Alhassanain(p) Network for Heritage and Islamic Thought

Alhassanain (p) Network for Islamic Heritage and Thought

Fundamentals of Islamic Thought

God, Man and the Universe

In this text Ayatullah Mutahhari discusses Islamic thought on topics such as "Man & Faith", “The Worldview of Tawhid”, “Philosophy” & "Spiritualism" to clarify matters and resolve problems and contradictions as no other system of thought can.

Author(s): Ayatullah Murtadha Mutahhari

Translator(s): R. Campbell

www.alhassanain.org/english

Table of Contents

Introduction 5

Man and Faith 6

Man and Animal 6

Awareness and Desire in Animals 6

Awareness and Desire in Man 6

The Touchstone of Man's Distinctiveness 7

Relationship between Humanity and Animality 8

Science and Faith 10

Relationship of Science and Faith 10

Non-interchangeability of Science and Faith 14

Effects and Advantages of Religious Faith 16

Producing Cheer and Expansiveness 18

Ameliorating Social Relationships 20

Lessening Troubles 21

The Teaching - Ideology 21

Classifications of Actions 21

The Insufficiency of Reason 23

The Need for Ideology Today 24

Two Types of Ideologies 25

Cultural Unity or Diversity 27

Ideological Temporality and Environmental Specificity 27

Ideological Constancy or Change 28

The Need for Faith 28

Islam: The Comprehensive and All-Encompassing Teaching 28

Where Thought Stumbles 29

Reliance on Supposition Instead of Knowledge and Certainty 29

Psychical Tendencies and Desires 29

Haste 30

Traditionalism and Looking to the Past 30

Obedience to Personalities 30

Wellsprings of Reflection in Islam 31

Notes 32

The World View of Tawhid 34

World Feeling versus World Knowledge 34

Three Worldviews 34

Scientific Worldview 34

Philosophical Worldview 37

Religious Worldview 37

Criteria for a Worldview 38

The All-Encompassing World View of Tawhid 38

The Realistic Worldview 40

God, the Absolute Reality and Source of Being 41

The Attributes of God 43

The Uniqueness of God 43

Worship 44

Levels and Degrees of Tawhid 45

Essence 46

Attributes 47

Acts 47

Worship 48

Man and the Attainment of Unity 49

Materialistic Theory 49

We were single, of one substance all 50

Idealistic Theory 50

The animal soul has no unity 51

Realistic Theory 52

Levels and Degrees of Shirk 57

Essence 57

Creatorship 60

Attributes 60

Worship 60

Boundary Between Tawhid and Shirk 62

Veracity and Sincerity 66

Unity of the Universe 68

The Unseen and the Manifest 69

This World and the Hereafter 71

Far-Reaching Wisdom and Divine Justice 72

Self-Sufficiency and Perfection of the Divine Essence 73

Order 73

Universality 73

Subject's Capacity 74

Necessary Being 74

Categories of Evils 75

Goods and Evils 75

Good in Evil 75

Laws and Norms 75

Essential Unity 75

The Principle of Justice in Islamic Culture 76

Notes 77

Philosophy 80

What Is Philosophy? 80

Literal and Semantic Definitions 80

Muslim Usage 81

True Philosophy 82

Metaphysics 84

Philosophy in Modern Times 85

Divorce of the Sciences from Philosophy 86

Illuminationism and Peripateticism 87

Islamic Methods of Thought 91

Four Islamic Approaches 91

Sublime Wisdom 93

Overview of Philosophies and Wisdoms 95

Problems in Philosophy 96

Being 96

Existence and Essence 97

The Objective and the Subjective 98

Truth and Error 99

The Created in Time and the Eternal 100

The Mutable and the Constant 102

Cause and Effect 106

The Necessary, the Possible, and the Impossible 108

Notes 110

Spirit, Matter, and Life 112

Spiritualism - The Substantive Reality of the Spirit 112

The sura Mulk describes God as 121

Tawhid and Evolution 128

Notes 136

Introduction

The late Ayatollah Murtadha Mutahhari, a scholar of remarkable breadth and profundity, was one of those central figures who laid the intellectual foundations of the Islamic Revolution of Iran, years before its occurrence. In this collection of six essays he demonstrates his deep understanding of and meticulous research on all the topics he covers, which include faith, the world-view of Tawhid, philosophy, spirit, matter and life.

In the first essay, “Man and Faith”, the author explains what separates man from all other animals. Having established that science and faith are two of the central pillars of man’s humanity, Mutahhari discusses the relationship between them. Then he explains why man needs religious faith and why Islam is the only comprehensive teaching.

The second essay is titled “The Worldview of Tawhid”. Explaining that all religions, customs, schools of thought, and philosophies are based on a foundation, the author describes the three classes of world-views: scientific, philosophical, and religious. But the only all-encompassing worldview is that of Tawhid; it alone posses the five necessary characteristics. Both Tawhid and its opposite shirk, have levels and degrees, and Mutahhari defines them and delineates the boundary between them. The author also discusses in this essay the implications of Tawhid for the unity and the uniqueness of the universe, far-reaching wisdom and divine justice, and the justice in Islamic culture.

The final of the longer essays concerns philosophy. Mutahhari begins by defining the word “philosophy”, including its Muslim usage. He sketches the history of philosophy from Aristotle to modern times. The author divides Islamic philosophers into two groups- illuminationist and peripateticists- although he suggest that two other methods of thought, ‘irfan (gnosis) and kalam (scholastic theology), both of which are at variance with the first two methods, have played an important part in the development of Islamic culture. Mutahhari closes the third essay by discussing some of the problems studied in Islamic philosophy.

The fourth section of the book consists of three briefer pieces. The first concerns spiritualism, on which Mutahhari cites the work of a diverse range of Western thinkers from Aristotle to Freud before discussing the position of post-Avicennan Islamic philosophers. In the second, the author explores the Qur’anic view of life to see with what special logic the Qur’an treats the relation between life and the supernatural, the will of God. To round out the first two discussions, Mutahhari next considers the question of Tawhid and evolution. He explains the errors that have led to the belief that there is a contradiction between the two.

As Mutahhari stresses, Islamic thought on all these topics helps clarify matters and resolve problems and contradictions as no other system of thought can. The Qur’an provides all the guidance one needs to solve the profound problems Mutahhari discusses.

Hamid Algar