .-__.3 theoretical question'what is Islam?'and the theologicar question G. E. von Grunebaum, "The Problem: unity in Diversity," in 'what is Islam?' 1995, are not the same," nonalã A. Lukens-Bull, "Between Text and practice: consid- (ediÌor), unity and Variety in Muslim Ci¡tilization, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, erationsintheAnthropologicarstudyoflslam," MarburgJournarofRerigion4.z(7ggg)r-2r,aï.t7. t7-37, at ß. t.s"y":.ul ofthese New conceptualizations oflslam huu"-b""r, convenientry coirected in Andrew u ciifford Geertz, Islam obserted: Relígíous Detelopment in Morocco and Indonesia, Rippin-. (editor), Defning Islam (A Reader),London: Equinox, zoo7. Haven: Yale University Press, 1968. 8 . Chapter 1 Six Questions aboutlslam ' 9

'Islam' and its adjectival form 'Islamic' to cultures not yet been met successfully- so diverse as those of Mo- That this challenge has, unfortunatel¡ rocco and Malaysia?"13 while as recently as 2a72, the Pew Research thè existing conceptualizations and uses of "Islam/Is- Forum of which is to say that Religion and Public Life financed and published a massive globar survey en- a coherent object ofmeaning (or an object ofcoherent lamic', do notexpress titled The world's Muslims: unity and Diversity reflected in the fact that analysts, be they historians, that sought to determine meaning)-is readily "what beliefs and practices unite these diverse scholars ofart or religion, are often frankly peoples into a single religious anthropologists, sociologists, or community, or ummah? And how do their they use the terms "Islam/Islamic"-or religious convictions and obser- unsure of what they mean when vances vary?"| terms at all. As Ira M. Lapidus, the au- whether, indeed, they should use the The scholarly literature produced once said, "We write Islamic in sundry disciprines over the past half- thor of a panoramic History of Islamic Societies,le century is rife with statements Chase F. Robin- such as that of a representative art historian history but we cannot easily say what it is."20 More recently, who wrote recently: "Academics and practitioners Islamic Historíography,2l la- at the beginning of the son, the author of a state-of-the-art monograph, twenty-first century remain recoiling at at a loss to deflne with any clarity, let alone mented: "surely I am not the only Islamic historian who, though unity, what un- may be the best strategies for understanding the multiple phe- the use of 'essentializing' definitions, practices his craft without a clear nomena that may gathered be under the aegis of an and its his- derstanding why the history made by Muslims is conventionally described in tory"t: and that ofa representative anthropologist who expressed a problem religious terms ('Islamic') while that of non-Muslims is described in political especially "The 'sasanian')."22 issue vexatious to his tribe: main challenge for the study of Islam is ones ('late Roman,' 'Byzantine,' Robinson's solution is to to describe how its universalistic or abstract principles have been realized in confront various social and historical contexts without representing Islam as a seam- rary Arab Studies' Georgetown University, 1986,5. Without doubt, anthropologists who local field are pariicularly challenged by this question: "Vy'e must less essence on the one hand or as a plastic congeries ofbeliefs and practices the vagaries of Muslims in the find some other way to deal with diversity in Islam . . . If we are to understand Islam as a some- on the other."1ó As another put it, "The problem for anthropologists is to find how connected discursive tradition and not a myriad of discursive local traditions, we need to a "Between framework in which to analyze the relationship between this single, global understand what links various local '' iogether," Lukens-Bull, Text and Practicei' for Muslims than for followers of any entity, Islam, and the multiple entities that are the religious beliefs and prac- at 7, and r4; "Locality arguably looms larger as an issue other religion . . . Muslims' dual pull-toward practical and doctrinal universalism, toward the tices of Muslims in specific