The theologico-scientific research program of the mutakallimun: intellectual historical context and contemporary concerns with special reference to Fakhr al-Din al-Razi.

Situating kalam in its full intellectual historical context reveals it as a systematic theocentric scientific research program possessing of objective cognitive content. On the one hand kalam is about understanding God, and on the other it is about understanding Creation, and in between lies the rational mind mediating between the two poles of Being: one absolute, the other contingent, relating one to the other and integrating them within the framework of a comprehensive and coherent Qur'anic worldview. Unsurprisingly, the investigative nature of this research program demands of the mutakallimun a mastery of the revealed, rational, and empirical sciences which enables them to critically engage the scientists and philosophers with a view toward the formulation of a sophisticated, empirically rich, theocentric counter-science. Fakhr al-Din al-Razi plays a central role in the conceptual and empirical maturation of this research program, thus serving as an intellectual beacon for Muslim scientists in their systemic quest for a contemporary counter-science "powerful and elaborate enough to function as a substitute" for modern Western science.

Keywords: Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, al-Ghazali, Ibn Sina, 'ilm, kalam, al-kalam al-jadid, mutakallimun, falasifah, scientific research program, falsafah, Tahafut al-Falasifah, al-Mabahith al-Mashriqiyyah, al-Matalib al-Aliyyah, Mafatih al-Ghayb, Ibn Khaldun, Abu al-Barakat al-Baghdadi, science, philosophy, theology.

Introduction: for a people who think

In Knowledge Triumphant, Franz Rosenthal observes that the Islamic civilization is one that is essentially characterized by knowledge ('ilm), for "ilm is one of those concepts that have dominated Islam and given Muslim civilization its distinctive shape and complexion." (1) This should not be surprising since the divine revelation itself repeatedly emphasizes that its signs or verses are only understandable "for a people who think," (2) and exhorts believers, nay, even non-believers, to look to the cosmic horizons and into their very selves for empirical indications of the revealed truth. (3) For many scholars, including some professional orientalists, the seeds of rational thinking are already to be found in "early" Islam, in the Qur'anic revelation itself. (4)

Hence, from the very beginning, Muslims have taken a rational and scientific approach to matters in both the religious and mundane domains. Simply put, there was never in Islam the peculiarly Christian problem of reconciling between reason and revelation as if the two were somehow mutually exclusive avenues to truth and knowledge that have to be brought together in some form of uneasy compromise. As far as Muslims are concerned, revelation and reason are in mutual harmony as complementary avenues to knowledge that spring ultimately from the same source. For Muslims, to whom belief must be grounded in knowledge possessing of objective cognitive value, the problem is merely that of specifying the precise relation between the two, which is reason finding its proper role within the context of experience, including the religious experience of revelation. Such was the position taken by the mutakallimun and the falasifah, both of whom "did not distinguish theology from philosophy," (5) and neither did they distinguish it from physics or mathematics for that matter. (6)

Islamic scientific endeavor

The scientific endeavor in Islam can be said to have begun with the textual standardization of the Qur'an, and with the systematic transmission, collection, and authentication of the Sunnah. These budding endeavors in systematic intellectual work soon inspired the cultivation of sophisticated linguistic sciences (etymology, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, lexicography, prosody, metrics, rhetoric, and tajwid, the art of Qur'anic recitation) which emphasized the precise relations between words and their meanings. (7) On these elaborate linguistic foundations the science of jurisprudence (fiqh) was rigorously developed with its own internal analogical principles (qiyas) or a "comparative-deductive"8 method of juristic inference which facilitated the creative application of the normative injunctions of the Qur'an and Sunnah to the particular local and temporal contexts of Muslim society. This cultivation of linguistic definition (9) and rational argumentation in the context of religious discourse prepared the minds of Muslim scholars for their eventual creative engagement with the attractions and challenges of the rich intellectual aspects of the cultures of the ancient Greeks, Persians, and Indians which they encountered in the newly acquired, far-flung territories beyond the borders of the Arabian peninsula.

The Muslims were most attracted to the Greek philosophical, logical, mathematical, scientific, and ethical principles and studied them very thoroughly and critically indeed. By the time of the Caliph al-Ma'mun (ca. mid-10th century) an intellectual movement for translating these Greek works into Arabic was in full swing with the active patronage of the state and rich individuals. While rejecting some of those Greek principles, Muslim scholars readily recognized many others that were found to be clearly in general accord with the Qur'anic injunction to ground belief and practice in rational thinking and empirical experience. Clearly the appropriation of these ancient sciences (al-'ulum al-awa'il) was motivated and framed both by the cognitive and pragmatic needs of the new empire and the intrinsic intellectual allure of the new knowledge. (10) But long before the attractions of Greek rational thought had taken root, the initially dormant argumentative acumen of Muslims had already been activated and honed by external theological debates with the Jews and Christians, as well as by intra-Muslim political, theological, and juristic controversies which resulted in the rise and consolidation of distinct, opposing doctrinal sects (firaq), and schools of thought (madhahib) in philosophical, scientific, and legal matters. (11)

To be sure, there were heated controversies amongst these opposing schools of thought as to the extent to which Greek philosophico-scientific thought was or was not compatible with the Islamic worldview (12) projected by the Qur'an. On the one hand there were the Muslim philosophers (falasifah/hukama') like al-Kindi (d. 866), al-Farabi (d. 950), and ibn Sina. (d. 1037) who can be said to be more receptive than critical of the Greek speculative sciences, while, on the other hand, there were the Ash'arite rationalist theologians (mutakallimun) like al-Ash'ari himself (d. 935), as the founder of the school, al-Juwayn (d. 1085), (13) al-Ghazalii (d. 1111), and F. al-Razi (d. 1209), all of whom, in contrast, can be said to be more critical of than receptive to Greek rationality; both camps were at the same time in heated engagement with the Hanbalites, Mu'tazilites and Shi'ites. (14) Even amongst the philosophers, Farbian-Avicennan Aristotelism was not received uncritically; a particular case in point is Abu al-Barakat al-Baghdadi's (d. 116 ) remarkable Kitab al-Mu'tabar, (15) which criticized Aristotelian physics and metaphysics just as al-Ghazali earlier criticized its metaphysics, and which prefigured much of the Fakhrurazian wide-ranging polemics against peripateticism. Even the so-called "anti-rationalist" ibn Taymiyyah can be found to be appreciative of the Mu'tabar and its author and of ibn Rushd himself while being rather critical of both ibn Sina and al-Fakhr al-Razi. (16)

Ironically, even surprisingly, the perceived intellectual threat of Hellenistic thought, particularly Aristotelianism in its Neoplatonic garb, was in the end overcome by a gradual process of co-option in which the Greek sciences were actively "appropriated" and completely "naturalized" to such an extent that ibn Khaldun in the fifteenth century was drawn to observe that one could no longer differentiate between kalam and falsafah, so much had the two been fused together. (17) It may be surmised that the eventual triumph of Ash'arism (including Maturdism and Tahawism, or Sunnism in general), was due to its creative intellectual versatility in co-opting and integrating both the rationalism of the Mutazilites and the falasifah and the traditionalism of the Hanbalites into its own "synthetic" theological framework18 which "gave both naql and 'aql their due, and took a middle course between the doctrines of the opposing sects." (19)

