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Psychology Reference library
Jari Kaukua
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Science, and Technology in Islam
...his late ancient commentators. A central bone of contention was the question of substance dualism, that is, whether the individual human soul has a part that is independent of the body and can therefore survive its corruption. Further dualistic impetus was given by the Arabic Plotinus, which corroborates Aristotle’s definition of soul as the perfection of the living body but departs from the Stagirite in claiming that this is not in the sense of an enmattered form. Instead, the soul is the agent of the perfection of the living body, which leaves room for a...
Geography and Cartography Reference library
Constantin Canavas
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Science, and Technology in Islam
...Sezgin claims that a map ( Ṣūrat lauḥ al-Rasm ) found in a copy of the geography Masālik al-abṣār by Ibn Faḍl Allāh al-ʿUmarī ( 1340 ) kept in Topkapı Sarayı in Istanbul (MS Ahmet III, 2797 ) is essentially the world map of al-Maʾmūn’s geography project ( Sezgin, 1987 , Map 11, “Maʾmūnic Map”). This claim has been contested by other scholars, such as Tibbetts, who consider the possibilities of later (e.g., Ottoman) modifications of the extant Ṣūrat lauḥ al-Rasm as quite probable and regard “Maʾmūn’s map still as an enigma” ( Sezgin, 2000 , p. 20;...
Deduction and Induction Reference library
Parviz Morewedge
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Science, and Technology in Islam
...is a deduction in which a conclusion follows necessarily from a set of assertions that serve as premises. Muslims understand logical reasoning as an act of knowledge that combines “conception” or “conceptualization” ( taṣawwur ) of a subject with “assent” ( taṣdīq ) to a truth claim about it. Conception and assent are combined in the categorical statements that make up a syllogism, since these affirm or deny the predicate of their subject, as in “All human beings are rational” (Black). In his al-Najāt and Risāla-i manṭiq: Dānišnāma-i ʿalāʿī , Ibn Sīnā...
Observatories Reference library
Yavuz Unat and Salim Ayduz
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Science, and Technology in Islam
...quadrant. This device, which was also used to measure Kuhek Hill, on which the observatory was built, was 50 meters tall—the same height as the Hagia Sophia mosque in Istanbul. The dial of the quadrant was constructed as a part of the observatory, with the upper 60 degrees placed above ground and the lower 30 degrees below ground. One part of the dial was revealed as a result of an excavation by the Russian archaeologist V. L. Viatkin in 1908 . Uluğ Bey, al-Kāshī, Rūmī, and al-Qushjī compiled the observations and research carried out at the observatory in the...
Ghazālī, Abū Ḥāmid al- (1058–1111) Reference library
Mustansir Mir
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Science, and Technology in Islam
...causes of envy, lists types and grades of envy, discusses why envy is especially strong among peers, siblings, and relatives, and then prescribes the cure for envy ( Iḥyāʾ , 3:183–196 ). Shiism. In the Munqidh and other writings, Ghazālī sharply criticized Ismāʿīlism for its claim that a “sinless” imam was the sole gateway to the truth. The overt object of Ghazālī’s criticism were the Ismāʿīlī esotericists (whose presence in the political field in the form of Fāṭimid rule posed a great danger to Muslim society), but his essential anti-imamic argument...
Reason and Revelation in Islam Reference library
Binyamin Abrahamov
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Science, and Technology in Islam
...figurative interpretation ( taʾwīl ), the latter claiming that without this tool the Qurʾān and the sunnah would be understood as being replete with anthropomorphisms. Likening God to creatures detracts from God’s transcendence and exaltedness according to the rationalists, so one should bypass the plain meaning of anthropomorphic expressions and replace them with figurative interpretations. It is inconceivable to think of God having two hands (Qurʾān 38:75 ) or sitting physically on His throne (Qurʾān 20:5 ). Consequently, God’s hands stand for His power...
Evolution and Muslim Responses to It Reference library
Mohammed Ghaly
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Science, and Technology in Islam
...Persian around 1878 and then in Arabic in 1885 , the prominent reformist Jamāl al-Dīn al-Afgānī ( d. 1897 ) launched an onslaught against Darwin’s theory and tried to present it as a collection of unscientific, illogical, and absurd claims. He couched the theory in the following words: “A group [of those materialists] claimed that the germs of all species, and in particular the animals, are in fact identical and there is no difference between the species in essence. Therefore, they held that these germs can transform itself from one species to another...
