Muslim Philosophy

Muslim Philosophy

By

Peter Pan

Philosophy 2010

November 11, 2005

Muslim Philosophy

Islam is based on the Koran a revelation from God to the prophet Muhammad supplemented by the Sunnah which is a set of traditions about Muhammad's words and deeds. Muslims recognize Judaism and Christianity as revelations from God. However they believe that the revelation made to Muhammad is God's final word. Muslims believe that Jesus was a prophet but not God in the flesh.

Islam spread from Arabia mostly due to holy wars. Non-Muslims defeated in battle were offered the choice of conversion or death, much like the Spanish Inquisition. The exception was for Jews and Christians, who were allowed to continue their religious observances so long as they recognized Muslim political authority and paid a tax. The works on politics written by the Islamic philosophers were based especially on Plato, with influence also from Aristotle. This view was passed on to the Islamic philosophers.

Islamic philosophy is a longstanding attempt to create harmony between faith, reason or philosophy, and the religious teachings of Islam. The problem lays in the difficulty in fusing religion and philosophy since there are no clear preconditions. Most religions have a set of rules or principles that they consider to be truths.

The main sources of Islamic philosophy are the religion of Islam itself and the Greek philosophy.

Its principal dogmas are:

1. God is an absolute unity and no attribute can be ascribed to Him.

2. Man is a free agent.

3. All knowledge necessary for the salvation of man emanates from his reason; humans could acquire knowledge before, as well as after, Revelation, by