Beauty & Aesthetics in Classical Islamic Thought the State Of

i s s u e 1 | 2 0 1 8 1 | 2 0 1 8 ARTICLES Kalam: Journal of Islamic Theology is a bi-annual Beauty & Aesthetics in Classical Islamic Thought multidisciplinary journal focusing on Islamic Theology, Kalam samir mahmoud Philosophy, Science and Spirituality published by Kalam journal of islamic theology The State of Philosophy in the Arab World Research & Media. The journal will promote the development ali el-konaissi of critical scholarship and new perspectives in the ﬁeld and will aim to be a medium through which contemporary i s s u e 1 | 2 0 1 8 The Miraculous Nature of the Qur’an Islamic theology can be developed in conversation and nazif muhtaroglu engagement with related disciplines and perspectives on Beauty & Aesthetics in Classical Islamic Thought Kalam Atomism & Contemporary Cosmology the Big Questions. The State of Philosophy in the Arab World mehmet bülgen Cover & Back Image: Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem © Peter Sanders Photography The Miraculous Nature of the Qur’an INTERVIEW Cover Design by Sohail Nakhooda Kalam Atomism & Contemporary Cosmology Ottoman Heritage & Modern Challenges: Interview with Recep Sentürk Interview with Recep Sentürk BOOK REVIEWS edward moad | yusuf lenfest | samer dajani | valérie gonzales |

faheem hussain | shoaib malik kalam journal of islamic theology | issue kalam research & media CONTENTS kalam journal • issue no.1 • 2018

3ARTICLES#

Beauty and Aesthetics in Classical Islamic Thought: An Introduction 7 samir mahmoud

Concerns on Philosophy in the Arab World: State of the Art 22 ali el-konaissi

The Miraculous Nature of the Qur’an: A Response to Oliver Leaman 45 nazif muhtaro˘g lu

Continuous Re-Creation: From Kalam Atomism to Contemporary Cosmology 59 mehmet bul ˘gen

3INTERVIEW#

Recep Sentürk: Ottoman Heritage and Modern Challenges 68 interview by hamza karamali

3BOOK·REVIEWS#

Mulla Sadra | Ibrahim Kalin 87 edward moad

Virtue and the Moral Life | Werpehowski & Soltis (eds.) 89 yusuf lenfest

The Principles of Sufism | Th. Emil Homerin (ed. & tr.) 90 samer dajani

Sufi Bodies | Shahzad Bashir 93 valérie gonzalez

Religion without God | Ronald Dworkin 95 faheem hussain

Gunning for God | John Lennox 98 shoaib ahmed malik

Where the Conflict Really Lies | Alvin Plantinga 100 shoaib ahmed malik

Islam’s Quantum Question | Nidhal Guessoum 102 shoaib ahmed malik

Theology in the Context of Science | John Polkinghorne 104 shoaib ahmed malik

The Big Questions in Science and Religion | Keith Ward 106 shoaib ahmed malik

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OCCASIONALISM REVISITED New Essays from the Islamic and Western Philosophical Traditions Nazif Muhtaroglu (eds.) Bogazici University, Istanbul

Occasionalism is commonly understood as the theory that ascribes all causal power to God, while treating cause-effect relations in nature as customary events or occasions determined by divine volition. Commonly misapprehended as originating in Western philosophy it already appears in the texts of Muslim scholars of the Ash‘ari and Maturidi school in the 10th century, before being transmitted to Europe via the works of Averroes and Maimonides in the 13th century. Yet it was only in the 17th century among the Cartesian philosophers and most famously in the works of Nicolas Malebranche that the theory flourished and was taken seriously. Many of the great philosophers such as Gottfried W. Leibniz and David Hume authored their works in light of the occasionalist critique of other theories of causation, especially the much contested concept of natural causation as formulated by Aristotle. This book aims to reveal unexplored historical roots of occasionalism in the Islamic and Western traditions in an effort 2017 | 312 pages to contribute to the discussions centered around this theory. $24.99 pb As an attempt to reveal the historical roots and philosophical dimensions of occasionalism, this volume illustrates the $39.99 hb indispensability of this theory for those who want to understand the central discussions and dynamics within Islamic and modern Available from Amazon.com philosophy. Apart from showing the significance of occasionalism in both traditions, this book draws out the contours and the common ground for contemporary discussions on causation.

contributors to the volume Fred Ablondi (Hendrix College); Marc Hight (Hampden Sydney College); Ozgur Koca (Claremont School of Theology); Edward Omar Moad (Qatar University); Walter Ott (University of Virginia); Andrew Platt (Stony Brook University); Walter Schultz (University of Northwestern, St. Paul); J. Aaron Simmons (Furman University); Lisanne D’Andrea-Winslow (University of Northwestern, St. Paul); Aladdin Yaqub (Lehigh University)

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OCCASIONALISM REVISITED New Essays from the Islamic and Western Philosophical Traditions Nazif Muhtaroglu (eds.) Bogazici University, Istanbul

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GOD, NATURE AND THE CAUSE Essays on Islam and Science Basil Altaie Yarmouk University, Jordan

Dr. Basil Altaie is Professor of Quantum Cosmology at Yarmouk University, Jordan. Over the last 30 years he has lectured on physics at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels, teaching Quantum Field Theory, Quantum Mechanics, Classical Mechanics, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Classical Electrodynamics, Quantum Electrodynamics, Scientific Thinking, Mathematical Physics, History and the Philosophy of Science.

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GOD, NATURE AND THE CAUSE Beauty and Aesthetics in Classical Essays on Islam and Science Islamic Thought: An Introduction* Basil Altaie Yarmouk University, Jordan Samir Mahmoud | American University of Beirut

The philosophical conflict of religion and science is one of the most compelling and controversial issues today. Many intellectuals, scholars and philosophers from the West representing Chris- tian and Jewish philosophical traditions have addressed this burning question but little has been heard from their counterparts lato once wrote in the that “if there is anything Symposium Dr. Samir Mahmoud is currently a in the Muslim tradition. What do Muslims have to say on the worth living for, it is to behold beauty”. Beauty has been at the visiting assistant professor at the Depar subject, and what is the relationship between modern scientific heart of the Mediterranean philosophical tradition since Plato tment of Architecture at the American P University of Beirut. In 2013–14 he was developments and Muslim belief? What is the Islamic tradition of uttered these words. But the full scope of beauty for Plato included the Andrew Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow kalam, and does it have anything to contribute to modern science more than just shapes, colors, proportion, harmony, and melodies. In at the Arts & Humanities Initiative and philosophy? These are some of the critical questions ad- addition to physical objects it also included psychological and social at the American University of Beirut; ones, characters and political systems, virtues and truths. It included The Barakat Postdoctoral Fellow at the dressed by Basil Altaie in his latest book God, Nature, and the Khalili Centre for Research in Art & Cause: Essays on Islam and Science. not only things that are a joy to see and hear, but everything which Material Culture, University of Oxford, causes admiration, arouses delight, and brings enjoyment.1 Although 2012–13; and The Agha Khan Visiting Altaie, physicist and philosopher rooted in classical Islamic beauty was beheld and appreciated subjectively, for the most part it was Postdoctoral Fellow at MIT, 2012. theology, argues that the kalam tradition—Islam’s deepest philo- He received his PhD in philosophical considered an objective aspect of reality. But to what end? For none aesthetics from the Faculty of Divinity, sophical expression—provides a number of insights that can cre- other than to behold the supreme beauty of The Good that transcends University of Cambridge, and holds an ate a greater understanding of modern physics, and reconcile the 2016 | 240 pages its worldly manifestations. Plato’s notion of beauty was very broad and MA in the history of architecture and urban design (UNSW, Australia) and an apparent clash between science and religion. In this riveting set of included moral and cognitive values. This was not Plato’s personal idea, $24.99 pb MA in philosophy (Cambridge). essays, Altaie takes us from the early circles of Mu‘tazili and but the generally accepted view in the West and the Islamic east well Ash‘ari kalam, to the universities of Western Europe, in a critical $39.99 hb into the eighteenth century.2 survey that engages thinkers like Ash‘ari, Al-Ghazali, Ibn Sina, However, for the past two centuries, discussions of beauty have Aristotle, Newton, Einstein, Stephen Hawking, Laplace, revolved around the field of inquiry we now call ‘aesthetics’. The term Available from Amazon.com Schrödinger, and others. This is an unprecedented and fascinat- aesthetics derives from the Greek aisthetikos (sensitive, perceptive) and from (to perceive by the senses or by the mind, to ing study, available in English for the first time through Kalam aisthanesthai feel). The Greek aisthesis and aistheta mean “things perceptible by the Research & Media. This book provides an important resource for senses”. Therefore, aesthetics initially had nothing to do with “beauty” practitioners of philosophy, science, and theology, and offers an or “art” as it is currently understood, so how did it become associated invaluable and timely contribution on Islam and its interaction with beauty? with modern science. It is at the hands of Alexander Baumgarten (d. 1762) in the eighteenth century that aesthetics reaches its apotheosis as a separate branch of * This paper is intended as a prelim- Dr. Basil Altaie is Professor of Quantum Cosmology at Yarmouk University, philosophy, like logic, concerned with the study, understanding, and inary exploration and is the first in a Jordan. Over the last 30 years he has lectured on physics at the undergraduate and exploration of that which is perceivable by the senses. Since beauty is series of papers to come. postgraduate levels, teaching Quantum Field Theory, Quantum Mechanics, Classical the most perfect kind of knowledge the senses can have, Baumgarten 1 Wladyslaw Tatarkiewicz et al., Mechanics, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Classical Electrodynamics, Quantum reasoned, then beauty and its effect on thebeholder became the cen- Electrodynamics, Scientific Thinking, Mathematical Physics, History and the eds., History of Aesthetics (London: tral focus of aesthetic investigations. Continuum, 2005), 1:113–14. Philosophy of Science. The term was popularized in English by the translation of Immanuel 2 Alfred Whitehead wasn’t exaggerat- Kant (d. 1804), and used originally in its etymological sense as “the sci- ing when he said: “The safest general ence which treats of the conditions of sensuous perception”. Kant had characterization of the European tried to correct Baumgarten, but the meaning Baumgarten had given philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.” to aesthetics attained popularity in English by the mid-nineteenth cen- Process and Reality (New York: Free tury and removed the word from any philosophical basis. It eventually Press, 1978), 39. www.kalamresearch.com

kalam journal • 1/2018 7 became associated with the late nineteenth-century movement that advocated “art for art’s sake”, whereby aesthetics became merely preoccupied with the subjective manner in which beauty is experienced. As such it is a notion with firm roots in a specific Western cultural and philosophical context. By the nineteenth and early twentieth century, the so-called Liberal Age, Arab thinkers were appropriating many Western categories and developing an Arab aesthetics along similar lines.3 However, “aesthetics” has no direct Arabic equivalent. The Encyclopaedia of Islam includes an entry titled “ ilm al-jamal”, which is a modern-day rendering. In the entry the author writes that a general theory on aesthetics and “precise definitions for the terms used in this field are lacking in the history of Arab civilization”.4 Therefore, if aesthetics is understood as a theory of art or beauty for its own sake then the medieval Islamic mentality yielded no comparable ‘aesthetics’. 3 See Charbel Dagher, al-Fan wa If indeed aesthetics is a cultural and intellectual development pecu- al-sharq [Art and the East], 2 vols. liar to the West then it is no surprise that Islam has no equivalent term (Beirut: Arab Cultural Center, 2004). or tradition. Coining neologisms like ilm al-jamal or “Islamic aesthet- 4 Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., ics” may be anachronistic and the scholar can either abandon all use of s.v. “ Ilm al-Jamal” the term or else engage with it critically. I have opted for the second 5 5 The first approach is most exem- option. plified in the writings and teachings The Encyclopaedia of Islam entry goes on to state quite rightly that of what is known as the Perennialist “nevertheless, it is possible to trace [in Arabic/Islamic thought] certain school. features common to the elements of aesthetic emotion and to their 6 6 Encyclopaedia of Islam, s.v. “ Ilm formal expression”. The lack of an exact Arabic equivalent to aesthet- al-Jamal”. ics, therefore, does not mean that the correlata suggested by the term

7 “aesthetics” in modern discourse (perception, beauty, pleasure, image, Edgar de Bruyne, Études d’esthétique médiéval, trans. Eileen B. Hennessy form, proportion, harmony, color, creativity, art, etc.) were not dis- (New York: F. Ungar Pub. Co., 1969), cussed. They were discussed at length but within often multiple and 221. Other pioneering works on aesthetics include: Tatarkiewicz, diverse discourses. Muslims not only enjoyed beauty but promoted the History of Aesthetics; Umberto Eco, fine arts. What De Bruyne says about medieval Europe is also valid for The Aesthetics of Thomas Aquinas, medieval Islam: “The fact that the medieval authors did not develop a trans. Hugh Bredin (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988); systematic theory of the arts does not mean that they were not aware Albert Hofstadter and Richard of the relationship between art and beauty.”7 For example, if we under- Kuhns, eds., Philosophies of Art and stand aesthetics to refer to a wide range of issues connected with beauty Beauty: Selected Readings in Aesthetics then the medieval Islamic tradition did have aesthetic theories. These from Plato to Heidegger (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1964); theories were enmeshed in theological, philosophical, or jurispruden- among many others. tial discussions or within wider intellectual contexts (literature, optics,

8 See Charbel Dahger, Islamic Art in alchemy) and not as a sui generis topic in any modern sense. The precise Arabic Sources (Kuwait: Dar al-Athar nature of beauty depends on the author, period, and school of thought al-Islamiyya, 1999). under consideration. 9 As Ananda Coomaraswamy has Likewise if we understand aesthetics to refer to issues of an artis- painstakingly shown, “Whereas tic nature, here again we find the medieval Islamic tradition replete almost all other peoples have called with discussions and references to art, crafts, creativity, aesthetic plea- their theory of art or expression 8 9 ‘rhetoric’ and have thought of their sure, and the like. However, there is no l’ art pour l’ art. It must be art as a form of knowledge, we have understood that the realm of the aesthetic was much larger than it is invented an ‘aesthetics’ and think nowadays and our investigation must take this broader perspective. of art as a kind of feeling.” In so far as art has become preoccupied with Umberto Eco, in his seminal work Art and Beauty in the Middle Ages, human sentiments and feelings it has aptly summarizes our point here: “substituted psychological explanations for the traditional conception of art as an intellectual virtue and of We must look for the ways in which a given epoch solved beauty as pertaining to knowledge”. for itself aesthetic problems as they presented themselves Figures of Speech or Figures of Thought, ed. William Wroth (Bloomington, IN: at the time to the sensibilities and the culture of its people. World Wisdom, 2007), 1. Then our historical inquiries will be a contribution, not to

8 kalam journal • 1/2018 whatever we conceive ‘aesthetics’ to be, but rather to the history of a specific civilization, from the standpoint of its own sensibility and its own aesthetics consciousness.10 10 A comparable lack of a developed theory of art in its modern sense is Appropriating the “aesthetic” within this broader framework we equally lacking in medieval Europe as medieval historians have already can now define it as “the problem of the possible objective character, indicated. Umberto Eco, Art and and the subjective conditions, of what we call the experience of beauty. Beauty in the Middle Ages, (New Haven: It thus refers also to all problems connected with the aesthetic object Yale University Press, 2002), 2. See also Ernst Robert Curtis, and aesthetic pleasure.”11 Therefore, any scholarly investigation into European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages, aesthetics in classical Islamic thought must take as its starting point trans. Willard R. Trask (London: the category of the beautiful and follow it as it leads into other “aes- Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1979); Johan Huizinga, thetic” investigations. The Waning of the Middle Ages, trans. Frederick Hopman This essay is a preliminary attempt to plunge into this difficult ter- (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, rain and try to bring to light some of the textual sources that have dis- 1965); Ananda Coomaraswamy, Christian and Oriental Philosophy of Art cussed aesthetics at length in classical Islamic thought and some of the (New York: Dover Publications, 1956). challenges facing the would-be scholar.12 11 Umberto Eco, The Aesthetics of Thomas Aquinas, trans. Hugh Bredin HISTORIOGRAPHY AND APPROACH (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University The sources of Islamic aesthetics in classical Islamic thought are not Press, 1988), 3. systematic treatises on the topic as can be found in the Classical and 12 The term “classical” is used to Christian traditions, for those are quite lacking (Islam has no equiv- refer to the development of Islamic alent to Vitruvius nor to the polemics between Abbot Suger and St. thought between the tenth and 13 eighteenth centuries, with a focus on Bernard). Unlike Christianity, which inherited most of Hellenistic the period up and till the thirteenth culture, Islam eschewed most Hellenistic literary and cultural produc- century. tions such as art and literature. It was not Homer or Sophocles that 13 There are a number of reasons were translated into Arabic but the likes of Plato, Aristotle, and Galen. that have been put forward as to why Most of the classical texts that classify the sciences in the Islamic Islam lacks any explicit treatment of tradition reveal a lack of a chapter or section dedicated to the topic art. Perhaps one explanation is the relative lack of controversy such as the of beauty or aesthetics. For example, the first classifier of the sci- iconoclastic movement of the seventh ences in Islam, al-Kindi (d. 870), placed architecture and music in the century in Byzantium or the argu- chapter on mathematics whereas today they would merit sections of ments between Abbot Suger and St. Bernard. Both instances were fraught their own under the rubric of aesthetics. Other classifiers of the sci- with fierce debate over the nature ences followed a similar pattern. Although there are discussions of of representation and the Divine. poetry, music, architecture, writing, and beauty in al-Kindi, al-Farabi Islam’s eschewing of representation altogether at an early stage may have (d. 950), Ikhwan al-Safa, Ibn Sina (d. 1037), and al-Ghazali (d. 1111), and spared it the fierce, yet, in retrospect, a few scattered references to decorum, they were not treated as sepa- very informative debates over the rate subjects of aesthetic interest. meaning and nature of art. What further complicates the scholarly search is the fact that a 14 The philosophical treatment of significant amount of the Islamic heritage is still in manuscript form beauty must be understood within gathering dust on library shelves in Cairo and Istanbul or languishing the context of the Neoplatonic philosophy of emanation. Particularly in derelict private collections. Access to these manuscripts remains a important for their discussion of major challenge. For now the scholar will have to restrict the task to beauty was the fourth chapter of what is available through publications. The scholar can approach the the Arabic compilation known as the Theology of Aristotle (incorrectly available sources in any number of ways. attributed to Aristotle) especially the First, one could search a relatively cohesive school of thought paraphrase of Plotinus’s Ennead, vol. 8, and tease out an aesthetic particular to it. For example, an Islamic “On Intelligible Beauty”. Against the background of this text, Islamic phi- philosophical aesthetics would start with the Neoplatonic distinc- losophers (particularly al-Farabi and tion between intelligible beauty and sensible beauty,14 the nature of Ibn Sina) developed the differences love, and poetic beauty, diction, and inspiration (al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, between sensible and intelligible 15 beauty and the love and pleasure and others). This pursuit may be much easier up until Ghazali, but associated with each. Islamic philosophy subsequent to Ghazali, and especially under the influence of Ibn Arabi (d. 1240) and Suhrawardi (d. 1191), fused with 15 Salim Kemal, “Aesthetics”, in History of Islamic Philosophy, ed. Seyyed tasawwuf and kalam and addressed issues not of a purely peripatetic Hossein Nasr and Oliver Leaman nature. An Islamic philosophical aesthetics would have to include (London: Routledge, 1996), 2:969–79. kalam journal • 1/2018 9 mystical philosophies that do not exclude mystical intuition as a means of knowing the world and God. In his chapter “Philosophy and Ways of Seeing” in Islamic Aesthetics: An Introduction, Oliver Leaman ventured an exposition of an ishraqi aesthetics and its possible link to Islamic art, which is a very promising line of research. Much more work has yet to be done. Thus an Islamic philosophical aesthetic would be a much- needed contribution to the history of philosophical aesthetics and to contemporary debates. A Sufi mystical aesthetics would look at writings on the nature of beauty, love, perception, the image and imagination, the human form, inner versus outer, and the psychology of beauty (particularly Abu Hamid and Ahmad al-Ghazali, Ruzbihan Baqli, Suhrawardi, and Ibn Arabi). Given the Sufi preoccupation with Divine Love as the leitmotif for creation and the cosmos as the manifestation of Divine Beauty, Sufi texts provide the richest source of aesthetic reflections and writings available in the Islamic tradition.16 An equally promising and more widely diffused and culturally important discourse would be an Islamic theological (kalam) aesthetics. The mutakallim or ‘Islamic scholastic theologian’ engaged in such an exploration might find it useful to critically engage with the Western tradition that has developed theological aesthetics in the twentieth century into a field of investigation of its own.17 Theological aesthetics in the West has been defined as being “concerned with questions about God and issues in theology in the light of and perceived 16 See Samir Mahmoud, “Idols, Icons, through sense knowledge (sensation, feeling, imagination), through and As-If Images: Towards a Theology 18 of the Image in the Islamic Aesthetics beauty, and the arts.” Such a definition is broad enough to act as a of Ibn Arabi”, Kalam: Journal of working definition for our would-be mutakallim. Given that kalam Islamic Theology (forthcoming). In engaged with (philosophy), (jurisprudence), and this article I show how Ibn Arabi’s falsafa fiqh tasawwuf reading of the Islamic ritual prayer (Sufism) throughout its complex history, an Islamic theological aes- is the first and most comprehensive thetic would cover almost all of the terrain covered by a philosophical account of the nature of the image of aesthetic, and a mystical Sufi aesthetic, in addition to kalam’s tradi- God, aniconism, and its relation to the Christian icon. tional theological discussions on the signs of God in nature, discussions about the Attributes, and the inimitability of the Qur’an (Mu tazalis, 17 For example, see Hans Urs von Ash aris, al-Baqillani, Ghazali) and the dangers of sensuous pleasure Balthasar’s theological masterpiece (Ibn al-Qayyim) among other topics. An Islamic theological aesthetic The Glory of the Lord: A Theological Aesthetics, 16 vols. (San Francisco: is a welcome development and the recovery of the meaning of beauty Ignatius Press, 1982). and the beautiful in the contemporary Islamic world is an urgent need.

18 New directions for research can be found in numerous other fields. Gesa Elsbeth Thiessen, Theological Aesthetics: A Reader (London: SCM A literary aesthetics or adab would consider discussions of imagery and Press, 2004), 1. metaphor in poetry (al-Jahiz, al-Qartajani, al-Jurjani, etc.) revealing 19 There is already a large and rich an indigenous Arab-Islamic poetics independent of Aristotle’s poet- body of literature on Arabic poetics. ics.19 One can also discover other aesthetic theories in discussions of For example, see Kamal Abu Deeb, vision and how the perception of an object affects the perceiver such Al-Jurjani’s Theory of Poetic Imagery (Warminster: Aris & Phillips, 1979). as we find in the field of optics (Ibn al-Haytham). Abdelhamid Sabra has pioneered the study of perception and optics in Ibn al-Haytham, 20 See Nader El-Bizri, “Classical and Nader El-Bizri has shown its relevance for the development of per- Optics and the Perspectiva Traditions 20 Leading to the Renaissance”, in spectiva in the Renaissance. In his recent book Florence and Baghdad: Renaissance Theories of Vision, ed. Renaissance Art and Arab Science Hans Belting extended this path of Charles Carman and John Hendrix inquiry to develop an answer to the question why perspective did not (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2010), 11–30. develop in the Islamic World.21 Although tangential to discussions 21 Hans Belting, Florence and Baghdad: of beauty, alchemical discussions on how one thing can be made to Renaissance Art and Arab Science, appear as another ( Jabir Ibn Hayyan), oneiric writings on dreams and trans. Deborah Lucas Schneider (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University the imagination (al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, Ghazali, Ibn Arabi, Suhrawardi, Press, 2011). etc.), and lexicographic sources have much to contribute to broader

10 kalam journal • 1/2018 aesthetic discussions.22 This approach to the sources has yet to receive the attention it deserves and investigations of this kind will prove quite fruitful in demonstrating the existence of multiple aesthetic traditions in classical Islamic thought. Second, one can search the oeuvre of one single author for references to “beauty” and “aesthetics” correlata and then try to recon- struct a specific theory of beauty or aesthetics and trace its evolution throughout the author’s work. In the area of Islamic studies no comparable work exists except for the pioneering work of José Miguel Puerta 22 Vílchez on medieval Arabic aesthetics Historia del pensamiento estético See Charbel Dagher, Madhahib al-husn (Beirut: al-Markaz al-Thaqafi árabe, al-Andalus y la estética árabe clásica. Vílchez’s great achievement al-‘ Arabi, 1998); Adam Mestyan, is to have demonstrated, through his examination of original sources, “Arabic Lexicography and European the existence of several medieval Arab/Islamic aesthetic sensibilities. Aesthetics: the Origin of Fann”, Muqarnas: An Annual on the Visual His survey of the medieval Islamic intellectual thinking on aesthetics Cultures of the Islamic World 28 (2011): is breathtaking. From Abbasid poetics and al-Farabi to Ibn Sina, Ibn 69–100. Hazm, and Ibn al-Haytham, and from Hazim al-Qartajani and Ghazali 23 There are also smaller and more to Ibn Arabi, Vílchez leaves no possible source unexplored. Vílchez’s specialized works such as: Richard is the only anthology-long work on classical Arab/Islamic aesthetics.23 Ettinghausen, “Al-Ghazali on Beauty”, Third, one could approach the topic thematically by choosing a in Fine Arts in Islamic Civilization, ed. Muhammad Abdul Jabbar Beg (Kuala specific theme and then go about archaeologically digging through the Lumpur: University of Malaya Press, sources for all that has been written about it. A case can be made for 1981), 21–31; Carole Hillenbrand, several important themes that seem to be of central concern whenever “Some Aspects of al-Ghazali’s Views on Beauty”, in Gott ist schön und Er the topic of beauty is discussed in the Islamic tradition: the beauty of liebt die Schönheit [God is beautiful and God; intelligible vs. sensible beauty; the symbolism of light; proportion He loves beauty] (Berlin: Peter Lang, and harmony; the dangers of the gaze; psychology of beauty; the image, 1994), 249–67; Valérie Gonzalez, “Beauty and Aesthetic Experience in imagination, and beauty; creativity and beauty; the human form; and Classical Arabic Thought”, in Beauty many others. These topics may not have been thematized in Islamic in Islam: Aesthetics in Islamic Art and thought as separate fields of investigation but that does not mean Architecture (London: I.B. Tauris, 2001), wherein she surveys the works they are not there in potentia. Thematization, through asking the right of Ibn Hazm, Ibn Sina, Ibn Rush, kinds of questions, crystalizes a wide range of material into a coher- and Ibn al-Haytham. There are the ent form whence previously there was no form. This third approach more recent book-length works by Mohammed Hamdouni Alami on usually relies on the meticulous work done by scholars of the first and al-Jahiz Art and Architecture in the second approaches and has its own challenges. For one, it presupposes Islamic Tradition: Aesthetics, Politics, an expertise in several areas of Islamic studies across a long stretch of and Desire in Early Islam (London: I.B. Tauris, 2011), and Cyrus Ali Zargar, time. For example, “the symbolism of light” would cover the Qur’anic Sufi Aesthetics: Beauty, Love, and the light verse, its related exegeses, the hadith references to the visio dei Human Form in the Writings of Ibn as one of light, kalam debates over the , Ibn Sina’s reference to Arabi and Iraqi (Columbia, SC: visio dei The University of South Carolina the Supreme Being as a dazzling light, Ghazali’s Mishkat al-anwar, Ibn Press, 2011). Rushd on God as light, and of course Akbarian and ishraqi light mysticism up until the nineteenth century.24 24 This thematic approach is adopted by Doris Behrens-Abouseif in her It is more accurate, then, to conclude from all of this that medieval Beauty in Arabic Culture (Princeton: Islamic civilization possessed not one but several aesthetic sensibili- Markus Wiener Publishers, 1999). ties. Oliver Leaman seems to suggest as much and the sources bear out The chapter titles clearly show such 25 a thematic method: The Religious his contention. This is why it is necessary to refer to Islamic sensibili- Approach, Secular Beauty and Love, ties in the plural rather than sensibility in the singular. Certainly, the Sufi Music and Belles Lettres, The Visual view that understands the phenomenal reality of multiplicity as funda- Arts. Further subsections have titles like: Symbolism of Light, Fauna, mentally unreal and envisages a realm of being that is more real yields Human Beauty, Love, and Literary a very different aesthetics than one that envisages the phenomenal Criticism. Her attempt at such an world as solely the realm of physical and worldly pleasure. investigation, however, has led to premature conclusions and a trun- One of the tasks facing the scholar and historian of beauty and cated account of beauty in medieval aesthetics in classical Islamic thought could be to prepare the mono- Islamic culture. graphs on which more generalized studies can rely. In the limited space 25 Oliver Leaman, Islamic Aesthetics: An available in the rest of this paper, I will begin with an excursus through Introduction (Edinburgh: Edinburgh the etymology of the word jamal and its occurrences in the Qur’an and University Press, 2004).

kalam journal • 1/2018 11 then explore two traditional topics in classical Islamic thought that are of contemporary relevance from an aesthetic point of view. The first is from kalam and the second is the overarching theme of “the gaze”, which are examples of the first and third approaches discussed earlier, respectively. I shall have to leave the second approach, which would have focused on a single author, for a separate essay altogether. The following discussion is not meant to be exhaustive but representative only and it is hoped it will raise questions that can be pursued further.

ETYMOLOGY, DEFINITION To begin, jamal is the Arabic word often used to designate beauty. Jamal is derived from the consonantal root j-m-l. It is the verbal noun of al-jamil meaning ‘the beautiful’ with the causative form jammala meaning ‘to beautify’. In classical Arabic lexicons, jamal is defined as “beauty in actions and constitution”. It can be applied to the form (suwar) or meaning (ma ani) of things. There are many Arabic synonyms for jamal such as husn,26 which figures in the Qur’an and primarily refers to moral goodness or else divine beauty and beneficence. While the Qur’an refers to both husn and jamal interchangeably in an ethical and aesthetic sense, the terms have gradually come to refer to different aspects of beauty: husn is related to action and moral goodness while jamal is related to beauty of form.27 With time Muslim theologians, particularly Sufis, began categorizing the divine epithets into two groups: attributes of majesty (sifat al-jalal) and attributes of beauty (sifat al-jamal).28 Malih, a more common word, carries the connotation of ‘delecta- ble’ or ‘tasty’ on account of adding salt to something. Another synonym wasim usually refers to human beauty. In this paper I shall be exploring the terms jamal and ilm al-jamal or the ‘science of beauty’, which we may equate with aesthetics. However, as we shall see, even jamal is not inseparable from moral and epistemological considerations.

QUR’ANIC CONTEXT The Qur’an mentions jamal in a restricted sense and at least eight times, once as a verbal noun and the others as an adjective in an ethical context such as when God describes Jacob’s patience (sabr) at the realization that his son Joseph may have been killed by the wolves: “And they came with false blood on his shirt. He said: ‘Nay, but your minds have beguiled you into something. [My course is] comely patience (sabr jamil). And Allah it is whose help is to be sought in that [predicament] which ye describe’” (Qur’an 12:18; see also 12:83, 70:5); or when He describes forgiveness: “We created not the heavens and the earth and all that is between them save with truth, and lo! the Hour is surely com- 26 The debate in the Islamic tradition ing. So forgive, O Muhammad, with a gracious forgiveness ( )” on the moral goodness of human safh jamil (15:85; see also 33:49, 33:28). action revolves around the husn and qubh of an action. For a summary The exception to the Qur’anic use of beauty in an ethical context of this debate, see Ibn al-Qayyim is the verse where beauty is described as an attribute of things: “And al-Jawziyya, Madarij al-salikin, ed. Muhammad Rashid Rida (Cairo: wherein is beauty (jamal) for you, when ye bring them [camel and Matba at al-Manar, 1330–33/1912–15). horses] home, and when ye take them out to pasture” (16:6). The Qur’an is also replete with expressions denoting ‘beauty’ such 27 Ibn Manzur, Lisan al- Arab, 15 vols. (Beirut: Dar Sadir, 1432/2011), s.v. as zina (decorum), which is used quite extensively in the Qur’an in both “j-m-l”. a positive and negative sense. In the active sense zayyana (to beautify, to embellish) has a positive meaning such as: “And verily in the heaven 28 Sachiko Murata, The Tao of Islam: A We have set mansions of the stars, and We have beautified ( ) Sourcebook on Gender Relations in Islam zayyanna (Albany: SUNY Press, 1992), 102. it for beholders” (15:16); or as ornament: “Lo! We have placed all that

12 kalam journal • 1/2018 is in the earth as an ornament (zina) thereof that We may try them: which of them is best in conduct” (18:7; see also 49:7, 50:6, 67:5). We can conclude from these verses that zina or beauty is intrinsic to the nature of things and is intended by God in His creation. In this sense, the Qur’an anticipates later kalam discussions for the proof of God from the beauty, harmony, and order of the cosmos and the philosophical insistence that “the beauty (jamal) and splendor (baha’) of all things consists in that everything has to be as it has to be”.29 Beauty is also discussed in the Qur’an as a form of human ornament (7:25, 16:14, 18:30, 35:12, 43:71, 76:21) and so even jewelry and decoration are not to be dismissed as superfluous but are part of God’s creation. Therefore, the Qur’an valorizes sensual beauty and does not see it as intrinsically problematic. On the other hand, the Qur’an also uses the word zina in a negative sense to represent vanity, distraction, and illusion. The passive verbal form, zuyyina (made beautiful or beautified), appears in the Qur’an to suggest that beauty may become a veil over the true nature of things: “Beautified zuyyina( ) for mankind is love of the joys [that come] from women and offspring, and stored up heaps of gold and silver, and horses branded [with their mark], and cattle and land. That is comfort of the life of the world. Allah! With Him is a more excellent abode” (3:14; see also Q 2:212, 6:43, 6:122, 6:137, 8:48, 9:37, 10:12, 10:24, 13:33, 15:39, 16:63, 27:24, 29:38, 35:8, 40:37, 41:25, 47:14, 48:12). The following verse is also illustrative of this negative sense: “Know that the life of this world is only play, and idle talk, and pageantry (zina), and boasting among you, and rivalry in respect of wealth and children; as the likeness of vegeta- tion after rain, whereof the growth is pleasing to the husbandman, but afterward it drieth up and thou seest it turning yellow then it becometh straw. And in the Hereafter there is grievous punishment, and [also] forgiveness from Allah and His good pleasure, whereas the life of the world is but matter of illusion” (57:20). These Qur’anic references to the negative aspect of zina led to the development of a body of literature on the censuring of the gaze or its purification. We shall discuss this in a later section. The Qur’an also perceptively refers to the effects of beauty upon the perceiver’s eye or soul when it uses terms like gladdening (tusirru from surur), pleasure ( ajab), and delight/sweetness of the eye (lidhdhat al- ayn): “Verily she is a yellow cow. Bright is her color, gladdening (tusirru) beholders” (2:69); the cow gladdens because of its exquisite beauty. Addressing His prophet God says (33:52): “It is not allowed thee to take [other] women henceforth nor that thou shouldst change them for other wives even though their beauty (husn) pleased (a jabaka) thee” (33:52). Describing paradise the Qur’an says: “Therein are brought round for them trays of gold and goblets, and therein is all that souls desire and eyes find sweet lidhdhat( al- ayn)” (43:71). We also read: “Is not He [best] who created the heavens and the earth, and sendeth down for you water from the sky wherewith We cause to spring forth joyous (bahja) orchards, whose trees it never hath been yours to cause to grow” (27:60); and: “Therefore Allah hath warded off from them the evil of that day, and hath made them find brightness nadra( ) and joy” 29 José Miguel Puerta Vilchez, (76:11; see also 83:24). Historia del pensamiento estético árabe Qur’anic commentaries on these verses provide a wide range of (Madrid: Ediciones Akal, 1997), 587–8, who cites Ibn Sina’s Kitab al-naja; meditations on the meaning of jamal and its cognates and await the Gonzalez, “Beauty and Aesthetic work of a patient and meticulous scholar. Experience”, 14.

kalam journal • 1/2018 13 KALAM’S ARGUMENT FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD: THE PROOF FROM DESIGN Kalam or Islamic scholastic theology is a rich source of speculation on a wide variety of topics central to the Islamic religion. Kalam originated as a rational discourse in defense of articles of basic Islamic belief but soon developed into a rational dialectic that operates on theological concepts. Though kalam debates are not always explicitly about beauty many do have an “aesthetic” aspect. For the purposes of this survey I shall briefly explore the argument for the existence of God from design. The argument on whether belief in God should be founded on a rational basis has a long and complex history in Islamic thought. Early scholastic theologians (mutakallimun) held that rational reflection (nazar) was an indispensable tool for establishing belief in God on a sound footing while traditionalist theologians held the view that a simple belief that accorded with scriptural creeds sufficed. Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328) and Ghazali argued that knowledge of God’s existence was innate (fitra) and did not require discursive reasoning. Rational proofs were needed for those few whose fitra was unsound or suffered from doubts. Ghazali argued further for direct experience or witnessing of God, which renders all other methods of knowing God superfluous. The rational proofs for God’s existence were categorized by Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (d. 1210) into four different types. The one that concerns us here is the teleological argument or the argument from design, which argues that the manifest order of the cosmos points to a God who willed it this way. The Qur’an (3:191) itself directs the reader to this mode of thinking. Perhaps the most powerful Qur’anic reference to the beauty of the cosmos is: “He perfected the creation of everything that He created (ahsana kulla shayin khalaqahu)” (32:7). This verse and the meaning of ahsana and ihsan have triggered some of the most elaborate theological, philosophical, and mystical writings in the Islamic tradition that tackle the issue of design and has a long history in Islamic thought and included major figures like al-Kindi (d. 873), Abu Bakr al-Razi (d. 925), Ibn Hazm (d. 1064), Ghazali, Ibn Rushd (d.1198), and Fakhr al-Din al-Razi. The argument, as Razi puts it, sounds something like this:

Whoever contemplates the various parts of the higher and lower worlds will find that this world is constructed in the most advantageous and best manner, and the most super- lative and perfect order (tartib). The mind unambiguously testifies that this state of affairs cannot be except by the governance (tadbir) of a wise and knowledgeable [being].30

What stands out in Razi’s argument, as Ayman Shihadeh has aptly shown, is a distinction between two types of evidence for design. The 30 Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, al-Matalib al- first is that of providence and the second that of order. The advan- ‘aliya min al- ilm al-ilahi, ed. Ahmad al-Saqqa, 8 vols. (Beirut: Dar al-Ki- tages (manafi ) that Razi refers to imply a God who shows beneficence tab al- Arabi, 1987), 1:233; Ayman (ihsan) towards His creatures, while the signs of order or masterly order Shihadeh, “The Existence of God”, in ( , ) in the world refer to a God possessed of wisdom ( ) The Cambridge Companion to Classical ihkam itqan hikma . Islamic Theology, ed. Tim Winter Very early on al-Kindi had referred to the first type of evidence as (Cambridge: Cambridge University the argument from providence (dalil inaya) when he said: “The orderly Press, 2008), 202. and wonderful phenomena of nature could not be purposeless and acci- 31 31 Oliver Leaman, Contemporary Issues in dental.” The classical Islamic theologian Baqillani put it succinctly Islam (New York: Routledge, 2014), 37. when he stated that “the world must have a Maker and Fashioner

14 kalam journal • 1/2018 (muhdith wa musawwir) just as writing must have a writer, a picture must have a painter, and a building a builder”.32 But it is the second type of evidence that concerns us the most, the evidence from order, because of the manner in which the mutakallimun meditated on the loci of contemplation (mahal al-i tibar) in the cosmos. Razi takes his cue from the Qur’an itself: “Verily, in the creation of the heavens and of the earth, and the succession of night and day: and in the ships that speed through the sea with what is useful to man: and in the waters which God sends down from the sky, giving life thereby to the earth after it had, been lifeless, and causing all manner of living creatures to multiply thereon: and in the change of the winds, and the clouds that run their appointed courses between sky and earth—[in all this] there are messages indeed for people who use their reason” (2:164). For Razi this verse contains eight types of evidence or loci. In the lower world these are: the human body, the human psyche, animals, plants, min- erals, meteorological phenomena, seas, mountains, the elements, and the general symbiotic relationship between them all that upholds such order therein. In the higher world these are: the celestial spheres and the planets (their magnitudes, complex motions, and their influence on the lower world), the daily, monthly, and annual cycles that result from the movement of the celestial bodies, the dependency of things in the world on the sun’s motion, and the marvels of the fixed and moving stars.33 What was so appealing to the mutakallimun about the argument from design, and what is still so relevant today, is its foundation in an empirical epistemology. Working through a physico-theological proof we come to know God through our senses, reason, and our entire being. This empirical procedure is perfectly suited to the requirements of reason defended by kalam but it is much more, and it is in this much more that we are staking our claim for its “aesthetic” relevance. The design argument is not solely rational but contains elements of the affective and intuitive. It was not merely about being rationally swayed by the force of the arguments concerning design but also affec- tively convinced by the design itself, namely, the cosmos. Ghazali dedicated an entire book to the argument from design and what strikes the reader is the aesthetic contemplation to which it invites. In his al-Hikma fi makhluqat Allah he refers in the introduction to the Qur’anic verse (10:101), which is an invitation to “deep thinking (tafakkur) concerning the wonder of His creation” that ultimately leads to “certainty taking root” in the depths of one’s soul.34 In a moment reminiscent of a profound Romantic sensibility Ghazali contemplates the beauty of a tree, which stands there with its “roots deep in the earth to absorb water; 32 Majid Fakhry, “The Classical its branches, leaves, and fruits nurtured thereof; the earth a nurturing Islamic Arguments for the Existence 35 mother on whose bosom the tree’s branches and leaves suckle”. of God”, The Muslim World 47 (1957): Commenting on verse (3:191) Razi says: “If the tongue is immersed 133–45; al-Baqillani, al-Tamhid (Cairo: Dar al-Fikr al- Arabi, 1366/1947), 45. in remembrance and the bodily organs in thankfulness, and mind in thought, the whole servant will be immersed in all his parts in servant- 33 al-Razi, al-Matalib al- aliya, 233–6; hood. . . . How comely is this order of drawing spirits from creation to Shihadeh, “Existence of God”, 202–3. Razi has a remarkably detailed med- their Creator.” This suggests that one’s entire being is addressed by the itation on this verse (Qur’an 2:164) Divine and the response can only be likewise by one’s entire being in a in his Great Commentary on the Qur’an deeply contemplative moment. that echoes what has been said above.

