The closing of the Muslim mind - Essay Example

In Reilly's view, the success of this school over others in the ninth and tenth centuries lead to the decline of reason and therefore the closing of the Muslim mind. The consequences are drastic, but Reilly believes that, now that the problem has been diagnosed, it is possible to make fundamental changes in the Middle East by promoting different interpretations of Islam, embracing reason both in life and in theology, and essentially embarking on Aquinas' mission to unite reason and faith (197-207).

Reilly refers frequently to the “dehellenization” of Sunni Islam in specific and Islam in general (11-40; 119-127). Initially, as Islam expanded, it was largely tribal, warlike and violent. This was due to the character of the region prior to Mohammed, of course: In many fundamental ways, Mohammed was a progressive reformer. Nonetheless, as a non-status quo power expanding outwards, Islam felt little need to absorb other cultures, until it started to find cultures and groups clearly superior in technological and military might.

“Islam encountered Greek thought in its new Byzantine and Sassanid possessions. Exactly how these early Hellenic influences reached into Islam is a matter of some conjecture. What is clear is that huge areas of what had been the Byzantine Empire were largely Christian, and in them Greek philosophical notions had long been employed in Christian apologetics. There were also centers of Hellenistic learning in Alexandria (which moved to Antioch, Syria, around A.D. 718) and Gondeshakpur, northeast of Basra, Iraq” (23-27).

As Muslims expanded, they encountered resistance, both theological and physical. As an outcome of the physical resistance, they got Greek books and knowledge; as an outcome of the theological resistance, Muslim scholars became versed in Christian ideology, Greek and Latin as languages, and became far more erudite (27-35). The consequence of this Hellenization was the emergence of the Mu'ztalite interpretation of Sunni Islam (41-58). Greek thought in its classical form emphasized the role of reason over the passions, the rigorous use of logic, questioning authority, engaging in experimental analysis of the world, and using dialectical modes of reasoning and questioning to arrive at the truth from multiple perspectives.

The synthesis of Greek and Muslim thought produced a period that Reilly waxes poetic over in Chapter Two, a period of learning during which Islam was the cradle of civilization alongside the Byzantines pitted against a horribly backward and ignorant Christian Europe. The Mu'ztalites viewed Man as free: The Koran (40:40) says, “Whosoever does an evil deed shall be recompensed only with the like of it, but whosoever does a righteous deed, be it male or female, believing shall enter Paradise, therein provided without reckoning”, alongside many other verses which establish that men are to think for themselves, which Mu'ztalites used to argue indicated that men were supposed to be freely determine for themselves right and wrong, to create and inquire (35-40).

But it was not to last. Political struggles determined the fate of Mu'ztalite interp