Editing Islamic philosophy (section)

== Early Islamic philosophy ==
{{Main|Early Islamic philosophy}}
[[File:Sughrat.jpg|200px|thumb|An Arabic manuscript from the 13th century depicting [[Socrates]] (Soqrāt) in discussion with his pupils]]

In early Islamic thought, which refers to philosophy during the "[[Islamic Golden Age]]", traditionally dated between the 8th and 12th centuries, two main currents may be distinguished. The first is [[Kalam]], which mainly dealt with [[Islamic theology|Islamic theological]] questions, and the other is [[#Falsafa|Falsafa]], which was founded on interpretations of [[Aristotelianism]] and [[Neoplatonism]]. There were attempts by later philosopher-theologians at harmonizing both trends, notably by [[Avicenna|Ibn Sina (Avicenna)]] who founded the school of [[Avicennism]], [[Averroes|Ibn Rushd (Averroes)]] who founded the school of [[Averroism]], and others such as [[Ibn al-Haytham]] (Alhazen) and [[Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī]].

===''Kalam''===
{{Main|Kalam}}
''ʿIlm al-Kalām'' ({{langx|ar|{{big|علم الكلام}}}}) is the philosophy that seeks [[Islamic theology|Islamic theological]] principles through [[dialectic]]. In [[Arabic language|Arabic]], the word literally means "speech".<ref>Simon van den Bergh, in his commentary on [[Averroes]]' ''Incoherence of the Incoherence'', argues that Kalām was influenced by Greek [[Stoicism]] and that the term ''mutakallimun'' (those who speak to each other, i.e. dialecticians) is derived from the Stoics' description of themselves as ''dialektikoi''.</ref>

One of the first debates was that between partisans of the ''[[Predestination in Islam|Qadar]]'' ({{lang|ar|{{big|قدر}}}} meaning "Fate"), who affirmed [[free will]]; and the ''Jabarites'' ({{lang|ar|{{big|جبر}}}} meaning "force", "constraint"), who believed in [[fatalism]].

At the 2nd century of the [[Hijri year|Hijra]], a new movement arose in the theological school of [[Basra]], [[Iraq]]. A pupil of [[Hasan of Basra]], [[Wasil ibn Ata]], left the group when he disagreed with his teacher on whether a Muslim who has committed a major sin invalidates his faith. He systematized the radical opinions of preceding sects, particularly those of the Qadarites and Jabarites. This new school was called ''[[Mu'tazila|Mu'tazilite]]'' (from ''i'tazala'', to separate oneself).

The Mu'tazilites looked in towards a strict [[rationalism]] with which to interpret Islamic doctrine. Their attempt was one of the first to pursue a [[rational theology]] in Islam. They were however severely criticized by other Islamic philosophers, both [[Maturidi]]s and [[Asharites]]. The great Asharite scholar [[Fakhr ad-Din ar-Razi]] wrote the work ''Al-Mutakallimin fi 'Ilm al-Kalam'' against the Mutazalites.

In later times, ''Kalam'' was used to mean simply "theology", i.e. the ''duties of the heart'' as opposed to (or in conjunction with) ''[[fiqh]]'' (jurisprudence), the ''duties of the body''.<ref name="Wolfson1976">{{cite book |last=Wolfson |first=Harry Austryn |title=The philosophy of the Kalam |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fuv8J-g7EdAC&pg=PA1 |access-date=28 May 2011 |year=1976 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-66580-4 |pages=3–4}}</ref>

===''Falsafa''===
''Falsafa'' is a [[Greek language|Greek]] [[loanword]] meaning "philosophy" (the Greek pronunciation ''philosophia'' became ''falsafa''). From the 9th century onward, due to [[Caliph]] [[al-Ma'mun]] and his successor, [[ancient Greek philosophy]] was introduced among the [[Arab]]s and the [[Peripatetic School]] began to find able representatives. Among them were [[Al-Kindi]], [[Al-Farabi]], [[Avicenna]] and [[Averroes]]. Another trend, represented by the Brethren of Purity, used Aristotelian language to expound a fundamentally [[Neoplatonism|Neoplatonic]] and [[Neopythagoreanism|Neopythagorean]] world view.

