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Islamic philosophy is that emerges from the tradition. Two terms traditionally used in the Islamic world are sometimes translated as philosophy— falsafa (), which refers to philosophy as well as , , and ; and (), which refers to a form of Scholastic Islamic theology which includes the schools of , and Mu'tazila.

Early Islamic philosophy began with in the 2nd century of the (early 9th century CE) and ended with (Averroes) in the 6th century AH (late 12th century CE), broadly coinciding with the period known as the Golden Age of Islam. The death of Averroes effectively marked the end of a specific discipline of Islamic philosophy usually called the Islamic peripatetic school, and philosophical activity declined significantly in the west of the Islamic world, including and the .

Islamic philosophy persisted for much longer in the east of the Islamic world, particularly in , the , and the , where several schools of philosophy continued to flourish: , , , , transcendent theosophy, and the school of Isfahan. , in his , made important contributions to the philosophy of history. Interest in Islamic philosophy revived during the ("Awakening") movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and continues to the present day.

Islamic philosophy had a major impact in , where translation of philosophical texts into "led to the transformation of almost all philosophical disciplines in the medieval Latin world", with a particularly strong influence of Muslim philosophers being felt in natural philosophy, and .

Introduction
Islamic philosophy refers to philosophy produced in an Islamic society. As it is not necessarily concerned with religious issues, nor exclusively produced by ,Oliver Leaman, Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. many scholars prefer the term "Arabic philosophy."

Islamic philosophy is a generic term that can be defined and used in different ways. In its broadest sense it means the world view of Islam, as derived from the Islamic texts concerning the creation of the universe and the will of the Creator. In another sense it refers to any of the schools of thought that flourished under the Islamic empire or in the shadow of the Arab-Islamic culture and Islamic civilization. In its narrowest sense it is a translation of Falsafa, meaning those particular schools of thought that most reflect the influence of Greek systems of philosophy such as and .

Some schools of thought within Islam deny the usefulness or legitimacy of philosophical inquiry. Some argue that there is no indication that the limited knowledge and experience of humans can lead to truth. It is also important to observe that, while "reason" ( 'aql) is sometimes recognised as a source of Islamic law, it has been claimed that this has a totally different meaning from "reason" in .

The historiography of Islamic philosophy is marked by disputes as to how the subject should be properly interpreted. Some of the key issues involve the comparative importance of eastern intellectuals such as Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and of western thinkers such as Ibn Rushd,See , History of Islamic Philosophy and also whether Islamic philosophy can be read at face value or should be interpreted in an esoteric fashion. Supporters of the latter thesis, like , maintain that Islamic philosophers wrote so as to conceal their true meaning in order to avoid religious persecution, but scholars such as disagree.

(2025). 9780521793438, Cambridge University Press.

Formative influences
The main sources of classical or early Islamic philosophy are the religion of Islam itself (especially ideas derived and interpreted from the ) and which the early Muslims inherited as a result of conquests, along with pre-Islamic Indian philosophy and Persian philosophy. Many of the early philosophical debates centered around reconciling religion and reason, the latter exemplified by Greek philosophy.

Early Islamic philosophy
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 , which mainly dealt with questions, and the other is Falsafa, which was founded on interpretations of and . There were attempts by later philosopher-theologians at harmonizing both trends, notably by who founded the school of , who founded the school of , and others such as (Alhazen) and Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī.

Kalam
ʿIlm al-Kalām () is that seeks to establish principles through reasoning. In , the word literally means "speech".Simon van den Bergh, in his commentary on ' Incoherence of the Incoherence, argues that Kalām was influenced by Greek and that the term mutakallimun (those who speak to each other, i.e. dialecticians) is derived from the Stoics' description of themselves as dialektikoi.

One of the first debates was that between partisans of the Qadar ( meaning "Fate"), who affirmed ; and the Jabarites ( meaning "force", "constraint"), who believed in .

At the 2nd century of the , a new movement arose in the theological school of , . 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'tazilite (from i'tazala, to separate oneself).

The Mu'tazilites looked in towards a strict 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 and . 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) (jurisprudence), the duties of the body.

(1976). 9780674665804, Harvard University Press. .

Falsafa
Falsafa is a meaning "philosophy" (the Greek pronunciation philosophia became falsafa). From the 9th century onward, due to al-Ma'mun and his successor, ancient Greek philosophy was introduced among the and the Peripatetic School began to find able representatives. Among them were , , and . Another trend, represented by the Brethren of Purity, used Aristotelian language to present a primarily and Neopythagorean worldview.

During the Abbasid caliphate, a number of thinkers and scientists, some of them Muslims or non-Muslims, played a role in transmitting Greek, and other pre-Islamic knowledge to the . Three speculative thinkers, Al-Farabi, Avicenna and , combined and with other ideas introduced through Islam.

, 17th century Indian Islamic scholar, has viewed that the Greek philosophy about creations are incompatible with Islamic teaching by quoting several chapters of . Furthermore, Sirhindi criticize the method of interpretating the meaning of Quran with philosophy.

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 , whose work Tahafut al-Falasifa ( The Incoherence of the Philosophers) attacked the main arguments of the Peripatetic School.Leaman, 25, 27. "In this book Intentions he seeks to set out clearly the views of his opponents before demolishing them, in the subsequent Incoherence of the philosophers''."

Averroes, ' 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 and , 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. 444). According to this theory, therefore, the existence of this world is not only a possibility, as Avicenna declared, but also a necessity.

Logic
In early Islamic philosophy, played an important role. (Islamic law) placed importance on formulating standards of argument, which gave rise to a novel approach to logic in , but this approach was later displaced by ideas from and Hellenistic philosophy with the rise of the Mu'tazili philosophers, who highly valued 's . The works of Hellenistic-influenced Islamic philosophers were crucial in the reception of Aristotelian logic in medieval Europe, along with the commentaries on the Organon by . The works of , , and other Muslim logicians who often criticized and corrected Aristotelian logic and introduced their own forms of logic, also played a central role in the subsequent development of European logic during the .

According to the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy:

Important developments made by Muslim logicians included the development of "Avicennian logic" as a replacement of Aristotelian logic. 's system of logic was responsible for the introduction of hypothetical syllogism, and inductive logic. Other important developments in early Islamic philosophy include the development of a strict science of citation, the or "backing", and the development of a method to disprove claims, the , which was generally applied to many types of questions.

Logic in Islamic law and theology
Early forms of , inductive reasoning and categorical were introduced in (Islamic jurisprudence), and (Islamic theology) from the 7th century with the process of , before the Arabic translations of Aristotle's works. Later, during the Islamic Golden Age, there was debate among Islamic philosophers, logicians and theologians over whether the term Qiyas refers to analogical reasoning, inductive reasoning or categorical syllogism. Some Islamic scholars argued that Qiyas refers to inductive reasoning. (994–1064) disagreed, arguing that Qiyas does not refer to inductive reasoning but to in a sense and analogical reasoning in a sense. On the other hand, (1058–1111; and, in modern times, Abu Muhammad Asem al-Maqdisi) argued that Qiyas refers to analogical reasoning in a real sense and categorical syllogism in a metaphorical sense. Other Islamic scholars at the time, however, argued that the term Qiyas refers to both analogical reasoning and categorical syllogism in a real sense.Wael B. Hallaq (1993), Ibn Taymiyya Against the Greek Logicians, p. 48. Oxford University Press, .

Aristotelian logic
The first original Arabic writings on logic were produced by (Alkindus) (805–873), who produced a summary on earlier logic up to his time. The first writings on logic with non-Aristotelian elements was produced by (Alfarabi) (873–950), who discussed the topics of future contingents, the and relation of the categories, the relation between and , and non-Aristotelian forms of . History of logic: Arabic logic, Encyclopædia Britannica. He is also credited for categorizing logic into two separate groups, the first being "idea" and the second being "".

