Early Islamic philosophy facts for kids

Early Islamic philosophy is also called classical Islamic philosophy. It was a time of great thinking and new ideas, starting in the early 800s CE and lasting until the late 1100s CE. This period is known as the Islamic Golden Age. The amazing discoveries and ideas from this time greatly helped shape modern philosophy and science.

During the Islamic Golden Age, many new ideas spread to Europe. Things like Muslim inventions in sailing, farming, and technology, and even some East Asian technologies, reached Western Europe. This was one of the biggest transfers of knowledge in history!

This period began with a thinker named al-Kindi in the 800s and ended with Averroes (also known as Ibn Rushd) in the late 1100s. After Averroes, a specific type of Islamic philosophy called the Peripatetic Arabic School became less active in Western Muslim countries like Islamic Spain and North Africa. However, it continued to thrive for much longer in Eastern countries, especially in Persia and India. There, several schools of thought kept going strong, such as Avicennism, Illuminationist philosophy, and Mystical philosophy.

Thinkers during this time made many important advancements:

• In law, they developed ijtihad. This was a way of legal thinking and interpretation based on independent research and logical steps.
• In science, they created empirical research methods. These methods focused on controlled experimentation, careful observation, and making sure results could be repeated. They also started early ideas about how we gain knowledge through experience.
• They improved upon Aristotle's logic and also created new types of logic, like temporal and inductive logic.
• In medicine, they had the first recorded peer review process. In law and religion, they developed a strict way of citing sources called isnad.

Many Arabic books from this time were translated into Hebrew and Latin during the Middle Ages. This had a huge impact on Jewish philosophy and almost all areas of philosophy in the medieval Western world. The works of al-Fārābī, Avicenna, and Averroes were especially important. They influenced famous thinkers like Thomas Aquinas, Roger Bacon, and Maimonedes.

Early Islamic philosophy can be understood through its different influences, branches, schools, and fields, which we will explore below.

How Islamic Philosophy Began

The Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān (2006) says that the Qurʾān talks about many religious ideas. Through its prophet Muḥammad, it offers a clear view of the creator, the universe, and humans. Many important religious discussions among Muslims came from ideas hidden within the Qurʾān's words, which are closely tied to Muhammad's life story.

However, modern historians know that some religious ideas were already present among polytheistic Pagans in pre-Islamic Arabia. For example, they believed in fatalism (ḳadar). This idea reappears in Islamic thought in debates about God's qualities, predestination, and human free will.

Muhammad's Influence

The life of Muhammad (called sira) led to both the Qur'an (God's revelations) and the hadith (Muhammad's daily sayings and talks). For Muslims, philosophy was about accepting or rejecting his message. The sira and hadith together form the sunnah. They were checked using isnad (a chain of reliable sources) to see if a saying of Muhammad was likely true. Important figures who collected these sayings include Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal and Imam Bukhari. This work started shortly after Muhammad's Farewell Sermon in 631 CE and finished around the 900s CE.

Main Branches of Thought

Kalam: Talking About God

Ilm al-Kalām (which means "the study of speech" or "words") is an Islamic way of finding religious truths through discussion and debate. In Islamic practice, Kalam is about gaining religious knowledge by arguing and debating. A scholar who studies Kalam is called a mutakallim.

With Kalam, people started to explore questions about Muhammad's life (sira), his sayings (hadith), science, and law beyond just what Muhammad believed. This time saw the rise of ijtihad, which is independent reasoning in legal matters. As the Sunnah (Muhammad's practices) became widely accepted, philosophy that was separate from Muslim theology became less popular. During this period, methods similar to the Socratic method (asking questions to find answers) began to appear. However, philosophy still remained less important than religion.

Independent thinkers used ijtihad to explore the teachings of the Qur'an. Until then, these teachings were mostly accepted based on faith. One of the first big debates was between the Qadarites, who believed in free will, and the Jabarites, who believed in fatalism.

In the 8th century CE, a new group emerged in Basra, Iraq. A student named Wasil ibn Ata (700–748 CE) was expelled from his school because his ideas went against the accepted Islamic traditions. He became the leader of a new school called Muʿtazila (meaning "to separate oneself" or "to disagree"). This school lasted from the 8th to the 10th centuries. Its main beliefs were:

• God is absolutely one, and no human qualities can be given to Him.
• Humans have free will. Because of these two ideas, the Mu'tazilites called themselves "Partisans of Justice and Unity."
• All knowledge needed for human salvation comes from human reason. Humans could gain knowledge before and after God's revelations, just by using their reason. This meant that knowledge was required for all people, at all times, and in all places.

The Muʿtazila were one of the first systematic schools of Islamic theology. They stressed using reason and rational thought. They believed that God's commands could be understood through reason. They also said that the Quran was created by God, not that it was eternal like God. This became a very big and debated topic in Islamic theology.

In the 9th–10th centuries CE, the Ashʿarī school developed as a response to the Muʿtazila. It was founded by Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī. Ashʿarītes still taught using reason to understand the Quran, but they did not believe that moral truths could be found just by reasoning. This idea was opposed by the Māturīdī school. Its founder, Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī, believed that human reason could recognize a creator deity (God) just by thinking rationally, without needing divine revelation. He shared this belief with his teacher Abū Ḥanīfa al-Nuʿmān.

According to philosopher Sayed Hassan Akhlaq, early Islamic theology and the beliefs of classical Muslim philosophers often showed a mix of Deism (belief in a creator God who does not interfere) and theism (belief in a God who actively interferes).

Falsafa: Greek Wisdom in Islam

Starting in the 800s, thanks to Caliph al-Ma'mun, Greek philosophy came to the Arabs. The Peripatetic school (followers of Aristotle) found smart thinkers among them. These included Al-Kindi, Al-Farabi, Ibn Sina (Avicenna), and Ibn Rushd (Averroës). Their main ideas were often questioned by the Mutakallamin. Another group, the Brethren of Purity, used Aristotle's ideas to explain a world view that mixed Neoplatonic and Neopythagorean thoughts.

During the Abbasid caliphate, many thinkers and scientists, some of whom were not strict Muslims or even non-Muslims, helped bring Greek, Hindu, and other old knowledge to the Christian West. They helped make Aristotle's ideas known in Christian Europe. Three important thinkers, al-Farabi, Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and al-Kindi, combined Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism with ideas from Islam. Many people thought their ideas were very unusual, and some even said they were not Islamic philosophers.

