ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books The Philosophy of Mulla Sadra and Its Influence in India [subcontinent] [The Main Schools of Islamic Thought] Peripatetic ( mashsha'i ) philosophy ( hiktna ) in the Islamic world had gained considerable importance between the ninth and twelfth centuries.

The peripatetic system which came to have considerable significance within both Islamic and Western philosophy had been established by Ibn Sina.1 His book Mantiq al-mashriqiyyin (Logic of the Orientals) not only deals with logical differences between him and Aristotle, but also includes a reference to other works of his own in which he claims to have gone in an entirely different direction from that of other peripatetic ( mashsha'i ) thinkers.

A highly influential attack on the role of philosophy as part of Islam was subsequently carried out by al-Ghazali in his Tahafut al-faldsifa (The Incoherence of the Philosophers). Al-Ghazali argued that the peripatetic philosophers (especially Ibn Sina) present as truths such theses as are either faithdenying ( kufr ) or innovatory ( bid'a ).

In spite of his anti-philosophical leanings, closer inspection of many of his texts reveals that he himself continued to adhere to many of the leading principles of Ibn Sina's thought. Further, in common with many other opponents of philosophy, he had a high regard for logic (which was regarded as a tool of philosophy rather than as part of it) and insisted on the application of logic to organized thought about religion.

Some opponents of philosophy such as Ibn Taymiyya went even so far as to criticize logic itself.2 As a result of such criticisms, peripatetic philosophy went into a sharp decline in the Sunni world after the twelfth century. But it still continued as part of a variety of philosophical approaches among Shi'i circles, where it combined with elements of illuminationist ( ishraqi ) philosophy, and developed into more and more complex theoretical systems.

The Ishraqi school of philosophy originated with Shihabuddin Suhrawardi whose basic premise was that knowledge is available to man not through ratiocination alone, but through illumination resulting from the purification of one's inner being. He founded a school of philosophy which is mystical but not necessarily against logic or a limited use of reason.