THE CONCEPTION OF GOD IN-ISLAM AND THE WEST: A PffiLOSO-PIDCAL LECTURE*

Vis.Prof.Dr.Ernest WOLF-GAZO

Mi d die East Teclınical University, Department of Plıilosoplıy.

_1. Introductory Remarks

I would like to take this opportunity to tbank the Dean and the respective members of the ilahiyat Fakültesi of Ankara University to have in-0ted me to deliver the present lecture. I feel bonored speaking at this forum, knowing well that some predecessors of mine at your faculty included the great German lady of Orientalists, Prof.Dr.An­nemarie Schimme~ who derives from my old alma mater of Bonn University, and not to forget Prof.Dr.Hans Freyer. I need not to reınind this audience that 'many members of the German academic community had found a home in Turkey, during their forced exile in the 1930s and 40s, düe to the far reaching sigbt of Atatürk, who had iiwited them to establish a modem university system in Turkey. ,Of the 130 niembers I should mention a few luıninaries such as Bruno Traut, the

· architect, Fritz Reuter, the city planner and later mayor of West-Berlin, Paul Hindemith, the Musician, Fntz Neumark, the economist, Hans -Rcichenbach and Ernst von Aster, the philosophers, or Erich ' Auerbach, the literary eritic (1). Not to forget, even in the eady 1950s, we find Heinz Heimsoeth and Joachim Ritter, two eminent philosophers in westem Germany; teach­ing in Istanbul Uıüversity. Thus, I consider my stay . in Turkey in the spirit of those Europeans, al­thougb being an American citizen md educated,

and living on both sides of the Atlantic, who has tried to bridge the gap of misunderstanding be­tween the West and the Orient. There are serious misconceptions on bo.th sides, and hopefully, my present lecture and my present academic activity in Turkey, has contributed toward the effort of reduc­~g some misconceptions.

My present lecture is to be undcrstood as an attempt at coming to terms wit)l Islamic civiliza­tion and its relation to the West; yet, I want to cx­plore the possibility of the relationship of the Can­ception of Deity in Islam and the very specific con­seqtiences for that civilization in terms of world his­tory. In thafsense, the followipg fecture is to be un­derstood as;an attempt ata philosophy of history.

II. Questi~ns About Islamic Civilization

The theme _of my lecture is very general, yet, it is also very specific. I felt that' if I proposed some specific questions, then this would give me a fulcrum from which to attempt to construct a struc­tural situation, in which I can specify the rclcvanl points of inquiry in the treatment thal follows. I should add, that I treat my thcme within a conlcxt of a specific cultural system and handie this specific cultural system in tcrms of its projcctions

. in world history. .

Let me ask a few qucstions relating to the es­sence of Islamic civilization; what happcned to Is-

(*) A.Ü. ilahiyat Fakültesinde verilen "Batı'da ve İslam'da Allalı Anlayışına Felsefi Bir Yaklaşım" başlıklı bı~ konferansm, Türkçesini gelecek sayımııda yaymlayacağız. 1. Cf.Horst Widman, Exil und Bildungehilfe-Die deutsche akademische Emigration in-d'ie Türkei in 1933. Bern/

Frankfurt, Lang Verlag, 1973. Also see Fritz Neumark, Luflucht am Bosporus. Frankfurt, Knecht Verlag. 1983. Tbese are excellent docume~tations and memoirs of the German exile situation in Turkey ,al most for­gotten, or not even noticed, compared to tbeir compatriots who fo~nd refuge in the United States.

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lamic civilization since its apparent stagnation in the 13th century? Why the stagnation and intellec­tual decline? What were the forces and ele-ments involved in this decline? Moreover, has the very CONCEPTION of God in Islam any direct bearing

· to that decline? Was this very canception a cause, or even the cause of the decline? As you can sense, I am trying to relate these questions pertain­ing to the causes of the decline of a civilization directly to a specific PIDLOSOPIDCAL question as to the very specific CONCEPTION of Deity in Islam. I treat Islam not just as a religion, which is the comman notian in a comman western mind, but, rightly so, I treat Islam as a cultural system, or asa spccific pattern of culture, and the CONCEP­TION of Deity, is part, or in our case at hand, the ESSENCE of that civilization. Please do not ınisunderstand me, I am not inquiring into the na­ture of God or Deity, but I focus on the modes, or modi of that CONCEPTION of God in Islamic civilization. In that sense, as you can see, my treat­ment is a philosophical matter and not theologi­cal. This is the reason why I want this lecture to be understood in terms of philosophy.

