Article Review: The Need to Revive Islamic Philosophy

I still waiting for lecturer's feedback on this task as it is my first time reviewing an article. And I did write them all only few hours before class started. I was forgot the day of submission. Crazy stuff! This is for class under Dr. Wan Mohd Azam Mohd Amin.

Book Review

The Need to Revive Islamic Philosophy by Mohammed A. Muqtedar Khan; Doctoral Fellow in International Relations, Georgetown University, Intellectual Discourse, Vol 6, No 1, 1998. Pp. 1.

Reviewer: Fakhratu Naimah Muhad, 1210062, Student of Usuluddin and Comparative Religion Studies, International Islamic University Malaysia.

The Muslim world has responded to the declination of the Muslim mind in many ways. They try to revive back the glorious, independent, and innovative states to our current world as it already experienced a global resurgence in its political and cultural significance to Muslim society.  Thus, the initiative to bring up the lost treasure by the project of Islamization of Knowledge should be pursued on. As stated by Ismail R. al Faruqi, it is an effort to advance an Islamic social science that would free the pursuit of social understanding from the imperative and preference of Eurocentric thought. While numbers of scholars or thinkers are concerning about how to free the Muslim world from the Western and secular denomination, Mohammed A. Muqtader Khan tries to capture the different angle by reviving the new philosophy of Islam which included concept of Islamic state, Islamic democracy, al-hakimiyyah (Allah’s sovereignty) and Islamic political economy.

            The author puts his disappointment towards the absence of philosophy in the spirit of Islamic renaissance in this present-day. For him, without Islamic philosophy the effort in reviving the Islam is incomplete and not viable. Towards the greatness of understanding philosophy, it will give accuracy and wisdom to the intellectual dimension as well as to give the rational influence in order to protect the discourse from polemics and symbolism.

            The existence of the current philosophy like Abdul Karim Soroush of Iran and Seyyed Hossein Nasr are still not enough for our Muslim world as the former still far to put himself in the Islamic tradition for he is more of a Marxist. Meanwhile the latter is metaphysical, mystical, scientific and philosophical but the problem is his strong encouragement on traditional Islam and total rejection of modernity making the confuses about his status in the Islamic philosophy. Thus, the author actually supporting the readers to involve in the field of philosophy by also giving the conclusion of al-Kindi’s argument, there is no escape from the study of philosophy.

Tahafatul al Falasifah

           Muqtedar Khan states that Imam Hamid al Ghazali’s critique of the philosophers has done much destuction to the development of Islamic thought especially in Tahafatul al-falasafah (The Incoherence of Philosophers). al Ghazali divided the field of philosophy into six categories; logic and mathematics, ethics and politics, physic and metaphysics. For those discourses, he rejected their physics and metaphysics- even excommunicated the philosophers who argued on the eternality of the world, the concept of God that only belong the knowledge of the universal, sundry. Regrettably, the loose interpretation of his critique, had contributed to the weaken of the Islamic development.

            The re-appropriate science without reviving the philosophical traditions seems in vain as both are inseparably linked. Al Kindi, al-Farabi, Ibn Sina and al-Farabi- they were philosophers as well as scientists. For the author, the rejection of the philosophy means rejecting science also. Thus, the singular cause of the declination of Islamic civilization was owing to the declining of philosophy, science, rational discourse and free thinking in Muslim society. In this paper, Muqtedar Khan does support the statement of al-Ghazali by ignoring or completely grant the metaphysic realm to the traditional Muslim scholar, ulama’ but the other branches of philosophy need to be revived.

            Without understanding the function of the philosophy, it is worthless to revive it back. For the current issue of Muslim society; lack in consideration in the social and political of present and future system, we must bring the Muslim community in the track of understanding the challenge of the modernity and democracy, symmetry and asymmetry between Islam and modernity. All of these systems are actually turn us to be slaves of the time and history, become the shapers rather than reshaped. Muslims now feel secure in other province (following other system) and persecuted in our own tradition. Hence, the needs of philosophers are needed to reflect the surrounding matter.

            The author did catch my sight by giving the statement that he is refusing the to admit that the scientific enterprise and systematic philosophy exclusively to the West as both practices are the final analysis from our prominent scholars Ibn Sina and Ibn Rusyd. Even the West also recognizes the enormous significance of Islamic civilization to the contemporary West.

            Here in this paper, Muqtader Khan did propose the first step in rejuvenating the Islamic philosophy by reviving the spirit and essence of the previous tradition. He explains further; ‘rather than being obsessed with producing Islamic states, we must strive for Islamic societies and Islamic governance. It is not important how we elect our political leaders and wether we call them ‘President’ or ‘Khalifah’. What is important is that we realize Islamic governance.’ I do agree with these statements as the way to produce the Islamic state is far from our effort because yet our small societies are still trapped in the uncertain condition- cannot differentiate the fundamental of Islamic environment is more important than the Muslim caliph whom does not understand the soul of Islam.

            Living in this modern world, Muslim also needed to come to the terms with modernity. Soruosh divided modernity into two categories; 1. Fruits of modernity and 2. The roots of modernity and surely the majority of Muslims today are merely the eater of that fruits. The questions on which type of modernity that we can consume- legal for Muslim, the philosophers are needed in order to understand the basis of each modernity before the jurist make the conclusion of weather it is permissible or not.

            Muqtader Khan concluded his writings by saying the covenant link us with the divine through the Quran, providing the foundations necessary for a meaningful philosophy. Thus, the philosophy is not against the foundation of Islam and even the Quran is the sufficient to form the base of the entire structure of Islamic philosophy.

            To conclude, Muslim should aware that Islamic philosophy is not as Western philosophy as the latter is not renounced the ethical and moral foundations of Islam. I do agree with the opinions of Muqtader Khan that the Islamic philosophy should be awakened again in order to give a spirit for the Muslim community to move on and flourished again in both revelation and empirical studies especially in this modern and chaotic condition of Muslim communities.