(1126–1198), author of the most elaborate commentaries on Aristotelian logic, was the last major logician from .

Avicennian logic
(980–1037) developed his own system of logic known as "Avicennian logic" as an alternative to Aristotelian logic. By the 12th century, Avicennian logic had replaced Aristotelian logic as the dominant system of logic in the Islamic world.I. M. Bochenski (1961), "On the history of the history of logic", A history of formal logic, pp. 4–10. Translated by I. Thomas, Notre Dame, Indiana University Press. (cf. Ancient Islamic (Arabic and Persian) Logic and Ontology)

The first criticisms of Aristotelian logic were written by (980–1037), who produced independent treatises on logic rather than commentaries. He criticized the logical school of Baghdad for their devotion to Aristotle at the time. He investigated the theory of and classification and the quantification of the predicates of categorical propositions, and developed an original theory on " " syllogism. Its premises included modifiers such as "at all times", "at most times", and "at some time".

While (980–1037) often relied on deductive reasoning in philosophy, he used a different approach in medicine. Ibn Sina contributed inventively to the development of inductive logic, which he used to pioneer the idea of a . In his medical writings, Avicenna was the first to describe the methods of agreement, difference and concomitant variation which are critical to inductive logic and the scientific method.Lenn Evan Goodman (2003), Islamic Humanism, p. 155, Oxford University Press, .

(994–1064) wrote the Scope of Logic, in which he stressed on the importance of as a source of knowledge. Science and Muslim Scientists , Islam Herald. (Algazel) (1058–1111) had an important influence on the use of logic in theology, making use of Avicennian logic in .

Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (b. 1149) criticised Aristotle's "" and developed a form of inductive logic, foreshadowing the system of inductive logic developed by John Stuart Mill (1806–1873). Systematic refutations of Greek logic were written by the Illuminationist school, founded by Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi (1155–1191), who developed the idea of "decisive necessity", an important innovation in the history of logical philosophical speculation,Another systematic refutation of Greek logic was written by (1263–1328), the Ar-Radd 'ala al-Mantiqiyyin ( Refutation of Greek Logicians), where he argued against the usefulness, though not the validity, of the See pp. 253–54 of and in favour of inductive reasoning.

Metaphysics
Cosmological and ontological arguments
's proof for the existence of God was the first ontological argument, which he proposed in the Metaphysics section of The Book of Healing.Steve A. Johnson (1984), "Ibn Sina's Fourth Ontological Argument for God's Existence", The Muslim World 74 (3–4), 161–71. This was the first attempt at using the method of a priori proof, which utilizes intuition and reason alone. Avicenna's proof of God's existence is unique in that it can be classified as both a cosmological argument and an ontological argument. "It is ontological insofar as ‘necessary existence’ in intellect is the first basis for arguing for a Necessary Existent". The proof is also "cosmological insofar as most of it is taken up with arguing that contingent existents cannot stand alone and must end up in a Necessary Existent."

Essence and existence
Theologians, particularly among the Muʿtazilites, agreed with Aristotelian metaphysics that non-existence is a thing ( s̲h̲ayʾ) and an entity ( d̲h̲āt). According to Aristotelian philosophy, non-existence has to be distinguished by absolute non-existence, that is absolute nothingness, and relative non-existence. The latter can refer to the absence of a quality or the potentiality of something.Bergh, S. van den, “ʿAdam”, in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs. Consulted online on 17 August 2023 First publishedonline: 2012 First print edition: , 1960-2007 Muʿtazilite thinkers such as al-Fārābī and ibn Sīnā hold the position that things had a relative existence prior to creation. God knew what he was going to create and God gave them the accident of existence. Contrarily, Asharites regard existence as essence.Bergh, S. van den, “ʿAdam”, in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs. Consulted online on 17 August 2023 First published online: 2012 First print edition: , 1960-2007

Islamic philosophy, imbued as it is with , distinguishes more clearly than the difference between and . Whereas existence is the domain of the contingent and the accidental, essence endures within a beyond the accidental. This was first described by 's works on , who was himself influenced by .

Some orientalists (or those particularly influenced by scholarship) argued that Avicenna was the first to view existence ( wujud) as an accident that happens to the essence ( mahiyya). However, this aspect of ontology is not the most central to the distinction that Avicenna established between essence and existence. One cannot therefore make the claim that Avicenna was the proponent of the concept of per se, given that existence ( al-wujud) when thought of in terms of necessity would ontologically translate into a notion of the "Necessary-Existent-due-to-Itself" ( wajib al-wujud bi-dhatihi), which is without description or definition and, in particular, without or essence ( la mahiyya lahu). Consequently, Avicenna's is '' when accounting for being– –existence in terms of necessity ( wujub), while it is in terms of thinking about being– qua–existence in terms of "contingency– qua–possibility" ( imkan or mumkin al-wujud, meaning "contingent being").For recent discussions of this question, see Nader El-Bizri, "Avicenna and Essentialism", The Review of Metaphysics, Vol. 54 (June 2001), pp. 753–78.

Some argue that Avicenna anticipated and in "holding that existence is an accident of accidents" and also anticipated 's "view about nonexistent objects." He also provided early arguments for "a "necessary being" as ."

The idea of "essence preceding existence" is a concept which dates back to and as well as Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi and his Illuminationist philosophy. "[Existence essence]]", the opposite (existentialist) notion, was developed in the works of and 's transcendent theosophy.

Resurrection
wrote the Theologus Autodidactus as a defense of "the system of Islam and the Muslims' doctrines on the missions of Prophets, the religious laws, the resurrection of the body, and the transitoriness of the world." The book presents rational arguments for bodily and the of the human soul, using both demonstrative and material from the hadith corpus as forms of . Later Islamic scholars viewed this work as a response to 's argument on spiritual resurrection (as opposed to bodily resurrection), which was earlier criticized by .Fancy, pp. 42, 60

Soul and spirit
The -philosophers, and , developed their own theories on the soul. They both made a distinction between the soul and the spirit, and in particular, the doctrine on the nature of the soul was influential among the . Some of Avicenna's views on the soul included the idea that the of the soul is a consequence of its nature, and not a purpose for it to fulfill. In his theory of "The Ten Intellects", he viewed the human soul as the tenth and final .

Avicenna and Ibn al-Nafis (Ibn al-Nafis), Islamic philosophers and physicians who followed Aristotle, put forward a different theory about the soul than Aristotle's, and made a distinction between soul (In. spirit) and soul (In. soul). 32 Especially Avicenna's teaching on the nature of the soul had a great influence on the Scholastics. According to Ibn Sina, the soul is a spiritual substance separate from the body, it uses the body as a tool. The famous example given by Ibn Sina to show that the soul is a spiritual substance separate from the material body and to show one's self-awareness, is known as "insan-i tair" (flying person) and was used throughout the West in the Middle Ages. In this example, he asks his readers to imagine themselves suspended in the sky (in the air), without any sensory contact, isolated from all sensations: The person in this state is still realizing himself even though there is no material contact. In that case, the idea that the soul (person) is dependent on matter, that is, any physical object, does not make sense, and the soul is a substance on its own. (Here, the concept of “I exist even though I am not in the dense-rough matter of the world” is treated.) This "proving by reflection" study by Ibn Sina was later simplified by René Descartes and expressed in epistemological terms as follows: “I can isolate myself from all supposed things outside of me. , but I can never (abstract) from my own consciousness.”.Seyyed Hossein Nasr and Oliver Leaman (1996), History of Islamic Philosophy, p. 315, Routledge, ISBN 0-415-13159-6. According to Ibn Sina, immortality of the soul is not a goal, but a necessity and consequence of its nature.Emanasyon görüşüne göre, maddi evren, her şeyin kaynağı Tanrı'nın kendini kademe kademe açığa vuruşu, tezahür edişi ya da yansımasıdır. Catholic Encyclopedia/ Emanation, Jewish Encyclopedia/Emanation , 22 Eylül 2008 tarihinde erişild

Avicenna generally supported 's idea of the soul originating from the , whereas Ibn al-Nafis on the other hand rejected this idea and instead argued that the soul "is related to the entirety and not to one or a few organs." He further criticized Aristotle's idea that every unique soul requires the existence of a unique source, in this case the heart. Ibn al-Nafis concluded that "the soul is related primarily neither to the spirit nor to any organ, but rather to the entire matter whose temperament is prepared to receive that soul" and he defined the soul as nothing other than "what a human indicates by saying ‘I’."Nahyan A. G. Fancy (2006), "Pulmonary Transit and Bodily Resurrection: The Interaction of Medicine, Philosophy and Religion in the Works of Ibn al-Nafīs (d. 1288)" , pp. 209–10 ( Electronic Theses and Dissertations, University of Notre Dame).