The reason why I take time to focus on the structure of my questions is simply this; I have a strong sense, and reason to believe that the can­ception of God in Islam has a direct consequence for the rclationship between the Orient and the Occidcnt (to use old fashioned terms), or Eastern and Westerr civilization; furthermore, that this very canception of Deity in Islam reflects the direct projectian of th·e WHOLE FABRIC of Is­Iaritic civilization. Seen from this perspective, I can state that the question of the CONCEPTION of God bccomes the central question pertaining io the vcry foundation, in metaphysical terms, of Islamic civilization. Thus, the question of the can­ception of God, or Deity, turns out to be the ques­tion as to the very essence of Islamic civilization. In other words, I al!l tackling a question of a double nature: the canception of Deity ari d the es­sence of civilized life. However, I am not yet satis­ficd with the structural formatian of my questions. My aim is also to relate this "double nature" of the coneeption of Deity and civilization to the relation­ship, historically and contemporaneously, between -Islamic civilization and the western World. This generates analher set of qıiestions; thus, is there a -direct relationship between the Islamic con~ep­tion of God and the West? Why did the course of

İslami Araştırmalar Ci/t:3, Sayı: I, Ocak 1989

world history Iead both civilizations in different directions? Why was there a renaissance in the West, just as the Orient started to stagnate and decline? If we consider these questions carefully, we can see a direct relationship between the two sets of questions, which I will reformuiate into' one general question: Is there a direct causal link be­tween the specific canception of God in Islam and its stagnation in view of the West?

At this point you can see how I transformed an apparent theological matter onto an histarical and phenomenological plane: For, in order to treat the topic at hand, in terms of philoso'phy of history, it was necessary to transform the cantext of relevance in order to grasp the complex problem which I am addressing. In our present world, the language that is being used in the Westem world, when we refer to geographic regions, that include primarily countries in which Islam is the dominant religion and culture, it is "The Third World". A more gentlemanly expres­sian is usually "developing countries". My specific critique of this type of terminology is that it repre­sents a type of language that presupposes the es­sential ·understanding of "backwardness", or stag­nation of a country, in terms of economics, tech­nology, and political immaturity. These domains of life, to be sure, are important for any modern society in reference to the material basis of its foundation. However, and I ask the following ques­tion, in view of my proposed set of questions men­tioned: Do the presuppositions and categories of economics and technology give us an essential lead towards understanding the essence and the soul of Islamic civilization? lt is the negation of this question that has led me to undertake an analysis of my theme, in strict terms of philosophy, and not to compromise the situation witıi the "World Bank for Devetoping countries". I should add that I am oor opposed to the good will of such an iı_ıstitution, but I have my doubts whether the programs and projects of such an institution is adequate and sufficient, in order to satisfy the demand to grasp the essence of civilization in the · Third' World. The failures and mistakes of economic programs in the Third Wo~ld are well known. And I suspect that these failures have something to do with ·the . fundamental misunderstanding of the essence of a civilization

Canception of God /Vis.Prof.Dr .. Emest WOLF-GAZO

that represents Islam. Therefore, let us proceed and find that essence:the canception of God.

III. The Histoncal Context: Its Misrepresen­.tation

The Westem world has dealt with the problem of the Rise and Fall of Civilizations since Augustine. Especially, since the 18th century; however, there isa conscious effort ofWestem his­tarical scholarship to come to terms with the phenomenon of stagnation, decline, and fall of civilizations. The paradigınatic case, of course, is Edward Gibbods, Rise and Fal/ of the Roman Em­pire, which is a literary masterpiece in its own right. There are sweeping generalizations, in which the facts are wanting, but, the reader will also fınd some shrewd observations by Gibbon as to the mental processes of decision makers of his­tory. Yet, Gibbon teUs us more about th~ 18th cen­tury European scene, than about Roman history. The thesis holds that the decline of the Roman em­pire was due to the subversive activities and the eventual rise of Catholic Christianity. The Chris­tians are made the scapegoats for the failures of Roman civilization. Religion is made a negative factor in the decline of Roİne. It would be unfair to Gibbon, to hold that his work is a fıne piece of ideology on behalf of the Enlightenment in Europe, but, we can s tat e, that his work represents the Zeit­geist of the Enlightenment. I do hold, however, that Gibbon is part of that preparation in Europe that produced the elever opinion of Marx, that religion is "the opium of the masses." The relation­ship between Enlightenment ideology, Gibbon, and Marx is far Closer than we would suspect at first sight. For the world histarical view of Gibbon and Marx is this; that the world had to emancipate itself from idols, illusions, myths, miracles, and that religion is the area of the human domain that tends to be clouded with imagery and mental dis­tortions, in the (orms of anthropomorphi~m. which enslaves the min d of mankind. Hegel was not as onesided and saw that the life of Religion re­lated in a subtle way to philosophy and art. Yet, in the last analysis, the course of world history, for Hegel, terminates in the absolute Geist, or, in 'his vision, God's processian in terms of a rational order of justice in world history. The course of world history runs from East to West, and it was in the West,· according to Hegel's story. that the

