The First Philosopher in Islam - Essay Example

INTRODUCTION This paper provides an insightful study on the thoughts of al-Kindi as a philosopher so as to identify and authenticate him as the first and foremost true philosopher of Islam. Before him, Islamic philosophy was confined to the knowledge of religious principles through revelation. Theologians used to study this knowledge and illustrate the meaning and ideologies of Islam as bestowed upon human beings by God. Al-Kindi's works however suggest a different and distinguished approach to religion and God's existence. Like theologians, he was a firm believer in God but he struggled to harmonise religion with reasoning. He authenticated the Quranic principles and the phenomenon of God's existence through theoretical reasoning. This serves to be answering the question whether or not he was a theologian, because if he is to be called a theologian then the term philosophy cannot be associated with him. Both the terms are distinct and belong to different schools of thought. The essay also enquires into the fact that al-Kindi's philosophy was greatly influenced by Greek philosopher and that most of his works comprise the translated work from Greek philosophy. This argument also needs to be resolved, because if al-Kindi had no originality, then he cannot be called the first Muslim philosopher. Therefore, the main question encompassing the essay is whether or not al-Kindi was the first true philosopher of Islam and this paper goes about the question by first introducing the essence of al-Kindi's philosophy and other prominent philosophers accompanies with a discussion on theology so as to confirm that he was not a theologian but a philosopher. THE FIRST TRUE PHILOSOPHER OF ISLAM- Truth and Integrity are said to be the essences of Islamic philosophy. Hitti (1970) says that Islamic history is an evidence of the enriching contribution of Muslim scholars on science, philosophy and theology of modern times. There have been numerous great Muslim philosophers who contributed their knowledge magnificently to various fields and aspects of philosophy. Some of them are al-Kindi, al-Ghazali, al-Suhrawardi, al-Arabi, al-Dawani, Ibn Hazm, al-Juwayni, al-Farabi and al-Razi. Of all these great philosophers, al-Kindi is known to be the first philosopher of Islam. He was the first philosopher in Arab and thus owing to his great contribution to the Arabic writings, he is often called the "philosopher of Arabs"1. Through his efforts only, the Muslims began to realise the philosophy to be an integral part of Islamic society. The analogy of most of his works suggests that he was exhaustively inspired from the Greek Neoplatoniasm and thus his writings reflect a great influence of Aristotelianism in his thoughts. Although, this inspiration from Greek philosophy is evident but his works also highly manifest that he had used Greek concepts in newer context that had not been presented before at that time. He in fact reconciled the Greek concepts of philosophy to the Islamic principles and thus introduced an entirely new philosophy. His writings infused a new life into Islamic philosophy by making it encompass all the sciences.2 His work was claimed to be mostly influenced by the Greek thought, which was due to the fact that he considered the acquisition of knowledge to be universal. He viewed knowledge was something that could be taken on from any society, culture or school of thought. Most of his work consists of translation of Greek books into the Arabic language. He himself was of the opinion that if one is to acquire the true knowledge, he should be willing to reach anywhere in his quest of its acquisition. Therefore, the claim that al-Kindi cannot be called first true philosopher of Islam because his thought was mainly influenced by Greek philosophers does not hold true, as what he did comprises not only translations but also his own reflection on the acquired knowledge. He presented the ancient Greek thought in his own context of understanding philosophy. Al-Kindi said, "We should not be ashamed to acknowledge truth from whatever source it comes to us, even if it is brought to us by former generations and foreign peoples. For him who seeks the truth there is nothing of higher value than truth itself"3 The philosophers and thinkers consider following his era also acknowledged him as the first true philosopher of Islam. Al-Nadim (p125) says, "Al-Kindi is the best man of his time, unique in his knowledge of all the ancient sciences. He is called the Philosopher of the Arabs. His books deal with different sciences, such as logic, philosophy, geometry, arithmetic, astronomy etc.