born 1149, Rayy, Iran
died 1209, near Herat, Khwarezm
in full Abu 'abd Allah Muhammad Ibn 'umar Ibn Al-husayn Fakhr Ad-din Ar-razi Muslim theologian and scholar, author of one of the most authoritative commentaries on the Qur'an in the history of Islam. His aggressiveness and vengefulness created many enemies and involved him in numerous intrigues. His intellectual brilliance, however, was universally acclaimed and attested by such works as Mafatih al-ghayb or Kitab at-tafsir al-kabir (“The Keys to the Unknown” or “The Great Commentary”) and Muhassal afkar al-mutaqaddimin wa-al-muta'akhkhirin (“Collection of the Opinions of Ancients and Moderns”).
Ar-Razi was the son of a preacher. After a broad education, in which he specialized in theology and philosophy, he traveled from country to country in an area comprising present-day northwestern Iran and Turkistan and finally settled in Herat (now in Afghanistan). Wherever he went, he debated with famous scholars and was patronized and consulted by local rulers. He wrote about 100 books and gained fame and wealth. It was said that wherever he rode, 300 of his students accompanied him on foot; when he moved from one city to another, 1,000 mules carried his possessions, and there seemed no limit to his silver and gold.
Ar-Razi lived in an age of political and religious turmoil. The empire of the Baghdad caliphs was disintegrating; its numerous local rulers were virtually independent. The Mongols were shortly to invade the region and strike the final blow against the caliphate. Religious unity, too, had long since crumbled: in addition to the division of Islam into two major groups—the Sunnites and the Shi'ites—countless small sects had developed, often with the support of local rulers. Sufism (Islamic mysticism), too, was gaining ground. Like the philosopher al-Ghazali, a century earlier, ar-Razi was a “middle-roader” who attempted, in his own way, to reconcile a rationalistic theology and philosophy incorporating concepts taken from Aristotle and other Greek philosophers with the Qur'an (Islamic scripture). This attempt inspired al-Mabahith al-mashriqiyah (“Eastern Discourses”), a summation of his philosophical and theological positions, and several commentaries on Avicenna (Ibn Sina), as well as his extremely wide-ranging commentary on the Qur'an (Mafatih al-ghayb or Kitab at-tafsir al-kabir) which ranks among the greatest works of its kind in Islam. Equally famous is his Muhassal afkar al-mutaqaddimin wa-al-muta'akhkhirin, which was accepted from the first as a classic of kalam (Muslim theology). His other books, in addition to a general encyclopaedia, dealt with subjects as varied as medicine, astrology, geometry, physiognomy, mineralogy, and grammar.
Ar-Razi was not only a persuasive preacher but also a master of debate. His ability to refute the arguments of others, together with his aggressiveness, self-confidence, irritability, and bad temper, made many enemies for him. His worldly success made others jealous of him. Moreover, on occasion he could show extreme malice. With his connivance, his elder brother, who openly resented his success, was imprisoned by the Khwarezm-Shah (ruler of Turkistan) and died in prison. A famous preacher with whom he had quarrelled was drowned by royal command. It is reported, however, that one incident persuaded him to cease attacks against the Isma'ili—a Shi'ite sect of Islam also known as Seveners because they believe that Isma'il, the seventh imam (spiritual leader), was the last of the imams. After ar-Razi had taunted the Isma'ili as having no valid proofs for their beliefs, an Isma'ili gained access to him by posing as a pupil and pointed a knife at his chest, saying: “This is our proof.” It has been suggested further that ar-Razi's death was not from natural causes, but that he was poisoned by the Karramiyah (a Muslim anthropomorphist sect), in revenge for his attacks on them.