Although not explicitly dealing with aesthetics, the kalam argu- 34 Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, al-Hikma ment for the existence of God through design contains rich aesthetic fi makhluqat Allah, ed. Muhammad implications. If one looks at some of Ghazali and Razi’s descriptions of Rashid Qabbani (Beirut: Dar Ihya al- Ulum, 1398/1978), 14. nature and cosmic order one sees that the human sense of awe, wonder, and pleasure in the face of the beauty of God’s creation is integrated 35 Ibid., 103. kalam journal • 1/2018 15 36 al-Razi, al-Matalib al- aliya, 236; into the design argument. The intrinsic harmony, order, and beauty of Shihadeh, “Existence of God”, 204. the cosmos are contemplative proofs of God’s hand in its creation. But 37 al-Razi, al-Matalib al- aliya, 239; it is the manner in which this argument is established that is so interest- Shihadeh, “Existence of God”, 204; a similar strategy is also adopted ing. What stands out in both Ghazali and Razi’s argument is the sheer by William Paley, Natural Theology rhetorical power and poetic beauty of their account of the proofs from or Evidences of the Existence and design. Although they are considered a form of rational proof, they do Attributes of the Deity (Landisville, PA: Coachwhip Publications, 2005), 182. not hold up to rational scrutiny but rather, according to Razi, this type of argument mimics the “method ( ) of the Qur’an”, which is to 38 tariqa Richard Swinburne, The Existence combine demonstrative and rhetorical modes of discourse for maximal of God (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), 13–15. See also: “God has efficacy in humans and which is why for Razi it is the more superior reason to make a basically beautiful argument.36 This involves the faculties of sense perception and the world, although also reason to leave some of the beauty or ugliness of the imagination alongside reason in arriving at this contemplative truth. world within the power of creatures These classical kalam arguments, though traditionally secondary to determine; but he would seem to the proof from ( ), are vital for contemporary to have overriding reason not to creation ex nihilo huduth make a basically ugly world beyond debates on intelligent design. One type of argument that has been the powers of creatures to improve. gaining philosophical momentum is called the “aesthetic argument” or Hence, if there is a God there is more the “argument from beauty” to distinguish it from other design argu- reason to expect a basically beautiful world than a basically ugly one. A ments. The point of departure for such an argument is that beauty is priori, however, there is no particu- an objective aspect of the world that is felt, known, and appreciated lar reason for expecting a basically by everyone as somehow innate, natural, and undeniably anchored in beautiful rather than a basically ugly world. In consequence, if the world is experience. The kalam argument for the existence of God from design beautiful, that fact would be evidence falls squarely within this type of aesthetic contemplation. One could for God’s existence. For, in this case, if call it an “aesthetic argument” in the sense that like the Qur’anic we let k be ‘there is an orderly physical universe’, e be ‘there is a beautiful method, an argument from design is both effective and affective: effec- universe’, and h be ‘there is a God’, tive in igniting rational reflection and affective in moving the soul. P(e/h.k) will be greater than P(e/k). “Aesthetic arguments” for the existence of God have become of topical . . . Few, however, would deny that our universe (apart from its animal concern in recent philosophical debate. As Shihadeh has pointed out and human inhabitants, and aspects in regards to Razi’s rhetorical strategy, although individual arguments subject to their immediate control) has that beauty. Poets and painters don’t seem convincing enough, the cumulative force of these “aes- 37 and ordinary men down the centuries thetic” arguments may achieve certainty, a strategy acknowledged and have long admired the beauty of the defended in contemporary theology by Richard Swinburne38 and also orderly procession of the heavenly 39 bodies, the scattering of the galaxies by F. R. Tennant and Keith Ward, among others. through the heavens (in some ways A kalam aesthetics is as much about the perception of beauty as it random, in some ways orderly), and is about the perception of truth. Our medieval mutakallimun knew this the rocks, sea, and wind interacting on earth, ‘The spacious firmament on very well. It is truth that is the teleological aim of any perceptive act high, and all the blue ethereal sky’, the and in the Qur’an where al-haqq designates both Truth and God, the water lapping against ‘the old eternal Real, God becomes the eschaton of every perceptive act. This is what is rocks’, and the plants of the jungle and of temperate climates, contrasting meant by the declaration of tawhid ‘to make one’, which the mutakalli- with the desert and the Arctic wastes. mun painstakingly elaborated on.40 It is to realize in every perceptive Who in his senses would deny that act the underlying unity behind the multiplicity of phenomena. here is beauty in abundance? If we confine ourselves to the argument There are yet many more areas of kalam that can be mined for from the beauty of the inanimate and aesthetic discussions such as the debate over the inimitability of the plant worlds, the argument surely Qur’an, the nature of language and meaning, atomism,41 the early works.” Richard Swinburne, “The Argument from Design”, in Philosophy Maturidi emphasis on hikma in creation, and so on. The promise of of Religion: An Anthology, ed. Louis kalam is that it is still a living tradition that informs theoretical spec- Pojman and Michael Rea (Boston: ulations central to Islam today. What is important to keep in mind is Wadsworth, 2012), 201. the manner in which kalam discussions are mutually imbricated with 39 Frederick Robert Tennant, legalistic, philosophical, and mystical discourses. Philosophical Theology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1935–37); Keith Ward, God, Chance, and Necessity THE GAZE (Oxford: One World, 1996). Despite the centrality of the intelligible–sensible beauty binary to 40 This is an important point that medieval Islamic philosophical and theological thought, beauty was a differentiates an Islamic aesthetics from a Christian one preoccupied living moral and a psychological reality. Far from being merely a topic with the Trinity. of intellectual conjecture or universal conceptual discourse, by far

16 kalam journal • 1/2018 most references to beauty speak of it as an objective, concrete, tan- 41 Another aspect of kalam that gible, experiential, and living phenomenon of life with consequences has a bearing on aesthetics is its for human well-being and the soul. Muslim theologians, philosophers, atomistic theology, particularly jurists, and mystics distinguished between different categories of plea- kalam’s meditations on the stuff of which the cosmos is made. See Yasser sure evinced by beauty depending on the instincts and desires they sat- Tabbaa, The Transformation of Islamic isfied and the excellence of their objects, ranging from the appetitive Art during the Sunni Revival (Seattle: to the abstract and from the material to the spiritual.42 University of Washington Press, 2001), where, speaking of the origins Muslim scholars also studied the various claims beauty makes on our of the muqarnas, he suggests that “in visual capacities. As such, they took very seriously the twofold effect of order to represent an occasionalist beauty as either a sign/trace of God or a snare that draws the soul away view of the world, a fragmented and ephemeral-looking dome was created 43 from God. The Qur’an talks about the “the glance that betrays (kha’ by applying muqarnas to its entire inat al-a yun) and that God knows”44 and at the same time, the Qur’an surface, from transition zone to apex. addresses the human being to look, stare, and contemplate the beauty This procedure creates the comprehensive effect intended to reflect the of the visible cosmos with the eyes (15:16, 49:7, 50:6, 67:5). Therefore fragmented, perishable, and transient the eye is charged with a double capacity: it is either equated with pas- nature of the universe while alluding sion, which leads to sin, or else with perceptive knowledge, which leads to the omnipotence and eternity of God, who can keep this dome from to God. Taking their cue from various Qur’anic verses, Muslim schol- collapsing, just as He can keep the ars developed a clear distinction between vision (ru’ya), sight (hassat universe from destruction”, 133. al-basar), and the gaze (nazar). Ru’ya refers to the capacity of the eye 42 The “psychology of beauty” is to perceive the Divine and is related to well-developed theological, likewise another overarching theme philosophical, and mystical debates surrounding the ; found in Islamic thought that war- visio dei hassat rants an in-depth study. al-basar means the ability to see, the act of seeing, and was studied in 43 great detail by Muslim scientists;45 while nazar, more than just the act The Qur’anic references to the beauties of nature and paradise are of seeing, has the psychological connotations of power and human will extremely concrete, sensual, and and therefore was the subject of moral and ethical strictures. positive and are suggestive of a unique Beyond merely a legalistic trope, the crucial question of the gaze blend of Platonic eros and sensual- ism. As Tim Winter has brilliantly was so widely rooted in Islamic culture that it was one of its defining shown, in contrast to the Christian aspects and led to a “pedagogy of vision” in Islam, rooted in the recog- description of paradise, “the Islamic nition of the dual effect of beauty and its force of attraction called love. paradise, by contrast, is eroticised, its maidens both ‘hidden in tents’, But love, which is caused by beauty, is understood quite differently and also so exposed that their bones whether we are looking at a Ghazali or an Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, can be perceived beneath their the former an Ash ari theologian/Sufi, the latter a Hanbali theologian/ skin. No prolepsis here; or rather, a patristic peccatism has been inverted jurist. completely: sexuality, and its site the In the Ihya’ Ghazali deals with beauty and the beautiful in the con- privacies of the body, have become, text of his investigation into the nature of love, a topic very dear to for the Qur’anic faithful, a proleptic anticipation of the joys of the elect.” Ghazali considering that for him the love of God is the final aim of the The naturalism of the paradisal garden spiritual path. The basic articulation of this principle is aptly expressed is “portrayed with a kind of rhetorical in the following statement of his: “Everything whose perception gives intensification, ensuring that while our world is reliably indicative, it points to pleasure and satisfaction is loved by the one who perceives it”, from a paradisial state of proximity whose which Ghazali draws the conclusion that everything beautiful will be description in scripture must be itself loved, because it gives pleasure. Although for Ghazali love has many a veil as well as a window”. Likewise, causes, only beauty is loved “for its own sake and not for a benefit”. the Qur’an (24:31) perceives “conspic- uous female adornment” as fitna, as a This love of beauty for its own sake is most evident in our love for ‘public sedition’ while simultaneously nature, such as the Prophetic love of “green meadow and running valorising sexuality and hence the body, particularly the female form. See water”, which is not enjoyed for any benefit but for its own sake. The Tim Winter, “The Chador of God on cosmos is intrinsically beautiful a priori. Earth: The Metaphysics of the Muslim Although Ghazali considers the perception of beauty an innate fac- Veil”, New Blackfriars 85, no. 996 (March 2004): 144–57. ulty (fitra), it requires a different “eye” or mode of vision to perceive deeper degrees of beauty. In addition to the beauty perceivable by the 44 Ibid. senses, Ghazali refers to another kind of beauty that is perceivable by 45 Most notably theories of vision by the “eye of the heart” or the “light of the inner vision” (basira), which al-Kindi, Ibn al-Haytham, and Kamal perceives the beauty of the inner world (al-batin). The inner beauty is al-Din al-Farisi. See David Lindberg, Theories of Vision from Al-Kindi more perfect and greater than the outer (al-zahir) beauty, and the inner to Kepler (Chicago: University of eye of the heart is keener in perception than the eye, hence the pleasure Chicago Press, 1976).

kalam journal • 1/2018 17 of the heart over the divine objects it perceives, and which are too lofty for the eye to see, more perfect and greater. They are everywhere evident for those who have the inner eye open. Ghazali’s logic is that the love of the “world of appearances” is a natural love, a universal urge within every soul, even found in an atheist; but the love of the inner form is loftier and requires piercing the veils to see it. The prospects of an inner beauty opens up a different horizon of beauty altogether, namely, that all outward beauty reveals an inner beauty that leads to God for “all things are marks of His power, rays of His knowledge, astounding testimonies of His wisdom, and reflections of His beauty. . . . Nothing besides Him has real existence, because the existence of all things is only the reflection of the light of His existence.” This is the meaning, for Ghazali, of the Prophetic tradition “God is beautiful and He loves beauty”, for “He must by necessity be loved by him to whom His beauty and majesty is revealed”. The implications for the horizon of one’s spiritual vision are enor- mous. For Ghazali, under the right conditions, sight is not restricted to the sensible plane, even though it constitutes its point of departure. Eyesight (basar) is a prelude for insight (basira) and eventually vision (ru’ya) of God. Therefore, perception of beauty is a mode of a remembrance of God and requires a special mode of being. The crucial factor in the perception of beauty is to be beautiful (ihsan). Though equally occupied with the question of love and beauty, the Hanbali school was overwhelmingly concerned with the ethical implications of beauty.46 Ibn al-Jawzi’s Dhamm al-hawa is one of the earliest accounts of this concern. According to al-Jawzi’s account of the psychological make-up of man, man is torn between reason ( aql) and passion (hawa). While the necessary role that the sensual passions play in life must not be censured absolutely, they must be reined in when they exceed the bounds set for them by the Law. Ibn al-Jawzi’s extremely wary attitude towards the passions is Qur’anic: “And he follows his low desires (hawahu) and his case exceeds due bounds” (18:28). It is also 46 Joseph Norment Bell has done the found in hadith: “There is no god under heaven more odious to Allah remarkable job of documenting them than a man’s passion when he has yielded to it”, and the Qur’anic verse in his Love Theory in Later Hanbalite Islam (Albany: SUNY Press, 1979), “Hast thou considered him who takes his lusts (hawahu) for his god” focusing on: Abu al-Faraj Ibn al-Jawzi (45:23). Therefore, passion is often associated with that which is blame- (d. 597/1200), Ahmad Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328), the latter’s student Ibn worthy as Ibn Abbas is reported to have said: “Nowhere did God men- Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 751/1350), tion hawa in His Book without blaming it.”47 and Mar i ibn Yusuf al-Karmi (d. How is passion ignited? Here lies the crux of the argument. It all 1033/1624). Their work constitutes an important source of our knowledge of begins with the gaze (nazar). The faculty of vision is the means by the widespread Islamic concern with which the flames of passion are ignited and which is why the Qur’an the dangers of beauty and the gaze. and the Law prescribe that it be restrained: “Say to the believers that I will look at Ibn al-Jawzi and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya as representative they cast down their eyes” (24:30). Ibn al-Jawzi quotes the famous examples. address of the Prophet to Ali: “Do not follow up the first glance with another; the first is permitted to you, but not the second.” Again using 47 Ibn al-Jawzi, Dhamm al-hawa, ed. Mustafa Abd al-Wahid (Cairo: Dar the analogy of an arrow: “ Ali, beware the second glance, for it is a poi- al-Kutub al-Haditha, 1381/1962), 12–13; soned arrow which stirs up desire in the heart.” The second glance was Bell, Love Theory, 16. later prohibited by Islamic law. Satan embellishes (yuzayyinu) what is 48 not intrinsically beautiful. Recall what we said earlier about the in Ibn al-Jawzi, Dhamm al-hawa, 86; zina 48 Bell, Love Theory, 19–20. the Qur’an. Ibn al-Jawzi’s strictures against the gaze were primarily directed at 49 Ghazali himself equally con- demned the gazing at beardless youth the Sufis who engaged in the contemplation of objects, women, and with sexual desire, as do most Sufis. beardless youth, a practice Ibn al-Jawzi considered idolatrous.49 For

18 kalam journal • 1/2018 al-Jawzi the practice of gazing at women, beardless youth, or beautiful objects was a corollary of the doctrine of hulul. Ibn al-Jawzi took the Sufi belief in the beatific vision in this world through the faculty of sight as a blasphemous doctrine imported into Islam. Here we have more than just a moral rejection but a theological one too, aimed at the Sufi practice of gazing at physical beauty and its corresponding theories of love, particularly passionate love ( ishq). The primary cause of passionate love, for Ibn al-Jawzi, is gazing (nazar), but it is not just the single glance but rather persistent gazing. Ibn al-Jawzi does not reject love, for it is an inclination towards the beautiful and the suitable, but “ ishq which exceeds the limit of mere inclination and [normal] love and by possessing the reason causes its victim to act unwisely, is blameworthy, and out to be avoided by the prudent”.50 Ibn al-Jawzi then goes on to recount the stories illustrating the disasters that come to those who give themselves over to this type of love. Following Ghazali before him, Ibn Qayyim likewise identifies beauty as one of the causes of love.51 But he writes not just as a moral- izer but rather “to aid believers in properly subordinating all secondary affections to the supreme love owed to God”. For love is the means, final cause of creation, and the soul’s path to beatitude.52 Ibn Qayyim is primarily interested in mobilizing all human emotions to this noble end. Though Ibn Qayyim extols the virtues of beauty and love as a path towards God, he insists that physical beauty can ravish the heart and lead it away from God. He often speaks of the addiction of the gaze (idman al-nazar). The eye is the mirror of the heart and so it can lead to tarnishing it. Like Ibn al-Jawzi, Ibn Qayyim identifies gazing as the cause of profane love. The gaze, of course, is followed by admiration

( ), contemplation of the object seen ( ), and 50 istihsan al-fikr fi al-manzur Ibn al-Jawzi, Dhamm al-hawa, 306; 53 a desire to possess it (tama ). Gazing takes up most of Ibn Qayyim’s Bell, Love Theory, 37. discussion and follows a similar structure to that of Ibn al-Jawzi. He 51 Ibn al-Jawzi, , 86; unequivocally condemns it leveling critique after critique at those Dhamm al-hawa Bell, Love Theory, 122. In Ibn al-Qa- who adduce evidence in support of it, particularly the Sufis whom he yyim’s writings we find the most elab- accuses of elevating the love of bodily forms ( ishq al-suwar) to the sta- orate treatment of love, beauty, and 54 the gaze in the Hanbali tradition. He tus of a religion under the pretense that it brings them closer to God. was influenced by both the theology Although Ibn Qayyim does admit that divine beauty may be of Ibn Taymiyya, fiqh, and the writings inferred from the sight of earthly beauty, the degree of love for God is of Ibn al-Jawzi, which show a clear influence on hisRawdat al-muhibbin, dependent not on an aesthetic contemplation of nature but rather on Ibn Qayyim’s most comprehensive the degree of knowledge of divine beauty revealed in the sacred texts account on sacred and profane love. and the divine attributes. The most complete knowledge of the divine Although he gives it such importance, he does not show any sophisticated beauty comes from the Qur’an and Sunna. These are the only guaran- understanding of its nuances nor does tee against antinomianism of which he accused the Sufis. he avail himself of the stock of classi- These two accounts of the nature of visual perception reflect a com- cal notions of beauty available within the Islamic tradition before him. He mon underlying concern with our visual capacities. The theological rejects the Platonic doctrine that man differences between the Hanbali school and the Sufis only meant that may progress through a hierarchy of their ethical strictures were different but not their concern with the stages to the ultimate apprehension of supreme beauty, which had influenced possible dangers of beauty. They both acknowledged that beauty could al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, Ghazali, and Ibn be a snare for the would-be initiand and developed a rigorous ascetic Arabi before him. literature for the purification of the gaze, the self, and the heart, but it 52 Ibn Qayyim, , 1; was the Sufi philosophical and theological doctrine of worldly beauty, Rawdat al-muhibbin Bell, Love Theory, 99. as a manifestation of Divine Beauty, that was problematic for many ’ and the Hanbali school. As stated earlier, the gaze became a 53 Ibn Qayyim, Rawdat al-muhibbin, fuqaha 88–9; Bell, , 125. common trope in Islamic culture and the means of purifying it became Love Theory of central concern. 54 Bell, Love Theory, 142.

kalam journal • 1/2018 19 The Islamic gaze is rooted in the Prophetic practice of Ihsan. Ihsan comes from the Arabic husn, which means both goodness and beauty. Without beautifying one’s interior, one cannot perceive the beauty of God, the supreme goal of which is to gaze upon the face of God, if only through a veil. The beauty of this world is a pre-figuration of the Beatific Vision. The true aesthetic experience of beauty, then, is to move from the physical appearance of things, drawn by the power of love evinced by beauty, and rise above them to the supreme Light and Beauty of God. One contemporary scholar puts it succinctly when he states that the danger is that

the experience of beauty becomes a substitute for God, rather than a pathway to Him; it generates , a forget- 55 Reza-Shah Kazemi, “Divine ghafla Beatitude: Supreme Archetype of fulness of God, rather than a dhikr, a remembrance of God; Aesthetic Experience”, in Seeing God it gives rise to an unstable, false and fleeting plenitude which Everywhere, ed. Barry McDonald inflates the ego, rather than to a contemplation of the tran- (Bloomington, IN: World Wisdom, 2003), 216. scendent essences of beauty in the face of which the hardness of the ego is dissolved, and the limitations and pretensions of 56 ’ al-Ghazali, Ihya ulum al-din, the ego are transcended.55 10 vols. (Jeddah: Dar al-Minhaj, 1432/2011), “Book of Love”; see the translation of this book of the Ihya’ While our perceptual and visual capacities deserve an entire mono- in Eric L. Ormsby , Al-Ghazali on graph of their own, the question of itself shows how a broader Love, Longing, Intimacy & Contentment nazar (Cambridge: Islamic Text Society, understanding of aesthetics can do justice to a theory of beauty that 2012); see also Ibn Qayyim, Madarij is at once a theory of being as it is a praxis or phronesis. A profoundly al-salikin. ethical philosophy, then, is implied in the Islamic visio Dei. The vision 57 David Michael Levin, ed., Sites of of the beauty of God results from living the virtuous or beautiful life. Vision: The Discursive Construction Indeed, both Ghazali and Ibn Qayyim describe the practice of virtue of Sight in the History of Philosophy 56 (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999). and piety as adorning the soul. The modest or humble eye is perhaps one way of describing the 58 The relationship between our per- Islamic gaze. Recent scholarship on the gaze has only vindicated this ceptual capacities in the act of being “Islamic” concern. Beyond a merely negative and legalistic view, one beautiful (ihsan) is best exemplified in the ritual prayer and articulated in can situate this Islamic concern within a symbolic cultural perspec- the well-known hadith of Ihsan. After tive of its own rather than subject it to Western ocularcentrism. Of inquiring about the meaning of faith and belief, Gabriel asks the Prophet: particular interest in contemporary philosophy is the growing critique “What is ‘being beautiful’ (ihsan)?” of ocularcentrism, namely, the hegemony of vision as metaphor in the to which the Prophet replies: “To history of the West.57 Perhaps it is this Western obsession with vision worship God as if you see Him, and if you don’t see Him, He sees you.” The in the past few centuries that has stalled a more nuanced and deeper hadith contains all the lineaments of understanding of the Islamic gaze and its deeper relationship in Islamic an Islamic aesthetics: purification, culture to our perceptual capacities of hearing 58 and the body.59 worship, beauty, imagination, and (sama ) vision. The question of the gaze leads naturally to the question of the FINAL THOUGHTS Islamic veil, an infinitely rich and understudied field of inquiry that Is the term “aesthetics” a useful one in the context of studying classi- raises new insights into the nature of cal Islamic thought? What has emerged from our heuristic exploration the image in Islam and a whole host of of aesthetics or and beauty in classical Islamic thought is issues that demand serious scholarly ilm al-jamal attention. Tim Winter has already a much wider and more comprehensive notion of aesthetics than is alluded to the possible relation commonly understood today. It is important to bear in mind that clas- between the Islamic understanding sical Islamic thought invested beauty with various meanings, coached of the veil and aniconism and possible points of dialogue with Lacan’s in several discourses, which led to the development of several Islamic psychoanalysis in his “The Chador aesthetic sensibilities. Classical Islamic thought not only managed to of God”. reconcile the aesthetic enjoyment of beauty with the suspicion of sen- 59 See Mahmoud, “Idols, Icons, & suous attraction, but ultimately also found a significant place for its As-If Images”. pursuit in spiritual life.

20 kalam journal • 1/2018 To those who share their theological or metaphysical basis, such as contemporary mutakallimun, their thought is highly instructive and can suggest ways of engaging with the contemporary world and the critics of theology. To those who are more naturalistic in their orientation and philosophical enterprise, these medieval ruminations pose a serious challenge. For though they show what kind of case can be made for beauty and aesthetics on the basis of religion (theological and metaphysical speculation), they also imply that if the case cannot be made, beauty would be a dreadful evil. What sort of reply can those who approach beauty and aesthetics with very different premises make? The eschewing of questions of ethics, truth, and beauty in contemporary aesthetics is very challenging. However, the growing global interest in cross-cultural philosophical and aesthetic traditions, in general, and the burgeoning new field of “Islamic aesthetics”, in particular, is bringing these themes back to the foreground of contemporary aesthetic discussions and this is a very promising development.

kalam journal • 1/2018 21 Concerns on Philosophy in the Arab World: State of the Art*

Ali El-Konaissi | Zayed University

t is most unfortunate that the place of philosophy in our educa- Dr. Ali El-Konaissi is Professor of Philosophy and Islamic Studies, Zayed tional curricula is so humbled, made incapable of forming the minds University, UAE, and former senior and personalities of our students; and this is due to the foul treat- researcher at the Seminar of Applied I ment directed at philosophy conceptually, as a subject, and with respect Epistemology at the State University of Gent, Belgium, where he was also to methodology, such that a certain minister of education in a particular awarded his PhD in Philosophy. Arab country recently assassinated its own national intellect by removing philosophy from its high school curriculum under the pretext that philosophy is a subject of mere dictation, with no positive impact on a student’s ability to think. Furthermore, philosophy itself has disappeared, or more specifically, “awareness” has disappeared in the educational programs in other Arab countries too on account of flimsy excuses similar to the one above. Policymakers in education appear to have for- gotten the historical truism, established undeniably through the observation of the rise and fall of civilizations, of the relationship between philosophical activity and civilizational blossoming, because simply put, thought is the essence of civilization. The history of Islamic civilization bears witness to this as well. The famous edict of Ibn al-Salah prohibit- ing philosophy and the proliferation of the saying “whoever learns logic becomes a heretic”, were the harbingers of the decline of a civilization built by our forefathers, departing from the idea that philosophy is a crucial element in the traning and education of the religous mind. I had almost come to believe some form of organized, planned sab- otage had taken hold of the Arab world as a result of the violent separation between education and thinking, such that in our educational * I apologize to the reader for the rushed nature of this study. The brief curricula, the policy is thus: teaching comes first, and thinking comes pages that follow cannot account second. This rather dangerous, intended separation between thought for all the developments in Arabic and education—in spite of the inextricable connection between the philosophy, and thus gaps will appear here and there. I also apologize to two according to the most important theories in teaching, such as those many of the great academics in the explicated by Jean Piaget—generations of capable students have been field whose names are not mentioned. at the mercy of the standing educational regimes; just as this barrier, This is not due to their inadequacy but because I meant only to present on the other hand, has been constructed without any consideration of enough examples to make my point, forming critical minds capable of understanding the most basic human rather than attempt to exhaust all values and concepts such as justice, freedom, and dignity. The effects of works and writers. To do otherwise is not possible given the limitations of this separation on the level of public discourse and practice, and in the this paper. Lastly, any critical remarks spread of ignorant religious leaders and preachers occupying the pul- that may be found in this paper are pits and television stations, in addition to the spread of consumerism, not accidental, but based on a large web of evidence and experience in and in the helplessness of our societies in the face of vicious globaliza- the field. tion, and in cultural and epistemological defeat, are indication enough

22 kalam journal • 1/2018 that real philosophical thought with which one would arm oneself with an awareness, enlightenment, and independent reasoning is utterly absent. Indeed, the worst casualty endured by the Arab mind in these ideological raids is the loss of a sense of critical, independent reflection, or philosophizing in the Kantian sense of the term. To evaluate the current state of philosophy in the Arab world this study will investigate the following areas of inquiry in order to work towards an approach to philosophy that will situate the subject within its proper place in education, and thus not allow for future margin- alization: (1) the importance of philosophical thought by stressing its relationship between civilizational and human development; (2) the field of philosophy as development of the mind; (3) teaching philosophy in the Arab world: the teacher, the student, the curriculum designer, the teaching environment; (4) teaching philosophy prior to the university level; (5) teaching philosophy in university at the magisterial and doctoral levels, and post-secondary research; (6) public outreach in philosophy: universities, courses, and conferences; (7) cultural and philosophical initiatives and their inability to move beyond themselves; (8) philosophy in Western academia: is it possible to adopt methods and techniques used in Western academia critically and bene- ficially?; (9) Islamic philosophy: is it possible to blow off the dust from this tradition, learn to properly read and understand it, and grant it its appropriate place in the tapestry of human thought?; (10) harvesting philosophical output from the second half of the twentieth century: edited books, encyclopedic volumes, monographs, translated texts, dominant philosophical trends, philosophical and cultural workshops, media, and university level theses; (11) contemporary philosophical questions; (12) recommendations for schools of the future.

THE NEED FOR PHILOSOPHY IN SOCIAL, REGIONAL, AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT The observer of civilizational history knows well that intellectual revival and enlightenment precede the manifestation of a civilization, which remains indebted to the philosophy that led to the creation of those efforts. The Arabs had indeed covered vast territory in this regard during the late nineteenth century, but sadly have retreated significantly since then, if not worse off than they were prior to that period. It is not even necessary to exert any effort into presenting the evidence for this; a quick glance at the current state of affairs is enough to know that the Arab is at an all-time low: he has lost his identity, he is alienated from his reality, limited in thought, deprived of basic rights, lacking a forum for free thought and discussion under some of the worst educational regimes, in addition to suffering crushing economic pressure; above all, he is afflicted with a deep suspicion of the future. The cause of the aforementioned ailments is attributable to the loss of philosophical thought among both the laity and the elites. By philosophy here, we are referring to a wider sense of the term to mean the art of discovering the reality of things and the removal of impediments from the mind, such that the mind is critical, analytical, and reflective. The disappearance of philosophy from educational curricula in secondary education and the utter neglect of philosophy in post-secondary education has led us to a point where there now exists an profound sense of our philosophical thought. Any attempt at creating a society of critical thinkers with the current educational curricula as a basis is kalam journal • 1/2018 23 akin to trying to build a city on a foundation of sand, for they lack any real philosophical basis. The golden age of Islamic civilization that dominated the nineteenth, tenth, and eleventh centuries, and the European Renaissance beginning in the fifteenth century, used as their point of departure the value of the mind, in addition to inventing methods and tools of thought. Both movements—without prior agreement, as if it were a universal rule to reach an enlightened state, and to extinguish ignorance and backward thought—took to putting themselves and their inherited traditions to deep, reflective criticism, without attempting to protect themselves and without sanctifying their traditions beyond critical analysis. Such phase was about to commence throughout the Islamic societies but the more promising schools of thought and intellectual and philosophical trends that developed in the past century had begun dying as a result of the inability of the following generations to continue the project of their predecessors in developing their work, and instead fell to the claws of a consumerist culture that now dominates the Arab East and West.

THE TEACHING OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE ARAB WORLD Part of this study is an attempt to critically observe the teaching of philosophy in the Arab world. In doing so, however, we will only sample conditions in a number of different Arab countries since the essential issues are shared by the states of the Arab world with respect to the treatment of philosophy. We will use data from Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. Philosophy is taught in secondary schools across the Arab world, with the exception of a number of Arab Gulf states, in varying degrees according to: teaching hours, its coverage early or late in secondary education, whether it is compulsory on all students or only some, such as students of arts curricula, and whether it is possible for non-arts students to also participate in these classes. Lastly, they differ in whether or not philosophy is taught alongside logic. More importantly of course is the material that is actually taught and how effective it is in developing the mind in an ordered manner, and that it is founded on the principles of correct thinking and critical inquiry; for these two elements are the most important in developing students intellectually and spiritually during this critical period of their lives. After perusing a selection of the teaching material currently in use, I have been able to identify the causes that lead students at the secondary level to avoid philosophy on the one hand, along with the main problems with philosophical instruction on the other. Firstly, some of the curricula were merely French material translated directly into Arabic. Others take a historical approach to philosophy, and yet others take philosophical terminology as an entry point, which is both tedious and difficult for students, especially since many of these terms are best understood in their original sense, not through translation into the Arabic language. The remainder of these curricula are simply outdated, and do not reflect any understand whatsoever of the contemporary student body and the conditions in which they live and study. I also perused a number of textbooks from the not-so-distant past, and for example, came across one text written for students in Grade 12, assigned for the 1955–6 school year in Egypt. The title of this text was

24 kalam journal • 1/2018 Philosophical Questions, and on the cover were the names of the great thinkers and educators: Tawfiq al-Tawil, Zaki Najib Mahmud, and Abduh Faraj. The text is distinguished by an astute selection of philosophical topics in a manner that is clear and clarifying. It is a book with real and sincere purpose that likewise produced real results.1

PHILOSOPHY IN ARAB UNIVERSITIES AT THE UNDERGRADUATE LEVEL B Within Egyptian universities today, there exist some fifty departments of philosophy distributed inconsistently throughout the faculties of arts, education, theology, Arabic, and Islamic studies, with seventeen departments at al-Azhar University alone, all of which are associated with theological studies. Beginning in the 1980s, Morocco eliminated all philosophy departments and replaced them with Islamic studies, with the exception of the University of Fez, Rabat, and Marrakesh. These latter universities also offered courses in philosophy for students in preparatory programs throughout all other universities as well. In Tunisia, despite there being some nineteen universities in the country, philosophy is only offered at the universities of Tunis, Kairouan, and Susa, in addition to the faculty at Zaytuna, which mostly emphasizes Islamic philosophy. In Jordan, with twenty universities throughout the country there exists only one department of philosophy at the University of Jordan, in which students may pursue an undergraduate studies or a master’s degree. We should also note here that philosophy has not been taught at Jordanian secondary schools for three decades. The last quarter-century had seen the universities of Qatar, Kuwait, and the UAE embrace high-level philosophical studies, taking on faculty members from the pioneering generation of scholars who left a clear imprint on the younger generations of the Arab Gulf states. It is also noteworthy that the departments of philosophy at Iraqi universities were considered to be the best in the Arab world, and if it had not been for the severe living conditions in Iraq brought on by war and sanctions over the past twenty years, these schools would have been leading the rest in terms of the production of serious philosophical studies, both traditional and modern. The past three decades witnessed a strong interest in philosophy and sociology from students and secondary school graduates. The relationship between the two fields of philosophy and sociology in most Arab universities was noticeable, not least in the first two years of undergraduate study where courses were common to students of both disciplines before they moved on to specializing in the fields of philosophy, psychology, sociology, or anthropology. Nevertheless, as these fields began to grow, and acquire a certain independence from one another starting in the first year of undergraduate studies, new disciplines began to grow out of them: media, communications, political science, and law; the growth of these disciplines also required the division of certain subjects to meet the demands for these new specializations. From a general perspective the central output of the education 1 Compare the analysis and critics of system did not reach high standards resulting in the overall level of Mahmud Amin al- Alim to the afore- philosophical comprehension remained rather low. What is most mentioned book in Philosophy in the astonishing is that this weakness is common to all universities, without Contemporary Arab World: Papers of the First Arabian Philosophical Conference any one country being singled out. Although not exhaustive, what fol- (Beirut: Centre for the Studies of lows are some of the most important of these causes: Arab Unity, 1985), 138–45. kalam journal • 1/2018 25 (1) Most instructors on university level charged with these subjects are not specialized, which in turn forces them to teach the material in a very rudimentary way, such that the content is summarized in a mere amount of pages, which students focus only on memorizing, not understanding. The result is such that university-level education lacks any distinction from the previous levels of education. (2) The lack of access to sources, which in turn has caused a sharp break between the measly content a student acquires for the sake of passing, often with flying colors, and the understanding of the student and their familiarity with its sources. (3) Weak foundational skills among some teachers in language and expertise. (4) General ignorance among students and teaching committees of philosophical language, which is in turn caused by ignorance of terminological developments in other languages, and an inability to keep up with educational innovation in the developed world. (5) Poor communication between teacher and student, mostly due to both the increasing number of students and the failure to develop new solutions to deal with the higher volume of students. (6) The disconnect between the content of study and contemporary problems, and issues of importance to modern Arabs, despite the fact that philosophy is the subject naturally most with these questions. (7) The last and most important of these causes is the lack of proper methods and the loss of true forms of thinking, which has subse- quently led to the loss of critique, which undermines the entire basis of philosophy.

In addition, most if not all departments of philosophy lack both ade- quate teaching curricula for the discipline and a plan for the future, which in turn has led to a type of anarchy, and a loss of milestones with which they can orient themselves. The challenge remains then, for the school of the future, to include among its areas of research, the development of serious strategies with clear goals for the courses involving philosophy, such that they could effectively remedy the aforementioned problems. The relationship between philosophy and the job market is equally problematic, which can be remedied by directing and marketing philosophical studies to areas of greater relevance with contemporary conditions.

PHILOSOPHY AT THE GRADUATE LEVEL Most universities in the Middle East and North Africa have magisterial and doctoral programs. They vary according to the approach they adopt, but generally, most programs grant degrees according to one of two ways. Either the student begins with a preparatory year in their master’s or PhD program, wherein they engage in a set number of courses, such as research methodology, a course related to their area of specialization, in addition to one or more foreign language. After this stage the student begins working on their thesis under the tutelage of one or more supervisor. The second approach involves the student taking a set number of courses distributed across two academic years, wherein their thesis is written in one of the classes and completed within that program.

26 kalam journal • 1/2018 After analyzing a number of master’s and PhD theses (thirty-nine PhD theses, eighty master’s theses), which have been successfully defended, mostly by Egyptian universities, we note the following points:

(1) The number of theses written on subjects relating to Islamic philosophy far exceed all other branches of philosophy combined. After some investigating, including discussions with students, researchers, assistant professors, supervisors, and the theses themselves, I realized that one of the main motives for this is the avoidance of learning the foreign languages necessary to conduct research in those areas, such as the case in modern philosophy, or even medieval or ancient philosophy. What is strange, however, is that some of the aforementioned theses have in their cited works, materials written in foreign languages, but after looking for any reference to these sources in the actual research, I found no such indication. (2) Some supervisors oversaw research outside their field of expertise, irrespective if the subject in question was general or specific. So for example, we have observed some professors who specialize in modern philosophy overseeing research made on Islamic philosophy, or professors of Islamic studies overseeing works conducted on Greek philosophy, or Eastern philosophy. Another example is that of supervisors who specialize in modern logic overseeing research conducted on Islamic philosophy and the history of philosophy. There would be nothing to take issue with here if philosophy were taught differently in the Arab world. The reality is, we have only studied one branch of philosophy in the Arab world, that being the history of philosophy. Thus, we have been learning “about” philosophy, but not learning philosophy itself; the difference between the two cannot be overstated. To learn “about” philosophy only grants the student shallow knowledge of philosophy and a limited scope. To learn philosophy necessitates learning everything acquired from philosophy, in addition to the secrets of the craft, thus making it a holistic, universal approach, where a student learns both how philosophy has been used, and how the student is to exe- cute the art itself. From here we see why the methods used in philosophy at the graduate level have produced such limited results. The students are not trained according to a critical approach of philosophy. The approach is the discipline itself, and a researcher cannot be effective if they lack a critical method that they are skilled in; this is precisel y what is lacking in Arab programs. (3) Experts in the fields of Greek and medieval philosophy, both Christian and Jewish, have caused these subjects to be distributed randomly among the rest of the professors, which has led to a number of repeated studies under different titles. Had there been more experts, they would have known that identical studies had long been completed in other languages. (4) In the samples I have studied, with the exception of partial sections in some of the theses, none of them discuss or approach any contemporary problems that affect us today, nor have they discussed any major questions that have arisen from developments in modern science. None of the works addressed any of the problems specific to the Arab world, such as the relationship between religion and philosophy. It is as if researchers in philosophy are sitting by idly while the rest are actively participating in it. kalam journal • 1/2018 27 (5) The vast majority of the students in this sample have adopted a historical survey approach to their studies, and we find few that have adopted philosophically analytical or critical approaches. The results are theses that lack seriousness and depth, or for lack of a better term, their “philosophicalness”. This is caused either by an unfamiliarity with analytical approaches, or insufficient practice in applying such approaches during the earlier phases of their education, be it undergraduate or graduate-level courses. (6) There is also an apparent weakness in the use and understanding of philosophical terminology. This is partly due to their ignorance of how these terms change across different eras, schools, or individual philosophers. Noteworthy is the unfounded confidence among many writers as a feature of this age, especially when faced with the problem of philosophical terminology.

Despite this, I did find a handful of brilliant examples that demonstrate the aptitude of the student and the seriousness of the supervisor. This, I surmise, is due to the fact that the supervising professor was from a previous age, those driven by an individual passion for their area of expertise. These are the exception, however, not the rule.