Thought experiments
While he was imprisoned in the castle of Fardajan near , wrote his "Floating Man" thought experiment to demonstrate human and the substantiality of the soul. He referred to the living human , particularly the , which he believed to be the hypostasis by which God communicates truth to the human and imparts order and intelligibility to . His "Floating Man" thought experiment tells its readers to imagine themselves suspended in the air, isolated from all , which includes no contact with even their own bodies. He argues that, in this scenario, one would still have self-consciousness. He thus concludes that the idea of the self is not logically dependent on any physical thing, and that the soul should not be seen in , but as a primary given, a .Seyyed and (1996), History of Islamic Philosophy, p. 315, Routledge, .

This argument was later refined and simplified by René Descartes in terms when he stated: "I can abstract from the supposition of all external things, but not from the supposition of my own consciousness."

Time
While ancient Greek philosophers believed that the universe had an infinite past with no beginning, early medieval philosophers and theologians developed the concept of the universe having a finite past with a beginning. This view was inspired by the shared by , and . The Christian philosopher presented a detailed argument against the ancient Greek notion of an infinite past. Muslim and Arab Jewish philosophers like , , and developed further arguments, with most falling into two broad categories: assertions of the "impossibility of the existence of an actual infinite" and of the "impossibility of completing an actual infinite by successive addition".

Truth
In , (Ibn Sina) defined truth as:

Avicenna elaborated on his definition of truth in his :

In his , wrote a commentary on Avicenna's definition of truth in his Metaphysics and explained it as follows:

Early Islamic political philosophy emphasized an inexorable link between science and religion and the process of to find truth.

(Alhacen) reasoned that to discover the truth about nature, it is necessary to eliminate human opinion and error, and allow the universe to speak for itself. In his Aporias against Ptolemy, Ibn al-Haytham further wrote the following comments on truth:

Free will and predestination
The issue of free will versus predestination is one of the "most contentious topics in classical Islamic thought."
(2013). 9781317937043, Routledge. .
In accordance with the Islamic belief in , or divine preordainment ( al-qadā wa'l-qadar), God has full knowledge and control over all that occurs. This is explained in Qur'anic verses such as "Say: 'Nothing will happen to us except what Allah has decreed for us: He is our protector'..."
  • : "The idea of predestination is reinforced by the frequent mention of events 'being written' or 'being in a book' before they happen: 'Say: "Nothing will happen to us except what Allah has decreed for us..." ' "
  • : The verb qadara literally means "to measure, to determine". Here it is used to mean that "God measures and orders his creation".
For Muslims, everything in the world that occurs, good or bad, has been preordained and nothing can happen unless permitted by God. According to Islamic tradition, all that has been decreed by God is written in al-Lawh al-Mahfūz, the "Preserved Tablet".

Natural philosophy
Atomism
philosophies are found very early in Islamic philosophy, and represent a synthesis of the Greek and Indian ideas. Like both the Greek and Indian versions, Islamic atomism was a charged topic that had the potential for conflict with the prevalent religious orthodoxy. Yet it was such a fertile and flexible idea that, as in Greece and India, it flourished in some schools of Islamic thought.

The most successful form of Islamic atomism was in the school of philosophy, most notably in the work of the philosopher (1058–1111). In atomism, atoms are the only perpetual, material things in existence, and all else in the world is "accidental" meaning something that lasts for only an instant. Nothing accidental can be the cause of anything else, except perception, as it exists for a moment. Contingent events are not subject to natural physical causes, but are the direct result of God's constant intervention, without which nothing could happen. Thus nature is completely dependent on God, which meshes with other Asharite Islamic ideas on , or the lack thereof.L. Gardet (2001), "djuz’", in Encyclopaedia of Islam, CD-ROM Edition, v. 1.1, Leiden: Brill

Other traditions in Islam rejected the atomism of the Asharites and expounded on many Greek texts, especially those of Aristotle. An active school of philosophers in Spain, including the noted commentator (1126-1198 AD) explicitly rejected the thought of al-Ghazali and turned to an extensive evaluation of the thought of Averroes commented in detail on most of the works of Aristotle and his commentaries did much to guide the interpretation of Aristotle in later Jewish and Christian scholastic thought.

Cosmology
There are several verses in the Qur'an which some modern writers have interpreted as foreshadowing the expansion of the universe and possibly even the theory:

In contrast to ancient who believed that the had an infinite past with no beginning, medieval philosophers and theologians developed the concept of the universe having a finite past with a beginning. This view was inspired by the shared by the three Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The Christian philosopher, , presented the first such argument against the ancient Greek notion of an infinite past. His reasoning was adopted by many, most notably; Muslim philosopher, (Alkindus); the Jewish philosopher, (Saadia ben Joseph); and the , (Algazel). They used two logical arguments against an infinite past, the first being the "argument from the impossibility of the existence of an actual infinite", which states:

"An actual infinite cannot exist."
"An infinite temporal regress of events is an actual infinite."
".•. An infinite temporal regress of events cannot exist."

The second argument, the "argument from the impossibility of completing an actual infinite by successive addition", states:

"An actual infinite cannot be completed by successive addition."
"The temporal series of past events has been completed by successive addition."
".•. The temporal series of past events cannot be an actual infinite."

Both arguments were adopted by later Christian philosophers and theologians, and the second argument in particular became famous after it was adopted by in his thesis of the first antimony concerning time.

In the 10th century, the Brethren of Purity published the Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity, in which a view of the universe is expressed in a section on cosmology:

Cosmological ideas maintained by scholars such as and Ibn Sina, have strong resemblance with the . They identified the different , dividing the cosmos into different spheres, as similar to the Islamic angels. However, Islamic scholars repeatedly insist that all heavenly spheres as a whole form a single body and are moved by God, in contrast to Aristotelian cosmology in which God only moves the outer sphere. According to ibn Sina, but differing from al-Farabi, God is not part of the scheme of emanation. God emanated things in accordance with his will. In his Theologia Aristotelis he shows that through the manifestation of God, the intellects are aware of God and their role in the universe. Further Ibn Sina seems to distinguishes between two types of angels: One completely unrelated to matter, and another one, which exists in form of a superior kind of matter. The latter ones can carry messages between the heavenly spheres and the sublunary world, appearing in visions. Therefore, the higher angels dwell in , while their subordinate angels appear in an . Ibn Sina's explanation might imply an attempt to consider revelation as part of the natural world.Cyril Glassé, Huston Smith, The New Encyclopedia of Islam Rowman Altamira 2003 page 49-50Abd al-Jabbar, Ibn Sina and al-Ghazali God and Humans in Islamic Thought Routledge 2006 p. 97 Also Qazwini lists a lower type of angels; earthly angels as indwelling forces of nature, who keep the world in order and never deviate from their duty. Qazwini believed that the existence of these angels could be proved by reason and effects of these angels on their assigned object.Syrinx von Hees Enzyklopädie als Spiegel des Weltbildes: Qazwīnīs Wunder der Schöpfung: eine Naturkunde des 13. Jahrhunderts Otto Harrassowitz Verlag 2002 page 263

Evolution
Struggle for existence
The Mu'tazili scientist and philosopher (c. 776–869) was the only known medieval Arab philosopher to write on topics related to natural selection.Conway Zirkle (1941). Natural Selection before the "Origin of Species", Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 84 (1), pp. 71–123.Mehmet Bayrakdar (Third Quarter, 1983). "Al-Jahiz And the Rise of Biological Evolutionism", The Islamic Quarterly. London. Al-Jahiz's ideas on the struggle for existence in the Book of Animals have been summarized as follows:

However, according to Frank Edgerton (2002), the claim made by some authors that al-Jahiz was an early evolutionist is "unconvincing", but the narrower claim that Jahiz "recognized the effect of environmental factors on animal life" seems valid. Rebecca Stott (2013) writes of al-Jahiz's work:

Jahiz was not concerned with argument or theorizing. He was concerned with witnessing;...Jahiz was not trying to work out how the world began or how species had come to be. He believed that God had done the making and that he had done it brilliantly...He also understood what we might call the survival of the fittest.
(2025). 9781408831014, Bloomsbury. .