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final emancipation of the body politic culminated in the world histarical figure of Napoleon. Hegel claims to have seen him personally on his horse­back in Jena as he left town unemployed, due to the world s pir it in the person of Napoleon, but with the manuscript of his masterpiece under his arm, Die Phanomeno/ogie des Geistes. Such are the ironie.s of history. Hegel, however, in his later works, was to revise his opinion and felt that the true eman­cipation of Europe occurred earlier, namely through the Reformation in Germany, due to Mar­tin Luther. Be that as it may, the interesting point here to notice \s that with Hegel there was alrcady a change of opinion as to the positiv.e claims of the Enlightenment, as soon as the French Revolution turned into the bloody terror of Robespicrrc and associates, and the bloody warfare of Napoleon's troops in Europe. It was at that point where Prussia and the intellectual vanguard of Germany turned against French ideals and starte~ lhcir ~wn intel­leetual revolution with the foundation of the Hum­boldt University in Berlin 1810. This German change of course, in Euro pe, was to have a great in­fluence in Europe's relation to the Orient. It does takean act of imagination to see that a renewed in­terest in the Orient, without imperial deı:nands, can· be found in the German romantic interest of the Orient. 'I shall returo to this im portant aspect of the resurg~nce of the Orient in Europe a littl~ later in my !ecture.

With Kant's appearance of his monumental Kritik der reine11 Venıwıft matters became bectic in the minds .of Western intellectuals. Apparently, Kant m ade theology an impossible way of ·under­standing Deity - Ka~t may have damaged tradi­tional dogrnatic Christian theology, but, he did, if any careful reader of the relevant paşsages in his fırst Kritik can see, leave open the possibility for a Deity, which he often calls "Urheber". Voltaire, R"ousseau, and other elever philosophers in Paris, misunderstood the gist of Kant's messagc, and ceİebratcd the apparent funeral of all matters per­taining to religion, theology, and the Church. However, the irony and contradictions in which the Enlightenment in Europe found itself is curious in itself. The American histarian Cari Be­eker hııs gracefully formulated these i::ontradic­tions and ironies in his cclebrated .work, 17ıe

Heavenly City of the 18tlı ·Century Philosoplıers, (1931), repr. Yalc Univ. Press. Less gr~ceful, but

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more powerful in the ideological confrontation, is the basic work of the "Frankfurt Scholl", Die Dia/ektik der Aufklanmg, by Max Horkheimer and Theadar W. Adomo, fırst published in 1947 in Amsterdam. The thesis has it that there was an in­built contradiction in the Enlightenment idea of ·emancipation of man, by exploiting nature and gaining a mastery of nature, man enslaved himself, since, he too, is part of that very nature to be ex­ploited. The methods and skills to dominate and exploit nature were to be the very same methods and skills that controlled mankind. Horkheimer anel Adorno, and later in California Herbert Mar­cuse, and contemporaneously in Frankfurt, Jürgen Habcrmas, have asked; whatever happened to the original program and project that was to be the universal pradamatian of freedam for mankind? Be that as it may, another influential work, among an earlier generatian was Oswald Spengler's Der Untergang des Abendlandes, published shortly after World War I. Spengler argues that the West has lost its vitality and that it must make a renewed effort at vitalizing its original powers in terms of the Greek tradition. The theme of Appol­lonian, rational cultiıre, as against the Dionysian, irrational elements in life, could be heard to be in discussion in the cafes in Berlin and Munich. lt is no accident that a work of high philosophiçal order appeared in 1927 with the title Sein u11d Zeit, and its author, the now famous Martin Heidegger. The work had an immediale impact upon European iniellectuals and stili has, to this very day, an influence in western philosophy. It can be argued that Heidegger's major work has been the most single influential work in philosophy in the 20th century West. In our recent times it was Arnold Toynbee, who developed, per­haps the last graİıd undertaking, a general theory of world history. His canception of a "Ch<Hienge and Response" logic, in which civilizations .find themselves, · is noteworthy, but alsa subject to criticism; neverthelcss, Toynbce holds to the thesis that any civilization which does not resppnd to a challenge will stagnate, will decline, and will ultimate ly pcrish. I should not forgel a well known work by the outstanding journalist, William Sh irer, whose work Tlıe Rise and Fal/ of tlıe 17ıird Reiclı, alludes to the metaphor applied to 'theories of civilization, si nce Gibbon.