Muʿtazilah Reference library
Racha el Omari and M. Sait Özervarlı
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Science, and Technology in Islam
...can justify that in this world God imposes a law upon him, and that in the next he will be rewarded or punished according to whether he has observed it or not. Obligation and sanction can only be understood in reference to a responsible being. Therefore, in the Muʿtazilī view, to claim that man can, in some way, be the agent or the one responsible for an act without causing it, as the followers of the theory of acquisition ( kasb ) do, is meaningless. God creates in the man the power ( qudra , istitā‘a ) corresponding to this act, but it is in advance as a...
Animals in Islamic Law and Muslim Culture Reference library
Sarra Tlili
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Science, and Technology in Islam
...of the Animals versus Man Before the King of the Jinn . This narrative consists of a fictional legal suit in which nonhuman animal characters dexterously use scriptural and rational arguments to refute humans’ claims to a superior status. Remarkably, characters on both sides of the dispute cite mainly the Qurʾān and the Ḥadīth in support of their claims, yet nonhuman animals’ nonanthropocentric reading of these two texts is consistently more persuasive. Time and again human beings are forced to admit defeat. Their dexterity notwithstanding, nonhuman animals...
Theology Reference library
Catarina Belo and M. Sait Özervarlı
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Science, and Technology in Islam
...to support either ʿAli or Muʿāwiyah, considering the latter to have sinned through rebellion and the former through agreeing to arbitration with the rebels. They considered sinners, especially grave sinners, unbelievers, claiming that faith and sin were incompatible. For them, “works,” (i.e., good deeds) were considered to be an integral part of the life of a true Muslim. In response to the challenge posed by the Khārijī, another group arose that advocated the suspension of judgment concerning the faith of any particular believer. Unlike the Khārijites, the...
Design Argument Reference library
Nidhal Guessoum
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Science, and Technology in Islam
...of providence” ( dalīl al-ʿināyah ). They often related these concepts to the Qurʾānic scripture; the first idea is, for instance, exemplified by the verses 25:61–62 and 78:6–16 , the second idea can be found in 86:5–6 and 88:17–20 , while many other verses contain a combination of the two, for example, 2:20–22 and 23:12–21 . Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī presented DA arguments in Kitāb al-Lumaʿ fīal-radd ʿala ahl al-zaygh wa-al-bidaʿ (The Sparks: A Refutation of Heretics and Innovators; 1955 ) ; basing his work on the Qurʾān, he argued that it is...
Soul, the Reference library
Imranali Panjwani
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Science, and Technology in Islam
...discipline one’s soul in front of God. Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Balkhī (d. 1273 ce ), popularly known as Rūmī, emphasizes looking inside one’s soul to remove hypocrisy and genuinely serve God: Here is another of God’s rules: “Begin with yourself.” If you claim to be humble and serve God, do not accept this claim without testing it. When people wash, first they lift some water to their nose and then they taste it. Simply looking at the water is not enough, for water may have the appearance of purity, but its taste and smell will prove if it is infected. Once the...
Transmission of the Modern Exact Science to the Muslim World Reference library
S. M. Razaullah Ansari
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Science, and Technology in Islam
...modern astronomy with a prose commentary in Persian with the title Miʿrāj al-tawḥīd (The Culmination of the [Divine] Unity); ms. in Aligarh (MAL), scribed in 1806 with 10 folios (in the codex 18/2, f. 20a -f. 29a) (See Abū Ṭālib, 1797 ). This tract of Abū Ṭālib is, in fact, a prose commentary on his own poem of sixty-five couplets. In his preface (fol. 20a) he refers to the sayings of modern scholars ( aqwāl-i ḥukamāʾ-i jadīd ), by which he understands knowledge about fixed stars, planets, their satellites ( aqmār ), planetary heliocentric distances, their...
Wisdom Reference library
Hikmet Yaman
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Science, and Technology in Islam
...al-ilāhiyyah ), after which he returned to Greece and imparted these sciences, that is, geometry, physics, and the science of religion ( ʿilm al-dīn ), to that land. He also singlehandedly discovered the science of melodies, and systematized them under ratios and numbers. He claimed that he had benefited from the niche of prophethood ( mishkāt al-nubuwwah ) in acquiring these sciences. Pythagoras viewed ḥikmah as “the medicine of souls” ( ṭibb al-arwāḥ ) ( Ibn Hindū, 2001 , 160), and stressed to his students that ḥikmah needs to be kept alive by way of...
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