In Chapter 47 of India, entitled "On Vasudeva and the Wars of the Bharata," Abu Rayhan Biruni attempted to give a as to why the struggles described in the "had to take place." He explains it using processes that include ideas related to evolution, which has led several scholars to compare his ideas to and natural selection. This is due to Biruni describing the idea of artificial selection and then applying it to nature:

In the 13th century, Nasir al-Din al-Tusi explains how the elements evolved into , then , then , and then . Tusi then goes on to explain how variability was an important factor for biological evolution of living things:Farid Alakbarov (Summer 2001). A 13th-Century Darwin? Tusi's Views on Evolution, Azerbaijan International 9 (2).

Tusi discusses how organisms are able to to their environments:

Transmutation of species
(828–896), considered the founder of Arabic botany for his Book of Plants, discussed from its birth to its death, describing the phases of and the production of flowers and fruit., in

's al-Fawz al-Asghar and the Brethren of Purity's Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity ( The Epistles of Ikhwan al-Safa) developed theories on evolution that possibly had an influence on and his inception of , but has at one time been criticized as overenthusiastic. Footnote 27a to Chapter 6, Part 5 in

English translations of the Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity were available from 1812,"Ikhwan as-Safa and their Rasa'il: A Critical Review of a Century and a Half of Research", by A. L. Tibawi, as published in volume 2 of The Islamic Quarterly in 1955; pp. 28–46 while of the al-Fawz al-Asghar and The Epistles of Ikhwan al-Safa were also available at the University of Cambridge by the 19th century. These works likely had an influence on 19th-century evolutionists, and possibly .

In the 14th century, further developed the evolutionary ideas found in the Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity. The following statements from his 1377 work, the , express evolutionary ideas:

Numerous other Islamic scholars and scientists, including the polymaths and , discussed and developed these ideas. Translated into Latin, these works began to appear in the West after the and may have influenced Western philosophy and science.

Phenomenology of Vision
The polymath (Alhacen) is considered a pioneer of phenomenology. He articulated a relationship between the physical and observable world and that of intuition, and . His theories regarding knowledge and , linking the domains of science and religion, led to a philosophy of existence based on the direct observation of from the observer's point of view. Much of his thought on phenomenology was not further developed until the 20th century., 'A Philosophical Perspective on Alhazen's Optics', Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 15 (2005), 189–218; ,'La perception de la profondeur: Alhazen, Berkeley, et Merleau-Ponty', Oriens-Occidens: Cahiers du centre d'histoire des sciences et des philosophies arabes et médiévales, CNRS. 5 (2004), 171–184; and see a short essay by Valérie Gonzalez, "Universality and Modernity", The Ismaili United Kingdom, December 2002, pp. 50–53.

Philosophy of mind
The philosophy of mind was studied in medieval Islamic psychological thought, which refers to the study of the (literally "self" or "psyche" in ) in the , particularly during the Islamic Golden Age (8th–15th centuries) as well as modern times (20th–21st centuries), and is related to , and the .

Place and space
The Arab polymath al-Hasan (Alhazen; died c. 1041) presented a thorough mathematical critique and refutation of 's conception of place ( topos) in his Risala/Qawl fi’l-makan ( Treatise/Discourse on Place).

Aristotle's Physics (Book IV – Delta) stated that the place of something is the two-dimensional boundary of the containing body that is at rest and is in contact with what it contains. Ibn al-Haytham disagreed with this definition and demonstrated that place ( al-makan) is the imagined (three-dimensional) void ( al-khala' al-mutakhayyal) between the inner surfaces of the containing body. He showed that place was akin to , foreshadowing 's notion of place as space qua Extensio or even Leibniz's analysis situs. Ibn al-Haytham's mathematization of place rested on several geometric demonstrations, including his study on the sphere and other solids, which showed that the ( al-kura) is the largest in magnitude (volumetric) with respect to other geometric solids that have equal surface areas. For instance, a sphere that has an equal surface area to that of a cylinder, would be larger in (volumetric) magnitude than the cylinder; hence, the sphere occupies a larger place than that occupied by the cylinder; unlike what is entailed by 's definition of place: that this sphere and that cylinder occupy places that are equal in magnitude.Nader El-Bizri, "In Defence of the Sovereignty of Philosophy: al-Baghdadi's Critique of Ibn al-Haytham's Geometrisation of Place", Arabic Sciences and Philosophy (Cambridge University Press), Vol. 17, Issue 1 (2007): 57–80. Ibn al-Haytham rejected 's philosophical concept of place on mathematical grounds. Later, the philosopher 'Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi (13th century) tried to defend the Aristotelian conception of place in a treatise titled: Fi al-Radd ‘ala Ibn al-Haytham fi al-makan ( A refutation of Ibn al-Haytham's place), although his effort was admirable from a philosophical standpoint, it was unconvincing from the scientific and mathematical viewpoints.El-Bizri (2007) and handouts of El-Bizri's lectures at the Dept. of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge [7]

Ibn al-Haytham also discussed and its implications in his Book of Optics (1021). His experimental proof of the intromission model of vision led to changes in the way the visual perception of space was understood, contrary to the previous emission theory of vision supported by and . In "tying the visual perception of space to prior bodily experience, Alhacen unequivocally rejected the intuitiveness of spatial perception and, therefore, the autonomy of vision. Without tangible notions of distance and size for correlation, sight can tell us next to nothing about such things."

Philosophy of education
In the medieval Islamic world, an elementary school was known as a , which dates back to at least the 10th century. Like (which referred to ), a maktab was often attached to a mosque. In the 11th century, (known as Avicenna in the West), in one of his books, wrote a chapter dealing with the maktab entitled "The Role of the Teacher in the Training and Upbringing of Children", as a guide to teachers working at maktab schools. He wrote that children can learn better if taught in classes instead of individual from private , and he gave a number of reasons for why this is the case, citing the value of and emulation among pupils as well as the usefulness of group and debates. Ibn Sina described the of a maktab school in some detail, describing the curricula for two stages of education in a maktab school.

Primary education
Ibn Sina wrote that children should be sent to a maktab school from the age of 6 and be taught primary education until they reach the age of 14. During which time, he wrote that they should be taught the Qur'an, Islamic metaphysics, , literature, , and manual skills (which could refer to a variety of practical skills).

Secondary education
refers to the secondary education stage of maktab schooling as the period of specialization, when pupils should begin to acquire manual skills, regardless of their social status. He writes that children after the age of 14 should be given a choice to choose and specialize in subjects they have an interest in, whether it was reading, manual skills, literature, preaching, , geometry, trade and commerce, craftsmanship, or any other subject or profession they would be interested in pursuing for a future . He wrote that this was a transitional stage and that there needs to be flexibility regarding the age in which pupils graduate, as the student's emotional development and chosen subjects need to be taken into account.

