Philosophy in passing: The Authenticity of Islamic Philosophy and its Projections on the Turkistan-Turkey (Anatolia) Line

Those who have read this series of articles know that we have shared with you the originality of Islamic philosophy in the continuum of Peripatetic - Illuminationist and Akbarian teachings while studying at the Faculty of Theology in Çorum. On 6 February 20023, after the devastating earthquake that affected Syria, Lebanon and parts of Anatolia, the break was extended. On this occasion, we wish mercy to the deceased, urgent healing to the injured, and we ask our Mawla to prevent such accidents and the authorities to take the necessary actual prayers/measures to prevent new disasters with a scientific mindset that shows the cause and effect relationship in the universe. As the break between the semesters was long, we did an online recollection course, the text you will read is what is filtered from them.

- And philosophy

The pursuit of rational/coherent and critical thoughts/systems on existence (God-universe) knowledge and value means the love of wisdom. We read the intellectual accumulation of humanity, that is, the process of God sending the principles that will ensure prosperity and peace in this world and felah in the hereafter to different languages and cultures/tribes at different times and places. In other words, when there are breaks in the implementation of these basic principles sent by God, we read as the history of philosophy the wisdom of sending the same message (Tawhid) with a new practitioner (prophet/ messenger) in a different language and application form. 

In the light of the divine revelations brought by the Prophet Muhammad, he confronted the history of wisdom/philosophy and created a new vision of knowledge, science and civilisation unique to himself. In this context, al-Kindī, known as the first Muslim philosopher, analysed the ancient tradition before him in the context of the need for the study of philosophy, and in his work "The Book on the First Philosophy", he stated that the harmony of philosophy and religion is the explanation of the same truth. Afterwards, al-Farabi, who is described as the "second teacher" in the history of thought, explained how to enter philosophy in his work "Enumeration of Sciences". 

- Peripatetic Doctrine and Islamic Philosophy

At this point, we see al-Farabi as the philosopher who systematised Peripateticism, the founding doctrine of Islamic philosophy. Because he is "first and foremost a systematic and synthesising philosopher. His system constituted a point of departure for all the fundamental issues of philosophy in the Islamic world after him. His genius lies in his resurrection of many currents of thought that preceded him, his conscious systematisation of disparate elements into a philosophically coherent whole, and above all his thoughtful but insistent statements about the path of man to happiness." (David C. Reisman, Farabi and the Philosophy Curriculum, Introduction to Islamic Philosophy, Küre Publishing, Istanbul 2008, 59, 62, 77) 

It seems that the movement initiated by the Prophet as a religious, economic and political reformer was soon transformed into a process of knowledge, science and civilisation by an important group of scholars. Muslim philosophers reconstructed their own values by making use of ancient knowledge and established its philosophical foundations, and a civilisation was established whose influence lasted for centuries.  In our opinion, the philosophical founding doctrine of this civilisation was Peripateticism, which began to form a tradition of wisdom in the East with Farabi and Ibn Sina. With Ibn Tufayl, Ibn Bacca and Averroes in the West, this doctrine developed a critical attitude within itself and transformed Islamic philosophy into a unique doctrine in the history of philosophy. No one takes the claim that Islamic philosophy is a repetition of Western/Greek philosophy seriously anymore, because every philosophical system reads other accumulations with its own premises and transfers them to the next generation. In this sense, you know that there are those who say that the West's rereading of ancient philosophy with the commentaries of Muslim philosophers was the basis of their intellectual revival (Renaissance).

- Harsh Criticisms against Peripatetic Philosophers

For this reason, we would like to bring up the proposition that al-Ghazālī's criticism of the two Peripatetic philosophers is about general philosophy and that philosophical thought has been interrupted by prioritising the connection between Peripateticism and Ishraqism and the Akbarī tradition or philosophical continuity. The general acceptance of this proposition is based on his views in al-Munkiz min al-Dalal, in which he criticises the theological, philosophical and superstitious teachings in the context of their conception of truth and accepts the Sufi point of view after his condemnation of the philosophers, but in which he says that he avoids those who claim ittihāt (union) and hulūl, that is, the passing of the Divine essence or attributes to one or all of his creatures and their union with them. If we compare his views in al-Munkiz, in which he says that he avoids those who claim ittihāt and hulūl, with his work Mishkat al-Anvar, in which he makes a metaphysics of light, the inconsistency of marginalising Islamic philosophy by identifying it with the Peripatetic doctrine and making it anti-philosophical will be seen. 