ARABIC PHILOSOPHY BETWEEN THE PIONEERING GENERATION AND CONTEMPORARY TRENDS Rational inquiry and the founding of philosophical schools and trends began early in the Ancient East, standing behind its massive civilizational achievements; but it was on the shores of Anatolia in the seventh century ce that the world witnessed the birth of philosophical questions around which we remain gathered to this day in commentary, analysis, contribution, discussion, and refinement. Indeed, hardly any discussion of philosophy today is free from a reference to its Greek roots, in distance or proximity, in the cosmopolitan profile of human history. Afterwards, the Arabs and Muslims more generally, took on the banner of philosophy, bearing their burden for human civilization by preserving that ancient heritage in their own language at a time when philosophy had lost much of its strength in a slowly deteriorating Byzantine Empire. The Arabs and Muslims of this early period excelled at imbibing and understanding Greek philosophy in addition to founding new trends and schools of thought. However, Islamic civilization faced a major setback in its development as a result of massive attacks on philosophy in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. Islamic thought remained in that state until the nineteenth century, producing a major epistemological crisis in the Islamic world that divided its past from its present, and deprived it of a clear vision of the future, while philosophy outside the Arab world continued to advance; Western thought has successfully continued its experiment, connecting its yesterdays to its tomorrows. In the early twentieth century, Arabic thought began once again to feel its way out after a long absence. A generation of intelligent, sincere lovers of philosophy appeared on the scene who had realized at the very outset, the inextricable link of proper thinking to civilizational and cultural revival; proper thinking, that is, whereby thinking is the act of the mind, and philosophy is the training of the mind. In this vein, two trends emerged: one was concerned with blowing the dust

28 kalam journal • 1/2018 from the heritage of our ancestors, while the other was concerned with acquainting itself with Western philosophy and the various manifestations of its ideas. This pioneering generation boasts the names of the great thinkers of the Arab world, to whom it is indebted nearly the entirety of the cultural and philosophical climate since the 1930s to the 1990s: Sheikh Mustafa Abd al-Raziq, the founder of the Modern Islamic Philosophy with respect to its methodology and approach in his text Tamhid fi tarikh al-falsafa al-Islamiyya [Introduction to the history of Islamic philosophy], containing a series of lectures given at various Egyptian universities. Under his tutelage arose a second generation of brilliant students, among them Ali Sami al-Nashhar, who would later compose the excellent study Manahij al-bahth inda mufakkiri al-Islam [Research methods among Islamic thinkers]. Among al-Nashhar’s most significant students would be Ahmad Mahmud Subhi. Another student of Abd al-Raziq is Muhammad Abd al-Hadi Abu Rida, the expert on al-Kindi, who would publish for the first timeRasa ’il al-Kindi al-falsafiyya [Philosophical writings of al-Kindi], and which remains to this day an exemplary model for the accuracy of its content. Abu Rida would also achieve fame for his works reintroducing Islamic atomism, Ibrahim ibn Yasar al-Nazzam, and the Nazzami School. Another of Abd al-Raziq’s students Ibrahim Beyoumi Madkour would publish Fi al-falsafa al-Islamiyya: manhaj wa tatbiq [On Islamic philosophy: method and application], in which he demonstrates a mastery of the Islamic peripatetic school, challenging the idea that Islamic thought is contained exclusively in kalam and usul al-fiqh. Meantime, Mahmud Qasim would dive into the deep seas of Ibn Rushd in his critical edition of Manahij al-adilla fi aqa’id al-milla [Proof methods for the creeds of the Muslims], with a strong introduction critiquing the schools of kalam, completing with strength the project that Ibrahim Beyoumi Madkour started. It was only after these scholars did a new generation of pioneering philosophers come onto the scene. As the foremost scholar of Arab existentialism, Abd al-Rahman Badawi’s doctoral dissertation al-Zaman al-wujudi [Existential time] represented the birth of an Arab mind that was no less capable than its counterparts in the West. His thesis was later edited and published under the title Le Problème de la Morte dans la Philosophie Existentie (1964). He also presented to Arabic readers in general, and specialists in particular, the history of Greek philosophy and the history of Medieval philosophy of Christendom, in addition to his Dirasat wujudiyya [Studies in existentialism] along with tens of translations of Western philosophical works, demonstrating an acute grasp of both modern and ancient European languages, discernable in his independent work, the three-volume Mawsu at al-falsafa [Encyclopedia of philosophy]. There also remained the great thinker Zaki Najib Mahmud. He returned from England with a mastery of logical positivism, for which he produced a great deal of literature in the Arabic language such as his Nahwa falsafa ilmiyya [Towards a scientific philosophy], andKhurafat al-mitafizika [The superstition of metaphysics], only to shift his interests later to the Arabic philosophical heritage, sparking a serious attempt to absorb it, reproduce it, and refine it for future generations in a manner that still deserves serious reflection. Completing the pioneering generation were the great minds of Abu al- Ila Afifi, Muhammad Aziz al-Habbabi, Tawfiq al-Tawil, Zakariyya

kalam journal • 1/2018 29 Ibrahim, al-Tahir ibn Ashur, Husayn Marwa, Kamal Yusuf al-Haj, Yusuf Karam, Muhammad Thabit al-Fandi; the torch would pass on later to the likes of Hasan Hanafi, Fu’ad Zakariyya, Muhammad Abid al-Jabiri, Tayyib Tizini, and other luminescent names in the world of Arabic thought. This generation is perhaps best summarized in the words of Zaki Najib Mahmud, who said that it was ultimately a movement that attempted to transplant Western philosophical thought into Eastern soil, or from the earlier generations of Islam into the culture of the twentieth century. Briefly now, we will attempt to summarize the contemporary philosophical trends present in the Arab world today in what follows: logical positivism, analytic philosophy, and mathmetical logic (Zaki Najib Mahmud); philosophy of language (Kamal Yusuf al-Haj); existentialism ( Abd al-Rahman Badawi); religious existentialism (Zakariyya Ibrahim); Thomism (Yusuf Karam); personalism (Muhammad Aziz al-Habbabi); Islamic phenomenology (Hasan Hanafi); Marxism (Husayn Marwa); structuralism (Muhammad Abid al-Jabiri); and lastly, the interpretation of ancient beliefs and ideology with modern Western forms in Muhammad Arkoun’s philosophy of Islam. Thus we note that some of the major philosophical trends in the Arab world ultimately stem from Western thought before they were developed and branched into their own schools and students. Ultimately, these turned into “Arab” programs of thought that reinter- pret the Islamic tradition through the lens of these imported systems without consideration of the traditional tools of thought and interpretation which developed with them. This can be seen distinctly in Jabiri’s structuralist program Naqd al- aql al- Arabi [Critique of Arabic reason]; Husayn Marwa, who adopted Marxism and its method in his al-Naza at al-maddiyya [Materialist awakenings]; Sadiq Jalal al- Azim in his Naqd al-fikr al-dini [Critique of religious thought]; Mahmud Amin al- Alim in his Ma rakat al-turath [The struggle of tradition]; Abdullah al- Arawi in al-Idyolojiyya al- Arabiyya al-mu asira [Contemporary Arabic ideology]; and Tayyib Tizini in Sosyolojiyya al-fikr al-Islami [Sociology of Islamic thought]. Likewise, analytic philosophy in the hands of Zaki Najib Mahmud performs the same function in his Tajdid al-fikr al- Arabi [Renewal of Arabic thought], and Hasan Hanafi, who utilizes phenomenological hermeneutics in al-Turath wa al-tajdid [Tradition and renewal], preceded with the same approach by Abd al-Rahman Badawi and Zakariyya Ibrahim.

PHILOSOPHICAL ACTIVITY IN THE ARAB WORLD: ASSOCIATIONS AND MEDIA There are numerous outputs that carry the work of researchers to the general reader and to the expert: from the very narrow academic ladder that produces work for promotions at various institutes and universities, to more recent websites dedicated to distributing publications more quickly and effectively, in addition to symposiums and the publication of anthologies and journals of a general nature by universities— all place philosophical works alongside other specializations. Most if not all arts or humanities faculties publish journals or annals that once were printed regularly, but now vary according to circumstances or the amount of works that need to be submitted in any period. On many occasions, anthologies or monologues are published for the purposes of academic promotion. It has become a far cry from

30 kalam journal • 1/2018 when these same publications represented serious academic exercise, and which continue to provide contemporary researchers with invaluable references and research material. Since the 1970s, the National Council of Culture in Kuwait has published a seasonal journal known as The World of Thought [ Alam al-fikr]. It continues to this day, publishing editions in all areas of philosophy, and editions dedicated to singular matters, in addition to the publication of strong monographs in philosophy. It is one example of a serious journal that has made a noticeable impact on Arab cultural life. Meantime, while Egypt used to be the benchmark in the publishing of journals and annals of high quality, the last serious journal that remains is the Journal of Contemporary Thought [Majallat al-fikr al-mu asir]. The rest of the journals that were once printed regularly have stopped: The Journal of the Philosophical Society [Majallat al-jami at al-falsafiyya] has gone out of print after printing only six editions; Philosophy and the Age [al-Falsafa wa al- asr], which is published by the High Council for Culture has not produced more than two publications in the past two years. It seems that the language of irregularity has become a hallmark of the age, as similar problems have afflicted publications in other Arab countries as well, such as the Journal of Philosophical Studies [Majallat al-dirasat al-falsafiyya] and Orbits [Madarat] along with the Periodical [Insha’], all of which are in Tunisia. Other examples include the Moroccan journals: Thought and Critique [Fikr wa naqd], Contemporary Arab Thought [al-Fikr al- Arabi al-mua sir], and Contemporary Writings [Kitabat Mu asira], and lastly in Egypt, Philosophical Papers [Awraq falsafiyya]. As far as philosophical societies are concerned, the Egyptian Philosophical Society is the oldest in the Arab world, giving rise to other societies across the Arab world in its wake. Some of these include the Philosophical Society of the Maghreb [al-Jam iyya al-falsafiyya bi al-Maghrib], the Philosophical Society of Tataouine [al-Jam iyya al- falsafiyya al-Tatwaniyya], the Philosophical Society of the Yemen [al-Jam iyya al-falsafiyya bi al-Yaman], and the Philosophical Society in Jordan, the Philosophical Society of Syria, and the Tunisian Society of Philosophical Studies [al-Jam iyya al-Tunusiyya li dirasat al-falsafiyya]. In Tunisia also is the Orbits Society [Jam iyyat al-madarat] and the Tunisian Society of Architectural Innovation and Aesthetics [al-Jam iyya al-Tunisiyya li al-inshayat wa al-jamaliyyat]. The Tunisians also established what is known as the Philosophy Lab [Mukhtabar al-falsafa] at the University of Tunisia dedicated to research in the areas of culture, technology, and various philosophical approaches. Most of these societies, however, struggle with a lack of funding, which reflects poorly on their activities, especially when it comes to publishing materials, or running public forums and conferences. In turn, this has prompted interested private individuals with strong political and international links to capitalize on any opportunity to garner support for publications, conferences, and public forums in the Arab world at large. Publishing houses, whose primary interests are in university textbooks, compete in the production of waves of textbooks and work- books; whose goal is to be educational, adhering to proper method, but hardly have a sense of what methods are, let alone being able to produce them. Thus it is common to see bookstores replete with books on philosophy and philosophical questions only to realize that these books are one of two things: a master’s or PhD thesis in which the kalam journal • 1/2018 31 author insisted on publishing his text as a teaching text, or some summary or rearrangement of materials equivalent to that found in an earlier text produced merely for the aims of publishing sales. Thus in the past twenty years, there has not been a single text published in philosophy that has been able to make any impact or invite serious discussion, with the exception of two: The Philosophy of the Mirror [Falsfat al-mir’at] by Mahmud Rajab, and The Tyrant [al-Taghiya], by Imam Abd al-Fattah Imam, both of whom are able professors of philosophy. In spite of this, many of the eminent publishing houses, including the prestigious Centre for Arab Unity Studies [Markaz dirasat al-wuhda al- Arabiyya] and others, still present the Arab reader a wide range of excellent works of authors such as: Muhammad Abid al-Jabiri and Hasan Hanafi, Abdullah al- Arawi, Mahmud Amin al- Alim, Fu’ad Zakariyya, Taha Abd al-Rahman, Imam Abd al-Fattah Imam, Mahmud Rajab, Ahmad Madhi, Hasan Abd al-Hamid, Abd al-Salam ibn Abd al- Ali, Salman al-Badour, Jamal al- Alawi, Ali Umlil, Salim Yafut, Kamal Abd al-Latif, Muhammad Mahran, Salah Raslan, Mahmud Sayyid Ahmad, Abu Ya rub al-Marzuqi, Abd al-Samad al-Dayalimi, Sa id ibn Sa id, Muhammad Waqidi, and Murad Wahbah. It is also noteworthy that most professors of philosophy have turned to writing on enlightenment and social change, to the point that many of them are now only interested in philosophical movements aimed at creating social and political change. Some of these books have enjoyed wide readership, while most are confined to narrow elitist circles. Nevertheless, I am confident that these works will not find much resonance in Arab society at large, for its interest in philosophy has dwindled drastically, just as its teachers have stopped producing it and discussing it with a critical eye.

CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHICAL LITERATURE IN THE ARAB WORLD

HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY The following list of texts in the Arabic language contains invaluable sources on the history of philosophy: Yusuf Karam’s Tarikh al-falsafa al-Yunaniyya [History of Greek philosophy], Tarikh al-falsafa al-Urobi- yya fi al- asr al-wasit [The history of European philosophy during the Middle Ages], Tarikh al-falsafa al-haditha [History of modern philosophy]; Abd al-Rahman Badawi’s Rabi al-fikr al-Yunani[The spring of Greek thought], Kharif al-fikr al-Yunani[The fall of Greek thought], Tarikh al-falsafa al-Islamiyya [History of Islamic philosophy] (originally in French); Amira Hilmi Matar’s al-Falsafa inda al-Yunan [Philosophy in Greece]; Ali Sami al-Nashhar’s three-volume Nash’at al-fikr al-falsafi fi al-Islam [The beginnings of philosophical thought in Islam]; Majid Fakhri’s Tarikh al-falsafa al-Islamiyya [History of Islamic philosophy]; De Boer’s Tarikh al-falsafa fi al-Islam [The history of philosophy in Islam], translated by Muhammad Abd al-Hadi Abu Rida (which represents a book of its own for its valuable margins and footnotes). Other important books include those of Yazji, Karam, Marhaba, and Jamil Saliba, in addition to Imam Abd al-Fattah Imam’s brilliant translation of Etienne Gilson’s Ruh al-falsafa al-masihiyya fi al- asr al-wasit [The spirit of Christian philosophy in the Middle Ages]; Zaki Najib Mahmud and Muhammad Fathi al-Shaniti’s translation of Bertrand Russel’s History of Western Philosophy is also a notable contribution to

32 kalam journal • 1/2018 the Arabic philosophical library. Further texts include: the translation of Seyyed Hossein Nasr and Henry Corbin’s History of Islamic Philosophy by Nasir Marwa and Hasan Qubaysi. In 2010, Mahmud Sayyid Ahmad presented us a translation of William Kelly Wright’s History of Modern Philosophy, which represents an unprecedented addition to the Arabic library. Lastly, Mahmud Sayyid Ahmad continues to work on his translation of Fredrick Copleston’s voluminous History of Philosophy, edited by Imam Abd al-Fattah and in one volume by Habib al-Sharuni.

MONOGRAPHS ON PHILOSOPHERS IN THE ARABIC LANGUAGE (INCLUDING STRONG TRANSLATIONS) Abd al-Rahman Badawi’s works: Sartre’s Being and Nothingness [al-Wujud wa al- adam], Herbert Marcuse’s One-Dimensional Man [al-Insan dhu al-bu d al-wahid), and Immanuel Kant; Mahmoud al-Khudayri’s Maqal fi al-manhaj li Descartes [Discourse on the method of Descartes]; Hasan Hanafi’sNamadhij min al-falsafa al-masihiyia [Examples from Christian philosophy]; Muhammad Mahran’s Falsafat Bertrand Russel [The philosophy of Bertrand Russel]; Mahmud Zaydan’s Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, and William James; Muhammad Fathi al-Shaniti’ s Ta’sis metafizika al-akhlaq [Grounding of the metaphysics of morals], Karl Jaspers’ Madkhal ila al-falsafa [Introduction to philosophy]; Izzet Qurni’s Muhawarat Aflaton [Plato’s dialogues] (translated from the Greek); Imam ‘Abd al-Fattah Imam’s Falsafat Hegel [The philosophy of Hegel], al-Manhaj al-jadali inda Hegel [The dialectical method of Hegel], Dirasat Hegeliyya [Hegelian studies]; Yumna al-Khuli’s Karl Popper; Muhammad Abd al-Hadi Abu Rida’s al-Kindi al-Naz- zam; Alber Nasri Nadir’s al-Monadolojiyya li leibniz; Muhammad Ali Abu Rayyan’s al-Suhrawardi; Uthman Amin’s Descartes al-ta amullat li Descartes [Meditations], Mabadi al-falsafa li Descartes [Descartes’ first philosophy]; Najib Baladi’s Pascal; al-Tahir ibn Gayza’s Leibniz; Abd al-Ghaffar Makkawi’s Albert Camus, Brecht; Fawqiyya Hasanayn’s Abu al-Ma ali al-Juwayni; Subhi al-Salih and Farid Jabr’s solid translation of G. Anawati and Louis Gardet’s The Philosophy of Religion between Islam and Christianity; Zakariyya Ibrahim’s Bergson, Kant, and Hegel; Azmi Islam’s, Itijahat fi al-falsafa al-mu asira [Trends in contemporary philosophy] by John Locke and Ludwig Wittgenstein; Fawziyya Mikhail’s Soren Kierkegaard; Mahmud Sayyid Ahmad’s Dilthey, Thomas Reid. Currently, the High Cultural Council of Egypt and the Arab Association for Translation have been actively working on new translations of Western philosophers such as: a translation of Copleston’s encyclopedic work on the history of philosophy (the team of researchers working on this project are talented and experienced, under the leadership of Imam Abd al-Fattah and Mahmud Sayyid Ahmad); Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason, translated by Ghanim Hana; Leibniz’ An Essay on Metaphysics, translated by al-Tahir ibn Qayza in a critical edition; Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit, translated in a critical edition with notes and introduction by Naji al-Awnali; George Canguilhem’s Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science, translated by Muhammad ibn Sasi.

ORIGINAL WORKS IN PHILOSOPHY Abd al-Rahman Badawi: al-Zaman al-wujudi [Existential time], Dirasat wujudiyya [Studies in existentialism], Madkhal jadid ila al-falsafa [A new introduction to philosophy]; Yusuf Karam: al-‘Aql wa al-wujud [Mind and being], al-Tabi a wa ba d al-tabi a [Nature and metaphysics]; kalam journal • 1/2018 33 Zaki Najib Mahmud: Qisat aql [A story of reason], Nahwa falsafa amaliyya [Towards a philosophy of ethics], Khurafat al-mitafizika [The superstition of metaphysics], al-Sharq al-fannan [The artistic East], Tajdid al-fikr al- Arabi [The renewal of Arabic thought], Hasad al-si- nin [Envy of the age], al-Ma qul wa la ma qul [The reasonable and the unreasonable], Thaqafatuna fi muwajahat al- asr [Our culture confronts the age]; Tawfiq al-Tawil: Usus al-falsafa [Foundations of philosophy], Falsafat al-akhlaq [The philosophy of ethics]; Muhammad Abdullah Diraz: Dustur al-akhlaq fi al-Qur’an [Constitutional ethics in the Qur’an]; Hasan Hanafi: al-Turath wa al-tajdid [Tradition and renewal], Mawqifuna min al-turath al-qadim [Our position with regard to ancient tradition], Fi al-fikr al-gharbi al-mu asir [On contemporary Western thought], Dirasat Islamiyya [Islamic studies], Min al-‘aqida ila al-thawra [From belief to revolution], Muqadima fi ilm al-istighrab [An introduction to the science of occidentalism]; Sadiq Jalal al-Idham: Naqd al-fikr al-dini [Critique of religious intellect]; Abdullah al- Arawi: al- Arab wa al-fikr al-tarikhi[Arabs and historical thinking], Azmat al-mutha qqafin al- Arab [The greatness of the cultured Arabs], al-Ideyolojiyya al- Arabiyya al-mu asira [Contemporary Arab ideology]; Hisham Ja it: al-Shakhsiyya al- Arabiyya al-Islamiyya wa al-asir al- Arabi [The Arab- Islamic persona and the Arab destiny]; Uthman Amin: al-Jawaniyya [The inner philosophy]; Muhammad Baqr al-Sadr: Falsafatuna [Our philosophy]; Tayyib Tizini: Mashru ru’yat jadida li al-fikr al- Arabi fi al- asr al-wasit [A new vision for Arabic thought in the Middle Age]; Nasif Nassar: al-Falsafa wa ma rakat al-idiyolojiyya [Philosophy and the ideological struggle]; Utruhat fi tahlil al-idiyoljiyya wa tahrir al-falsafa min haymanatiha [Theses on analyzing ideology and liberating philosophy from its domination], Tariq al-istiqlal al-falsafi: sabil al-fikr al- arabi ila al-hurriyya wa al-ibda’ [A way to philosophical independence: the path of Arabic philosophy towards freedom and creativity]; Muhammad Abid al-Jabiri: Nahnu wa al-turath [Tradition and us], Naqd al- aql al- Arabi [Critique of Arabic reason], Bunyat al- aql al- Arabi [The anatomy of Arabic reason], al- Aql al-siyasi al- Arabi [Arabic political reason]; Muhammad Aziz al-Hibbali: Dirasat fi al-shakhsaniyya al-waqi iyya [Studies in real personalism], al-Shakhsaniyya al-Islamiyya [The Islamic personalism], Huriyya am taharrur? [Freedom or liberation?]; Zakariyya Ibrahim: Silsilat mushkilat falsafiyya[Philosophical problems series], Dirasat fi al-falsafa al-mu asira [Studies in contemporary philosophy]; Fu’ad Zakariyya: Ara’ naqdiyya fi mushkilat al-fikr wa al-thaqafa [Critical opinions on the problems of thought and heritage]; Majid Fakhri: Ab ad al-tajruba al-falsafiyya [The dimensions of philosophical experience]; Mahmud Rajab: Falsafat al-mir’a [Philosophy of the mirror]; Imam Abd al-Fattah Imam: al-Taghiya [The tyrant]; Fathi al-Treyki: Qira’at fi falsafat al-tanawu [Readings in the philosophy of diversity], Istratijiyat al-huwiyya [Strategies of identity]; Mustafa Sabri Efendi: Mawqif al- aql wa al- ilm wa al- alam min Rabb al- alamin wa ibadihi al-mursalin [The position of the mind, science, and the world with respect to God and His messengers]; Muhammad Sa id al-Buti: Naqd awham al-maddiyya al-jadaliyya [Critique of the delusions of dialectical materialism].

CRITICAL EDITIONS IN PHILOSOPHY The following list includes a number of exemplary critical editions produced in the Arab world, but is in no sense exhaustive (name of the editor precedes listed titles):

34 kalam journal • 1/2018 Muhammad Abd al-Hadi Abu Rida: Rasa’il al-Kindi al-falsafiyya [Philosophical treatises of al-Kindi], 2 vols; Muhammad Rashad Salim: critical edition of the works of Ibn Taymiyya, specifically the latter’s Dar’ ta arud al- aql wa al-naql [Evading the conflict of reason and revelation], 12 vols; Uthman Yahya: al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya [The Meccan openings], which represents the single most important work by Ibn Arabi; Abu al- Ila Afifi: Fusus al-hikam [Jewels of wisdom] by Ibn Arabi, Mishkat al-anwar [The niche of lights] by Ghazali, al-Shifa’ [The cure] and al-Mantiq wa al-burhan [Logic and demonstration] by Ibn Sina; Muhammad Ali Abu Rayyan: Hayakil al-nur [The forms of light] by Suhrawardi. Abu al-Wafa al-Taftazani: Rasa’il ibn Sab in [Works of Ibn Sab in]; Majid Fakhri: Rasa’il ibn Rushd [The epistles of Ibn Rushd]; Abd al-Karim Uthman: Sharh al-usul al-khamsa li al-qadi Abd al-Jabbar [A commentary on the five principles by the judge Abd al-Jabbar], Tathbit dala’il al-nubuwwa li al-qadi Abd al-Jabbar [Establishing the proofs of prophethood], 2 vols; Nur al-Din Shariba: Tabaqat al-Sufiyya li al-Sulami [The classes of the Sufis of al-Sulami]; Sabhan Khalifat: Maqalat Yahya ibn Adi al-falsafiyya[The philosophical treatises of Yahya ibn Adi]; Ali Abd al-Wahid Wafi: Muqaddimat ibn Khaldun [The introduction of Ibn Khaldun]; Abd al-Rahman Badawi: al-Mantiq li Aristoteles [Aristotle’s logic], 3 vols, al-Tabi a li Aristoteles [Aristotle’s natural philosophy], Shuruh ala Aristoteles mafqudatun fi al-Yunaniyya wa rasa’il ukhra [Lost Greek commentaries on Aristotle and other works], Uyun al-hikma li Ibn Sina [The substances of wisdom by Ibn Sina]; Ibrahim al-Kaylani: al-Basa’ir wa al-dhakha’ir li Abi Hayyan al-Tawhidi [The visions and the armaments of Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi], 2 vols; Ali Sami al-Na shhar: (with Su ad Abd al-Raziq) Sawn al-mantiq wa al-kalam an fannay al- mantiq wa al-kalam li al-Suyuti [Suyuti’s protection of kalam and logic from the arts of kalam and logic], (with Isam al-Din Muhammad Ali) Firaq wa tabaqat al-mu tazila li al-Murtada wa al-qadi Abd al-Jabbar [The groupings and classes of the Mu tazilites by al-Murtada and the judge ‘Abd al-Jabbar]; Khurshid Ahmad: Nuzhat al-arwah wa rawdat al-afrah fi tarikh al-hukama’ wa al-falasifa li al-Shahrazuri [Biographies of the sages philosophers by Shahrazuri].

LEXICONS AND ENCYCLOPEDIAS OF PHILOSOPHY IN ARABIC The Majma al-lugha al- Arabiyya (Arabic Language Academy) of Cairo initiated the first attempts at creating philosophical lexicons as part of a larger series of terminological dictionaries with other disciplines. It was later collected and published independently under the title al-Mu jam al-falsafi[Philosophical dictionary]. Abu al- Ila Afifi, Zaki Najib Mahmud, Abd al-Rahman Badawi, and Muhammad Thabit al-Fendi produced the Mu jam al-falasifa [Philosophers’ lexicon] in French, English, and Arabic; Yusuf Karam and Yusuf Shalala: al-Mu jam al-falsafi [Philosophical dictionary]; Murad Wahba: al-Mu jam al-falsafi [Philosophical dictionary]; Zaki Najib Mahmud, Fu’ad Kamil, Jalal al- Ashri, and Abd al-Rashid al-Sadiq collaborated in translating, and editing from the English, the al-Mawsu a al-falsafiyya al-mukhtasara [The abridged encyclopedia of philosophy]; George Tarabishi: Mu jam al-falasifa [The philosophers’ lexicon] (1987); Jamil Saliba: al-Mu jam al-falsafi bi al-alfaz al- Arabiyya wa al-Firansiyya wa al-Ingliziyya wa al-Latiniyya kalam journal • 1/2018 35 [An Arabic, English, and Latin philosophical dictionary], 2 vols (1982); Khalil Ahmad Khalil translated André Lalande’s Philosophical Lexicon under the title Mawsu at lalonde al-falsafiyya (revised by Ahmad Uwaydat); Samir Karam translated a Soviet Philosophical Lexicon (1980); Mu in Ziyada and a team of researchers at al-Inma Arabic Institute produced al-Mawsu a al-falsafiyya al- Arabiyya [The encyclopedia of Arabic philosophy], 3 vols (1997); Abd al-Rahman Badawi: Mawsu at al-falsafa [The encyclopedia of philosophy], 3 vols (1984), which includes also a number of studies on particular philosophical concepts and philosophical schools; Farid Jabr: Fi mu jam al-Ghazali [A Ghazalian dictionary] (1970); Abd al-Mun im al-Hifni: Mawsu at al-falsafa wa al-falasifa [Dictionary of philosophy and philosophers], 2 vols, al-Mu jam al-shamil li mustalahat al-falsafa [A comprehensive dictionary of philosophical terms] in Arabic, French, English, German, and Italian (2000), Mu jam mustalahat al-Sufiyya [Dictionary of Sufi terminology] (1980); Jirar Jihami: Mawsu at mustalahat al-falsafa inda al- Arab [Encyclopedia of Arabic philosophical terminology] (1998), published as part of the Arabic and Islamic Terminology Series; Ahmad Nakri: Mawsu at mustalahat jami al- ulum [A terminological dictionary for all sciences] in Arabic, English, and French (1997); Samih Daghim: Mawsu at mustalahat al- ulum al-ijtima iyya wa al-siyasiyya fi al-fikr al- Arabi wa al-Islami [A terminological dictionary for the social and political sciences in Arabic and Islamic thought] (2000).

WHAT IS TAUGHT IN WESTERN UNIVERSITIES? At this point we will briefly analyze what is taught in the universities of the world with respect to philosophy, how it is has been understood, and how it is being taught. We will look now at the University of Western Ontario (UWO), and examine how philosophy is taught at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Firstly we note that they use the teaching-hours system, wherein the student takes classes of a minimum amount first at the preparatory level before entering courses at the 100, 200, 300, and 400 levels. Among these courses, some are mandatory while others are electives. There also exist courses of the 500-level, which is a bridge of sorts between the undergraduate and graduate levels. Preparatory classes begin at the 0-level, and students at this stage are made to take the following classes: Introduction to Philosophy; Critical Reasoning; Contemporary Questions; and Great Ideas. The duration of the lectures is two hours, in addition to an hour-long weekly meeting with each individual student. Classes taught at the 100-level are as follows: Introduction to Enviro n mental Philosophy; Evil; Introduction to Logic I; Ethics and Society; The Metaphysics and Epistemology of Magic and Oracles; Bio-Ethics; Death; Asian Philosophy; and Business Ethics. At the 200-level, the following courses are offered: Introduction to Theory of Knowledge; Introduction to Ethics and Value-Theory; Ancient Philosophy; Early Modern Philosophy; Introduction to Logic II; Reproductive Ethics; Evolution of Mathematics; Philosophy of Science; Feminist Philosophy; History of Political Philosophy; Philosophy of Law; Media Ethics; Introduction to Philosophy of Mind; Ethics of Healthcare; Philosophy of Emotion; Introduction to Decision Analysis; Inference Formulas; and Business Relations Ethics.

36 kalam journal • 1/2018 The 300-Level: Beyond Ethics; Standard Ethics; Ethics of John Stuart Mill; Advanced Studies in the Philosophy of Mind; Philosophy of Cognition; Special Questions in Logic Theory; Epistemology; Philo sophical Questions in Modern Biology; Foundations of Statist ical Mechanics; Foundations of Quantitative Mechanics; Plato; Aristotelian Logic; Renaissance and Reformation Philosophy; Leibniz; and Berkeley. The 400-Level: Epistemology of Pragmatism; Urban Ethics; The Philosophy of Peter Abelard; Ontological Proof; David Hume; Immanuel Kant; Philosophy of Law; Phenomenology; Trust and Certainty; and Epicureanism in Early Modern Philosophy. Distance Education Courses: Introduction to Philosophy; Critical Thinking; Philosophy of Law; Bio-Ethics; Asian Philosophies; Business Ethics; Ethics and Values-Theory; and Inference Formulas.

GRADUATE STUDIES The following courses are offered over two semesters respectively:

I. Phenomenology and Philosophy of Mathematics; The Self and the Debate between Collins and Clarke; Epistemology of Plato; Kant; Ethical Revision; Research Assignment: Value Theory in the Twentieth Century; Consciousness and Change; Conditional Propositions; Descartes; and Philosophical Foundations of Modern Physics. II. Ontological Proof; Epicureanism in Early Modern Philosophy; Conscience and Conscientious Objection; Foundations of Law; History of Conscience from Plato to Descartes; Continuity, Discreteness, and Infinitesimals;Issues in Analytic Philosophy; Foundations of Relativity Theory; Contemporary Philosophy of Consciousness; and Idealist Mathematical Values in Physics.

Philosophical curricula in North America and Europe do not differ greatly from the program we have outlined above, except for the inclusion of other philosophical topics such as aesthetics, art, or other questions that reflect the general trend of the university or philosophical traditions. These include empiricism, rationalism, existentialism, pragmatism, and others, which also reflect the region they are in, such as England, Germany, France, and so forth. All of these programs are exhaustive such that they cover almost everything that concerns humanity in their daily affairs. These curricula also do not include a course on “Research Methods”, which programs in the Arab world make mandatory in spite of the lack of proper methods in reality. In contrast, while such a course is not offered in Western curricula, research methods have become something intrinsic to the very structure and practice of their education systems. No doubt, the widening of scope in philosophical curricula are invaluable for developing the mind of the student of philosophy just as they open doors for them in the job market. In turn, the student thus is able to continue utilizing the philosophical tools acquired during his studies, which likewise reflect positively on the existent reality of a given society, collapsing the divisions that exist between what is said in the research papers of the academy and what is practiced outside of its walls on the streets of life.

kalam journal • 1/2018 37 ISLAMIC PHILOSOPHY: THE IMPASSE AND THE SOLUTION Islamic philosophy was the primary concern for the likes of Ahmad Mahmud Subhi and Majid Fakhri during the more recent decades. Subhi, for example, published a well-researched study on the different trends of Islamic philosophy in the Arab world during 1960–80, presented with others during the first Arab Philosophical Conference organized by the Jordanian University in 1983. Meantime, Fakhri composed a brilliant paper entitled al-Dirasat al-falsafiyya al- Arabiyya [“Arabic philosophical studies”], published in Khalil al-Jur’s edited volume al-Fikr al-falsafi al- Arabi fi mi’at sana[Arabic philosophical thought in 100 years] by the American University of Beirut in 1962. Both of these studies rank high as pioneering studies in Islamic philosophy, and from which I benefited immensely. It is the case that I am particularly enthusiastic about the possibilities for Islamic philosophy, and I assert that it may be one of our greatest strengths. We must, however, better prepare our specialists and students with the necessary tools in research, method, and editing. We must also improve our training in Eastern and Western languages such that the specialists are better able to understand and analyze the depths of Islamic philosophy in languages other than Arabic. In doing so, they can then present those works to readers of Arabic and other languages in a manner that refines their conceptualization; meantime, they will help recover the deserved place and prestige of that great heritage, contributing to the greater mosaic of human thought. This does not mean, however, that we should ignore the philosophical works of others, in research, study, and education. My intention here is to expand the scope of Islamic philosophy, for it is the best venue, and perhaps the only one, that can return some balance to discussions on the progress of human thought; for we see five centuries of Islamic history being summarized in a few measly pages in books on the history of philosophy. What follows is my own humble attempt to identify points of weakness in this area in addition to possibilities for improvement: Since the 1850s until today, there appeared a new interest in the study of Islamic philosophy that we may divide into five phases, with our current stage being the weakest of all.

(1) The first phase saw the dominance of the early orientalists under the protection and patronage of colonial rule. These scholars sought to discover the links that allegedly existed between Islam as a religion and backwardness, decline, and ignorance. This approach may be best exemplified by Victor Cousin (d. 1847), Ernest Renan (d. 1892), and others. (2) The second phase saw the withdrawal of the orientalists from their original assertions regarding the backwardness of Islam, and thus began instead to place all their efforts into denying the originality of Islam or Islamic philosophy by claiming that philosophy, kalam, and Sufism were all taken from Greek thought, Indian thought, Persian thought, or Christianity. Some had gone so far as to even claim that Islamic law itself found its origins in Roman law. These efforts are seen in the likes of Nicholson, Goldziher, Von Kramer, Massignon, and others.

38 kalam journal • 1/2018 (3) The third phase saw the first responses against orientalist scholarship in Islamic studies in the Arab world, who had at that point become the primary references in this field. The rise of Mustafa Abd al-Raziq, as the first Arab, to the chair of Islamic philosophy in the most prestigious universities in the Arab world, represented a major shift in the field as he approached Islamic studies differently. He demonstrated the originality of Islamic thought in his work on the schools of kalam and how they related to the disciplines of law and legal methodology (fiqh and usul al-fiqh respectively). (4) During the fourth phase, a great deal of studies were published in the field of Islamic philosophy by the pioneering generation who carried on the work of Mustafa Abd al-Raziq and they spread it across the Arab world. They edited and published a series of important manuscripts which prompted the reinvestigation into the relevant schools of thoughts and filled in the gaps on questions that were previously unknown. Ali Sami al-Nashhar established his own school during this era, whose students would appear in Egypt, Iraq, Algeria, and Morocco, all of whom would present compelling studies complimenting the work of their mentor. Abd al-Rahman Badawi might well represent a school on his own, combining vast knowledge of the comparative history of philosophy and his expertise in a number of ancient and modern languages. He edited and published a great deal of important manuscripts, and compared the original texts of the Greeks with the Arabic in the ancient and modern periods, in addition to composing a number of critical translations of the works of major orientalists. To their side was also Muhammad Abd al-Hadi Abu Rida and Mahmud Qasim; Western universities would also recruit scholars like Muhsin Mahdi, Abd al-Hamid Sabra, Seyyid Hossein Nasr, and others. The efforts of this generation set the foundations for what could have been a serious point of departure for future work. One of the most important works of this period was published in 1963 in English, regarding the history of Islamic philosophy, edited by M. M. Sharif, the dean of the Islamic Cultural Institute in Lahore, Pakistan: A History of Muslim Philosophy with Short Accounts of Other Disciplines and the Modern Renaissance in Muslim Lands (Weisbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1963). This editor collected the works of eighty of the greatest thinkers in the Islamic world in two large volumes. We remain in great need of such a work in the Arabic language, or at least its translation. It is particularly important in that it begins before the advent of the Prophet Muhammad (blessings and peace be upon him), covering developments in Islamic philosophy to the twentieth century. (5) The fifth and weakest phase began in the late 1960s—the tree that began to bear fruit previously began to show signs of deteriora- tion. Specifically, a feud arose between two diametrically opposed groups, with one weaker group in between them calling for reasonable discourse. One group has taken to glorifying Islamic civilization and rejecting all others, while the other sees no way forward except with Western thought and ideology. Thus, all subsequent works in philosophy had become contaminated with the following impediments:

kalam journal • 1/2018 39 First: A one-dimensional vision shared. For example, some researchers still approach the question of Islamic sects from a purely sectarian perspective, and proceed to attack and criticize all groups and schools of thought as being deviant to the exception of their own.

Second: An incapacity to understand the spirit of the age (the social, cultural, and political climate) and its effects on language and terminology, and the usage of new vocabulary to describe systems, movements, and concepts of a different time period.

Third: A propensity to attack others with a ready-made arsenal of labels when discussing the different strains of Islamic philosophical thought.

Fourth: A propensity to use value-laden terms with ideological import to categorize all of the various Islamic philosophical schools, be they political, existential, gnostic, or moral. Here the distinction between thought, that is, philosophy, and ideology comes to bear; by virtue of its nature, ideology merely reflects the social conditions or class- based, value-laden labels such as reactionary (raj iyya), progressive (taqadumiyya), left and right, while philosophy, itself being the product of an age or civilization, does not accept these categories or phrases. In general, it does not escape the critical mind that the proponents of such behaviors are in fact hiding a number of basic assumptions: religious thought is reactionary, and its opposite is progressive or revolutionary.

Fifth: Notably in the past few decades, most researchers in Islamic philosophy do not possess the requisite knowledge of the Islamic sciences, and are unaware of the intrinsic relationship that exists between these sciences and philosophy, so much that such a proposition ought to be necessarily known in the field of Islamic philosophy.

Sixth: Another one of the features of the past few decades has been an unfounded boldness of the pen, and a rushed immaturity visible in the poor quality of their publications with the goal of promotion to the detriment of diligence. This phase is also attributed with a loss of the necessary patience and passion required to produce good work, resulting in flimsy academic publications leaving serious readers longing for a better tomorrow. Furthermore, what was once a critical edition of a manuscript, has now become the mere transmission of words from yellow pages to white pages.

HOW DO WE SALVAGE WHAT REMAINS? The following points may be a way forward:

First: Students and researchers of Islamic philosophy must be equipped with the requisite training in the Islamic sciences, especially usul al-fiqh (Islamic legal methodology), tafsir (exegesis), fiqh (law), maqasid al-shari a (legal philosophy), for these are invaluable sources of strength in this area of research, and represent the proper point of departure for serious contributions to human thought.

Second: The necessity of proper foreign language training. This will open doors to a wide variety of sources on subject matter and method, especially since studies in Islamic philosophy composed in European languages represent the best works available today. It would be detri- mental for the researcher to not give due attention to these studies.

40 kalam journal • 1/2018 Third: The utmost necessity to open doors to scholarly productions from modern Iran and Turkey, be they in Persian or Turkish, or via translation. Both countries have made notable advances in research methods and subject matter in a manner far more impressive than what comes out of Arab presses.

Fourth: The necessity to free researchers from sectarian or traditionalist behavior in the interest of objectivity and scholarly integrity.

Fifth: There is a need for training in how to work in research groups. The nature of this age is resistant to individual work, just as Islamic ethics promote group efforts. All this of course must be done in the context of a well-thought and planned effort to revive the heritage in a manner that is critical, scientific, and in accordance with the proper methods of editing and working with manuscripts.

Sixth: The necessity to liberate philosophical studies from political allegiances, such that they can ascend to the level of real philosophy and avoid the pits of ideology. Lastly, we need to keep in mind that it is simply false to believe that Islam has come with the solutions to all humanity’s problems and questions. If that were the case, ijtihad would not be the third source of law in Islam; there is also an inference that can be derived from this of the rank of ijtihad in Islam, as there does not exist in the Qur’an and Sunna answers to nascent, serious questions of religious import (varying with time and place), let alone contemporary questions of politics, finance, and other areas of human activity. There is no escape from using what is available to us in areas that others excel at, and Islam has encouraged us to do just that as our forebears had done, avoiding centuries of decay and degeneracy.

EXPECTATIONS FOR THE SCHOOL OF THE FUTURE OR TOWARDS AN AGENDA OF RESEARCH The worrisome present day lived by the Arab individual, who is also afflicted with a loss of hope in what they expected from the best thinkers towards revival, has compelled us to place our hopes in the school of the future for research and scholarly output. For it to distinguish itself and carve new paths forward, I humbly ask the executors of this project to take into consideration the following:

First: Strong emphasis must be placed on method and epistemology; for there can be no real knowledge without them. The early Muslims knew this well, and thus, delving into the tradition must also mean delving into the methods of that tradition.

Second: An open mind to what has been developed and innovated by Western thought. The new school must also acquire a grasp of the languages of research and methodology, and expand their circles to include Western scholarship with respect to peer review and scholarly exchange.

Third: Priority must be given to researching what is known as “Applied Philosophy” as a living medium to bring philosophy to the average citizen.