From Spain, Arabic philosophical writings were translated into Hebrew and Latin. This helped modern European philosophy grow. The philosophers Moses Maimonides (a Jew from Muslim Spain) and Ibn Khaldun (from modern-day Tunisia), who is seen as the father of sociology and historiography, were also very important. Ibn Khaldun, however, saw himself more as a Kalam writer than a falsafa philosopher.

Kalam vs. Falsafa: Key Differences

Aristotle tried to show that God is one. But he believed that matter was eternal, which meant God could not have created the world. Also, saying that God only knows general laws, not individual things, seemed to deny prophecy. Another part of Aristotle's ideas that shocked the Mutakallamin was his theory of the soul. Aristotle believed the human soul was just what made a living human body. This seemed to mean the soul could not exist without the body. So, Aristotle's ideas seemed to deny the immortality of the individual human soul.

Because of this, the Mutakallamin first had to create a philosophy that showed matter was created. They used the idea of atoms, like Democritus. They taught that atoms have no size or space. God created atoms, and creates them whenever needed. Bodies appear or disappear when these atoms come together or break apart. But this idea didn't fully solve the philosophical objections to the creation of matter.

If God started His work at a specific time for a specific reason, it would mean He was incomplete before doing His will. To fix this, the Mutakallamin applied their atom theory to Time. They said that just as Space is made of atoms and empty space, Time is also made of tiny, indivisible moments. Once they established the world's creation, it was easy for them to show that a Creator exists, and that God is unique, all-powerful, and all-knowing.

Important Thinkers and Their Critics

The 1100s saw philosophy reach its peak, while Kalam declined. This rise of philosophy was greatly helped by Al-Ghazali (1005–1111) in Persia and Judah ha-Levi (1140) among the Jews. Al-Ghazali's criticisms of philosophers in his book, Tahafut al-Falasifa (The Incoherence of the Philosophers), actually made people more interested in philosophy. It also pushed philosophers to make their ideas clearer and their logic stronger. This led to the two greatest philosophers of the Islamic Peripatetic school: Ibn Bajjah (Avempace) and Ibn Rushd (Averroes), who both defended philosophy.

Since Jewish thinkers were always influenced by Persian or Arabian ideas, Ghazali found a follower in Judah ha-Levi. This poet also wanted to free his religion from what he saw as the chains of philosophical thinking. He wrote "Kuzari" to discredit all types of philosophy. He strongly criticized the Mutakallamin for trying to support religion with philosophy. He said, "I think someone has reached the highest level of perfection if they believe in religious truths without having to deeply study and reason about them." He then listed ten main ideas the Mutakallamin used to prove God's unity, asking, "Does the Kalam tell us more about God than the prophet did?" Judah ha-Levi didn't like Aristotelianism because it was too detailed and critical. Only Neoplatonism suited him somewhat, because it appealed to his poetic side.

Ibn Rushd (Averroës), who lived at the same time as Maimonides, marked the end of the first major philosophical era for Muslims. He defended Aristotelian philosophy against Ash'ari theologians like Al-Ghazali. Averroes' philosophy was seen as controversial among Muslims. His ideas were similar to those of Ibn Bajjah and Ibn Tufail, who followed the teachings of Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and Al-Farabi. Like other Islamic Peripatetics, Ibn Rushd accepted the idea of the intelligence of the spheres and universal emanation. These ideas helped explain how motion spreads throughout the universe, and they resolved the problem in Aristotle's view of pure energy and eternal matter. His ideas about separating philosophy and religion, which were further developed by the Averroist school, later influenced the development of modern secularism.

While Al-Farabi, Ibn Sina (Avicenna), and other Persian and Muslim philosophers quickly moved past topics that touched on religious beliefs, Ibn Rushd loved to focus on them in great detail. For example, he said, "Not only is matter eternal, but its form is already present within it; otherwise, it would be a creation ex nihilo (out of nothing)." According to his theory, the existence of this world is not just a possibility, as Ibn Sina said (to please religious scholars), but a necessity.

When Islamic philosophy was no longer popular in Islamic schools, it found a home with the Jews. They then helped pass it on to the Christian world. Many important Jewish scholars, like the Ibn Tibbons, Narboni, and Gersonides, translated Arabic philosophical works into Hebrew and wrote explanations for them. Ibn Rushd's works were especially studied, largely because Maimonides praised his commentaries highly in a letter to his student Joseph ben Judah.

It's important to know that this way of looking at intellectual history in Islamic lands mostly comes from what the West understood (or wanted to understand) from this long period. Some historians and philosophers disagree with this view and describe the era very differently. Their main point of disagreement is about how much different philosophers influenced Islamic Philosophy, especially the importance of Eastern thinkers like Ibn Sina compared to Western thinkers like Ibn Rushd.

Judeo-Islamic Philosophy

The oldest surviving Jewish religious-philosophical book is Emunot ve-Deot ("The Book of Beliefs and Opinions") by Saadia Gaon (892-942). In this book, Saadia discusses topics that interested the Mutakallamin, such as the creation of matter, God's unity, divine qualities, and the soul. Saadia strongly criticized other philosophers. For Saadia, creation was simple: God created the world ex nihilo (out of nothing), just as the Bible says. He argued against the Mutakallamin's atom theory, saying it was against both reason and religion, just like the philosophers' idea of eternal matter.

To prove God's unity, Saadia used the Mutakallamin's arguments. He believed that only God's essential qualities (sifat al-dhatia) could be used to describe Him, not His actions (sifat-al-fi'aliya). He thought the soul was a very delicate substance, even finer than the celestial spheres. Here, Saadia disagreed with the Mutakallamin, who saw the soul as an "accident" (something non-essential). He used one of their own ideas to support his view: "Only a substance can be the basis for an accident." Saadia argued: "If the soul were only an accident, it couldn't have qualities like wisdom, joy, or love." So, Saadia was a strong supporter of Kalam. If he sometimes differed from its ideas, it was because of his religious beliefs. This was similar to how Jewish and Muslim Peripatetic philosophers stopped their Aristotelian thinking when it risked going against their religious beliefs.

