Revelation and Reason in Islam

The “Scholastic Problem” was the focus of much debate in Islam for some centuries before it became the chief crux of learned discussion in medieval Christianity. When originally published this volume was the first survey of the subject to appear in English. It reviews the conflict within Islam between Revelation and Reason and examines the attempts made by theology, philosophy, mysticism and authoritarianism to resolve the dilemma. The author reviews various verses from the Quran to analyze how they relate to Islamic philosophy in contemplating the conflicts between Allah’s predetermination over the lives of man versus the concept that man has his own ‘free will.’ He translates various specific Arabic words to explain their nuances. He reviews how various Muslim philosophers thought during the Middle Ages, and how their thoughts related to earlier Greek philosophers. He notes the debate amongst Muslim philosophers about the physical attributes of God: size and weight versus formless, and their thoughts about the soul of mankind, and how mysticism impacted some of the philosophers. He briefly details the differences between various Islamic schools of philosophy. This book is not a ‘critique’ of the various schools as much as it is a light, cursory review of their differences: the Sufi, Averroes, al-Farid, al-Ghazali, St. Thomas Aquinas (Christian influences), Ibn Khaldun, the Mu’tazilites, the Ismai’ili, etc., and their thoughts about the Jinn, fairies, demons, man and woman, the planets and stars, etc.

The author notes: “We have considered how theology, philosophy and infallible authority endeavored variously to resolve the conflict within Islam between reason and revelation.”