He was also exposed to the Sunni doctrine...

He was also exposed to the Sunni doctrine, as his fiqh teacher Ismail al-Zahid, was a Sunni, and to Twelve- Imam Shi’ism. In addition, he was given some background in logic, geometry and astronomy by his other teacher, al-Natili. He exercised his independence of though very quickly, however. First, he dispensed with reaches, continuing his education on his own; and second, he did not adhere to any of the doctrines to which he was exposed.

Rather, he drew on various sources, selecting only what he considered convincing. Thus, we see in his system traces of Platonism, Aristotelians tendency, is not purely Aristotelian, as it is usually considered. The theory of creation, for example, which is basically Neo-Platonism, and that of prophecy, which is Islamic in essence, they are but two examples of its many non-Aristotelian teachings.

Al-Juzjani confirms the uniqueness of this work and asserts that it is nothing but the product of Ibn Sina’s own thought.6 Ibn SIna himself makes a similar point, stressing his originality in this work, especially, in the Logic and Physics.7 The most important of Ibn Sina’s books are al-Qanun fi’l-tibb (“The Canon of Medicine”), al-shifa’ (“Healing”), al-Najah (“Deliverance”), ‘Uyun al-hikmah (“Sources of Wisdom”), Danishmama-yi- ‘ala’i (“the book of Science Dedicated to ‘Ala’ al-Dawlah”) and al-Isharat wa’l-tanbihat (“Remarks and Admonitions”).

Al-Qanun fi’ltibb consists of five parts. Translated into Latin a number of times, it was considered the most important medical source both in the East and in the West for about five centuries (i.e., until the beginning of the eleventh/seventh century) and continues to be the primary source of Islamic medicine wherever it is practiced to this day, such as the Indo-Pakistani subcontinent.

The enormous amount of material in al-Shifa’, which is the most detailed philosophical work of Ibn Sina, is grouped under four main topics: Logic, Physic into eight, and Mathematics into four. Physics (with the exception of the two parts dealing with animals and plants, which were completed after Mathematics) was the first to be written, followed by Metaphysics, then Logic, and finally Mathematics. Al-Najah, which is a summary of al-Shifa’, also consists of four parts.

The Logic, physics and Metaphysics of this work were prepared by Ibn Sina and the Mathematics by al-Juzjani. ‘Uyun al-hikmah, known also as al-Mujaz (“Epitome”).