Ar-Razi loved disputation so much that he went out of his way to present unorthodox and heretical religious views as fully and as favourably as possible, before refuting them. This habit gave his opponents grounds for accusing him of heresy. It was said: “He states the views of the enemies of orthodoxy most persuasively, and those of the orthodoxy most unconvincingly.” His thorough presentations of unorthodox views make his works a useful source of information about little-known Muslim sects. He was thus a good devil's advocate, though he maintained firmly that he championed only orthodoxy.
Ar-Razi was a many-sided genius and a colourful personality who was regarded by some Muslims as a major “renewer of the faith.” According to tradition, one such was due to appear each century, and al-Ghazali had been the one immediately before ar-Razi. His aim, like al-Ghazali's, was doubtless to be a revitalizer and reconciler in Islam, but he did not have al-Ghazali's originality, nor was he often able to make readers aware of his personal religious experience, as al-Ghazali could. His genius for analysis sometimes led him into long and tortuous arguments, yet he compensated for these shortcomings by his very wide knowledge, which incorporated most disciplines—even the sciences—into his religious writings. In the centuries after his death, Muslim philosophers and theologians were to turn to his works frequently for guidance.
John A. Haywood
Additional Reading
M.M. Sharif (ed.), A History of Muslim Philosophy, vol. 1, pp. 642–655 (1963); Youssef Mourad, La Physiognomie arabe, et le Kitab al-Firasa de Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (1939); for information about ar-Razi's medical works, see C. Elgood, A Medical History of Persia and the Eastern Caliphate (1951); and Fathalla Kholeif, A Study on Fakhr al-Din al-Razi and His Controversies in Transoxiana (1966), containing a useful introductory chapter; for information about Muslim sects, see A.S. Tritton, Muslim Theology (1947); articles in the Encyclopaedia of Islam; and ar-Razi's great commentary, Mafatih al-ghayb (various printings).
copy paste from:http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9033610/Fakhr-ad-Din-ar-Razi
Saturday, January 06, 2007
Fakhr al-Din al-Razi by JOHN COOPER
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.
1. Theology and philosophy
2. Metaphysics
1. 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 complicated 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 ( TeX equation). 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
Copyright © 1998, 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 ', Études 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 Éditeurs. (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.)
copy paste from: http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ip/rep/H044.htm
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.
1. Theology and philosophy
2. Metaphysics
1. 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 complicated 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 ( TeX equation). 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
Copyright © 1998, 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 ', Études 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 Éditeurs. (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.)
copy paste from: http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ip/rep/H044.htm
AL-FAKHR AL-RAZI by Dr.G.F. Haddad
AL-FAKHR AL-RAZI
by Dr.G.F. Haddad
Muhammad ibn `Umar ibn al-Hasan ibn al-Husayn1 Abu `Abd Allah al-Qurashi, al-Bakri, al-Taymi, al-Tabaristani al-Shafi`i, known as Ibn al-Khatib and as Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (543-606), Shaykh al-Islam, the imam of the learned scholars of kalam and the foundations of belief, a major jurist of the Shafi`i school, specialist of usul, Sufi, commentator of the Qur'an, philologist, genealogist, heresiographer, logician, and physician. "An ocean that contains more pearls than the ocean." The principal spokesman of Ahl al-Sunna in his time, he refuted all the sects with which he came into contact, particularly the multifarious groups of the Mu`tazila, Shi`a, and Hashwiyya as well as the Jews and Christians. A student of his father Khatib al-Rayy Diya' al-Din `Umar and Majd al-Din al-Jili al-Maraghi principally, then Abu Muhammad al-Baghawi and Kamal al-Din al-Simnani, he memorized early on Imam al-Haramayn's work in kalam entitled al-Shamil. He began his scholarly career in poverty and died at sixty-three at the height of fame and wealth, poisoned, it is said, by the Karramiyya2 of Herat who were envious of his great following among the princes of Khurasan.