Important Schools of Thought

Farabism

Al-Farabi (Alfarabi) started his own school of Islamic philosophy. However, it was later overshadowed by Avicennism. Al-Farabi's philosophy was different from Plato and Aristotle's. It moved from thinking about the nature of reality to thinking about how we gain knowledge, which was a step towards modern ways of thinking. Al-Farabi also connected theory and practice in philosophy, and in politics, he freed practical actions from pure theory. His Neoplatonic ideas about God were more than just about reality; they were also about how we persuade others. In trying to understand the nature of a First Cause (God), Alfarabi discovered the limits of what humans can know.

Al-Farabi had a big impact on science and philosophy for many centuries. In his time, he was widely considered second only to Aristotle in knowledge, earning him the title "the Second Teacher." His work, which aimed to combine philosophy and Sufism, prepared the way for the ideas of Ibn Sina (Avicenna).

Avicennism

Avicenna (Ibn Sina) successfully brought together Aristotelianism, Neoplatonism, and Kalam ideas. Because of this, Avicennism became the leading school of Islamic philosophy by the 1100s. Avicenna was seen as a central authority on philosophy. Several scholars in the 1100s commented on his strong influence:

"People nowadays [believe] that truth is whatever [Ibn Sina] says, that it is impossible for him to be wrong, and that whoever disagrees with him cannot be rational."

Avicennism also influenced medieval Europe, especially his ideas about the nature of the soul and his distinction between existence and essence. These ideas led to debates in scholastic Europe. This was particularly true in Paris, where Avicennism was later forbidden in 1210. Still, his ideas about the mind and knowledge influenced thinkers like William of Auvergne and Albertus Magnus. His ideas about reality influenced Thomas Aquinas.

Averroism

Averroes (Ibn Rushd) is most famous for his explanations of Aristotle's works. He also wrote The Incoherence of the Incoherence, defending the falasifa (philosophers) against al-Ghazali's The Incoherence of the Philosophers. While he had little influence in the Islamic world (which was then dominated by Avicennian philosophy and Ash'ari theology), Averroism became very important in medieval Europe, especially among the Scholastics. Averroism eventually led to the development of modern secularism, and Ibn Rushd is seen as a founder of secular thought in Western Europe.

The idea that "existence precedes essence", a key part of existentialism, can also be found in Averroes' works. It was a response to Avicenna's idea that "essence precedes existence".

Ethics: How to Live Well

Caring for the Environment

Perhaps because many Islamic nations had limited resources, there was a focus on using natural capital (like productive land) in a limited and sustainable way. Traditions like haram (protected areas) and hima (conservation zones), along with early urban planning, showed strong social duties to live within the earth's limits and protect the natural environment. This was seen as an obligation of khalifa, or "stewardship."

Muhammad is considered a pioneer of environmentalism for his teachings on protecting the environment. His sayings (hadiths) about agriculture and environmental philosophy were collected in the "Book of Agriculture" of the Sahih Bukhari. One famous saying is:

Allah's Messenger said, "There is none amongst the Muslims who plants a tree or sows seeds, and then a bird, or a person or an animal eats from it, but is regarded as a charitable gift for him."

Several similar statements about the environment are also found in the Qur'an, such as:

All living beings roaming the earth and winged birds soaring in the sky are communities like yourselves.1 We have left nothing out of the Record.2 Then to their Lord they will be gathered all together.

The earliest known writings about environmentalism and environmental science, especially pollution, were Arabic medical writings. These were written by scholars like al-Kindi, al-Razi, and Avicenna. Their works covered topics like air pollution, water pollution, soil contamination, and how to handle municipal solid waste. Cordoba, in al-Andalus, even had the first waste containers and places for waste disposal.

Medical Ethics

The rules for how Muslim doctors should behave were first written down in the 800s by Ishaq bin Ali Rahawi. He wrote Adab al-Tabib (Conduct of a Physician), the first book dedicated to medical ethics. He saw doctors as "guardians of souls and bodies." He wrote twenty chapters on different topics related to medical ethics, including:

• What a physician must avoid.
• How to behave with visitors.
• How the physician should care for remedies.
• The dignity of the medical profession.
• How to check on physicians.
• How to remove bad practices among physicians.

Humanism: Valuing People

Many medieval Muslim thinkers explored humanistic, rational, and scientific ideas in their search for knowledge and values. A wide range of Islamic writings, including love poetry, history, and philosophical theology, show that medieval Islamic thought was open to humanistic ideas like individualism, occasional secularism, skepticism, and liberalism.

Another reason the Islamic world thrived during the Middle Ages was an early focus on freedom of speech. This was shown by al-Hashimi (a cousin of Caliph al-Ma'mun) in a letter to a religious opponent he was trying to convince through reason:

"Bring forward all the arguments you wish and say whatever you please and speak your mind freely. Now that you are safe and free to say whatever you please appoint some arbitrator who will impartially judge between us and lean only towards the truth and be free from the empery of passion, and that arbitrator shall be Reason, whereby God makes us responsible for our own rewards and punishments. Herein I have dealt justly with you and have given you full security and am ready to accept whatever decision Reason may give for me or against me. For "There is no compulsion in religion" ( Quran 2:256) and I have only invited you to accept our faith willingly and of your own accord and have pointed out the hideousness of your present belief. Peace be with you and the blessings of God!"

Some parts of Renaissance humanism have roots in the medieval Islamic world. This includes the "art of dictation, called in Latin, ars dictaminis," and "the humanist attitude toward classical language."

Logic: The Art of Reasoning

In early Islamic philosophy, logic was very important. Islamic law emphasized creating clear standards for arguments. This led to a new way of thinking about logic in Kalam. However, this approach was later replaced by ideas from Greek philosophy when the Mu'tazili philosophers, who highly valued Aristotle's Organon, became popular. The works of Islamic philosophers influenced by Greek thought were key in bringing Aristotelian logic to medieval Europe.

The works of al-Farabi, Avicenna, al-Ghazali, and other Muslim logicians often criticized and improved Aristotelian logic. They also introduced their own forms of logic, which played a central role in how European logic developed during the Renaissance.

According to the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy:

"For the Islamic philosophers, logic included not only the study of formal patterns of inference and their validity but also elements of the philosophy of language and even of epistemology and metaphysics. Because of territorial disputes with the Arabic grammarians, Islamic philosophers were very interested in working out the relationship between logic and language, and they devoted much discussion to the question of the subject matter and aims of logic in relation to reasoning and speech. In the area of formal logical analysis, they elaborated upon the theory of terms, propositions and syllogisms as formulated in Aristotle's Categories, De interpretatione and Prior Analytics. In the spirit of Aristotle, they believed that all rational argument can be reduced to a syllogism, and they regarded syllogistic theory as the focal point of logic. Even poetics was considered as a syllogistic art in some fashion by most of the major Islamic Aristotelians."

