TO many Muslims, philosophy is an evil that should be avoided as much as possible because of its alleged inherent incompatibility with Islamic teachings. Recently, some Arab writers and scholars have been trying to break this taboo and are increasingly calling the public›s attention to the significance of philosophy in our development. It is interesting to note that debates on philosophy's compatibility with Islamic teachings were not seriously considered until around the fifth century AH, which is 11th century CE, when the scholar Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali claimed in his book, The Incoherence of the Philosophers, that some of its branches constituted corruptive knowledge and Muslims should refrain from studying it. The Andalusian philosopher, Ibn Rushd or Averroes, refuted his claims in a book which was called the Incoherence of the Incoherence. Eight centuries later, the debate on the legitimacy of philosophy in Islam is still alive and well. One of the problems with current debates is that in addition to the fact that philosophy's opponents have won and philosophy is not studied in many Arab countries, many people in both groups whether opposing or supporting the argument seem to forget or ignore the fact that the world might not have known philosophy as we know it today without the translations of Greek philosophers by Arabs and Muslims during the Islamic Golden Age. Some of these people, who are Arabs themselves, even presume that philosophy is a foreign influence that Arabs have never really had a knack for in the first place. As much as we should not live in our past glory in order to move forward as Arabs, it is extremely unfair to our heritage, ourselves, and our children to deny it altogether as if it had never happened. In addition to the obvious misinformation of this claim, it is very difficult in this context to specify Arabs whether in accomplishments or shortcomings because of their intertwined history with Muslims whose lands spread from Spain to the borders of China including people from different ethnic, cultural and even religious backgrounds. Thus, when talking about philosophers, for example, it would not seem appropriate to write about philosophy and Arabs in particular because they worked with non-Arab and even non-Muslim philosophers in the Islamic Empire. Having said that, one now can look at the facts of the history of Arabs and philosophy. Philosophy flourished during the 9th century CE when a movement of book translation led by the Abbasid Caliphs swept Baghdad channeling the wealth of almost the entire Greek body of knowledge to the Islamic world and eventually to the West. Books of Greek philosophers, such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle were translated by Muslim philosophers who also added their own significant contributions. Avicenna, Averroes and Al-Farabi were some of these renowned philosophers. Caliph Al-Mamoun even specifically chose the distinguished Arab philosopher Al-Kindi to be in charge of the translations of the work of Aristotle. These books were all collected in a unique library in Baghdad, which was called the House of Wisdom. Arabs and Muslims were not the only philosophers who shined during that time, as even Christians and Jews participated in this revolution of thought. One of the prominent Jewish philosophers, Moses Bin Maimonides was born in Andalusia and died in Egypt in the 12th century. There was a great appreciation for philosophy and all who lived in the Islamic Empire were encouraged to study it and to make their own contributions. On the other hand, during that time, philosophers in the West were in danger of facing persecution if their writings were deemed to be against the teachings of the Church, which made them more cautious in their expression, and, sadly, makes them seem very close to our situation in current times. Philosophy was one of the many leaves that fell as a result of the demise of the Islamic Golden Age. The enormity of the fall after it had reached a place that had not been reached before made many people wonder what went wrong and studies are still being conducted to try to understand exactly what made our civilization crumble into ashes. The point of this article is not to cry over our past glory or even to be nostalgic for a past that cannot return, but rather to hold on to the last shred of pride left in our hearts for our own heritage in order to have the hope to look for ways to rise again. — The writer can be reached at [email protected]