It is a fact that al-Ghazālī's didactic writing of the basic propositions of philosophers in his Maqasid al-falāsifa, followed by his inconsistency of the inconsistency of the inconsistency in his Tehafut al-falāsifa and his othering, i.e. takfīr, with a sharp language, was very influential in the Islamic world. Ibn Rushd also says that this determination is not in harmony with the meanings he gives to the concepts of tafsir and tawil in his works titled Tehafut al-Thafsut and Faslu al-Makal (Philosophy and Religion Harmony (Faslu al-Makal fi ma beyne'l-hikmeti ve'ş-Şeria, translated by M. Uyanık, A. Aykol Ankara: Elis publishing house 2018), the title of which can be translated as the inconsistency of inconsistency or the misleading of misleading. However, it does not seem possible to say that this reduced al-Ghazālī's influence. 

Perhaps, in this context, it can be emphasised that al-Ghazālī's Maqāṣid, which he denounced as a kind of substructure for his Tehafut, is similar to Ibn Sina's Dānishnāme-i Alāʾī (Manuscript Works Institution Publication, Istanbul 2013, translation by Murat Demirkol). Again, let us draw attention to the similarities between the information in Ibn Sina's treatise Maqamat al-'l-'arifin and the Sufi discourse of reaching the truth as stated in al-Ghazālī's al-Munkiz. In this case, it is possible to find those who suggest that al-Ghazālī's takfīr is basically a sociological othering and should be read together with the socio-political conditions of the period consistent. It can even be said that these criticisms contributed to the formation of Islamic philosophy and its gaining an important place in the history of philosophy in general and showed its originality. 

In addition to this, if we make a comparative reading of al-Ghazālī's Mishkat al-Anvar, in which he makes a metaphysics of light as in the Isrārakī and Akbarī traditions, it is possible to say that he has a similar doctrine to the philosophers whom he marginalised and tried to destroy socially. As a matter of fact, in Mishkat, he analyses the intuition and intellect aspects of thought and holds intuition superior; in Ihya, he equates these two; and in al-Munkiz, he draws a limit to the prudence of the intellect. He states that the transcendent cannot have the last word on problems. This is a very important determination in terms of modern Western philosophy. 

(al-Ghazālī: al-Munkiz min'al-Dala: A Guide for the Confused, trans. M Uyanık, A. Akyol, Ankara: Elis Yayınevi 2020, 15-52, a.mlf, Faysalu't-Tefrika Beyne'l-Islam ve'z-Zendeka: On the Foundations of the Discourse of takfir in Islam, trans. M Uyanık-A. Akyol, Ankara: Elis Publishing House, 2021, 13 vd)

- Reading Islamic Philosophy in the Continuum of Peripatetic, Illuminationist and Akbarite Teachings  

It is also worth noting the position of those who identify Islamic philosophy with Peripateticism and oppose philosophy with the teachings of Ishraqism and the Akbarite tradition, i.e. the doctrines of Wahdat al-wujud.  Because it can be claimed that a scholar who distanced himself from philosophers such as al-Farabi and Ibn Sina in particular and philosophy in general prioritised the Peripatetic and Ishraqite tradition, that is, philosophical thought in the full sense of the word, through the metaphysics of light. It may be interesting to see that he expressed a discourse similar to the doctrine of emanation, especially when explaining the God-Universe connection. As a matter of fact, the Peripatetic doctrine's explanation of the connection between God and the universe with the theory of emanation, and this perspective on epistemic justifications that the moment of timelessness and spacelessness will be captured through ittisal with the active intellect, albeit in a critical manner, was carried to a higher stage with Ishraqism, and was presented with the concept of tajelli in the teachings of scholars such as Ibn 'Arābī.  

What is important here is that al-Ghazālī in al-Munkīz made the distinction between the intellectual and the Batinī interpretation, and while adopting the Sufi method, he did not find the "ittihād" and the experience of living the moment of timelessness and spacelessness consistent.  In his work Mishkat, he writes: "Allah (swt) is manifested in His essence, with His essence, for His essence. Therefore, the hijab (veil) is for the ashamed (the veiled). Those who are embarrassed among the people are in three groups." In a different language, he analysed the seekers of truth in three groups and avoided a marginalising and takfiring style to the maximum extent. So much so that he counted philosophers and Mutazilite scholars in the category of those who are only in contact with light, albeit at a low level. More importantly, in Munkız, while he finds the Sufi approach, which can be called ittihad and hululism, wrong, it is also said that in his other work he makes a metaphysics of light and has a wahdat al-body attitude. He even states that the one who sits on the throne of Wahdaniyyat and orders the layers of the heavens from there can say "Ene'l Hak", "I glorify myself". He emphasises that these expressions need interpretation, but he will not say more since he does not think that the reader will tolerate more than this. (al-Ghazālī, Mishkat al-Anvar (The Lighthouse of Lights), trans. Süleyman Ateş, Istanbul: Bedir Publishing House 1994: 35-37) 