Important advances by Muslim logicians included "Avicennian logic," which replaced Aristotelian logic. Avicenna's system of logic introduced hypothetical syllogism, temporal modal logic, and inductive logic. Other key developments in early Islamic philosophy included the strict isnad (science of citation) and the ijtihad (a scientific method of open inquiry to disprove claims).

Logic in Islamic Law and Theology

Early forms of analogical reasoning, inductive reasoning, and categorical syllogism were used in Fiqh (Islamic law), Sharia (Islamic law), and Kalam (Islamic theology) from the 600s, even before Aristotle's works were translated into Arabic. This was part of the process of Qiyas. Later, during the Islamic Golden Age, there was a debate among Islamic philosophers, logicians, and theologians about whether Qiyas meant analogical reasoning, inductive reasoning, or categorical syllogism.

Some Islamic scholars argued that Qiyas meant inductive reasoning. Ibn Hazm (994-1064) disagreed, saying Qiyas referred to categorical syllogism in a real sense and analogical reasoning in a metaphorical sense. On the other hand, al-Ghazali (1058–1111) argued that Qiyas meant analogical reasoning in a real sense and categorical syllogism in a metaphorical sense. Other scholars at the time believed Qiyas referred to both analogical reasoning and categorical syllogism in a real sense.

Avicennian Logic

Avicenna (980-1037) created his own system of logic called "Avicennian logic" as an alternative to Aristotelian logic. By the 1100s, Avicennian logic had become the main system of logic in the Islamic world.

Avicenna wrote the first criticisms of Aristotelian logic. He created his own books on logic instead of just writing commentaries. He criticized the Baghdad school of logic for being too devoted to Aristotle. He studied the theory of definition and classification, and how to quantify the predicates of categorical propositions. He also developed a new theory on "temporal modal" syllogism, which included terms like "at all times," "at most times," and "at some time."

While Avicenna often used deductive reasoning in philosophy, he used a different method in medicine. Ibn Sina greatly helped develop inductive logic, which he used to create the idea of a syndrome. In his medical writings, Avicenna was the first to describe the methods of agreement, difference, and concomitant variation. These are very important for inductive logic and the scientific method.

Al-Ghazali (1058–1111) had a big impact on how logic was used in theology, applying Avicennian logic in Kalam. Despite al-Ghazali's logical skills, the rise of the Ash'ari school in the 1100s slowly stopped new work on logic in much of the Islamic world. However, logic continued to be studied in some Islamic regions like Persia and the Levant.

Metaphysics: The Nature of Reality

Proving God's Existence

Avicenna's proof for the existence of God, called the "Proof of the Truthful", was the first ontological argument. He presented it in the Metaphysics part of his book The Book of Healing. This was the first time someone tried to use an a priori proof, which relies only on intuition and reason. Avicenna's proof for God's existence is special because it can be seen as both a cosmological argument (about the universe's cause) and an ontological argument (about the nature of being). It's ontological because "necessary existence" in the mind is the first step to arguing for a Necessary Existent. It's also cosmological because much of it argues that things that don't have to exist (contingent existents) can't stand alone and must eventually lead to a Necessary Existent.

Essence and Existence

Islamic philosophy, deeply connected with Islamic theology, makes a clearer distinction between essence and existence than Aristotelianism. While existence is about things that are temporary or accidental, essence lasts within a being beyond what is accidental. This idea was first explained in Avicenna's works on metaphysics, and he was influenced by al-Farabi.

Some scholars have argued that Avicenna was the first to see existence (wujud) as an accident that happens to the essence (mahiyya). However, this is not the most central part of the difference Avicenna made between essence and existence. Avicenna's ideas are "existentialist" when he talks about being as necessary existence, which is without description or definition. But they are "essentialist" when he talks about being as possible or contingent existence.

Some argue that Avicenna anticipated later philosophers like Frege and Bertrand Russell by saying "existence is an accident of accidents." He also gave early arguments for "a 'necessary being' as the cause of all other existing things."

The idea that "essence precedes existence" comes from Avicenna and his school of Avicennism, as well as Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi and his Illuminationist philosophy. The opposite idea, "existence precedes essence", was developed in the works of Averroes and Mulla Sadra's transcendent theosophy.

Resurrection

Ibn al-Nafis wrote Theologus Autodidactus to defend "the system of Islam and the Muslims' beliefs about the missions of Prophets, religious laws, the resurrection of the body, and the temporary nature of the world." The book gives logical arguments for bodily resurrection and the immortality of the human soul. It uses both logical reasoning and information from the hadith (sayings of Muhammad) as evidence. Later Islamic scholars saw this book as a response to Avicenna's metaphysical argument for spiritual resurrection (not bodily resurrection), which al-Ghazali had criticized earlier.

Soul and Spirit

The Muslim physician-philosophers, Avicenna and Ibn al-Nafis, developed their own ideas about the soul. They both distinguished between the soul and the spirit. Avicenna's ideas about the nature of the soul were especially influential among the Scholastics. Some of Avicenna's views on the soul included the idea that the immortality of the soul is a natural result of its being, not a goal it needs to achieve. In his theory of "The Ten Intellects," he saw the human soul as the tenth and final intellect.

Avicenna generally supported Aristotle's idea that the soul comes from the heart. Ibn al-Nafis, however, rejected this idea. He argued that the soul "is connected to the whole body, not just one or a few organs." He also criticized Aristotle's idea that every unique soul needs a unique source, like the heart. Ibn al-Nafis concluded that "the soul is connected primarily neither to the spirit nor to any organ, but rather to the entire body whose nature is ready to receive that soul." He defined the soul as simply "what a human means by saying ‘I’."

Thought Experiments

While he was imprisoned, Avicenna wrote his famous "Floating Man" thought experiment to show that humans have self-awareness and that the soul is a real substance. He talked about human intelligence, especially the active intellect, which he believed was how God shares truth with the human mind and brings order to nature. His "Floating Man" thought experiment asks readers to imagine themselves floating in the air, without any sensations, not even touching their own bodies. He argued that in this situation, one would still be conscious of oneself. He concluded that the idea of the self does not depend on any physical thing, and that the soul should be seen as a basic, given substance.

