To her surprise, a woman sees a bunch of boys, looking like
students, follow an old man.
She asks one of them, “Why are you all following this man?”
The boy cries out, “Don’t you know him? He’s got a thousand
proofs for the existence of God!”
The woman thinks for a while, then asks, “Without having a
thousand doubts, how can he get a thousand proofs?”
Hearing this, Fakhr al-Din ar-Razi smilingly says to his
students, “Keep faith like that woman”
Fakhr al-Din ar-Razi knew everything of his time - he had
mastery on theology, philosophy as well as science. He is one of the greatest
scholars of Islam and also wrote on comparative religion. Many consider Fakhr
al-Din ar-Razi to be the 6th Mujaddid (Revaivalist) of Islam. He famously said,
“I regret the time I’ve been eating instead of being in pursuit of knowledge –
for time is precious”.
He is called ‘The Leader of the Doubt-inducers’ (Imam
al-Mushaqqiqin) because of his skeptical attitude, always searching for
evidence for everything. As the Quran says, “Produce your proof if you are on
truth”. (27:64)
He made reconciliation between the Aristotelians and
Theologians. He did criticize Greek philosophy severely, but also took the
beneficial things from it. This made his philosophy a permanent culture for
later Islamic philosophers. Up to this day, his book on philosophy Sharh
al-Isharat is taught in Iranian madrasah’s.
Now let us get into science. He wrote an encyclopedia named
Jami’ al-Ulum which expounded 40 subjects such as pharmacology, optics,
chemistry, geometry, astronomy etc. In the Qur’an, the Arabic word Alamin
(Worlds) is used many times. Seeing this, he concluded that there must be many
planets besides the earth in the universe. Fakhr al-Din ar-Razi, believed that
there could be life in the universe besides this planet. It is easy to think
now, but very very hard to say in the 12th century. Seeing a verse from the
Qur’an (51:47), he concluded that the universe is constantly expanding. Fakhr
al-Din ar-Razi criticized Ptolemy’s geocentric model and he believed in the
existence of vacuum.
Fakhr al-Din ar-Razi wrote commentaries on the medical works
of ibn Sina and Abu Bakr al-Razi. To write a commentary, you need have mastery
on the subject. Imam al-Mushaqqiqin here, just proved his knowledge on the
subject. He became very famous in Herat for his ability of finding out the
reasons of particular diseases.
This is just a small glimpse of the scientific thinking of
Fakhr al-Din ar-Razi - about whom, Peter Adamson says that he had the brain of
a 21st century philosopher in the 13th century.
References:
- A History of Muslim
Philosophy (Chief Editor: M.M.
Sharif)
- Great Figures of Islam –
Imam Fakhruddin ar-Razi (ISNA Australia):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8DeUm7NDb4
- Adi Setia (2004), "Fakhr
Al-Din Al-Razi on Physics and the Nature of the Physical World: A
Preliminary Survey", Islam & Science, 2.
- Nasr, Seyyed Hossain. Science
and Civilization in Islam (ABC International Group Inc., 2001)
- Aminrazavi, M. and S. H.
Nasr, ed. An Anthology of Philosophy in Persia. (3 vols. I.B.
Tauris publishers, 2008.)
- Adamson,
Peter. Philosophy in the Islamic World (A History of Philosophy
Without any Gaps. Vol. 3 . Oxford University Press, 2016)
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