Islamic theology

By El-Affendi, Abdelwahab

‘Ilm al-kalam (literally ‘the science of debate’) denotes a discipline of Islamic thought generally referred to as ‘theology’ or (even less accurately) as ‘scholastic theology’. The discipline, which ...

Objectivism and subjectivism in Islamic theology

see Ash‘ariyya and Mu‘tazila.

Islamic fundamentalism

By Choueiri, Youssef

The philosophical roots of Islamic fundamentalism are largely the result of a conscious attempt to revive and restate the theoretical relevance of Islam in the modern world. The ...

al-Sijistani, Abu Sulayman Muhammad (c.932–c.1000)

By Atiyeh, George N.

Al-Sijistani was one of the great figures of Baghdad in the fourth century AH (tenth century ad). He assembled around him a circle of philosophers and ...

Meaning in Islamic philosophy

By Leaman, Oliver

The discussion of the notion of meaning in Islamic philosophy is heavily influenced by theological and legal debates about the interpretation of Islam, and about who has the ...

al-Razi, Fakhr al-Din (1149–1209)

By Cooper, John

Imam Fakhr al-Din al-Razi was one of the outstanding figures in Islamic theology. Living in the second half of the sixth century AH (twelfth century ad), ...

‘Abduh, Muhammad (1849–1905)

By Robinson, Neal

The Egyptian reformer and Muslim apologist Muhammad ‘Abduh was a pupil and friend of al-Afghani. Although deeply influenced by him, ‘Abduh was less inclined to political activism and ...

Law, Islamic philosophy of

By Calder, Norman

One of the principles of Islam which precedes juristic discussion proper is that God, the creator and lord of the world, has commissioned humanity to believe, confess and ...

Proclus (c. AD 411–85)

By Siorvanes, Lucas

The Greek Neoplatonist Proclus aimed to find a logical and metaphysical structure in which unity embraces but does not stifle diversity. He assumed the underlying unity of reality ...

al-Muqammas, Daud (fl. 9th century)

By Stroumsa, Sarah

Daud ibn Marwan, called al-Muqammas, is the first Jewish thinker known to have written in Arabic and one of the earliest Arabic speaking theologians whose work is extant. ...

Ibn Taymiyya, Taqi al–Din (1263–1328)

By Pavlin, James

Ibn Taymiyya was a staunch defender of Sunni Islam based on strict adherence to the Qur’an and authentic sunna (practices) of the Prophet Muhammad. He believed that ...

Islamic philosophy, modern

By Morewedge, Parviz; Leaman, Oliver

There are a number of major trends in modern Islamic philosophy. First, there is the challenge of the West to traditional Islamic philosophical and cultural principles and the ...

Simplicity, divine

By Leftow, Brian

To be complex is to have many parts. To be simple is to have few. Theists of all religious traditions have asserted that God is completely simple – ...

Ibn Hazm, Abu Muhammad ‘Ali (994–1063)

By Leaman, Oliver; Albdour, Salman

Ibn Hazm was the originator of a school of interpretation which based its understanding of religious texts on the apparent meaning of scriptural concepts as opposed to their ...

al-Ghazali, Abu Hamid (1058–1111)

By Nakamura, Kojiro

Al-Ghazali is one of the greatest Islamic jurists, theologians and mystical thinkers. He learned various branches of the traditional Islamic religious sciences in his home town of Tus, ...

Ibn al-‘Arabi, Muhyi al-Din (1164–1240)

By Robinson, Neal

Ibn al-‘Arabi was a mystic who drew on the writings of Sufis, Islamic theologians and philosophers in order to elaborate a complex theosophical system akin to that of ...

Islamic philosophy

By Leaman, Oliver

Islamic philosophy may be defined in a number of different ways, but the perspective taken here is that it represents the style of philosophy produced within the framework ...

al-Juwayni, Abu’l Ma‘ali (1028–85)

By Leaman, Oliver; Albdour, Salman

Al-Juwayni rose to great prominence as a theologian in the Islamic world, and his theoretical discussions of philosophical issues played a significant role in the development of Islamic ...

Ash‘ariyya and Mu‘tazila

By Robinson, Neal

The Mu‘tazila – literally ‘those who withdraw themselves’ – movement was founded by Wasil bin ‘Ata’ in the second century AH (eighth century ad). Its members ...

Neoplatonism in Islamic philosophy

By Netton, Ian Richard

Islamic Neoplatonism developed in a milieu already saturated with the thought of Plotinus and Aristotle. The former studied in Alexandria, and the Alexandrine philosophical syllabus included such figures ...

Ibn Rushd, Abu’l Walid Muhammad (1126–98)

By Leaman, Oliver

Ibn Rushd (Averroes) is regarded by many as the most important of the Islamic philosophers. A product of twelfth-century Islamic Spain, he set out to integrate Aristotelian philosophy ...

Causality and necessity in Islamic thought

By Burrell, David

Discussions of causality and necessity in Islamic thought were the result of attempts to incorporate the wisdom of the Greeks into the legacy of the Qur‘‘an, and specifically ...

Averroism, Jewish

By Leaman, Oliver

Averroism was enthusiastically taken up by many Jewish philosophers and adapted in a number of ways that extended its scope beyond mere repetition of Averroes’ own arguments. Jewish ...

al-‘Amiri, Abu’l Hasan Muhammad ibn Yusuf (d. 992)

By Gaskill, Tom

Although al-‘Amiri had only a limited long-term impact, his extant works provide useful insights into an extremely creative period in Islamic philosophy in the tenth century ad. ...

Brahmo Samaj

By Kumar, K.S.

The Brahmo (or Brahma) Samaj (‘Society of Brahma’) is the name of a theistic society founded by Raja Rammohun Roy in Calcutta in 1828. It advocated reform, and ...