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Al-Razi, Fakhr al-Din (1149-1209)
Imam Fakhr al-Din al-Razi was one of the outstanding figures in
Islamic theology. Living in the second half of the sixth century
AH (twelfth century AD), he also wrote on history, grammar,
rhetoric, literature, law, the natural sciences and philosophy,
and composed one of the major works of Qur’anic exegesis, the
only remarkable gap in his output being politics. He travelled
widely in the eastern lands of Islam, often engaging in heated
polemical confrontations. His disputatious character, intolerant
of intellectual weakness, frequently surfaces in his writings,
but these are also marked by a spirit of synthesis and a
profound desire to uncover the truth, whatever its source. A
number of his metaphysical positions became well known in
subsequent philosophical literature, being cited more often than
not for the purposes of refutation. His prolixity and pedantic
argumentation were often criticized, but he was widely
considered the reviver of Islam in his century.
Theology and philosophy
Fakhr
al-Din al-Razi was born in Rayy near present-day Tehran in AH
543 or 544/AD 1149-50. Like his predecessor al-Ghazali, he was
an adherent of the Shafi‘i school in law and of the theology of
Ash‘arism (see Ash‘ariyya and Mu‘tazila). He was attracted at an
early age to the study of philosophy, in which he soon became
proficient. In his late twenties, he visited Khwarazm and
Transoxania, where he came in contact with some of the last
theologians in the Mu‘tazilite tradition.
Although he endured hardship and
poverty at the beginning of his career, on returning to Rayy
from Transoxania he entered into the first of a series of
patronage relations with rulers in the east which contributed to
his reputedly considerable wealth and authority. Al-Razi’s skill
in polemic ensured that controversy followed him in his
subsequent sojourns in Khurasan, Bukhara, Samarqand and
elsewhere (he is said to have visited India). He consequently
made several dangerous enemies, including among them the
Karramiyyah (an activist ascetic sect, staunch defenders of a
literal interpretation of scripture and of anthropomorphism),
the Isma‘ilis, and the Hanbalites, each of whom apparently
threatened his life at various points. Al-Razi settled finally
in Herat, where he had a teaching madrasa built for him, and
where he died in AH 606/AD 1209. In the religious sciences, al-Ghazali
had legitimized the use of logic, while at the same time
attacking those key metaphysical doctrines of the philosophers
which most offended against orthodox doctrine. This move
prepared the ground for the subsequent incorporation of
philosophical argumentation into theology. It was through al-Razi
that this marriage was most completely effected in the Sunni
world. His major theological works all begin with a section on
metaphysics, and this was to become the pattern for most later
writers. The problem of how far al-Razi should be considered a
philosopher (rather than a theologian) is ccomplicated by
changes of view during the course of his life, and by his highly
disputatious and often intemperate personality, which he himself
acknowledged. His style is marked by an extensively ramifying
dialectic, often ending in highly artificial subtleties, and is
not easy to follow. The relentlessness and sometimes obvious
delight with which al-Razi used this method to home in on his
victims earned him among philosophers the sobriquet of Iman al-Mushakkikin
(Leader of the Doubters). Nevertheless, al-Razi was scrupulous
in representing the views he set out to criticize, manifesting
his concern to lay out a rigorous dialectic in which theological
ideas could be debated before the arbitration of reason.
This predictably brought him
under subsequent attack from those who believed that upholding
orthodox doctrine was the primary task of theology, one of whom
remarked that in al-Razi’s works ‘the heresy is in cash, the
refutation on credit’. One of al-Razi’s major concerns was the
self-sufficiency of the intellect. His strongest statements show
that he believed proofs based on Tradition (hadith) could never
lead to certainty (yaqin) but only to presumption (zann), a key
distinction in Islamic thought. On the other hand, his
acknowledgement of the primacy of the Qur’an grew with his
years. A detailed examination of al-Razi’s rationalism has never
been undertaken, but he undoubtedly holds an important place in
the debate in the Islamic tradition on the harmonization of
reason and revelation. In his later years he seems to have shown
some interest in mysticism, although this never formed a
significant part of his thought. Al-Razi’s most important
philosophical writings were two works of his younger days, a
commentary (sharh) on the physics and metaphysics of Ibn Sina’s
Kitab al-isharat wa-’l-tanbihat (Remarks and Admonitions) (see
Ibn Sina) and another work on the same subject, al-Mabahith al-mashriqiyya
(Eastern Studies), which is based in large part on the latter’s
al-Shifa’ and al-Najat as well as al-Isharat, but in which al-Razi
frequently preferred the views of Abu ‘l-Barakat al-Baghdadi (d.