communities at specific moments in history . . . to historical particulars of an Arabian revelation-leads to two complementary ty¡res of practice: reconcile, analytically rather than theologicall¡ the one universal Islam with struggles to define the universal qualities of the 'religious,' and efforts to develop distinct identi- "What 'Uni- the multiplicity of religious ideas and practices in the Muslim world."l7 In ties, lãcal by definition, with respect to these universal qualities," John R. Bowen, is and 'Local' in Islam?" Ethos z6 (tg98) 258-26r, at 258; "if Islam is a unitary phenomenon, sum: "Anyone working on the of Islam will be aware that there versal' one deal with the obvious diversity and complexity within and between Muslim soci- is considerable diversity how does in the beliefs and practices of Muslims. The first eties?" Benjamin soares, "Notes on the Anthropological study ofIslam and Muslim societies in problem is therefore one of organizing this diversity in terms of an adequate Nrical' culture and Religion I (zooo) 277-285, at z8o. "Anthropologists have sought to assess concept."18 how and to what extent it is possible to generalize about Muslim societies and cultures across space (and, to some extent, through time). What is the relationship between the one and the many the universal and the particular, Islam and the empirical diversity of plural Islams?" Séan t3 John Renard, Islam and the Heroic Image: Themes in Literature and the Visual Arfs, Colum- Mcloughlin, "Islam(s) in context: orientalism and the Anthropology of Muslim societies and bia: University of South Carolina Press, 199j, xix. cultures," of Belieþ and values z8 (zoo) 273-296, at 274. see also the politicai scientist la Journal Pew Research Forum on Religion and Public Life, The World's Muslims: unity and Dfuersity, sharon Siddique: "There is a contradiction, so to speak, between two ideological perspectives: Vy'ashington, DC: Pew Research Cente¡ zorz, 5. one universalistic, and the other particularistic. . . Islam as a universal ideology has a certain 15 Kishwar Rizvi, "A¡t," in Jamal J. Elias (editor), Key Themes for the stuily of Islam, oxford: coherence,acertainunity...thereisalsomuchsquabblinggoingonwithinlslam...thisunity Oneworld, zoto, 6-25, at 7. contains a great deal of diversity," Siddique, "Conceptualizing Contemporary Islaml' zo7, ztt' Dale "changing re '6 F. Eickelman, Interpretations of Islamic Movements," in william R. Roff Ira M. Lapidus , AHistory of Islamic Societies, cambridge: cambridge university Press, 1998. (editor), Islam and the Political of Meaning: comparatire studies of Muslim Discourse, 2o Ira M. Lapidus, "Islam and the Historical Experience of Muslim Peoplesi in Malcolm H. Berkeley: press, university of califo¡nia r9g7, 13-30, at rg (reiterating his earlier statement in Kerr (editor), Islamic Studies: A Tradition and Its Problems, Malibu: undena Publications, r98o, Dale F. Eickelman, "The study of Islam in Local contexts," contríbutions to q (tggz) 89-ror, at 89. r-16, at r). 2' chase F. Robinson, Islamic , cambridge: cambridge university Press, zoo3. Robert Lawnay, Beyond the Stream: 22 in Herbert Berg _- .17 Islam and Society in a West African Toøn, Berkeley: Chase F. Robinson, "Reconstructing Early Islam: Truth and Consequences," university of press, california tggz, 6-7 (in a chapter entitte¿, "rne one ãnd the M*y) (edito), Method and Theory in the study of Islamic origins Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2oo3, ao7-734, at 16 Taial Asad, The Idea of an Anthropology of tslam,Washington, D.C.: Center for Contempo_ 101-102. 10 . Chapter 1 Six Questions about Islam t7

