Among the scholars of Islam...

Among the scholars of Islam, philosophy is not merely a tradition of thought extending from ancient Greece, winding its way through the Neoplatonists, Muslims, Christians, modern Europeans and leading to the contemporary academic study of philosophy of science, religion, law and politics.

In the Muslim world, philosophy has always been more than a method and set of topics with a history; it has always demanded the acceptance of specific doctrines which have been considered by some to be inconsistent with Islam.

The philosophers of Islam, like the sufis and the Shī‘ah (and important thinkers often claimed allegiance to all three of these forms of esotericism), proposed non-literal interpretations of various verses of the Qur’ān and narrations attributed to the Prophet and his folk ( ṣ ). The reaction from the literal minded is predictable: charges of heresy, deviation and infidelity.

In the Qur’ān, we seem to be presented with the concept of a personal, if not anthropomorphic deity, while the philosophers and sufis claimed that God is existence itself, or the truth of existence, or absolute existence, Being. Islam apparently teaches that in the temporal period following death, various physical rewards and punishments are to be encountered. The philosophers and sufis claimed that the rewards and punishments were somehow simultaneous with our current lives.

The resurrection of the body has also been given various mystical and philosophical interpretations which are anathema to the literalists. The literalists are not to be dismissed as stubborn narrow minded people who insist on the authority of the Word of God over the use of human reason. Christian fundamentalism does not find a precise analogue in Islam.

In the quarrel with philosophy, both sides have employed subtle philosophical arguments to defend their positions, at least since the time of Ghazālī (d. 1111). The charge of the literalists is often that it is unreasonable to interpret the scriptures as suggested by the mystics and philosophers, and no matter how much we might like to side with the non-literalists, it must be admitted that philosophers and mystics have often provided interpretations of the texts which are hard to swallow.

In the Shī‘ī milieu, however, esoteric interpretation of texts is an intrinsic part of orthodoxy, for the Imams ( ‘A ) themselves revealed various levels of esoteric knowledge passed down to them from the Prophet ( ṣ ) along with their status of trusteeship ( walāyah ).