Fourth: The inclusion of modern questions into the study of philosophy such as: philosophy of mind, artificial intelligence, philosophical problems in modern biology, the philosophy of science, and decision analysis. kalam journal • 1/2018 41 Fifth: Attention must shift from teaching the history of philosophy to the teaching of philosophy itself, such that the subjects of metaphysics, epistemology, or ethics can be taught completely as subjects in themselves, each with their specific methods. This in turn will open new windows of research, and promote philosophical innovation and ingenuity.

Sixth: An emphasis should also be placed on philosophy of science, such that philosophy can maintain its links with developments in science and technology and consequently play its proper role in those areas. The same must be done with the history of science.

Seventh: An openness must be displayed with respect to what is produced by Iranian and Turkish scholarship among others by placing bridges of cooperation between Arab scholars and Arab institutions towards their counterparts elsewhere.

Eighth: Schools must avert sectarianism and dogmatism, and establish the methods conducive to achieving this.

Ninth: There must be a culture of vigilance within the academy in order to protect scholarly integrity and independence, and avoid political contaminants.

Tenth: A retrieval of the works and studies produced in the pioneering generation of Arabic philosophy in the twentieth century. Without making use of their work, we lose the momentum and accumulation of knowledge within our institutions, let alone our ethical sensibility.

Eleventh: They must make use of experienced educators and thinkers in the area of philosophy to save themselves time and effort. Examples of such figures include: Hasan Hanafi, Hasan Abd al-Hamid, Imam Abd al-Fattah Imam, Sa id ibn Sa id, Mahmud Sayyid Ahmad, Salim Yafut, and Ahmad Madhi.

THE NEED FOR METHOD AND EPISTEMOLOGY Due to the undeniable difference effected by proper methods and epistemology in forming the minds of students on the one hand, and understanding the subject matter on the other, I will dedicate the following section to highlight the importance of method and epistemology. Epistemological thinking begins whenever a crisis afflicts any given science, which ultimately stems from gaps and deficiencies in method. For this reason, Jean Piaget—one of the foremost epistemologists of the modern period—affirms the importance of method in epistemological studies, such that one can understand thought and reality harmo- niously. One can also properly read and understand the contradictions present therein, and learn if that thing is necessary in the natural, human, and social sciences. Generally speaking, the necessity of proper methods in the areas is even greater in Islamic philosophy, be it ancient or modern. The past three decades witnessed a series of notable developments in research methodology in humanity and social sciences, in a con- certed effort to reach higher standards of objectivity and agreement among humanity. Scholars of religious thought had likewise submitted to these modern methods in an attempt to dissolve internal disputes and contradictions, to transcend themselves towards the spaciousness of objective thought. They also sought to find the roots of weakness,

42 kalam journal • 1/2018 static thought, degeneracy, violence, and extremism, from which they could begin to solve disputes between practitioners of different religions, and indeed, between the different groups and sects within the same religion. These conflicts have presented philosophers and thinkers within the humanities and the various religious traditions with a serious challenge unprecedented in human history. As a result, several sciences and methods developed which focused their efforts in solving this “problem”; sociologists and anthropologists deal with it as though it were a social phenomenon, and like all other phenomena, it is subject to unlimited research and analysis. Eventually this led to the creation of the disciplines of the sociology of religion and the anthropology of religion. The philosophers found the matter as a problem of knowledge at the level of the text or scripture, the contents, concepts, and limits of knowledge: certainty, suspicion, and impossibility, from which they created the discipline of the epistemology of religion. With the aid of anthropology, historians created the discipline of the history of religion in order to analyze religion as a historical phenomenon, from which yet another discipline arose: the comparative history of religions. All of these disciplines succeeded in areas and failed in others. As for their success, it can be evidently seen in the establishment of strong theoretical foundations that strive towards higher standards of objectivity, limiting the entry of bias into their studies. As a result, they covered serious ground in understanding the realities of corruption, static thought, intolerance, violence, the rise and fall of different groups and religious sects, and the interrelations between religion, the state, and politics. As for their failings, it is in the manner with which they treat all religions in the same way, irrespective of whether or not they are revealed or purely the result of human efforts, such that both types are assumed to have the exact same roots. Thus, all these religions evolved con- trarily to one another due to the respective cultures they evolved in, and that religious texts are relative such that they are the products of human society, which imposes itself upon it and not the reverse. Therefore, we must refer to certain foundational axioms, such that knowledge can again be reliable. Here I am referring to the necessity for any given method to correspond to the nature of its subject matter. If this is not taken into account, the results will necessarily be deficient, and the conclusions skewed. So, for example, we have no use for rhetoric in mathematics, nor do we have use for sensory data in theology, in the same way that we do not need syllogisms in studying rhetoric. Here, our subject matter contains divinely revealed scripture, upon which human understanding and sciences are then built, in addition to the human reality that is formed in the wake of this human knowledge. Thus the special attribute of revelation is such that human reason works within the boundaries of revelation. Consequently, the intellectual products of this type of human reasoning necessitate continuous observation, taking into consideration time and place, such that its conclusions correspond to the reality that it studies and not the reverse. It is especially for this reason that we can understand the importance of epistemology and research methods. Students equipped with this knowledge will have the critical capacity necessary in order to take what is positive and correspondent in the humanities, and the modern social sciences, in addition to utilizing what is relevant from the methodologies of usul al-fiqh as understood by the scholars of the Sharia. These scholars established the value of having strong, kalam journal • 1/2018 43 coherent methods that make room for what is variable and what is static, along with placing its lens over the dialectic that exists between the text, human understanding, and reality, realizing at an early phase in its development that when a science changes or evolves, so does its method. The coherent method, therefore, is a method that has in itself the capacity for evolution, which bypasses the problems inherent in dogmatism and rigidity. From there, this innovative method can push the enlightened and believing mind forward with all the strength necessary to create a vibrant civilization, proving the universal truism that relates the strength of thought and method with the rise of nations, and the weakness of its methods to their decline and downfall.

44 kalam journal • 1/2018 3ARTICLES#

The Miraculous Nature of the Qur’an: A Response to Oliver Leaman

Nazif Muhtaroğlu | Bahçeşehir University

INTRODUCTION Dr. Nazif Muhtarog ˘lu is a PhD The Qur’an includes a very peculiar claim, which differentiates it from instructor at Bahçeşehir University and all the other sacred books. In several verses with some difference in former research fellow at the Department detail, God (Allah), as the speaker in the Qur’an, challenges all created of Philosophy, Bogazici University, Istanbul. He received his PhD in philosophy at the beings, including humans and jinns, to bring about a work that resem- University of Kentucky, and was a postdoc- bles the Qur’an.1 On the basis of these verses, which are known as “the toral fellow at the Near Eastern Languages challenging verses” ( ), the Muslim tradition holds that and Civilization Department, Harvard ayat al-tahaddi University. the Qur’an is inimitable. Thus the Qur’an is miraculous in the sense that no created being can produce a text similar to it. This doctrine also known as “the inimitability of the Qur’an” (i jaz al-Qur’an) is a deeply discussed issue in the Medieval Age among Muslim scholars.2 Oliver Leaman has recently revived this debate by offering a philo- 1 There are five verses challenging sophical evaluation of Said Nursi’s understanding of the miraculous- created beings in this sense. The ness of the Qur’an. Leaman argues that Nursi’s view is not immune to first one (52:34) challenges them to produce a discourse like the Qur’an; certain generic criticisms regarding this miraculousness phenomenon. the second (17:88) to produce a book Nonetheless, Leaman’s reading of Nursi is at best superficial, since he like the Qur’an; the third (11:13) does not present Nursi’s view entirely. I argue that Leaman utilizes the to produce ten chapters like the Qur’anic chapters; the fourth (10:38) straw man fallacy. As such Leaman’s critique directed towards Nursi I’ll to bring about only one chapter. All argue is based on an incomplete presentation of the latter’s argumen- these four verses were revealed in tation, criticizing Nursi on the basis of this incomplete presentation. the late Meccan period. And the fifth and final one (2:23) challenges them In what follows, I’ll present Leaman’s evaluation and critique of Nursi. to bring about a chapter again, which Secondly, I shall present the aspects of Nursi’s view overlooked by was revealed in the first year ofhijra in Leaman in his critique and propose to show that Leaman’s criticisms the Medinan period. See Ali Unal, The are not applicable to it. Qur’an with Annotated Interpretation in Modern English (New Jersey: Light, 2006). All translations from the OLIVER LEAMAN ON NURSI’S VIEW OF THE MIRACULOUSNESS Qur’an that appear in the article are from this source. The Hindu text The OF THE QUR’AN Vedas is considered by some people to To begin with, Leaman does not commit himself to the idea that the be inimitable and miraculous, but the text itself does not include any verse Qur’an is miraculous. He tries to understand how Muslim scholars, in that challenges people to bring about general, and Said Nursi in particular, interpret the challenging verses a text like it. and apprehend what exactly is inimitable and miraculous in the Qur’an. 2 Stefan Wild, “Inimitability”, in Leaman points out three main views on this issue in the history of The Qur’an: An Encylopedia, ed. Oliver Islamic intellectual thought.3 The first view puts forward the content Leaman (London: Routledge, 2006), of the Qur’an. This view, according to Leaman, appeals to the truths 295.

presented by the Qur’an, and to its maxims and rules appropriate for 3 Oliver Leaman, Islamic Aesthetics: practical life. For Leaman, considering the content suggesting practical An Introduction (Indiana: University guidance is not a good way to understand the miraculousness of the of Notre Dame Press, 2004), 141–64; Leaman, Qur’an because he thinks that the practical suggestions and instruc- Controversies in Contemporary Islam (New York: Routledge, 2014), tions of the text can be regarded as appropriate for us to follow if we 26–31.

kalam journal • 1/2018 45 are already convinced that the text is miraculous. Thus they cannot be used to justify the miraculousness of the Qur’an.4 The second view suggests looking at the style of the Qur’an to understand its miraculousness. This view concerns only the stylistic features of the Qur’an and purports to present it as the most excellent composition of sounds and words. For Leaman, this view completely appeals to our aesthetic judgment for deciding whether the Qur’an is miraculous or not. As aesthetic judgments are subjective, some people may consider the style of the Qur’an to be beautiful and others may reject it. Thus, being based on aesthetic criteria, this view is at best suggestive or persuasive, but not conclusive.5 The last view presents a more balanced approach and focuses both on the form and content of the Qur’an. For Leaman, this is a more plausible candidate for understanding the miraculousness phenomenon and worth examining in detail.6 Leaman considers Abd al-Qahir al-Jurjani and Said Nursi to be significant proponents of the last view. Leaman concentrates on evaluating Nursi’s ideas probably because Nursi claims and exemplifies that the miraculousness of the Qur’an can be seen in a very small part of it, consisting of not more than a few verses. Leaman evaluates two main examples from Nursi. As for the first example, Nursi pays attention to the verses in which 4 Leaman, Islamic Aesthetics, 153, God states His own creative action. For example, consider the follow- 159–61; Leaman, Controversies, 27. ing verses: “O earth, swallow up your waters! And, O sky, cease [your Note that Leaman refers to the issues of truth and practical guidance in rain]!” (11:44); “And He directed [His Knowledge, Will, Power, and relation to this approach but does Favor] to the heaven when it was as a cloud [of gases], and ordered it not explicitly mention the future pre- and the earth, ‘Come both of you, willingly or unwillingly!’ They said: dictions of the Qur’an that had been realized. For example, at the time ‘We have come in willing obedience’” (41:11). of Prophet, the Sasanites defeated In these verses, the speaker is God Himself and He gives orders to the Byzantine Romans. The Qur’an be executed. As Leaman notices, these orders are totally different from (30:4–5) stated that the Romans will defeat the Sasanites in a few years, human orders because divine orders result in the realization of the and it happened as it was predicted. relevant activity, whereas such orders can never be realized if given by Another example is the 111th chapter human beings. It is the performative meaning of such verses, as Leaman of the Qur’an, al-Masad, which is about the Prophet’s nonbelieving notes, that brings about an extraordinary dimension to the miraculous- uncle, Abu Lahab, and says the he ness phenomenon. Leaman has two observations here. First, he thinks will enter the hellfire (because he did that a small part of the Qur’an, such as these verses, reflects the whole not confirmed the message of God). This chapter was revealed prior to meaning of the Qur’an and these short verses should not be evaluated Abu Lahab’s death. Had he wished independently of the whole text. That is to say, arguing for the mirac- to negate the Qur’an, he could have ulousness of the Qur’an on the basis of a smaller part thereof does not simply accepted Islam, since the third verse says, “He will enter to burn in have any privilege over arguing for the miraculousness of the whole a Fire of blazing flame,” yet the fact Qur’an. Secondly, Leaman thinks that such verses cannot be used to that he died as a nonbeliever is further establish that the Qur’an is miraculous because they can only serve to testimony to the veracity and miraculousness of the Qur’an insofar as God support such a conclusion if we are already convinced that the speaker revealed what He knew would happen of the Qur’an is God. If it is really God who is speaking in the text, by His will. then we can easily see the absurdity to expect the same creative activity

5 from creatures. Yet Leaman comments, “This is what the text is sup- Leaman, Islamic Aesthetics, 154, 158. Note also that Leaman considers the posed to prove,” and thus he considers such an argument to be circular.7 Mu tazilis to be followers of the sec- The second example of Nursi concerns the following verse: “If a ond view in Islamic Aesthetics but cites them when he presents the first view breath of Your Lord’s punishment touches them” (“Wa la in massathum in Controversies in Contemporary Islam. nafhatun min adhabi Rabbika”) (21:46). According to Nursi, this verse See Leaman, Controversies, 27. makes us think about the totality of God’s punishment by showing

6 the intensity of just a little part of it. Thus the words in this verse are Leaman, Islamic Aesthetics, 159–64; Leaman, Controversies, 28–31. chosen exactly to express the scarcity of the punishment. In Leaman’s terms, “This passage stresses the restraint of God’s action, and matches 7 Leaman, , 162–3. Islamic Aesthetics it with literary restraint.”8 Let us see how Nursi interprets this verse 8 Leaman, Controversies, 28. from this perspective:

46 kalam journal • 1/2018 1. The Arabic term in, which expresses the if-conditional, plays a role of decreasing the severity of punishment by implying a hypothetical scenario and doubt. 2. The term massathum denotes a slight contact or touching. In comparison to other words that may imply firmer or heavier contacts such as hitting, this chosen word serves for the aim of diminishing the effect of the punishment. 3. The term nafhatun refers to a light wind in comparison to a storm or strong atmospheric phenomena and also emphasizes scarcity. 4. The term min, the preposition from in English, implies a departure from the whole and thus a diminished effect. 5. The phrase adhabi Rabbika (“your Lord’s punishment”) makes use of the divine name Rabb (Lord) rather than some other names such as Jabbar and Qahhar that imply an exercise of power for a much stronger punishment.9

In conclusion, an emphasis on scarcity (qilla) unifies all the words and their meaning in this verse and integrates the parts into a whole. The parallels between the structures of language and the intended meaning are a highly effective means of conveying the divine message necessary for humanity. Leaman states that, from this point of view, eloquence serves to underscore the basic truths of the Qur’an and to see the world constantly from the perspective of these truths. This close tie between the truths and eloquence helps the believer maintain a straight path until death. In this sense, meaning and style become distinct but interrelated aspects of the miraculousness of the Qur’an.10 According to Leaman, al-Jurjani’s approach to the miraculousness of the Qur’an, as has been described above, is particularly appealing because, in this view, the style depends upon “entirely objective” elements such as “the economy of expression”, “the variety of ways of illustrating the same point”, “the compelling nature of the prose,” and so on.11 Leaman notes that Nursi is influenced by al-Jurjani’s view and particularly interested in the idea that everything within the Qur’an is in its perfect place and cannot be satisfactorily replaced by something else.12 Leaman finds similarities between al-Jurjani’s and Nursi’s respective approaches to the miraculousness of the Qur’an and the design argument for the existence of God. The proponents of the design argument consider certain arrangements of facts to be examples of design from which they make an inference to the existence of a designer. Similarly, Nursi considers the arrangement of the Qur’anic phrases to be in a perfect order. As being part of a perfect order, each phrase indicates “the existence and authority of a divine creator”.13 Nonetheless, Leaman points out a classical objection to the design argument, namely, that examples of design might not be as objective as they appear at first glance. For example, some people may consider eye 9 Said Nursi, Muhakemat (Istanbul: Sözler Yayınevi, 2004). to be a perfect design and others may regard it as an outcome of chance and evolutionary processes. Thus, Leaman concludes, “One can always 10 Leaman, Controversies, 28–9. disagree with the wonderful design that others see in both nature and a 11 Ibid., 29–30. text.”14 For Leaman, al-Jurjani’s and Nursi’s views of the miraculousness of the Qur’an do not rely upon objective standards, but appeal to aes- 12 Ibid., 30. thetic judgments, which can be defended by some and yet rejected by 13 Ibid., 29–30. others, and thus, in his view, they do not give any compelling evidence to convince everyone that the Qur’an is miraculous. 14 Ibid., 30.

kalam journal • 1/2018 47 SAID NURSI’S VIEW ON THE MIRACULOUSNESS OF THE QUR’AN In this section, I present Nursi’s view on the miraculousness of the Qur’an by illuminating the aspects that are overlooked by Leaman but play a significant role in Nursi’s view. In doing this, I discuss Leaman’s criticisms and show that they start from problematic assumptions. Nursi has two significant periods within his intellectual career. In his earlier period, which he calls the period of “Old Said”, Nursi deals with the issue of inimitability of the Qur’an in two important works: The Reasonings (Muhaqamat) and The Signs of Inimitability (Isharat al-i jaz).15 Muhaqamat includes a chapter entitled “The Elements of Eloquence” (unsur al-balagha) where Nursi presents his view of eloquence and its important elements and aspects by giving several examples both from the Qur’an and from other Arabic literature. In The Signs of Inimitability, he analyzes each verse of the Qur’an beginning from the Fatiha until the thirty-second verse of al-Baqara in terms of the view presented in the “The Elements of Eloquence”. In this chapter, we clearly see that Nursi assumes and advocates Abd al-Qahir al-Jurjani’s view of eloquence. Al-Jurjani gives meaning priority over words and considers the miraculousness of the Qur’an to be a quality that results from the arrangements of meanings (nazm al-ma ani).16 As Margaret Larkin and Kees Versteegh point out, for al-Jurjani, words cannot be regarded as eloquent by themselves and always need a proper context to become eloquent. That is to say, when the words are arranged in a perfect way to give the intended meaning, then eloquence appears.17 Nursi extends al-Jurjani’s approach and states that the meanings of the Qur’an have their roots in the truths about the universe. The arrangements of meanings go in parallel with the order of the universe. Thus, meaning is closely connected to truth. However, there is also an emphasis on expressing the meanings, because expressing their arrangement in a correct and complete way is possible only by language. If, for example, you choose an inappropriate word, you may not express the intended meaning correctly or completely. Thus, linguistic expressions or words (lafz) produce an important aspect of eloquence 15 Nursi, Muhakemat; and for its as well. However, Nursi’s maxim about the link between meaning English translation, see Nursi, The and expression ( ) is that “the words should serve for express- Reasonings, Risale-i Nur Collection, (ma na) lafz trans. Hüseyin Akarsu (Somerset, NJ: ing the meaning not vice versa” or “the linguistic expressions may be Tughra Books, 2008). See also Nursi, polished and decorated only if they do not hurt the meaning.”18 So , vol. 2 of İşarat’ül İ’caz Risale-i Nur according to Nursi, what is fundamental in eloquence is the meaning Külliyatı (Istanbul: Nesil Yayınları, 2006). rather than linguistic expressions, although both of them are necessary for a proper account of eloquence. 16 Abd al-Qahir al-Jurjani, Dala’il al-i In j , Nursi exemplifies in original ways the view of elo- jaz (Cairo: Maktabat al-Khanji, 1984), Isharat al-i az 39, 424. quence he describes in “The Elements of Eloquence”. Let us look at how he analyzes the eloquence of the Fatiha. Nursi contends that there 17 Kees Versteegh, Landmarks in are four main themes in the Qur’an: the existence and uniqueness of Linguistic Thought III: The Arabic Linguistic Tradition (New York: God (tawhid), prophecy (nubuwwa), the existence of resurrection and Routledge, 1997), 87; Margaret Larkin, afterlife (hashr), and justice ( adala).19 He argues that these four main The Theology of Meaning: Abd al-Qāhir themes can be seen in each chapter and even in some verses. The fol- Jurjāni’s Theory of Discourse, vol. 79, American Oriental Series (New lowing is the way he sees these themes even in the first verse or the Haven, CT: American Oriental Society, (“ ”). 1995), 140. Larkin’s work is a more Basmala Bismillah, ar-Rahman, ar-Rahim detailed analysis of al-Jurjani’s view of The verses of the Qur’an are revealed to the Prophet and the miraculousness phenomenon. then, via him, to all people. For that reason, in many places in the Qur’an, God as the speaker addresses the prophet Muhammad by 18 Nursi, Muhakemat, 1. uttering the term “say” (qul). Even though there is no explicit qul before 19 Nursi, İşarat’ül İ’caz, 1159. the Basmala, according to Nursi, we can assume that there is an implicit

48 kalam journal • 1/2018 one because God is talking to His prophet so that he can distribute this message to people. This is the way the Basmala indicates prophecy. The names al-Rahman and al-Rahim are prefixed with the definite article alif-lam. The use of “the” implies that there is only one person in question, and so here indicates the existence and uniqueness of God (i.e., the idea of tawhid) and that there is no other deity. The name al-Rah- man implies that God preserves the order and justice in the whole universe, while the name al-Rahim implies that only believers will benefit from His mercy in the afterlife. These are the implications regarding adala and hashr.20 Likewise, Nursi also gives interpretations about how other verses of the Fatiha indicate these themes. Apart from this, Nursi tries to show how the verses and linguistic phrases in this chapter are interconnected to each other. For instance, consider his analysis of the following phrase in the seventh verse: sirata lladhina an amta alayhim (“the path of those whom You have favored”):

1. There is a relation between this verse and the phrase al-hamdu li Llah (“all praise and gratitude are for God”) in the second verse. The term an amta (favors) shows the reason for praise and gratitude. We thank God because He favors us. 2. This verse is also connected with the phrase Rabbi l- alamin in the second verse. Rabb is a name of God and has the connotation of someone who trains and educates. The perfection of training is parallel to the continuation of favoring. 3. This verse is also related to the phrase al-Rahmani r-Rahim in the first verse because the termalladhina, or the relative pronoun “they”, refers to the prophets, truthful men, pious men, and mar- tyrs, and they are the people shown the mercy of God. That these four groups of people are under the extension of this verse is known by means of the following passage of the Qur’an: “those are in the company of those whom God has favored—the prophets, the truthful ones, the witnesses, the righteous ones” (4:69). 4. It is related to the fourth verse, Maliki yawmi d-din (“The Master of the day of Judgment [religion]”) because the most perfect favor is the religion or to have the right religion.21 5. It has the following relevance to the phrase iyyaka na budu (“You alone do we worship”) in the fifth verse: we pray and worship together with all believers to You, and these four groups of people are leading our prays. 6. It is also related to the phrase iyyaka nasta in (“from You alone do we seek help”) in the fifth verse because these four groups are objects of favor and help. 7. It is also related to the phrase ihdina (“Guide us”) in the sixth verse. These four groups of people are guided and we can attain guidance if we obey them. 8. It is also related to the phrase sirata l-mustaqim (“the right path”) again in the sixth verse. The right path is their way.22

Nonetheless, for Nursi the miraculousness of the Qur’an is not 20 Ibid., 1159. limited to its eloquence as described above. In “The Elements of Eloquence”, Nursi argues that there are six aspects of inimitability of 21 Ali Unal translated yawm al-din the Qur’an: (1) news about future events; (2) the fact that there are no as the Day of Judgment but Nursi interprets as religion. discrepancies and contradictions among the verses; (3) that its style al-din resemble neither poetry nor prose, but it is something in between; 22 Nursi, İşarat’ül İ’caz, 1161–4.

kalam journal • 1/2018 49 (4) that it comes from an illiterate person (ummi) without formal education (i.e., the prophet Muhammad); (5) that it includes truths beyond human capacity to obtain; (6) its eloquence. Nursi considers the eloquence (balagha) of the Qur’an to be the highest aspect of its inimitability. He adds that the aspect of eloquence in the Qur’an is beyond the capacity of human beings,23 which implies that the Qur’an is inimitable even in terms of its eloquence by itself without considering the other aspects. In his later career, which he calls “the period of New Said”, Nursi begins to write his Risale-i Nur Collection and dedicates himself to advo- cating the fundamental belief system of Islam against any kind of criticism that may confuse people’s mind. This is a period in which there were many challenges concerning the status of the Qur’an as well. Ranging from its grammar and style to its content and core propositions about human nature and the universe, many things were questioned at that time. We observe that in this period of his life, Nursi tries to defend the Qur’an against the multiplicity of objections as much as he can. In such a social context, Nursi remarks, “There are forty aspects of the inimitability of the Qur’an for forty different types of people.”24 We see clearly here how he explicitly relativizes the aspects of inimitability. He also admits that one aspect of inimitability accepted by a certain group of people may not be understood by another.25 One aspect of inimitability, for instance, is the frequent repetitions within the Qur’an. As a response to the challenges that aim to show that the Qur’an is imperfect, because it includes many repetitions, Nursi advocates the usage of repetitions. According to Nursi, the Qur’an is not only a literary work but also a book that guides people, teaches them how to act, and even how to pray. If you educate and train somebody, you should emphasize the important points by repeating them. The repetitions within the Qur’an also appear with slight differences in each different context and thus bring certain nuances to the meaning of the text.26 In these senses, repetitions are not points of imperfection but of perfection, which are not seen by some people. Nursi considers repetitions to be “a flash of inimitability” and people who argue against them are unable to see where the perfection associated to them lies. Anybody can write a book that has repetitions for the purpose of education. Thus, repetition is a miraculous aspect of the Qur’an not in the sense that it is impossible to perform such a task but in the sense that it is a perfection that is not seen or recognized by some people. Most of the aspects of inimitability Nursi mentions in this period should be considered to be perfections in the sense explained above. He extensively analyzes different types of perfections, which he did not deal with in detail in his earlier period even though he pointed out some of them. He continues to give analyses of eloquent perfection that presupposes appropriate relations between linguistic expressions and their meanings. Apart from that, he also gives purely stylistic analyzes, which focus only on linguistic expressions ( ). 23 Ibid., 1233. lafz One of the original aspects of the Qur’anic style he discovers in this 24 Nursi, Mektubat, vol. 1 of Risale-i period is his recognition of the orderly arrangement of some phrases in Nur Külliyatı (Istanbul: Nesil the Qur’an when written in a special form. Nursi recognizes that if the Yayınları, 2001), 440. Qur’an is written in a special manner, which is later called “the Hüsrev 25 Ibid., 542. type of handwriting” (Hüsrev hattı), some special words are repeated in an orderly manner. For instance, there are eight or nine instances of 26 Nursi, , vol. 1 of Sözler Risale-i Nur the word (God) in the same perpendicular line in many pages of Külliyatı (Istanbul: Nesil Yayınları, Allah 2001), 95, 176. the Qur’an.

50 kalam journal • 1/2018 Nursi’s analyses of the perfection of the content include social-economic principles, ways of looking at reality and the universe in general, predictions about the future, and so forth. His remarks on these matters do not imply any linguistic or stylistic perfection. For instance, by referring to the verses (2:43) and (2:275),27 he explains why charity is necessary and why charging interest is defective for a stable society. To Nursi, there are two sentences that give rise to a disaster in a society: “I should not be hungry but I don’t care about others” and “You will work and I will gain profit from you.” The two ideas expressed in these sentences gave rise to a big social disaster in Europe. The upper economic class became oppressive and merciless to the lower class by uttering the first sentence, and the second idea triggered the rage and resentment among people in the lower class against the upper one. The result was a clash between the two economic classes that destroyed Europe. For Nursi, the Qur’an cures the first idea by necessitating charity and cures the second by forbidding charging interest.28 As we have seen, Nursi understands the main aspect of the miraculousness of the Qur’an in terms of an interrelated link between its style and content but also suggests that there are miraculous aspects ranging from purely formal properties to truths that do not have to be related to any stylistic qualities. Leaman overlooks these aspects of the miraculousness phenomenon; however, this is not a major defect in his interpretation. The main problem lies in his interpretation of Nursi’s view on the miraculousness of the Qur’an as understood even only in terms of eloquence. Leaman does not seem to have understood what conclusion Nursi derives from this miraculousness phenomenon and the exact structure of Nursi’s argument for that conclusion. As presented above, Leaman thinks that the miraculous phe nomenon—the sublime structure of the Qur’an, which is a perfect combination of form and content—points to the existence of a divine being much the way that the design of the world indicates a designer. 27 “Establish the Prayer, and pay That is to say, such an argument for the existence of God is similar in the Prescribed Purifying Alms [the Zakah]; and bow [in the Prayer, not its logical structure to the argument from design. Thus, for Leaman, by forming a different community such an argument would be at best persuasive as the design argument or congregation, but] together with is but not conclusive. However, Leaman is mistaken in his interpre- those who bow [the Muslims]” (2:43); “As to those who devour interest tation of the logical structure of Nursi’s argument that concerns the [even though they seem, for a time, miraculousness of the Qur’an. Nursi does not try to prove the exis- to be making a profit], they turn out tence of God from the miraculousness phenomenon. The existence of like one whom Satan has bewitched and confounded by his touch [and God is not intended to be established but is presupposed by Nursi’s they will rise up from their graves argument. Following the mainstream Ash ari view, Nursi holds that the in the same way before God]. That existence and uniqueness of God must be proved without appealing is because they say interest is just 29 like trading, whereas God has made to the Qur’an. Otherwise the argument would be circular. The trading lawful, and interest unlawful. Ash aris argue that the existence and uniqueness of God must be To whomever an instruction comes initially proved on the basis of an inference from the observable world. from his Lord, and he desists [from interest], he may keep his past gains Only then can miracles serve to establish something, which is to con- [legally], and his affair is committed to firm the truthfulness of a prophet who claims to deliver a message from God [If he repents sincerely and never God, whose existence and uniqueness have been already accepted. again reverts to taking interest, he may hope that God will forgive him]. Versteegh notes that the issue of the miraculousness of the Qur’an But whoever reverts to it [by judging entered the kalam books from the nineth century onwards. The place it to be lawful], they are companions one can find this issue is the context of prophecy.30 This is a significant of the Fire; therein they will abide” (2:275). observation because it shows that the mutakallimun or scholastic theologians intended to use the inimitability of the Qur’an (i jaz al-Qur’an) 28 Ibid., 184. not to justify the existence of God but rather the prophecy claim of 29 Nursi, , 1242. Muhammad. Thus, from the Ash ari point of view, Muhammad pre- İşarat’ül İ’caz sented the Qur’an as a message of God to all humanity but did not 30 Versteegh, Landmarks, 120. kalam journal • 1/2018 51 appeal to the Qur’an to prove the existence and uniqueness of God. Rather, he drew attention to the observable world to support his claim concerning God. This is indeed what the Qur’an guided him to do. Muhammad showed many miracles, among which the Qur’an itself is the greatest, in order to support the claim that he is a true messenger of God. Thus, for Nursi and the Ash aris, the miraculousness of the Qur’an does not prove the existence of God but justifies the truthfulness of the prophet Muhammad, who presented the Qur’an to people as an indubitable message of God. Why is this point important? It is important because identify- ing clearly what the miraculousness of the Qur’an purports to justify affects the plausibility of the argument to a great extent. Leaman identifies the aim of Nursi’s argument with supporting the existence of God and thus diminishes the strength of the argument, which indeed purports to confirm the prophecy claim of Muhammad. Leaman is aware that prophetic miracles are always associated with a prophecy claim within the kalam tradition that Nursi follows. Leaman mentions the well-known distinction between mu jizat and karamat. The former concern the extraordinary phenomena associated with prophets and the latter concern the extraordinary phenomena associated with pious people who are not prophets.31 However, Leaman pays no attention to the claim of prophecy connected to miracles when he evaluates the link between miracles and what they are supposed to indicate. Nursi says:

The miracle is the confirmation by the Creator of the cosmos of his [Muhammad’s] declaration of prophethood; it has the effect of the words “You have spoken truly!”. Suppose that you said in the assembly of a ruler, while being observed by him, “The ruler has appointed me to such-and-such a position.” At the time when you were asked for a proof of your claim, the word yes uttered by the ruler would sufficiently support you. Or, if the ruler changed his usual practice and attitude at your request, this would affirm your claim even more soundly and more definitely than would the wordyes . In the same way, the Noble Messenger (upon whom be blessings and peace) claimed: “I am the envoy of the Creator of the universe. My proof is that He will change His unbroken order at my request and my prayer.”32

Thus, the Qur’an is a mu jiza (i.e., a prophetic miracle) in the sense Nursi describes and must be considered to be evidence for the truthfulness of Muhammad. Given this, Nursi puts much stress on the concept of God and the idea of tawhid—the uniqueness of God. He presents a multitude of arguments that aim to prove the existence of God, Singular and Transcendent, utilising only our observations of the universe and to show how the universe serves to understand various attributes of God. Nursi points out that the Qur’an describes God coherently with the results we acquired from our observations of the universe. Thus, the 31 Leaman, Controversies, 27. universe confirms the essential message of the Qur’an, namely, tawhid. 32 This is a crucial point because any prophecy claim or message that is Nursi, The Letters, Risale-i Nur Collection, trans. Şükran Vahide supposed to be sent from God must be coherent with our observations (Istanbul: Sözler, 2001), 120. See also of the universe. If anybody claims that he is a prophet and brings a mes- his , vol. 1 of Mektubat Risale-i Nur sage from God, from Nursi’s point of view, he must primarily declare Külliyatı (Istanbul: Nesil Yayınları, 2001), 388. the idea of tawhid. If not, his claim is immediately rejected. Thus, the

52 kalam journal • 1/2018 idea of tawhid gives us a criterion to examine any prophecy claim, and we can make sense of a significant aspect of the challenging verses in the following way. The speaker of the Qur’an is God. He is unique, transcendent, all-powerful, all-knowing, and so forth. These are the points we come to know from our observations of the universe. If anyone wants to meet the challenge of the Qur’an, he must come up with a message from this God. The speaker of his text must be this God. Recall Leaman’s evaluation of Nursi’s analysis of the following verse: “O earth, swallow up your waters! And, O sky, cease [your rain]!” (11:44). Leaman rightly notes that this is a divine order and does not resemble human orders because God has power to realize what He orders in this verse. This verse is a “performative utterance”, a term introduced by John Austin to refer to the sentences whose utterance leads to an action.33 It is like a father naming his baby by saying “I name you ‘John’.” By saying this, the name of the baby becomes “John” because his father is the appropriate person to give his name. On Austin’s view, performative utterances do not attain truth-values (truth or falsity) because they do not describe a case. Rather they are either happy (successful) or unhappy (unsuccessful). There are certain conditions under which they can be regarded as happy, and he calls them “felicity conditions”.34 If a father names his baby, a felicity condition for the act of naming is satisfied, but it is not satisfied when a doctor names the baby (of course independently of his parents’ intention). Similarly, to issue an order like the one in the verse above (11:44), one must satisfy the condition of having power over earth and sky. Thus, a human being cannot even pretend to give such an order because of their apparent weaknesses. As a result, they cannot meet the challenge of the Qur’an to bring about a similar text—even such a short verse. In addition, in order to see this force of the verse above, we do not have to consider the total world of meanings of the Qur’an as Leaman suggested. Instead, an appreciation of the idea of tawhid is sufficient to understand that people cannot meet the challenge of producing such a verse because they do not possess divine attributes. Nonetheless, people’s inability to produce a similar verse, or a text, does not conclusively establish that the text in question has a divine origin. How do we know positively that the Qur’an is a real message from God? As we recall, concerning Nursi’s analysis of this verse, Leaman commented that it works as an argument for the miraculousness phenomenon only if we already know that the author of the Qur’an is God. But how do we know it? To summarize Nursi’s argument the Qur’anic description of God and His action in the universe are confirmed by arguments based on our observation of the universe. This is a sure indication that the Qur’an is not an ordinary and unimportant text to be rejected. It is a text worth considering seriously. Yet we need more premises to definitely establish that it really comes from God. Toward the conclusion that the Qur’an has a divine origin, I should point out a key premise in Nursi’s argument, which is entirely overlooked by Leaman. In relation to the Qur’an, Nursi claims that there are only two valid options concerning the claim of prophecy. The Qur’an is either revealed to Muhammad by God (thus Muhammad is honest and truthful in his claim) or the book is forged and composed by him. If Muhammad composed it by himself, then he would be the 33 John L. Austin, How to Do most immoral and dishonest liar in this world because he spoke in the Things with Words (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976), 6. name of God and presented his ideas as the view of God. However, this cannot be true because Muhammad was known as a very honest, 34 Ibid., 14. kalam journal • 1/2018 53 truthful, and moral person even by Meccan unbelievers. As such there is no other option than to consider the claim of prophecy as valid.35 Nursi does not consider any other option regarding this case to be genuine. He rejects the proposal that Muhammad was possibly hallucinating or deceived by a demon though being honest in his vision and experience. Nursi reasons as follows. Muhammad or his friends near him were quite intelligent to be able to distinguish delusion from reality. Muhammad changed the lifestyle of a community, directed many wars and won most of them. His Companions conquered many lands and fought with Byzantine and Persia and ultimately came out vic- torious. These achievements certainly need to rely on some strategies developed by highly intelligent people. These intelligent Companions found no mark of delusion in Muhammad and obeyed his orders and suggestions as much as they could.36 We may consider intelligent (yet immoral) leaders of the twentieth century such as Hitler and Stalin as counterexamples to this argument. However, the analogy does not work here because Muhammad is charged with delusion, not with obsession—a more appropriate prop- erty to describe the psychological state of the tyrannous leaders of the twentieth century mentioned above. In addition, these leaders never claimed to have revelation from God. Since we have only two options in question, one cannot say, for instance, that Muhammad was honest, had a moral character and forged a book entitled “the Qur’an”. This is inconsistent because the Qur’an by itself declares that the worst wrongdoer is the person who fabricates falsehood against God (6:93).37 Therefore Muhammad says the truth and the Qur’an has a divine origin.38 Keep in mind that we have already accepted the necessary existence of a divine being (the Creator of the universe) to be able to propose this argument. 35 Nursi, The Letters, 366–74; and Now we must choose between these two options because only one Mektubat, 493–5. of them is true. Nursi argues that we do not even have to appeal to mira- 36 Nursi, The Letters, 366; and cles in order to identify the true option. He draws attention to the case Mektubat, 494. of Abd Allah ibn Salam, a Jewish scholar, who visited Muhammad and said, “There is no lie in this face,” and then became a Muslim. According 37 The whole verse: “Who is more in wrong than he who fabricates false- to Nursi, even a small sign for the truthfulness of Muhammad is suffi- hood in attribution to God, or says, ‘I cient for his prophecy.39 He gives the following illuminating analogy. receive Revelation from God,’ when nothing has been revealed to him, and he who claims, ‘I will produce the Let us imagine a tall minaret the top of which touches the like of what God has sent down’? If skies, and at the base of which a well has been dug reaching you could but see how it will be when those wrongdoers find themselves to the center of the earth. Two groups are disputing over in the agonies of death when the proving where between the top of the minaret and the angels [appointed to take their souls], bottom of the well a man should be whose call to prayer is stretching forth their hands [say]: ‘Yield up your souls! Today you will be heard by all the people throughout the country. The first recompensed with the punishment of group says: “He is at the top of the minaret reciting the call humiliation for having continuously to prayer to the universe. Because we hear it, it is living, it and persistently spoken about God other than the truth, and in persistent is elevated. For sure, not everyone can see him in that high arrogance scorned His Revelations.’” situation except according to their degree; yet everyone can see him in a position, on a step, when he climbs it and when 38 Nursi, The Letters, 366; and Mektubat, 494. he descends. They know from this that he ascends it, and wherever he appears, he is someone of high stature.” The 39 Nursi, The Letters, 121; and other satanic and foolish group says, however: “No, his posi- , 388. Mektubat tion is not the top of the minaret; wherever it is he appears, 40 40 Nursi, The Letters, 396. his place is the bottom of the well.”

