Book of Healing (Overview of all Chapters)

Book of Healing (Overview of all Chapters)

The Book of Healing (Kitāb al-Shifā,), a great classic of Islamic philosophy covers all aspects of Ibn Sīnā's philosophical system. It can be seen the effects of The Book of Healing on philosophy and theology during the Middle Ages, especially metaphysics. Besides its influence on Western philosophers such as Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus​[1], his works affected many Islamic scholars such as al-Ghazali, Ibn Khaldun, and Ibn Rushd​[2] (Averroes). He organizes the book into four main sections: logic, natural sciences, mathematics, and metaphysics. General information about methods and reasons for the writing of the book was given by Abu Ubeyd al-Cuzcani, a student and close friend of Ibn Sīnā. al-Cuzcani asks him to write a commentary book on Aristotle's works. Thereupon, Ibn Sīnā promised to write a book based on the information that was acceptable to him at a convenient time without mentioning the opposite ideas.

Firstly, he wrote the chapter on natural sciences and he left the chapter unfinished. Even though he promised to write without arguing with opposite ideas, he gave a place for scientific and philosophical discussions in many parts of Kitāb al-Shifā. According to Cüzcani's statement, he apart from the Plants (al-Nābāt) and Animals (al-Hayawan) sections, completed the Natural Sciences and Theology sections in twenty days. The section of the Logic is written by considering prior works published in this field and reviewing the objections made to them. He also added the Mathematics section (al-Riyādiyyāt) which he had previously worked