after AH 560/AD 1164-5).
Also of great philosophical
interest is his theological text Muhassal al-afkar (The Harvest
of Thought). Perhaps al-Razi’s greatest work, however, is the
Mafatih al-ghayb (The Keys to the Unknown), one of the most
extensive commentaries on the Qur’an, running to eight volumes
in quarto and known more popularly as simply al-Tafsir al-kabir
(The Great Commentary). As its more orthodox detractors have
been happy to point out, this work, which occupied al-Razi to
the end of his life and was completed by a pupil, contains much
of philosophical interest. The person who did the most to defend
Ibn Sina, and philosophy in general, against the criticisms of
al-Razi was Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, whose commentary on the Kitab
al-isharat was in large measure a refutation of al-Razi’s
opinions. Al-Tusi also wrote a Talkhis al-muhassal al-afkar
(Abridgement of the Muhassal al-afkar), where he likewise
undertook a criticism of many of the philosophical criticisms in
the Muhassal al-afkar. 2 Metaphysics Al-Razi was associated by
later authors with the view that existence is distinct from, and
additional to, essence, both in the case of creation and in the
case of God, and that pure existence is merely a concept (see
Existence). This view is at variance with the Ash‘arite and
Mu‘tazilite positions, as well as with that of Ibn Sina and his
followers. Al-Razi only departed from this view in his
commentary on the Qur’an, where he went back to a more
traditional view that in God essence and existence are one.
Another challenge to the philosophers for which al-Razi achieved
fame was his refutation of the emanationist principle ex uno non
fit nisi unum (only one can come from one.) In Ibn Sina’s
formulation, if an indivisible single thing were to give rise to
two things, a and b, this would result in a contradiction, for
the same single thing would be the source of both a and of not-a
( ). Al-Razi’s refutation was based on the claim that the
contradictory of ‘the emanation of a’ is ‘the non-emanation of
a’, not ‘the emanation of not-a’. On a related point, he
originally denied the possibility of a vacuum, but in his
Mafatih he argues for its existence, and for the power of the
Almighty to fill it with an infinity of universes.
The philosophers, following Ibn
Sina, held knowledge to be an inhering in the knower of the form
of the thing known, and that consequently God knew only
universals and not particulars, knowledge of the latter implying
inadmissible changes in God’s essence as particulars changed
(see Immutability). For the most part theologians were opposed
to thus restricting God’s knowledge, on the grounds that he was
omniscient (see Omniscience). Al-Razi upheld the theological
side of the debate through postulating that knowledge involved a
relation between the knower and the thing known, so that a
change in the thing known would produce a change in the relation
but not in the essence of the knower. This notion of a relation
involved the substitution of a philosophical term, idafa
(relation), for a theological one, ta‘alluq (connection), in an
argument about the attribute of knowledge which belonged
essentially to Abu ’l-Husayn al-Basri’s Mu‘tazilite school.