A superb teacher, al-Razi could debate and preach in both Arabic and Persian, and he answered gracefully and at length the questions of the scholars of all four schools in Herat. He would often break into emotional states while preaching, moving to tears whoever listened to him. He was expelled from Khwarizm and Transoxiana by the Mu`tazila and returned to his native Rayy where he authored a series of works which achieved widespread fame in a short time. Among them:3
1. Al-Tafsir al-Kabir, also known as Mafatih al-Ghayb, among the greatest commentaries of Qur'an in Islam, in twelve to thirty volumes depending on the edition, he spent the last fifteen years of his life working on it and did not finish it. The commentator Abu Hayyan criticized its prolixity in acerbic terms.4
2. `Isma al-Anbiya'.
3. Bahr al-Ansab.
4. Kitab al-Mantiq al-Kabir.
5. Al-Mahsul wa al-Muntakhab, in which he amended Abu al-Husayn Muhammad ibn `Ali al-Basri al-Mu`tazili al-Shafi`i's (d. 463) al-Mu`tamad fi Usul al-Fiqh.
6. Al-Arba`in.
7. Nihaya al-`Uqul
8. Al-Bayan wa al-Burhan fi al-Radd `ala Ahl al-Zaygh wa al-Tughyan
9. Al-Mabahith al-`Imadiyya fi al-Matalib al-Ma`adiyya
10. Al-Mabahith al-Mashriqiyya.
11. Ta'sis al-Taqdis fi Ta'wil al-Sifat, a methodical refutation of the anthropomorphists. Ibn Taymiyya attacked it in a book entitled al-Asas Radd al-Ta'sis.
12. Irshad al-Nuzzar ila Lata'if al-Asrar.
13. Al-Zubda.
14. Al-Ma`alim fi Usul al-Din, a commentary on Abu al-Ma`ali al-Juwayni's Luma` al-Adilla.
15. Al-Ma`alim fi Usul al-Fiqh
16. Sharh Asma' Allah al-Husna
17. Sharh Nisf al-Wajiz li al-Ghazzali
18. Sharh al-Isharat.
19. Al-Mulakhkhas fi al-Falsafa.
20. Al-Matalib al-`Aliyya.
21. Al-Milal wa al-Nihal.
22. Sharh Kulliyyat al-Qanun fi al-Tibb.
23. Manaqib al-Shafi`i.
24. Sharh Siqt al-Zand li Abi al-`Ala'.
25. Al-Tariqa al-Baha'iyya fi al-Khilaf. Siraj al-Din al-Ghaznawi translated it into Arabic from its original Persian.
26. Sharh Mufassal al-Zamakhshari.
27. `Uyun al-Hikma.
28. The spurious Asrar al-Nujum on magic and divination, falsely attributed to the Imam.5
Imam al-Razi said in his "Testament" (wasiyya):
I have explored the ways of kalam and the methods of philosophy, and I did not see in them a benefit that compares with the benefit I found in the Qur'an. For the latter hurries us to acknowledge that greatness and majesty belong only to Allah, precluding us from involvement into the explication of objections and contentions. This is for no other reason than because human minds find themselves deadened in those deep, vexing exercises and obscure ways [of kalam and philosophy].
Therefore, I say that everything that stands established by literal proofs concerning the necessity of Allah's existence, His oneness, His exemption from any and all partners, as well as His beginninglessness and pre-existence, His disposal of all things, His exclusive efficacy: that is what I also believe, and what I hope to meet Allah with.
As for what is ultimately subtle and unclear, as well as all that is mentioned in the Qur'an and the sound books of hadith that specifically bears one meaning: it is all exactly as the text says. Whatever is otherwise, I say: O God of the worlds, I see that all of creation concur that You are the most generous of all generous ones, and the most merciful of them; therefore, concerning anything I wrote or thought, I bear witness that if You saw that I tried to declare true something false, or declare false something true, then do with me as I deserve; but if you saw that I only tried to declare transcendent whatever I considered truly transcendent, and believed so truthfully, then let Your mercy be commensurate with my intention, not with my outcome....