So instead of impeding philosophico-scientific thought in Islam, al-Ghazali's celebrated Tahafut al-Falasifah, by the intense positive and negative responses it provoked through subsequent centuries, actually did much to hasten this process of synthesis and naturalization. The Tahsfut marked the rise of the new philosophical kalam (al-kalam al-jadid) which was characterized by an aggressive, self-confident, thorough-going polemic against Avicennan falsafah on its own terms, a polemic which ended with the former taking over as its own much of the ground covered by the latter. (20) By the time al-Ghazali (d. 1111) died, logic was naturalized as a conceptual tool for kalam and fiqh, and by the time F. al-Razi (d. 1209), died logic was well on its way to becoming an independent Islamic discipline in its own right, (21) while the subject matter of falsafah was as a whole thoroughly integrated into the new kalam. As Elder puts it, "New proofs were forthcoming which made use of the physics, metaphysics and mathematics of the philosophers." (22) In recognition of the pivotal roles of al-Ghazali and F. al-Razi in the rise and establishment of the new kalam, ibn Khaldn says: "The first (scholar) to write in accordance with the (new) theological approach was al-Ghazali. He was followed by the Imm ibn al- Khab [i.e., Fakhr al-Din al-Razi]. A large number of scholars followed in their steps and adhered to their tradition." (23)

Eventually the originally threatening Hellenistic background faded into oblivion and falsafah gradually Islamized until it became totally transformed into a "naturalized" Islamic science in the form of hikmah ishraqiyyah at the hands of al-Suhraward and his successors, (24) and in the form of mantiq and philosophical kalam at the hands of F. al-Razi and his successors from al-mid to al-Taftzn and al-Jurjn. (25) Of course there would always be detractors like ibn Taymiyyah and al-Suy, (26) but in effect, falsafah in the guise of kalam, and mantiq as an independent science, had become thoroughly Islamized and firmly entrenched in mainstream traditional Islamic education throughout the Muslim world, from the Maghrib (27) to the Malay Archipelago. (28) It is against this general intellectual historical background that one must situate and evaluate the continuing significance of F. al-Razi's life and works.

Fakhr al-Din al-Razii's intellectual life: a brief sketch (29)

The empire of the Great Seljuqs in which al-Ghazali flourished was already crumbling when Fakhr al-Din first saw the light of day in Rayy in northern Persia in 543/119. As a renowned scholar he found generous patronage under the Ghurids and later on under the Khwarizm Shahs who inherited the Seljuq realms. As a young student he studied with his scholarly father Diya' al-Din Abu al-Qasim and traced through him his intellectual lineage in Ash'arite kalam to al-Juwayni (d. 1085) and al-Ash'ari, and in fiqh to ibn Surayj (d. 918) and al-Shafi'i (d. 820). (30)

Together with al-Suhrawardi, he was a pupil of Majd al-Din al-Jili in kalam and falsafah. According to Kraus (31) and Rescher, (32) al-Razi was also a pupil of Hibat Allah ibn 'Ali ibn Malki Abu al-Barakat al-Baghdadi (d. 116), (33) the famed Jewish-turned-Muslim physician and philosopher who authored the important contra-Avicennan treatise on logic, physics, and metaphysics entitled al-Mu'tabar fi al-Hikmah, (34) the influence of which on al-Razi is apparent by his many references to it. (35)

Thoroughly learned in practically all the intellectual, scientific, and religious sciences of his time, F. al-Razi was a strong, even aggressive defender of Asharite theology against the Karrmites and the Mutazilites. His unrelenting critique of ibn Sina's logic, physics, and metaphysics, so reminiscence of the spirit of the Tahafut, provoked a strong counter-attack from Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (d. 1274), which only serves to enhance his intellectual stature. His controversies with the scholars of Transoxiana show him to be a very combative, self-assured debater with an incisive and agile mind. (36)

While yet a young scholar, many of his works were already widely studied and used as teaching texts. (37) Any doubt about his erudition is quickly dispelled by a quick perusal of the list of his many extant works and a cursory appraisal of their contents. (38) Thus ibn Khallikan (d. 1282) is more than justified in declaring Fakhr al-Din to be "the pearl of the age, a man without a peer" who "surpassed all his contemporaries in scholastic theology, metaphysics, and philosophy." (39) Most of the other classical biographers and historians such as ibn al-Athir, al-Subki, al-Safadi, and ibn Khaldun also paint him in similar positive light, while the negative evaluation of either his works or his person by his detractors such as ibn Taymiyyah turns out on closer inspection to be either trivial or unfounded. How can it be otherwise, since ibn Taymiyyah was himself led by F. al-Razi "to a deeper personal understanding of philosophy and heresiography"? (40)

Before dying in 1209, al-Razi dictated a wasiyyah or will which tells us of his intellectual and spiritual motivation for his wide-ranging scholarly investigations as well as of his final evaluation of their worth. It has been interpreted in different ways by different readers, with most seeing it as a typical deathbed remorseful disavowal of philosophical kalam and a reaffirmation of the simple faith of the old woman. However, as persuasively argued by Tony Street, a less superficial and more nuanced reading will show that the will is in fact an affirmation of both the simple and the sophisticated approach toward fathoming the relation between man and God. (41) The one negates not the other and each has its role to play in the intellectual and spiritual adventure of man from his earthly sojourn to everlasting life.

Another way to capture some of the motivating spirit of Fakhr al-Din al-Razi's intellectual investigations is by citing his own conclusion to volume four of his kalam work, al-Matalib al-'Aliyyah, after a four hundred-page long debate with the various parties of the philosophers and theologians over the problem of the incipience (huduth) versus the eternity (qidam) of the world (al-'alam):

   Know that these schools of thought (al-madhahib) have been
   summarized in this way such that each is exposed in all their
   praiseworthy strengths and repugnant weaknesses; and [that]
   upon [perusal] of this [exposition], people who are amazed and
   perplexed may say: these arguments do not attain to [the degree
   of] clarity and tenacity such as may dispel doubts and invalidate
   excuses, and satisfy the mind with their soundness and
   insight. Indeed, each of these arguments is prone to abstruseness,
   so much so that it behooves the Merciful, the Gracious,
   to excuse the mistaken [interlocutor] in complexities such as
   these.... O my Lord, my knowledge is but as the mirage, while
   my heart is done in by trepidation [in the face] of diverse problems
   as numerous as [all] the particles of sand and dust. Yet,
   despite all this, I have hope that I may be among [Your] beloved,
   so let not my hope be vain, O Most Gracious, O Most
   Generous. O my Lord, You know that all which I have said and
   all which I have written are not intended save to attain to truth
   and correctness, and to depart from ignorance and vacillation.
   If I have been correct, do accept it by Your grace, and if I have
   been mistaken do disregard it by Your mercy and forbearance,
   O Most Generous, O Endower of being! (42)

Al-Razi clearly views his work as a noble and pious intellectual quest for the truth, and that was the whole point of his dialectical thoroughness in examining the viewpoints of all intellectual stakeholders in any particular question or issue or bone of contention. While confident and forceful in espousing and arguing exhaustively for what he found to be sound and correct, he is at the same time humble and candid in admitting that in certain problems no cognitive commitment can be made as to their solutions. Though clearly belonging to the party of the mutakallimun, he does not hesitate to show what they have overlooked in their argumentation. For him, the intellectual quest for the truth has a moral dimension as well, which is expressed in his perpetual awareness of the utter reliance of human intelligence on the guidance of the Knower of the Unseen and the Manifest, and of the dependence of the human soul for its salvation on the Mercy and Grace of the Creator. To sum up his scholarly legacy in one sentence, one can do no better than to cite the words of Effat al- Sharqawi:

   He was a man of an Ashar heart and Avicennian mind, and in
   practice he tried to put the Ashar traditions into a philosophical
   system that could appeal to the intellectual Muslim. (43)

Fakhr al-Din al-Razii's "investigations" and their historical impact

The works of Fakhr al-Din al-Razi are in many ways (especially in the breadth and depth of their logico-empirical analyses) the apogee in the long "movement of thought" (44) in the Sunni kalam engagement with Hellenistic philosophy and science from al-Ashar (d. 935), al-Maturidi (d. 944), al-Baqillani (d. 1013), al-Juwayn (d. 1085), al-Ghazali (d. 1111), al-Nasaf (ca. d. 11 2), and al-Shahrastn (d. 1153) to al-mid (d. 1233), al-Bayw (d. 1286), al-j (d. 1355), al-Taftazani (1390), and al-Jurjani. (d. 1413) and beyond (for which one will have to take a closer look at the many substantial post-fifteenth century kalam works). This movement of thought integrated theological, philosophical, and scientific themes, and resulted in a resurgent full-fledged philosophical kalam characterized by an unapologetic self-confident "investigative" re-elucidation of traditional Islamic beliefs (naqliyyat) on rational principles (al-mabadi' al-'aqliyyah). As Sabraputsit, "kalam was an argumentative approach to religion which sought, through discussion and discursive thought, to interpret and transform the content of the Islamic revelation into a rationally-based doctrine," (45) and as such it was a "genuine form of knowledge" that is essentially neither apologetic nor polemical in its intellectual goals, for, moreover:

   The mutakallimun in particular made it their business to meet
   the falasifa on their own ground, not however by merely arguing
   against their opponent's views, but by being able to produce
   a distinct body of thought that proved powerful and elaborate
   enough to function as a substitute for falsafa. (46)

Sabra applies this characterization to both Ash'arite and Mu'tazilite kalam, and in this regard he finds ready support in R. M. Frank and Alnoor Dhanani, both of whom are inclined to view kalam as a kind of intellectual research program. (47)

"Investigation" or "research" is the key word here, for al-Hathth 'ala al-Bahth (The Encouragement to Investigation) was the title the great al-Ash'ari himself gave to a work of his, the purpose of which was to encourage the study of kalam, or rationalistic theology. (48) Al-Razi's early work critically engaging Avicennan thought was entitled al-Mabahith al-Mashriqiyyah (The Eastern Investigations). The Mabahith was already, even at this early stage of his intellectual life, a work very critical of Avicennan philosophy, somewhat in the spirit of Abu al-Barakat's Kitab al-Mu'tabar, or even as some have claimed, in the spirit of al-Ghazali's Tahafut. (49)

As a matter of fact, his intellectual journey was highly nuanced from the very beginning to the very end as indicated by the title of his last philosophico-kalam work, al-Malib al-'Aliyyah (The Lofty Researches). Instances of this intellectual self-criticism are many, including his initial rejection and later whole-hearted acceptance and exposition of atomism in terms of discrete minimal parts, (50) and his critical consideration of ibn Sina's statement in al-Najah that, "verily, for every body (jism) there is a natural place (makanan tabi'iyyan)," (51) in which he ended up saying, "This is the end of the inquiry into this matter. It is incumbent on us to figure out (natafakkar) the solution to these uncertainties (al-shukuk), and may God Most High accord us the attainment of the truth regarding it." (52) Hence, it cannot be said that he started out as a straightforward peripatetic philosopher to end up eventually as a straightforward Asharite mutakallim.

This investigative tone of his discourse is a prominent and stable feature of all his major works throughout his lifetime, even in the Malib, which most probably was his last major philosophico-kalam work. (53) A striking evidence of this is the often impassive manner in which he goes at great lengths to present the arguments of various opposing viewpoints so much so that at times it can be a rather delicate task to ascertain his own personal and final positions, for, as noted by Ceylan, "he criticizes the philosophers and the theologians equally, and adopts a position according to the strength of argument put forward."5 Thus the general impression of him that comes to mind even through a cursory perusal of his works is that of a researcher meticulously carrying out a wide-ranging intellectual research program into understanding the nature and reality of things, and insofar as falsafah and kalam contribute to his research, he gladly delves into them and integrates their approaches and arguments into conclusions of his own creation which may even turn out to be inconclusive. Hence, it would be in perfect accord with the tentative nature of scientific inquiry in which F. al-Razi was deeply involved to find in his works complex shifting positions as the inquiry progresses until attaining final maturity in his late works, in what can be termed as a thoroughly philosophized Ashar kalam worldview.55

Although the century after al-Ghazali also bears witness to some notable mutakallimn such as al-Nasaf and al-Shahrastn, (56) Fakhr al-Din al-Razi is still clearly the first post-Ghazlian mutakallim to bring to comprehensive realization the intellectual project of close and comprehensive critical engagement with Greek philosophy initiated by al-Ghazali in his celebrated Tahafut al-Falasifah. While al-Ghazali succeeded in integrating Aristotelian logic into the principles of kalam and fiqh, al-Razi managed further to integrate much of the subject matter of Aristotelian metaphysics and physics into his many kalam and falsafah works. He is noted by Dhanani as the first mutakallim to discuss space and time in a comprehensive manner, (57) and probably the first also to undertake a comparative study of atomism and hylomorphism of any comprehensive scope and intensity of treatment. (58) This versatility is no doubt due in large measure to his own intimate, first-hand knowledge of the philosophical and natural sciences such as logic, physics, medicine, mathematics, and astronomy, in addition to his complete mastery of traditional Islamic sciences. (59) As a matter of fact, two of his pupils, Qub al-Din al-Mir and Farid Damad, were Nar al-Din al-Tusi's "teachers in mathematics, natural sciences, ibn Sina's philosophy and medicine." (60) Therefore it is hardly surprising to find that "here Fakhr al-Din al-Razi was to become al-Ghazali's most influential continuator." (61)

According to Marmura, al-Ghazali's Tahfut can be interpreted as a response to ibn Sina's "wide-ranging criticisms of the kalam." (62) Yet, in launching his blistering counter-attack, al-Ghazali could not avoid being persuaded to some extent by the obvious intellectual merits of his adversary, hence his appropriation of some Avicennan ideas to flesh out his basically Ash'arite framework. As al-Ghazali's "most influential continuator," and most probably also "the most outstanding Sunnite figure"63 after him, F. al-Razi took up where the former let off, and intensified the debate with ibn Sn, even while ibn Rushd, his illustrious contemporary in the Islamic far west, was preparing his own counter-Tahafut to criticize al-Ghazali and ibn Sina. (64)

F. al-Razi's engagement with falsafah was such that he can be said to have succeeded in "kalamizing" philosophy and, as an unavoidable consequence, "philosophizing" kalam, thus integrating (if not "confusing") the two intellectual disciplines. Such is the judgment of Ibn Khaldn, and one cannot but agree with him somewhat after even a cursory reading of al-Razi's works. (65) So it seems that historically the "exciting intellectual combat" (66) between falsafah and kalam has always been a dynamic two-sided affair, with blows and counter-blows actively exchanged and no implications, however subtle, left hidden and un-explicated. Kalam may have won finally, (67) but as can be surmised from Ibn Khaldun's remarks, the victory was bitter-sweet--kalam ended up thoroughly imbued with the philosophizing spirit which demands of Muslims that they, as responsible thinking individuals, be self-conscious and self-critical about their own beliefs.