In ethics, al-Razi held that God
alone, through revelation, determines moral values for man, it
being these which give rise to praise and blame. God himself was
beyond the moral realm and acted from no purpose extraneous to
himself, be it out of pure goodness or for the benefit of his
creation. Following al-Ghazali, and before him al-Juwayni, al-Razi’s
solution to the problem posed for divine subjectivists by God’s
threats of punishment and reward was to acknowledge a subjective
rational capacity within man allowing him to understand what
causes him pleasure and pain and thus enabling him to perceive
where his advantage lies. In his ‘Ilm al-akhlaq (Science of
Ethics) al-Razi built upon al-Ghazali’s ethical writings,
particularly from the Ihya’ ‘ulum al-din, providing a
systematic framework based on psychology, again under the
influence of al-Baghdadi (see Ethics in Islamic philosophy). On
the question of free will, al-Razi took a radical determinist
position and rejected outright the Ash‘arite doctrine of kasb
(acquisition). Al-Razi postulated two factors necessary for the
production of an action: the power to do it or not to do it, and
a preponderating factor, the motivation, which leads to the
action being performed or not. Once the preponderating factor
exists together with the power, either the act comes about
necessarily or else it becomes impossible. Al-Razi pushed this
essentially Mu‘tazilite thesis, which is also similar to Ibn
Sina’s thinking, to its logical conclusion, arguing that both
the power and the preponderating factor had to be created by God
for the result to exist necessarily, and hence that all human
actions have been produced through God’s determination. We thus
appear to be free agents because we act according to our
motives, but in reality we are constrained. A consequence of
this theory when it is applied to God’s own acts is that since
God acts through his power, he must himself either act through
constraint (if there is a preponderating factor in this case) or
else by chance (if there is not), both of which conclusions
violate the central Sunnite position that God is a totally free
agent. Those who came after al-Razi felt that he had never
adequately solved this difficulty, and he himself confessed
that, whether from the point of view of reason or of tradition,
there was in the end no satisfactory solution to the free will
problem (see Free will).
Al-Razi held the Ash‘arite
position that God could re-create what had been made inexistent,
and this formed the basis of his literal understanding of bodily
resurrection. However, he also expressed views which were
influenced by the theory of the late Mu‘tazili Ibn al-Malahimi,
who held the contrary position on the restoration of
non-existence, that the world did not pass into non-existence
but its parts were dissociated, and that the essential of these
parts were reassembled on the resurrection. This ambivalence on
al-Razi’s part perhaps reflects the changes in his position on
atomism, which he vehemently denied in his earlier purely
philosophical works but of which he was more supportive towards
the end of his life. See also: al-Ghazali; Ibn Sina; Islamic
theology; al-Tusi
JOHN COOPER Routledge
Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Version 1.0, London: Routledge List
of works
al-Razi, Fakhr al-Din (before
1185) al-Mabahith al-mashriqiyya fi ‘ilm al-ilahiyyat
wa-’l-tabi‘iyyat (Eastern Studies in Metaphysics and Physics),
Hyderabad: Da’irat al-Ma‘arif al-Nizamiyyah, 1923-4, 2 vols;
repr. Tehran, 1966.(One of al-Razi’s most important
philosophical texts.) al-Razi, Fakhr al-Din (before 1239) al-Tafsir
al-kabir (The Great Commentary), Cairo: al-Matba‘ah al Bahiyyah
al-Misriyyah, 1938, 32 vols in 16; several reprints.(Al-Razi’s
commentary on the Qur’an, completed by his pupil al-Khuwayyi;
useful in many places as in indication of his later
philosophical positions.) al-Razi, Fakhr al-Din (before 1209)
Muhassal afkar al-mutaqaddimin wa-’l-muta’akhkhirin min al-‘ulama’
wa-’l-hukama’ wa-’l-mutakallimin (The Harvest of the Thought of
the Ancients and Moderns), Cairo: al-Matba‘ah al Bahiyyah al-Misriyyah,
1905.(Printed with al-Tusi’s Talkhis al-Muhassal at the bottom
of the page and al-Razi’s al-Ma‘alim fi usul al-din (The
Waymarks and Principles of Religion) in the margin.) al-Razi,
Fakhr al-Din (before 1209) Kitab al-nafs wa-’l-ruh wa sharh
quwa-huma (Book on the Soul and the Spirit and their Faculties),
ed. M.S.H. al-Ma‘sumi, Islamabad: Islamic Research Institute,
1968; trans. M.S.H. al-Ma‘sumi, Imam Razi’s ‘Ilm al-akhlaq,
Islamabad: Islamic Research Institute, 1969.(Al-Razi’s work on
ethics.) al-Razi, Fakhr al-Din (before 1209) Sharh al-Isharat
(Commentary on the Isharat).(No critical edition of al-Razi’s
commentary on Ibn Sina’s Kitab al-isharat has appeared. Portions
can be found in S. Dunya (ed.) al-Isharat wa-’l-tanbihat, Cairo:
Dar al-Ma‘arif, 1957-60, 4 parts, 3 vols in 2; also in al-Isharat
wa-’l-tanbihat, Tehran: Matba‘at al-Haydari, 1957-9, 3 vols.