- W e have connected him with the natural philosophers because of his prominence in science".4 Philosophy Of Al-Kindi- Comparison With Prominent Muslim Philosophers Al-Kindi was a staunch believer in the reality of truth and considered the philosophy to be an investigation as well as appreciation of the truth of universe. In his book "On First Philosophy"5, he himself defined the term philosophy as: "Philosophy is the knowledge of the reality of things within man's possibility, because the philosopher's end in his theoretical knowledge is to gain truth and in his practical knowledge to behave in accordance with truth".6 The truth in his philosophy is the concept of one God that remains evident in his every single piece of writing. At the end of the book On First Philosophy, he states, "The True One is, then, the First, the Creator, the Sustainer of all that He has created" This is the most significant essence of his philosophy. Although al-Kindi has derived the idea of truth from Greek Aristotelian philosophy but he has further consociated this idea with the truth of One almighty God. The major distinction that separates al-Kindi's philosophy from that of Aristotelian philosophy is his staunch belief in God and assimilation of the holy Quran. This is the most crucial concept underlying the Kindian philosophical ideology. His studies very often validate his reflection on truth and investigation of reasons behind the 'true'. He emphasises that philosophy should be treated as a knowledge that should travel with generations so as to enable man to satiate his quest for knowledge and reality of truth, which is the most significant of God' commandments. His following words reflect this thought: Philosophy is divided into two distinct categories, being theoretical and practical. The theoretical and practical aspects of philosophy account for various subjects it encompasses. For instance, mathematics, physics and theology are grouped as the theoretical subjects while practical ones reflect the demonstration of applying knowledge to individual and social lives. Al-Kindi ranked mathematics as being the first base of philosophical education. In the words of al-Kindi on philosophy: "The philosophical sciences are of three kinds: the first in teaching is mathematics which is intermediate in nature; the second is physics, which is the last in nature; the third is theology which is the highest in nature".7 These words from al-Kindi suggest his emphasis on the theoretical subjects most particularly. It manifests that al-Kindi deemed mathematics as the first of all philosophical studies. This can be attributed to the Aristotelian influence on his ideology of philosophy and also reflects the Arab tradition of considering Mathematics as the foremost education of all. Apart from that, al-Kindi's philosophical works include his reflections on various subjects having some core fundamental beliefs and ideologies such as his belief in God and Quran, harmonisation of philosophy with religion, his search for reasoning, appreciation of truth and presentation of logic etc. It therefore has become evident now that al-Kindi's work was a sheer appreciation of truth as reflected by his foremost definition of philosophy that still serves as a source of inspiration for learners even after centuries. Philosophy is the knowledge of truth and al-Kindi's works encompass the investigation of truth in every aspect of life. The greatest evident of truth in his philosophy is the concept of God that he deems as the ultimate truth and endeavours to support with philosophical thought. This is the first and foremost evidence declaring him as the first philosopher of Islam. Most of his studies reflect theoretical aspects of philosophy and he had a command over several subjects related to sciences as manifested in his philosophical works. Another evidence confirming the position of al-Kindi as the first true philosopher of Islam is that all the prominent Muslim philosophers came after him whereas most of them followed his basis philosophical concepts. Al-Farabi was the most eminent of the Muslim philosophers to follow the path of al-Kindi. He relates the study of philosophy to the same direction of quest for truth, as does al-Kindi. However, he has some distinct approaches to reach the truth ultimately being the God. He also belonged to the followers of Aristotelianism and Greek philosophical thought. Ibn Rushd and Avicenna were also among the distinguished philosophers who followed the Kindian course of thought. This all sums up to the fact that although al-Farabi, ibn Rushd and Avicenna were amongst the most prominent philosophers of Islam but they followed the same direction as followed by al-Kindi. Therefore, al-Kindi can rightly be called the first and foremost thinker to infuse philosophical thought into Islam. Al-Kindi- Reflection of Belief in One God: The belief in God is found to be the core concept involved in all his works especially in his treatise "On First Philosophy". In his definition of philosophy, he even devotes the term truth to the Almighty God, who is the only creator. He believes that philosophy is all about acquisition of knowledge that pertains to God through his creatures. His definition and illustration of God follows: "For God, great is His praise, is the reason and agent of this motion, being eternal (qadim), He cannot be seen and does not move, but in fact causes motion without. moving Himself. This is His description for those who understand Him in plain words : He is simple in that He cannot be dissolved into something simpler; and He is indivisible because He is not composed and composition has no hold on Him, but in fact He is separate from the visible bodies, since He ... is the reason of the motion of the visible bodies".8 He believed in Oneness and unity of God and validated this belief in his writings on several occasions: "He has no matter, no form, no quantity, no quality, no relation; nor is He qualified by any of the remaining categories (al-maqulat). He has no genus, no differentia, no species, no proprium, no accident9. He is immutable.... He is, therefore, absolute oneness, nothing but oneness (xvahdah). Everything else is multiple". 