F. al-Razi's celebrated Muhassal Afkar al-Mutaqaddimin wa'l-Muta'akhkhirin (68) generated great impact on both the Shi'te and Sunn worlds with both al-Tusi (69) and ibn Khaldun, (70) for instance, writing their respective summaries of it. The important later kalam works by al-mid, (71) al-Baydawi, al-Taftazani, al-Iji, and al-Jurjani owe much of their self-confident, thorough-going engagement with the philosophical and natural sciences to the intellectual example set by F. al-Razi. A brief comparison of their works and al-Razi's will clearly bear this out. He also attracted the attention of f metaphysicians, for the Great Master of the Sufis, Muhyi al-Din ibn 'Arabi, was sufficiently impressed by the agility and versatility of al-Razi's thought to engage in a long correspondence with him in the hope of winning him over to (metaphysical?) fism. (72) The works of F. al-Razi reinforce the general impression of the major kalam works from al-Ash'ari to al-Taftazani as being less dogmatic than investigative--hence, for instance, the "investigative character" (73) of al-Iji's Mawaqif--more in the nature of an ongoing long-term scientific research program than a petrified, repetitively reactive system of unexamined doctrines. (74)

F. al-Razi was also very influential in other disciplines, which, unsurprisingly, tend to be imbued with the rationalistic approach he cultivated in kalam. His major multi-volume work on the principles of Islamic jurisprudence al-Mansul fi Usul al-Fiqh (75) has had major impact on subsequent Shafi'i, Hanafi, and Maliki usul works, including the important works of al-Shatibi (d. 790/1388) on the philosophy of Islamic law. (76) In the long history of Qur'anic exegesis, al-Razi's multi-volume Mafatih al-Ghayb is unique and outstanding in its combination of traditionalist, linguistic, philosophical, and theologico-scientific approaches to understanding the revealed text. Throughout the centuries many abridgements and adaptations have been made of it, including the two-volume Arabic tafsir of the important nineteenth century Makkah-based Javanese Muslim scholar al-Nawawi al-Bantani al-Jawi (d. 1897), Marah Labid, which is largely derived from the Mafth. (77) In his pioneering research, Rescher has shown F. al-Razi to be a pivotal figure in the development of logic in Islam, (78) while his significance for the general history of science is indicated by Gabrieli's article in Isis (79) and by Sarton's notice in his Introduction to the History of Science, (80) though his noticeable absence--noticeable because of the presence of many lesser figures--from C. C. Gillispie's Dictionary of Scientific Biography (81) and Roshdi Rashed's Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science (82) only exposes the general absence of detailed, systematic textual studies on F. al-Razi's major philosophical and scientific works.

The long term intellectual consequences of F. al-Razi's wholesale creative "appropriation" of the philosophical sciences into kalam discourse was duly, if critically, appreciated not only by subsequent Asharite mutakallimn but also by Hanbalite theologians such as ibn Taymiyyah, (83) and by the formulators of Shi'i kalam in the Persian East, such as al-Tusi (d. 127 ), (84) and Christian scholastics in the Latin West. (85) The intellectual impact of this new kalam, as manifested about two centuries later in al-Iji and al-Taftazani, was also felt by medieval Jewish thinkers86 and the thinkers, philosophers, and scientists of the European Renaissance and Enlightenment who shared with the mutakallimun "a determined rejection of Aristotelism and a preference for experimentation with various forms of atomism, as well as the belief in an omnipotent and free creator." (87) Even modern day Christian creationist theologians have not failed to notice the Fakhrurazian link in the intellectual historical development of the kalam cosmological argument. (88)

Contemporary Concerns

Despite F. al-Razi's obvious importance as a pivotal figure of post-Ghazlian philosophical kalam and his far-ranging influence in many other traditional Islamic disciplines such as usul al-fiqh and tafsir, precious little has been studied of his thought as compared to the many book-or article-length textual studies on al-Ash'ari, ibn Sins, and al-Ghazali published almost every year. A perusal of Daiber's (89) and Pearson's (90) Islamic bibliographic indices only serves to confirm this impression of general scholarly neglect of F. al-Razi's works amongst scholars in the flourishing field of Islamic studies. Only lately has this situation seen some promising improvement, especially in Muslim Arab scholarship, with many of his works edited and published, and some detailed monographic studies done on various aspects of his thought. Still, forty long years have passed, and al-Zarkan's pioneering, extensive though still far from definitive, 650-page, one-volume study of F. al-Razi's life and works have yet to be surpassed in its general informative usefulness. (91) It has been and remains the starting point for any serious research into any aspect of F. al-Razi's thought, including any fresh attempt toward a much needed definitive authentication, chronological ordering, and synoptic descriptions of the contents of the vast Fakhrurzian corpus. (92)

Since the publication of al-Zarkn's work in 1963, a number of F. al-Razi's extant works in manuscripts have been edited and published, (93) and substantial monographic studies of his rhetoric, (94) cognitive theory, (95) psychology, and ethics (96) have appeared, including a handy dictionary of Fahkrurzian technical terminologies (97) as well as two handy one-volume indices to his Mafth al-Ghayb. (98) Recently Brill published an informative comparative study of F. al-Razi's and Thomas Aquinas' views on the question of the eternity of the world, but, as pointed out by a reviewer, much more needs to be known about F. al-Razi's system of thought first before any meaningful comparison with other thinkers can be made. (99) A modest doctoral dissertation on his physical theory has just recently been completed (100) while another (tentatively entitled "Basis of Divine Transcendence") is in progress on his theological interpretation of the so-called anthropomorphic verses of the Qur'an based on his Asas al-Taqdis fi 'Ilm al-Kalam. (101) A work on F. Razi's "teleological" ethics by Ayman Shihadeh entitled "The Teleological Ethics of Fakhr al-Din al-Razi" has also been recently submitted to Brill for possible publication in the series on "Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Science". (102)

Among the most important of F. al-Razi's extant writings are his many critical commentaries on Ibn Sina's philosophical works, his kalam or rationalist theological works, and his magnum opus Mafatih al-Ghayb, a remarkable philosophico-scientific-kalamic exegesis of the Qur'an in thirty-two volumes. Many of these published philosophical and kalam works have been critically edited by Amad Hijz al-Saqq, including a lucid, critical edition of the nine-part al-Matalib al-'Aliyyah in five volumes, apparently al-Razi's final and most important kalam work, written during the last few years of his life. (103) Also to be noted here is Muhammad al-Mu'tasim bi-Llah al-Baghdadi's lightly annotated but otherwise uncritical two-volume edition of F. al-Razi's very early work, al-Mabhith al-Mashriqiyyah, (104) which is basically an extensive critical study of the al-Shifa and al-Najah of ibn Sina. Another important late work of al-Razi's is the one-volume Sharh 'Uyun al-Hikmah, (105) which, as the title indicates, is a critical commentary on ibn Sina's 'Uyun al-Hikmah (Fountains of Wisdom). (106)

By reading and reflecting on F. al-Razi's works, especially his very accessible Mafatih and Malib, Muslim thinkers and intellectuals today are sure to learn a thing or two about the kind of critical, creative thinking that is needed for the cultivation of an intelligent, self-confident engagement with the theoretical frameworks of modern science and philosophy. By learning afresh the "sufficient and comprehensive" (107) principles of traditional Islamic kalam and working toward its elaborative reapplication in the contemporary socio-intellectual context, serious, thinking Muslims are sure to acquire a powerful conceptual tool for overcoming the intellectual challenges of modernity and providing a viable, systemic alternative.