Philosophy of science
Scientific method
The pioneering development of the scientific method by the Ash'ari polymath (Alhacen) was an important contribution to the philosophy of science. In the Book of Optics (c. 1025 CE), his scientific method was very similar to the modern scientific method and consisted of the following procedures:Bradley Steffens (2006). Ibn al-Haytham: First Scientist, Morgan Reynolds Publishing, . (cf. Bradley Steffens, "Who Was the First Scientist?", Ezine Articles.)

  2. Statement of
  3. Formulation of
  4. Testing of hypothesis using
  5. Analysis of experimental
  6. Interpretation of and formulation of conclusion
  7. of findings

In The Model of the Motions, Ibn al-Haytham also describes an early version of Occam's razor, where he employs only minimal hypotheses regarding the properties that characterize astronomical motions, as he attempts to eliminate from his planetary model the hypotheses that cannot be observed from Earth.Roshdi Rashed (2007). "The Celestial Kinematics of Ibn al-Haytham", Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 17, pp. 7–55 35–36. Cambridge University Press.

In Aporias against Ptolemy, Ibn al-Haytham commented on the difficulty of attaining scientific knowledge:

He held that the criticism of existing theories—which dominated this book—holds a special place in the growth of scientific knowledge:

Ibn al-Haytham attributed his experimental scientific method and scientific skepticism to his Islamic faith. He believed that human beings are inherently flawed and that only God is perfect. He reasoned that to discover the truth about nature, it is necessary to eliminate human opinion and error, and allow the universe to speak for itself. In The Winding Motion, Ibn al-Haytham further wrote that should only apply to prophets of Islam and not to any other authorities, in the following comparison between the Islamic prophetic tradition and the demonstrative sciences:

Ibn al-Haytham described his search for truth and knowledge as a way of leading him closer to God:

His contemporary Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī also introduced an early scientific method in nearly every field of he studied. For example, in his treatise on , Kitab al-Jamahir ( Book of Precious Stones), he is "the most of experimental scientists", while in the introduction to his , he declares that "to execute our project, it has not been possible to follow the geometric method" and develops comparative sociology as a scientific method in the field. He was also responsible for introducing the experimental method into ,Mariam Rozhanskaya and I. S. Levinova (1996), "Statics", in Roshdi Rashed, ed., Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science, Vol. 2, pp. 614–42 642, Routledge, London and New York the first to conduct elaborate experiments related to phenomena,Dr. A. Zahoor (1997), Abu Raihan Muhammad al-Biruni , Hasanuddin University. and a pioneer of experimental psychology.

Unlike his contemporary 's scientific method where "general and universal questions came first and led to experimental work", al-Biruni developed scientific methods where "universals came out of practical, experimental work" and "theories are formulated after discoveries." During his debate with Avicenna on natural philosophy, al-Biruni made the first real distinction between a scientist and a , referring to Avicenna as a philosopher and considering himself to be a mathematical scientist.

Al-Biruni's scientific method was similar to the modern scientific method in many ways, particularly his emphasis on repeated experimentation. Biruni was concerned with how to conceptualize and prevent both and , such as "errors caused by the use of small instruments and errors made by human observers." He argued that if instruments produce random errors because of their imperfections or idiosyncratic qualities, then multiple observations must be taken, analyzed qualitatively, and on this basis, arrive at a "common-sense single value for the constant sought", whether an or a "reliable ."

Experimental medicine
(Ibn Sina) is considered the father of modern ,Cas Lek Cesk (1980). "The father of medicine, Avicenna, in our science and culture: Abu Ali ibn Sina (980–1037)", Becka J. 119 (1), pp. 17–23. for his introduction of experimental medicine and ,David W. Tschanz, MSPH, PhD (August 2003). "Arab Roots of European Medicine", Heart Views 4 (2). the experimental use and , and a precise guide for practical experimentation in the process of discovering and proving the effectiveness of medical substances,Toby E. Huff (2003), The Rise of Early Modern Science: Islam, China, and the West, p. 218. Cambridge University Press, . in his medical encyclopedia, The Canon of Medicine (11th century), which was the first book dealing with experimental medicine. It laid out the following rules and principles for testing the effectiveness of new or , which still form the basis of modern clinical trials:

  1. "The drug must be free from any extraneous accidental quality."
  2. "It must be used on a simple, not a composite, disease."
  3. "The drug must be tested with two contrary types of diseases, because sometimes a drug cures one disease by Its essential qualities and another by its accidental ones."
  4. "The quality of the drug must correspond to the strength of the disease. For example, there are some drugs whose heat is less than the coldness of certain diseases, so that they would have no effect on them."
  5. "The time of action must be observed, so that essence and accident are not confused."
  6. "The effect of the drug must be seen to occur constantly or in many cases, for if this did not happen, it was an accidental effect."
  7. "The experimentation must be done with the human body, for testing a drug on a lion or a horse might not prove anything about its effect on man."

Peer review
The first documented description of a process is found in the Ethics of the Physician written by Ishaq bin Ali al-Rahwi (854–931) of , , who describes the first medical peer review process. His work, as well as later manuals, state that a visiting physician must always make duplicate notes of a patient's condition on every visit. When the patient was cured or had died, the notes of the physician were examined by a local medical council of other physicians, who would the practising physician's notes to decide whether his/her performance have met the required standards of medical care. If their reviews were negative, the practicing physician could face a from a maltreated patient.Ray Spier (2002), "The history of the peer-review process", Trends in Biotechnology 20 (8), pp. 357–58 357.

Other fields
Epistemology
's most influential theory in is his theory of knowledge, in which he developed the concept of . He argued that the "human intellect at birth is rather like a tabula rasa, a pure potentiality that is actualized through education and comes to know" and that knowledge is attained through " familiarity with objects in this world from which one abstracts universal concepts" which is developed through a " method of ; observations lead to prepositional statements, which when compounded lead to further abstract concepts."Sajjad H. Rizvi (2006), Avicenna/Ibn Sina (c. 980–1037), Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

In the 12th century, further developed the concept of tabula rasa in his Arabic novel, Hayy ibn Yaqzan, in which he depicted the development of the mind of a "from a tabula rasa to that of an adult, in complete isolation from society" on a . The Latin translation of his work, entitled Philosophus Autodidactus, published by the Younger in 1671, had an influence on 's formulation of tabula rasa in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding.

Eschatology
Islamic is concerned with the (; ) and the . relates to one of the six articles of faith ( ) of Islam. Like the other Abrahamic religions, Islam teaches the bodily of the dead, the fulfillment of a divine plan for creation, and the immortality of the human soul (though Jews do not necessarily view the soul as eternal); the righteous are rewarded with the pleasures of (), while the unrighteous are punished in (Hell). A significant fraction (one third, in fact) of the Quran deals with these beliefs, with many elaborating on the themes and details. Islamic apocalyptic literature describing the Armageddon is often known as fitna (a test) and malahim (or ghayba in the Shi'a tradition).

dealt with Islamic eschatology in some depth in his Theologus Autodidactus, where he the Islamic view of eschatology using reason and to explain the events that would occur according to Islamic eschatology. He presented his rational and scientific arguments in the form of Arabic fiction, hence his Theologus Autodidactus may be considered the earliest work.Dr. Abu Shadi Al-Roubi (1982), "Ibn Al-Nafis as a philosopher", Symposium on Ibn al-Nafis, Second International Conference on Islamic Medicine: Islamic Medical Organization, Kuwait (cf. Ibn al-Nafis As a Philosopher , Encyclopedia of Islamic World).

Legal philosophy
() refers to the body of Islamic . The term means "way" or "path"; it is the legal framework within which public and some private aspects of life are regulated for those living in a legal system based on Islamic principles of jurisprudence. Fiqh is the term for Islamic jurisprudence, made up of the rulings of Islamic jurists. A component of Islamic studies, Fiqh expounds the methodology by which Islamic law is derived from primary and secondary sources.

