THE FUNCTION OF MUSLIM PHILOSOPHY

THE FUNCTION OF MUSLIM PHILOSOPHY

Abdul KHALIQ

Traditional Muslim philosophy, we know, had its inception in an atmosphere thoroughly charged with Greek ideas. These ideas were then being officially introduced into the Muslim culture through translations, commentaries, and so on, with such bewildering rapidity and at such large scale that no one could fail to be influenced by them. The Muslim philosophers -- Farabi, Ibn Sina, Ibn Rushd among them -- were awed by this Greek worldview and they tried, in general, to reconcile with it the principles and doctrines of Islam. They had in view the rational mode of knowledge duly recommended, or rather enjoined, by the Qur'an:1 so, they thought, if the Greeks had used logic and argumentation for the solution of various problems there was nothing un-Islamic either about this method or about what this method logically discovered. On the other hand, Ghazali, Ibn Taimiyya and a few others revolted against various aspects of Greek philosophy and, in some sense, also built up a reasoned position regarding their own points of view. In both these cases the overwhelming socio-cultural context was one and the same, whether the Muslim philosophers were positively or negatively oriented towards it.

Relevant to modern times, and specifically in the Indo-Pakistan environments, Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan's philosophy is an attempt of the same character. He observed that just as the learned people of the earliest times of Islamic history had tried to reconcile orthodoxy with Greek philosophy,

in the present age we are in need of a modern ilm-ul-kalam by which we may either refute the doctrines of modern sciences or declare them to be doubtful or show that the articles of Islamic faith are in conformity with them. . . . Those who are capable of the job but do not actually try their utmost to do it . . . are sinners all of them, surely and definitely. . . . There is none at present who is aware of modern science and philosophy and (in spite of this awareness) does not entertain in his heart of hearts doubts about the doctrines of Islam which are today accepted as such . . . though I am equally sure that it does not, in the least, affect the original glory of Islam.2

Thus, according to Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan, essential principles of Islam contained in the Qur'an are in conformity with the conclusions reached by the contemporary natural sciences. As the physical universe is the work of God, whereas the Qur'an is the word of God; how can there be a contradiction between the two! Islam is Nature and Nature is Islam"3 is the title of one of his essays, and in fact the burden of his entire philosophy of religion. Elsewhere, he remarked that in a way God Himself holds on to naturalism: He can initially enact any laws of nature He likes, but once they are so enacted absolutely nothing can happen against them.4 Under the aegis of these and similar observations, he built up a comprehensive point of view, explaining away the so-called supernatural component in phenomena like miracles, prayers and their acceptance by God, mystic illuminations, prophetic visions, angels, paradise, hell, and so on. This religio-philosophical thought of Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan is relevant for our present purposes, because it prefaced a whole chain of moorings and speculations -- particularly in the Sub-continent -- which, during the 20th century, consciously or unconsciously sought to interpret Islam in such a way that it stood reconciled with the current scientific fashions. Allama Muhammad Iqbal, Khalifa Abdul Hakim, Allama Inayatullah Mashriqi, Ghulam Gilani Barq and Ghulam Ahmad Parvez have all had ample sympathies for naturalistic reason and for the conclusions of positive sciences.

Broadly speaking, there is nothing unusual in recognising and giving due weight to one's cultural environment. How can a thinker avoid inhaling his or her own 'climate of opinion',5 just as no living person can help consuming oxygen from the air around; one environment is always seriously to be reckoned with. For that matter, contemporary Muslim thinkers justifiably are bringing out the veracity of religious phenomena in the face of certain recent movements in Western philosophy, like atheistic existentialism, logical positivism, dialectical materialism, psycho-analysis, and so on. They have learned that passive resistance is not enough and that arguments must be countered with arguments alone; logic must be met with logic. It was essentially this requirement, we remember, that had compelled Ash'arite theologians of the seventh century a.d to reason out their standpoint despite a strong opposition by Muslims who regarded arguing in religious matters as an innovation and a heresy.6

One essential aspect of the function of Muslim philosophy, has not been adequately recognised. Muslim philosophers have avowedly been Muslims first and philosophers later. To all appearances they professed the Islamic 'point of view' with which they claimed to look at the contemporary thought-fashions in order either to accept or reject them, but they failed sufficiently to analyse the 'point of view' itself. With only a rudimentary and vague concept of meaning of the Qur'anic propositions, Muslim philosophers -- with very few honourable exceptions -- generally rush to judgement as to whether a particular idea is, or is not, in accord with the will of the Qur'an. There is seldom realisation that, before thus reacting to the 'climate of opinion' to which he belongs he must have a thorough understanding of his 'local weather' i.e., his attitude which, ex-hypothesi, comprises the teachings of the Qur'an. Seyyed Hossein Nasr very appropriately recommends that "contemporary Muslims",

should be realist enough to understand that they must begin their journey in whatever direction they wish to go from where they are. A famous Chinese proverb asserts the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Now this first step must necessarily be from where one is located. And that is as much true culturally and spiritually as it is physically. Wherever the Islamic world wants to go, it must begin from the reality of the Islamic tradition and from its own real, and not imagined, situation. Those who lose sight of this fact actually do not travel effectively at all. They just imagine that they are journeying.7

In other words, the meaning of the Qur'an must first be understood by all Muslims who intend to philosophise. Clarity on the basic issues having been attained, Muslim philosophy, worthy of its name, could then develop as a well-grounded, well-organised school of thought and build up a metaphysics that suits its native temperament.

Incidentally, it may be objected that the concepts of Muslim philosophy' and Islamic philosophy' have been confused here, and in fact are appellations of two distinct states of affairs generally it is observed that it is properly the characteristic function of Islamic philosophy to understand and interpret the meaning of the Qur'an and to translate its descriptions into the language which the contemporary man understands