As for the books which I authored and in which I listed and explicated countless questions, let whoever looks into them remember me kindly and pray for me out of compassion and benevolence, or else, strike out any wrong words. For I did not intend other than abundant investigation and the sharpening of thought, all the while relying upon Allah.6
Ibn al-Subki quotes the following lines of poetry from Imam al-Razi:
The daring of minds ends in shackles, Most of mankind's undertakings are folly. Our souls are indifferent to what our bodies do, And the sum of our lives is affliction and harm. We did not benefit from our lifelong search Except in collecting what these said, and those. Atop many a mountain men have triumphed And gone, while the mountains remained. How many men and states have we seen Goaded to disappear one and all.
Al-Razi is, with al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi, among those to whom Shaykh Muhyi al-Din Ibn `Arabi frequently refers in his books.
Main sources: Ibn al-Subki, Tabaqat al-Shafi`iyya al-Kubra 8:81-96 #1089; Ibn Qadi Shuhba, Tabaqat al-Shafi`iyya 1:-396-398 #366.
NOTES
1In Ibn Qadi Shuhba: Ibn `Umar Ibn al-Husayn ibn al-Hasan.
2 The Karramiyya are the followers of Abu 'Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Karram al-Sijistani (d. 255) who used to say: "Allah is a body unlike bodies" and "Allah is firmly seated on the throne and He is in person (dhâtan) on the upper side of it." Al-Shahrastani, al-Milal wa al-Nihal (1:108) and al-Dhahabi, Siyar (10:10). Al-Baghdadi gave an exhaustive description of their doctrines in al-Farq Bayn al-Firaq (1977 ed. p. 202-214).
3List taken from Ibn al-Subki's TSK, Ibn Qadi Shuhba, and Hajji Khalifa's Kasfh al-Zunun (1:224, 2:1198, 2:1527, 2:1561, 2:1864).
4To the point he said: "One of the scholars said that his Tafsir contains everything but Tafsir!" In Hajji Khalifa, Kashf al-Zunun (1:431) and elsewhere.
5Al-Dhahabi included an entry on Imam al-Razi in his compendium of narrator-discreditation entitled Mizan al-I`tidal in which he says: "He [al-Razi] authored a book named Asrar al-Nujum which contains blatant sorcery." Al-Dhahabi, Mizan al-I`tidal. Ibn al-Subki in TSK (8:88) rejects this attribution as spurious and rightly attributes its mention to al-Dhahabi's anti-Ash`ari bias, noting that since al-Razi is not even known as a hadith narrator he did not belong in the Mizan in the first place - the latter being a compendium of narrators whose name was brought up in connection with narrator-discreditation. `Abd al-Karim ibn Khaldun al-Maghribi al-Maliki in the introduction to his Tarikh and Ibn Qadi Shuhba cite the book as al-Sirr al-Maktum fi Mukhataba al-Shams wa al-Nujum and similarly cast doubt on the authenticity of its attribution to al-Razi.
6In Ibn al-Subki, Tabaqat al-Shafi`iyya al-Kubra (8:91-92).
copy paste from:http://sunnah.org/history/Scholars/al_fakhr_al_razi.htm
by Dr.G.F. Haddad
Muhammad ibn `Umar ibn al-Hasan ibn al-Husayn1 Abu `Abd Allah al-Qurashi, al-Bakri, al-Taymi, al-Tabaristani al-Shafi`i, known as Ibn al-Khatib and as Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (543-606), Shaykh al-Islam, the imam of the learned scholars of kalam and the foundations of belief, a major jurist of the Shafi`i school, specialist of usul, Sufi, commentator of the Qur'an, philologist, genealogist, heresiographer, logician, and physician. "An ocean that contains more pearls than the ocean." The principal spokesman of Ahl al-Sunna in his time, he refuted all the sects with which he came into contact, particularly the multifarious groups of the Mu`tazila, Shi`a, and Hashwiyya as well as the Jews and Christians. A student of his father Khatib al-Rayy Diya' al-Din `Umar and Majd al-Din al-Jili al-Maraghi principally, then Abu Muhammad al-Baghawi and Kamal al-Din al-Simnani, he memorized early on Imam al-Haramayn's work in kalam entitled al-Shamil. He began his scholarly career in poverty and died at sixty-three at the height of fame and wealth, poisoned, it is said, by the Karramiyya2 of Herat who were envious of his great following among the princes of Khurasan.