Mainstream Islam distinguish fiqh, which means understanding details and inferences drawn by scholars, from sharia that refers to principles that lie behind the fiqh. Scholars hope that fiqh and sharia are in harmony in any given case, but they cannot be sure.On the Sources of Islamic Law and Practices, The Journal of law and religion Souaiaia 2005 vol: 20 iss:1 p:123

Philosophical novels
The Islamic philosophers, (Abubacer)Jon Mcginnis, Classical Arabic Philosophy: An Anthology of Sources, p. 284, Hackett Publishing Company, . and ,Muhsin Mahdi (1974), " The Theologus Autodidactus of Ibn at-Nafis by Max Meyerhof, Joseph Schacht", Journal of the American Oriental Society 94 (2), pp. 232–34. were pioneers of the philosophical novel. Ibn Tufail wrote the first fictional Arabic novel Hayy ibn Yaqdhan ( Philosophus Autodidactus) as a response to 's The Incoherence of the Philosophers, and then Ibn al-Nafis also wrote a fictional Theologus Autodidactus as a response to Ibn Tufail's Philosophus Autodidactus. Both of these novels had (Hayy in Philosophus Autodidactus and Kamil in Theologus Autodidactus) who were individuals in a cave and living in seclusion on a , both being the earliest examples of a desert island story. However, while Hayy lives alone on the desert island for most of the story in Philosophus Autodidactus, the story of Kamil extends beyond the desert island setting in Theologus Autodidactus, developing into the first example of a novel.Nahyan A. G. Fancy (2006), "Pulmonary Transit and Bodily Resurrection: The Interaction of Medicine, Philosophy and Religion in the Works of Ibn al-Nafīs (died 1288)", p. 95–101, Electronic Theses and Dissertations, University of Notre Dame.[11]

Ibn al-Nafis described his book Theologus Autodidactus as a defense of "the system of Islam and the Muslims' doctrines on the missions of Prophets, the religious laws, the resurrection of the body, and the transitoriness of the world." He presents rational arguments for bodily and the of the human soul, using both demonstrative and material from the hadith corpus to prove his case. Later Islamic scholars viewed this work as a response to the claim of Avicenna and Ibn Tufail that bodily resurrection cannot be proven through reason, a view that was earlier criticized by al-Ghazali.Nahyan A. G. Fancy (2006), "Pulmonary Transit and Bodily Resurrection: The Interaction of Medicine, Philosophy and Religion in the Works of Ibn al-Nafīs (d. 1288)", pp. 42, 60, Electronic Theses and Dissertations, University of Notre Dame.[12]

A Latin translation of Philosophus Autodidactus was published in 1671, prepared by the Younger. The first English translation by was published in 1708, and and translations were also published at the time. Philosophus Autodidactus went on to have a significant influence on European literature,Martin Wainwright, Desert island scripts, , 22 March 2003. and became an influential best-seller throughout Western Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries.. These translations later inspired to write , which also featured a desert island narrative and was regarded as the first novel in English.Nawal Muhammad Hassan (1980), Hayy bin Yaqzan and Robinson Crusoe: A study of an early Arabic impact on English literature, Al-Rashid House for Publication.Cyril Glasse (2001), New Encyclopedia of Islam, p. 202, Rowman Altamira, .Amber Haque (2004), "Psychology from Islamic Perspective: Contributions of Early Muslim Scholars and Challenges to Contemporary Muslim Psychologists", Journal of Religion and Health 43 (4): 357–77 369.

Philosophus Autodidactus also had a "profound influence" on modern Western philosophy. It became "one of the most important books that heralded the Scientific Revolution" and European Enlightenment, and the thoughts expressed in the novel can be found in "different variations and to different degrees in the books of , , , and .", The Vital Roots of European Enlightenment: Ibn Tufayl's Influence on Modern Western Thought, Lexington Books, . The novel inspired the concept of "" developed in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690) by Locke, who was a student of Pococke. Philosophus Autodidactus also developed the themes of , , nature versus nurture, condition of possibility, ,Dominique Urvoy, "The Rationality of Everyday Life: The Andalusian Tradition? (Aropos of Hayy's First Experiences)", in Lawrence I. Conrad (1996), The World of Ibn Tufayl: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Ḥayy Ibn Yaqẓān, pp. 38–46, , . and Molyneux's Problem.Muhammad ibn Abd al-Malik and Léon Gauthier (1981), Risalat Hayy ibn Yaqzan, p. 5, Editions de la Méditerranée.[14] The novel also inspired , another acquaintance of Pococke, to write his own philosophical novel set on an island, The Aspiring Naturalist. Other European scholars influenced by Philosophus Autodidactus include Gottfried Leibniz, Melchisédech Thévenot, , Christiaan Huygens, George Keith, , the Quakers, and .

Political philosophy
Early Islamic political philosophy emphasized an inexorable link between science and religion, and the process of to find truth—in effect all philosophy was "political" as it had real implications for governance. This view was challenged by the philosophers, who held a more view and were supported by secular aristocracy who sought freedom of action independent of the . The only political treatise known to medieval Muslims at the time was 's Republic and the Laws. By the end of the Islamic Golden Age, however, the view of Islam had in general triumphed.

Islamic political philosophy, was, indeed, rooted in the very sources of Islam, i.e. the Qur'an and the , the words and practices of Muhammad. However, in the Western thought, it is generally known that it was a specific area peculiar merely to the great philosophers of Islam: (Alkindus), (Alfarabi), (Avicenna), (Avempace), (Averroes), and . The political conceptions of Islam such as kudrah, sultan, ummah, cemaa -and even the "core" terms of the Qur'an, i.e. ibada, din, rab and ilah- is taken as the basis of an analysis. Hence, not only the ideas of the Muslim political philosophers but also many other and posed political ideas and theories. For example, the ideas of the in the very early years of on and , or that of on the concept of Imamah are considered proofs of political thought. The clashes between the and Shia in the 7th and 8th centuries had a genuine political character.

The 14th-century scholar is considered one of the greatest political theorists. The British philosopher-anthropologist considered Ibn Khaldun's definition of , "an institution which prevents injustice other than such as it commits itself", the best in the history of political theory.Ernest Gellner, Plough, Sword and Book (1988), p. 239

Philosophy of history
The first detailed studies on the subject of and the first critiques on historical methods appeared in the works of the Ash'ari polymath (1332–1406), who is regarded as the father of , ,Mohamad Abdalla (Summer 2007). "Ibn Khaldun on the Fate of Islamic Science after the 11th Century", Islam & Science 5 (1), pp. 61–70. and the philosophy of history, especially for his historiographical writings in the ( as Prolegomena) and Kitab al-Ibar ( Book of Advice).S. Ahmed (1999). A Dictionary of Muslim Names. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. . His Muqaddimah also laid the groundwork for the observation of the role of , , and in history,H. Mowlana (2001). "Information in the Arab World", Cooperation South Journal 1. and he discussed the rise and fall of .

wrote in the History of Muslim Historiography:

Philosophy of religion
There is an important question on the relation of religion and philosophy, reason and faith and so on. In one hand there is extraordinary importance attached to religion in Islamic civilization and in other hand they created certain doctrines in respect to reason and religion.

Social philosophy
The social and Ash'ari polymath (1332–1406) was the last major Islamic philosopher from , North Africa. In his , he developed the earliest theories on social philosophy, in formulating theories of social cohesion and . His Muqaddimah was also the introduction to a seven volume analysis of .

Ibn Khaldun is considered the "father of ", "father of ", and "father of the philosophy of history" by some, for allegedly being the first to discuss the topics of sociology, historiography and the philosophy of history in detail.

Judeo-Islamic philosophies
Islamic philosophy found an audience with the Jews, to whom belongs the honor of having transmitted it to the Christian world. A series of eminent men—such as the , , —joined in translating the Arabic philosophical works into Hebrew and commenting upon them. The works of Ibn Rushd especially became the subject of their study, due in great measure to Maimonides, who, in a letter addressed to his pupil Joseph ben Judah, spoke in the highest terms of Ibn Rushd's commentary.

