A Prescription for These Troubled Times: The Philosophers of the Golden Age of Islam
By Wardella Wolford Doschek
Washington, DC
“Three things are necessary for the salvation of man: to know what he ought to believe; to know what he ought to desire; and to know what he ought to do.”
“The foundation of all foundations and the pillar of wisdom is to know that there is a Primary Being who brought all existence into being.”
“Four traits lift a person to the highest ranks, even if their works and knowledge are little: forbearance, humility, generosity, and good character. This is the perfection of faith.”
These three quotations comprise part of a thought experiment proposed by Akbar Ahmed in his latest book, The Flying Man, Aristotle, and the Philosophers of the Golden Age of Islam: Their Relevance Today. One of the quotations is from the writing of Al-Ghazali, a prominent Muslim philosopher of the Golden Age of Islam; another of the quotations is from the work Maimonides, the most important Jewish philosopher of that age; and another is from Saint Thomas Aquinas, the most important philosopher of the Catholic Church during that same period. It is virtually impossible to tell which of the quotations was written by which author, demonstrating the great commonalities among Christianity, Judaism and Islam. (The first quotation is from Aquinas, the second from Maimonides, and the third is from Al-Ghazali.)
During the Golden Age of Islam, traditionally dated from the ninth century to the thirteenth century, and relatively coincident with the Middle or so-called Dark Ages in Europe from the fifth to the fifteenth centuries, an enormous number of scholars and philosophers lived and worked together, primarily in the Muslim world. They were influenced by each other and particularly by the works of the Greek philosophers who had lived many centuries before them. Without the work of these great polymaths it is entirely possible that the wisdom of the Greeks would have vanished. Not only did the Muslim philosophers translate the work of the Greek philosophers, they greatly expanded on it, laying the groundwork for the eventual Renaissance in Europe.
Akbar Ahmed, Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University, is a widely recognized and highly regarded anthropologist, Islamic scholar, poet, playwright, and filmmaker. He has also been a bridge builder among peoples and faiths throughout his entire career. To occupy his time and his mind during the long months of the coronavirus pandemic, Ahmed decided to study the plethora of philosophers who worked and interacted during the Golden Age of Islam. He chose four Muslim philosophers on whom to concentrate: Avicenna, Al-Ghazali, Averroes, and Ibn-Arabi, in addition to Maimonides (Judaism) and Aquinas (Christianity). The perception of too many in the West is that Islam has little to offer except hatred and violence. Like much of Ahmed’s other work, The Flying Man shows how incorrect this perception is.
The flying man referred to in the title is a thought experiment proposed by Avicenna. If a man were essentially suspended in space with his limbs outstretched, unable to see or hear, would he still be aware of his existence? Avicenna argued that although the man may not be aware of his body, he will still be aware of existence of his “self” or “soul.”
These philosophers and others of the Golden Age of Islam were all concerned with seeking knowledge, what Ahmed calls the “ilm-ethos.” They had different points of view, but all were influenced in one way or another by the Greek philosophers, particularly Aristotle. The substantial questions they grappled with included the nature of the universe, the nature of God, and the question of resurrection after death. Avicenna’s ideas were quite coincident with those of Aristotle, making him unpopular with some, although his ideas regarding the separation of the body and soul were more in line with those of Plato. Al-Ghazali pushed back against Avicenna’s position in favor of a more traditionally Islamic one, but he, too, gave considerable credit to Aristotle. Al-Ghazali’s ideas greatly influenced Averroes (Ibn Rushd) and through him Jewish and Christian thinking. Finally, Ibn-Arabi was concerned with the mystical tradition of Islam, Sufism, which in turn has influenced the mystical traditions of both Judaism and Christianity.
The philosophers that Ahmed discusses had a number of things in common in their personal lives. They were all polymaths. Their work was not confined to any one field of study, and they made important contributions to mathematics, medicine, chemistry, and astronomy in addition to their work in philosophy. They frequently excelled in poetry. Many of their lives were not easy, at one point being on the run from authorities and at another point having access to and being admired by the most powerful. But through it all they remained devoted to the pursuit of knowledge and produced prodigious amounts of work, their books sometimes numbering in the hundreds. Most importantly, they created an intellectual tradition that would define the Muslim world for centuries, a tradition that needs to be revived.
So, what relevance do these great men of the past have for today’s world? What lessons do they teach us in the 21 st century? And in particular what advice can they give us during times that seem to present the possibility of almost the destruction of civilization—intensifying climate change producing terrible fires, storms, desiccation of water resources, and rising sea levels; a global pandemic that has already produced over 600,000 deaths in the United States and millions of deaths worldwide; racial and religious strife in numerous parts of the world as the fear of the “other” seems more important than getting acquainted with the “other” as advocated by the Qur’an; the rise of authoritarianism and hatred of those with differing points of view in many parts of the world, including especially but not at all completely confined to the United States?
Ahmed suggests a number of answers to these questions. I will leave their details for the reader to discover for him/herself. But the most important one is that this is not the first time that Humankind has encountered challenging problems and that each of the problems can be resolved by the application of reason and the hope that comes from faith. This is the basic lesson that one learns from studying the works of the great Greek, Muslim, Jewish and Christian philosophers, as well as the philosophers of the other world faiths.
Perhaps this seems overly optimistic. But optimism is necessary for Humankind to survive and thrive. The optimism of The Flying Man is a great gift that Akbar Ahmed has given us during these particularly trying times. We owe him a debt of gratitude.
(Wardella Wolford Doschek is Secretary/Treasurer of the Muslim Women’s Association of Washington, DC and author of Straight and Sensible: My Journey to the Straight Path of Islam)
