The question of the nature of Islamic philosophy has triggered an extremely important conflict over a very long time. The quality of dealing with this question can play a determining role in our approach towards Islamic philosophy. Generally speaking, there are three ap
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The question of the nature of Islamic philosophy has triggered an extremely important conflict over a very long time. The quality of dealing with this question can play a determining role in our approach towards Islamic philosophy. Generally speaking, there are three approaches in this regard each deserving due attention and critical analysis. The first approach emphasizes the Greek origin of Islamic philosophy and considers it to be the extension of a philosophy which is called the Greek tradition. Advocates of this approach claim that all the philosophical trends in all periods have originated in or been influenced by Greek philosophy and must be studied in the light of the theory of linear continuity. According to this view, the assumption that rational thought has its origins in Iran, India, or China and also Babylon and Mesopotamia or Egypt is not much valid. The second approach insists that Islamic philosophy has no referent at all. The followers of this approach believe that, basically, all religious philosophies lack any kind of referent. They maintain that if we believe in Islamic philosophy, we will encounter some intricacies such as sacredness, contradiction, text interpretation, and the lack of growth and expansion of philosophy. This group claims that if we support the existence of Islamic philosophy, it would necessarily entail sacredness, and then any criticism of this kind of philosophy would be equal to a criticism of religion. However, this necessity is false. Regarding the problem of contradiction, it is claimed that it is not possible to reconcile the Qur’anic and traditional view of philosophy with that of the Greeks. Hence, the Greek view of happiness is in contrast to the Qur’anic one. The third approach emphasizes that Islamic philosophy is the expansion of Greek philosophy, and if we fail to provide a correct interpretation of their commensurability, we can never present a correct explanation of the nature of Islamic philosophy and its essential differences from Greek philosophy. That the number of philosophical problems in Greece was limited to 200 but increased to 700 during the Islamic period does not by itself provide a correct description of the nature of Islamic philosophy. Neither can it justify the Islamic nature of this kind of philosophy or defend it convincingly. The main point here is that the origin of Islamic philosophy is not Greek philosophy; rather, it is rooted in the Qur’anic verses, prophetic traditions, and religious prayers and texts. One cannot discuss the religious origin of Islamic philosophy based on the theory of the expansion of philosophical problems. There is a fundamental difference between a theory which considers Islamic philosophy to be rooted in Greece and limits the efforts of Muslim philosophers merely to increasing the number of philosophical topics and problems or adding variety to the related arguments or modifying or increasing them and a theory which asserts that Muslims, before becoming familiar with Greek philosophy, had already turned to rational thought. In doing so, they gradually set out to benefit from the philosophical knowledge of other nations and countries, particularly and mainly from that of Iranians, Indians, and Greeks. Therefore, the present paper intends to demonstrate that Islamic philosophy is rooted in the Qur’an and traditions.
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