'Islam' the call "Let us abandon as a term of historical explanation"z3-a view, 'Islamic' ."'zT The widespread recognition of the i ward a properly as we will see in Chapter z of this book, that is shared by analysts from differ- a i1 problem is summed up in the chapter title of recent work by Rémi Brague: ent fields, and with which I disagree. 'Just How Is Islamic?"28 l This lack of coherence between the term "Islam" and the putative object- The fulcral nature of the dilemma is readily evident in the question of phenomenon to which it refers is seen in the continuing inability of the schol- whether, for example, it makes sense to call the philosopher, Ibn Sina/Avi- arly discourse to provide answers about the relationship "Islam" to of a range cenna (d. ro37)-undisputedly one of the most seminal sources of founda- of basic historical phenomena. In what follows, I will summarily lay out the tional and orientational ideas for the civilization and history we call Islamicze- nature and extent of the conceptual problem by presenting six straightfor- an "Islamic" philosopher, when his Aristotelian and Neo-Platonic rationalism ward questions (though many more could be adduced at length). led him to the fundamental idea that there is a superior Divine Truth that is accessible only to the particularity of superior human intellects, and a lesser èþþå¿+&{+ version of that Truth that communicates itself vla Prophets, such as Mu- hammad, andis prescribedby themto the commonality of lesser human intel- First, there is the hoary question raised repeatedly by "what scholars: is Is- lects, and Ihat, as a logical consequence, the text of the þr'an with its specific lamic about Islamic philosophy?" In a classic study entitled, "The Islamic phi- prescriptions and proscriptions is not a literal or direct expression of Divine losophers' conception of Islam," Michael Marmura asked: "In what sense are Truth, but only what we might call a "Lowest Common Denominator" trans- we using the term'Islamic' when referring to them? . . . the need for clarifica- lation of that Truth into inferior figures of speech for the (limited) edification tion becomes particularly pressing."2a some thirty years later, in his introduc- of the ignorant majority of humankind. As Ibn Siná said in a famous passage tion to an Encyclopaedia of Islamic philosophy, .,The oriver Leaman noted that on the Real-Truth about God and existence: obvious question . . . is why are the thinkers who are discussed here classified under the description of Islamic philosophy? Some of these thinkers are not As for Divinely-Prescribed fal-shara'1, one general principle is to be Muslim, and some of them are not philosophers in a straightforward sense. admitted, which is that the Prescribed Law and doctrines lal-milal] that what is Islamic philosophy?"zs Marmura answered the question "in two are brought forth upon the tongue ofa Prophet âre aimed at addressing "'Islamic' senses": refers normally to those philosophers who professed

themselves 27 adherents of Islam, the religion," and "in a general cultural (and Peter Adamson and Richard C. Taylor, "Int¡oduction," in Pete¡ Adamson and Richard C. chronological) sense" also for non-Muslim philosophers, "indicating that they Taylor (editors), The Cambridge Companion to Phílosoplry, Cambridge: Cambridge Univer- sity Press, 2oo5, a-9, at belong to the civilization characterized as 'Islamic."'26 A recent 3. authoritative 28 Rémi Brague, The Legend of the Middle Ages: Philosophical Explorations of Medie,¿al Christi- volume, however, ansr\¡ers the question by deeming it "sensible to call the anity, Judaism, and lslam, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, zoo9, 57-7o. tradition 'Islamic'phirosophy" 2e effects on societies ofAvicennan philosoph¡ includ- ?rabic' and not (and thus calls itself Tå e cam- The long-term histo¡ical ofMuslims philosophy ing the continuing foundational presence ofAvicennan texts and ideas in educational curricula, bridge compønion to Arabic rather than to Islamic philosophy) for are increasingly well documented in the scholarship: see, representativel¡ Jean R. Michot, "La which nomenclature two reasons "First, are offered: many of those involved Pandémie Avicennienne au Me/XIIe siècle: Presentation, edition princeps et traduction de were in fact christians or Jews . . . second, many philosophers of the forma- l'introduction du Livre de I'advenue du monde (Kitab huduth al-'alam) d'Ibn Ghaylan al-Balkhi," Arabica (rgqS) Brentjes, "On the Location of the Ancient or 'Rational' Sciences tive period . . . were interested primarily in coming to grips with the texts 4o 288-g¿+; Sonja in Muslim Educational Landscapes (AH 5oo-noo)," Bulletin of the Royal Institute Inter- made available in the translation movement, rather than with for putting for- Studies 4t (zooz) 47-7r; Robert Wisnovsk¡ "The Nature and Scope ofArabic Philosophical Com- mentary in the Post-Classical (ca. uoo-r9oo AD) Islamic Intellectual History: Some Preliminary