54 kalam journal • 1/2018 In this analogy, the call for prayer is the prophecy claim of Muhammad. It is heard by all the people throughout the country, namely, that he announced he has brought the message of God to everyone. The first group is the believers in his message. They accept that he is a true messenger of God by all his miracles. That is to say, the true place of the person who calls to prayer is at the top of the minaret. The other group is the people who deny the prophecy of Muhammad. In other words, they believe that his true place is the bottom of the well. Now, everybody “can see him in a position, on a step, when he climbs it and when he descends”. Walking on steps or being seen on a certain step in the analogy refers to the signs of his honesty and truthfulness. The disagreement between these two groups turns around whether seeing him on a step supports the thesis of the first group or that of the second. Nursi continues,

Now, the battlefield of these two opposing groups is the long distance stretching from the top of the minaret to the bottom of the well. The people of light, called God’s Party, point out the muezzin at the top of the minaret to those with an elevated view. And to those whose sight cannot rise that far and to the shortsighted, they show that supreme muezzin on a step each according to his degree. A slight hint is enough for them and proves that the muezzin is not a lifeless mass like a stone, but a perfect man who climbs upwards and appears and makes the call to prayer when he wishes. As for the other group, known as Satan’s Party, they pronounce stupidly: “Show him to everyone at the top of the minaret, or else his place is the bottom of the well.” In their stupidity they do not know that his not being shown to everyone at the top of the minaret arises from everyone’s sight not rising that far. Also, in exaggerated fashion, they want to claim possession of the whole distance with the exception of the top of the minaret.41

Nursi asserts that seeing the person who calls to prayer (i.e., the muezzin) on a step supports the thesis of the first group and considers the second group’s attempt to make use of this observation on their behalf to be a sophistry. To see Nursi’s argument more clearly, examine the following passage:

Then someone appears in order to solve the dispute between the two communities. He says to Satan’s Party: “You inauspicious group! Had the position of that supreme muezzin been the bottom of the well, he would have to have been lifeless, inanimate, and powerless like a stone. It could not have been him who appeared on the well’s steps and minaret’s degrees. Since you see him there, he is certain not to be powerless, lifeless, and without reality. His position will be at the top of the minaret. In which case, either show him at the bottom of the well—which in no way can you do, nor could you make anyone believe that he is there—or be silent! The arena of your defence is the well’s bottom. The remaining arena and long distance is the arena of this blessed community; wherever they show him to be other than the bottom of the well, they will win the case.”42 41 Ibid., 397. kalam journal • 1/2018 55 Nursi uses the analogy of stone to dramatize the hypothetical scenario in which Muhammad is considered to be dishonest and lying to people. A stone is an inanimate and heavy object that cannot walk up the stairs and thus must be located at the bottom of the well. Similarly, if Muhammad is considered to have forged the Qur’an and deceived people, then, in Nursi’s terms, that “would necessitate his descending from the highest of the high to the lowest of the low, and from the degree of being the source of accomplishments and perfections to the level of being a mine of trickery and intrigue; he could not remain between the two. For one who lies and fabricates in God’s name falls to the very lowest of degrees”.43 In such a case, like a stone he could not find a place other than the bottom of the well. Because of this, any sign of his honesty, truthfulness that ranges from ordinary to the miraculous, supports the other option, namely, that he is a true messenger of God. As Nursi points out in the analogy, everyone cannot see the muezzin at the top of the minaret. That is to say, not everybody has witnessed all the miracles he showed. In addition, not everybody can appreciate certain miraculous aspects of the Qur’an. Nonetheless, according to Nursi’s argument, this insufficiency and lack of witnessing do not undermine the ability to judge that the Qur’an has a divine origin and Muhammad is a prophet. Let us reconsider Leaman’s criticism. As you may recall, Leaman finds similarities between the argument from design and the argument from the miraculousness of the Qur’an. For him, the design argument does not objectively imply the existence of a designer, and likewise the miraculousness of the Qur’an does not objectively show that it comes from a divine being. Both the phenomena of design and miraculousness of the Qur’an are subject to subjective aesthetic judgments that may differ from people to people. Leaman’s appeal to the design argument misleads him in his analysis of the miraculousness of the Qur’an, in general, and Nursi’s argument, in particular. Nursi does not only rely on some wonderful aspects of the Qur’an in arguing for its divine origin. He initially identifies two inconsistent options for the origin of the Qur’an and affirms its divine origin by denying the other on the basis of any evidence that supports the truthfulness of the prophet Muhammad. The wonderful aspects of the Qur’an can also be considered to be evidence among many others for his truthfulness because they support his claim that the Qur’an is inimitable. Yet, for Nursi, everybody may not understand and appreciate all the wonderful and miraculous aspects of the Qur’an. Some of these aspects may require an aesthetic appreciation and they are therefore subjective. The subjectivity in question is not necessarily something that concerns only a given individual. Some eloquent aspects of language may have an inter-subjective basis in a certain linguistic community. For example, imagine a poet whose poems are highly esteemed by a circle of poets but also disregarded by another circle. This case indicates the difficulty to find aesthetic criteria accepted by everybody. However, it also shows that people can agree upon certain aesthetic criteria, and judge works of art on the basis of such common criteria. The Qur’an was revealed in a linguistic community that had a cer-

42 Ibid. tain sense of literary beauty and eloquence. Literary discourse came into prominence among the Arabs of the pre-Islamic era. Poetry was so 43 Ibid., 371. admired in Mecca that the best seven poems were written in golden ink

56 kalam journal • 1/2018 and hung on the walls of the Kaaba each year. The Prophet primarily challenged these people to bring about a text like the Qur’an. Although nobody has the sense of eloquence those Meccans had, according to Nursi, everybody can understand that the Meccan unbelievers were not able to respond to that challenge. Nursi makes use of the following classical argument proposed by Jahiz to justify this point. There were many famous poets and people who had a talent of lit- eracy among the Meccan unbelievers. However, they preferred to exercise oppressive power over the Muslims, forced them to leave Mecca, and fought them after they left instead of producing a work like the Qur’an. Yet, producing a work like the Qur’an was the easiest way to prevent the growth of the Muslim community because if the challenge of the Qur’an were satisfied, no one would have believed it anymore and Islam would have disappeared from the earth. And this should have been very simple and easy for them because of their skills and pro- ficiency in poetry, prose, or literature in general. Since they were not be able perform such a task, they preferred the more difficult way of fighting. As a consequence, their lives, properties, and economies fell into danger. No plausible men would prefer such a harmful way, if the other easier way were available. This fact shows that the way of producing a work like the Qur’an was closed for them and they were unable to do it, although they extremely needed it.44 The argument continues: We know that there was no real response to the Qur’an’s challenge at that time for the following reason. If there were such a response, it would be known among the Arabs because that was really what they needed. If it were known, it could not have remained hidden because the unbelievers, who were more powerful than the Muslims, would not have allowed it to remain hidden. Yet there is no such work known in history. There are some writings belonging to Musaylima (Muslim ibn Habib), who lived during that time. The Meccan unbelievers did not seriously consider Musaylima’s work as a counter-challenge to the Qur’an and preferred the more difficult way as mentioned above.45 The inability of the Meccans to meet the challenge of the Qur’an showed that the eloquence of the Qur’an was far beyond their capability. In relation to the aspect of eloquence they were incapable of producing, a miraculous aspect of the Qur’an became apparent and served to support Muhammad’s claim of prophecy.

CONCLUSION According to Nursi, there are as many as forty different aspects of the miraculousness of the Qur’an. Everybody may not appreciate the perfection of all these aspects. Certain aspects can be considered to be relative to certain groups of people. However, a certain aspect for the right person may help them see the inimitable character of the Qur’an when that person judges the aspect in question against the prophecy claim of Muhammad. For Nursi, even a minor sign of the honesty and truthfulness of Muhammad is sufficient to evaluate his prophecy claim without considering any miracles. Nursi’s argument for the divine origin of the Qur’an does not appeal to some characteristics of the text to support the existence of God. Rather, the argument builds on other arguments that infer the existence and uniqueness of God from the 44 Nursi, , 162–3. universe and presents the Qur’an as a message from this God via His Sözler messenger Muhammad. Muhammad, with the Qur’an at his hand, 45 Ibid., 163. kalam journal • 1/2018 57 stated that the book is a message from God and challenged people who had doubt about his prophecy. Without considering this background and the role of the prophecy claim, one cannot understand the function of the miraculousness phenomenon and what it aims to prove. Leaman commits exactly the mistake of ignoring these dimensions of Nursi’s argument. The argument Leaman ascribes to Nursi is much weaker than its original form and thus much easier to criticize. By presenting Nursi’s argument this way and criticizing it severely, Leaman thus commits the fallacy of straw man.

58 kalam journal • 1/2018 3ARTICLES#

Continuous Re-Creation: From Kalam Atomism to Contemporary Cosmology*

Mehmet Bulğen | Marmara University

arden-variety (or ordinary) objects or bodies are seem- Dr. Mehmet Bulg ˘en is Assistant ingly the most concrete physical entities around us. However, Professor at the Faculty of Theology, throughout history people have attempted to uncover the real- Marmara University, Istanbul. He G received his PhD in kalam from the ity which lies behind these appearances. In this context the atomistic Institute of Social Science in Marmara view, which claims that bodies are composed of discrete units that University in 2013. He was a fellow at cannot be divided into smaller parts, was one of the main solutions the Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill developed in ancient times regarding this phenomenon.1 Pre-Socra University, Canada, in 2014. His current research projects include criticisms of kalam tic philosophers, such as Leucippus (480–420 Bc) and Democritus atomism in classical Islamic thought and (460–370 bc), propounded this idea in order to reconcile the principle evaluations of Qur’anic cosmological verses of the unity and immutability of being with the multiplicity and the according to contemporary cosmology. mutability of the visible world.2 Aristotle (384–322 bc) rejected this view, claiming that accepting objects as discontinuous and discrete requires that the notions of space and time associated with objects * This article is based on my PhD should also be discrete in nature, which makes motion and extension dissertation “Evaluation of Classical or magnitude impossible.3 In the Hellenistic period philosophers such Kalam Atomism According to as Epicurus (342–270 Bc) and Lucretius (95–51 Bc) attempted to defend Contemporary Cosmology”, prepared 4 under the supervision of Professor Dr. atomism again. However, the dominant view in the West, especially Ilyas Çelebi at the Institute of Social during the Middle Ages, was the Aristotelian theory of bodies as con- Sciences, Marmara University, 2013. 5 tinuous and potentially divisible ad infinitum. 1 Jennifer Trusted, Mystery of Matter After the Ancient Greeks Islamic theologians (mutakallimun) (London: Macmillan, 1999), 12. became the champions of atomism.6 The , on the basis of mutakallimun 2 the principle of finitude of events (itself based on the impossibility of W. K. C. Guthrie, A History of an actual infinite), defended the view that not only matter but also the Greek Philosophy: The Pre-Socratic Tradition from Parmenides to Democritus entire universe, including space, time, and motion, consists of finite (Cambridge: Cambridge University units.7 Such an atomistic model of the universe had, in turn, import- Press, 2003), 2:389ff.; David Furley, ant implications for Islamic theological concepts. At first, during the The Greek Cosmologists: The Formation of the Atomic Theory and its Earliest absorption of atomism from ancient cultures, the mutakallimun gave it Critics (Cambridge: Cambridge a shape according to their theological considerations but, thereafter, it University Press, 1997), 115; Samuel Sambursky, gradually affected their theological views. In this context, the contin- The Physical World of the Greeks (Princeton: Princeton uous re-creation and the rejection of natural causality were both theo- University Press, 1987), 105.

logical theories that were developed as a consequence of the atomistic 3 8 On Aristotle’s defense that space worldview. So, unlike the Christian West, which declared this theory and time can be divided into indef- 9 heretical due to its materialist basis, the Islamic theologians made this initely, see Max Jammer, Concepts of theory the basis of the occasionalist relationship between God and Space: The History of Theories of Space in Physics (Dover Publications: New the universe, in which God is the only efficient cause, and constantly York, 1993), 17; David Furley, “Aristotle 10 re-creates the universe at every moment. and the Atomist on Infinity”, inCosmic

kalam journal • 1/2018 59 Problems (New York: Cambridge In Islamic thought, the theory of atomism was not a marginal view University Press, 1989), 103ff.; Leslie held by only a few individuals and groups; rather, it was adopted as offi- Jaye Kavanaugh, The Architectonic of Philosophy: Plato, Aristotle, Leibniz cial doctrine by the majority of Muslim theologians and became a pre- (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University dominant model for explaining reality from the ninth to the twelfth Press, 2007), 94–6; Alan Chalmers, century.11 As it was widely discussed and accepted, it gained a coher- The Scientist’s Atom and the Philosopher’s Stone: How Science Succeeded and ent structure and became a comprehensive model of the universe. Philosophy Failed to Gain Knowledge of However, in the period after al-Ghazali (1058–1111), it began to decline Atoms (New York: Springer, 2009), 34; A. Cornelus Benjamin, “Ideas of Time due to Aristotelian and Neo-Platonist theses defended by Peripatetics in the History of Philosophy”, in The (Mashsha’un), and the rise of mysticism that challenged rationalist Voices of Time, ed. J.T. Fraser (New and materialist views of the world. In fact, while not abandoned com- York: Braziller, 1966), 12–15. pletely, it would not hold a central position in Islamic theology after the 4 12 Epicurus, Letters and Sayings of twelfth century. However, the Islamic theologians who inherited this Epicurus, trans. Odysseus Makridis tradition from the ancient world not only protected this theory, but (New York: Barnes & Noble Books, also promoted its revival in the West.13 2005), 1–29; Lucretius, The Nature of The Universe, trans. R. E. Latham The cosmological paradigm shift, which began with the scientific (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, revolution in seventeenth-century Europe, led Western thinkers to 1951); Pierre-Marie Morel, “Epicurean search for alternative natural philosophies to that of Aristotle. In this Atomism”, in The Cambridge Companion to Epicureanism, ed. James context, philosophers such as Giordano Bruno (1548–1600), Francis Warren (Cambridge: Cambridge Bacon (1561–1626), and Daniel Sennert (1572–1637) showed a renewed University Press, 2009), 65. interest in old atomistic views.14 The French priest and astronomer 5 Norris S. Hetherington, “Aristotle’s Pierre Gassendi (1592–1655) attempted a reconciliation of Epicurean Cosmology”, in Encyclopedia of atomism with Christianity.15 Also, leading influential natural philoso- Cosmology, ed. Norris S. Hetherington (New York: Garland Pub., 1993), phers at the time, such as Galileo Galilei (1564–1642), Isaac Newton 19–20; Andrew G. Van Melsen, From (1642–1727), Robert Boyle (1629–98), John Locke (1632–1704), and Atomos to Atom (Pittsburgh: Duquesne W. Charleton (1620–1707) championed philosophical and theological University Press, 1952), 49ff. atomism in various domains.16 6 Andrew Pyle, Atomism and Its Critics In the eighteenth century, scientists such as Joseph Black (1728– 99), (Bristol: Thoemmes Press, 1997), 210–11. CW Scheele (1742–86), John Priestly (1733-1804), and Henry Cavendish 7 The most important characteristic (1731–1810) proved through their experimental research that air, which of kalam atomism is that it offers a was accepted as an element by Aristotle, is actually a compound con- comprehensive model of the universe. In this context, Islamic theologians sisting of oxygen and nitrogen. Later on, the French scientist Antoine claim that not only atoms, but also Lavoisier (1743–94) demonstrated that water is not an element but their interactions (ekvan), attributes consists of two separate components, hydrogen and oxygen.17 Soon the (a raz), space, time and motion, that is, the universe as a whole, con- combustion theory (phlogiston), based on the doctrine of the four ele- sists of finite units. Regarding this ments, was also shown to be false; it was further proven that fire was a subject see Mehmet Bulgen, “Klasik form of energy and soil was composed of many different elements. So Donem Kelam Atomculugunun Gunumuz Kozmolojisi Açısından the doctrine of the four elements, which had prevailed in the West for Degerlendirilmesi” (PhD diss., more than two thousand years, was invalidated18. Marmara University, 2013), 157. In 1808, the British chemist and physicist John Dalton (1766–1844) 8 In fact, early Mu tazili theologians, took the first steps on the road towards scientific atomism by assuming who introduced atomism into Islamic that all elements consist of indivisible atoms identical in weight and theology, were not strictly occasion- characteristics.19 Then came the Italian chemist Amedeo Avogadro’s list and tried to develop different concepts such as the conjugation (1776–1856) studies on the molecular structure of gases which states (iqtiran), generation (tawlid), depen- that under the same pressure and warmness gases consist of the same dence (i timad), custom ( ada) in order amount of molecules; this was in turn followed by the Russian chemist to explain causal relations between different natural phenomena. Dmitry Mendeleyev’s (1834–1907) arrangement of the periodic table in However, atomism does not provide 1868. Eventually, the opinion that atoms bear all the chemical charac- an appropriate basis for such concep- teristics of a given element, and are not further chemically reducible to tualization, therefore the system had 20 rapidly evolved into occasionalism. another element, became fixed and common. The main reason for this is that Despite these developments in the area of chemistry, an uncer- atomism depends on the discontinu- tainty still prevailed in physics. Even in the early 1900s famous physi- ity principle, and makes everything in the universe disconnected and cists such as Wilhelm Ostwald (1853–1932) and Ernst Mach (1838–1916), disjointed, including matter, space, who were influenced by positivism, were skeptical of the existence of

60 kalam journal • 1/2018 atoms.21 According to them, the atom, though it does not actually exist, time, and motion. Osman Bakar, “The Atomistic Conception of Nature in can be used as a hypothesis for the explanation of macroscopic phe- Ash arite Theology”, in 22 The History nomena more successfully than other theories. and Philosophy of Islamic Science However, the subsequent twenty years witnessed radical discov- (Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 1999), 91; see also M.B. Altaie, “Daqiq eries about the structure of matter. In their research, physicists such al-Kalam: The Islamic Approach as Joseph J. Thomson (1856–1940), Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937), to Natural Philosophy”, 6, a paper and James Chadwick (1891–1974) did not only prove experimentally delivered at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, the existence of the atom, but also demonstrated that it consists of a UK, 26 January 2005. nucleus and revolving electrons and that this nucleus contains smaller units called protons and neutrons.23 Ongoing studies showed that the 9 Josef van Ess, “Mu tazilite atom, which is indivisible in chemical reactions, could be disintegrated Atomism”, in The Flowering of Muslim Theology, trans. Jane Marie Todd physically in a nuclear reaction. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University However, in the more advanced studies of the atomic structure Press, 2006), 79–115. For example, Dante sends atomic philosophers of matter, philosophical atomism, which defended the discontinuity, such as Democritus and Epicurus to made a significant gain. In 1901 the German physicist Max Planck the bottom of the layers of hell; see (1858–1947) discovered that radiation absorbed and emitted a discrete Joseph Anthony Mazzeo, “Dante and 24 Epicurus”, in Comparative Literature 10 form of energy packs which he called quanta. Immediately after this (Spring 1958), 106–20. Albert Einstein (1879–1955) used Planck’s theory in other experimen- 10 tal phenomenon, in which certain metals are exposed to light electron Majid Fakhry, Islamic Occasionalism 25 (London: Allen & Unwin, 1958), 23; emissions seen on them (the photoelectric effect). It did not take Duncan B. Macdonald, “Continuous too long to understand that the assumption of discontinuity would be Re-Creation and Atomic Time in needed in the explanation of other problems in atomic structure. The Muslim Scholastic Theology”, The Danish physicist Niels Bohr (1885–1962) discovered that the angular Muslim World 18, no. 1 (1928): 6–28. momentum of an electron could be related to fixed units or discrete 11 There are a lot of classical and energy packets. Accordingly, he fixed the trajectory of an electron modern works on kalam atomism, but the most important classical orbiting around the nucleus of an atom, with discrete integers called works are: Ebu Reşid en-Nisaburi (d. principal quantum numbers and in the sequence of natural numbers 415/1024), el-Mesail fī’l-hilaf beyne’l-Bas- (1, 2, 3, and so on).26 Further studies on the structure of the atom pro- riyyin ve’l-Bagdadiyyin; Ibn Metteveyh vided more quantum numbers that describe specific situations such as (d. 469/1075[?]) et-Tezkire fī ahkami’l- cevahir ve’l-a‘raz’; Musa bin Meymun energy, position, spin and angular momentum found in an atom. Thus, (Maimonides) (d. 601/1204) Delaletü’l- the geometric status based on real numbers in relation to the substance Hairin; Ebu’l-Mu’in en-Nesefi (d. 27 508/1115). Modern studies on kalam of nature was replaced by the arithmetic status based on integers. atomism include: Shlomo Pines, As a result, today quantum mechanics is the final point that human Beitrage zur islamischen Atomenlehre knowledge has been able to reach in the adventure of long-term (Berlin: Graefenhainichen, 1936); research into understanding the nature of matter and the fundamen- Harry Austryn Wolfson, The Philosophy of the Kalam (Cambridge, MA: tal forces that govern the universe. Many technological inventions that Harvard University Press, 1976); changed our lives in the twentieth century are based on this theory. Alnoor Dhanani, The Physical Theory However, in spite of the micro-level discontinuity today, the conti- of Kalam (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1994); Husam al-Alousi, The Problem of nuity in space and time continues. The main reason for this is the the- Creation in Islamic Thought (Baghdad: ory of general relativity, which describes the rules of gravity, and ties National Printing and Publishing, 1965); Muna Ahmed Muhammed Ebu together space and time in a nonlinear manner known as the space-time Zeyd, 28 et-Tasavvuru’z-zerri fi’l-fikri’l-felse- continuum. But to consider matter and forces at the micro level as fiyyi’l-İslami (Beirut, 1994); Richard discontinuous, and space-time as continuous at the macro level, seems Sorabji, Time, Creation and the Continuum (Chicago: University of contradictory, as Aristotle would have said, for these terms (magni- Chicago Press, 2006); M. B. Altaie, tudes, space, time and motion) are inextricably linked. Therefore, if Daqiq al-kalam (Jordan, 2010); one of them is continuous, the others should also be continuous. Otto Pretzl, “Die fruhislamische Atomenlehre”, Der Islam 19 (1931): In the past, Aristotle specified that space and time are continu- 117–30; Richard M. Frank, “Bodies ous in structure, and in this context he claimed that bodies should and Atoms: The Ashcarite Analysis”, be divided potentially forever.29 Islamic theologians defended the in Islamic Theology and Philosophy, ed. Michael E. Marmura (Albany: State position that bodies are composed of discrete units instead of con- University of New York Press, 1984); tinuous ones; in the same way, they held that space and time should A. I. Sabra, “Kalam Atomism as an also be the same in structure.30 Thus, both Aristotle and Islamic Alternative Philosophy to Hellenizing theologians—although they disagree on whether bodies are contin- Falsafa”, in Arabic Theology, Arabic Philosophy, ed. James E. Montgomery uous or discontinuous—shared the same view that the universe as a (Leuven: Peeters, 2006), 199–271;

kalam journal • 1/2018 61 Tzvi Langermann, “Islamic Atomism whole, including bodies, space, time, and motion, should be isomor- and the Galenic Tradition”, History of phic in structure, as the twelfth-century philosopher Maimonides Science 47 (2009), 277–95. (d. 601/1204) articulated: 12 See Alnoor Dhanani, “Atomism in Islamic Thought”, in Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine This is their [mutakallimun/Islamic theologians’] statement in Non-Western Cultures, ed. Helaine Selin that time consists of moments ( ). They mean that there (The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic anat Publishers, 1997), 139–43. are many units of time that are indivisible because of the shortness of their duration. This premise is also necessary 13 Taufik Ibrahim K., “Ancient for them because of the first premise [namely, the premise Heritage in Kalam Philosophy”, in Values in Islamic Culture and that atoms are the smallest constituents of matter]. That the Experience of History, ed. is to say, they must have seen Aristotle’s demonstrations in N. S. Kirabaev (Washington, DC: which he had demonstrated that distance, time, and motion Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, 2002), 99–134. are all three equivalent with respect to existence, meaning that the relationship of each of them to the other is in the 14 Robert H. Kargon, “Atomism same proportion. Hence, they knew necessarily that if in the Seventeeth Centurty”, in Dictionary of the History of Ideas, ed. time were continuous and capable of infinite division, then Philip P. Wiener (New York: Charles it follows that the part that they considered indivisible Scribner’s Sons, 1973), 1:132–41; John must likewise be capable of infinite division. Similarly, if Henry, “Matter”, in Encyclopedia of the Scientific Revolution, ed. Wilbur distance were presumed to be continuous, then the divi- Applebaum (New York: Garland, sion of moments of time, which they had presumed to be 2000), 621. indivisible, also follows, as Aristotle had explained in his

15 Lynn Sumida Joy, Gassendi the Physics. For this reason they presumed that distances were Atomist: Advocate of History in an Age not continuous but were composed from parts that had of Science (New York: Cambridge reached the utmost limit of division. Likewise, time reaches University Press, 1987), 180; Lauge Olaf Nielsen, “A Seventeenth-Century a limit, namely the moments, beyond which further division Physician on God and Atoms”, in is impossible. An example of this is that one hour consists Memory of Jan Pinborg, ed. Norman of sixty minutes, and a minute consists of sixty seconds, Kretzmann (The Netherlands: Kluwer, 1988), 297–369. For Epicurean and a second consists of sixty thirds. This, in their view, atomism as the source of the birth reaches a limit parts which are either tenths for instance, or of modern atomism in Gassendi’s even smaller then them, which are in no sense divisible, and footsteps, see John Masson, The 31 Atomic Theory of Lucretius Contrasted which do not, like distance, admit of further division. With Modern Doctrines (London: G. Bell, 1884), 5. So, according to the data of the current scientific cosmology, who is 16 James A. Altena, “Revival of Corpuscular Theories During the right? Aristotle, who said, “Space and time can be divided infinitely,” or Seventeenth Century”, in Science and the Islamic theologians who defended the argument that space, time, Its Times, ed. Neil Schlager (Detroit: and matter—in other words the universe as a whole—is finite? Gale Group, 2000), 3:354; Bernard Unfortunately, modern cosmology cannot yet give a definite answer Pullman, The Atom in the History of Human Thought (New York: Oxford to this question. However, in the last century Einstein was able to University Press, 124); John W. Clarke, connect space and time to each other (the space-time continuum). “Atomism”, in The Continuum However, as we have seen in quantum mechanics, micro-level mat- Encyclopedia of British Philosophy, ed. Anthony Grayling et al. (Bristol: ter (fermions) and discontinuous forces (bosons) were not included Theommes Continuum, 2006), 154. In in this composition. The continuity-discontinuity conflict that exists his book Opticks, Newton’s definition of material particles was as follows: between general relativity and quantum mechanics is the most import- “It seems probable to me that God, in ant dilemma faced by modern scientific cosmology today.32 For this the beginning, formed matter in solid, reason, there is as yet no comprehensive model for the universe. For massy, hard, impenetrable, movable particles, of such sizes and figures, example, the continuity of general relativity theory, which foresees that and with such other properties, space-time can be divided indefinitely, has led to the possibility of mul- and in such proportion to space, as tiple situations being created endlessly in the universe. These circum- most conduced to the end for which 33 he formed them; and that those stances can be called singularity, and, ultimately cannot be explained. primitive particles, being solids, are Physicists in the early days of quantum theory hoped that the incomparably harder than any porous gravitational field could be quantized, just like the quantized electro- bodies compounded of them; even so very hard as never to wear or break in magnetic field. For example, Einstein argued that gravity and electro- pieces; no mundane power being able magnetism known to exist in his own time were the only major basic

62 kalam journal • 1/2018 principles, since strong and weak forces were not yet discovered.34 to divide what God himself intended to be indivisible.” Newton, Opticks By the 1970s physicists were able to collect three of the four forces (London: W. and J. Innys, 1718), 375. (strong, weak, electromagnetic) under the umbrella of standard model, 17 and they showed that two of these (the weak and electromagnetic) are David Philip Miller, Discovering (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, actually coming from the same source (electroweak force).35 However, Water 2004), 27ff; Andrew Ede,The Chemical regarding the merging of general relativity with the standard model Element: A Historical Perspective of quantum theory under the name of quantum gravity, then they are (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2006), 54–5; Pullman, faced with significant challenges. Hence, despite a century of work, the The Atom in the History of Human Thought, 18. issue has yet to be resolved.36 18 The main reason for the failure of the unification is the formulation John Read, “Chemistry”, in What Is Science?, ed. James R. Newman (New of general relativity theory with differential equations based on con- York: Simon and Schuster, 1955), 164–6. tinuity and determinism.37 In this context, general relativity assumes 19 that space-time is divisible continuously; on the other hand, quantum John Dalton described the indestructible character of atoms as theory did not allow infinite division, and claims that before approach- follows: “Chemical analysis and syn- ing Planck scale space-time should turn out a discontinuous (discrete) thesis go no farther than to the sepa- structure.38 ration of particles one from another, and to their reunion. No new creation Many physicists maintain that the main problem with this issue is or destruction of matter is within the general relativity’s ignorance of the effects of quantum. Accordingly, reach of chemical agency. We might as while relativity theory’s space-time can be curved under the influence well attempt to introduce a new planet into the solar system, or to annihilate of massive objects, when it comes to the subatomic objects it acts one already in existence, as to create almost indifferently like Newton’s absolute space and time.39 However, or destroy a particle of hydrogen. All while forces and substances were quantized in subatomic scale, the the changes we can produce consist in separating particles that are in a continuity of gravitation (space-time) is a contradiction and, to solve state of cohesion or combination, and the conflict between general relativity and quantum physics, cosmolo- joining those that were previously at gists need a quantum theory of gravity.40 a distance.” A New System of Chemical Philosophy (Manchester: Bickerstaff, Scientists for a long time assumed that merging would reveal, as in 1808), 143, 212. other forces, that gravity by its nature is atomic and that it is carried 20 by graviton called messenger particles.41 However, while other forces Alan Chalmers, “Atomism from the 17th to the 20th Century”, in The are considered to be acting in the space and time arena, gravity itself Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Winter is space-time. Quantizing gravity means, therefore, quantizing space- 2010 Edition, ed. Edward N. Zalta, time, due to the fact that they have the same value.42 . The most important theory developed regarding this unification 21 is string theory (M-theory at present), and the lesser-known approach Kent A. Peacock, The Quantum is called loop quantum gravitation.43 They both very strongly suggest Revolution (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008), 7. that space-time must be in discreet and discontinuous architecture, namely, it is likely to be composed of individual units that cannot be 22 Helge Kragh, “Particle Science”, subdivided.44 in Companion to the History of Modern Science, ed. G. N. Cantor (London: If we delve more into the issue of discrete space-time, quantum Routledge, 1990), 665; W. Demtroder, theory, which postulates that continuity, which is based on fields Atoms, Molecules, and Photons (Berlin: and waves, cannot be true, tries to relate each field and wave by par- Springer, 2006), 7. 45 ticles (gluon, photon, boson). Therefore, quantum theory attempts 23 Dennis Chamberland, to explain gravitational field by reducing the particles in the Planck “Atomic Nucleus”, “Quantum scale (for space 10-35 meters, and for the time to 10-43 seconds),46 and Chromodynamics”, in Science and Scientists, ed. Salem Press (Pasadena, accordingly asserts that there are gravitons so-called spin-2 particles CA: 2006), I, 42, 819. 47 connected with space-time. However, the problem is that until now 24 48 Planck introduced the concept of they cannot be observed. the quantum to understand the emis- It is no surprise that the subatomic structure of time-space has sion of radiation from heated objects, been overlooked in the macrocosm. Even protons, neutrons and other known as black-body radiation, which -18 refers to an ideal body or surface that particles forming tiny quarks (10 m), are too large to feel these par- absorbs all radiant energy without any ticles, which consist in the Planck scale (10-35 m). If we make a com- reflection. His hypothesis was that parison of the size of the proton (10-15 m) colliding at CERN, the size energy is radiated only in quanta of -35 energy hn, where n is the frequency of the graviton (10 m) versus a proton is like the size of proton against and h is the quantum action, now 49 the size of the sun in value. known as Planck’s constant. The new

kalam journal • 1/2018 63 Planck’s Law matched the observa- To think that the structure of space and time consists of particles tions very well at both high and low is actually contrary to macrophysics. When we look at the universe in frequencies, so he won the 1919 Nobel Prize for Physics for his discovery our daily life, we are caught up in the illusion that space is continuous. of energy quanta. For detailed infor- To understand the discrete structure of space, the computer or the mation see . a distance, we see a perfectly continuous picture. However, when we 25 Albert Einstein used Planck’s look closer, we realize that they are only discrete points of pixels; there concept of the quantum to explain the is no signal between two points. The same can be applied to unified photoelectric effect that is an exper- -35 imentally observed phenomenon in theories’ claim that space is discrete, particulate and quantized in 10 which electrons are emitted from meters scale.50 metal surfaces when radiation falls If theories such as loop quantum gravity are true then, not only the on these surfaces. Einstein assumed 51 that a single quantum of radiant shortest length (Planck scale), but also the shortest time is possible. energy ejects a single electron from In cinema, the film appears streaming continuously and uninterrupt- the metal. The energy of the quantum edly, but the fact is that it is being shown at 24 frames per second, just is proportional to the frequency, and so the energy of the electron depends like our universe is also moving frame by frame in a discontinuous man- on the frequency. It was for this ner. However, these frames are repeated on a massive scale such as 10-43 discovery, not relativity, that Einstein times per second (Planck time).52 was awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize for Physics. About this see Scott A. Davis, How can space attain the atomizing structure in quantum physics? “Quantum Mechanic”, in Science and This can be demonstrated by another example. If we select an A point Scientists, 824. in a 0 position, and if we relate his position with 0 and if we detect an 26 Asher Peres, Quantum Theory: exact opposite B point one meter away, and we continue to divide these Concepts And Methods (Dordrecht: units in each time 10 times smaller, we will never find the infinite small Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1993), 18, 20. structure, because if we repeat this process thirty-five times, we reach 10-35 meters, and this what is known as Planck distance. However, when 27 M. B. Altaie, “The Scientific Value we go to this point exactly, we encounter a strange situation—objects of Dakik al-Kalam”, Journal of Islamic Thought and Creativity 4 (1994), 11–12. begin to move not in a continuous manner, but actually in discrete jumps at 1.6 × 10-35 m intervals.53 28 Brian Greene, The Elegant Universe However, this is not the same as the jump leap we encounter in daily (New York: W. W. Norton, 2003) 231; in fact, Einstein’s general theory of life, due to the fact that it is impossible for an object to be in the posi- relativity belongs to the nineteenth tion between the two Planck distances, or pass through, because, there century rather than the twentieth, is no space between two neighboring points separated by the Planck because the key concept of twentieth- century physics is discontinuity and distance. If there were space, there would be no point in saying that probability; and the relativity theory, space is discontinuous, i.e., discrete; otherwise space would be perma- which is strongly attached to continu- nently adjacent. Therefore, that area is the field of absence/nonexis- ity and determinism, is a field theory. Carlo Rovelli, Quantum Gravity tence. In this case, the particle moves by leaping to the next Planck (Cambridge: Cambridge University distance and ceases to exist, and then exists again.54 Press, 2004), 3; Heinz R. Pagels, The In quantum physics, the explanation of motion in Planck level is Cosmic Code (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982), 20. consistent with the opinions of the classical mutakallimun who adopted

29 atomism. For example, al-Ghazali (d. 555/1111) explains the movement Aristotle in part VI of Physics argues that magnitude, time and motion in the following way: are concepts so intimately related that if one of these is assumed to be discontinuous, the others must be The doctrine may be explained by considering the case of discontinuous (Physics, 231a18–19, 231a18–22). Aristotle finds atomism motion. The states that follow each other through con- contrary to space-related axioms the tinuous periods of time are described as movements only then current of geometry, and claims because they alternate by continuously originating anew that to accept this view would mean and continuously ceasing to exist. . . . The essence of motion to deny the mathematics (De Caelo, I.5 271 b10–13; III.4 303 a20–3). is inconceivable without also conceiving nonexistence to 55 30 follow existence. Dhanani, Physical Theory of Kalam, 132.

31 Moses Maimonides, Dalalat Al-Ghazali’s views on motion are quite similar to quantum phys- al-ha’irin, ed. Huseyin Atay (Ankara: ics’ approach to movement.56 Quantum physics’ understanding of Üniversitesi Besımevi, 1972) movement makes it easier to understand why Islamic theologians 201–2; Maimonides, The Guide of the Perplexed, trans. Shlomo Pines called movement as a coming into existence from nothing (al-kawn).

64 kalam journal • 1/2018 (Chicago: University of Chicago According to the mutakallimun, as substances move they move through Press, 1999), 1:196. spaces similar to their scale.57 But the space is also discontinuous as 32 substance, i.e. becomes discrete for entering into absence, transition Samuel Sambursky, Physical Thought from the Presocratics to the Quantum from one space to another becomes possible by extinction in the pre- Physicists (New York: Pica Press, 1974) vious space first, then with existence in the next space. The difference 28–9. is that, although the theologians say that these smallest units have an 33 Greene, Elegant Universe, 129; John amount, they do not put a precise criterion such as the Planck length. Gribbin, In Search of the the Multiverse However, in kalam atomism, a discrete scale of space, time and sub- (London: Allen Lane, 2009), 115. stance is determined in relation to each other. This is similar to interre- 34 J. Bernard Cohen, Revolution in lated determination of Planck constant, Planck energy, Planck distance Science (Cambridge, MA: Harvard and Planck time.58 University Press, 1985), 438; Greene, So, if space-time is quantized, in other words, if it is found that its Elegant Universe, 15.

35 structure is discontinuous, discrete and intermittent, what happens? Gribbin, In Search of the Multiverse, If we adopt the idea that space-time consists of tiny building blocks 117, 118; Greene, Elegant Universe, 123. such as discrete-time and discrete space, then our understanding of the 36 Ian Marshall, Danah Zohar, universe also needs to be changed dramatically, such that it will poten- and F. David Peat, Who’s Afraid of tially lead to a resurgence in the contemporary relevance of import- Schrodinger’s Cat? (New York: Morrow, ant philosophical and theological reflections that Islamic theologians 1997), 290–2. defended in the past, such as continuous recreation and occasionalist 37 Lee Smolin, “Atoms of Space and theological approaches. Time”, Scientific American 290, no. 1 In other words, the formation of space from small particles will (January 2004), 66.

38 mean that there are gaps between the parts where space exist; or rather, Rovelli, Quantum Gravity, 3–4; for there are absences or voids (lack of spaces) in between them. In the quantum physics’ claim that space- same way, if time has a granular structure, that is, if it consists of very time is also in a particulate structure and cannot be divided see Gribbin, In small time intervals acting as building blocks (in the manner of Planck Search of the Multiverse, 118. time 10-45 sec), then it could be interpreted as the experience of succes- 39 sive instants of a time-timeless process (which is the discontinuity of Jeremy Butterfıeld, “On Time in Quantum Physics”, in A Companion time). If time consists of small segments, then there must be periods to the Philosophy of Time, ed. Heather of timeless gaps in the transition from one time-moment to another. Dyke and Adrian Bardon (Malden, Otherwise, if time slices (moments) are whole and do not have gaps MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013), 226; Tim Maudlin, Philosophy of Physics between them, such moments are not truly intermittent or discontin- (Princeton: Princeton University uous. Since space, time and matter are not independent of each other, Press, 2012), 160. between each period of time i.e., in the time of timelessness, the uni- 40 Igor S. Makarov, A Theory of Ether, verse must cease to exist and in the next time-moment begin to exist Particles and Atoms (Manchester: Open again, like the light of a lamp flashing. University Press, 2008), 2; Simon It seems to me that this scenario inevitably brings about the need to Raggett, Consciousness, Biology and Fundamental Physics (Bloomington, address the following questions: IN: Authorhouse, 2012), 27; another reason for contradiction is that the 1. At the time of extinction, how will all the information from the pre- uncertainty principle, prevailing in the micro world, prevents us from vious accumulated moments of the universe be transported to the knowing precisely the position and next moment? motion of any particle. This means that the universe is entirely indeter- 2. If there is an existence and nonexistence process in the universe due minate; whereas general relativity, as to the discreteness of time, then when the universe ceases to exist, in Newtonian physics, is a classical theory connected to determinism. what is it that brings it into existence again? John D. Barrow and Joseph Silk, The Left Hand of Creation (New York: Both questions cannot be answered by either something in the uni- Basic Books, 1983), 60; for the continuity-discontinuity difference on verse or with the universe as a whole, because the universe as a whole movement in Newtonian physics and and everything in it will have already vanished with the vanishing of the quantum mechanics, see Fred Alan time-moment. Wolf, Taking the Quantum Leap (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1981), 3, 13. A nonexistent thing cannot create itself from nothing which means 41 that, at the time of nonexistence, there must be an entity that will Lee Smolin, Three Roads to Quantum transfer all the knowledge of the universe to the next moment in a sys- Gravity (New York: Basic Books, 2001), 148; Robert P. Crease and tematic way, thus re-creating it as a new whole. And that entity, which Charles C. Mann, The Second Creation is outside of the universe, I conclude is God. (New York: Macmillan, 1986), 413. kalam journal • 1/2018 65 42 Jean-Paul van Bendegem, “The To sum up, after introducing the general character of atomism, Possibility of Discrete Time”, in including today’s quantum physics, it will not be difficult to understand Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Time, ed. Craig Callender (Oxford: Oxford why Islamic theologians have adopted an occasionalist God-universe University Press, 2011), 145. relationship that entails continuous re-creation and a denial of cau-

43 Instead of a continuous space time, sality. Since atomism makes everything in the universe discontinuous which can be divided indefinitely as and fragmented, including space-time, substance and movement, the in general relativity, string theory and mutakallimun had to resort to an immediate and exclusive cause (i.e., loop quantum gravity, tells us that space-time has a discrete structure, God) to explain the existence of the universe. Accordingly, the universe that it’s made of individual units had a first moment of creation, then continuous re-creations at every which cannot be subdivided. See subsequent moment in time. In this way, the universe’s existence is like Salvator Cannavo, Quantum Theory (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2009), 116. the blinking of a light—it exists successively for the duration of only a moment. 44 See Micheal Lockwood, The In this article, therefore, my main idea is quite different from Labyrinth of Time (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 333; George William Lane Craig’s Kalam Cosmological Argument, which aims to Johnson, “How Is the Universe Built? establish the temporal beginning of the universe in the finite past. Grain by Grain” (New York Times, However, I argue that the universe was not only created at some time December 7, 1999); Samuel Mongeau, in the past, but is also being continuously re-created at every subse- “Atoms of Time”, Ampersand Journal VI (2014), 6–9. quent moment of time, according to contemporary unified theories such as string theory and quantum loop gravity. 45 For example, in quantum theory there are photon particles for elec- If we consider the classical mutakallimun’s atomistic theories, which tromagnetic waves, gluons for strong form the basis of their huduth argument, then we can admit that the force, W and Z bosons for weak force. universe, after having ceased to exist at one moment, will require the

46 E. J. Zimmerman, “Time and presence of some causal power to re-create it. This is because a com- Quantum Theory”, in The Voices of pletely destroyed thing (i.e., the universe), cannot bring itself into exis- Time, ed. J. T. Fraser (New York: tence again from nothing. Therefore, the continued existence of the Braziller, 1966), 495; George universe can only be possible if some entity outside it, an entity outside Gamow, Gravity (New York: Dover Publications, 2002), 142, 143; Gribbin, all material spatio-temporal reality (i.e., the totality of the universe), In Search of the Multiverse, 118. creates it again. And this entity we call God.

