Muslim Philosophers’ Relationship with the Qu’ran

CONTRARY to the Roman Christian interpretation of the Divinity, the Qur’anic revelation categorically denied any association with the Divine. To Muslim philosophers it was not only a Divinely-Inspired Revelation for all mankind, but one that uncovered a marvelous precision of God’s Universe.

According to the Qu’ranic account of the Divine, Almighty Allah (Subhana Wa’ a ta Ala) is the sole Creator of the Universe and is not associated with any of His creatures. Muslim philosophers accepted the Qur’anic revelation without question and directed their intellectual energies, with the aid of Aristotelian logic, to uncovering the laws of God’s Universe. Thus the spiritual force of the Qur’an directed their energies and in turn influenced modern European scientific thought.

There was a time in human intellectual history when, during the European Middle Ages, Roman Christian theology guided philosophical pursuits; thus, according to medieval scholar Professor Weinberg, philosophy was the “handmaiden” of theology. With the aid of philosophical reasoning, Europe’s medieval religious thinkers described in detail God’s intimate relationship to the cosmos.

St. Augustine, the African Bishop of Hippo who, with the aid of philosophical mysticism guided by Platonism defended the Latin Church against various theological heresies, illuminated an intimate relationship between God’s Tri-partate or Three-Fold Existence as One – God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit - and human psychology. And even though Roman classical theology guided philosophy throughout medieval Europe, its modern philosophers understood and exploited three inherent human faculties endowed by the Creator, paving the way for modern scientific observation as we know it today – intelligence, experience and reason.

In direct opposition to St. Augustine’s “fuzzy” or Platonic explanation of the Trinity or God’s Tripartite Existence, modern European philosophers discarded Platonism and mastered Aristotelian logic; they accentuated their rational faculties and subjected the Trinity to logic and reason; to them, reason was the only guide to Enlightenment. Chief among their difficulties was to explain the Christian Incarnation, or God revealing Himself as Christ to human reason.

A central issue of controversy surrounding the Trinity was to understand clearly, with the aid of logic and reason, whether Jesus (p) shared Divinity with God or not. Such critical questions stirred so much ecclesiastical debates among the Roman Catholic clergy of the Latin West that it ushered in the Christian Reformation in Europe.

If we admit, according to Professor Weinberg, that medieval Muslim philosophers were not subjected to a strict surveillance of their theologians as compared to those of the Christian Faith, then we can conclude with certainty that the writings of medieval Muslim philosophers influenced greatly an Enlightened Europe concerning Religion.

Prior to the scientific age European philosophers discarded the “fuzzy mysticism” of the Christian Incarnation so as to uncover the workings of the Universe concomitant with human reason. Once again modern European philosophers examined the Trinity and found it, according to Professor Muhammad Ata’ur Rahim, a “metaphysical fiction”. There was no empirical validity to the Trinitarian God. Not only was the Trinity diametrically repugnant to logic, they reasoned, but that it was diametrically repugnant to human reason as well.

Although the Qur’anic and Biblical account of Jesus (p) appeared to be so logically dissoluble and incendiary enough to launch the Crusades – a series of religious wars that exacted millions of souls, a great number of Christian religious thinkers of the new Europe accepted the Qur’anic view that Jesus (p) was a prophet of God and that God Himself was One and Indivisible.

Only the courageous among them proclaimed their religious views. Some were persecuted until death; some were branded heretics and ex-communicated. Arius the presbyter and pastor gained much recognition in Christian ecclesiastical circles for refuting the Trinity through logic and reason; according to Christian scholars he is the progenitor of the Unitarian Church. Arius argued persuasively that if God is Unchanging that Jesus (p) is subject to change like all other rational creatures; if God is Unchanging, then Jesus (p) is not God. If God is in Essence Eternal, then Jesus (p) does not share God’s Essence; therefore God the Father must have existed before the son; and there was a “time” when Jesus (p) did not exist. Another Unitarian was Michael Servetus, whose views were so inflammatory that he was fastened to the trunk of a tree and burned alive, along with a copy of The Errors of Trinity, which he wrote.

Socianus affirmed that Jesus (p) was a mortal man who was miraculously born of a virgin.

The British philosopher John Locke, who was deliberately illuminated onto the European intellectual landscape due to his revolutionary views of natural government, was an astute religious thinker as well, as he himself refuted the Trinitarian Doctrine. His treatises regarding the Christian religion and reason received some critical acclaim. Unlike Locke, “Sir” Isaac Newton, noted European astronomer and mathematician, for some unknown reason, could not express his views on religion and reason openly.

Joseph Priestly, one of the early founders of modern chemistry who is credited for his laboratory discoveries of oxygen in France, was also an articulate proponent of Unitarianism and a great friend of Benjamin Franklin. Priestly and Franklin sought refuge in America, and Priestly opened a great number of Unitarian Churches here. His main contribution to the Unitarian Church in England was a comprehensive dissertation in support of God’s Unity. Priestly wrote two important texts: the History of the Corruptions of Christianity and The History of Jesus Christ. An excerpt of it reads thus:

“The great objection to the doctrine of the trinity is that it is an infringement of the doctrine of the Unity of God, as the sole object of worship, which it was the primary design of Divine Revelation to establish. Any modification of this doctrine, therefore, or any other system whatever, ought to be regarded with suspicion, in proportion as it makes a multiplicity of objects of worship, for that is to introduce idolatry”

The writer is a recent revert to Islam and can be contacted at: drummondhugh@verizon.net