23 Observations," in P. Adamson, H. Baltussen, and M. W. F. Stone (editors), Philosophy, and Robinson, "Reconstructing Early Islami r34. 2a Exegesis in Greek, Arabic and Latin Commentarieq London: Institute of Classical Studies, zoo4, Michael F. Marmura, "The Islamic philosophers' conception of Islam,', in Richard G. Hov- r49-r9r; Gerhard Endress, "Reading Avicenna in the Madrasa: Inteilectual Genealogies and anissian and Speros vryonis, Jr. (editors), rs/am's ttnderstanding ofltself, publica- Malibu: undena Chains of Transmission of Philosophy and the Sciences in the Islamic Easti' in James E. Mont- tions, 1983, 87-toz, at 87-88. gomery (editor), Arabic Theology, Arabic Philosophy: From the Many to the One: Essays in Celebra- 25 oliver Leaman, "Introduction," in seyyed Hossein Nasr (editor), Encycropaedia ofIslamic tion ofRichard M. Frank, Leuven: Peeters, zoo6,37t-4zz; and Robert Wisnovsky, "Avicenna's Philosophy, Laho¡e: Suhail Ac ademy, zooz, r_1o, at 1. 2ó Islamic Receptioni' in Peter Adamson (editor), Interpreting Aticenna: Critical Essays, Cambridge: Marmura, "The Islamic philosophers, g9. Conception of Islam,,, Cambridge University Press, 2013, 7go-2r3. 12 . Chapter 1 Six Questions about Islam . 13

the masses as a whole. Now, it is obvious that the Rearization-of-Truth (d. rrrr), in his landmark work The Refutation of the Philosophers (Tahafut al- [al-taþqtq]. . . cannot be communicated to the multitude . . . Upon my denunciatiôn which, Michael Marmura notes, "was not life, fal|sifah)-a uttered if God the Exalted did charge a Messenger that he should communi- for sheer rhetorical effect" but "was an explicit charge made in terms of Is- cate the Real-Truths lar-þaqa'iq] of these matters to the masses with law."31 their lamic dull natures and with their perceptions tied down pure to sensibres, Are these definitive philosophical ideas Islamic or un-Islamic? Ibn Sina, and then constrained him to pursue rerentlessly and successfuly the task who spoke of "the true sharl'ah al-þaqqah] which was brought to of bringing faith fal-sharl'ah and sarvation to the multitude . . . then He has certainly by our Prophet, our lord, and our master, Muhammad-God's prayer be laid us upon him a duty incapable of fulfillment by any manl prescribed . . . upon him and his family"32 himself clearly thought of the truths at which he fal-shara'i'] are intended to address the multitude in terms inteli- arcived by philosophical-rational means as being true to Islam, and, in answer gible to them, seeking to bring home to them what transcends their intel_ to those who thought otherwise, proclaimed of himself: ligence by means of simile and symbol. otherwise, prescribed Laws would be of no use whatever . . . How can, then, the external form of It is not so easy and trifling to call me an Unbeliever; Prescribed Law [4ahir al-shara,] be adduced as an argument in these No faith is better founded than my faith. matters?30 I am singular in my age; and if I am an Unbeliever- In that case, there is no single Muslim anywhere!33 Ibn sina (and just about ail the philosophers with him) arrived hence "higher-truth" at the conclusions that the worlá is eternar, that God does not know Robert Hall is thus quite correct when he the particulars says that the Muslim philosophers of what we do and sa¡ that there will be no bodiry resurrec- put forward philosophy as "the version of the Muslim faith that is best for the tion on a Day of Divine Judgement, that there is paradise no or Hellfire, and intellectually gifted believer."3a that the specific prescriptions and proscriptions ofRevealed raw are not in- The relationship of philosophy to "Islam" is further complicated by the fact trinsically true, but only instrumentailyso (meaning that they are not neces- that Avicennan philosophy