47 52 Chris Isham, “Quantum Gravity”, Dave Goldberg and Jeff Blomquist, Then and Now”, American Journal of in The New Physics, ed. Paul Davies A User’s Guide to the Universe Islamic Social Sciences 10, no. 2 (Summer (Cambridge: Cambridge University (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2010), 227. 1993): 165–77; Umit Yoksuloglu Devji, Press, 2000), 82, 83; Brian Greene, The “Al-Ghazali and Quantum Physics” 53 Hidden Reality (New York: Alfred A. Jim Elvidge, The Universe Solved! (PhD diss., McGill University, 2003); Knopf, 2011), 87; Marshall, Zohar, and ( Alternative Theories Press, Mehdi Golshani, “Quantum Theory, Peat, Who’s Afraid of Schrodinger’s Cat?, 2007), 32. Causality, and Islamic Thought”, in 290–2; Johnson, “How Is the Universe The Routledge Companion to Religion and 54 Built?”. Remember the television and Science, ed. James W. Haag, Gregory computer screen examples. R. Peterson, and Michael L. Spezio 48 Smolin, Three Roads to Quantum (New York: Routledge, 2012), 188; here 55 Gravity, 150; Leon M. Lederman and Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, Moderation Golshani points out the similarity David N. Schramm, From Quarks in Belief, trans. Aladdin M. Yaqub between the Ash ari occasionalist to the Cosmos (New York: Scientific (Chicago: University Of Chicago view and quantum mechanics that American Library, 1989), 185. Press, 2013), 44; see also Abdu-r- both deny any necessary connection Rahman Abu Zayd, al-Ghazali on between cause and effect. 49 Planck length (10–35 m) is one Divine Predicates and Their Properties hundred billion times smaller from a (Lahore: Sh. Muhammad Ashraf, 57 Alnoor Dhanani, “Problems in point (10–19 m) and can be observed 1990), 21. Eleventh-Century Kalam Physics”, experimentally by the LHC at CERN Bulletin of the Royal Institute for Inter- 56 today. If an atom magnified up to the For al-Ghazali’s occasionalism, see Faith Studies 4 (January 2002), 78. universe, the Planck distance could be also Omar Edward Moad, “Al-Ghazali’s up to a tree in the universe. Greene, Occasionalism and the Natures of 58 For the interrelated evaluation of Hidden Reality, 90. Creatures”, International Journal space, time, and motion in quantum for Philosophy of Religion 58 (2005): physics, see B. K. Ridley, Time, Space 50 Heinz R. Pagels, The Cosmic Code 95–101; for al-Ghazali versus quantum and Things (New York: Penguin, 1976), (New York: Simon and Schuster, physics see, K. Harding, “Causality 55, 64ff. 1989), 26.

51 Lee Smolin, “Atoms of Space and Time”, Scientific American (January 2004), 68.

66 kalam journal • 1/2018 Dr. Recep Sentürk interview by hamza karamali INTERVIEW 3INTERVIEW# Ottoman Heritage and Modern Challenges Recep Sentürk interview by hamza karamali

Dr. Recep Sentürk is a sociologist, a traditionally trained scholar, and Founder and Director of the Istanbul Foundation for Education and Research (ISAR), a charitable endowment (waqf ) that seeks to breathe new life into the curriculum of the traditional Ottoman madrasa by reviving its teaching, integrating it with the modern social sciences, and placing it within its traditional context of Sufism. Hamza Karamali talks to him about kalam, modernity, tradition, and Sufism.

Hamza: Dr Recep Sentürk, we are delighted to be interviewing you for the first issue of the Kalam Journal. Given your expertise on both the traditional religious sciences and modern thought, how would you describe the differences between the Islamic sciences and the modern sciences? How are the Islamic sciences different from the modern sciences Dr. Recep Sentürk ? is the president Dr. Sentürk: This is a very important question facing Muslim scholars of Ibn Khaldun University (IHU), Istanbul. From 2009 till 2016 he served since the last two centuries, who, before that point, lived under the as the director of ISAR, Istanbul was Islamic civilization, and their interaction with the outside world was previously Professor of Sociology at Fatih limited. Of course, Islam was from the very beginning an open civili- University. He holds a PhD from Columbia University, Department of Sociology (1998), zation, in the sense that Muslim scholars were open to learning from and specializes in sociology of knowledge, other civilizations, like the Greeks, Hindus, Iranians, and Egyptians. human rights, and Islamic studies with They translated the major works of these civilizations into Arabic a focus on the Ottoman Empire, Egypt, and Turkey. He has authored in English: and benefited greatly from them. However, they were very careful to Narrative Social Structure: Hadith preserve the Islamic worldview, which constitutes the foundation of Transmission Network 610–1505 (Stanford Islamic disciplines and sciences. This worldview is represented by an University Press, 2005); and in Turkish: Sociology of Turkish Thought: From Islamic ontology, an epistemology, and a methodology. Islamic ontol- Fiqh to Social Science (2008); Islam and ogy is a multiplex ontology, meaning it accepts multiple layers of exis- Human Rights: Sociological and Legal tence; namely, the worlds of , , and . In turn, and Perspectives (2007); Malcolm X: Struggle mulk malakut lahut mulk for Human Rights (2006); Social Memory: malakut may further be divided into other levels. Hadith Transmission Network 610–1505 (2004); Sociologies of Religion (2004); Modernization and Social Science in the So how would you translate mulk and malakut? Muslim World: A Comparison between Mulk is the physical world, the observable physical world, and malakut is Turkey and Egypt (2006). He has edited: Ibn the unseen world, the special world of , and then there is the Khaldun: Comtemporary Readings (2009) alam al-ghayb and Economic Development and Values lahut. The lahut is the divine world, or the level of existence in which Allah (2009). His recent book is Open Civilization: Most High exists, wherein there is only Him. The Sufis say, “There is no Cultural Foundations of Pluralism (2010). existent save Allah ( ),”—at the level of divine existence, Dr. Sentürk was a visiting research fellow la mawjud illa Llah at Emory University Law School during for denying the existence of other levels is unbelief (kufr), as Allah Most the academic year 2002–2003 as part of the High states that He created the mulk and the malakut. To deny them Islam and Human Rights project. therefore is not acceptable, but at the level of divine existence, there is

68 kalam journal • 1/2018 none but Allah. From the very beginning, Muslim scholars upheld this multiplex ontology even when they interacted with other civilizations. They did not take this ontology from the Greeks. The same thing is at play today when one compares the Islamic sciences with the modern Western sciences. This comparison has to start at the level of ontology. How different is the view of existence of the modern Western sciences from that of the Islamic sciences? Modern western sciences are mostly materialistic and reductionist. They try to reduce everything to the material level, whereas in the social sciences they are idealist. The materialism versus idealism debate is a very old one that goes back to Aristotle and Plato, but continues even today. For Muslims, the Islamic sciences are not reductionist, in the sense that they see the material level as only one level of existence. They don’t deny this level, nor do they say that it is everything. The same applies to the ideal level of existence. This level is accepted but not everything is reduced to it. Moreover, the Islamic sciences accept divine existence. In the Islamic sciences, then, parallel to a multiplex ontology, there is a multiplex epistemology. For each level of existence, one needs a different type of epistemology that allows one to study and understand any given level. One cannot use the same epistemology to study both stones and the angels because these are different levels of existence, so one has to have a different kind of epistemology for the study of different levels of existence. That is why, in the Islamic tradition, one has a multiplex epistemology, termed maratib al- ulum (degrees or levels of knowledge). Knowledge has multiple levels: rational knowledge is accepted, empirical knowledge is accepted, and revealed knowledge is accepted; as is experiential knowledge, such as kashf (unveiling), ilham (inspiration), ru’ya (dream vision), and hads (intuition). All these are acceptable sources of knowledge. Of course, this is ordered in a hierarchy, and nothing can contradict reason. Furthermore, the subjective sources, such as kashf, ilham and ru’ya, cannot contradict the objective sources of knowledge such as revealed knowledge, empirical knowledge, and the rational knowledge. In this multiplex system, the relationship that ties these different knowledges is also defined so that they work in harmony with each other. And as a result of this multiplex epistemology, there is a multiplex methodology, such that there is a methodology for each epistemology. For empirical knowledge, one has a different methodology; for rational knowledge, another type of methodology; and for revealed knowledge, yet another; just as kashf, ilham, and ru’ya each have a different methodology. This ismaratib al-usul (the levels of first principles) used in the Islamic tradition by the Islamic sciences. Now, when one looks at Western sciences, one notices that they adopt one methodology. They want to solve all the problems of these sciences with this methodology. So if they are empiricists, they only use empirical methods; if they are rationalists, they just use rational methods; and if they are religious people, they just rely on traditional religious knowledge and reject rational and empirical knowledge. On the other hand, if they are of a mystical bent, like the Buddhists and the Hindus, they soley rely on mystic knowledge and reject all other types of knowledge. By contrast, Islamic epistemology and methodology accommodate all different types of knowledge and methodologies without exclusion. The same thing may be said regarding hermeneutics. Islamic hermeneutics accepts maratib al-ma ani (levels of meanings),

kalam journal • 1/2018 69 which is like multiplex meanings (ma ani). So there is the explicit or external meaning (al-ma na al-zahir), the implicit or internal meaning (al-ma na al-batin), and also the meaning of the meaning (ma na al-ma na).

So the internal and external meaning? Yes correct, and also there is the meaning of the meaning (ma na al- ma na). Let me explain what I mean by the meaning of the meaning with an example. Someone knocks on the door, and then the person inside says, “There is no one inside.” What is the meaning of this? The literal meaning is that there is no one inside. But what is the meaning of the meaning? The meaning of the meaning is, “I don’t want you to come in.” This is ma na al-ma na, the meaning of the meaning, which is understood from the context.

Is the “meaning of the meaning”, in other words, the higher point that is being made? Yes, exactly. The Qur’an, for example, has endless meanings (ma ani). It has maratib al-ma ani (degrees or levels of meanings), and there is also tafsir bi al-diraya (exegesis through sound opinion), tafsir bi al-ri- waya (exegesis through transmission), and tafsir bi al-ishara (exegesis through allusion). So you cannot say that the Qur’anic text has just one single meaning. You can see that there are many types of meaning, which do not exclude or negate one another. This is like maratib al- ma ani and also like al-ma na al-haqiqi (the real meaning), al-ma na al-ma- jazi (the metaphorical meaning), and al-ma na al- urfi (the conventional meaning). There are different ways of understanding the Qur’anic text. Eventually, there is what one may call maratib al-haqa’iq (the degrees or levels of reality). The truth at each level of existence is different. What is considered truth in this world is not truth in the unseen world ( alam malakut), or in paradise. One cannot say that there is gravity in paradise. You see what I mean? There may well be a totally different system over there. One should not project the facts of one level of existence onto other levels of existence. The facts and the truth vary from one level of existence to another. These are the fundamental principles of the Islamic sciences. One can see, then, that the approach is multiplex, diverse; unity within diversity is achieved, and reductionism is rejected. I call this “open science”. I call multiplex epistemology “open epistemology”, multiplex ontology “open ontology”, multiplex methodology “open methodology”, and multiplex hermeneutics “open hermeneutics”, in the sense that it does not try to reduce everything to a particular level. It is open: it accepts different types of existence, epistemology and methodology, and the social consequence of such a multiplex approach is that it accommodates different communal discourses. If there is a community that focuses only on empirical knowledge, then there is room for it; if there is a community that focuses on rational knowledge, then there is room for it; and if there is a community that focuses on experiential knowledge, then there is room for it too. One can see that this paradigm accommodates different communal discourses. By contrast, if one has a reductionist, uni-layered, monolithic ontology, where one accepts only one type of existence, let’s say the materialistic one, then anyone who has a different worldview is excluded. This is what happened in the ex-Soviet Union. Millions of people were killed there because a closed science leads to authoritarianism. Open science,

70 kalam journal • 1/2018 however, leads to a pluralistic, open civilization. The same thing happened in China. Forty million people were killed. Why? Because they did not accept this closed science. They had different views about existence, truth, and hermeneutics. Modern science is very dangerous from this perspective because it allows no room for people who have different views, since it claims to represents the truth while its opponents are swamped by superstitions. Islamic science is different from modern positivist science regarding its basic principles as well as its social and political consequences. It prevents intellectual, academic, and theoretical differences from turning into social and political conflicts. That’s why Muslims have different schools of thought in law, theology, and Sufism. Muslims accommodate all these different views as well as the views of non-Muslims due to the perspective of this open science.

You have argued that there is a relationship between fiqh and sociology. What is this relationship? In the Islamic civilization, human action ( amal) is studied by fiqh. In the Western civilization, human action is studied by the social sciences. We have one subject matter, which is human action, and two disciplines, fiqh and the social sciences, studying the same subject matter. But as I mentioned, fiqh and the social sciences are based on two different ontologies, and two different methodologies. Historically, Muslims have studied amal from the perspective of fiqh. They used fiqh to solve their social, economic, and political problems. The normative system of Islam is derived from fiqh while this normative system, in Western civilization, is derived from the social sciences. As I say this, an objection is likely to be raised. People say that the social sciences are objective sciences. They provide answers to “what is it?” type of questions. Fiqh, on the other hand, is a normative science which offers answers to “what should it be?” type of questions. This is something repeated as a cliché but when one looks at the reality, one realizes that this is not really so. One cannot point to any leading sociologist in the West, or in the Muslim world, who answers only “what is it?” type of questions. Take for instance Ziya Gökalp (1876–1924), who introduced sociology to the Ottoman world and was the ideologue of the Union and Progress Party. Look at Emile Durkheim, who was the ideologue of the Third Republic. Take for instance Karl Marx, who was a socialist and yet had a plan for a revolution. Today, take for instance Antony Giddens, who was the ideologue behind Tony Blair. Look at Michel Foucault or Jurgen Habermas. All these thinkers had ideas that answer both “what is it?’ and “how should it be?”. But in the introductory books of sociology and other social sciences, it is repeated as a cliché that sociology is a discipline that answers only “what is it?” type of questions. But in reality, it is just the opposite. On the other hand, logically thinking, to be able to answer “what it should be?” one has to first know the answers to “what is it?” type of questions. So if a mufti is presented with a question about, let’s say, a medi- cal point or an economic procedure, he has to understand first what it is about. Only then can he give a fatwa regarding it. A normative answer requires an objective understanding. Also, an objective answer prepares the ground for a normative decision about a given social problem because when one answers the “what is it?” type of questions, one is somehow framing the issue, and a normative decision is based on this framing. Muslims have used fiqh throughout the centuries, and the fuqaha’ or jurists played the role of economists and political scientists—one

kalam journal • 1/2018 71 can only consider the likes of al-Mawardi and Ibn Taymiyya and their siyasa shar iyya books. Many fuqaha’ wrote on these issues as well as on international relations. Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Shaybani wrote Kitab al-siyar al-saghir and Kitab al-siyar al-kabir. Siyar, as you know, means international relations. Likewise, Imam Abu Yusuf wrote Kitab al-kharaj to regulate the economy and tax system. One can see that Muslims used fiqh to solve their social, economic, and political problems. As a result, when the Western social sciences were introduced in the Muslim world, they were not introduced to a vacuum, for fiqh was already in the hands of Muslims doing the same job and serving the same function. The introduction of the Western social sciences in the Muslim world, rather, triggered a serious clash between these sciences and fiqh. The Western social sciences then succeeded in taking over the space that was traditionally occupied by fiqh in the educational system and became the decisive factor in policy making. An intense debate ensued between the defenders of fiqh and the defenders of import- ing such social sciences in the last period of the Ottoman state. Some intellectuals wanted to import a Western sociology system. (Actually, I think it is not accurate to say “Western” because there are in the West so many sociological traditions. There is Emile Durkheim, there is Karl Marx, there is Max Weber, and they are all different from one another. It’s not right to lump all of them in one basket.) Essentially, these intellectuals called for the importation of positivist sociology and combining it with fiqh. The leading figure who promoted this call was Ziya Gökalp. He wanted to establish a new social scientific fiqh in order to combine the Islamic social sciences with the Western social sciences. In his view there was a pressing need to combine Islamic and Western civilizations. This was his strategy. But some scholars like Sait Halim Paça (1865–1921) and others opposed this view. They argued that, first, there was no need for this as Muslims already have fiqh, which is still func- tional and serving the same purpose. Even today, some people claim that fiqh is frozen; fiqh is this and fiqh is that. I ask these people, can you show me a single case whereby someone goes to a mufti to ask a question and the mufti retorts, “I am sorry, fiqh is frozen. I can’t give you any answer!”? Has anyone come across an incident like this? Fiqh is very active and dynamic, and it still provides answers. It serves its purpose. But there is this floating notion that fiqh is frozen, backward, and so forth. Of course, there may be some problems that fiqh cannot answer, but which discipline can answer all the questions? Take medicine, for instance, it still has no cure for the flu. Flu is a simple disease and yet medicine has no cure for it. It has no cure for cancer or AIDS either. Can anyone claim that medicine is frozen or that one must get rid of it? The relationship between fiqh and the social sciences is that they are alternatives to each other, and because of this there has been an immense tension in the Muslim intellectual world since the beginning of the modernization period. Let us take economics as an example. How does one regulate it? Does one accept interest or not? Here, there is tension between fiqh and the social sciences because fiqh tells one, “don’t use riba, don’t take interest!” while the social sciences tell one, “there is no economy without interest.” This tension is between two paradigms: economics, which is part of the social sciences, and fiqh. The same thing is also true in other areas, in political science, international relations, as well as in many others.

72 kalam journal • 1/2018 Eventually, the revival of the Islamic civilization depends on the revival of fiqh. Suppose that, in Cambridge, they teach fiqh in all the social science departments, let’s say in the economics department. They abandon Western economics and teach Kitab al-buyu and pro- claim interest to be unlawful (haram). In the psychology department, they teach tasawwuf, and so on. Does one think there would be any Western civilization left? It will turn into an Islamic civilization. The same thing happened to us. Fiqh is not taught in our universities today and in its place Western social sciences are taught. But we are accus- tomed to this; we don’t feel how strange this is. But when you think about it, like in Oxford or Cambridge, if they were to teach the Islamic sciences instead of the Western social sciences and philosophy, then one will realize how strange this truly is. So the relationship between fiqh and the social sciences is that both study the same subject matter, which is human action, but from different perspectives using different methodologies. They serve the same function, but from different perspectives.

You have also written on the sociology of religion. What comes to my mind when I think of the subject is that it is an investigation into the human origins of religion or, in other words, the social factors that led humans to “invent” religion. What does the sociology of religion mean from an Islamic perspective and why is it important for us to study? The classical sociology of religion in the nineteenth century and early twentieth century concerned itself with the human origins of religion. The sociologists of religion of that period wanted to explain away religion. Later, after World War II, sociologists of religion came to the conclusion that no one can provide a scientific explanation based on empirical facts about the origin of religion, because this is a grand question, a big question, and there is no empirical data about it; it cannot be proven that religion came from this or that source. So they abandoned trying to explain the origin of religion. They started concerning themselves with how religion influences social action, such as economic action, political action, voting behavior, and how much this is influenced by one’s religion. How much is economic behavior, for instance, influenced by one’s faith? They started studying these kinds of social manifestations of religious faith and how they shape societies, relations, actions, and the like. Still in positivist sociology, there is a problem that the sociologists of religion cannot acknowledge as a category of social action, namely, religious action. They tried to reduce religious action to economic action, political action, or psychological action. To the question, “what is praying?” they say, “a person prays because he has an economic interest.” To say this is to reduce religious action to economic action. Or they might say, “people are doing this or that kind of religious action because they have a political interest.” They reduce religious action to political action. The wearing of the headscarf by Muslim women, they claim, is a political and not a religious action because these positivist sociologists don’t believe in religion. They cannot sympathize with religious people, therefore there is no category of religious action in their thinking. They only consider political action, economic action, or psychological action, like Freud and other psychologists. They explained away religious action as some sort of psychological ailment.

kalam journal • 1/2018 73 One can clearly see that these positivist sociologists have a problem accepting religion and religious action. Moreover, these sociologists and other social thinkers made a big mistake when they accepted evolutionary schemes like social evolution: as society and science evolve, religion will disappear. But did this happen? Quite the opposite: religion is back and it is getting stronger. Today, in the West, America is the most developed society and the most religious. The percentage of people who believe in some kind of God is about 90 to 95%. One can see that religious faith did not disappear with scientific and technological developments. Most sociologists of religion have abandoned the linear, evolutionary approach, which states that religion would disappear with the development of science. The conclusion now is that that religion and science are not rivals but serve different purposes. The existence of one does not exclude the existence of the other. Science answers empirical questions while religion answers grand questions. What is the meaning of life? Science cannot answer this empirically. How can one answer the question “what is the meaning of life?” in the lab or using the empirical methods adopted by science? It is for religion to answer questions such as this. There are empirical and practical questions for science to answer. Religion and science do complement each other. This is the conclusion that sociologists have eventually reached.

So what would an Islamic sociology of religion look like? An Islamic sociology of religion is fiqh as I mentioned in the beginning. Our social science is fiqh. We study human action from the perspective of fiqh. But when I say fiqh, I don’t mean just the legal rulings, the akham, because the legal rulings are not fiqh. Legal rulings are provided by fiqh. It is like law and jurisprudence. The laws that you find in the law books are not science. They are just rulings, produced by jurisprudence, just as their philosophical underpinning is provided by jurisprudence. When I say fiqh, I understand it the way the great mujta- hids like Imams Abu Hanifa, Shafi i, Malik, and Ahmad ibn Hanbal understood it. There is what is called al-fiqh al-akbar, which is kalam and philosophy. This fiqh al-akbar provides the conceptual and philosophical foundation of fiqh. It answers questions regarding existence, epistemology, and other broad questions. Then one has usul al-fiqh and then furu al-fiqh, which deals with practical questions. Then one has al-fiqh al-wijdani, or tasawwuf, dealing with the inner dimension of human action. This is what I mean when I say fiqh. In essence, it is equal to ilm, Islamic knowledge. Fiqh is served by auxiliary disciplines ( ulum al-ala). When one says ulum al-ala, one means they are tools. But they are tools of what? They are tools of fiqh.

This is why fiqh al-akbar (al-ala) is like the highest science in the Ottoman madrasa. Not just in the Ottoman madrasa, but the whole Islamic civilization. All the other disciplines serve fiqh. Hadith, tafsir, ulum al-ala (sarf, ma ani, balagha, and mantiq), all serve fiqh. Fiqh uses all these disciplines and extracts from them norms for life to regulate human action (al- amal al-insani). Fiqh is a very sophisticated and developed science. It uses a multivalue logic. In the West, law and ethics use a binary logic: right and wrong. This is binary logic: one and zero. But in fiqh, there is halal and haram, and then many other things in between: wajib, sunna

74 kalam journal • 1/2018 mu’akkada, sunna ghayr mu’akkada, mustahab, mandub, and then makruh tahriman, makruh tanzihan, and then the haram. One sees here many shades of value used as a normative value attached to action. Let’s say we have action x. A Western expert of ethics has only two values by which to judge x: right or wrong. On the other hand how many values can a Muslim faqih attach to x? Nine if he is Hanafi, five if he is Shafi i. One can therefore see that fiqh uses a multivalue logic. It is a very sophisticated system that we have in fiqh. And I believe one has to uti- lize the fiqh paradigm when one wants to study society and religion rather than using Durkheim, Marx, Weber, or anyone else. As for the relationship between fiqh and these social sciences, if there is anything empirically proven as fact, one should embrace it and use it. But we should not accept the interpretation of these facts that is provided by Western sociologists as we have our own interpretation of facts. When it comes to the interpretation of data, the worldview and values of the interpreter play a role. If a sociologist is a materialist, then he interprets it in a materialistic way; if he is a capitalist, he interprets it in a capitalistic manner to support the capitalistic worldview; if he is a socialist, then he interprets it in a way that supports the socialist worldview. We have our own Islamic worldview and we should interpret sociological data from our own perspective. We don’t reject and abandon the Western social sciences completely. We accept only empirically proven facts from them, and we produce our own interpretation.

You have argued that Ottoman social culture was open and pluralistic and that the social cultures that replaced it all over the world were closed and exclusivist, and that this openness and pluralism stemmed from its religious outlook. Can you explain your argument? I called Islamic civilization an open civilization for several reasons. First, let me explain what I mean by an open civilization. I categorise civilizations according to their outlook and relationship with “the other”, the other civilizations. If a civilization respects other civilizations, I call it an open civilization. But if a civilization does not respect other civilizations, seeing itself as the only civilization in the world, and tries to eliminate and assimilate all the other civilizations and dominate the whole world, then I call it a closed civilization. From this perspective, Islam has been an open civilization from the very beginning. The Messenger of Allah (upon whom be blessings and peace) established an open civilization in Medina as the first model. Later generations of Muslims and Islamic states adopted this model. When he established the first state, the Messenger of Allah (upon whom be blessings and peace) recognized the Jewish and Christian communities and brought them together under one state. This was very important at a time when religions tried to eliminate each other and did not recog- nize one another. But the Messenger of Allah (upon whom be blessings and peace) established an open civilization. Islam is open because it recognizes other civilizations. It also tries to learn from them because Muslims from the very beginning made translations from the Greek, Iranian, and Hindu civilizations. They tried to benefit from all of the existing civilizations of that time. In this sense, Islam is an open civilization. This openness comes from fiqh. And therefore this openness comes from the Qur’an and hadith because, paradoxically, it is a religion that grants rights to people who

kalam journal • 1/2018 75 reject it. The Messenger of Allah (upon whom be blessings and peace) recognized freedom of religion for people who denied that he was the Messenger of Allah. How and why can somebody give right to other people to deny his own message? This is a really important question, and our fuqaha’ have answered it as follows. They say, what is the purpose of Allah in creating humanity? It is to test them. The purpose of the Islamic state, law, and politics is to ensure that a free and genuine test of humanity takes place, and not force them to accept Islam. A genuine and free test can take place only if people are free to make choices, and are also free to make mistakes. People must have the option or freedom to make mistakes. But, of course, they shall face the consequences of their choices or mistakes as well. The Messenger of Allah (upon whom be blessings and peace) showed that people who lived in Medina had the freedom to choose, whether they made the right decision or the wrong one. Later generations of Muslims also tried to achieve the purpose of God, the purpose of Allah Most High, which is testing humanity. In the same way, if people don’t make free choices, then there is no room for any of us in the hellfire, as paradise is the reward for people who make free choices or freely choose to do the right things. Hellfire, on the other hand, is the punishment for people who freely choose to do the wrong things. If people have no freedom in the social and political system, then there will be no meaning for paradise and hellfire. One can see that the openness of the Islamic civilization stems from fiqh. That’s why I call the Islamic civilization a civilization of fiqh, which is its distinctive feature. What distinguishes the Islamic civilization from other civilizations are two things: fiqh and isnad. These are exclusively Islamic.

Is this an accurate expression of your view: “Intolerance is a result of natural essentialism, and the emphasis of the Ash ari and Maturidi schools on the contingency of the universe prevented them from falling into intolerance”? Yes. Essentialism assumes that there is a single truth, and it is the essence of the matter, and if you’ve discovered it, everyone must accept it. So this leads to authoritarianism and closed science. But if you accept a relationalist view, then people may have different approaches to the same issue. This will allow accommodating different perspectives and communal discourses. For instance, the essentialist view of the Mu tazila led to authoritarianism.

What are social networks and why are they important? What do you argue in your book Narrative Social Structure? In that book I argued that the network of teachers and students through which Islamic knowledge was transmitted across the ages is a continuous network. It is not broken. It is a reliable network, and its reliability is proven through statistical analysis and social network analysis. I discovered that there are patterns in the distribution of relations that repeats itself in every generation. And the people who are part of the network were not aware of these patterns. Those patterns were discovered for the first time in this research. Essentially, there is a wave graph that shows the relations distributed to earlier and later generations like a wave. There is a normal distribution graph, like a wave, regarding the relations to early generations. The relations become less when it comes to in-layer connections within the same generation. And then

76 kalam journal • 1/2018 they increase again when it comes to the relations to later generations. This is like a wave coming like this and then going like that. So this pattern repeats itself in each generation. I analyzed the network of 1,376 huffaz, top hadith scholars, and also jurists, who had about 14,000 connections among themselves. I produced a data set derived from Tabaqat al-huffaz of Dhahabi and also of Suyuti’s book, and created this huge data set. This social network is accepted as the longest social network in human history. No such recorded network exists in other civilizations. That’s why I call the Islamic civilization the civilization of isnad. Muslims innovated this isnad system, and they used it to ensure the reliability of the transmission of the Qur’an and the Sunna, as well as their practice and interpretation. Allah Most High says: “It is We who have sent down the Remembrance, and We watch over it” (Qur’an 15:9). The protection of the Qur’an is not just the protection of its utterance, not just its lafz, because the Sunna is the commentary of the Qur’an, which implies that the Sunna is also protected. For without commentary, one cannot understand the Qur’an correctly. The Sunna is also protected, Allah willing. Likewise, if one has the text but misunderstands it, this is not protection. Allah Most High will also protect the correct understanding of the Qur’an. This miraculous promise was realized through the isnad system. The isnad system, still continues, and our duty is to maintain and revive it.

You are the director of Istanbul Foundation for Research and Education (ISAR), where you give scholarships to Turkish university students to study the curriculum of the traditional Ottoman madrasa. Why is it important for university students to study such curricula? Can you relate some of your experiences? First of all, we don’t give scholarships, we just give ilm. We used to give scholarships to students in the beginning, but we stopped. We don’t ask money from them, but we don’t give money either, unless they are in a very bad shape and need money, because this makes their relationship with the institution more sincere. The purpose of ISAR is to produce ulema or scholars, and we have two types: Muslim scholars and scholars of Islam. Scholars of Islam are those who specialize in Islamic studies. A Muslim scholar, in contrast, refers to a scholar in any field who applies his Islamic education to his field. We need that because, today, Islamic education is paralyzed and academicized, and the academicization of Islamic education has many negative consequences. That system does not produce Muslim scholars. First, there is no isnad in that system, which is the distinctive quality of Islamic education. It is not there, so it is a mass production of students and there is no care given to their taqwa (godfearingness), akhlaq (character), and amal (spiritual works). So anyone can come there and study and get grades and graduate, but there is no quality assurance of the students. That’s why people are not happy with their level of knowledge, their adab and akhlaq or their attitude towards society. The university produces academics. But we want ulema. The role of the ulema is very different from the role of academics. The purpose of ISAR is to raise ulema. To this end, we emphasize the importance of languages, like modern Arabic, classical Arabic, Persian, and then the study of the traditional madrasa curriculum, because it gives a solid grounding in Arabic as well as in traditional Islamic disciplines. We also

kalam journal • 1/2018 77 teach the social sciences, but not in a way that replicates the social sciences and humanities education in the universities, but from a critical perspective, linking the debates in the field of the social sciences and humanities with debates in the Islamic disciplines. We also emphasize giving our students a spirit of taqwa, akhlaq, and adab, and make sure that they practice what they learn, and also nourish in them a spirit of futuwwa by serving others and being involved in socially responsible projects.

If Ebussuud Effendi was alive today and we charged him with the task of creating a modern institution for the study of the Islamic sciences, what you think he would do? Yes, probably he would do something like ISAR. He would give emphasis to Arabic as a language of scholarship as well as to English because it’s the lingua franca of the modern world. Persian is also needed to access another source of major Islamic literature. He would give great emphasis to learning fiqh and analyzing social issues and problems from a fiqh perspective as opposed to a social sciences perspective, and also to the taqwa dimension of ilm. He would emphasize, I think, practicing what one learns. Of course, we cannot know for certain what he would do, but this is what we can guess he would do. One of the things that he would do, moreover, is to make education a one-to-one endeavor, because this was the madrasa system. Education was indi- vidualized and customized, so perhaps today we should also go back to that system. Ebussuud Effendi would probably defend that system again, and he would defend the ijaza system and the revival of the isnad. I think he would do these things.

You have spoken on the importance of reviving the traditional madrasa science of dialectics ( ilm al-bahth wa al-munazara). Why is this important? Because bahth and munazara (speaking and debating), or dialectics, is something very common. It was a required discipline in the Ottoman madrasa system because the students should learn how to make an argument, how to defend it, how to disagree with other people, and how to carry out their objection and develop a counterargument. If the students have the adab of disagreeing with other people and raising objections towards them, then these disagreements will not turn into conflicts. They will remain just scholarly disagreements. But if people don’t know how to respectfully disagree with each other, if they have not been taught the adab of disagreeing, questioning, objecting, then their objection may easily lead to conflicts and fights. This is very much needed by scholars as well as by all human beings because in our lives, we always disagree with other people and argue with them. We need to know the correct way of going about this. I think this discipline should be made a required course in all high schools and universities. All people from different occupations should be taught the basic principles of that discipline because we always talk to each other and discuss, debate, and argue, and if we don’t know the adab of how we do it, then we will have many problems in our society. For instance, the most basic principle of al-bahth wa al-munazara is that when someone tells you something, the adab requires that if you disagree with what he is saying, you should tell him why you disagree. If you say, for instance, that Cambridge University is the best university

78 kalam journal • 1/2018 in the world and I disagree, the adab for me is to ask, “Why?” I am giving you the right to explain yourself fully and outline the reasons why you think the case to be so. But if I don’t give you this right by asking you why, and instead say, “No! It is not Cambridge. It is Oxford which is the best university,” this is called ghasb, usurpation. What I did was to steal your right to fully explain yourself and to defend your position by jumping to the counterargument. In effect, I silenced you. Even if we practice just this single principle in our life, it would save us from many conflicts and fights. Your wife tells you something, don’t object and give the opposite view. Give her the chance to explain herself. If your child, father, mother, or an employee comes and tells you something, don’t jump and usurp their right to fully explain themselves. Just give them the right to fully express themselves. After that, you can object. This is just one simple example. Also, as Imam Ghazali said, if someone comes to you and asks you a question, first figure out whether he is sincere in his question or not. If he is not sincere then you give him an ilzami (compelling) answer, just to get rid of him and to silence him. You don’t get into argumentation with him because he’s not sincere. His purpose is not to learn, his purpose is not to discover the truth of the matter he is asking about. He is just asking this question to create an argument for the sake of argumentation. Second, if he is sincere, check whether he is intelligent enough to understand the proper answer to his question. Maybe he is not intelligent or educated enough to understand if you give him the proper answer for his question. Then kallimu al-nas ‘ala qadri uqulihim (speak to people according to their level of understanding); you give him an answer which will make sense to him. See what I mean? These are some examples for adab al-bahth and al-munazara.

Why is kalam important today? Yes, kalam is extremely important today because this is the age in which atheism (ilhad) has spread more than in any other century in human history. It’s a phenomenon in human history. More than this, materialism, which like positivism, modernism or post-modernism, has become the official view of the educational system. Our educational system is against religion, and there is no room for religion in modern secular universities. No room for theology or God. Today, we need to defend the Islamic aqida, the Islamic position vis-à-vis these currents, modernism, or post-modernism. Some people, even some Muslims, like post-modernism because it criticizes modernism. But before soon, they will realize that post-modernism is also dangerous because it leads to total relativism. How are we going to assess and criticize, whether it is modernism or post-modernism? These are not religious currents, but they are adopted by people as a religion and they contradict the Islamic view. Today, there is another difference: atheism does not come as a result of seeking answers to metaphysical questions. It comes through social questions like, let us say, ‘There are no human rights in Islam.’ If someone accepts this, he has a big problem with his aqida. The same is true in relation to women’s rights. If someone thinks that the Qur’an, Sunna, and Sharia do not give equal rights to women, this person has a serious problem with his aqida. Do you see what I mean? Or like in economics: if someone thinks that an economy cannot develop without interest, this person too has a serious problem with his aqida. You kalam journal • 1/2018 79 can see that the attack on the Islamic aqida is no longer through metaphysical issues but through social issues. Ilm al-kalam should change its strategies in its defence of Islamic aqida and in removing doubts about it. That’s why it is more needed today than before.

You have been trained in the Sufi tradition of Imam al-Rabbani Ahmad al-Sirhindi and I was surprised to discover that many of his Maktubat are essays in kalam. Why was a Sufi like Imam al-Rab- bani concerned with questions of kalam? Because Imam al-Rabbani is a mutasharri Sufi (a Sufi who follows the Sharia), who upheld that the first thing in the Sufi path is to correct one’s aqida. If you have an incorrect aqida, you cannot progress in the spiritual path. The first thing to correct is your aqida, then you correct your amal, including your fiqh. You correct your aqida according to ilm al- kalam, and you correct your amal according to fiqh. Ahmad Sirhindi states that learning these disciplines is an important prerequisite to learning other things. He also states that the Sharia is based on ilm (sacred learning), amal (applying that knowledge), and ikhlas (sincerity). If you don’t have ilm, you cannot have amal, and amal requires ikhlas. He states that “the tariqa and haqiqa are both servants to the Sharia in improving sincerity”. Ikhlas is part of a considerable constituting element of the Sharia, and the tariqa and haqiqa help the Sharia so that Muslims can have ikhlas. Ilm, amal, and ikhlas are all required. We need the tariqa and the haqiqa so that we have pure ikhlas. Ikhlas requires that you are saved from hidden and manifest shirk (polytheism). Manifest shirk is when people worship some idols, stones, human beings, and the like. Hidden shirk is following one’s own whims and caprice (hawa): “Hast thou seen him who has taken his caprice to be his god?” (Qur’an 25:43). If you have hawa, you can’t have ikhlas because you are worship- ping your hawa internally in your heart and externally you are worship- ping Allah Most High. Today, some Muslims are very much concerned with external shirk, the shirk zahir, but they neglect the internal shirk, which is the worship of one’s hawa. Tasawwuf teaches the cleansing of the soul (nafs) from hawa, which is the shirk al-batin, which also consists of coveting things such as money, desires, passions, and other things, thus turning them into gods. The heart needs to be cleansed from all blameworthy and vile qualities. This is the tasfiya and tazkiya. Then comes the tahliya, which is inculcating and implanting good aqida and good akhlaq in the heart. Imam al-Rabbani emphasizes these things, and he says that one should not deviate one iota from the Sunna of the Prophet Muhammad (upon whom be blessings and peace) or from the Sharia.

Some of our scholars have warned that a kalam that is bereft of Sufism can be religiously dangerous. Would you agree? Why is that the case? How does Sufism enrich and/or complement kalam? How do the two sciences work together? The purpose of all our disciplines, whether it is fiqh, kalam or tasawwuf, if they are to teach us Islam, is to teach us how we follow our master Muhammad (Allah bless him and give him peace), and practice his Sunna. All these disciplines are derived from the Qur’an and the Sunna. Fiqh is derived from the Kitab and the Sunna. Kalam is derived from Kitab and the Sunna. In the same way, tasawwuf is derived from the Kitab and the Sunna. All these are ulum nafi a that help us to practice

80 kalam journal • 1/2018 Islam in the same way that the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) practiced it. These three branches of learning focus on different dimensions of Islam. Kalam focuses on aqida; fiqh focuses on the zahir, the external side of the Sharia; while tasawwuf focuses on the internal side of the Sharia (fiqh al-batin). That’s why tasawwuf is called fiqh al-batin or al-fiqh al-wijdani. The totality of these three branches of learning is Islam. You cannot simply focus on the zahir of amal and claim that you are a good Muslim or you are practicing the Sharia. No, you have to focus both on the zahir and the batin, together and at the same time. We have to combine kalam, fiqh, and tasawwuf together because these disciplines are systematized by the ulema to teach us more easily. But Islam in itself is not divided into zahir, batin, aqida, tasawwuf and fiqh. No, all these disciplines are the same thing. They are all integrated and complement one another. Can you imagine Islam without tasfiyat wa tazkiyat al-nafs? Tazkiyat al-nafs is an individual obligation (fard ayn) on all human beings. They have to cleanse their hearts, as I mentioned, from the shirk al-khafi and also from the akhlaq dhamima (vile character traits). Everyone has to cleanse his soul, this is a fard ayn upon everyone. How can you reject tasawwuf or have a concept of Islam without tasawwuf? Kalam on the other hand deals with aqida. It’s such an important matter; so how can anyone say, “I deal with tasawwuf and don’t have any need for aqida”? No, this is impossible. Or how can anyone dispense with fiqh or the furu (ancillary sciences)? These are all like parts of a whole which we call Islam. One has to learn and practice all of them.

