The Curse of Philosophy 367
(ḥaqīqa) and metaphor (majāz) in regards to the Koran. The goal of Ibn
Taymiy ya’s critique is to abolish the “dualism of knowledge” so that
“monotheism (al-tawḥīd) becomes philosophical monotheism which
fulfills what Islam proclaims, which is to be the theory of the universal
religion”. This universal religion includes, as its primary attribute, the
congruence of “the sealing revealed religion” and “the rational natural
religion, meaning the religion of natural disposition (fiṭra)”.^173
A. Ibn Taymiyya’s epistemological critique, again, is divided into two
parts:
- The first part deals with “clear reason” and includes the clearness
of pure and applied rational knowledge. Ibn Taymiyya aims here at
“reforming the theory of rational knowledge, logic, metaphysics and
natural philosophy.”^174 - The second part deals with “sound religious tradition” and
includes the soundness of pure and applied traditional knowledge. Ibn
Taymiyya aims here at “reforming the theory of traditional religious
knowledge, history, meta-history and the philosophy of history and
civilization based on that.”^175
Through his comprehensive treatment of the relationship between
analysis and interpretation, Ibn Taymiyya was able to free Arabic
thought from the false assumption that analysis and truth represent
rational sciences, while interpretation and metaphor represent reli-
gious sciences. Demonstrating that this dichotomy is superficial, Ibn
Taymiyya’s treatment of this issue occurred on two levels: - Through his critique of Aristotle’s logic and the metaphysics based
on it, Ibn Taymiyya declares that the essential attributes and definitions,
i. e. the primary truths which are the principles of logic and metaphys-
ics, are no more than “cognitive values” (muqaddarāt dhihniyya) set in
relation to the existents so that these can be known. As a result, defini-
tions (ḥudūd) do not establish the essence and the truth of existents; they
are mere “scientific names” (asmāʾ ʿilmiyya) which occur in the human
mind. Demonstrative knowledge, exalted in Peripatetic philosophy as
173 Al-Marzūqī, Fikr Ibn Taymiyya al-iṣlāḥī, http://www.alfalsafa.com/fikr ibn
taymia.html, accessed on August 16, 2011, al-Maqāla al-thāniya. Kayfa ṣāra
fiʿl al-tafalsuf mumkinan.
174 Al-Marzūqī, Fikr Ibn Taymiyya al-iṣlāḥī, http://www.alfalsafa.com/fikr ibn
taymia.html, accessed on August 16, 2011.
175 Al-Marzūqī, Fikr Ibn Taymiyya al-iṣlāḥī, http://www.alfalsafa.com/fikr ibn
taymia.html, accessed on August 16, 2011.
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