The .purpose of giving you a te legram style review of same of the themes on the "Rise and Fall" of civilizations, in terms of the Western ex-

İslami Araştırmalar Cilt:3, Sayı: 1, Ocak 1989

perience m world history, is simply this: these theories correspond to the comman opinion of Western thinkers as to the evaluation of the causes of the stagııation and decline in Islamic civilization. In other words, the received opinion is that just at the time in which the West started on i ts joumey of a rebirth in the arts and sciences, Is­lamic civilizations declined; moreover, that Islam has never experiencedan Enlightenment in terms of the principles of Liberty, Equality, and Frater­nity. It is the standard opinion in the W est, that the Orient and Islam never got beyand the idea of despotic rulership and never discovered the in­dividual as an independent subject, not to mention the idea of democracy. In these matters many. scholars follow consciously the ideas of August Wittfogel on "oriental · despotism", and uncon­sciously the world scheme of Hegel. Needless to say, the role and function of religion declin~d in the eyes of Western arıalysis of the nature of

· civilization, since the rise of natural science, and the legal separation between the Christian Church and State; the positivism of August Comte, and the division of the world in mental and material entities, in terms of Descartes' analysis, reigned supreme. However, in the last quarter of the 20th century, in our contemporary world, tbere are signs that the received opinions about the En­lightenment and the almost ecstatic belief in the omnipotence of science, technology and its methods are seriously questioned by attentive Western minds. It is no surprise that the sudden interest in ecology, within the last twenty years, should play such a prominent role in the con­sciousness of the Western public. The dialectic of the emapcipatory mind into a repressive domineering mind, exploiting other nations and in itself, as Horkheimer and Adorno pointed out, has finally arrived. There are signs of an internal erisis of the Western mind and this situation, too, will have consequences for the Third World. But, let us returo to the basic situation: The standard opinion as to the stagnation of Islamic civilization has been the absence of the Enlightenment as ex­perienced in Europe. Furthermore, that in Islam there was no condition available which would-en­courage scientific curiosity and experimentation, cr~tical observation, and_ mea.Surement, or .the trial and error method. All this, apparently, was absent in the Orient. Yet, I must mention, at this point,

Canception of God{Vis.Prof.Dr.Emest WOLF-GAZO

faremost Iranian scholar, in the history of science, on Islamic civilization, and presently at the George Washington University, who has clispelled some of the Westem myths about the apparent course of scientific activity in lslamic civilization (2). The Westem view, furthermore, holds, that Is­lamic civilization did not emancipate itself from religious dogma, such as was the case in the Refor­mation in Germany, to mention the standard ex­ample; bence, this phenomenon, too, contributed to the stagnation in Islam. There is, thus, a direct link between the absence of the Enlightenment, the absence of innovation in the scientific enterprise, and the arrest in religious dogma, which initiated the march into poverty, political immaturity, fanaticism, and the general non-ration­al bandiing of everyday life such is the opinion of the contemporary West on Islamıc civilization and in turn the Third World. However, it is an open secret, that such standard opinion can no langer hold on to general validity in light of recent scholarship in Islamic civilization (3).

The fact is that there is in our decade, espe­cially prevalent in Iran, a rejuvenation and a search for awakening in Islamic communities. It is also a fact that increasingly, Western minds, sensi­tive to the inteUectual seismograph in the contem­poraiy world, have paid attention and shown great interest in Islamic culture. The increasing number of monographs, books, and articles in journals and serious forums show, that the received opinion, as to the causes of the apparent stagnation in Islam, are far more complex than merely .holding the view, that the .absence of the Enlightenment was the sole cause of Islam's decline. Yet, this change of opinion in the contemporary W est has i ts roots in the development of Romanticism in Europe,

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which was, in turn, the staunch critique of the En­lightenment. Thus, it is no surprise that a different appreciation of the Orient was entertained among European Romantics, expressed, very often, in terms of poetry. The plans, programs, and projects of the Romantics, l think of. Novalis, of ScheUing, of the Schlegel brothers, of Coleridge, and of Wordsworth, not to forget Goethe (al­though he generally is not considered Romantic), had an implicit critique of the Enlightenment and its ensueing Classicism in architecure and the fme arts (4). The turn towards the Orient, on part of many Romantics, was an expressian of discontent with the positivistic consequences of the En­lightenment, in terms of August Comte. Alfred North Whitehead, mathematician · and philosopher, has e~pressed this elegantly in his fine work Science (md the Modem World~ in 1924. For, it was the Romantic mavement that made a conscious effort to dispell the mjths propagated by the ideologues, such as Voltaire, of the En­lightenment, and straighten out the rnisrepresenta­tion of Islamic civilization, or Orient, by those who saw the ultimate truth and fmal solution to mank.ind's ilis in the progress of the scientific method and technology. The Romantics reintroduced sentiment .to EOrope on behalf of values, which they beld, were disfigured by the scientific eııphoria in 19th century Euro pe.