This argument was later made simpler by René Descartes when he said: "I can imagine away all external things, but not my own consciousness."

Time

Ancient Greek philosophers believed the universe had always existed, with no beginning. But early medieval philosophers and theologians developed the idea that the universe had a finite past and a beginning. This idea came from the belief in creationism shared by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The Christian philosopher John Philoponus gave detailed arguments against the Greek idea of an infinite past. Muslim and Arab Jewish philosophers like Al-Kindi, Saadia Gaon, and Al-Ghazali developed more arguments. Most of these arguments fell into two main types: claims that "an actual infinite cannot exist" and that "an actual infinite cannot be completed by adding things one after another."

Truth

In metaphysics, Avicenna (Ibn Sina) defined truth as:

"What corresponds in the mind to what is outside it."

Avicenna further explained his definition of truth in his Metaphysics:

"The truth of a thing is the property of the being of each thing which has been established in it."

In his Quodlibeta, Thomas Aquinas commented on Avicenna's definition of truth and explained it this way:

"The truth of each thing, as Avicenna says in his Metaphysica, is nothing else than the property of its being which has been established in it. So that is called true gold which has properly the being of gold and attains to the established determinations of the nature of gold. Now, each thing has properly being in some nature because it stands under the complete form proper to that nature, whereby being and species in that nature is."

Early Islamic political philosophy stressed a strong connection between science and religion. It also emphasized using ijtihad to find truth. This meant that almost all philosophy was "political" because it had real effects on how society was governed.

Ibn al-Haytham (Alhacen) believed that to find the truth about nature, we must remove human opinions and mistakes. We should let the universe "speak for itself." In his Aporias against Ptolemy, Ibn al-Haytham also wrote about the difficulty of finding scientific knowledge:

"Truth is sought for itself [but] the truths, [he warns] are immersed in uncertainties [and the scientific authorities (such as Ptolemy, whom he greatly respected) are] not immune from error..."

He believed that criticizing existing theories was very important for scientific knowledge to grow:

"Therefore, the seeker after the truth is not one who studies the writings of the ancients and, following his natural disposition, puts his trust in them, but rather the one who suspects his faith in them and questions what he gathers from them, the one who submits to argument and demonstration, and not to the sayings of a human being whose nature is fraught with all kinds of imperfection and deficiency. Thus the duty of the man who investigates the writings of scientists, if learning the truth is his goal, is to make himself an enemy of all that he reads, and, applying his mind to the core and margins of its content, attack it from every side. He should also suspect himself as he performs his critical examination of it, so that he may avoid falling into either prejudice or leniency."

"I constantly sought knowledge and truth, and it became my belief that for gaining access to the effulgence and closeness to God, there is no better way than that of searching for truth and knowledge."

Natural Philosophy: Understanding the World

Atomism

Ideas about atoms appeared very early in Islamic philosophy. These ideas combined Greek and Indian thoughts. Islamic religious philosophy generally looked at physics from the perspective of atoms.

The most successful form of Islamic atomism came from the Asharite school of philosophy, especially in the work of al-Ghazali (1058–1111). In Asharite atomism, atoms are the only things that last forever and are truly physical. Everything else in the world is "accidental," meaning it only lasts for a moment. Nothing accidental can cause anything else, except for perception, because it exists only for an instant. Events that happen are not caused by natural physical reasons. Instead, they are directly caused by God's constant involvement, without which nothing could happen. This means nature is completely dependent on God, which fits with other Asharite Islamic ideas about causation.

Other traditions in Islam rejected the Asharites' atomism. They focused on many Greek texts, especially those by Aristotle. A group of philosophers in Spain, including the famous commentator Averroes (1126-1198 CE), clearly rejected al-Ghazali's ideas. They instead deeply studied Aristotle's thoughts. Averroes wrote detailed explanations for most of Aristotle's works, and his commentaries greatly influenced how Aristotle was understood by later Jewish and Christian scholars.

Cosmology: The Universe's Story

The Qur'an (610-632 CE) contains several verses about the universe. Some modern writers interpret these verses as hinting at the expansion of the universe and possibly even the Big Bang theory:

Do the disbelievers not realize that the heavens and earth were ˹once˺ one mass then We split them apart? And We created from water every living thing. Will they not then believe?

We built the universe with ˹great˺ might, and We are certainly expanding ˹it˺.

Unlike ancient Greek philosophers who believed the universe had an infinite past with no beginning, medieval philosophers and theologians developed the idea that the universe had a finite past and a beginning. This view was inspired by the creation myth shared by the three Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The Christian philosopher, John Philoponus, presented the first such argument against the ancient Greek idea of an infinite past. His reasoning was adopted by many, including the Muslim philosopher, Al-Kindi; the Jewish philosopher, Saadia Gaon; and the Muslim theologian, Al-Ghazali. They used two logical arguments against an infinite past.

The first argument, the "argument from the impossibility of the existence of an actual infinite," 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. The second argument became especially famous after Immanuel Kant used it in his ideas about time.

In the 900s, the Brethren of Purity published the Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity. In a section on cosmology, they expressed a heliocentric view of the universe (meaning the Sun is at the center):

"God has placed the Sun at the center of the Universe just as the capital of a country is placed in its middle and the ruler's palace at the center of the city."

Evolution

Struggle for Existence

The Mu'tazili scientist and philosopher al-Jahiz (c. 776–869) was one of the first Muslim biologists and philosophers to develop an early idea of evolution. He thought about how the environment affects animals. He considered how the environment influences an animal's chances of survival. He was also the first to describe the struggle for existence, which was an early idea related to natural selection. Al-Jahiz's ideas on the struggle for existence in his Book of Animals can be summarized as:

"Animals engage in a struggle for existence; for resources, to avoid being eaten and to breed. Environmental factors influence organisms to develop new characteristics to ensure survival, thus transforming into new species. Animals that survive to breed can pass on their successful characteristics to offspring."

In the 1200s, Nasir al-Din al-Tusi explained how the elements changed into minerals, then plants, then animals, and then humans. Tusi then explained how hereditary differences were important for the biological evolution of living things:

"The organisms that can gain the new features faster are more variable. As a result, they gain advantages over other creatures. [...] The bodies are changing as a result of the internal and external interactions."