With respect to his physical theory, for instance, one finds in him a detailed, strikingly impartial review of past reflections on the nature of the sensible world, from the ancient Greeks to ibn Sina and Abu al-Barakat al-Baghdadi, and in him one finds also a pre-figuration, or rather, a preview, as it were, of all further intellectual developments in Sunn kalam, from al-mid to al-Jurjn and beyond, and even unto the modern age, for any serious revival of kalam amongst present-day Muslim scholars will have much to learn from the intellectual genius and versatility of al-Razi. To be more explicit and to the point, one must say, and say with intellectual certainty born of long years of academic experience and reflection, that an Islamic counter-science as a viable research program in the contemporary context presupposes a thorough-going conceptual mastery of the kalam method of creative, rational analysis. In the absence of this creative mastery, the alternatives are, and have been, either sophisticated but ultimately vacuous, obscurantist romanticism, repetitive negative criticism ad nauseam, or a form of pseudo-Islamic science born of conceptual naivete and constituted of an incoherent patchwork of unexamined traditional and modern categories.

In light of the foregoing, Muslim progress in appreciating their rich intellectual heritage will not be boosted by the prevailing negative talk amongst many Muslim academicians, educationists, intellectuals, and policy-makers about the contemporary relevance or lack thereof of the seemingly "obtuse" and "error-prone" traditional Islamic philosophies and sciences of the long bygone and well nigh forgotten past. "Quite on the contrary, Islamic philosophy exercises the mind and trains it to grasp structures and methods revealed through the passage of time. Its comprehension represents a constant challenge to the powers of human understanding and its creative force, the imagination."108 This colossal, even deliberate, charlatanistic lack of real, informed, and creative appreciation of their cultural history among the Muslim "educated" elite underlies their pathetically reactive, imitative, and defensive attitude toward western systems of thought, an attitude that can only inspire secret contempt instead of grudging respect in the minds and hearts of our dialogue partners.

In short, if Muslims fail to appreciate the relevance of their past history, they thereby fail to comprehend the predicament of their present moment, and in turn fail to plan for their future revival as a leading, creative and positive civilizational force in the post-rational, post-modern, postwestern, post-liberal, post-scientific, post-technological, postprogressive, post-secular, post-industrial, post-neocolonial, post-development, posteconomic, and, shall we say, post-global dollar world (109).

To be active, we have to be pro-active. To create history, we have to learn from history.

Verily, in their histories is a lesson for owners of hearts. (110)

(1.) Knowledge Triumphant: The Concept of Knowledge in Medieval Islam (Leiden: Brill, 1970), 2.

(2.) al-Baqarah: 16 . All translations of Qur' anic verses are based on Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Qur'an: Text and Explanatory Translation (Mecca: Muslim World League, 1977).

(3.) Ibid, Fussilat (Ha Mim al-Sajdah): 53.

(4.) For instance, Professor Hans Daiber in his unpublished series of lectures entitled "Islamic Philosophy: Innovation and Mediation between Greek and Medieval European Thought," delivered to his graduate students at ISTac during the 2001-2002 academic year; see also his "The Qur'an as Stimulus of Science in Early Islam" cited in "What is the meaning of and to what end do we study the history of Islamic Philosophy?: The history of a neglected discipline," in his Bibliography of Islamic Philosophy, 2 vols. (Leiden: Brill, 1999), 1: xxxi, note 127. Cf. J. van Ess, "Early Development of Kalam," in G. H. A. Juynboll, ed., Studies on the First Century of Islamic Society (Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1982), 109-123 on 110ff.

(5.) Richard M. Frank, "The Science of Kalam" in Arabic Sciences and Philosophy, Vol. 2, No. 1 (March, 1992), 7-37 on 19.

(6.) They realized that acceptance of atomism entails rejection of Euclidean geometry and affirmation of discontinuous or discrete geometry, as shown, for instance, by Alnoor Dhanani, The Physical Theory of Kalam (Leiden: Brill, 199 ), 62ff, 101ff, 133ff. Al-Kind himself was able to argue for cosmic finitude "wholly along mathematical lines," as shown by Nicholas Heer and Haig Khatchadourian, "Al-Kind's Epistle on the Finitude of the Universe" in Isis, 56 (1965), 26-33. See also, Anton M. Heinen, "Mutakallimun and Mathematicians: Traces of a controversy with lasting consequences" in Der Islam, 55 (1978), 57-73.

(7.) G. Bohas, Jean-Patrick Guillaume and D. E. Kouloughli, The Arabic Linguistic Tradition (London: Routledge, 1990).

(8.) Hans Daiber's term, unpublished academic course lectures delivered at ISTAC, 2001-2002.

(9.) In his public lecture organized by UNESCO, "Islam and the flowering of the exact sciences" in Islam, Philosophy, and Science (Paris: UNESCO Press, 1981), 133-167 on 133, Roshdi Rashed says, "If the writings of these two [principal] civilizations [Hellenistic and Persian] and the information they had acquired were to be understood and, therefore, expressed in Arabic, the first task was to translate them and, consequently, to make Arabic, which was a language of the desert, a language of science."

(10.) Details in Dimitri Gutas, Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early "Abbasid (London: Routledge, 1998).

(11.) Concerning these extra- and intra-communal politico-theological controversies, see respectively Daniel J. Sahas, John of Damascus on Islam: The "Heresy of the Ishmaelites" (Leiden: Brill, 1972); and Josef van

Ess, "'Umar II and His Epistle against the Qadariyya" in Abr-Nahrain, XII (1971-72), 19-26. A survey in this regard is W. Montgomery Watt, The Formative Period of Islamic Thought (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1973).

(12.) For a detailed, authoritative exposition of the Islamic worldview that is thoroughly grounded in the Islamic tradition while critically cognizant of the Western tradition, see Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, Prolegomena to the Metaphysics of Islam: An Exposition of the Basic Elements of the Worldview of Islam (Kuala Lumpur: ISTAC, 2002).

(13.) On al-Juwayni, see the useful introduction by Paul E. Walker, trans., A Guide to Conclusive Proofs for the Principles of Belief: Kitab al-Irshad il Qawiti al-Adillah fi Usul al-I'Itiqad (Reading: Garnet, 2000), xix-xxxvii.

(14.) See, for instance, the useful survey by Shlomo Pines, "Islamic Philosophy" in The Collected Works of Shlomo Pines, vol. III: Studies in the History of Arabic Philosophy, ed., Sarah Stroumsa (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1996).

(15.) Kitab al-Mu'tabar, 3 vols. in 1 (Hyderabad: 1357H). A monograph on his metaphysics is Jamil Rajab Sidabi, Abu al-Barakat al-Baghdadi wa Falsafatuhu al-Ilahiyyah: Dirasah li Mawqifihi al-Naqdi min Falsafah ibn Sina (Cairo: Maktabah Wahbah, 1996).

