Reason and Narration with Ibn Rushd (Averroes)

Abstract

Ibn Rushd was distinguished by his bewildering personality, stemming from being a jurist and theologist, a philosopher and physician, and an astronomer. When researching his writings, we found that he encourages a lot of reason, and puts aside everything related to revelation, at other times, you find him defending Revelation and does not care about the mind, and you see him attacking the Asha’ries. In some cases, he defends them in other places, and in some cases, he adopts the views of the predecessor, making him a collector of all contradictions. However, the beholder in his biography and history knows that he went through several stages, stamped with jurisprudential stability, moderation in judging the opponents, and a victory for the doctrine of Tafweedh. PREFACE Who is Ibn Rushd? Before talking about Ibn Rushd attitude on reason and narration, it’s worthy to introduce him: About his life and philosophy in order to study the circumstances in which he grew up until he became one of the masters of philosophy which exposed him to torment and suffering and displacement, and even he was accused of atheism heresy !. He is, AbulWaleed bin Ahmad Mohammad bin Ahmad bin Rushd, was born in Cordoba in 520 H, 1026 A.D. He grew up liking science (knowledge) and scientists (scholars) under the care of his father who was one of the major scholars of Cordoba and its province. Since his childhood, he adored study of medicine and Sharia law, and looked into metaphysical studies, so he showed remarkable intelligence. The most obscure matter is the ambiguity of where and who is his tutor of metaphysical sciences? Some believe that Ibn Bajah, the outstanding philosopher, tutored him but the reality denies this because Ibn Bajah died in 1138 A.D while Ibn Rushd was only 12 years old, this makes it impossible to study philosophy at this early age. On the contrary, he was during this period studying Sharia principles and sciences such as jurisdiction and reasoning under the supervision of his father. Others believe that Ibn Tufail tutored him, but history proves that Ibn Tufail did not know Ibn Rushd until he became famous and known everywhere as a philosopher and physician. This proved in an incident, when he entered to Sultan Yusuf bin Yaqub for the first time while Ibn Tufail was present in the sitting, Ibn Rushd said: (When I entered at Amirul Mumeneen Ibn Yaqub, I found him with Abu Bakr bin Tufail, meanwhile Ibn Tufail praised me and mentioned my family and even speaking things beyond virtues I really deserve). This proves that Ibn Tufail only new Ibn Rushd after he had become famous, and did not know him before though he might have taught him. This proves historically that Ibn Rushd did not receive his philosophy education from Ibn Tufail or Ibn Bajah, so his real tutor kept obscure. There is a possibility that after he had studied principles of Sharia law and reasoning, he self-studied books of Aristotle and selftutored by reading his books, as it is obviously seen on Aristotle great influence on him. No Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol.6, Issue 10 Oct-2019 Copyright © Society for Science and Education, United Kingdom 275 doubt, he is a great philosopher encircled by an obscurity and many questions. Did some writers mentioned describe him a reckless philosopher as? Did he join philosophy and theology as obvious in some of his books? Did he adopt Ash’ari school in creed, Waqifi or Mufawidh, etc.? The secret behind this obscurity is his trial to live with the common people while his inner was somewhere else in the world of elite. He accepted the common understanding of common people, but gave himself the right to go deep to understand the deep meaning of things such as who don’t accept the shallow understanding. Ibn Rushd represents a class above the class of commons, but not scholars of theology such as the scholars of reasoning among the Muʿtazilah, Asha’irah, Matridiah, and those who run in the same circle and called argumentative who try to pursue, forsooth, that which is allegorical seeking (to cause) dissension by seeking to explain it. Ibn Rushd is not easy to identify, once he is seen well informed of the sayings of (fuqaha) jurists, and in many occasions, he tries to weigh some sayings over others, or prefer an opinion to another opinion, using arguments. In some occasions, he talks about the Salafi School as a well informed and praises its trend in not trying to explain the names and attributes of Allah, but rather confirming them with befitting the dignity of Allah. In other occasions, he acts irrationally as call to arbitrate evidence similar to philosophers, and considers them origins in judging divinities rather than narrative evidences, and adopts the theory of oldness of universe as appeared in some of his books(1). About this Research; Before beginning, I would like to introduce the following to the reader: 1There should be among Muslims, consolidate of the source in knowing the Islamic creed, and adopting the source to look into any meaning of Islamic creed terms and should not be ignored, therefore to avoid the creed of the Muslim from any falsity, atheism or delusion. 2It is not permitted to cripple the reason in the field of Aqidah (creed) or other fields because reason incurs liability, but reason should not exceed its function and cross its boundaries by jumping into corrupt imaginations and illusions as imagination and illusion are not valid base for true belief or knowledge. 3Our call to the ones of source is proved by Islamic law clearly by narrated texts and the sound reason does not deny following the rule, which says: “The sound of mind – reasondoesn’t contradict intact narration”. 4If reason leads us to know Allah Almighty and Mohammad is His prophet, then how could be there any contradiction with what came in Quran and intact traditions of the prophet, or how would be valid to deny reports by Allah or His prophet arguing that they deny reason when the sound reason doesn’t contradict these reports; this is an obvious contradiction to what reason led to! 5Reason is light made by Allah in ones heart to uncover existing things and facts, and to understand what Allah and His prophet report. This is the function of reason. You cannot exceed by asking your reason to clarify to you what you like or imagine, but cannot reach, unless they are illusions and imaginations. As we mentioned before, neither illusions nor imaginations are valid base for valid knowledge of true belief. (2)