Ibn Rushd (1126 – 1198)
Ibn Rushd or his full name, Abu Walid Muhammad Ibn Ahmad bin Muhammad Ibn
Rushd was born on 1126 C.E in Cordova. He belonged to a family of lawyers and public
servants, and naturally of the Maliki School. Ibn Rushd, his father and his grandfather all served
as judges (qadi) in Cordova. He died on 1198 C.E at the age of 72 in Marrakesh or now known
as Morocco. His era was in the medieval philosophy era which is the golden age of Islam. Ibn
Rushd often known as Averroes when his name was Latinized. Averroes main interest was on
Islamic philosophy, theology, Islamic jurisprudence, mathematics, medicine, physics and
astronomy. In his early life, he started his studies in a traditional way by studying Hadith,
linguistics, jurisprudence, and scholastic theology. Throughout his life, he wrote extensively on
Philosophy and Religion, attributes of God, origin of the universe, metaphysics and psychology
but he excelled in philosophy and jurisprudence and was nicknamed “the jurisprudent
philosopher”.
The most important writing of Averroes was the ‘Tahafut-al-Tahafut ‘where he write his
work based in response to the Al-Ghazali’s work of ‘Tahafut-al-Falasifa’ (Refutation of
Philosophers). Averroes quotes Al-Ghazali in style of dialogues exclusively in full, lengthy
passages on incorporating almost all of the ‘Tahafut-al-Falasifa’. In his work, he defended
Aristotelian’s philosophy and integrate it with Islamic thoughts. The common theme throughout
his writings is that there is no inappropriateness between the religion and philosophy when both
are properly understood and meaning to reach the same truth. Al Ghazali believes that any
individual act of a natural phenomenon occurred only because God willed it to happen. Ibn
Rushd insisted that phenomena followed natural laws that God created. The Asharites theology
that is Al-Ghazali put forward an interpretation of Shari’a in Islam which emphasizes the power
and influence of God over all things, which lead them to abandon the objectivity of causality,
ethics and the world as an eternal entity. Basically, Ibn Rushd spent most of his life arguing
against this approach in all its various forms. Al-Ghazali rejects completely the claims which the
Greek tradition of philosophy in the Islamic world tried to establish.
Al Ghazali stated that one must be well versed in the ideas of the philosophers that must
be logical before setting out to refute their ideas. Ibn Rushd response defend the doctrines of the
philosophers and criticized Al-Ghazali’s arguments. He intended to create harmony between
religion and philosophy, which means between Aristotelian’s ideas and Islam. He claims that
Aristotle is also right and the words of Holy Quran are also the eternal truth. His ideas was
criticized by many Muslims scholars for his book which had a deep influence by the European
thought, at least until the beginning of modern philosophy and experimental sciences. Ibn Rushd
is not a follower of Aristotle, because he was also rejected Neoplatonism and particularly by the
work of Avicenna (Ibn Sina). Averroes just refers to Aristotelian’s philosophy, commented on it,
and integrates is with Islam. Averroes longest commentary was largely based on his own
analysis of the interpretations of Quranic concepts. He produces powerful arguments that were
to puzzle his philosophical successors in the Jewish and Christian worlds. His commentaries and
unique interpretations on Aristotle revived Western scholarly interest. Averroes emphasized that
in arriving religious truths, it can be done through philosophy and the study should not be
prohibited. Averroes shows that religion is inferior to philosophy and there should be no tension
between them. As a human being, it is important to be open minded and integrate with others to
seek knowledge and finding the truth that fulfill human desires to be happy and does not
distinguish other philosophy or ideas.
Reference:
1. Averroes and His Philosophy by Oliver Leaman (1988) (1-27)
2. The Heart of Islam: Enduring Values for Humanity by Sayyed Hossain Nasr (2004)