(16.) See Sulaymn al-Nadw's informative introduction to the Kitab al-Mu'tabar, 3 vols. in 1 (Hyderabad: 1357H), 3: 230-252. Ibn Taymiyyah's philosophical acumen is remarkably borne out in some recent meticulous studies such as those by Yahya J. Michot, "A Mamluk Theologian's Commentary on Avicennas Risala Adhawiyya, being a translation of a part of the Dar' al-Taarru of ibn Taymiyya, with introduction, annotation, and appendices" in two parts, in Journal of Islamic Studies, Vol. 1 (2003) No. 2 and 3, 1 9-203 and 309-363 respectively; and Jon Hoover, "Perpetual Creativity in the Perfection of God: Ibn Taymiyya's Hadith Commentary on God's Creation of this World," in Journal of Islamic Studies, Vol. 15 (200), No. 3, 287-329.

(17.) Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah, trans. Franz Rosenthal, 3 vols. (New York: Pantheon Books, 1958), 3: 52-53; cf. A. I. Sabra, "The Appropriation and Subsequent Naturalization of Greek Science in Medieval Islam: A Preliminary Statement" in History of Science, Vol. 27 (1987), 223-243.

(18.) Mustafa Ceric, Roots of Synthetic Theology in Islam (Kuala Lumpur: ISTAC, 1995).

(19.) Fathalla Kholeif, ed. and intro., al-Maturidi, Kitab al-Tawhid (Beirut: Dar al-Machreq, 1982), xiii.

(20.) Al-Ghazali, The Incoherence of the Philosophers, trans. Michael Marmura (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 2000), xv-xvi.

(21.) Nicholas Rescher, The Development of Arabic Logic (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 196), 51-5 , 57ff.

(22.) Earl Edgar Elder, trans., A Commentary on the Creed of Islam: Sa'd al-Din al-Taftazani on the Creed of Najm al-Din al-Nasaf (New York: Columbia University Press, 1950), xvi.

(23.) Muqaddimah, 3: 3.

(24.) Mehdi Amin Razavi, Suhraward and the School of Illumination (Surrey: Curzon Press, 1997); also, Ian Richard Netton, Allah Transcendent: Studies in the Structure and Semiotics of Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Cosmology (London: Routledge, 1989), 256ff. Cf. Bilal Kuspinar, Isma'il Ankaravi on the Illuminative Philosophy: His lzahu'l-Hikem: Its edition and analysis in comparison with Dawwani's Shawakil al-Hur, together with the translation of Suhrawardi's Hayakil al-Nur (Kuala Lumpur: ISTAC, 1996).

(25.) Shlomo Pines, "Some Problems of Islamic Philosophy" in Islamic Culture (January 1937), 66-80 on 68-69, 80. The reading of kalam as philosophical is reflected in the title and substance of the monumental work by Harry Austryn Wolfson, The Philosophy of the Kalam (Cambridge, ma: Harvard University Press, 1976). Though useful and thoroughly informative, it is unfortunately marred by a too-hasty tendency to "hunt" for parallels to, hence sources of, kalam theories in classical, Hellenistic, and patristic theological thought and concepts. A compelling reaction to this is R. M. Frank, who, in his presidential address "Hearing and saying what was said" in Journal of the American Oriental Society, 116.4 (1996), 615, says that "...the highly nuanced language of the classical kalam was developed in an ongoing process of autonomous discourse in Arabic."

(26.) Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti, Sawn al-Mantiq w'al-Kalam 'an Fann al-Mantiq wal-Kalam, bound in one volume with his abridgement of Taqiyy al-Din ibn Taymiyyah, Nasihah Ahl al-Iman fi Radd 'ala Mantiq al-Yunan, ed., Al Shami al-Nashshar (Cairo, 1947?).

(27.) For the case of the Maghrib, the educational role of Abu 'Abd Allah al-Sanusi (d. 1490) is significant; see article on him in EI2 by H. Bencheneb, s.v., "al-Sanusi," with copious references.

(28.) For the case of the Malay Archipelago, see, for instance, Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, The Oldest Known Malay Manuscript: A 16th Century Malay Translation of the Aqa'id of al-Nasafi (Kuala Lumpur: University of Malaya Press, 1988), 1-52 passim.

(29.) This sketch is largely based on the detailed, critical, and comprehensive account by Muammad Sali al-Zarkan, Fakhr al-Din al-Razi wa Ara'uhu al-Kalamiyyah wa al-Falsafiyyah (Beirut: Dr al-Fikr, 1963), 8-36 passim. Cf. Fathallah Kholeif, ed. and trans., A Study on Fakhr al-Din al-Razi and His Controversies in Transoxiana (Beirut: Dar el-Machreq, 1966), 9-25; idem, (Fat Allah Khulayf), Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (Cairo: Dr al-Ma'arif, 1969), 1-23; Yasin Ceylan, Theology and Tafsir in the Works of Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (Kuala Lumpur: ISTAC, 1996), 1-13; and G. C. Anawati, "Fakhr al-Din al-Razi," in Encyclopedia of Islam 2nd ed. (EI2). All provide references to the classical biographical dictionaries.

(30.) Ibn Khallikan, Kitab Wafayat al-A'yan, trans. Mac Guckin de Slane, 3 vols. (New York: Johnson Reprint, 1961), 1: 655.

(31.) Paul Kraus, "The Controversies of Fakhr al-Din al-Razi" in Islamic Culture, Vol. XII (1938), 131-153, on 133.

(32.) Rescher, Arabic Logic, 183.

(33.) On him see Collette Sirat, A History of Jewish Philosophy in the Middle Ages (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 131-10; cf. Shlomo Pines, "Abu al-Barakat al-Baghdadi" in EI2, 1: 111-113; idem, "Abu al-Barakat al-Baghdadi" in Dictionary of Scientific Biography, ed. C. C. Gillispie (New York: Scribner's, 1970-1980), 1: 26-28.

(34.) (Hyderabad, 1357H).

(35.) Pines, Atomism, 9 -95.

(36.) Fathallah Kholeif, ed. and trans., A Study on Fakhr al-Din al-Razi and His Controversies in Transoxiana (Beirut: Dar El-Machreq, 1966); cf. Paul Kraus, "The Controversies of Fakhr al-Din al-Razi" in Islamic Culture, Vol. XII (1938), 131-153, on 136.

(37.) Ibid., 82.

(38.) The best and most reliable critical account and list of his works is by Zarkan, 40ff. I have not been able to access the articles of Jomier cited in Tony Street, "Concerning the Life and Works of Fakhr al-Din al-Razi" in Islam: Essays on Scripture, Thought and Society, a festschrift in honour of Anthony H. Johns (Leiden: Brill, 1997), 135-146, on 135n1.

(39.) Ibn Khallikan, Kitab Wafayat al-A'yan, trans. Mac Guckin de Slane, 3 vols. (New York: Johnson Reprint, 1961), 1: 652.

(40.) H. Laoust, Essai sur les doctrines sociales et politiques de Taki-d-din Ahmad b. Taymiya, cited in G. C. Anawati, "Fakhr al-Din al-Razi" in EI2.

(41.) Tony Street, "Concerning the Life and Works of Fakhr al-Din al-Razi" in Islam: Essays on Scripture, Thought and Society, a festschrift in honour of Anthony H. Johns, eds., Peter G. Riddell and Tony Street (Leiden: Brill, 1997), 135-146.