constituted-and was acknowledged by Muslims sarily any truer or more valid than other of /onæs truth). as constituting-the basis of post-Avicennan Islamic scholastic theology ('ilm These views of the nature of Divine Truth are in direct contradiction of the al-). At the same time that some of Avicenna's most crucial philosophi- letter ofthe graphicaily and painfully reiterated theology and eschatology of cal conclusions were denounced the practioners the by of Islamic theolog¡ the Qrr'ãn that is taken as constitutive of general Musrim creed, and \Mere, as philosophical methodthat led him to these conclusions was incorporated into such, famously condemned as definitive unberief/Denial of Divine Truth the standard textbooks of scholastic theology that were taught in madrasahs (kufr)by the great "proof of Islam" (Hujjat at-Isram) Abü Hãmid ar-Ghazzãr1 down to the twentieth century. Thus, in the thirteenth century (seventh cen- tury of Islam), the great North African intellectual, Ibn Khaldun (d. r4o5), 'o amr al-shar'fa-yanbaghl an yu,lama . :y^u fi_hi qanùn wahid wa huwa anna al-shar, wa complained in hís Intro duct ion to History (al-Muqaddimah): al-milal al-atiyah 'arã lisan nabr min ar-anbiya' yuram'bi-ha ar-jumhur kaføan tho.*^o *n al-ma'lùm al-wadih anna ar-taþqrq . . . mumtani' iíqa'u-hu ira ar-jumhùr . . . wa ra:amr-r raw kar- 3r Marmura, "The Islamic Philosophers' Conception of Islam," 88-89. lafa Allah ta'ala rasùran min ar-¡usul an yulqiya ¡aqa'iq haattihi ar-umur ira ar-jumhur 32 'ammah min ar- Avicenna, The Metaphysics ofThe Healing, (a parailel English-Arabic text edited, annotated al-ghalrzah libõ'i-him al-muta,aitiq;i bi-al-mahsùsm ar-sarfah awhamu_hum thumma and translated sama-hu an yakùnq munjizan li'ammati-him by Michael E. Marmura), Provo: Brigham Young University Press, zoo5,34T- al-Iman wa ar-ijabah . .". Ia-kailafa-nu ,nottoton.o mã laysa quwwat al-bashar. 348. :n.ltryl fi . . fa-4.ahir min hadha kurli-hi anna ar-shara,i, uaridah It-khitab alj.umhur bima yffiamùna '3 kufr-i chu manl gazãf o asan na-buttad / muhkamtar az lman-i man lmùn na-buvad / dar muqarriban ma ra yaJha.muna ila afhami-him bi-at-tashbih wa,al-tamthll wa dahr chu man yakl o anham kafr / pas dar hamah dahr yak musalman na-buvad; compare the " kayfa yakun zahii ar-shar' þu¡¡atin hadha al-bab; fr rbn slnâ,, Risarah translation by Syed Hasan Barani, "Ibn Sina and Alberuni: A adhawiyyah fi amr al-ma,ad (edited by Study in Similarities and Contrasts," suf"y-r" oí"fi), Cairo: Dãr al_Fikr d_,arabr, r9a9, 44-45, and g-so; r have 3-r4, in Avicenna Commemoration Volume, Calcutta: Iran Society, 1956, 3-14, at 8; the Persian text benefited f¡om the iransration of Fazlu¡ Rarrman, prophe:cy'ìn PhilosophyandOrthodoxy,London:GeorgeAllenurrJU.r*'.r, Isram, is given by Sa'id Nafisi, "Chand nuktah-'i tázah dar-barah-i lbn-i Slnã,]' Atticenna Commemoratíon tg5',4z_43,buthavechangedhis translation of s/¿ar'from Volume, CaIcuIIa: Iran Societ¡ ry56, zr-45, at 45. "religion" to prãscribed Law since what rbn sinã means by shar, is a 3a "Intellect, not by philosophical-rational Robert E. Hall, Soul and Body in Ibn Sinâ: Systematic Synthesis and Develop- frutfapprehended, rrr*rrr, ¡rr, *rfr"r one that is pres cribedby God on the tongue of a prophet.,' ment of the Aristotelian, Neo-Platonic and Galenic Theoriesj' inJon McCinnis (editor),Interpret- ing Atticenna: Science and Philosophy in Medietal Islam,Leiden: E. J. Brill, zoo4, 6z-86, at 7o. 14 . Chapter 1 Six Questions about Isläm . 15

The problems oftheology have been confused with those ofphilosophy. -Ihe,,marginality thesis" has arisen, at least in part, from a failure to distin- This has gone so far that the one discipline is no longer distinguishable rarefied and intellectually specialized nature of the euish between the socially from the other.3s ächnical practice of philosophy as an undertaking in a societ¡ on the one and hand, and, on the other hand, the broader intellectual cultural fficts of Ibn Khaldun's statement (and we should remember that he was a hostile wit- ohilosophy as diffused through and taken up in the endemic discourses of ness to philosophy) confounds, several