' IV. Europea~ Romanticism and the Rediscovery of the Orient

The Romantic Mavement in Europe ex­pressed itself ~ainly in terms of poetry, landscape painting, music, and political activities, on behalf of independence from French rule, as was the case in Germany, and the protest against the exploitation of nature, in the name of progress and science,

2. See H.S. Nasr, Science and Ciuilization in Islam, Harvard Univ. Press, 1968. This isa masterpiece of scho· larship and certainly dispells some of the myths about the stagnation of scientific activity in Jslamic civili-zation. ,

3. See Edward Said, Orienta1ism, London, Routledge, 1978. This work has become very controversial in Wes­tem academic circles. Yet, it is an excellent work, based on sound scholarship, and confronts some of the leading Orientalists in the West or to their objectives in their enterprise of "representing" the Orient to Western minds. Compare the briliant work of Fazlur Rahman, Islam and Modernity, Chicago Univ. Press, 1984.

4. See Oskar Walzel, Das Kulturgut der Romantik, Tübingen, Mohr,1961. This is an excellent summary especi­ally of the Romantic program in Germany. Also see the standard work on the Enlightenment by Peter Gay, The Enlightenment. 2 Vols. New York, Norton, 1980. Perhaps an ironic statement, in view of the general de­veloP,ment of European history, see B. Commager, The Empire of Reason - Ho w Euro pe Imagined and Ante­rica Realized the Enlightenment, New York, Doubleday, Anehor paperback, 1975.

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especially in England (5). The spokesmen and women of the Romantic protest criticized especial­ly the kind of positivism, and later, Social Dar­winism, prevalent in the institutions of Europe and America. The Romantics in England, and par­ticularly in Germany, in the process of this critique, re-discovered the Orient: This was true ofı}w ~"rr­sian poet Ha.fiz, of the sensual work of Omar Khayam (masterly translated by Edward Fitzgerald), the Upanishads, the architecture of the Taj Mahal, not to mention OpiWn and Coleridge. This search was the quest for the roots of !nda­European civilization and its languages, especially in terms of Sanskrit studies. The Romantic mave­ment was of a different nature than the ventures of the East India Company and the imperial adven­tures and dominians. of England and France, Hol­Jand, and Portugal. The world of the Orient, in the minds and hearts of the Romantics, was not that of a colony - its ideology was not that of colonialism, but a rediscovery of the basic emotional values necessary to be a human being - life in the essen­tial elements cônstituting roots. Yet, the romantics were, in their life styİe revolutionaries, and were to develop a paradigm of a mode of life, which was to: be a leitmotif for. the student mavement in the 1960s.

The European romantics alsa had a great in­terest in the nature of the transcendent, in the na­ture of religion. Friedrich Schleiermacher, Protes­tant theologian and translator of Plato into Ger­man, was to give his famous lectures, subsequently published as On Religion in 1834, addressed to sensitive mi.nds of the intellectual German com­munity. The poet Novalis, was to write a work with great influence on European Christianity, iri terms of root finding in religion toward a renewal of Europe. In the philosopher Schelling, we f~d a synthesis between a romantic canception of na­ture, philosophy, and art. The poet . Hölderlin speaks· of Hyperion, the 'hermit praying to the gods of ancient Greece, but playing the forerun­ner of Nietzsche's Zarathustra. Not to mention his friend Hegel's favorite comments on Rumi, and the linguistic research of Wilhelm von Humboldt, into the nature of the Indo-European roots of lan­guage. There were the Selılegel brothers, who

isliimi Araştırmalar Cilt:3, Sayı: 1, Ocak 1989

worked at the Shakespeare transiation and oc­cupied the first Sanskrit chair at the University of Bonn. Coleridge translated his opium habits into the visionary "Road to Xanadu" or Wordsworth would express, in a forceful poetic way, the or­ganic view of nature as against the mechanistic canception of Newtonianism. No doubt, the inter­est shown in the Orient by the romantic intellec­tuals of Europe was a way of protest against the aggressive and dominant attitude of science, tech­nology, and those advocating the theory of natural selection, Darwinian materialism. Life, death, im­mortality, God- these were the themes of the Romantics and with whicb they tried to recapture the essentials of life, which they hoped to find in the Orient.