The Ottoman kalam heritage is understudied, particularly Ottoman scholarship towards the end of the Ottoman period, when the Ottoman mutakallimun critically engaged modern thought from an Islamic perspective. Who are the most important figures of this period? What did they write? Why are their books important? Yes, not only Ottoman kalam but, in general, Ottoman scholarship is neglected, and the Ottoman civilization is neglected too. In my view, the Ottoman period in Islamic civilization represents something comparable to the Renaissance in Europe. The Islamic civilization reached its peak in architecture, music, philosophy, statecraft, and in all areas. This is the most developed period of Islamic civilization. The classical Ottoman period is very important but the late period of the Ottoman experience is more important for us today because, for the first time, the ulema faced the challenges posed by the rise of the West. This is after the Tanzimat, the second part of the nineteenth century. What happened is that they reformed the madrasa system. They introduced Western languages as part of the madrasa curriculum. Sociology was taught for the first time in the madrasa. They faced this challenge, and under Abdul Hamid II, they established Madarasat Dar al-Khilafa. It was a modernized madrasa system that prepared its graduates to face the challenges posed by modern science and Western civilization. This is a very important period. At that time, there were some changes made in Islamic law. For instance, the dhimmi system was abolished. The jizya and slavery were also abolished. A constitutional system was adopted which paved the way for multiparty elections. There were five multiparty elections in the Ottoman period. Today we think that democracy was introduced to the Muslim world after the collapse of the Ottoman

kalam journal • 1/2018 81 KRM PUBLICATIONS Empire. In fact, democracy was there under the caliphate. It was a Sharia democracy under the supervision of the caliph with the approval of the Sheikh al-Islam and the ulema of that time. As I said, there were five elections with many parties under the Ottoman system. This is true for ilm al-kalam as well. The Ottoman scholars faced challenges coming from the West and were closely observing what was happening in Europe. For instance, the famous French philosopher Ernest Renan delivered a talk in one of the universities in Paris. As a reaction, several scholars in the Ottoman Empire wrote responses, rebuttals, and critiques. They were closely observing what was going on in Europe, and were engaged in an active dialogue with the West. Today we are very much behind. One of the people who wrote a rebuttal of Renan’s views was Namik Kemal (1840– 1888). He is considered one of the young Ottomans. He was in prison when he wrote a response to Renan. Look at this man! He is in prison but following what was going on in Paris, and writing a rebuttal against Renan. The likes of Namik Kemal represent good examples for us today. I think we learn today more from the example of the Tanzimat scholars of the nineteenth century than from the scholars of the classical period VATICAN ENGAGEMENTS because during the time of Ebussuud Effendi there was no West. But A Muslim Theologian’s Journey in Muslim-Christian during the time of Ahmed Cevdet Pasha, who produced the Majella, the West was there. A student of Islamic law learns more from the Dialogue (Vol.1) example of Ahmed Cevdet Pasha than from Ebussuud Effendi because Ahmed Cevdet Pasha learned French, studied Western law, and then Aref Ali Nayed developed a strategy to face the challenges posed by westernization Kalam Research & Media and modernization. He also prevented the Ottoman statesmen of the Empire from adopting the system of the French civil court. You can see This volume brings together the writings of Dr. Aref Ali Nayed, one that people from that period represent good role models for the young of the Muslim world’s leading theologians, tracing his engagement scholars and students of today. All of them learned Western languages. Young Ottomans were sent to Paris. They published a magazine in and dialogue with the Catholic Church and with Catholic scholarship. French. Then they were exiled to London and there published another He lived for many years in Rome, where he studied Catholic theology magazine in English. When they were exiled to Egypt, they published and taught Islamic theology. For the last two decades, he has been one a magazine in Arabic. Also, they were very familiar with developments of the most articulate Muslim interlocutors with the Catholic tradition in the West, so they maintained the Islamic intellectual tradition, they and a leading Muslim exponent of contemporary interfaith dialogue. learned Arabic and Persian, in addition to French, German, English, This volume includes his famous critique of Pope Benedict XVI’s and others. Rather than disengaging with the Islamic tradition, they Regensburg lecture and the subsequent debate and engagement with held fast to it but, at the same time, opened themselves up to the West. Catholic scholars on a range of theological and inter-faith issues. This was an expansion of their intellectual interest. Rather than leav- Dr. Nayed’s writings are characterized by a profound respect for ing Islam and fully embracing the West, they expanded themselves. all people of faith along with a deep reverence for his own faith and Today, the same thing is true for Muslim scholars. Muslim scholars today must work twice as much as their counterparts in the West the rich scholarly traditions of Islam and reflect an acute awareness because they must learn Islam and also the West. But if a Muslim of the modern world and its intellectual currents. scholar in Cambridge or Oxford learns just the Western side of issues, Aref Ali Nayed is the Chairman of Kalam Research & Media (KRM) and former he’s finished. But we, as Muslim scholars, have to learn our own tradi 2016 | 284 pages tion in addition to the Western side of the story. So we have a huge Ambassador of Libya to the UAE. His works include Radical Engagements: Essays challenge, and the scholars of the late Ottoman period provide a very on Religion, Extremism, Politics, and Libya (KRM, 2017); Operational Hermeneutics: $29.95 pb Interpretation as the Engagement of Operational Artifacts (2011); The Author’s Intention good example for us, in particular, scholars like Muhammad Zahid (co-authored with Jeff Mitscherling and Tanya Ditommaso, 2004); Growing Ecologies $39.95 hb al-Kawthari (1879–1951) and Mustafa Sabri (1869–1954); these are great of Peace, Compassion and Blessing: A Muslim Response to ‘A Muscat Manifesto’ (KRM, scholars from that period. 2010), and essays and monographs on theology, inter-faith, philosophy, spirituality and politics. Available from Amazon.com

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82 kalam journal • 1/2018 KRM PUBLICATIONS

VATICAN ENGAGEMENTS A Muslim Theologian’s Journey in Muslim-Christian Dialogue (Vol.1) Aref Ali Nayed Kalam Research & Media

This volume brings together the writings of Dr. Aref Ali Nayed, one of the Muslim world’s leading theologians, tracing his engagement and dialogue with the Catholic Church and with Catholic scholarship. He lived for many years in Rome, where he studied Catholic theology and taught Islamic theology. For the last two decades, he has been one of the most articulate Muslim interlocutors with the Catholic tradition and a leading Muslim exponent of contemporary interfaith dialogue. This volume includes his famous critique of Pope Benedict XVI’s Regensburg lecture and the subsequent debate and engagement with Catholic scholars on a range of theological and inter-faith issues. Dr. Nayed’s writings are characterized by a profound respect for all people of faith along with a deep reverence for his own faith and the rich scholarly traditions of Islam and reflect an acute awareness of the modern world and its intellectual currents.

Aref Ali Nayed is the Chairman of Kalam Research & Media (KRM) and former 2016 | 284 pages Ambassador of Libya to the UAE. His works include Radical Engagements: Essays on Religion, Extremism, Politics, and Libya (KRM, 2017); Operational Hermeneutics: $29.95 pb Interpretation as the Engagement of Operational Artifacts (2011); The Author’s Intention (co-authored with Jeff Mitscherling and Tanya Ditommaso, 2004); Growing Ecologies $39.95 hb of Peace, Compassion and Blessing: A Muslim Response to ‘A Muscat Manifesto’ (KRM, 2010), and essays and monographs on theology, inter-faith, philosophy, spirituality and politics. Available from Amazon.com

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RADICAL ENGAGEMENTS Essays on Religion, Extremism, Politics, and Libya (Vol.1) Aref Ali Nayed Kalam Research & Media

This volume bring together the writings of one of the Muslim world's leading theologians, Aref Ali Nayed, on religion, politics, extremism, and the Libyan Revolution. The author was a leading figure in the Libyan Revolution, and is one of the rare scholars who has been able to combine knowledge of governance and statecraft, but also reflect on the role of religion and the effects and consequences of revolutions.This is a unique collection of essays, monographs, op eds, speeches, and interviews published over the last five years and brought together for the first time as an anthology.

“I have had the privilege of working with a range of world leaders across public, private, and social sectors—from Their Majesties King Hussein and Queen Noor to Diana, Princess of Wales, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Anan, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Leadership comes in all shapes and sizes, but rarely do 2017 | 274 pages you find an individual who seamlessly integrates theological, $29.95 pb philosophical, political, economic, religious, and social network analysis. More rare is the individual who can apply these diverse $39.95 hb strands to the urgent challenges of our day, including the resurgence of religion-related violence—the mass killing in the name Available from Amazon.com of God.” — from the Foreword by Professor Jerry White, Nobel Peace Prize winner for his work on the International Campaign to Ban Landmines

Aref Ali Nayed is the Chairman of Kalam Research & Media (KRM) and former Ambassador of Libya to the UAE. His works include Vatican Engage- ments (KRM, 2016); Operational Hermeneutics: Interpretation as the Engagement of Operational Artifacts (2011); The Author’s Intention (co-authored with Jeff Mitscherling and Tanya Ditommaso, 2004); Growing Ecologies of Peace, Compas- sion and Blessing: A Muslim Response to ‘A Muscat Manifesto’ (KRM, 2010), and essays and monographs on theology, inter-faith, philosophy, spirituality and politics.

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RADICAL ENGAGEMENTS Essays on Religion, Extremism, Politics, and Libya (Vol.1) Aref Ali Nayed Kalam Research & Media cauldron of diverse ideas, including the MULLA SADRA peripatetic philosophy of al-Farabi and Ibn By Ibrahim Kalin. New Delhi: Oxford University Sina, the ishraqi school of Suhrawardī, the Sufi metaphysics of Ibn Arabi, and the various This volume bring together the writings of one of the Muslim Press, 2014. x+182 pp. $24.00 (paper). schools of Shi i and Sunni kalam. He is also world's leading theologians, Aref Ali Nayed, on religion, politics, generous in describing Sadra’s influence on extremism, and the Libyan Revolution. The author was a leading This introduction to the life and thought future thinkers. figure in the Libyan Revolution, and is one of the rare scholars of Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn Yahya Unfortunately, Kalin is not as successful who has been able to combine knowledge of governance and Qawami al-Shirazi (Sadr al-Din al Shirazi, or with his fourth objective, of providing a critical assessment of the success of Sadra’s statecraft, but also reflect on the role of religion and the effects Mulla Sadra), is part of the Makers of Islamic overall project; and the reason for this seems and consequences of revolutions.This is a unique collection of Civilization series, conceived by the Oxford essays, monographs, op eds, speeches, and interviews published Centre for Islamic studies, edited by Farhan to be that the way he approached the third over the last five years and brought together for the first time as Nizami, and published by Oxford University objective, of introducing the “primacy of existence” doctrine, upon which the success an anthology. Press. The self-described aim of the series is to provide a set of introductory texts on of Sadra’s project turns, was not such as to make a critical assessment possible. That “I have had the privilege of working with a range of world leaders outstanding figures in the history of Islamic civilization. This volume represents an need not necessarily detract from the book, across public, private, and social sectors—from Their Majesties important contribution to the literature on because there is some reason to believe that King Hussein and Queen Noor to Diana, Princess of Wales, U.N. a neglected period of Islamic philosophy, by the doctrine itself is simply not accessible to Secretary General Kofi Anan, and Secretary of State Hillary a scholar who is emerging as one of the most critical assessment, at least of any sort that can Clinton. Leadership comes in all shapes and sizes, but rarely do 2017 | 274 pages important contemporary Muslim thinkers. be accomplished in a book. As Kalin puts it: you find an individual who seamlessly integrates theological, $29.95 pb Kalin states his own aims in the book in philosophical, political, economic, religious, and social network terms of its four main chapters. The first is For Sadrā, one of the goals of philosophy analysis. More rare is the individual who can apply these diverse $39.95 hb to give a brief account of Mulla Sadra’s life is to equip us with the proper epistemic strands to the urgent challenges of our day, including the resur- and influence. The second is to describe the tools and cognitive means to ‘see’ the self-evident ( ) reality of existence. gence of religion-related violence—the mass killing in the name cultural and intellectual context in which his badihi Available from Amazon.com thought developed. The third is to introduce This, however, cannot be achieved by of God.” — from the Foreword by Professor Jerry White, Sadra’s main intellectual contribution: his mental or rational analysis alone because Nobel Peace Prize winner for his work on the International Campaign doctrine of the primacy of existence. The demonstrative and rational analyses give to Ban Landmines fourth “provides an overview of Sadra’s us only a mental picture of existence, thought, and assesses the extent to which it not its reality (82). Aref Ali Nayed is the Chairman of Kalam Research & Media (KRM) and succeeded (or not) in arriving at a coherent former Ambassador of Libya to the UAE. His works include Vatican Engage- synthesis” (9). But there is some ambiguity on this point, ments (KRM, 2016); Operational Hermeneutics: Interpretation as the Engagement Kalin thoroughly accomplishes the first which first appears in Kalin’s account of of Operational Artifacts (2011); The Author’s Intention (co-authored with Jeff Mitscherling and Tanya Ditommaso, 2004); Growing Ecologies of Peace, Compas- two of these objectives. He does a great job Sadra’s view of the relation between irfan and sion and Blessing: A Muslim Response to ‘A Muscat Manifesto’ (KRM, 2010), at putting Mulla Sadra in historical context, burhan. On the one hand, he says that “gnosis and essays and monographs on theology, inter-faith, philosophy, spirituality including the preceding rise of the Safavid is not without cognitive content, and a true and politics. dynasty with Shah Isma il’s conversion of sage can explain his vision by using ordinary the Safawiyya Sufi order from Sunnism to rational arguments ” (47). On the other, he Twelve-Imam Shi ism in 1501. Sadra emerges a quotes Sadra as saying “the knowledge of what generation later, as a major intellectual at the is tasted and the knowledge of spiritual states beginning of Shi a ascendency in Iran. Kalin cannot be captured in the garment of letters provides a clear and readable account of the and words” (49). The latter position lends intellectual climate of the time, including the itself to Wittgenstein’s famous dictum, “that akhbari-usuli controversy and the emergence of which we cannot speak we must pass over www.kalamresearch.com of a new Shi a-oriented Sufism. He shows how in silence”. But the former characterization the work of Sadra emerged out of a bubbling of Sadra’s position, and the fact that he did

kalam journal • 1/2018 87 have a lot to write on the primacy of existence, relation of God and the world, the one and the whets the appetite for a satisfying burhani many, or knowledge and reality. treatment of the topic; one that, as Kalin puts The second consequence, however, is it, “ensures that we understand the relation that we can rationally assess the success of between the concept and reality on the one project, inasmuch as it consists in arriving at hand, and between concepts on the other” a coherent synthesis between the findings of (46). This would also be one which makes qur’an, irfan, and burhan. For if it is impossible, itself, and by extension the entirety of Sadra’s without irfan, to understand what it even project, accessible to and therefore assessable means to say (for example) that “existence is by rational discursive means. the principle reality by which things exist” It would be an explanation of the doctrine (81), or that “existence establishes things of the “primacy of existence” in light of which as real existents but with varying degrees one can interpret precisely what is meant by of intensity” (94), then the only rational puzzling phrases like, “gradation of existence”, conclusion is that such a project is doomed “intensity of existence”, “expanding to fail. The primacy of existence cannot be existence”, “flow of existence”, and others. proved by discursive methods. Such terms, it would seem, can only be But as mentioned above, chapter four does understood metaphorically, since “gradation”, not, despite Kalin’s stated aim, contain any “intensity”, “expanding”, and “flow”, as critical assessment of the success or otherwise normally used, describe sensible, qualitative, of Sadra’s project. Instead, it draws out the or quantitative changes in particular existing many important metaphysical, cosmological, things, rather than existence as such. Taken and epistemological consequences of Sadra’s at face value, they would lead the reader central ontological thesis, such as the to imagine “existence” as a kind of pre- doctrine of substantial motion and the unity Socratic urstoff, like water or the boundless, of knowledge and existence. But, absent a the “gradation” and “flow” of which is being clear account of the primacy of existence, the offered as an explanation of phenomenal account of these doctrines remains obscure diversity and change. and steeped in metaphor. This would have This cannot be what Sadra means. But one been an appropriate space to examine the searches in vain for a clear account of what question whether the core Sadran proposition he does mean which does not involve such is clear and distinct enough to make coherent terminology. That something is expressed philosophical sense of the positions he infers in metaphorical terms does not itself count from that, or whether the insight he is trying against its validity, but the measure of to express is simply beyond the scope of success of philosophical discourse is the language and discursive thought. degree to which such imagery can be cashed In pursuit of this the reader may need in, if not for demonstrative proof, at least to refer to Kalin’s more technical works on demonstrative clarity. To the extent that this the subject, along with that of other authors cannot be done, and that epistemic recourse for which he has provided a generous list of must be made to irfan, then, though one has references. Along with this, the merits of not invalidated one’s claims (for we may grant the book outweigh its shortcomings. The that there are things that lie outside the grasp description it provides of this period and of discursive reason), two things follow. One region of Islamic intellectual history is rich. is that the success or failure of philosophical The account of the connection between projects that depend on the idea in question Sadra’s central thesis and his other doctrines, cannot be assessed by means of discursive and the difference it makes in his overall reason. So, for example, if there is no way to thought, is comprehensive and informative. understand the reality of existence other than It constitutes an important addition to the by “tasting” it, then no book, no matter how exciting new series from our colleagues at the well researched and written, is going to be able Oxford Centre. to give the means to clearly understand what the doctrine of the primacy of existence even edward moad means, much less to assess whether it actually Department of Humanities does solve, as claimed, the problem of the Qatar University

88 kalam journal • 1/2018 important today and in how it is an active VIRTUE AND THE MORAL LIFE: ethics that uses ordinary language. “When THEOLOGICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL we realize that every human action is a moral PERSPECTIVES one, we begin to realize that we are inevitably Edited by William Werpehowski and Kathryn built up or brought down by what we do” (6) Getek Soltis. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, he says in the opening pages, and in so doing 2014. x+210 pp. $85.00 (hardcover). frames the discussion of the remainder of the book. Herdt charts the philosophical history of virtue via Augustine and Christian liturgy, Who am I? Who do I want to become? How and deftly shows how the secular realm is in ought I get there? These are some of the fact the condition of pluralism (32). Part 2 gets questions virtue ethics asks and which are at into the lived substance of ethics and argues the heart of a teleology that frames the essays for the accurate redress and truthful telling of Virtue and the Moral Life: Theological and of history in order that participants of the Philosophical Perspectives. Although drawing political community both practice and realize largely from the Christian tradition, the the virtue of “civic integrity”. Part 3 deals book presents a wide array of theoretical with the family and raising moral children and practical perspectives on virtue ethics; where, among others, Mary M. Doyle Roche yet, on the level of praxis, and in spite of its presents an important critique of consumer religious leaning, it offers insight to anyone culture, which she identifies as a manipulating interested in the value of civic integrity, raising force that objectifies people and distorts moral children, or those coping with tragedy cardinal virtues; and only “[a] virtue ethic that and moral grief. Virtue and the Moral Life sees relationship (with God, self, neighbour, contributes to the diverse discussion on virtue stranger) as the ground and goal of human ethics today by appraising its role in both flourishing is best able to meet children private and public life, its significance for the wherever they are on the winding road of individual and the family, as well as its capacity moral development and call them to grow to contribute to the common good of society. in self-care, fidelity, justice, and prudence” When Jennifer A. Herdt quotes Augustine (91). Part 4 explores moral failure and the saying, “No virtue is truly such unless limits of virtue while part 5 focuses on the it is directed towards that end in which virtue of humility as a way to bridge divides humankind’s good—the good than which or disagreements between religious groups, nothing better exists—is found” (29), she owing to their shared commitment to virtue identifies this end as God. Most theists would in general. agree. What about nontheists? There is less Virtue and the Moral Life shines as a book of explicit discussion of this; however, some Christian virtue ethics. Yet while God is often writers do proffer that even nonbelievers care presupposed as part and parcel of the virtuous about morality and are interested in making or moral life, it does not rely on assumptions ethical choices. As the editors make clear, to make its points and in this way makes itself their task in compiling the volume is not to relevant to a wide array of readers. And its encompass the entire field of virtue ethics, clear and accessible language is a refreshing nor necessarily to make novel strides in the and welcome change from the otherwise subject, but rather to engage in a “contextual opaque discourse that all too often plagues moral investigation” (viii). The reader is works of theology and philosophy. Students, reminded that ethics is not about quandaries theologians of all faiths, parents, and anyone and puzzles to be solved in a vacuum of interested in virtue or morality will find impartial rationality, but about real decisions benefit in this volume. At the very least, it will that real people make in the world. Virtue cause the reader to question his end as well as and the Moral Life then serves as a practical his means to that end. contribution to the topical and always One wishes that the volume had included timeless issue of how to live morally. accounts of virtue ethics from religious The book is well organized into five parts: traditions other than Christianity; Jamie Part 1 begins with James F. Keenan, S.J.’s Schillinger’s contribution is a noble attempt compelling chapter on why virtue ethics is wherein his comparative study of humility

kalam journal • 1/2018 89 and justice in Christian and Islamic virtue or perhaps any kind of Muslim woman—to responds to Kantian and secular accounts. compose her own original work. Al-Ba uniyya Although it does not address the subject does just that, and confidently asserts her fully, it is appropriate for the purposes of mastery in assessing and commenting upon the volume, and a welcome addition to the wisdom of her predecessors, after which counterbalance the otherwise exclusively she always concludes with her own unique Christian accounts of virtue. contributions. Perhaps even more important Virtue and the Moral Life eschews the still is that in this work al-Ba uniyya assumes technical language and jargon that is the role of a spiritual mentor and guide, in characteristic of much of philosophical ethics a time in which female sheikhs of tarbiya and instead presents a contextual overview of (spiritual upbringing) are almost unheard of. some of the discussions in virtue ethics today. Looking at an early biographical work The question of where morality comes from like that of al-Sulami’s Early Sufi Women, or what constitutes a moral action or person a great number of women were indeed is a timeless question. In one way or another, recognized as consummate spiritual masters it informs the lives of theist and atheist alike, and knowers of God. More importantly, young and old, the personal and private as however, we see some of these women actively much as the social and political. And it is the involved in the spiritual upbringing of other pragmatism with which Virtue and the Moral women (and possibly men); that is, they Life treats the subject that is perhaps its most were sought out as guides on the Sufi path. valuable contribution to the discourse on For example, Shabaka of Basra oversaw the ethics—for it is a discourse that does not exist spiritual growth and progress of her disciples purely in theory but has always been, and must (muridat) in underground cells beneath her always continue to be, a lived discourse. house.2 Likewise, Sha wana preached to the public, and her sessions were attended by yusuf lenfest spiritual masters, aspirants, and ascetics.3 Research Fellow Harvard University The biographer Ibn Sa d also tells us that Mu adha al- Adawiyya, who according to Ibn al-Jawzi was a direct student of the “mother of the believers” A’isha, would sit with her THE PRINCIPLES OF SUFISM legs drawn up, “discoursing to a group of By A’isha al-Ba uniyya. Edited and translated women who surround her.”4 Throughout by Th. Emil Homerin. New York: New York al-Sulami’s work we see entries on women University Press, 2014. xii+210 pp. $ 30.00 (cloth). who were either the teachers or disciples of other women mentioned in the same work, giving us a picture of a time in which women A’isha al-Ba uniyya (d. 923/1517) was an took charge of the spiritual upbringing and exceptional Damascene scholar and Sufi, guidance of other women (and sometimes perhaps the most prolific premodern female men). The famed Rabi a al- Adawiyya herself writer and poet in the Arabic language. After had women who served her in order to learn having translated one of her collections of from her, while others, like the great jurist Sufi poetry,Emanations of Grace (Fons Vitae, Sufyan al-Thawri, visited her seeking her 2012), Th. Emil Homerin went on to bring to counsel. Al-Thawri referred to her as “the 5 light her valuable prose work, The Principles mentor” (al-mu’addiba). Clearly it was a time of Sufism. Aside from the value of the book’s when women sought other women to be their contents, to which we will return, perhaps the spiritual guides and mentors, and were not in book’s greatest value is in what it represents. any way dependent on men. One could even Female Muslim scholars are not at all rare in argue that there was a chain of female teachers the premodern period, and Dr. Mohammad starting with A’isha, wife of the Prophet Akram Nadwi’s forty-volume biographical (peace be upon him), after whom came Mu dictionary of female scholars of hadith is adha al- Adawiyya and her female disciples. sufficient to show that.1 However, as Homerin Mu adha died in Basra around the time of stated in an interview with the work’s Rabi a al- Adawiyya’s birth in the same city, publishers, it was very rare for a Sufi woman— and though no famous teachers of Rabi a

90 kalam journal • 1/2018 are known, she may have met some of her not aware of the role of Rabi a or her predecessor’s disciples. contemporaries and predecessors in the After that early period documented by spiritual upbringing of other women. This is the likes of al-Sulami, Ibn al-Jawzi, and Ibn why a work like al-Ba uniyya’s is so valuable. Sa d, we do not hear of such female mentors The difference between the views of Ibn who attracted and guided disciples for several Arabi and al-Ba uniyya on one hand, and that centuries. Perhaps the first name we hear of Shams and al-Sha rani on the other, could of is the Qadiri Nana Asma’u (d. 1864), who be down to local culture. Ibn Arabi came started the Yan Taru movement of female from Andalusia where society was far more scholars and preachers whom she sent to open regarding the public role of women, and educate women in different villages and towns where he could meet women who acted as within the Sokoto Caliphate. An unbroken spiritual guides. On the other hand, cultural line of female scholars from that movement norms in Shams’s Persian lands and al-Sha survives until today. More recent is Munira rani’s Egypt may have prevented women al-Qubaysi (b. 1933) of Damascus whose from assuming such roles. We know from Qubaysi movement of female teachers bears al-Sha rani’s own celebrated Sufi guide book, a very close resemblance to the Yan Taru. al-Anwar al-qudsiyya, that it was not common Sheikha Munira was ranked the eighteenth practice for women in Egypt to formally enter most influential Muslim alive today in the a Sufi tariqa, and that when it did happen, 2014/15 edition of The Muslim 500, and the it was looked down upon by other Sufi most influential Muslim woman. Almost a scholars because it could lead to a blurring millennium seems to have passed in between of boundaries between the sheikh and his those early Sufi women and these more recent “spiritual daughters”.9 On the other hand, movements, without any prominent female we know from the case of A’isha al-Ba Sufi guides. They did exist, of course, and uniyya that she did formally enter a Sufi tariqa we get glimpses of some of them here and at the hands of a male sheikh. Of course, Sufis there. For example, Muhyi al-Din ibn Arabi never claimed that formal association with a used to visit Fatima bint ibn al-Muthanna of Sufi path was a prerequisite for proximity to Cordoba, who used to tell him that she was God, but ever since the emergence of the Sufi his spiritual mother, while his actual mother, tariqas, the role of spiritual mentorship was Nur, was only the mother of his earthly body. much more closely dependent on attachment She used to address his mother and say, “O to one of these channels of spiritual grace and Nur, he is my son,” and she seems to have had the authorization of a previous master. That other people also serve her in order to learn would explain why al-Sha rani may have never from her. Ibn Arabi described her as a lover met or seen a female spiritual guide. and knower of God.6 At the same time, Ibn A’isha al-Ba niyuya was raised in a Arabi’s contemporary Shams al-Tabrizi denied prominent scholarly family in Damascus, and that women could act as sheikhs on the path, received a high level of scholarly learning, stating that even if God opened for them the which she even supplemented at an older door of spiritual illumination, they would age studying jurisprudence with a number of remain hidden and out of sight, “behind the scholars in Cairo during her three-year stay spindle in the corner of the house”.7 there. She took the Qadiri path from a male Similarly A’isha al-Ba uniyya’s younger sheikh whom she praised greatly and who Egyptian contemporary Abd al-Wahhab eventually became highly regarded in her time al-Sha rani (d. 973/1565) denied that women as a Sufi master. The Mamluk sultan al-Ghawri had the capacity to guide aspirants along the even met with her before he set off for war spiritual stations of wilaya (proximity to God). against the Ottomans, possibly by way of “It never reached us,” he added, “that any seeking her blessings. woman from the pious predecessors assumed Many Sufi masters left a great number of the role of guiding spiritual aspirants,” and disciples, but not works. Others had a more that their furthest extent was to be devout limited number of disciples, but left works worshipers and ascetics “like Rabi a al- that continued to inspire and guide Sufi Adawiyya”.8 It seems that despite being aspirants and masters alike for centuries. That a biographer of the Sufis, al-Sha rani was al-Ba uniyya acted as a Sufi guide through

kalam journal • 1/2018 91 her written works would have been rare shows her mastery by commenting on these enough for a woman in her century (and many teachings of her predecessors, assessing them, preceding and following centuries). However, and comparing them. She then confidently it appears from The Principles of Sufism concludes each chapter with her own that she may have also had direct disciples authoritative teachings, both in poetry and during her lifetime. The first clue is from her prose, thus presenting herself as a muhaqqiqa, introduction, which states that one of the a master who can assess the teachings of ahbab (admirers), who is clearly a male based their predecessors and then bring forth their on the passage, requested “instruction in the own conclusions. In other words, she always way of realisation and for guidance to the right has the final say, which she attributes to path”. Homerin translated “one of the ahbab” inspiration and illumination (fath). as “one of the dear friends”, because the word This text is part of the Library of Arabic ahbab may also mean someone dear to her Literature series, which presents Arabic or whom she loved. Yet the passage seems editions of classical works along with their to support the idea that this was someone translations. It should be noted that the first who admired her and loved her as a spiritual print of The Principles of Sufism, to which I master, who remained “waiting at [her] door had access, had an unusually high number of with his head on [her] doorsteps”, requesting errors in the Arabic text, which were quickly her guidance (2). Similarly in her final passage, corrected in a subsequent print. The Arabic she prays for her “children and the ones [she and English fonts are simple and elegant. holds] dear in [God]” (164). This passage could Homerin’s introduction is very brief, dealing have two meanings. In the first, she would mostly with the author’s life and works about be praying for (a) her actual children, and which very little is known. Homerin is a (b) those she held dear in God. The second skilled and experienced translator of Arabic possible interpretation is that she was praying poetry, and his area of expertise is Sufism and for (a) her children in God (i.e., her spiritual love poetry, having produced several works on disciples), and (b) those she held dear in God. the Sultan of the Lovers Umar ibn al-Farid. In any case, the passage in the introduction His translation makes this work very easy to shows that she was sought out for spiritual read, considering the difficulty of translating guidance by those who deemed her a spiritual many Sufi expressions dealing with love and master. For that reason, she penned down her experiential knowledge of God. However, book as a guide. there are several passages, often some of the deals with what The Principles of Sufism more sublime and beautiful, where Homerin al-Ba uniyya regards as the four main seems to have missed the subtle meanings principles of the spiritual path: repentance, intended. Similarly, in one passage that sincerity, remembrance, and love. Each of these sections is larger than the one that incorporates several Qur’anic expressions, a precedes it. The work is conceived as a mistake in translation caused several of al- selection of the finest sayings on each of Ba uniyya’s statements to be paired with the the four topics. In each chapter she begins wrong verse (146). Perhaps the translation with verses from the Qur’an, supplemented here was rushed, and a pause for reflection with subtle mystical allusions and remarks would have alerted him to the running error. from al-Qushayri’s Sufi commentary on the Despite these few mistakes, the translation Qur’an, and other sources like al-al-Sulami’s is true to the original and would appeal to the commentary. She then provides an impressive spiritually inclined, as the work is full of gems selection of prophetic traditions followed of wisdom and beauty that anyone, whether or by her beautiful selection of the teachings of not they would call themselves “Sufi”, would Sufi masters. Most of the quotes she chooses find inspiring and beneficial. come from the early masters like Dhul Nun, al-Bistami, al-Karkhi, and the like, but she also samer dajani included some teachings from later masters School of Oriental and African Studies, of the Shadhili path, as well as the Andalusian London, Ibn al- Arif (d. 536/1141). Al-Ba uniyya University of London

92 kalam journal • 1/2018 notes these precedents by situating it more broadly 1 A summary of the findings of this work has been published in the contemporary humanities penetrated as al-Muhaddithat: The Women Scholars of Islam (Oxford: by new trends of philosophy and social Interface Publications, 2013). sciences focused on human experience and

2 more specifically the body, very noticeably Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami, Early Sufi Women (Louisville, KY: Fons Vitae, 1999), 91. the phenomenological current. He explains: “I regard the body as an aspect of the human 3 Ibid., 107. imagination that shifts its parameters through 4 Ibid., 88 n. 28. human beings’ phenomenological and social experience during a lifetime” (14). 5 Ibid., 77. In the introduction, the author defines

6 Muhyi al-Din ibn Arabi, al-Futuhat al-makkiyya (Cairo: Dar his methodology and views by prominently al-Kutub Arabiyya al-Kubra, 1329/1911), 2:347–9. presenting as his formative and informative

7 references key thinkers such as Maurice Shams-i Tabrizi, Me and Rumi, trans. William C. Chittick (Louisville, KY: Fons Vitae, 2004), 268. Merleau-Ponty, Pierre Bourdieu, and Gabrielle Spiegel (15). In particular and logically given 8 Abd al-Wahhab al-Sha rani, al-Mizan al-kubra (Beirut: Dar the book’s subject matter, he indebts to the al-Kutub al- Ilmiyya, 1998), 2:260. first of these thinkers his understanding of the 9 al-Sha rani, al-Anwar al-qudsiyya (Beirut: al-Maktaba al- workings of the body both as empirical actor in Ilmiyya, n.d.), 1:47. the present and cultural signifier engendered by past traditions. However, Bashir’s self- designed epistemology happens to be flawed and misleading in the light of the book’s substance. Although the latter, it is important SUFI BODIES: RELIGION AND SOCIETY IN to note, does not really suffer from this MEDIEVAL ISLAM weakness and does bring forth highly valuable By Shahzad Bashir. New York: Columbia results, I take issue with a poor mastery and University Press, 2013. xvi+274 pp. $28.00 (paper). application or presentation of contemporary Western critical theory and philosophy in the field of Islamic studies. Engaged myself in this In his last major work on Sufism, the specialist very difficult task of using these critical tools of Islamic religious studies Shahzad Bashir, in my own writings, I wish to make the point Stanford University, endeavors to expose that high standards must be set and kept if an aspect of Sufi thought and practices in we genuinely aim to advance these studies by premodern Islam (1300–1500 ce) traditionally this particular means. Here are some of the put aside or overlooked; namely, the cognitive, significant flaws I have detected. representational, and encoding functions While citing Merleau-Ponty and attributed to the human body. However, here phenomenology extensively, Bashir’s Bashir followed the relatively recent research frame of viewing Sufi bodies announced in track of anthropology-oriented Sufi studies the paragraph’s title “Embodiment as an opened by key publications such as the special Analytical tool” deviates from the Merleau- number of the Revue des mondes musulmans et Pontian phenomenological epistemic de la Méditerranée (November 2006) titled “Le premises (and from those suggested by the corps et le sacré en Orient musulman” [“The book’s title itself, Sufi Bodies) that precisely body and the sacred in eastern Islam”] and place the body and primal sensory perception Scott Krugle’s seminal book Sufis and Saints’ at the center of its analytical system; for Bodies: Mysticism, Corporeality, and Sacred Power example, that posits it as the very object of in Islam (Chapel Hill: University of North its analysis, not as a tool to analyze something Carolina Press, 2007). While Krugle focused else of greater significance or importance on South Asia and Morocco, the author of to the author’s eyes (13). By decoding this Sufi Bodies puts at the center of his inquiry ill-constructed methodological exposé the the Persianate societies of Iran and Central reader finally learns that this “something Asia, his field of expertise. Moreover, Bashir else” Bashir is primarily concerned with, intends to distinguish his own inquiry from is “social imagination”. His object of

kalam journal • 1/2018 93 observation consequently is not the body as question. This set includes the relationship locus of consciousness per se but the cultural- between master and disciple, men and historical determinants that inform the women, the individual and the group, the factual collective apprehension of it, in other zahir (outer) and batin (inner) dimension of words not the phenomenological perceiving the body, and variegated practices such as body or, to put it in simpler terms, not the the composition of sacred genealogies of Sufi phenomenon itself, but the circumstances and families, performing miracles, establishing effects of its occurrence that Bashir diversely power and authority by controlling the terms “attitudes toward corporeality” or adepts’ body and self, asceticism, horufism, “patterns embedded in stories” (14). Then, he and so on. Throughout the chapters Bashir further antagonizes phenomenology when thus enlightens the multiple dualities that he makes this nebulous statement: “However underpin the double nature of Sufism as much it may appear to be so instinctively, spiritual application and social construct the body is not the defining feature of the such as the duality of carnality and soul, male human species that can help us specify and female corporeality, the singular and the universals” (14). collective body, and beyond, the duality of the Yet, Bashir’s lack of theoretical solidity microcosm and the macrocosm embedded should not obscure the value of his in the human form. This feature appears contribution to Sufi studies. Once it becomes pertinently stipulated and illustrated in the clear that the book’s actual methodology introduction with the mention of an act of and content fundamentally follow a well- handshaking taken from a story reported by established practice of cultural reading the early sixteenth-century Persian author of historical material, the validity of its Hafiz Sultan Ali Awbahi. According to this findings can be fully appreciated. With text, the gesture operated a codified physical finesse and consistency Bashir unravels the contact through which a channel of links instrumental role of corporeality in the of social and sacred order going back to complex articulation of the Sufi pragmatic Prophet Muhammad was established between approach to piety and natural human feelings the privileged individuals touched by the of love, attraction, and desire with Sufism’s hands (4–8). doctrinal, ethic, and philosophical principles. In his investigation, Bashir also looks Delving in relevant primary sources, Sufi into painting as a mean of historical chronicles, hagiographies (the main source), documentation and verification. He points and literature, as well as in the iconography out a few illustrations that visually attest to of manuscript painting, he extracts and the veracity of the descriptions and stories interprets the references to corporeal acts, told in the texts he explores (193, for example). behaviors, and representations serving But expectedly, the book does not deal both the social organization and spiritual with the crucial function of these artifacts expression of Sufi individuals and groups in as pure art in the framework of the Sufis’ the period and cultural areas concerned. This multisensory aesthetic practices involving hermeneutic process successfully helps unveil the variegated bodily activities of seeing, the direct apprehension of the carnal body in listening, chanting, dancing or moving, medieval Sufism and thereby makes us better bending, breathing and uttering rhythmically, understand its use in the construction of and the like. The analysis of these particular religious metaphors and projective ideations, Sufi activities pertains to another type of more familiar to the scholarship on the expertise: that of the art historian trained subject. in aesthetics and, incidentally, in the Like an enlightening path, the two-part phenomenological method since they fall book presents a stepped structure leading the under the sign of the phenomenology of art reader from one case study of a Sufi theme and perception. dealing with existence’s physicality to another, Finally, Bashir’s inquiry delivers an such as the complex set of relationships and illuminating description of a profoundly practices on the basis of which the mystic humanistic Sufi milieu that placed as much linkage between the human and the Divine care on the elaboration and promotion of was formed and performed in the societies in high mystic ideals as on ensuring the integrity

94 kalam journal • 1/2018 and meaningfulness of its members’ empirical In the end the reader has to focus on what is life through a sophisticated manipulation of presented to him, and not what could have their body. been, a sentiment that he would surely approve. For the purposes of brevity, I concentrate my valérie gonzalez attentions to evaluate the success, or otherwise Islamic Art and Culture as I argue here, of his provocative attempt Leighton House Museum, to make a case for “religious atheism” as a London coherent analytic concept. Before examining in more detail what Dworkin means by a “religion without God”, we should consider the continuum within RELIGION WITHOUT GOD which he locates it. Whilst not fully explicit, he places religious atheism within the By Ronald Dworkin. Cambridge, MA: Harvard following: (a) on one side there is religion with University Press, 2013. xii+180 pp. $17.95 God, after which (b) there is religion without (hardcover). God, after which (c) there is “spirituality”, and finally (d) there is naturalism, the latter he defines rather idiosyncratically as The late Ronald Dworkin, Professor of holding “that nothing is real except what Jurisprudence and Legal Theory in New York can be studied by natural sciences, including and UCL, was not only the preeminent legal psychology” (12). Dworkin discriminates philosopher of his generation but also an religious atheism from mere “spirituality” and influential contributor to political philosophy, naturalism by arguing that both believing and and an important public intellectual. His unbelieving religions hold two paradigmatic writings encompass over twenty books, convictions central; namely, a belief in including Law’s Empire (1984) and Justice objective value, and that the world has innate for Hedgehogs (2011), and while his writings value and wonder (11). While Dworkin would concentrate on law and political philosophy, acknowledge that some religious persons hold just before his death Dworkin finally turned other convictions, such as an “obligation to his attentions to religion, from which we have worship”, he sets these “Godly convictions” this short suggestively titled essay Religion aside and regards that there is more that without God. believing and unbelieving religions share than Religion without God was posthumously what divides them. He regards these two core published and edited based on the Einstein beliefs as “deeper than God” and more central lectures Dworkin delivered to the University to religion’s metaphysical core and considers of Berne in 2011, and as the book jacket them constitutive of the religious attitude. suggests, the first iteration of a much larger Before looking more closely at these book, before he succumbed to illness from central convictions in detail, let us consider cancer. More often than not, the essay reads how Dworkin successfully grapples with the like what it is, a set of notes for a lecture. Its notion of religion as an analytical concept. melodious prose conveys the immediacy of It is clear that, except for the most fleeting what surely must have been a mesmerizing set references to Buddhism, the foil he has in of lectures, though it suffers from the inclusion mind is the Abrahamic religion. Whilst it of obscure arguments and fitful presentation, may not be a problem in and of itself, we some of which would certainly be excised. could be forgiven if Dworkin’s presentation The careful reader cannot help wondering of religion as an unproblematic concept how much of these ideas would survive does not elicit surprise, especially when the inevitable drafting, peer criticism, and some of the central dilemmas that dominate redrafting that any publication has to endure. the study of religion grapple with how to A measured evaluation of RWG is then, some understand what religion is. For instance, would say rather aptly, irresolvable and finally one dilemma ponders how to define religion imponderable, and this leaves the reader with when what could passably be included as all the satisfaction of going toe-to-toe with religion is myriad; there are prominent Dworkin for three rounds of shadow boxing. scholars arguing for the inclusion of

kalam journal • 1/2018 95 shamanism, nationalism, communism, and convictions. In doing so, it’s difficult not the like, and if not, by what criteria ought we to believe that Dworkin regards religion exclude them? A related dilemma ponders essentially as very much a private affair, on the unity of religion—should Hinduism suspiciously akin to the post-Protestant be regarded as a unified religious tradition Western society from which he emerges. or a separate set of networked local cults? It all adds to the sneaking feeling difficult Another example and directly relevant to to rid, wondering whether Dworkin Religion without God, what do we make of rendering them as “non-essential” aspects, Shintoism or Confucianism, Taoism, when a result of nonchalant ignorance, or especially the latter resemble what many in betrayal of his incomprehensibility, or the West consider closer to philosophy than perhaps both. Nevertheless their depiction religion, and if so how does this challenge as such raises further doubts of his attempts our conceptions of what religions are? to delineate the peripheral in religion and Now, perhaps it wouldn’t be fair to expect what is core. Dworkin to address all these questions or Even though this is obviously not the even any of them; however the robustness final iteration, one gets the feeling that of a theory is doubtful when it’s difficult Dworkin has failed to do some pretty basic to discern what we could derive from it if scholarly reading. His understanding of it’s unable to provide any kind of insight, religion betrays someone who is stuck let alone explanation of manifest empirical within a comfort zone, and replete with religious phenomena whilst simultaneously the secular biases from the Western culture claiming that doctrine So-and-so is more from which he emerges. In doing so he fails ultimate and the very metaphysical core to accommodate for empirical aspects of religion. religion that are awkward to his arguments, One example will suffice: one of or even more damningly to entire religious Dworkin’s claims is that value objectivity traditions wholesale. At best his arguments is part of the metaphysical core of religion, suffer from distorting them, and at worst his contrasting against naturalism on this basis. analysis simply ignores any aspect that he But it’s unclear how he would accommodate considered not essentially religious all for religious traditions, such as Shintoism, the greater glory of his categorization. And Taoism, or Hinduism, who at best would whilst the philosopher Dworkin may give struggle to understand values in the way that himself license to dismiss these objections as Dworkin does, or at worst simply rejects not being salient to points he wishes to make, value objectivity at all. It would be difficult such a criticism is not something a scholar in to imagine for him, who controversially the study of religion could permit themselves describes himself as a religious atheist, to to make, but then again neither would a reject the provenance and properness of a philosopher who claims to take empirical well-established religion because it doesn’t fit phenomena seriously. Unfortunately for with his idea of what a religious ought to look Dworkin a closer look at what he considers like. But if we take seriously the empirical as core convictions shows that his problems reality that religions exist which do not share don’t stop here. these convictions, then we are forced to One aspect Dworkin considers core choose his ideas over that of regarding them to religion is its attitude towards the as true religions, a state of affairs that few universe and life; characterizing it as would accept. a distinctive sense of wonder that the That this is not a semantic issue can be world’s beauty and complexity strikes the seen in other ways. Dworkin has nothing believing and unbelieving religious alike, to say about religious rites, pilgrimage, as well as the consonant commitment that communal identity, nor about feelings of this confers on them. However it is unclear kinship and fraternity, aspects which some why this is the case; more specifically, in scholars, not to mention the religion’s what sense is this attitude and commitment followers themselves, consider equal to distinctively religious and exclusive to the if not more important than its religion’s religious?