(42.) Al-Matalib al-'Aliyyah, ed. Amad Hijazi al-Saqqa, 9 vols. in 5 (Beirut: Dar al-Kitab al-'Arab, 1987), 4: 26-27.

(43.) Cited in Anthony H. Johns, "On Qur'anic Exegetes and Exegesis: A Case Study in the Transmission of Islamic Learning" in Islam: Essays on Scripture, Thought and Society, a festschrift in honour of Anthony H. Johns (Leiden: Brill, 1997), 3-49 on 11.

(44.) A. I. Sabra, "Science and Philosophy in Medieval Islamic Theology: the Evidence of the fourteenth Century" in Zeitschrift fur Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften (ZGAIW), vol. 9 (1994), 23.

(45.) A. I. Sabra, "Science and Philosophy in Medieval Islamic Theology: the Evidence of the Fourteenth Century" in ZGAIW, vol. 9 (1994), 1-42 on 11.

(46.) A. I. Sabra, "Science and Philosophy in Medieval Islamic Theology: the Evidence of the Fourteenth Century" in ZGAIW, vol. 9 (1994), 1-42 on 23n24.

(47.) A. I. Sabra, "Science and Philosophy in Medieval Islamic Theology: the Evidence of the Fourteenth Century" in ZGAIW, vol. 9 (1994), 1-42 on 11; R. M. Frank, "The Science of Kalam" in Arabic Sciences and Philosophy, vol. 2 (1992), 7-37; cf., idem, "The Kalam, an Art of Contradiction-Making or Theological Science?: Some Remarks on the Question" review article in JAOS 88 (1968), 295-309.

(48.) R. M. Frank, trans. and ed., "al-Ash'ari's Kitab al-Hathth 'ala l-Bahth" in Melanges de l'Institut Dominicain d'Etudes Orientales du Caire (MIDEO) 18 (1988), 83-152; cf. Alnoor Dhanani, The Physical Theory of Kalam (Leiden: Brill, 199 ), 2-3, for kalam as a "research program."

(49.) Muammad 'Atif al-'Iraqi, al-Falsafah al-Tabiyyah 'inda ibn Sina (Cairo: Dar al-Ma'arif, 1971), 414; cf. Abd al-Rahman al-Badawi, al-Turath al-Yunani 'fi al-Hadarah al-Islamiyyah (Cairo: Dr al-Nahdah al-Arabiyyah), 270n. 1; cf. Muhammad al-'Uraybi, Muntalaqah al-Fikriyyah 'inda al-Imam al-Fakhr al-Razi (Beirut: Dar al-Fikr al-Lubnani, 1992), 44; cf. discussion in Zarkan, 85ff.

(50.) For instance in al-Matalib, 6: 29-82.

(51.) Al-Najah, ed., Muhammad Taqi Danish-pazhuh (Tehran: 136 ?), 134.

(52.) Al-Mabahith al-Mashriqiyyah, ed., Muhammad al-Mu'tasim biLlah al-Baghdadi, 2 vols. (Beirut: Dar al-Kitab al-'Arab, 1990), 2: 66-69; cf. Zarkan, 8-449.

(53.) A detailed but not quite definitive chronology of al-Razi's works is in Zarkan, 56ff, with references to editions and manuscripts' locations.

(54.) Ceylan, xv.

(55.) Zarkan, 388.

(56.) Among others he wrote the contra-Avicennan Kitab al-Musara'ah, ed. and trans. by Wilfred Madelung and Toby Mayer (London: I. B. Tauris, 2001); and a treatise on atomism, see Amad Sa'id al-Damardash, "Makhat al-Sharastn an al-Jawhar al-Fard" in Majallah Ma'had al-Makhtutat al-Arabiyyah, vol. 25 (1979), 195-218.

(57.) Alnoor Dhanani, "Al-Ghazali's Perspective on Physical Theory," paper presented to the International Conference on al-Ghazali's Legacy, ISTAC, Kuala Lumpur, October 2 -27, 2001, 6-7.

(58.) Volume 6 of 200 pages of the Matalib is devoted to the issue of atomism versus hylomorphism; see discussion in Adi Setia, "The Physical Theory of Fakhr al-Din al-Razi," doctoral dissertation (Kuala Lumpur: ISTAC, September 2005), Chapter Two.

(59.) Zarkan, 37-55.

(60.) Hans Daiber, "Al-s, Nar al-Din" in EI2.

(61.) Gerhard Endress, "The Defense of Reason: The Plea for Philosophy in the Religious Community" in ZGAIW, vol. 6 (1990), 1-49 on 37.

(62.) Michael Marmura, "Avicenna and the Kalam" in ZGAIW, vol. 6 (1990), 173-206 on 206.

(63.) Kholeif, Controversies, 6.

(64.) Simon van den Bergh, trans., Averroes' Tahafut al-Tahafut (London: Luzac, 1978). An aspect of this Ibn Rushd-Ghazlian debate is well summarized by George F. Hourani, "The Dialogue between al-Ghazali and the Philosophers on the Origin of the World," 2 parts, in Muslim World 8 (1958).

(65.) The Muqaddimah, trans. Franz Rosenthal, 3 vols. (New York: Pantheon, 1958), 3: 43.

(66.) Hourani, "Dialogue ...," 183.

(67.) Interestingly Hourani ("Dialogue ...," 191) judged ibn Rushd's argumentative performance to be "disappointing" as had Van den Bergh (Averroes, 20, note p. 23. 1).

(68.) Muhassal Afkar al-Mutaqaddimin wa al-Muta'akhkhirin min al-'Ulama' wa al-Hukama' wa al-Mutakallimin (Beirut: Dar al-Fikr al-Lubnani, 1992) and (Cairo: Maktabah al-Kulliyyat al-Azhariyyah, n.d.).

(69.) Talkhis al-Muhassal, introduced by Ta Ha 'Abd al-Ra'uf Sa'd and bound together with al-Razi's Muhassal (Cairo: Maktabah al-Kulliyyat al-Azhariyyah, n.d.).

(70.) Lubab al-Muhassal fi Usul al-Din, ed., Rafiq al-'Ajam (Beirut: Dr al-Mashriq, 1995).

(71.) Sayf al-Din al-Amidi (d. 1233) wrote a critical summary of F. al-Razi's Matalib entitled al-Ma'akhidh 'ala al-Imam al-Razi; see the introduction by Hasan Mahmud 'Abd al-Latif, ed., to al-Amidi's Ghayat al-Maram fi 'Ilm al-Kalam (Cairo: 1971), 12.

(72.) See Muhammad Muaf, ed., Kitab Risalah al-Shaykh Muhyi al-Din ibn 'Arabi ila al-Shaykh Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (Cairo: al-Tiba'at al-Muhammadiyyah, 1987), though it does seem that Sufis like al-Rumi and al-Ankaravi do not consider F. al-Razi to be adept in the mysteries of the spirit (see Bilal Kuspinar, Isma'il Ankaravi on the Illuminative Philosophy {Kuala Lumpur: ISTAC, 1996}, 136-38).

(73.) A. I. Sabra, "Science and Philosophy in Medieval Islamic Theology: the Evidence of the Fourteenth Century" ZGAIW, vol. 9 (199 ), 1-42 on 27.