A superb teacher, al-Razi could debate and preach in both Arabic and Persian, and he answered gracefully and at length the questions of the scholars of all four schools in Herat. He would often break into emotional states while preaching, moving to tears whoever listened to him. He was expelled from Khwarizm and Transoxiana by the Mu`tazila and returned to his native Rayy where he authored a series of works which achieved widespread fame in a short time. Among them:3
1. Al-Tafsir al-Kabir, also known as Mafatih al-Ghayb, among the greatest commentaries of Qur'an in Islam, in twelve to thirty volumes depending on the edition, he spent the last fifteen years of his life working on it and did not finish it. The commentator Abu Hayyan criticized its prolixity in acerbic terms.4
2. `Isma al-Anbiya'.
3. Bahr al-Ansab.
4. Kitab al-Mantiq al-Kabir.
5. Al-Mahsul wa al-Muntakhab, in which he amended Abu al-Husayn Muhammad ibn `Ali al-Basri al-Mu`tazili al-Shafi`i's (d. 463) al-Mu`tamad fi Usul al-Fiqh.
6. Al-Arba`in.
7. Nihaya al-`Uqul
8. Al-Bayan wa al-Burhan fi al-Radd `ala Ahl al-Zaygh wa al-Tughyan
9. Al-Mabahith al-`Imadiyya fi al-Matalib al-Ma`adiyya
10. Al-Mabahith al-Mashriqiyya.
11. Ta'sis al-Taqdis fi Ta'wil al-Sifat, a methodical refutation of the anthropomorphists. Ibn Taymiyya attacked it in a book entitled al-Asas Radd al-Ta'sis.
12. Irshad al-Nuzzar ila Lata'if al-Asrar.
13. Al-Zubda.
14. Al-Ma`alim fi Usul al-Din, a commentary on Abu al-Ma`ali al-Juwayni's Luma` al-Adilla.
15. Al-Ma`alim fi Usul al-Fiqh
16. Sharh Asma' Allah al-Husna
17. Sharh Nisf al-Wajiz li al-Ghazzali
18. Sharh al-Isharat.
19. Al-Mulakhkhas fi al-Falsafa.
20. Al-Matalib al-`Aliyya.
21. Al-Milal wa al-Nihal.
22. Sharh Kulliyyat al-Qanun fi al-Tibb.
23. Manaqib al-Shafi`i.
24. Sharh Siqt al-Zand li Abi al-`Ala'.
25. Al-Tariqa al-Baha'iyya fi al-Khilaf. Siraj al-Din al-Ghaznawi translated it into Arabic from its original Persian.
26. Sharh Mufassal al-Zamakhshari.
27. `Uyun al-Hikma.
28. The spurious Asrar al-Nujum on magic and divination, falsely attributed to the Imam.5
Imam al-Razi said in his "Testament" (wasiyya):
I have explored the ways of kalam and the methods of philosophy, and I did not see in them a benefit that compares with the benefit I found in the Qur'an. For the latter hurries us to acknowledge that greatness and majesty belong only to Allah, precluding us from involvement into the explication of objections and contentions. This is for no other reason than because human minds find themselves deadened in those deep, vexing exercises and obscure ways [of kalam and philosophy].
Therefore, I say that everything that stands established by literal proofs concerning the necessity of Allah's existence, His oneness, His exemption from any and all partners, as well as His beginninglessness and pre-existence, His disposal of all things, His exclusive efficacy: that is what I also believe, and what I hope to meet Allah with.