centuries in advance, what that most those societies in which philosophy is practiced. while philosophers do phi- erudite historian of the natural sciences and philosophy in Islam, A. L Sabra, losoph¡ many other people are affected by it. To this point, however, histori- has criticized as "widely-held" "marginality "The the but "downright false" thesis" ans of Islam have yet to carry out Sabra's desideratum: falsity of the put forward by modern students of Islamic philosophy, namely, the notion marginality thesis . . . can best be demonstrated by offering a description of an alternative picture-one which shows the connections with cultural fac- that scientific and philosophical activity in medieval Islam had no signifi- tors and forces."37 In a separate monograph, Nenad Filipovic and I attempt cant impact on the social, economic, educational and religious institu- inter aliato demonstrate and depict the central place of Islamic philosophy in tions . . . that those who kept the Greek legacy alive in Islamic lands the larger discourses, practices and consciousness ofone historically signifl- constituted a small group of scholars who had little to do with the spiri- cant Muslim society-that of the Ottomans.3s Some sporadic forays in that tual life of Muslims, who made no important contribution to the main direction for historical societies of Muslims at large will also be made in the currents of Islamic intellectual life, and whose work and interests were present book by means of major representative examples, beginning, in a few marginal to the central concerns of Islamic society.36 pages, with a consideration of the central and seminal role in the history of societies of Muslims of what one scholar of Islam has called "philosophic 35 iltabasat masa'il al-kalam bí-masa'il al-falsafah bi-haythu la yatamayyaz ahad al-fannayn religion." 'an al-akhar, 'Abd al-Rahmãn Ibn Khald¡n, Muqaddimat lbn Khaldun, cairo: al-Maktabah al- One important symptom that helps to dispel the notion of philosophy as a Tijãriyyah al-Kubrã, n.d., the translation 466; is that ofFranz Rosenthal; Ibn Khaldûn, The Muqa- marginal foreign science in the discourses of Muslims, is the swift historical ddimah: An Introduction to History (translated by Franz Rosenthal), princeton: Bollingen, r95g, discipline of philosophy and in the discourses of 3:53; the statement is highlighted in A. I. Sabra, "science and philosophy in Medieval Islamic replacement in both the Theology: The Evidence of the Fourteenth century," Zeitschrijl für Geschichte der Arabisch- Muslims at large of the Greek-derived term falsafah (philosophy) with the Islamischen WissenchaJTen g $994) :r4z. term (Persian, Ottoman, Urdu hikmaf): "He gives 3ó Qrr'ãnic-Arabic þikmah A. I. Sabra, "The Appropriation and Subsequent Naturalization ofGreek Science in Medi- wisdom to whom He wills; and he who is given has been eval Islam: A Preliminary Statement," History of Science z5 (rgï7) 223-243, at zz9. There ìs no lhikm.ah) þikmah shortage of "strong" examples of this thesis in the scholarly literature; but its pervasiveness is given an abundant good-but none are cognizant ofthis save those possessed perhaps better illustrated through "soft" examples. s. Nomanul Haq, in writing about the intel- of understandingi'3n Ibn Sinã himself designated þikmah"a real-true philoso- lectual relationship ofphilosophy and philosophers to the discourses of kalamtheologians, Sufis, phy bi-al-þaqlqahf: a philosophy which imparts validation to and legal scholars, writes that "in the formation of the normative Islamic tradition concerning ffalsafah first sciences and that is Wisdom in Real{ruth the articulation ofthe notion oftruth . . . we can disregaïdthe falasifafor they remained periph- the principles of the rest of the eral to a consciously cultivated Islamic religious outlook of the rest [of the Muslims]," s. No- manul Haq, "The Taxonomy of Truth in the Islamic Religious Doctrine and rradition," in Robert cummings Neville (editor), Religious Truth, Arbany: state university of New york press, zoor, nent philosophical personalities who are significant for the beginning, high point and