Tusi discussed how organisms can adapt to their environments:

"Look at the world of animals and birds. They have all that is necessary for defense, protection and daily life, including strengths, courage and appropriate tools [organs] [...] Some of these organs are real weapons, [...] For example, horns-spear, teeth and claws-knife and needle, feet and hoofs-cudgel. The thorns and needles of some animals are similar to arrows. [...] Animals that have no other means of defense (as the gazelle and fox) protect themselves with the help of flight and cunning. [...] Some of them, for example, bees, ants and some bird species, have united in communities in order to protect themselves and help each other."

Tusi then explained how humans evolved from advanced animals:

"Such humans [probably anthropoid apes] live in the Western Sudan and other distant corners of the world. They are close to animals by their habits, deeds and behavior. [...] The human has features that distinguish him from other creatures, but he has other features that unite him with the animal world, vegetable kingdom or even with the inanimate bodies."

Transmutation of Species

Al-Dinawari (828-896), known as the founder of Arabic botany for his Book of Plants, discussed plant evolution from its birth to its death. He described the stages of plant growth and how flowers and fruit are produced.

The books al-Fawz al-Asghar by Ibn Miskawayh and the Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity by the Brethren of Purity developed theories on evolution. These theories might have influenced Charles Darwin and his idea of Darwinism.

"[These books] state that God first created matter and gave it energy to develop. Matter then became vapour, which later turned into water. The next stage was mineral life. Different kinds of stones developed over time, with the highest form being mirjan (coral). Coral is a stone with branches like a tree. After mineral life, vegetation evolves. The evolution of plants ends with a tree that has animal-like qualities. This is the date-palm. It has male and female parts. It doesn't die if its branches are cut, but it dies if its top is cut off. So, the date-palm is seen as the highest among trees and similar to the lowest among animals. Then the lowest animals are born. They evolve into an ape. This is not Darwin's statement. This is what Ibn Maskawayh states and what is written in the Epistles of Ikhwan al-Safa. Muslim thinkers state that the ape then evolved into a lower kind of barbarian man. He then became a superior human being. Man becomes a saint, a prophet. He evolves into a higher stage and becomes an angel. The one higher than angels is indeed none but God. Everything begins from Him and everything returns to Him."

English translations of the Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity were available from 1812. Arabic manuscripts of al-Fawz al-Asghar and The Epistles of Ikhwan al-Safa were also available at the University of Cambridge by the 1800s. These works likely influenced 19th-century evolutionists, and possibly Charles Darwin.

In the 1300s, Ibn Khaldun further developed the evolutionary ideas found in the Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity. The following statements from his 1377 work, the Muqaddimah, show his evolutionary ideas:

We explained there that the whole of existence in (all) its simple and composite worlds is arranged in a natural order of ascent and descent, so that everything constitutes an uninterrupted continuum. The essences at the end of each particular stage of the worlds are by nature prepared to be transformed into the essence adjacent to them, either above or below them. This is the case with the simple material elements; it is the case with palms and vines, (which constitute) the last stage of plants, in their relation to snails and shellfish, (which constitute) the (lowest) stage of animals. It is also the case with monkeys, creatures combining in themselves cleverness and perception, in their relation to man, the being who has the ability to think and to reflect. The preparedness (for transformation) that exists on either side, at each stage of the worlds, is meant when (we speak about) their connection.

Plants do not have the same fineness and power that animals have. Therefore, the sages rarely turned to them. Animals are the last and final stage of the three permutations. Minerals turn into plants, and plants into animals, but animals cannot turn into anything finer than themselves.

Many other Islamic scholars and scientists, including Ibn al-Haytham and Al-Khazini, discussed and developed these ideas. When translated into Latin, these works began to appear in the West after the Renaissance and may have influenced Western philosophy and science.

Phenomenology: How We Experience Reality

The Ash'ari scholar Ibn al-Haytham (Alhacen) is seen as a pioneer of phenomenology. He explained how the physical, observable world is connected to intuition, psychology, and mental functions. His ideas about knowledge and perception, which linked science and religion, led to a philosophy of existence based on directly observing reality from a person's own point of view. Much of his thinking on phenomenology was not further developed until the 1900s.

Philosophy of Mind

The philosophy of mind was studied in medieval Islamic psychological thought. This refers to the study of the nafs (meaning "self" or "psyche" in Arabic) in the Islamic world, especially during the Islamic Golden Age (700s–1400s). This field is connected to psychology, psychiatry, and neuroscience.

Place and Space

The Arab scholar al-Hasan Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen; died around 1041) gave a detailed mathematical criticism of Aristotle's idea of place (topos) in his book Risala/Qawl fi’l-makan (Treatise/Discourse on Place).

Aristotle's Physics (Book IV - Delta) said that the place of something is the two-dimensional boundary of the container that is still and touching what it holds. Ibn al-Haytham disagreed. He showed that place (al-makan) is the imagined (three-dimensional) empty space (al-khala' al-mutakhayyal) between the inner surfaces of the container. He showed that place was like space, which was an early idea similar to Descartes's idea of place as space or even Leibniz's analysis situs. Ibn al-Haytham's mathematical approach to place was based on several geometry examples. For instance, he showed that a sphere is the largest in volume compared to other geometric solids that have the same surface area. This meant that a sphere occupies a larger place than a cylinder with the same surface area, which was different from what Aristotle's definition of place implied. Ibn al-Haytham rejected Aristotle's philosophical idea of place using mathematical reasons. Later, the philosopher 'Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi (1200s) tried to defend Aristotle's idea of place, but his effort was not convincing from a scientific and mathematical point of view.

Ibn al-Haytham also discussed space perception and how we gain knowledge from it in his Book of Optics (1021). His experiments proving the intromission model of vision (that light enters the eye) changed how the visual perception of space was understood. This was different from the earlier emission theory of vision supported by Euclid and Ptolemy. By connecting the visual perception of space to earlier bodily experience, Alhacen clearly rejected the idea that spatial perception is intuitive and that vision is independent. Without clear ideas of distance and size for comparison, sight tells us almost nothing about these things.

Philosophy of Education

In the medieval Islamic world, an elementary school was called a maktab, which existed from at least the 900s. Like madrasahs (which were for higher education), a maktab was often connected to a mosque. In the 1000s, Ibn Sina wrote a chapter in one of his books called "The Role of the Teacher in the Training and Upbringing of Children." This chapter was a guide for teachers in maktab schools. He wrote that children learn better in classes rather than with individual tuition from private tutors. He gave several reasons for this, including the value of competition among students and the usefulness of group discussions and debates. Ibn Sina described the curriculum of a maktab school in detail, outlining the subjects for two stages of education.

