The Curse of Philosophy 373
In making Ibn Taymiyya a philosopher, which consequences arise
for the conception of philosophy? Ibn Taymiyya unwaveringly asserts
in his writings that the text of the Koran and the Sunna are the sole,
solid, and unquestionable fundament of truth. Intrinsically, then, it
seems that depicting him as a philosopher necessarily leads to a unique
concept of “islamicized philosophy” totally dependent on Islamic
sacred writings. Such a philosophy is stripped of its most significant
qualities, viz., the search for truth through critical investigation of tra-
ditions and the quest to intellectually penetrate the essence of things.
This quintessentially philosophical quest must continue even if this
means challenging established religious doctrine. When philosophy
looses this piercing motion, it looses its meaning and essence; it is
transformed into a specialized way of thinking whose main goal is to
satisfy religious restrictions epitomized in the concept of the fear of
God known analogously to Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Such a
philosophy looses, furthermore, its status as a critical power in soci-
ety. It becomes a sterile enterprise, loaded with predetermined conclu-
sions, with no promise of growth and no energy to change.
Celebrating Ibn Taymiyya as a philosopher bears, furthermore, an
important symptomatic value for the assessment of contemporary
Islamic thought. In general, the authors who contributed to creating
his philosophical identity represent an influential trend in conserva-
tive groups. These groups consider the only worthwhile rationality to
be the religious rationality originating solely from Koran and Sunna.
However, while authors like ʿAbd al-Ḥakīm Ajhar label Ibn Taymiyya
a philosopher in his own intellectual context, authors like Abū Yaʿrub
al-Marzūqī tend to attribute a creative role to Ibn Taymiyya in the
development of modern Islamic philosophy. Keeping in mind that Ibn
Taymiyya’s conception of rationality is strictly bound to revelation,
whatever this group of contemporary Muslim authors labels as Ibn
Taymiyya’s philosophy can only be a “scriptural philosophy” deriving
its theoretical principles and basic arguments exclusively from scrip-
ture and tradition.
How, and, indeed, to what extent is this “philosophy” different
from theology? Wouldn’t it be more appropriate to call Ibn Taymiyya
a theologian, instead? This would, in a much more satisfying way, suit
Ibn Taymiyya’s self-understanding and, at the same time, preserve
the nature of philosophy from violation. Ultimately, considering Ibn
Taymiyya a philosopher is part of a political ideology that describes
traditional Islam as perfectly matched with modernity; oddly and
Brought to you by | Nanyang Technological University
Authenticated