end of 727-t44, at r37. Peter Heath insists that the philosophers' "hermeneutic approach ¡emained a Arabic philosophy," Hans King, Islam: Past, Present and Future, Oxfordi Oneworld, 2oo4, 367. minority opinion . . . even among the intellectual elite," peter Heath, "creative Hermeneutics; A 37 Sabra, "The Appropriation and Subsequent Naturalization of Greek Science in Medievai Comparative Anaiysis of Three Islamic Approachesl' Arabica 36 (r9S9) r73-27o, at r94. Louis Islaml'zzg. Gardet 38 classified philosophy and suflsm as "two marginal sciences," Louis Gardet, "Religion and See the chapter on "Philosophy" in the forthcoming book by Shahab Ahmed and Nenad culture," in P. M. Holt, A¡n K. s. Lambton, and Be¡nard Lewis (editors), The cambridgi History Filipovic, Neifåe r Paradise nor Hellfre: Rethinking Islam through the Ottomans, Rethinking the Ot- of Islam' volume zB: Islamic society and ctuilization cambridge: cambridge university press, tomans through Islam. A recent work that ârgues that "Islamic intellectual life has been charac- 7970,569-603, at 597. It is thus hardly surprising that a non-expert such as Hans Küng, whose terized by reason in the service of a non-rational revealed code of conduct . . . that the core intel- recent hefty monograph on Islam is based on a prodigious reading of secondary scholarship and lectual tradition of Islam is deeply rational, though based on revelation," is John Walbridge, God thus, rathe¡ like a good undergraduate a synthesìs ofthat lite;ature, opines the and Logic in Islam: The ofReason, Cambridge; Cambridge University Press, 2o1r' 3-4. well-grounded error "in "r.u¡ "*pr"rr", 3e Islam philosophy remained a marginal phenomenon and so for my para- yu'tl al-þikmata ila man yasha' ua man yu'ta al-hikmata faqad utiya khayran kathlran wa digm analysis it will be enough to make a brief srrr,r"y of tñ" deveropment by considering promi- ma yadhdhakkaru illa ulu al-albab, Qyr'ãn z:269 al-Baqarah. 16 . Chapter 1 Six Questions about Islam . 17

bi-al-þaqlqahl"a0 "Hikmah is the perfecting of the human lal-þikmah soul by philosophy wßofohl is the perfecting of the human soul by cognition of the conceptualizalion of things and by the verification of theoretical and are, and by judging their the Real-Truths of existents as they actually practical real-truths to the extent of human capacity."al As such, hikmahis the taking from Existence by attaining truth through demonstrations-not knowing of the idea and reality of the universal Truth of Divine creation; conjecture or from adherence to authority-to the extent ofhuman ca- that is to say, þikmah is the knowing of the Truth of God-as Ibn Sinã wrote, pacity. You could say that philosophy organizes the world in a rational it encompasses Divine science (al-'ilm al-ilahl).a'zThe swift historical recon- order to the measure of human capacity so that one might resemble him- stitution by Muslims of falsafah as hikmah is thus indicative of the thorough- selfto the Creator' going integration of the modes of thinking and speaking constitutive of phi- And whereas the human emerges as a knead of two ingredients-a losophy into the larger modes of thinking and speaking constitutive of spiritual form (from the world) of Command, and a sensible matter (from historical societies of Muslims. conceived by Muslims as þikmahlwisdom the world) of Creation-and thereupon possesses in his soul both the from the Divine (or hikmahlwisdom of the Divine), philosophy beiame not aspect of attachment (to the body) and the aspect of abstraction (from only textually-tied, but also semantically- and cosmologically-tied to the it)-it is certainly the case that þikmah is made more capacious in mea- Revelatory Truths of the universally-wise God (the ar-Haklmof the err'ãn), sure of building up the two potentials by cultivating the two capacities and thus became conceived of in the vocabulary "universal of Muslims as towards two skills: theoretical abstraction, and practical attachment. wisdom." Hikmah is also semantically ,,rule,, tied to the concept of (hukm; The goal of the theoretical art is the colouring of the soul in the image from the same trilateral