Both these editions contain al-Tusi’s commentary as well as
parts of Fakhr al-Din al-Razi’s commentary, to which al-Tusi is
responding. The Tehran edition also contains Qutb al-Din al-Razi’s
commentary, which set out to adjudicate between al-Tusi and al-Razi.)
al-Razi, Fakhr al-Din (before 1209) Lubab al-Isharat (The Pith
of the Isharat), ed. M. Shihabi in al-Tanbihat wa-’l isharat,
Tehran: Tehran University Press, 1960; ed. A. ‘Atiyah, Cairo:
Maktabat al-Kharji, 1936/7. (Al-Razi’s epitome of Ibn Sina’s
work, written after he had completed his commentary.) References
and further reading Abrahamov, B. (1992) ‘Fakhr al-Din al-Razi
on God’s Knowledge of Particulars’, Oriens 33:
133-55.(Discussion of a key point of difference between Islamic
theologians and philosophers.) Arnaldez, R. (1960) ‘L’oeuvre de
Fakhr al-Din al-Razi commentateur du Coran et philosophe’ (The
Works of Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, Qu’ranic Commentator and
Philosopher), Cahiers du Civilization médiévale, Xe-XIIe siècles
3: 307-23.(In this article, Arnaldez has dug into al-Razi’s
enormous commentary on the Qur’an to come up with his mature
philosophical ideas. Can be compared with McAuliffe (1990) and
Mahdi’s response to McAuliffe.) Arnaldez, R. (1989) ‘Trouvailles
philosophiques dans le commentaire coranique de Fakhr al-Dîn al-Râzî’,
ةtudes Orientales 4: 17-26.
(A follow-up to Arnaldez (1960).) Ibn Sina (980-1037) Kitab al-Isharat
wa-’l-tanbihat (Remarks and Admonitions), trans. A.-M. Goichon,
Livre des directives et remarques, Beirut and Paris,
1951.(Introduction and notes by the translator. Contained in the
notes are a number of al-Razi’s comments from his commentary on
this work, as well as some of al-Tusi’s criticisms of al-Razi.)
Kholeif, F. (1966) A Study on Fakhr al-Din al-Razi and His
Controversies in Transoxania, Pensée Arabe et Musulmane 31,
Beirut: Dar al-Machreq ةditeurs.(Arabic
text and English translation of al-Razi’s text of sixteen
questions (philosophical, logical, legal) broached with scholars
in Transoxania; gives a good idea of al-Razi’s style. Also
contains a list of al-Razi’s works.) Kraus, P. (1936-7) ‘Les "Controverses"
de Fakhr al-Din Razi’ (The ‘Controversies’ of Fakhr al-Din al-Razi),
Bulletin de l‘Institut d’Egypte 19: 187-214.(An important early
study of the ‘controversies’ translated in Kholeif (1966). An
English translation appears in ‘The controversies of Fakhr
al-Din Razi’, Islamic Culture 12, 1938: 131-53.) McAuliffe, J.D.
(1990) ‘Fakhr al-Din al-Razi on God as al-Khaliq’, in D.B.
Burrell and B. McGinn (eds) God and Creation: An Ecumenical
Symposium, Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press,
276-96.(An examination of al-Razi’s late philosophical theology,
with particular reference to the problem of creation; see also
M. Mahdi’s response in the same volume (297-303) on the general
question of al-Razi as philosopher.) Routledge Encyclopedia of
Philosophy, Version 1.0, London: Routledge
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