At the turn of the 19th century we fınd Paul Deussen, friend of Nietzsche, transtating int o Ger­man the Upanishads. Nietzsche himself found his visian expressed in terms of Zarathustra, aıid Schopenhauer added anather dimension of the East to his pbilosophy, the idea of Will and lm­agination. The successor to these was to be the German novelist Hermann Hesse wbose Siddhar­ta espresses a great sentiment for the East, his parents also being Christian missionaries in lndia, enchanting generations of yo~g people, from the post World War I generatian to the student rebels of the 1960s. The protest was always the same: The destructive way of life and the exploitive at­titude of damination and technology. It was al­ways a protest on behalf of values.

However, I should add, to be fair, that the picture many generations of Europeans had of the Orient was, in fact, romanticized. It was the romantic picture of 1001 Nights, of Sultans, of Harems, of deserts, of poets· playing their Citar, simply, of the sweet life. Not to mention the offi­cial Church view of the Orient, and especially of Islam as a sinful civilization, aggressive, aıid in­tolerant towards non-believers._of Islam. Be that as it may, contemporary Europe still feeds from this lopsided picture of the Church drawn from the ages of the Crusades. However, in our time we do find a. rapproachment in the poetry and pbilosophy of Muhammad Iqbal, who had a great

5. See especially Douglas Buşch, Science ·and Poetry1 Oxford Univ. Preu, New Edition 1975. We should also remind ourselves of the metaphysical poets of England, . such as John Donne and his' "Elegy written in a Co un tey Churchyard", deaüng with the transeenden ı and mortality of human life. These were forerunners of the roınantics.

Conception of God/Vis.Prof.Dr .Emest WOLF~GAZO

likening to the European Romantics, and who had the necessary poetic and intellectual visian to derive at a synthesis between East and W est. This too, was at the heart .of the romantic project. In Iqbal we find a recİiscovery of the Romantic Europe, by an Eastem poet. This dialectic ~ of great fascination and, as far as I can see, to be sup­ported in the West, in order to come to a better understanding of the Orient (6). Especially the relationship between Iqbal and Goethe can be seen as a visian that transcends the typical view of West and East (7). Yet, prior to Iqbal, there was a parallel development between West and East in terms of science versus philosophy, on the one hand, and Falsafalı versus Kalam, on the other. For, it was on this battlefield between knowledge and revelation in the W est, as well as in the Orient, that the fa te of both civilizations was to be determined. The canception of God in the West took on a retreat to privacy of the poetic expres­sion, while the canception of Gad in Islam, was to be crystallized in the struggle between Falsafalı and Kalam. The outcome of this battle between knowledge and revelation in poetry, philosophy, theology( and science, determined, to a large ex­tent, westem as well as eastem civilization. Let us now tum to this struggle.

V. Science Versus Philosophy: Falsafalı versus Ka him

I have mentione~ that the typical view of the cause of decline and stagnation of Islam, in the western view, was the absence of the Enlighten­ment. Ironically, as I have tried to point out, the Romantics of Europe criticized this very En­lightenment and its consequences for civilization. However, to be more precise, it is argued by professional philosophers in ·the West, that it was especially al-Ghazali, who is to be made respon-

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sible for the stagnation and uncritical attitude developed by Muslim intellectuals. Thus, the philosophical enterprise, and therefore scientific inquiry, was to be eliminated in Islamic intellec­tual life. That is to say, with the powerful critique by al-Ghazali of the Falasifalı, the critical and emancipatory search for truth died in Islamic civilization (8). M'oreover, if al-Ghazali's com-· petitor Ibn Sina, or Ibn Rushd, would have been victorious on the battlefield of the mind, between the Falsafalı tradition and Kalam - so the story goes - the canception of God, and therefore Is­lamic civilization, would have taken a course for the better and not into decline. For jtist as Islam declined, the West entered into a Renaissance of Greek learning. Figures such as Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, Occam,•or later Cusanus, and not to mentiÔn the ~eroes of westem science, Coper­nicus, Keepler, Galileo, and ultimately Newton, contributed to the upswing in the intellectual ac­tivities in the West. With the advent of Newton, sciı;:nce reigned supreme in the West (9). Yet, let me reflect on this comman story in light of my theme.