As for what is ultimately subtle and unclear, as well as all that is mentioned in the Qur'an and the sound books of hadith that specifically bears one meaning: it is all exactly as the text says. Whatever is otherwise, I say: O God of the worlds, I see that all of creation concur that You are the most generous of all generous ones, and the most merciful of them; therefore, concerning anything I wrote or thought, I bear witness that if You saw that I tried to declare true something false, or declare false something true, then do with me as I deserve; but if you saw that I only tried to declare transcendent whatever I considered truly transcendent, and believed so truthfully, then let Your mercy be commensurate with my intention, not with my outcome....
As for the books which I authored and in which I listed and explicated countless questions, let whoever looks into them remember me kindly and pray for me out of compassion and benevolence, or else, strike out any wrong words. For I did not intend other than abundant investigation and the sharpening of thought, all the while relying upon Allah.6
Ibn al-Subki quotes the following lines of poetry from Imam al-Razi:
The daring of minds ends in shackles, Most of mankind's undertakings are folly. Our souls are indifferent to what our bodies do, And the sum of our lives is affliction and harm. We did not benefit from our lifelong search Except in collecting what these said, and those. Atop many a mountain men have triumphed And gone, while the mountains remained. How many men and states have we seen Goaded to disappear one and all.
Al-Razi is, with al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi, among those to whom Shaykh Muhyi al-Din Ibn `Arabi frequently refers in his books.
Main sources: Ibn al-Subki, Tabaqat al-Shafi`iyya al-Kubra 8:81-96 #1089; Ibn Qadi Shuhba, Tabaqat al-Shafi`iyya 1:-396-398 #366.
NOTES
1In Ibn Qadi Shuhba: Ibn `Umar Ibn al-Husayn ibn al-Hasan.
2 The Karramiyya are the followers of Abu 'Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Karram al-Sijistani (d. 255) who used to say: "Allah is a body unlike bodies" and "Allah is firmly seated on the throne and He is in person (dhâtan) on the upper side of it." Al-Shahrastani, al-Milal wa al-Nihal (1:108) and al-Dhahabi, Siyar (10:10). Al-Baghdadi gave an exhaustive description of their doctrines in al-Farq Bayn al-Firaq (1977 ed. p. 202-214).
3List taken from Ibn al-Subki's TSK, Ibn Qadi Shuhba, and Hajji Khalifa's Kasfh al-Zunun (1:224, 2:1198, 2:1527, 2:1561, 2:1864).
4To the point he said: "One of the scholars said that his Tafsir contains everything but Tafsir!" In Hajji Khalifa, Kashf al-Zunun (1:431) and elsewhere.
5Al-Dhahabi included an entry on Imam al-Razi in his compendium of narrator-discreditation entitled Mizan al-I`tidal in which he says: "He [al-Razi] authored a book named Asrar al-Nujum which contains blatant sorcery." Al-Dhahabi, Mizan al-I`tidal. Ibn al-Subki in TSK (8:88) rejects this attribution as spurious and rightly attributes its mention to al-Dhahabi's anti-Ash`ari bias, noting that since al-Razi is not even known as a hadith narrator he did not belong in the Mizan in the first place - the latter being a compendium of narrators whose name was brought up in connection with narrator-discreditation. `Abd al-Karim ibn Khaldun al-Maghribi al-Maliki in the introduction to his Tarikh and Ibn Qadi Shuhba cite the book as al-Sirr al-Maktum fi Mukhataba al-Shams wa al-Nujum and similarly cast doubt on the authenticity of its attribution to al-Razi.
6In Ibn al-Subki, Tabaqat al-Shafi`iyya al-Kubra (8:91-92).
copy paste from:http://sunnah.org/history/Scholars/al_fakhr_al_razi.htm
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