During the [[Abbasid caliphate]], a number of thinkers and scientists, some of them [[Heterodoxy|heterodox]] Muslims or non-Muslims, played a role in transmitting Greek, [[Hindu]] and other pre-Islamic knowledge to the [[Christians|Christian]] [[Western world|West]]. Three speculative thinkers, Al-Farabi, Avicenna and [[Al-Kindi]], combined [[Aristotelianism]] and [[Neoplatonism]] with other ideas introduced through Islam.

[[Ahmad Sirhindi]], 17th century Indian Islamic scholar, has viewed that the Greek philosophy about creations are incompatible with Islamic teaching by quoting several chapters of [[Quran]].<ref name="Maktubat Imam Rabbani; philosophy">{{cite book |author1=Ahmed Sirhindi Faruqi |title=Maktubat Imam Rabbani (Shaykh Ahmed Sirhindi) |url=http://www.maktabah.org/index.php/sufism/45-maktubat/62-maktubat-imam-rabbani.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090810170341/http://www.maktabah.org/index.php/sufism/45-maktubat/62-maktubat-imam-rabbani.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2009-08-10 |access-date=22 November 2023 |language=En, Pa |chapter=7: The alams and everything were created from nothing. Greek philosophers. }}</ref> Furthermore, Sirhindi criticize the method of interpretating the meaning of Quran with philosophy.<ref name="Maktubat Imam Rabbani; philosophy 2">{{cite book |author1=Ahmed Sirhindi Faruqi |title=Maktubat Imam Rabbani (Shaykh Ahmed Sirhindi) |url=http://www.hizmetbooks.org/Endless_Bliss_Third_Fascicle/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090810063722/http://www.hizmetbooks.org/Endless_Bliss_Third_Fascicle/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=2009-08-10 |access-date=22 November 2023 |language=En, Pa |chapter=3: It is not permissible to confine the meanings in Qur'an al-karim within philosophers' views.}}</ref>

===End of the classical period===
By the 12th century, ''Kalam'', attacked by both the philosophers and the orthodox, perished for lack of champions. At the same time, however, ''Falsafa'' came under serious critical scrutiny. The most devastating attack came from [[Al-Ghazali]], whose work ''Tahafut al-Falasifa'' (''[[The Incoherence of the Philosophers]]'') attacked the main arguments of the Peripatetic School.<ref>Leaman, 25, 27.  "In this book [''Intentions of the philosophers''] he seeks to set out clearly the views of his opponents before demolishing them, in the subsequent ''Incoherence of the philosophers''."</ref>

Averroes, [[Maimonides]]' contemporary, was one of the last of the Islamic Peripatetics and set out to defend the views of the ''Falsafa'' against al-Ghazali's criticism. The theories of Ibn Rushd do not differ fundamentally from those of [[Ibn Bajjah]] and [[Ibn Tufail]], who only follow the teachings of Avicenna and Al-Farabi. Like all Islamic Peripatetics, Averroes admits the hypothesis of the intelligence of the spheres and the hypothesis of universal emanation, through which motion is communicated from place to place to all parts of the universe as far as the supreme world—hypotheses which, in the mind of the Arabic philosophers, did away with the dualism involved in Aristotle's doctrine of pure energy and eternal matter.

But while Al-Farabi, Avicenna, and other Persian and Muslim philosophers hurried, so to speak, over subjects that trenched on traditional beliefs, Ibn Rushd delighted in dwelling upon them with full particularity and stress. Thus he says, "Not only is matter eternal, but form is potentially inherent in matter; otherwise, it were a creation ''ex nihilo''" (Munk, "Mélanges," p.&nbsp;444). According to this theory, therefore, the existence of this world is not only a possibility, as Avicenna declared, but also a necessity.