In order to defend the Islamic beliefs ( aqida) the...

In order to defend the Islamic beliefs ( aqida) the Mutazilites resorted to Greek philosophy, which was at the time gradually being translated into Arabic (Kasim, 1969).

Whilst there is no need to dwell upon the various schools of kalam here, it is perhaps worth noting that their intellectual exertions and struggles ended with the loss of the Mutazilites to the Asharites, the victory of the 'People of the sunnah' ( Ahli al-sunnah), and the Jabarite (determinist) trend succeeding over the supporters of the rationalist school and the school of free arbitration (Kasim, 1969. Bintu Shati, 1983).

This win has been one of the biggest causes of the underdevelopment amongst the Muslims during the last few centuries. The nature of the struggle between the various schools was such that the ulema , being so absorbed in the issue of aqida , did not show enough interest in the psychological, sociological, economic and political problems of the Muslim society.

Instead, more often than not, their intellectual exertions served as a disguise for a struggle for power and a concealment of real social and economic issues.

Kasim (1969) pointed to this fact when he said: "The Ummayad sided with the Jabarites because their protagonist views suited, and endorsed the ruling class against their opponents, explaining that the transition of the Caliphate to them was only by God's Destiny." (p.7) Coincidentally, these were the same tactics followed by the French colonialists in Algeria, as they too mobilized the Sheikhs of some Sufi orders to spread the Jabarite (determinism) trend among the population, to make them believe that the French colonization was a predestined that could not be revoked, a fait accompli!

Imam Abdul-Hamid ben Badis fought with great courage and decisiveness against the defeatist attitude which was predominant as a result of that campaign. The position of philosophy in comparison to the other sciences remained weak in the context of Islamic thought, until the time of Maimonides who founded a library, Dar-al Hikmah , for the translation of the Greek philosophical heritage, which, as it is known, was an ensemble of philosophy, medicine and mathematics.

There is no doubt that the logic of Aristotle and his views on the soul, the physical world and metaphysics, ran through the works of many Muslim philosophers, doctors and mathematicians.