Primary Education

Ibn Sina wrote that children should go to a maktab school from age 6 until they are 14. During this time, he wrote that they should be taught the Qur'an, Islamic metaphysics, language, literature, Islamic ethics, and manual skills (which could mean various practical skills).

Secondary Education

Ibn Sina called the secondary education stage of maktab schooling the period of specialization. During this time, students should start learning manual skills, no matter their social background. He wrote that after age 14, children should be able to choose and specialize in subjects they are interested in. This could be reading, manual skills, literature, preaching, medicine, geometry, trade and commerce, craftsmanship, or any other subject or job they wanted to pursue for a future career. He wrote that this was a transition stage and that there should be flexibility about the age students graduate, as their emotional development and chosen subjects needed to be considered.

Philosophy of Science

Scientific Method

The pioneering development of the scientific method by the Arab Ash'ari scholar Ibn al-Haytham (Alhacen) was a very important contribution to the philosophy of science. In his book The Model of the Motions, Ibn al-Haytham also described an early version of Occam's razor. He used only the fewest possible ideas about how astronomical motions work, trying to remove any ideas about the universe that could not be observed from Earth.

In his Aporias against Ptolemy, Ibn al-Haytham commented on how hard it is to gain scientific knowledge:

"Truth is sought for itself [but] the truths, [he warns] are immersed in uncertainties [and the scientific authorities (such as Ptolemy, whom he greatly respected) are] not immune from error..."

He believed that criticizing existing theories was very important for scientific knowledge to grow:

"Therefore, the seeker after the truth is not one who studies the writings of the ancients and, following his natural disposition, puts his trust in them, but rather the one who suspects his faith in them and questions what he gathers from them, the one who submits to argument and demonstration, and not to the sayings of a human being whose nature is fraught with all kinds of imperfection and deficiency. Thus the duty of the man who investigates the writings of scientists, if learning the truth is his goal, is to make himself an enemy of all that he reads, and, applying his mind to the core and margins of its content, attack it from every side. He should also suspect himself as he performs his critical examination of it, so that he may avoid falling into either prejudice or leniency."

Ibn al-Haytham said his experimental scientific method and scientific skepticism came from his Islamic faith. He believed that humans are naturally flawed and that only God is perfect. He reasoned that to find the truth about nature, one must remove human opinions and errors and let the universe "speak for itself." In The Winding Motion, Ibn al-Haytham also wrote that faith should only apply to prophets of Islam and not to any other authorities. He compared the Islamic prophetic tradition to the demonstrative sciences:

"From the statements made by the noble Shaykh, it is clear that he believes in Ptolemy's words in everything he says, without relying on a demonstration or calling on a proof, but by pure imitation (taqlid); that is how experts in the prophetic tradition have faith in Prophets, may the blessing of God be upon them. But it is not the way that mathematicians have faith in specialists in the demonstrative sciences."

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

"I constantly sought knowledge and truth, and it became my belief that for gaining access to the effulgence and closeness to God, there is no better way than that of searching for truth and knowledge."

His contemporary Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī also introduced an early scientific method in almost every field he studied. For example, in his book on mineralogy, Kitab al-Jamahir, he is described as "the most exact of experimental scientists." In the introduction to his study of India, he stated that "to carry out our project, it has not been possible to follow the geometric method" and developed comparative sociology as a scientific method in that field. He also introduced the experimental method into mechanics. He was the first to do detailed experiments related to astronomical events and was a pioneer of experimental psychology.

Unlike his contemporary Avicenna's scientific method, where "general questions came first and led to experimental work," al-Biruni developed scientific methods where "general ideas came out of practical, experimental work" and "theories are made after discoveries." During his debate with Avicenna on natural philosophy, al-Biruni made the first clear difference between a scientist and a philosopher. He called Avicenna a philosopher and considered himself a mathematical scientist.

Al-Biruni's scientific method was similar to the modern scientific method in many ways, especially his focus on repeating experiments. Biruni was concerned with how to understand and prevent both systematic errors and random errors, such as "errors caused by using small instruments and errors made by human observers." He argued that if instruments produce random errors because they are imperfect, then many observations must be taken, analyzed qualitatively, and from this, a "common-sense single value for the constant sought" should be found, whether it's an arithmetic mean or a "reliable estimate."

Experimental Medicine

Avicenna (Ibn Sina) is seen as the father of modern medicine. He introduced experimental medicine and clinical trials, the experimental use and testing of drugs, and a precise guide for practical experiments to discover and prove how effective medical substances are. He wrote about this in his medical encyclopedia, The Canon of Medicine (1000s), which was the first book on experimental medicine. It set out the following rules for testing new drugs or medications, which are still the basis of modern clinical trials:

1. "The drug must be free from any extra, accidental quality."
2. "It must be used on a simple disease, not a complex one."
3. "The drug must be tested with two opposite types of diseases, because sometimes a drug cures one disease by its main qualities and another by its accidental ones."
4. "The quality of the drug must match the strength of the disease. For example, some drugs are less hot than the coldness of certain diseases, so they would have no effect."
5. "The time it takes for the drug to work must be watched, so that its main effect and accidental effects are not confused."
6. "The drug's effect must be seen to happen consistently or in many cases. If this doesn't happen, it was an accidental effect."
7. "The experiment must be done with the human body, because testing a drug on a lion or a horse might not prove anything about its effect on humans."

Peer Review

The first documented description of a peer review process is found in Ethics of the Physician written by Ishaq bin Ali al-Rahwi (854–931) from al-Raha, Syria. He described the first medical peer review process. His work, and later Arabic medical manuals, stated that a visiting physician must always make two copies of a patient's condition notes on every visit. When the patient was cured or died, the physician's notes were checked by a local medical council of other physicians. They would review the doctor's notes to decide if their performance met the required standards of medical care. If their reviews were negative, the doctor could face a lawsuit from a patient who felt they were treated poorly.