The oldest Jewish religio-philosophical work preserved in Arabic is that of (892–942), , "The Book of Beliefs and Opinions". In this work Saadia treats the questions that interested the Mutakallamin, such as the creation of matter, the unity of God, the divine attributes, the soul, etc. Saadia criticizes other philosophers severely. For Saadia there was no problem as to creation: God created the world , just as the attests; and he contests the theory of the Mutakallamin in reference to atoms, which theory, he declares, is just as contrary to reason and religion as the theory of the philosophers professing the eternity of matter.

To prove the unity of God, Saadia uses the demonstrations of the Mutakallamin. Only the attributes of essence ( sifat al-dhatia) can be ascribed to God, but not the attributes of action ( sifat-al-fi'aliya). The soul is a substance more delicate even than that of the celestial spheres. Here Saadia controverts the Mutakallamin, who considered the soul an "accident" 'arad (compare Guide for the Perplexed i. 74), and employs the following one of their premises to justify his position: "Only a substance can be the substratum of an accident" (that is, of a non-essential property of things). Saadia argues: "If the soul be an accident only, it can itself have no such accidents as wisdom, joy, love," etc. Saadia was thus in every way a supporter of the Kalam; and if at times he deviated from its doctrines, it was owing to his religious views.

Since no idea and no literary or philosophical movement ever germinated on Persian or Arabian soil without leaving its impress on the Jews, found an imitator in the person of Judah ha-Levi. This poet also took upon himself to free his religion from what he saw as the shackles of speculative philosophy, and to this end wrote the "Kuzari," in which he sought to discredit all schools of philosophy alike. He passes severe censure upon the Mutakallimun for seeking to support religion by philosophy. He says, "I consider him to have attained the highest degree of perfection who is convinced of religious truths without having scrutinized them and reasoned over them" ("Kuzari," v.). Then he reduced the chief propositions of the Mutakallamin, to prove the unity of God, to ten in number, describing them at length, and concluding in these terms: "Does the Kalam give us more information concerning God and His attributes than the prophet did?" (Ib. iii. and iv.) Aristotelianism finds no favor in 's eyes, for it is no less given to details and criticism; Neoplatonism alone suited him somewhat, owing to its appeal to his poetic temperament.

Similarly the reaction in favour of stricter Aristotelianism, as found in , had its Jewish counterpart in the work of . Later Jewish philosophers, such as and , followed the school of Averroes and played a part in transmitting Averroist thought to medieval Europe.

In Spain and Italy, Jewish translators such as Abraham de Balmes and translated Arabic philosophic literature into and , contributing to the development of modern European philosophy.

Later Islamic philosophy
The death of effectively marks the end of a particular discipline of Islamic philosophy usually called the Peripatetic Arabic School, and philosophical activity declined significantly in western Islamic countries, namely in and , though it persisted for much longer in the Eastern countries, in particular and . Contrary to the traditional view, and the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy consider the period between the 11th and 14th centuries to be the true "" of Arabic and Islamic philosophy, initiated by 's successful integration of logic into the curriculum and the subsequent rise of .

Since the political power shift in Western Europe ( and ) from Muslim to Christian control, the Muslims naturally did not practice philosophy in Western Europe. This also led to some loss of contact between the 'west' and the 'east' of the Islamic world. Muslims in the 'east' continued to do philosophy, as is evident from the works of scholars and especially those living in Muslim kingdoms within the territories of present-day Iran and India, such as Shah Waliullah and . This fact has escaped most pre-modern historians of Islamic (or Arabic) philosophy. In addition, logic has continued to be taught in religious seminaries up to modern times.

After Ibn Rushd, there arose many later schools of Islamic Philosophy such as those founded by and Shi'ite . These new schools are of particular importance, as they are still active in the Islamic world. The most important among them are:

  • School of Illumination ( Hikmat al-Ishraq)
  • Transcendent Theosophy ( Hikmat Muta'aliah)
  • Traditionalist School
  • Avicennism(Hikmat Sinavi)

Illuminationist school
Illuminationist philosophy was a school of Islamic philosophy founded by Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi in the 12th century. This school is a combination of 's philosophy and ancient Iranian philosophy, with many new innovative ideas of Suhrawardi. It is often described as having been influenced by .

In logic in Islamic philosophy, systematic refutations of were written by the Illuminationist school, founded by Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi (1155–1191), who developed the idea of "decisive necessity", an important innovation in the history of philosophical speculation. Science and Muslim Scientists , Islam Herald

Transcendent school
Transcendent theosophy is the school of Islamic philosophy founded by in the 17th century. His philosophy and is considered to be just as important to Islamic philosophy as 's philosophy later was to Western philosophy in the 20th century. Mulla Sadra bought "a new philosophical insight in dealing with the nature of " and created "a major transition from to " in Islamic philosophy, several centuries before this occurred in Western philosophy.
(2025). 9780754652717, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd..

The idea of "essence precedes existence" is a concept which dates back to and his school of as well as Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi and his Illuminationist philosophy. The opposite idea of "Existence precedes essence" was thus developed in the works of and as a reaction to this idea and is a key foundational concept of .

For Mulla Sadra, "existence precedes the essence and is thus principle since something has to exist first and then have an essence." This is primarily the argument that lies at the heart of Mulla Sadra's Transcendent Theosophy. Sayyid Jalal Ashtiyani later summarized Mulla Sadra's concept as follows:

More careful approaches are needed in terms of thinking about philosophers (and theologians) in Islam in terms of phenomenological methods of investigation in (or onto-theology), or by way of comparisons that are made with 's thought and his critique of the history of metaphysics.For recent studies that engage in this line of research with care and thoughtful deliberation, see: , The Phenomenological Quest between Avicenna and Heidegger (Binghamton, N.Y.: Global Publications SUNY, 2000); and , 'Avicenna and Essentialism', Review of Metaphysics 54 (2001), 753–78; and , 'Avicenna's De Anima Between Aristotle and Husserl', in The Passions of the Soul in the Metamorphosis of Becoming, ed. Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003), 67–89

Contemporary Islamic philosophy
The tradition of Islamic philosophy is still very much alive today, particularly among followers of Suhrawardi's Hikmat al-Ishraq ( Illumination Philosophy) and 's Hikmat-e-Mota'aliye ( Transcendent Theosophy). Another figure is , who reshaped and revitalized Islamic philosophy among the Muslims of the Indian sub-continent in the early 20th century. Allama Muhammad Iqbal His The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam  is a milestone in the modern political philosophy of Islam.

In contemporary Islamic regions, the teaching of hikmat or has continued to flourish.