In fa ct, it seems, that the W est to ok no langer notice of the Orient after the 13th century, can­sidering that Ibn Khaldun and Mulla Sadra, were completely unlınown, ~ntil recent times, in the West. This is ıiighly unfortunate, for such contem­poraries as Cpsanus and Descartes would have been the equ~ dialogue partners for the Sages of the East. This was not to be. After the critical reception of Aristotle's works, ,the West took to a more seculaılzed route towards truth, while Aris­totlr. and his ptipils in the Orient, İeft no inheritors (10). And, of course, in this story, of the reception of Aristotle in ~e West as well as in the East, Aris­totle's Organon .was to play a key factor in its utilization in the W est. It is well known ho w Arabic translations reached.the West through An-

6. See the excellent work by Annemarie Schimmel, Gabriel's Wing, Leiden, 1963. 7. Cf. G.H. Bousquet, "Goethe et l'lslam", in Studia Islamica, XXXIII, 1971, 152·164. 8. Abu Hamid al·Ghazali, Tahafut dl·Falasifah, tr. S.A. Kamali, Pakistan Phil. Congress, 1958 and M.Watt,

Muslim Intellectual-A Study of Al·Ghazali, Edinburgh Univ. 1963. 9. See the excellent work. by Richard S. Westfall, Never at Rest-A Biography of Newton, Cambridge Univ.

Press,198o: , and H. 'Rupert Hall, From Galileo to Newton, London,1975. · 10. F.E. Peters, Aristotle and the Arabs ·The Aristotelian Tradition in Islam, New York Univ Press, 1968, and

the works of W.Montgomery Watt, lslamic Philosophy and Theology, Edinburgh Univ. Press, 1979, The For­mative Period of Islamic Thought, Edinburg Univ. Press, 1973. Also see Max Horten, Die Philosophische Problemeder Spekulativen Theologie im Islam, Bonn, 1910. Also see Richard Walzer, Greek into Arabic:Es· sayson lslamic Philosophy1 Cambridge Univ. Press, 196"2, Ignaz Goldziher, Vorlesungen über den Islam, 'Hei· delberg, Winter VI~ 1925, hİl.d M. Abu Ridah, Al·Ghazali und seine Widerlegung der griechischen Philosophie, Madrid, 1952, S.Sheikh, Islamic Philosophy, London, Octagon Press, 1982. ·

\ ~·-- -:--- -- - . •· ..... r••-·-:- ;;.... --- ·· ;-··• ·- · ·-'"'•

32

dalusia and Sicily, being eagerly read and studied, in the cathedral schools of the Church (at times without permission). lt is also true that falsafah was never part of the fonnal training in the madrasah, the schools of higher education for Qu'ran studies. But, it should not be forgotten that, at first, the Church prohibited the reception of Aristotle's physical works. And this for good reasons, yet, due to the persuasive powers of Thomas Aquinas, it dawned upon the Church that a transformed Aristotle in. Christian clothing could be, ultimately, acceptable. The Aristotelian God, the unmoved mover, turned out to be a Christian God of order and reason.

Yet, in Islam we do not see any less intel­legent minds to handie the Greek philosopher. For, Ibn Sina, al-Biruni, Ibn Rushd, just to men­tion a few, and not to forget, Ibn Khaldun and Mulla Şadra, we find first class scholars and thinkers by any measure. Yet, we must aik: Wbat happened to falsafah? It is not true that the philos­phers in the West had an easier situation at hand; the examples of Socrates, of Bruno, or of Galileo, just to mention the well known names, are the most famous victims· of persecution of free in­quiry, should suffice. Yes, falsafalı had its victims and çourageous fıgures, yet - philosophy, as a ra­tional şecular inquiry, survived - falsafalı did not, at least as a movement. Again, it is unfortunate that the West did not take notice, until recently, of Ibn Khaldun, a contemporary of Cusanus, or Şadr al-Din Muhammad Ibn Ihrahim al-Shirazi, better known as Mulla Şadra, a contemporary of Desear­tes (11). These men were, in every way the equals of their westem contemporarie~, yet, their fame was confıned to their respective regions of activity, Ibn Khaldun to the Maghn"b, i.e. the West of Islam, and Mulla Şadra was well known in his na­tive country Persia, the East of Islam. No doubt, a meeting of those min ds, of the W est and the Orient, would have made a dilierence in the relationship between the West and the Orient, in the baule between fa/safah and kalanı, science

İslômiAraşhrmalar Cilt:3, Sayı: I, Ocak 1989 ·

and philosophy. But, this was not to be. It took many centuries until . Ibn Khaldun and Mulla Şadra were discovered as beacons of falsafah of the Orient.