Arabic root, h-k-m)-thus, hikmahlphilosophy is both of Existence as it is ordered in its Perfection and its Completion-and its the identification ofthe theoretical rules or values operative in the universe, becoming a rational world resembling the Source-World-Itself . . . This as well as the enactment and application of practical rules or values consonant afi of þikmah is that sought and requested by the Master of the Messen- with those theoretical rules. gers-preservation and peace be upon him and his family-in his sup- The historical mobilization of the word hikmah as fatsafah expresses the plication "O My Lord, show us things as they are!"43 conceptual recognition and operationalization in societies of Muslims of the claim ofphilosophy to know universal truth, and thus ofthe value ofthose This passage highlights the philosophers' conception of their project as di- truths as a basis for personal and social practitioners action. ofphilosophy rectly related to Prophethood and to knowledge of God: the Prophet himself came to be designated as hukama'(singular: þaklm), those who have or who seeks from God precisely the art of hikmah. The philosophers conceive of a "do" þikmah. The same term was applied also to physicians, who (like phi- losophers) applied reason to identify universal truths practically applicable a3 inna al-falsafah istikmal al-nafs al-insaniyyah bïma'rifat haqa'iq al-maøjudat'ala ma hiya 'alay-ha wa al-þukm bi-wuiudi-ha tuþqtqan bi-al-barãh\n Ia akhdhan bi-al-7ann wa al-taqlíd bi- for individual and collective human well-being (Ibn Sha was, of course, the qadr øl-wus' al-insanl wa in shi'ta qulta na4ama na7man'aqliyyan'ala hasab al-laqah al- philosopher-physician ín excelsius). The re-apprehension of fatsafah as bashariyyah li-yaþsula al-tashabbuh bi-al-bari' ta'ala wa lamma ia'a al-insan ka-al-ma'iùn min hikmah and its application in the life of a Muslim is expressed in the follow- khillayn çurah ma'nawiyyah amriyyah øa maddah hissiyah khalqiyyah ua kãnat li-nafsi-hi ing introductory passage to the major work of the brilliant sixteenth-/ aydanjihata ta'alluq wa tajarrud Ia iurm iftannat al-hikmah bïhasab 'imarat al-nash'atayn bt- i;Iah al-quwwatayn ila fannayn na4ariyyah taiarrudiyyah wa'amaliyyah ta'alluqiyyah' amma seventeenth-century intellectual, Mullã Sadra of Shirãz (d. t635): al-nøTariyyah fa-ghayatu-ha intiqash al-nafs bi-çurat al-uuiud'ala nizami-hi bi-kamali-hi wa tamami-hi wa çayrùrati-hã'alaman'aqliyyan mushabihan li-alLalam al:aynl . . . Na hadha al- 'alay-hi a0 fann min al-hikmah huwa al-matlùb li-sayyid al-rusul al-mas'ul fi du'a'-hi salla Allah wa ha-huna bi-al-haqlqah wa ùla wa falsafah falsafah inna-hã tufid tasþiþ mabddi' sã,ir al- ali-hi wa sallama ilã rabbi-hi haythu qãla rabb-l arl-nã al-ashya'ka-ma huwa, Sadr al-Dln Mu- 'ulum wa inna-ha al-hikmah bi-al-haqlqah: Avicenna (Ibn sna), al-sitfa,3 (compare the transla- al-Shirãzi, at al-muta'aliyah al-asfar al-'aqliyyah al-arba'ah, al- tion of Marmura hammad llikmah fi Qrm: , The Metaphysics of the Healing, 3). at Maktabah al-Mustafavi, n.d' tzo-zt, (the Prophet's supplication is þr'ãn z6:82 al-Shu'arã'). al-hikmah istikmal al-nafs al-insaniyyah bi-tasauwur al-umur wa al-tasdiq bi-al-haqã'iq This passage is cited in Sajjad H. Rizvi, "Philosophy as a way of life in the world of Islam: Apply- al-na4ariyyah wa al:ilmiyyah 'ara qadr al-taqah ,IJyun ar-insaniyyah; Ibn sinã, àr-hikmah (ed- ing Hadot to the Study of Mulla Sadrã ShIrãzI (d. r635)j' Bulletin of the School of Oriental and ited by Muwaffaq Fawzi al-Jabr), Beirut: Dar ar-yanabi', r99a (cited prophetic by Hikmet vam an, at (compare the translation), where Rizvi correctly notes that Niche 75 þotz) 3g-45, 4z in thevirtuous city: The Concept of]Hikmah in Early IsramicThought,Leiden: E. J. Brill, zorr, "This definition makes it clear that philosophizing is more than a ratiocinative discourse but is, 253-compare the translalion). a2 in fact, closely related with the practice of theosis (taalluh). . . It also closely relates this practice Avicenna (Ibn Sina), at-Shifa, z. to a prophetic inheritance and connects philosophizing to the Qrr'ãnic notion of wisdom."