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An update and analysis of development and reform challenges in Jordan from a social democratic perspective.

Islam vs. Mind: What Ibn Rushd had to say?
Monday, September 18, 2006

One of the most important statements by the Pope in his notorious speech in Bavaria, apart from the quotation on Islam and violence, was his argument about the cliamed clash between Islamic theology and mind. In the pope's argument Islamic doctorine is rigid so that any "perspective" of life is based only on sacred texts and not rational thinking.
The problem with this statement, is not that it is flawed in nature, but the fact that the majority of muslims themselves share this opinion. In countless cases in everyday life, we see situations in which people develop their ultimate opinion based on religious text only.
The overall trend has enhanced arguments and claims about the dichotomy between Islam and mindm but this is not the case in reality.
Who is to blame for reaching such a negative state in creativity? the muslims themselves are to blame, because after the 13th century philosophy in the muslim world stagnated and the emergence of extremism dominated the muslim culture. Nowadays the level of tolerance and rationality in the muslim culture is very much below the level it once reached in the 12-13th century.
Muslim culture has fortgotten its area of glory, and no character in the history of muslim philosophy can represent the glory of rational thinking than Ibn Rushd.
 
The following text is compiled from Wikipedia and www.muslimheritage.com:
 
Abu'l-Walid Ibn Rushd, known to the West  as Averroes (1126-1198), stands out as a towering figure in the history of Arab-Islamic thought, as well as that of West-European philosophy and theology. In the Islamic world, he played a decisive role in the defense of rational philosophy.
A common theme throughout his writings is that there is no incompatibility between religion and philosophy when both are properly understood.His contributions to philosophy took many forms, ranging from his detailed commentaries on Aristotle, his defense of philosophy against the attacks of those who condemned it as contrary to Islam and his construction of a form of Aristotelianism which cleansed it, as far as was possible at the time, of Neoplatonic influences.
Ibn Rushd tried to reconcile Aristotle's system of thought with Islam. According to him, there is no conflict between religion and philosophy. He held that one can reach the truth through two different ways: philosophy or religion.
Ibn Rushd is most famous for his translations and commentaries of Aristotle's works, which had been mostly forgotten in the west. Before 1150 only a few translated works of Aristotle existed in Latin Europe, and they were not studied much or given much credence by monastic scholars. It was through the Latin translations of Ibn Rushd's work beginning in the 12th century that the legacy of Aristotle was recovered in the West.
 
For detailed information on Ibn Rushd you can go to:
 
Ibn Rushd was not an isolated phenomenon in muslim rational thinking. Before him a series of scholars and philosophers built the foundation of the logical thinking in Islamic philosophy including Al-Kindi, Al-Farabi and Ibn Sina, among others.
It is a pity that rational thinking in muslim cultures and philosophy in the 21st century is less "rational" and open than it was in the 12th century with the peak of the Islamic civilization.
 
 
 
Ibn Rushd statue in Cordoba, Spain.
 

posted by Batir Wardam in Cultural Reform @ 11:43 PM

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(5) comments


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On September, 19, 2006 6:02 AM , Nas
from Canada said:

forget about thinking for yourself, which is an aspect of Islam that the Prophet pbuh stressed more than once...these days just disagreeing with someone's interpretation of an Islamic principle will get you labeled as a kafir, let alone allowing the mind to play any role.

On September, 19, 2006 10:16 AM , The Observer
from Jordan said:

Have you watched the Arabic movie 'Al Maseer' by yousef Shaheen?

It addressed the role of Ibn Rushed in the Arabic civilization.

The movie is a great one, and it showed that even at his time, fanatics exists. They fought him for his idea, and tried to burn his library.

It is sad to see that we are still struggling with the same issues till these days.

On September, 19, 2006 12:34 PM , mobam
from Jordan said:

hmm two folds,
what was the demise of Ibn rushd at that time and how is that better than what we have now ? if it wasn't for Averroes i don't think that we would have had as much of Ibn rushd as we have now, he wasn't the most liked of men at the time.

and when taking a text from another site please quote even tho its wiki

On September, 20, 2006 2:54 AM , Hasan
from United States said:

Batir,

Rational is defined as:
"relating to, based on, or guided by reason, principle, fairness, logic, a legitimate state interest, or a consideration of fact"

This article goes hand in hand with your other "Secrets of Reading in Amman."

How can we Arabs be rational when we don't know many facts? I think a great deal has to do with the lack of interest in reading per your previous article, as well as the lack of interest in many Muslims to learn Arabic to read the Quran. Many non Arab Muslims rely on their Imams or teachers to explain the Quran to them, and that to me resembles the Church in Europe when only the priests and monks spoke Latin, until Martin Luther translated it to the masses for the 1st time.

These men held great power since the masses trusted them that they would truthfully translate to them the contents of the Bible, and in our case the Quran. Why do you think many of the extremists come from Pakistani schools? Arabic is not their 1st language. I've met many Pakistanis here in the US, but only one knew Arabic and he’s an Imam.

Learning the same lagnuage not only allows everyone to understand the Quran, but it will also erase one of the invisible barriers of nationality. It will help get people closer. Think of the Middle east today, true Arabs by race are traced back to Yemen. The rest of us were Arabized in the advent of Islam.

On September, 20, 2006 2:59 AM , Hasan
from United States said:

The early Babylonian priests were able to predict the eclipses using math. But only the class of priests used math.

To the common people, these predictions were signs of magic and mystical powers of priests. Image how much power these priests held with the aid of math?

Lack of facts causes the lack of rational thought.



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