(74.) More discussion in R. M. Frank, "Knowledge and Taqlid, the Foundations of Belief in Classical Ash'arism" in JAOS, 109 (1989), 38-62; idem, "Elements in the Development of the Teaching of al-Ash'ari" in Le Museon, 10 (1991), 141-190; idem, "The Science of Kalam"; cf. A. I. Sabra, "Science and Philosophy in Medieval Islamic Theology: The Evidence of the Fourteenth Century" in ZGAIW, vol. 9 (1994), 1-42.

(75.) Ed., Taha Jabir al-'Alwani (Beirut: Mu'assasah al-Risalah), 1992.

(76.) See Muhammad Khalid Masud, Shatibi's Philosophy of Islamic Law (Kuala Lumpur: iBT, 2000).

(77.) Anthony H. Johns, "On Qur'anic Exegetes and Exegesis; A Case Study in the Transmission of Islamic Learning" in Islam: Essays on Scripture, Thought and Society, a festschrift in honour of Anthony H. Johns (Leiden: Brill, 1997), 3- 9 on 9ff.

(78.) Rescher, 72, 183-85.

(79.) Giuseppe Gabrieli, "Fakhr-al-din al-Razi" in Isis 7 (1925), 9-13.

(80.) George Sarton, Introduction to the History of Science, 2: 36 .

(81.) Ed. in chief, 16 vols. (New York: Scribner's, 1970-1980).

(82.) Ed., 3 vols. (London: Routledge, 1996).

(83.) See, for instance, Jon Hoover, "Perpetual Creativity in the Perfection of God: Ibn Taymiyyas Hadith Commentary on God's Creation of this World" in JIS, 15: 3 (200 ), 287-329.

(84.) Seyyed Hossein Nasr, "Fakhr al-Din al-Razi" in M. M. Sharif, ed., A History of Muslim Philosophy (Delhi: D. K. Publications), 1: 6 2-656 on 646. Cf. editor's introduction to F. al-Razi's al-Matalib al-'Aliyyah, ed., Ahmad Hijazi al-Saqq, 9 vols. in 5 (Beirut: Dr al-Kitab al-'Arabi, 1987), 8-9, 12ff. Nar al-Din al-s can be said to be the pivotal figure who helped Avicennan philosophy recover somewhat from the Fakhrurzian onslaught. See also Hans Daiber, "Al-Tusi, Nasir al-Din" in EI2.

(85.) Shlomo Pines, "Some Problems of Islamic Philosophy" in Islamic Culture (January 1937), 66-80 on 68n. 2; cf. Hans Daiber, unpublished ISTAC lectures, parts 5 and 6 with copious invaluable references.

(86.) For instant, Maimonedes, Guide of the Perplexed, trans. Shlomo Pines, 2 vols. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963), 1: 179ff. Shlomo Pines in his Studies in Islamic Atomism, trans. Michael Schwarz and ed., Tzvi Langermann (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1997), 97n.152, notes that al-Razi's al-Mabhith al-Mashriqiyyah was already translated into Hebrew in the fourteenth century and used as a basis for the Hebrew version of al-Ghazali's al-Maqasid al-Falasifah.

(87.) Sabra, "Science and Philosophy ...," 52. A separate, detailed inquiry is obviously needed regarding late kalam influence on the metaphysical foundations of early modern science.

(88.) William L. Craig, The Kalam Cosmological Argument (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2000), 17-18.

(89.) Hans Daiber, Bibliography of Islamic Philosophy, 2 vols. (Leiden: Brill, 1999).

(90.) J. D. Pearson, Index Islamicus: 1906-1955 (Cambridge: Heffer, 1961), and continued and expanded with additions by other compilers and publishers, including, currently, G. J. Roper and C. H. Bleaney (London: Bowker, 1993-2000).

(91.) Muhammad Salih al-Zarkan, Fakhr al-Din al-Razi wa Ara'uhu al-Kalamiyyah wa al-Falsafiyyah (Beirut: Dar al-Fikr, 1963). His study is divided into three main parts, the second of which concerns F. al-Razi's theory of the physical world (al-lam) and is a substantial study of his physical theory in its own right.

(92.) See Zarkn, 56ff, for a useful but far from definitive chronological ordering. A more recent attempt is by Jomier but I have not been able to access his articles. Much of this work is made easier because al-Razi likes to cross-reference to his other earlier works, and in many cases an absolute chronology is determinable as in the case of the Malib and Mafatih, where he often records the date when he completes a particular section or surah. The relative chronology I follow throughout this study is based on Zarkan's work, but, needless to say, a new improved chronology will necessitate a separate study.

(93.) Of which among the most notable is his al-Mahsul fi'Ilm Usul al-Fiqh, ed., Taha Jabir al-'Alwani (Beirut: Mu'assasah al-Risalah, 1992).

(94.) Amad Hindawi Hilal, Al-Mabahith al-Bayaniyyah fi Tafsir al-Fakhr al-Razi Dirasah Balaghiyyah Tafsiliyyah (Cairo: Maktabah Wahbah, 1999).

(95.) Muhammad al-Arab Buazz, Nazariyyah al-Ma'rifah inda al-Razi min khilali Tafsirihi (Beirut: Dar al-Fikr al-Arab, 1999).

(96.) M. aghr Hasan Ma'm, Imm Rz's Ilm al-Akhlq: English Translation of his Kitb al-Nafs wal-Rh wa Sharh Quwhum (Islamabad: Islamic Research Institute, 1985). He also edited the Arabic text published by the same institute in 1968.

(97.) Sam Dughaym, Mawsah Mualaht al-Imm Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (Beirut: Maktabah Lubnan, 2001).

(98.) Michel Lagarde, Index du Grand Commentaire de Fahr al-Din al-Razi (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1996); cf. Ibrahim Shams al-Din and Ahmad Shams al-Din, al-Tafsir al-Kabir: al-Faharis (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-'ilmiyyah, 1992).

(99.) Muammer Iskenderoglu, Fakhr al-Din al-Razi and Thomas Aquinas on the Question of the Eternity of the World (Leiden: Brill, 2002). The review is by Ayman Shihadeh in the Oxford Journal of Islamic Studies, vol. 15 no. 2 (May, 200 ), 213-215.

(100.) Adi Setia, "The Physical Theory of Fakhr al-Din al-Razi" (Kuala Lumpur: ISTAC, September 2005).

(101.) Introduced by Muammad al-'Uraybi (Beirut: Dr al-Fikr al-Lubnani, 1993); doctoral research by Farid Shahran of ISTAC.

(102.) Based on information provided by Professor Hans Daiber.

(103.) (Beirut: Dr al-Kitab al-Arab, 1987).

(104.) (Beirut: Dr al-Kitab al-Arab, 1990).

(105.) Ed., Ahmad Hijazi al-Saqqa, 3 parts in 1 vol. (Tehran: Mu'assasat al-Sadiq, 1994).

(106.) Ed. Abd al-Rahman al-Badawi (Beirut: Dar al-Qalam, 1980).

(107.) Mawlana 'Ali Ashraf al-Thanvi (d. 1934), al-Intibahat al-Mufidah, translated by Muhammad Hassan al-Askari and Karrar Husain as Answer to Modernism, 2nd ed. (Karachi: Maktaba Darul-Uloom, 1992), 1-5.

(108.) Daiber, "What is the meaning ...," xxxiii.

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(110.) Ysuf: 111.

Adi Setia is Assistant Professor (History and Philosophy of Science), Faculty of Science, International Islamic University, Malaysia; Email: [e-mail].