10 His philosophy of God does not lie in accepting and believing the God's revelation in the holy Quran, but also in proving and authenticating the truth with logical reasoning. He believed and illustrated the idea of God as the one who is the real cause behind every visible and invisible object. He explained this concept as the relationship between remote cause and immediate cause in the words: "If somebody shoots an arrow and kills a living being, the archer is the remote cause for the death of the animal, whereas the close cause is the arrow. The general remote cause for everything that exists is God who has created everything".11 Therefore, he doesn't just base his philosophical work to the extent of understanding religious text and accepting God's revelation, but also finding out the real truth that authenticate God's commandments. This is the major point of distinction between his philosophy and the theology. Al-Kindi- A Philosopher Or Theologian Theology refers to a knowledge, which is based on religious belief and the tradition of God's revelation. In theology, the theologians depend on religious context without employing the scientific reasoning or logic. Muslim theologians such as al-Ghazali, Ibn Hazm, al-Juwayni and al-Razi worked mostly on the Islamic theology consisting the illumination of religious books and literature. These theologians urged and preached that philosophy was not something that could be used to judge and experiment the religious phenomenon. They were of the opinion that religion was something excluded from philosophical analysis and logical judgments and that the religious principles were not to be confirmed or unconfirmed on the basis of logic rather they should be treated as true on the rationale that God had deemed them to be true. Owing to the Kindi's staunch belief in the existence of God and the reflection of this thought throughout the circumference of his works some might reckon al-Kindi as a theologian more than a philosopher. This can further contribute to the idea suggesting the negativity of the idea that al-Kindi was the first philosopher of Islam. Al-Kindi, on the other hand, by himself was a great admirer of truth and termed God as the ultimate truth of the world. He believed that if philosophy was to be termed the knowledge of truth then the concept of God's existence, which is the ultimate truth, could be well utilised towards the validation of God's beingness through reasoning. He even considered the knowledge itself a sacred gift of God through which the mankind the right path that lead to the ultimate Creator. His following words conform to this idea: "We owe great thanks to those who have imparted to us even a small measure of truth, let alone those who have taught us more, since they have given us a share in the fruits of their reflection and simplified the complex questions bearing on the nature of reality. If they had not provided us with those premises that pave the way to truth, we would have been unable, despite our assiduous lifelong investigations, to find those true primary principles which have taken generation upon generation to come to light". 12 As discussed above, al-Kindi's belief in God was not solely reliant upon the scriptures to suggest His existence; rather he considered philosophy to deal with the reasoning confirming His beingness. Al-Kindi was the first philosopher who brought about harmonisation13 of philosophy with the religion of Islam. El-Ehwany (1957) illuminates that al-Kindi was the first to introduce in Islamic philosophy a concord between philosophy and religion. The language of philosophy is reasoning and the essence of religion is based on revelation. The religious Muslims at that time, considered philosophy as the knowledge of atheists and believed in Islam solely because it was said to be true by God. Al-Ghazali, one of the most evident Muslim theologians was extremely against the philosophical thought. He deemed philosopher to be superfluously engaged in reasoning while keeping aside the religious commandments. He strictly clung to the thought that God is only Creator of the universe and no reasoning for the quest of cause is required to validate His existence. However, al-Kindi rejected this idea and tried to authenticate Islamic principles with proper reasoning, making him stand in the row of philosophers and not among the theologians. He said: "They disputed with good men in defence of the untrue position which they had founded and occupied without any merit only to gain power and to trade with religion". 