Moreover, the fact that Shahāb al-Dīn al-Suhrawardī, who systematised Isrāqī with esoteric interpretations in the metaphysics of light, similarly used the term lights and Isrāq instead of the doctrine of emanation and intellects makes the subject more interesting. Moreover, the views of Muhyid al-Dīn Ibn al-ʿArabī, the founder of the Akbarī tradition, can also be analysed within this framework. In particular, the distinction between the Peripatetic philosopher and the author, which he preferred and which includes the concepts of ârif, âbid, zâhid and philosopher, and the uniqueness of the transition between the paradigms of Islamic philosophy and the differences in interpretation can be examined in this respect. 

Another important scholar of Islamic philosophy, Quṭbuddīn Shīrāzī, in his commentary on Hikmat al-Ishrāq, i.e., the work that aims to create a kind of Eastern Philosophy, identifies existence and light and includes Ibn ʿArābī and the idea of wahdat al-wujūd in the Illuminationist tradition.  Here we see the continuity of Peripatetic, Illuminationist and Akbarian traditions. 

In this context, we should also mention Shahrazūrī (d. 687/1288), the author of Sharḥ al-Ḥikmat al-ishrāḳ, who made a significant contribution to Shirāzī. Ibn Kammume, who was significantly influenced by this Isrārakī philosopher, wrote Sharḥ al-Ishārāt (Sharḥ al-ʿUṣūl wa'l-jumal min mühimmāti al-ʿilm wa'l-ʿamal) for Ibn Sina and Sharḥ al-Talwīḥāt for Suhrawardī, and his commentaries and independent works also triggered this continuity.  

At this point, if we recall Shahrazūrī's statement that "Two of the philosophers are Aristotle and Hippocrates before Islam, and two are al-Fārābī and Avicenna after Islam", we can say that the original dimensions of Islamic philosophy increased in the context of the Peripatetic-Ishraqī tradition, and that the systematisation of the Akbarī tradition as wahdat al-wujūd increased the interest in the consistency of critical readings as well as the claim that philosophy lost its influence in the Islamic world after al-Ghazālī. (Shams al-Dīn al-Shahrazūrī , Nuzheth al-Arvah: History and Aphorisms of the Sages, trans. Eşref Altaş, İstanbul 2015,676, Aygün Akyol, Metaphysics of Shahrazūrī, Research Publications, Ankara, 2011)

- Projections of Islamic Philosophy on the Turkistan-Turkey (Anatolia) Line

In our opinion, Yusuf Has Hacip's Kutadgu Bilig and Ahmet Yesevi's Divan-ı Hikmet, which is a collection of his wisdoms, had a significant impact on the transfer of Farabi's ethical political system to the public sphere and the formation of a spiritual environment. As a matter of fact, "Anaharsis, the ancestor of wisdom who influenced Greek philosophers in Antiquity, Farabi, Yusuf Balasaguni, Mahmud Kashgari, Ahmek Yükneki and Hoca Ahmed Yesevi in the Middle Ages created the spiritual environment of Turks.  In this respect, Farabi is called "Aristotle of the East" and this period is called "Religious Renaissance". (Emel Esin, Turkish Cultural History before Islam and Introduction to Islam. Istanbul 1978, 43-48)   

In particular, Ahmad Yassawî, who transformed al-Fārābī's Tahsil al-Saade and Fusul al-Medeni and the abstract and the metaphysics of the havas into the metaphysics of the people, made it a way of life and laid the foundations of Islam in general and Turkish Metaphysics in particular in the context of the discipline of Sufism. Therefore, if we read the disciplines of philosophy, theology and Sufism in tandem, the influence of the doctrine of the unity of Being on the Anatolian Muslim imagination of the Peripatetic, Illuminationist and Akbarian (Wahdat-i Vûjud) traditions through Ibn Arâbî, Mevlâna and Yunus Emre can be seen more clearly. 

As a final word, if we say that a Sufi scholar like İsmail Hakkı Bursevî (v.1137/1725) interpreted and systematised the political/philosophical accumulation of the Akbarian tradition through Sadreddin Konevî (v.673/1274) and Davud-i Kayseri (v.751/1350) in terms of Ottoman administration, we can also see its practical dimensions in Anatolian lore.