Other Important Fields

Epistemology: How We Know Things

Avicenna's most important idea in epistemology (the study of knowledge) is his theory of knowledge. In this theory, he developed the concept of tabula rasa (blank slate). He argued that the "human intellect at birth is like a blank slate, a pure potentiality that becomes real through education and comes to know." He believed that knowledge is gained through "empirical familiarity with objects in this world from which one takes out universal concepts." This is developed through a "syllogistic method of reasoning; observations lead to statements, which when combined lead to more abstract concepts."

In the 1100s, Ibn Tufail further developed the idea of tabula rasa in his Arabic novel, Hayy ibn Yaqzan. In this book, he showed how the mind of a feral child developed "from a blank slate to that of an adult, completely isolated from society" on a desert island. The Latin translation of his work, Philosophus Autodidactus, published in 1671, influenced John Locke's ideas about tabula rasa in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding.

Eschatology: The End Times

Islamic eschatology is about the Qiyamah (end of the world; Last Judgement) and the final judgment of humanity. Eschatology is one of the six articles of faith (aqidah) in Islam. Like other Abrahamic religions, Islam teaches the bodily resurrection of the dead, the fulfillment of God's plan for creation, and the immortality of the human soul. The righteous are rewarded with the joys of Jannah (Heaven), while the unrighteous are punished in Jahannam (Hell). A large part (one-third) of the Quran deals with these beliefs, and many hadith (sayings of Muhammad) explain the details. Islamic writings about the end times are often called fitna (a test) and malahim.

Ibn al-Nafis discussed Islamic eschatology in depth in his Theologus Autodidactus. He used reason and science to explain the events that would happen according to Islamic eschatology. He presented his logical and scientific arguments in the form of Arabic fiction. Because of this, his Theologus Autodidactus might be considered the earliest science fiction work.

Legal Philosophy

Sharia (شَرِيعَةٌ) refers to the body of Islamic law. The word means "way" or "path." It is the legal framework that guides public and some private aspects of life for those living under a legal system based on Islamic principles. Fiqh is the term for Islamic law, made up of the decisions of Islamic legal scholars. As a part of Islamic studies, Fiqh explains how Islamic law is developed from main and secondary sources.

Mainstream Islam distinguishes fiqh, which means understanding details and conclusions drawn by scholars, from sharia, which refers to the main principles behind fiqh. Scholars hope that fiqh and sharia are in agreement in every case, but they cannot be certain.

Philosophical Novels

The Islamic philosophers, Ibn Tufail (Abubacer) and Ibn al-Nafis, were pioneers of the philosophical novel. Ibn Tufail wrote the first fictional Arabic novel Hayy ibn Yaqdhan (Philosophus Autodidactus) as a response to al-Ghazali's The Incoherence of the Philosophers. Then Ibn al-Nafis also wrote a fictional novel Theologus Autodidactus as a response to Ibn Tufail's book. Both of these novels had main characters (Hayy in Philosophus Autodidactus and Kamil in Theologus Autodidactus) who taught themselves. They were born by themselves in a cave and lived alone on a desert island. These are some of the earliest examples of a desert island story. However, while Hayy lives alone for most of his story, Kamil's story goes beyond the desert island, becoming the first example of a science fiction novel.

Ibn al-Nafis described his book Theologus Autodidactus as a defense of "the system of Islam and the Muslims' beliefs about the missions of Prophets, religious laws, the resurrection of the body, and the temporary nature of the world." He presented logical arguments for bodily resurrection and the immortality of the human soul, using both logical reasoning and information from the hadith to prove his case. Later Islamic scholars saw this work as a response to the metaphysical claim by Avicenna and Ibn Tufail that bodily resurrection cannot be proven by reason. This view had been criticized earlier by al-Ghazali.

A Latin translation of Philosophus Autodidactus was published in 1671. The first English translation came out in 1708, and German and Dutch translations were also published. Philosophus Autodidactus became very influential in European literature and was a popular book throughout Western Europe in the 1600s and 1700s. These translations later inspired Daniel Defoe to write Robinson Crusoe, which also featured a desert island story and is considered the first novel in English.

Philosophus Autodidactus also had a "profound influence" on modern Western philosophy. It became "one of the most important books that announced the Scientific Revolution" and the European Enlightenment. The ideas in the novel can be found in "different ways and to different degrees in the books of Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Isaac Newton, and Immanuel Kant." The novel inspired the concept of "tabula rasa" (blank slate) developed in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690) by Locke, who was a student of the translator. The novel also explored ideas like empiricism, tabula rasa, nature versus nurture, condition of possibility, materialism, and Molyneux's Problem. The novel also inspired Robert Boyle to write his own philosophical novel set on an island, The Aspiring Naturalist.

Political Philosophy

Early Islamic political philosophy stressed a strong connection between science and religion. It emphasized using ijtihad to find truth. In effect, all philosophy was "political" because it had real effects on how society was governed. This view was challenged by the Mutazilite philosophers, who had a more secular view. They were supported by secular leaders who wanted freedom to act independently of the Caliphate. The only Greek political book known to medieval Muslims at the time was Plato's Republic. By the end of the Islamic Golden Age, however, the Asharite view of Islam had generally won out.

Islamic political philosophy was deeply rooted in the main sources of Islam: the Qur'an and the Sunnah (Muhammad's words and practices). However, in Western thought, it is generally known as a specific area belonging only to the great philosophers of Islam: al-Kindi, al-Farabi, İbn Sina, Ibn Bajjah, Ibn Rushd, and Ibn Khaldun. The political ideas of Islam, such as kudrah (power), sultan (authority), ummah (community), cemaa (congregation) — and even the core terms of the Qur'an like ibada (worship), din (religion), rab (lord), and ilah (god) — are used as the basis for analysis. So, not only the ideas of Muslim political philosophers but also many other jurists and scholars presented political ideas and theories. For example, the ideas of the Khawarij in the very early years of Islamic history about the Khilafa and Ummah, or the ideas of Shia Islam about the concept of Imamah, are considered examples of political thought. The conflicts between the Ehl-i Sunna and Shia in the 600s and 700s had a true political nature.

The 1300s Arab scholar Ibn Khaldun is considered one of the greatest political thinkers. The British philosopher-anthropologist Ernest Gellner thought Ibn Khaldun's definition of government—"an institution which prevents injustice other than such as it commits itself"—was the best in the history of political theory.

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See also

• Islamic philosophy
  • Modern Islamic philosophy
• Islamic science
• Islamic Golden Age
• Peripatetic school
• Sufi philosophy