14 Therefore, he condemned those bodies as "trading religion" by shutting down the doors of knowledge and reasoning onto themselves. He believed philosophy to be the knowledge of the reality of truth and reasons behind reality. He also claimed that philosophy and knowledge was the conduct of Prophets and that it was purely correlated with the Islamic monotheism and its principles. He commented: "The totality of every useful science and the way to attain it, the getting away from anything harmful and taking care against it-the acquisition of all this is what the true prophets have proclaimed in the name of God" 15 He was a firm believer in the fact that knowledge16 is transferred to human being from God because humans are limited in their knowledge and understanding unable to get the real meaning, therefore, humans are subject to submission before the messages revealed upon prophets and accept the truth of those messages. It does not at all mean that he himself agreed to the point that man abandon reasoning and rely solely upon revelation. Although he believed in the mastery of God's revelation to His prophets, yet he suggested that there existed matters that had not been dealt by prophets, which creates a need for philosophy. In the interpretation of Quran itself, he infused reasoning for the authentication of truth. Therefore, he was basically not a theologian in himself rather he was the first Muslim philosopher to work upon reasoning to provide a rationale for various principles of Islam as well as God's revelation in the form of Quran. He in fact worked to harmonise the Islamic philosophy with religion. In this context, it can be suggested that his ideas and thoughts were extremely in contradiction with that of the theologians making him stand apart from them. He was certainly not a theologian. The greatest difference between a theologian and a philosopher is the fine line between reasoning and revelation. Al-Kindi's work was inclined towards reasoning rather than sole revelation and thus came to be known as philosophy. The quest for reasoning behind the cause and the ultimate existence of God is the main difference that distinguishes al-Kindi from the other philosophers. He was the first to introduce philosophy in Islam and thus is rightly called the first true philosopher of Islam. Conclusion The above discussion of various aspects and core concepts underlying the philosophy of al-Kindi as observed mostly in his treatise "On First Philosophy" where he himself holds true as a philosopher according to his own definition of philosophy. His account of philosophy related the philosophy with the love and admiration for the search of truth. God is the real truth that he tried to authenticate with reasoning and logic. He believed that the universe was created by God for some specific purpose and knowledge could serve as the basis for enlightenment of God's existence. His belief in "One True God"17 and ultimate inspiration from Islamic principles served to be the soul of his philosophy that distinguished his thoughts from Greek and Muslim philosophers. He was the first philosopher is Islam because every other prominent Muslim philosopher came after al-Kindi and most of them followed the direction of al-Kindi in their philosophical thought. He cannot be considered as a theologian because despite his faith in God, he did not solely rely upon revelation but combined it with reasoning in real sense. Theologians on the other hand believed that God's existence could only be confirmed through revelation and prophetic knowledge. They outright ignored the importance of integrating reason into the principles of religion so as to further enhance the acceptability of religious commandments. These theologians criticised philosophers of being unfaithful and devoid of religious beliefs. Al-Kindi rejected this thought and strived to bring reason into compliance with religion. He deemed God to be the basis of all the truth and then went far into his quest for reasoning. Therefore, he can rightly be called the first true philosopher of Islam in the context of evidences presented throughout the essay. References El-Ehwany (1948), "Introduction To Al-Kindi's Treatise On First Philosophy", Cairo El-Ehwany (1948), Ed. "On First Philosophy"," Cairo El-Ehwany (1957), "Islamic Philosophy", Cairo Hein Christel (1985), "Definition and Einleitung der Philosophie - Von der spdtantiken Einleitungsliteratur zur arabischen Enzyklopddie", Bern and New York Hitti (1970), "History of the Arabs", New York: St. Martins Press Ibn al-Nadim (n.d.), "Al-Fihrist", Cairo Ibn Nabatah (n.d.), "Jharh His Ibn Zaidiin", Cairo Oliver Leaman (1998), "Islamic philosophy". In E. Craig (Ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. London: Routledge M. Abu Rida (1950-1953), "Rasa'il al-Kindi al-Falsafiya", Vol. I, Cairo M. Fakhry (1970), "A history of Islamic Philosophy", New York and London: Columbia University Press Rosenthal (1956), "Al-Kindi and Ptolemy," Studi Orientalistsci, Vol. II, Roma Read More