  • Abdolkarim Soroush, born 1945, Iranian philosopher and religious reformist, exponent of categories within Islamic thought.
  • Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic of , was a teacher of the philosophical school of Hikmat-ul-Mutaliya. Before the Islamic Revolution, he was one of the few who formally taught philosophy at the Religious Seminary at Qom.
  • Abdollah Javadi-Amoli, Grand Ayatollah is an Iranian Shi'a Marja. He is a conservative Iranian politician and one of the prominent Islamic scholars of the (seminary) in .
  • Ahmad Milad Karimi, Afghan philosopher of religion and professor of Islamic Philosophy at the University of Münster in Germany.
  • Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi, Grand Ayatollah is an Iranian Shi'a cleric. Advocate of Islamic philosophy, particularly Hikmat Mutaliyyah.
  • , Russian Islamic philosopher, author of Orientation - North. Founding ideologist of Islamic Marxism.
  • Muhammad Husayn Tabataba'i, Grand Ayatollah, Iranian Shi'a cleric ( Allameh Tabatabaei), author of numerous works including the 27-volume Quranic commentary al-Mizan ().
  • or Haji Abdul Malik Karim Amirullah was a prominent Indonesian author, politician, philosophical thinker, and author of Tafir Al Azhar. He was head of Indonesia's council (MUI). He resigned when his against the celebration of Christmas by Muslims was condemned by the regime. Highly respected in his country, he was also appreciated in and .
  • Murtaza Motahhari, the best student of Allamah Tabatabai, a martyr of the Iranian Revolution in 1979, and author of numerous books (an incomplete compilation of his works comprises 25 volumes). He, like his teachers and Ayatollah Khomeini, belong to the philosophical schools of Hikmat-ul-Mutaliya
  • Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, who is credited with creating modern political thought in the 20th century, was the founder of Jamaat-e-Islami and spent his life attempting to revive the Islamic intellectual tradition.
  • , (1932–2010) was a Pakistani Islamic theologian followed particularly in and also among the South Asian diaspora in the Middle East, Western Europe, and North America. Founder of the , an offshoot of the Jamaat-e-Islami, he was significant scholar of Islam and the Quran.
  • Muhammad Hamidullah (1908–2002) belonged to a family of scholars, , and . He was a world-renowned of and international law from , who was known for contributions to the research of the history of , translations of the , the advancement of golden age Islamic learning, and to the dissemination of Islamic teachings in the .
  • Fazlur Rahman was professor of Islamic thought at the University of Chicago.
  • first Indonesian minister of religious affairs. Former head of Indonesian Nahdwatul Ulema, and founder of Islamic state universities in Indonesia. He is best known for reformation of the curriculum.
  • Seyyed Hossein Nasr is a major perennialist thinker. His works are characterized by a persistent critique of modern sciences as well as a defense of Islamic and perennialist doctrines and principles. He argues that knowledge has been desacralized in the modern period, that is, separated from its divine source—God—and calls for its resacralization through sacred traditions and .
  • Javed Ahmad Ghamidi is a well-known , , and . A former member of the Jamaat-e-Islami, who extended the work of his tutor, Amin Ahsan Islahi.
  • In , Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas is a prominent metaphysical thinker.
  • Iranian revolutionary thinker and sociologist who focused on and Islam.
  • Abu Abd al-Rahman Ibn Aqil al-Zahiri (born 1942) is a Saudi Arabian primarily focused on the reconciliation of reason and revelation.
  • Mohammad Baqir al-Sadr (died 1980) was an Iraqi Shi'ite Grand Ayatollah and one of the most influential Islamic philosophers of the 20th century. His two most important contributions to philosophy are his books "Our Philosophy" and "The Logical Foundations of Induction." He is also widely known for his work on economics, including "" and "The Non-Usury Banking System" which are two of the most influential works in contemporary Islamic economics.

Contemporary perspectives
In the contemporary era, some people like the Ali Shariati have considered Islamic philosophy as realism; But there is also a belief that Islam is beyond all of (other) "isms".

Criticism
Philosophy has not been without criticism amongst Muslims, both contemporary and past. The imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, for whom the school of thought is named, rebuked philosophical discussion, once telling proponents of it that he was secure in his religion, but that they were "in doubt, so go to a doubter and argue with him (instead)."al-Hilyah (6/324) Today, Islamic philosophical thought has also been criticized by scholars of the modern movement.

There would be many Islamic thinkers who were not enthusiastic about the potential of philosophy, but it would be incorrect to assume that they opposed it simply because it was a "foreign science". , an expert on Islamic philosophy, points out that the objections of notable theologians are rarely directed at philosophy itself, but rather at the conclusions the philosophers arrived at. Even the 11th century , known for his Incoherence of the Philosophers critique of philosophers, was himself an expert in philosophy and . His criticism was that they arrived at theologically erroneous conclusions. In his view the three most serious of these were believing in the co-eternity of the universe with God, denying the bodily resurrection, and asserting that God only has knowledge of abstract universals, not of particular things, though not all philosophers subscribed to these same views.Leaman, O. (1999). A Brief Introduction to Islamic Philosophy Polity Press. p 21.

In recent studies by Muslim contemporary thinkers that aim at "renewing the impetus of philosophical thinking in Islam," the philosopher and theorist offers a critical analysis of the conventions that dominate mainstream academic and epistemic approaches in studying Islamic philosophy. These approaches, of methodology and are looked at from archival standpoints within Oriental and Mediaevalist Studies, fail to recognize the fact that philosophy in Islam can still be a living intellectual tradition. He maintains that its renewal requires a radical reform in and within Islamic thought. El-Bizri's interpretations of (Ibn Sina) from the standpoint of 's critique of the history of metaphysics, and specifically against the background of the unfolding of the essence of technology, aim at finding new pathways in ontology that are not simply Avicennian nor Heideggerian, even though El-Bizri's approach in rethinking falsafa amounts to a "Neo-Avicennism" that carries resonances with novel modern philosophical ways of reading Aristotelianism and Thomism. El-Bizri engages contemporary issues in philosophy through a fundamental critical analytic of the evolution of key concepts in the history of ontology and epistemology. is a modernist in outlook since he aims at bringing newness to the tradition rather than simply reproduce it or being in rupture with it., "The Labyrinth of Philosophy in Islam", in Comparative Philosophy 1.2 (2010): 3–23. Refer also to his article: , 'Le renouvellement de la falsafa?', Les Cahiers de l’Islam I (2014): 17–38. See also references above in this section of the footnotes to some of 's other related earlier studies.

Maani’ Hammad al-Juhani, (a member of the Consultative Council and General Director, World Assembly of Muslim Youth)

(2025). 9780742550070, Rowman & Littlefield.. .
is quoted as declaring that because philosophy does not follow the moral guidelines of the , "philosophy, as defined by the philosophers, is one of the most dangerous falsehoods and most vicious in fighting faith and religion on the basis of logic, which it is very easy to use to confuse people in the name of reason, interpretation and metaphor that distort the religious texts". Al-Mawsoo’ah al-Muyassarah fi’l-Adyaan al-Madhaahib wa’l-Ahzaab al-Mu’aasirah 1/419–423

See also
  • Al-‘aql al-fa‘‘al
  • Contemporary Islamic philosophy
  • Early Islamic philosophy
  • History of Islamic philosophy
  • Islam and modernity
  • Islamic Golden Age
  • Islamic metaphysics
  • List of Islamic studies scholars
  • List of Muslim philosophers
  • Islamic advice literature
  • Islamic literature
  • Peace in Islamic philosophy

Citations
Bibliography
  • (2025). 9780521817431, Cambridge University Press. .
  • (1994). 9789004098428, . .
  • (2025). 9780195133981, Oxford University Press.
  • (2025). 9780710304162, . .
  • (2025). 9780764122262, Barron's Educational Series. .
  • (1996). 9780203086537, Routledge.
  • (1993). 9781438414195, State University of New York Press. .
  • (2025). 9789004103146
  • (1968). 9780822975663, University of Pittsburgh Press. .
  • (1994). 9789004094598, .
  • (1996). 9780198202912, Oxford University Press. .
  • History of Islamic Philosophy (Routledge History of World Philosophies) by Seyyed Hossein Nasr and Oliver Leaman eds.
  • History of Islamic Philosophy by Majid Fakhry.
  • Https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/islamic-philosophy;jsessionid=B31B033F077DD5E68E09CC9D35C02105" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Islamic Philosophy by .
  • The Study of Islamic Philosophy by Ibrahim Bayyumi Madkour.
  • ( Our Philosophy) by Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr.
  • McGinnis, Jon & Reisman, David C. (eds.), Classical Arabic Philosophy. An Anthology of Sources, Indianapolis: Hackett, 2007.
  • Schuon, Frithjof. Islam and the Perennial Philosophy. Trans. by J. Peter Hobson; ed. by Daphne Buckmaster. World of Islam Festival Publishing Co., 1976, cop. 1975. xii, 217 p. pbk

Further reading

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