Episode 21: Ibn Rushd


Question: Mohamed Islam:

Who was Ibn Rushd ( Averoes ) ?

Answer: Abdel Wahab El Messeri:

He was like most Islamic Philosophers, also a jurist, a man of letters and a scientist. He lived in Cordoba for some time, and also shuttled between Cordoba and Marakesh. This was one Islamic Cultural Formation was one single, open area. Open for ideas, philosophy, people, merchants, travel, etc. until the First World War i.e. only 80 years ago. No visa was required to go from country to country. There were no boundaries until recently. Ibn Rushd was introduced to the court of Muagida Mugavid, the Sultan, who was impressed by his Philosophy. He was appointed a judge and was very close to the court. Later fell out of favor.

The philosophical discourse was conflicting with Al-Ghazali. In his Incoherence of the Philosophers, he showed that the outlook was not adequate at all.

The Islamic World Outlook is relevant here. Ibn Rushd did not completely understand the complexity of this world outlook of Islam with its interacting duality. Philosophers were important in this interacting duality. Philosophers like a pure mind. Al-Ghazali said: this is an impossibility, reason leads to skepticism, the mind is not enough. Divinely inspired norms are required. Philosophers like a world of complete unity, a monistic universe. What is good? What is bad? What is beautiful or ugly? The mind or reason can not determine for itself. The mind is at a complete loss. It needs a world outlook to guide it.

Ibn Rushd was a Muslim, believed in the Creator that is transcendental, separate from the creation. But he was also a philosopher, and he wanted to bring about a complete unity. He came up with the idea of the Universal Mind. God has a Universal Mind. Man is an imitation of that, an echo of that, or part of that. The Universal Mind was reflected in lesser and lesser minds. In the Platonic view the idea of several minds is really the substitute for the Islamic concept of fields. In Islam there is always a gap or field between the Creator and the creation. For the philosopher especially the neoplatonic the field has to be filled. Man and God becomes one in monism. If the gap is not filled then there is interaction. Man can either save or damn himself, according to his own action. By filling the gap , you either have absolute freedom, which is impossible, or absolute determinism, which is also impossible. This idea was transferred to western civilization and became the bases for materialism and complete rationalism. The interesting thing is that with this monism there is a sharp duality of a philosophical aristocracy, and the common people. Ibn Rushd argued that the secrets of philosophy should be open only to the learned elite. So reason is a substitute for revelation. Man can reach the idea of god through reason without revelation. The common people can not, they need revelation.

So monism leading to sharp dualism of the chosen elite. This is a simplification.

He was a judge. He believed in God. Believed in the limitations of reason. He attempted to fill the gap. Once transplanted to the Europe, all the Islamic elements were stripped from his philosophy. He became a rationalist, materialist who believed that the mind of God is actually eminent in matter, i.e. a precursor of modern secularism. The church in Europe had to ban him and rightly so, because the Averoes that got to Europe was a corrupted Averoes, without the nuances of the Islamic elements.

Question: Mohamed Islam:

How did Ibn Rushd get to Europe, and how did the corruption occur?

Answer: Abdel Wahab El Messeri:

In the 12th Century the Iberian Peninsula was reconquered by the Catholic Reconquesta. Many of the Jews moved to the Christian side. They translated Averoes to Hebrew and other European Languages. They also translated Aristotle, which was originally translated into Arabic. From Arabic it was translated to Hebrew, then Latin and other European Languages.

Question: Mohamed Islam:

The world after Averoes, what was his impact?

Answer: Abdel Wahab El Messeri:

Rationalism continued in the Islamic world. The picture was changed completely by the Mongol invasion followed by the Crusades. This was very early in the Islamic Cultural formation. The Islamic Cultural Formation was aborted when it was very young. In a cultural formation you tend to get:

1. Cultural output, then

2. Culture contemplates itself, then

3. Comes out with a world outlook.

Al-Ghazali was the first one to inherit this corpus, and tried to contemplate it and come up with an Islamic World Outlook, and Islamic Epistimology.

Averoes was a reaction to this. But a few years later, the Mongols came then the Crusades. The Muslim World withdrew into its own cocoon, and interpretation ( Ijtihad ) was discouraged.

Question: Mohamed Islam:

Is there a relationship between the later philosopher and sociologist, Ibn Khaldun and Ibn Rushd?

Answer: Abdel Wahab El Messeri:

Yes: I find that they are both interesting. Ibn Khaldun can be a materialist looking at history as a clash of social forces ( Asabiyah ) But all the time there is providence of God. Materialist history and Providential history. Unlike in Europe, where there was on the one hand Providential history and on the other hand Social and Secular history. Ibn Khaldun, combined both. Averoes tried to do the same. Averoes and Ibn Khaldun came out of the same cultural formation. Both, when their ideas reached Europe , the Providential or Islamic dimensions were stripped away. So they become social historians and secular materialists. So what we read today are always through European eyes or lenses. The providential views are stripped away.

Question: Mohamed Islam:

Is there an effort to reinterpret Ibn Khaldun, from the Islamic point of view, from the original Arabic?

Answer: Abdel Wahab El Messeri:

Yes, Dr. Zuadi, a Tunisian scholar has written several articles on Ibn Khaldun revealing the concept of duality in its Islamic complexity. Also Dr. Mohammad Emara, wrote about Ibn Rushd, showing the Islamic dimensions.

There are some contradictions with the previous, western interpretations, but the attempt is being made to get the proper perspective.

Question: Mohamed Islam:

Are these reinterpretations being transmitted to the West?

Answer: Abdel Wahab El Messeri:

Attempts to provide this reinterpretations to the west is slow. It would be very interesting to see what they do with it. The west transforms everything in its own image. It does not learn anything. We end up with this secular dogma of rationalism. We end up with a monistic universe, completely materialistic, without moral norms, no transcendental element to it at all

Question: Mohamed Islam:

Are there Islamic Philosophical Schools like Averoesian or Ghazalian?

Answer: Abdel Wahab El Messeri:

Not really. The Philosophical thinkers have gone beyond such special schemes, except in teaching situations. Shaik Kharadawi talks about Ibn Khaldun and Averoes in applications to fikh and social reforms. Mohammed Amara, writes on all kinds of topics. Philosophy can be extrapolated from his writings. Taha J. Alwani, a Faqih, writes on philosophy and literature. Ismail Raji Faroqui who was a professor of comparative religion, in his Cultural Atlas of Islam, demonstrates a philosophy with a coherent world outlook.


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