96 kalam journal • 1/2018 Consider Dawkins for example; whatever of wonder with the world—indeed his “faith” one thinks of his philosophical writings, in a material world. One would think that even the most unsympathetic would surely it’s less that faith is characterized as an not deny the sense of exhilaration that absence or presence of propositions versus the best of his scientific writings convey; a more holistic understanding faith, but a sense of wonder towards nature whose instead it is the contents of this faith that complexity and beauty he attributes to the would render it distinctive. And it is this workings of a materialist evolution. Yet a that’s unclear, after all we have a sense of sense of wonder is precisely what Dworkin wonder in both Dawkins the materialist insisted on being a core component towards and Dworkin the believer, and it’s unclear in the religious attitude, something that he what sense the latter sense of wonder is more contrasted with the materialist attitude pronounced except for him saying so. On this towards the universe. How then would he aspect, we leave the distinctiveness thesis distinguish between religious attitude and unmoved. that of Dawkins, perhaps the high priest of Dworkin further distinguishes the scientific materialism? One would imagine religious attitude by its consonant that Dworkin would argue either that the commitment, specifically: (a) its commitment naturalist’s sense of wonder is perhaps not to life, and (b) obligation to make life properly pronounced, failing to reach a meaningful for oneself, and claims that these threshold that Dworkin would consider are the preserve of those who hold conviction sufficient, or perhaps the naturalist’s sense of of objectivity in value and meaning in wonder is not somehow identical to religious universe. Now it’s worth remembering that he sense of wonder. doesn’t have to argue that all religious persons Perhaps we should understand Dawkins’ have these commitments, after all many are sense of enthrallment as never being able to irresolute and flawed. However, he does have attain a “religious” sense of enthrallment, to demonstrate that if these commitments just because he does not share Dworkin’s are constitutive of the religious attitude, then belief in an intrinsic meaning in the universe? this would suggest a certain exclusivity and This would then suggest that whilst both preserve of the religious alone. If, however, may share in their wonderment towards the there was someone who (a) was just as universe, there is something distinctive in the committed to these self-same convictions, latter—presumably more special and superior. and (b) furthermore someone who considered Dworkin admits as much, stipulating that them constitutive an attitude that is a direct such a distinctive attitude is quintessentially result of a materialist point of view, then this religious (48). This would suggest that the would leave Dworkin vulnerable. Are there naturalist does not have access to a privileged any prime candidates? An obvious one who sense of wonder towards the universe, because comes to mind is of course the existentialist of an absence of certain convictions of belief and later Marxist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre with their presence being crucial. What (1905–1980). Dworkin seems to argue here, then, is that Especially in his early, more existential faith is distinctive not because the addition phase, Sartre insisted on the importance or absence of one proposition or two alone, of making life meaningful; crudely the for example, the notion that the universe has importance of living a life was characterized intrinsic meaning. Rather, faith is an attitude with full-bodied commitment, and a search that is distinctly religious in that it amounts for authenticity, taking on the burdens to a set of propositions that are held both of freedom and its consonant dilemmas, concurrently as well as holistically and that amongst other things, and all of which determine how we conceive of the universe. are similar to what could be understood Is this holistic understanding of faith more what Dworkin means by a commitment to convincing than characterizing it as belief life. Unlike Dworkin, Sartre insisted that in a set of propositions? Certainly, but while such a commitment was a direct result this is the case, it is difficult to understand of confronting what he considered the how much this differs from Dawkin’s sense universe’s randomness and life’s ultimate

kalam journal • 1/2018 97 meaninglessness. It would seem then that both a committed believer like Kierkegaard GUNNING FOR GOD: WHY THE NEW (1813–1855) and a committed materialist like ATHEISTS ARE MISSING THE MARK Sartre, can share a commitment for taking By John Lennox. Oxford: Lion Hudson, 2011. life seriously but as a result of diametrically xxvi+222 pp. $15.95 (paper). opposed beliefs over the universe, the former upholding an attitude of total commitment because of life’s meaningfulness, and the Professor John Lennox, a well-reputed latter in the face of life’s randomness and mathematics academic at Oxford University, inherent meaninglessness. And of course is a relatively new face entering the realm of Sartre is not alone in such ruminations, the Christian apologetics against new atheism in most cursory look over Heidegger, Nietzsche, comparison to Alvin Plantinga and William Camus or even Schopenhauer, one would find Lane Craig. His book Gunning for God has cognate ideas if not identical conclusions. been a major success in providing a well- Once again, it does beg the question how researched, accessible, and easy-to-digest much reading Dworkin has done before case against new atheism from the Christian writing his own ideas down, and one cannot perspective. Having debated the likes of help think that his thoughts would have Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, improved immeasurably had he pondered on Lennox synthesizes his case from intimate those who differed with him before grappling engagements with new atheism on the with his own. grounds of science and philosophy. He clearly Where then does this leave Dworkin’s articulates the several problems associated distinctiveness thesis? The distinctiveness with the reactionary force of new atheism as argument is reliant on the presentation a total worldview while bravely defending the of convincing criteria by which we can Christian faith. discriminate between the religious from those Lennox summarizes his thesis, “I propose without religion. One way of assessing the in this book not only to deal reactively with robustness of such a criteria is its ability to atheist objections to Christianity, but also explain away what would purportedly be only positively to present detailed evidence for superficially similar instances of attitude and, the truth of Christianity” (15). His book or commitment by, naturalists or spiritualists. can be thematically divided into three main A failure to do so would undermine the parts, but not necessarily arranged in that alleged distinctiveness of the religious order. The first theme involves discussing attitude that his arguments are so reliant on. philosophical concerns raised by atheists such And as we have seen examining Dawkins as the relationship between faith and reason and Sartre, neither the wonder towards the (chapter 1) and miracles and science (chapter universe is distinctive to the religious, nor is 7). The second theme covers sociological and the commitment that the universe’s alleged historical claims raised by atheists against objectivity supposedly entails. And to explain Christianity (chapter 2, 3, and 4). The third such instances away with regards to the theme covers issues raised specifically against central distinctiveness thesis strains credulity, the Christian Bible (chapter 5) and doctrine and is closer to indulging in stipulation than (chapters 6 and 8). philosophical argument, and it is simpler to One of the most enjoyable parts in abandon it. reading Lennox is his careful investigation of In sum, lyrical as Religion without God is, semantics. In one area he dedicates nineteen it is unfortunate that the views that Dworkin pages in clearing up how the word faith is expresses, in this iteration at least, are being mishandled by atheists. After showing strikingly parochial to be of any general use, how atheists contrast faith, used solely with and the flaws are so palpable as to render it religion, while associating evidence only for irredeemably hobbled. science, Lennox clarifies, “The confusion arises from an idiosyncratic implicit, faheem hussain re-definition of ‘faith’ as a peculiarly religious Department of Philosophy term (which it isn’t) and that it only means Heythrop College, London a special kind of believing, that is, believing

98 kalam journal • 1/2018 without evidence (which it doesn’t)” (39). He also challenges atheism by highlighting goes on to clarify that there are different types activities done under the name of an atheistic of faith, such as blind faith and evidence- worldview by Stalin and Hitler (89). In trying based faith (41), but not all faiths are blind to elaborate the nuances of the blame game of faiths (40). Quoting John Polkinghorne, his violence, whether done by religion or atheism, own teacher, Lennox exposes the grounds he quotes Peter Singer and March Hauser, of science itself, which requires faith in the who aptly summarize the issue: “Neither intelligibility of the universe (50). He remarks religion nor atheism has a monopoly on the on this point, “Thus, faith in something use of criminal violence” (91). that has not yet been proved still is, as it On morals, Lennox does excellently well has always been, a prerequisite for scientific on elaborating Hume’s is–ought distinction investigation of the universe. Shall we in the context of biology and ethics. For therefore accuse science of irrationality? Of example, he criticizes attempts to establish course not!” (50). Lennox also exposes the a scientific morality by catching out Harris philosophical incoherencies behind certain on smuggling an unscientific prior in his scientific views. He clarifies that physical category of well being (102). He also highlights laws are not creating agents, rather they are the problems of accountability with view of mathematical descriptions under certain moral behavior being gene determined (108). conditions (33), and therefore theories and He gives an example of cutting babies for laws do not themselves bring matter/energy fun would just be DNA in action according into existence (34). However, he remarks to the atheist worldview (112). Lennox also this is something to which atheist-scientists tackles the issue of biological altruism within ascribe creative powers in order to avoid a the evolutionary paradigm, arguing that this divine intelligence (35). Lennox also highlights still offers no basis as to how genuine moral the blurring lines of physics and metaphysics altruism is grounded and where it comes from in the speculative models of string theories (110), another way of saying morality cannot and multiverses (36). be grounded in biology. In the loss of a moral Lennox does not shy away from self- ontology in the atheist worldview he leaves criticism while trying to understand nuances the reader with a floating question, “If DNA in the discussion of religious enterprises. neither knows nor cares and we dance to its He highlights generalizations to be a severe music, how is it that most of us both know problem in literature against religion and and care?” (114). theism, which completely removes needed Lennox also tackles theological claims sophistication from the discussion. In really well. He clarifies the noncontradiction paraphrasing Keith Ward, he succinctly between God’s justice and God’s mercy when highlights, “The right question to ask is he writes, “They [atheists] fail to see if there is whether ‘this particular religion, at this no final judgment, then there is no such thing stage of its development, is dangerous in this as justice” (134). Furthermore, on rebutting social context?’” (61). Lennox then goes on the claims of atheists of an all-watching to show the difference between the values of God, with an a priori assumption of being Christianity as a religion, and the practitioners a tyrant-like overseer in their view, Lennox of Christianity who sometimes do the wrong asks: “Would they wish to live in a country things in the name of religion—nuances where there was no police force watching which atheists fail to acknowledge (65). He over people . . . I think not. For it is common also raises valid points raised also by certain human experience that we need people atheists. On the issue of labeling children to watch over us” (131). In furthering his the religion of their parents, a point raised argument he states that on atheist grounds, by Dawkins, Lennox writes, “I therefore the suicide bombers of 9/11 will never face agree with Dawkins’ statement that to say justice (136). He further points that, thought that a particular child is a child of Christian not strictly with a logical argument but rather parents is not the same as saying is a Christian an emotional one, “.atheism’s ‘solution’ to the child. She may become a Christian child if problem of evil has got rid of something else— she becomes a Christian; on the other hand hope. Atheism is a hope-less faith. Indeed, she may decide the other way” (71). Lennox by removing hope, atheism can be seen to

kalam journal • 1/2018 99 make the suffering much worse” (136). Lennox science conflicting with religion is a superficial then claims his final stake against atheism by conflict under certain worldviews which providing an exhaustive analysis on the proof scientists call for. While covering an array of of resurrection of Christ, which lies at the subjects from cosmologies to evolution, he also heart of Christianity (chapter 8).1 However, tackles the subdiscussions within each field and this is where I believe Lennox falls short of the implicating nuances and their interfaces perfection. In his account of the historicity with religion (e.g., Newtonian physics and of the Bible he doesn’t consider the counter quantum physics). This book will definitely evidence provided by authors like Charles force materialists and naturalists to reconsider Freeman, who wrote The Closing of the Western their worldviews while also giving theologians Mind (2005). Furthermore, Lennox doesn’t and philosophers a foundation to build on with justify anywhere the coherence of the Trinity, future contributions to the field. which Reza Aslan in his book Jesus of Nazareth Plantinga succinctly highlights his (2014) argues is assumed a priori by Christian objective in the very first paragraph, historians and cannot be deduced from the “My overall claim in this book: there is a Bible. Therefore there is a gap in Lennox’s superficial conflict but deep concord between argument between the historical evidence of science and theistic religion, but superficial the resurrection of Christ and the doctrine of concord and deep conflict between science the Trinity. and naturalism” (ix). By religion Plantinga In summary, this book is one of the best responds with the Christian faith as the confrontations against new atheism and central focus but his claims are generic provides a compelling case for rationally that are applicable to all faiths. The only anchoring theism. This work will assure exception to this point is the chapter theists and doubly assure Christian theists. Historical Biblical Criticism (152–62), which However, the biggest problem with the is idiosyncratic to the Christian faith. The book is the absence of discussion of the book is structured based on what Plantinga very doctrine it calls to truth for: the Trinity. considers to be different levels of conflicts Therefore, while this work covers grounds for and concords (alleged, superficial, and deep) rationality of the attributes of God, miracles between science and religion. Accordingly and nuances in the anthropological matrix of he touches upon the contemporary claims of religious practices, I am afraid Lennox follows physicists and biologists within each level. the subtitle of his book and misses the most However, the book is not repetitive in its important target himself. material but rather highlights the different elements within physics and biology relevant notes to the type of conflict. For the purpose of brevity and limitations of this review, I will 1 I would like to acknowledge before any critical assessment that as a Muslim reviewer, my views will be biased, though not highlight his central arguments through the unquestioned nor unexamined, and therefore I respectfully categories of physics and biology rather than disagree with the Christian doctrine. the structure he applies in the book (what I believe is the heart of the book). In the realm of physics, Plantinga weaves together a thorough analysis of different cosmologies and how they can conflict WHERE THE CONFLICT REALLY LIES: with religious worldviews. He compares SCIENCE, RELIGION, AND NATURALISM Newtonian physics, Laplacean physics, which By Alvin Plantinga. New York: Oxford University he puts under the “Old Picture” paradigm, Press, 2011. xiv+360 pp. $27.95 (hardcover). and quantum physics, the “New Picture”, and whether any of these conflict with divine intervention. Starting with Newtonian In the contemporary controversy between physics, he discusses how classical mechanics science and religion, atheists and theists, works under the assumption that natural Plantinga’s Where the Conflict Really Lies brings a forces operate under an isolated system whole new level of clarity for the academic and without any outside causal influence (78). the layman. He sets out to show, with clear logic According to this metaphysical stipulation, and definitive language, how the slogans of he argues, there is no violation of divine

100 kalam journal • 1/2018 intervention, as causal closure is not macroscopic reality. These quantum collapses applicable to the modeled situation (83). could easily be the work of divine intervention When an external agent interferes with a on which he writes, “The macroscopic system that has been conceptually modeled as physical world supervenes on the microscopic, a closed system, the Newtonian model is no God could thus control what happens at longer applicable. Furthermore, he critiques the macroscopic level by causing the right the very assumption from the scientific microscopic collapse-outcomes” (116). In worldview when he writes, “You won’t find response to material determinism and even that claim in physics textbooks—naturally divine determinism, he rescues free will and enough, because that claim isn’t physics, but human agency in the context of quantum a theological or a metaphysical add-on. (How mechanics with the analogy of a theater set could this question of the causal closure of the with regularity and predictability, causing only physical universe be addressed by scientific some collapse-outcomes while leaving the means?)” (79). He then moves on to explain other outcomes to free persons (120). Finally, how Laplacean mechanics makes it impossible he does caution as to how this compatibility for divine intervention. Plantinga explains relies on certain collapse-theories and that Laplacean is equivalent to Newtonian therefore one must have clear epistemic physics with the additional factor of total weight distribution on sources of warrant determinism, implying a complete lockout (120–1). of any involvement of external agency. Through the vast literature on evolution Rather, the universe is launched from a set theory Plantinga artistically sieves out the of initial configurations, which creates a metaphysical scaffolding on which it rests completely closed material universe and upon. Apart from clarifying the obvious fixture of laws. Additionally, he notes the conflict with the literal reading of scripture Laplacean worldview implies that free will (10), Plantinga highlights the difference becomes obsolete as all effects are fixed between the science of evolution with products based on initial configurations the meta-science of unguided or random (88). However, he points out again that this mutation against God’s intervening in the absolute determinism is unjustifiably invoked process. The latter he claims is what science from a scientific view, as this isn’t something itself cannot conclude on (12). While arguing classical mechanics can prove (85). Therefore, against claims made by Daniel Dennet and he concludes that classical mechanics Richard Dawkins, who state otherwise, holds no areas of conflict with religion. It is he also touches upon the issue of how important to note, however, that Plantinga consciousness cannot arise from unconscious doesn’t review any arguments put forward matter: “Evolutionary theory does not for the justification of these metaphysical pronounce on such questions as whether assumptions on their own ground. it is logically possible that minds should After concluding with classical mechanics, come to be in a universe which is originally he provides an even more compelling mindless” (38). The discussion becomes much argument for the compatibility of divine more nuanced in the context of evolutionary action and quantum physics while carefully psychology. Here Plantinga clearly demarcates maneuvering through opposing arguments. and clarifies the difference between and the He first contrasts classical mechanics with implications of the questions how and why. quantum mechanics on the difference of their He points out how explanations on how productive outcomes. Classical mechanics humans came to believe in God and religion, delivers fixed results, whereas quantum which some biologists think undermines the mechanics deals with probabilities (94). He entire religious enterprise, does not impugn then argues this makes it all the more easier the truth. He remarks, “finding a ‘natural’ for God to intervene to perform miracles, origin for religion in no way discredits making the least probable probability it” (140). Whereas explanations on why probable, and therefore dissolving any humans came to believe in God depend on conflict. His real mastery is shown when he the interpretation of the scientist, and thus discusses collapse theories in the microscopic where actual conflict can arise. This is why quantum realm that lead to the conclusive he discusses the views of Steven Pinker, who

kalam journal • 1/2018 101 believes religion was a hope made in desperate between scientists and theologians today. He measures (137), which Plantinga holds cannot definitely exposes a lot of problems in how be argued for scientifically. He also criticizes science is being abused and ignored under Sigmund Freud’s opinions, that beliefs are not the name of Islam. However, in engaging with truth oriented but rather by wishful thinking, these different ideas, it becomes obvious on claiming no proper grounds for restricting he loses certain contributions from the all cognitive faculties to that particular goal theological traditions while subtly giving more (150). Moreover, while criticizing evolution credence to science. on materialistic grounds, Plantinga remains He highlights his objective, which involves true to his epistemic humility when bringing “reopening attitudes” (xxvi) and synthesizing the discussion into the realm of “fine-tuning”. Islam and science through a not-so-overly In discussing if Darwinian natural selection liberal “quantum model of harmony” (14). undercuts fine-tuning (mainly referring to On completing the book the reader will the work of Michael Behe), he concludes, definitely get a sense of breadth, which “On balance, Behe’s design discourses do includes several topics on the subject such as not constitute irrefragable arguments for the nature of science, discussion of Islamic theism. . . . Taken not as as arguments but as science, miracles in the Qur’an, cosmologies, design discourses they fare better. . . . The evolution, and the anthropic principle. proper conclusion to be drawn, I think, is that However, the depth of the book is primarily, Behe’s design discourses do support theism, but not only, stretched to works of famous although it isn’t easy to say how much support Muslim thinkers of the past century, such as they offer. . . . My job here is to tell the truth, Ziauddin Sardar, Mehdi Golshani, Seyyed whether or not it is exciting” (264). Hossein Nasr, and William Chittick, and In summary, the book definitely achieves occasionally into works of classical scholars its goal. Plantinga clearly exposes the like Ibn Rushd (Averroes), whom Guessoum metaphysical structure that materialists clearly admires. and naturalists rely on, making their entire Guessoum’s science cannot be questioned worldview shaky, and thus clearly highlighting as he clearly knows his scientific material. the potential and actual conflicts between Accordingly, one of the greatest strengths of science and religion. Though it is hard to the book is in his criticism of the abuse of criticize Plantinga, it is worth noting the science that is forced into or onto a Qur’anic lack of discussion on information theory, paradigm. His biggest criticism, is aimed at which is pertinent to the topic. Though this Zaghloul El-Naggar, though not the only is implicitly alluded to in some parts (271–91), one, and who he doesn’t fail to assert is in a Plantinga would do better with an explicit very high-ranking position in academia, who discussion. justifies scientific facts based on verses in the Qur’an and hadith literature (145). He clearly expresses his concerns that “most of the advocates of this method [scientific miracles ISLAM’S QUANTUM QUESTION: in the Qur’an] are highly educated people, RECONCILING MUSLIM TRADITION AND and despite the objectionable nature of most MODERN SCIENCE of their propositions, they are sincere, if By Nidhal Guessoum. London: I.B. Tauris, 2011. badly in error, in what they think are genuine xxvi+404 pp. $26.00 (paper). assertions” (147). In his aggressive critique of scientific miracles he even leaves a refutation of a Qur’anically determined value of the Dr. Nidhal Guessoum attempts an ambitious speed of light in his appendix (361). He sources project to disentangle the matrix of science the problem of how certain scientists are and Islam, while also pointing out several misreading the Qur’anic verse “how nothing obstacles that lie in its path for progression is left out of this book” [6:38] by extending in Islam’s Quantum Question. Guessoum ties the claim to all disciplines (147). He concludes together a lot of stranded topics from the that the solution is a Rushdian one (similar nature of science, its interaction with Islam to a Galilean one) which cannot involve a in contemporary times, and the relationship conflict between speech of God and work

102 kalam journal • 1/2018 of God (xxi–xxiii) and allows for multiple theologian, as flawed and “biased and pre- intelligent readings of the Qur’an (175). directed” (305). Guessoum also mentions One of the best chapters involves his Abdus-Sabour Chahine, a contemporary extended criticisms of contemporary writers religious scholar who also wrote on evolution, who have contributed to the discussion of and exposes some of the scientific errors in his reclaiming “Islamic science”. He focuses works (322). He goes further with criticizing on thinkers of the Perennial school which Harun Yahya culture, neither theologian include the likes of Seyyed Hossein Nasr nor a scientist, under the banner of Muslim and Osman Bakar, who argue that science creationism while highlighting the weaknesses has become secularized and thus a historical in his works (314–20). It is due to these claims anomaly (112), something which Guessoum he dedicated a whole chapter to evolution disagrees with and deems a superficial along with its nuances (323), and the issues “Gnostic enterprise” (136). On the opposite with its engagement with the Muslim world, spectrum he reviews the universalist or which he regards as “a major cultural blockage secularist schools (his labels) which are in the Muslim world” (273). fronted by Dr. Abdus Salam and Professor It is undeniable that Guessoum has Pervez Hoodhboy (136). This school argues thoroughly investigated his science as well that there is no such thing as a science as the nuances in the current affairs of belonging to any particular country, race, or science. However, the work is not short of religion (i.e., Islamic science), as the scientific criticism. Guessoum’s weakness in Islamic paradigm for truth is independent from such scholarship becomes clearly highlighted labels (133). Guessoum doesn’t completely when he either neglects tradition or agree with this school either and seems to misunderstands the tradition. Firstly, it is lean towards the criticisms of a third school, hard to miss how tradition for Guessoum is the Ijmali school fronted by Ziauddin Sardar, a narrowly selected list of Muslim thinkers who argues that the universalist school or groups who had any form of involvement doesn’t have an Islamic ontology and thus with either science or philosophy but not falls short of upholding Islamic ethics in the necessarily theology. So one will clearly and practice of science (135). However, Guessoum frequently read the names of Ibn Rushd, also levels his concerns against the Ijmalis. Ghazali, al-Farabi, Ibn Sina but never of He firstly clarifies Ziauddin’s perception of theologians like Imam Nawawi or Ibn Hajar science as evil with the difference between Asqalani. This point is not a valid criticism science and technology—the latter, he says, in of itself but it becomes important for the “is always a mixture of science, policy, social second point, which is that in discussing environment and circumstances” (138). controversial areas like evolution no Furthermore, Ziauddin also notes that mention is ever made of the evidence of scientific ijma (consensus) should be widened the explicit hadiths and the relevancy to all lay Muslims, to which Guessoum clearly of their authenticities in weighing the expresses his rebuke (176). outcome for the discussion. For this reason Guessoum also highlights how theologians I particularly named the aforementioned who are untrained in science can make hadith experts whom Guessoum makes no equally invalid assertions. For instance, after mention of. Thirdly, Guessoum’s weakness explaining the evidence for evolution and in understanding traditional scholarship, its nuances (277–86), Guessoum regards in this case Islamic philosophy, is clear Nuh Keller’s statement that evolution is when he starts mentioning evolutionary unfalsifiable as untrue (277). On another thinkers of the classical era in a Darwinian occasion he discusses the problems with the paradigm, by referencing works of Ibn fatwa that was issued against the Pokemon Khaldun and Ikhwan al-Safa’ (305–8). While (the cartoon) culture due to it being “a Jewish- he notes the idea of the Great Chain of influence Japanese cultural virus”, which also Being, an earlier hierarchical classification instills the idea of evolution into Muslim of existence, as a competing conception children that diminishes their faith (272). He to Darwinian evolution of these classical then takes on the late Ramadan Al-Bouti’s works, he leans towards the latter based on a view on evolution, a highly regarded single reference which he cites seven times.

kalam journal • 1/2018 103 Without reading further into the matter, the two realms. Though the title suggests a he misses out on authors who did specialize reversal of subject–object binary prescription, in Islamic philosophy like Tjitze Boer, who in contrast to mainstream works where clearly highlights the mistaken conceptions science is the object and religion the subject, imposing evolution on works of classical this book is an argument on how theology thinkers in his The History of Philosophy in (Christian worldview) can contribute to Islam (published in 1903). scientific inquiries. Whether this is actually Overall, Guessoum raises very important any different to other science and religion issues for Muslim theologians and scientists books and if it offers any novel contributions alike. These include exposing ignorance remains to be seen. of science among certain individuals and Polkinghorne clarifies his objective in the groups, the abuse of science under theological beginning: claims and also unchecked authourity of the theological hold over science. However, What is being attempted in this volume one also gets a sense of an uneven landscape stands in a kind of complementary between science and theology in this work. relationship to an earlier book of mine, Guessoum gives a lot of credit to science, Science and Trinity, which sought to and rightfully so, but he definitely does redress another form of imbalance by neglect traditional scholarship (outside of allowing theology to set a greater part Islamic science) as if that has no bearing on of the agenda for the interdisciplinary the subject. Furthermore, one feels that it dialogue between science and religion. . . . is theology that needs to be reformed to fit Yet I must confess that in writing it the demands of science when he expresses I have also had in mind a particular opinions like, “they [the community at large] audience, made up of theological need to engage with the Muslim theologians students either at university or and scholars and convince them that science elsewhere . . . some of whom I would like today has much to say on topics they have to try entice into taking into account monopolised for too long” (341), which gives with an enhanced degree of interest the impression that science should be the what the context of science can offer to moderating operator of theology. theology as a whole (xiii–xiv). In conclusion, the distinction between theologian and theology is akin to scientist Therefore, this book attempts to create a and science, and such distinctions need be shared language in which ideas from science carefully handled. I do believe that Guessoum to theology, and theology to science, can be sincerely and effectively engages with the communicated while also understanding the claims of selective theologians and scientists scope of each methodology. The content is alike. However, the same cannot be said of weaved precisely to explore the development theology and science. The rich tradition of of contributions and internal criticisms of theology was not proportionally engaged to both, while also imploring practitioners on that of science and this is the area where the each side to gain benefit and humility. For book could be improved on. example, he states, “Neither science nor religion can entertain the hope of establishing logically coercive proof of the kind that only a fool could deny” (86). In developing his THEOLOGY IN THE CONTEXT OF SCIENCE arguments he sweeps over topics like personal By John Polkinghorne. New Haven, CT: Yale values (chapter 3), cosmologies (chapter 4), University Press, 2010. xiv+166 pp. $20.00 (paper). and basis for beliefs (chapter 5). In starting with the book, Polkinghorne manages to breathe an engaging spirit of As a theologian and scientist Polkinghorne humility while explaining and yet balancing has provided major contributions to the conviction and criticism within each discourse of science and religion. Theology methodology. He highlights the importance in the Context of Science is another attempt to of multi-layered hermenuetics in scriptural clarify the nature of the interface between readings, and therefore avoiding any

104 kalam journal • 1/2018 exclusivity tendencies that devoid religion worldviews. He argues how science is unable from its richness (2). Yet he contrasts the to clarify where the ontological intelligibility difficulty this causes for scientists “who of the universe comes from, based on a are more often use to the sharp clarity materialistic outlook, unlike theology, which of mathematical argument” (3). He then provides a comprehensive answer through proceeds to encourage theologians to go the Mind of God (25). In trying to synthesize beyond their immediate level of comfort God with unfolding time, and in balancing and to engage with the wider spheres of God’s transcendence and immanence, he knowledge when he writes, “Without sticking remarks how classical theology, in which God our necks out a little, we shall not be able is completely outside of space and time, needs to see very far” (6). He also attempts to to be revised to open theology (41–2), where remove the fear of criticism of science for God is constantly evolving with His creation valuable discourse it may offer for theology in consonance with evolution. On the nature itself (7). However, Polkinghorne doesn’t of God in such a relationship he points out hold back on resting his beliefs analogous the controversy in his view when he states, to the inapplicability of classical logic in “So it is seen as being a current omniscience quantum physics. He argues, “If quantum (knowing all that is possible to know), rather physics requires its idiosyncratic quantum than absolute omniscience (knowing all that it logic, trinitarian theology may well require will ever be possible to know)” (43). Moreover, its own kind of logic also” (18), which seems in response to Steven Weinberg’s view of to beg the question. In terms of development pointlessness of the universe, Polkinghorne and progression, Polkinghorne insists on places a theological footing in the discussion opening theological boundaries in the spirit when he writes, “What a credible eschatology of the historical development of the Nicene is seeking to establish is that divine creation doctrine, which isn’t clearly articulated in the is truly and everlastingly a cosmos and not, as Bible but developed over time (26). However, Weinberg feared, ultimately a chaos whose he also identifies the difference between the final end must lie in futility. The message cumulative history of science and history of eschatological hope is that it makes when he writes, “A physicist today knows sense” (109). more about the universe than Newton ever However, while synthesizing and criticizing did, simply by virtue of living three centuries both theology and science, he isn’t afraid later than that great genius. Theology is not to acknowledge that he doesn’t have all cumulative in this unproblematic way. There the answers. For example, he recognizes is no presumptive superiority of present-day a personal and collective blind spot on theologians over those of earlier centuries” information theory, which he declares his (27). I partially disagree with Polkinghorne optimism for in seeking answers on how here. I agree in that theology has a fixed information will be accounted for alongside content core whereas the core of science is energy and matter as a fundamental transitional. However, modern theologians entity (53). do have a better vantage point with the In conclusion, this book seems to be available cumulative history of theology as a delivery to change attitudes rather than well as its contextual development with other provide any substantially new content. It disciplines. seeks to invoke scientists to appreciate Polkinghorne then highlights several theological contributions to worldviews in points of introductory remarks to well-known general, while also addressing theologians to areas where science struggles with answers. He engage with the scientific progress. In this discusses the is–ought distinction on morality regard Polkinghorne achieves his objective (29), different ontological interpretations with his accessible writing style and succinct of quantum physics (deterministic versus precision. However, in trying to achieve this indeterminististic) (55), problem of qualia he loses depth, which makes it less compelling (59), explanation of fine-tuning (72–3), and of an argument. Nonetheless, this work evolution (74–5). More interestingly, he should be regarded as a primer for opening expresses his own theological views, which he and promoting dialogue between theologians feels contribute to development of holistic and scientists rather than a contribution

kalam journal • 1/2018 105 to any significantly new insight. For more is visible in certain parts of the book. original content Polkinghorne’s older works An excellent example is on the chapter serve better. Finally, his work reminds one of of the soul (chapter 6). On the scientific being humble but also daring to engage with progress in neuroscience Ward highlights the bigger questions. He eloquently captures the misrepresentations by scientists on this message when he comments on Godel’s the subject. On claiming to read minds in a incompleteness theorem, “Mathematical specific study, Ward exposes the falsity of the truth, it seems exceeds the rational certainties claim when he highlights that all the scientists available through exhaustive analysis. did was to correlate certain things thought Realisation that this is the case should induce by the patients with brightening of certain epistemic humility, but it should not bring parts in the brain scans (147)—far from reading about epistemic paralysis” (24). minds in contrast to capturing data signals. In another instance he succinctly highlights the paradoxical nature of “finding consciousness” when he writes, “[Neuroscience] has not THE BIG QUESTIONS IN SCIENCE AND reduced consciousness to observable states of RELIGION the brain, and, in fact it seems to presuppose By Keith Ward. West Conshohocken, PA: that there needs to be an independent mode Templeton Foundation Press, 2008. vi+282 of access to conscious states that is not open pp. $13.56 (paper). to experimental science” (150). Ward also covers the importance of artificial intelligence into the discussion of consciousness. While Keith Ward, once the Regius Professor of highlighting the example of John Searle’s Divinity Emeritus at Oxford University, Chinese Room thought experiment he further presents a richly illustrated book on the notes the important distinction between questions that harbor the domains of science computers and human consciousness, the and religion. The Big Questions is a brave distinction being that of self-awareness attempt to weave a narrative of different and imagination (151–2). Furthering his philosophies, religions, and worldviews to argument on the soul, Ward mentions the answer ten questions that Ward thinks are the top-down causation by phenomenological most important. The book is holistic while it states onto matter by referring to the molding tries to answer the questions it poses through of brains from intellectual activity (154). science, philosophy, theology, and spirituality. Ward also highlights a definitive division Ward mentions the purpose of the book between mind and matter when he writes, when he writes, “So, while putting a case “Phenomenally accessed data (obtained by for a positive and healthy relation between introspection) are described in a different way religion and science, I have also presented the from publicly accessed observations of brain problematic points and the main opposing activity. Whereas brain activity is, broadly views as fairly as I can” (5). Ward sweeps speaking, atomistic and made of discrete through the traditional issues on the subject parts, phenomenal perception is holistic and such as cosmology, consciousness, morality, nodenumberable” (148). Divinity, evolution, and miracles. The reader Ward’s criticism against empirical will be very impressed how the discussion is dogmatism is not restricted to the chapter engaged with the viewpoints of not only the of the soul alone. Throughout the book Christian faith, of which Ward is a follower, one finds several highlighting examples of but also the other Abrahamic faiths as well as definitive critiques. For instance, he exposes the Eastern traditions such as Confucianism, the mathematical treatment of concepts by Buddhism, and Hinduism, a uniqueness physicists. While highlighting the ability which cannot be said of other books of the to treat time as another dimension on a same subject. However, at some points in the coordinate system, he writes, “But then narrative it feels the breadth of the material mathematics can represent almost anything as dilutes the depth of engagement. a set of coordinates or abstract relationships. Ward’s moderation of depth and breadth, . . . But it would be a mistake to think . . . that while arguing for and against various points, the mathematical formalism has captured

106 kalam journal • 1/2018 everything of interest about real-world on the resurrection of Christ. The validity objects” (124). In another instance after of this belief is buried in historical records. clarifying the nature of multiverses, Ward Therefore the validity of Christianity rests on highlights the violation of Ockham’s razor the authenticity of these records. However, with the false binary between multiverses and acceptance of historical records as truth to an Intelligent Creator (235). However Ward miracles is very sensitive to one’s predisposed is equally critical of points that potentially beliefs, which is why Ward alludes to favor his own worldview. An example is when background beliefs several times (104–6). Ward discusses the problems with verification What Ward fails to notice is that the Qur’an of personal religious experience that is does not have this issue. It is a literary miracle, unobservable to public verification (211). In which can be verified and experienced even another part of the book Ward hints to the today with tools of Arabic syntax, grammar, epistemological issue of accepting the Bible’s and rhetoric. Therefore, the epistemic weight testimony for believers and then “thinking of the literary miracle of the Qur’an is not the of some way of making its occurrences seem same as the historical veracity of the Bible. reasonable in the light of the alleged purposes In summary, this book sweeps through the of God” (90). traditional issues that rise up between science and religion. It does an excellent job in giving Unfortunately, there are some areas of the reader an overview of each contention. weakness in the book either due to brevity However, I believe that the book was too or not enough focus on specific points. An ambitious in trying to answer the selected example is when Ward gives license to a ten questions while trying to cover different religious diversity of miracles when he writes, worldviews and several subdiscussions “Jews and Muslims have their own normative intrinsic to each contention. Consequently, miracles—the Exodus and the Quran, the book sometimes loses depth and one respectively. It is these events that, for them, feels a lack of rigorousness at the expense of disclose the nature of God and challenge breadth. them to commit their lives for quest to Good” Overall the book is an excellent reference (104). If this is the case, then the question for how the discussion of science and religion is what distinguishes the validity of truth has evolved as a whole, also highlighting the for each religion? One feels more confused multifaceted interface of the topic. However, when he writes later, “Miracles, however, other books such as Alvin Plantinga’s Where are not ‘proofs’ of God” (106). Without the Conflict Really Lies define the peak standard miracles what would ground each religion to for comparison, of which the Big Question falls its idiosyncratic claim to the truth? I believe short. this is where Ward shadows other religions with the epistemic problems of the Bible. The shoaib ahmed malik truth value of Orthodox Christianity rests Zayed University, Dubai

kalam journal • 1/2018 107 KRM PUBLICATIONS

LIBYAN INDEPENDENCE AND THE UNITED NATIONS A Case of Planned Decolonization Adrian Pelt Kalam Research & Media

As Libya navigates its rocky transition, understanding Libya’s historical experience of the constitutional drafting process is imperative. Chronicling the events that took place leading to the creation of an independent Libyan state, Adrian Pelt’s Libyan Independence and the United Nations: A Case of Planned Decol- onization narrates the process of decolonization, and offers the most detailed analysis available of the constitutional drafting process that occurred. This exhaustive volume highlights the extensive process undertaken by Pelt to seek the input of Libya’s towns, regions, and tribes into what would become the country’s foundational constitution. The author, Adrian Pelt, was appointed High Commissioner for Libya by the UN in 1949. Pelt initiated the discussions which brought together representatives from all parts of Libya to contribute to the drafting of the Libyan Constitution through the National Constituent Assembly. This seminal work was originally 2016 | 1044 pages published in 1970 by Yale University Press and the Carnegie $39.99 pb Endowment for International Peace. This new edition, published by Kalam Research and Media (KRM) in association with the Centre for Libyan Studies at the Libya Institute for Advanced Available from Amazon.com Studies (LIAS), and with permission from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, was completely retypeset in order to make it more accessible for legal experts, policymakers, and historians of Libyan affairs.

Adrian Pelt (1892–1981), a Dutch journalist, joined the Dutch Government in Exile in London during WWII, following the German invasion in May 1940. On 10 December 1949 Adrian Pelt was nominated High Commissioner for Libya and charged with crafting an independent nation-state from English- governed Cyrenaica and Tripolitania and French-governed Fezzan no later than 1 January, 1952. From his appointment until Libyan independence he was responsible for governing Libya and assisting with the drafting of the Libyan constitution. On 24 December, 1951, Adrian Pelt transferred his powers to King Idris. Upon the completion of his Libyan assignment, and until his retirement in 1957, he remained with the UN in New York and Geneva.

www.kalamresearch.com i s s u e 1 | 2 0 1 8 1 | 2 0 1 8 ARTICLES Kalam: Journal of Islamic Theology is a bi-annual Beauty & Aesthetics in Classical Islamic Thought multidisciplinary journal focusing on Islamic Theology, Kalam samir mahmoud Philosophy, Science and Spirituality published by Kalam journal of islamic theology The State of Philosophy in the Arab World Research & Media. The journal will promote the development ali el-konaissi of critical scholarship and new perspectives in the ﬁeld and will aim to be a medium through which contemporary i s s u e 1 | 2 0 1 8 The Miraculous Nature of the Qur’an Islamic theology can be developed in conversation and nazif muhtaroglu engagement with related disciplines and perspectives on Beauty & Aesthetics in Classical Islamic Thought Kalam Atomism & Contemporary Cosmology the Big Questions. The State of Philosophy in the Arab World mehmet bülgen Cover & Back Image: Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem © Peter Sanders Photography The Miraculous Nature of the Qur’an INTERVIEW Cover Design by Sohail Nakhooda Kalam Atomism & Contemporary Cosmology Ottoman Heritage & Modern Challenges: Interview with Recep Sentürk Interview with Recep Sentürk BOOK REVIEWS edward moad | yusuf lenfest | samer dajani | valérie gonzales |

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