At this point it would be a false romanticism to try tQ dwell on wishful thinking in terms of "How would history have been dilierent, if .... ". However, the fact that there is a resurgence in the Wamic world contemporaneously, and the fact, that the West is being confronted again, notunder the conditions of colonialism, but in terms of an on going process towards a world civilization, in­cluding Islamic civilizations, all this, present a golden opportunity to enter into a dialectic be­tween Islamic thinkers and the intellectuals of post-modem philosophy (12). Perhaps there is a possibility to reawaken the falsafah tradition from its long winter sleep.

Let me give you an example of an interesting case in intellectual history of the West that is stili with us today, and gives us a chance to see the pos­sibilities of a rapproac~ent between science, philosophy, and religion: the case in question is Newton.

Newton's image in the West, and generally, has been that of the prototype of positivistic scien­tist. This had been the case until recently. I repeat, until recent times. Especially due to Ernst Mach's work on the history of mechanics and positivism, at the turn of the 19th century, was Newton the archtype positivist, bom. The fact that Newton was very much interested in theological matters, especially biblical studies, was not well known until recently. The papers deposited at Trinity Col­lege, in Cambridge University, show clearly that Newton was interested in alchemy and Bible studies. In fact, he took great pains to establish the exact date of Creation. Be that as it may, an im por­tant work that highlights these matters was published in 1982 by Frank Manuel, The Religion of Newton, Oxford Univ. Press.- The author makes the case that Newton's natural philosophy basical-

. ly presupposed a theological framework. I not

ll. See the standard work by Fazlur Rahman, The Philosophy of Mulla Sadra, Suny Press, 1973, and Mubsln Mahdi, lbn Khaldun's Philosophy of History, Chicago UP, 1962. Ibn Khaldun's work had been translated into French in the 1860s and into English and German in 1951 by Annemarie SchimmeL Yet, the conscious· ness of the originality of Ibn Khaldun for the philosophy of history and histoncal sociology is slowly da w· ning ·on western intellectuals.

12. I must mention the pioneering dissertation written under F. Rabman at Chicago· by Alparslan Açıkgenç, "The Concept of Existence in Sa.r!ra aııd Heidegger", 1983. The work of the late F.Rahman, or S.H.Nasr, or Faruqi,;. .deal with. this dialectic of trying to come to terms witb the in telleetual west on i~ own termş. A rather different approach by a student of Horkheimer and Adomo, from Syria, is Bassam Tibi, Die Krise des modernen Islams~ Munich, Beck Verlag, 1981.

Canception of God/Vis.Prof.Dr.Emest WOLF-~AZO

only agree with Manue~ based upon my original research into Newtoo, but wou14 like to give you evidence of these new matters.

Cialileo died in 1642, in the same year, New­ton was born. And in the east~rn part of Islam, Mulla Şadra died 1640, w hile Descartes was at the height of his faıiie. lo 1690 Newton entered into a correspondence with the theologian Richard Bentley. Bentley, a subtle and iosightful theologi­cal mind, had inquired how Newton could justify a Christian God, in the context of his physical sys­tem of the world. That is to say, Bentley asked Newton about his religious conviction. Newton, an honest man, ~eplied in four Ietters, which have sur­vived, and are of great interest and importance as to the basic metaphysical.presupposition, concern­ing his me.chanical canception of the universe (13). Newton showed great sensitivity to Bentley's inquiries and concerns and tried honestly to come to Lerms with the problems. In his first letter of December, 10, 1692, Newton starts his replies with the following words: "Sir, When I wrote my treatise about our system (Principia Matlıenuıtica, 1687), I had an eye upon such principles as might work with considering mei:ı. for the belief of a Deity, and nothiog can rejoice me more than to find it useful for that purpose", (Opera Omnia IV, Horseley, London 1779-85, 429-442, Newton­Bentley letters in the original). In 1713, the second

. edition of Newton's Principia appeared, with a surprise addition of· the so-called "General Scholium", to the eight definitions of BK. lll, in which his God, called PANTOKRATOR, is intro­duced. There is no doubt that the introduction of a Deity in Newton's work, a work maioly written in terms of mecbanics, was due to the Bentley in­quiries. Newton defmes the Pantokrator as fol-­lows: "This Being governs all things, not as the soul of the world, but as Lord over all" - and just in the preceding lines we can read the following: "This most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets could only proceed from the counsel and döıiıinion of an intelligent and powerful Being. And if the fixed stars are the centers of other like systems, these, being formed by the like­wise counsel, uiust be all subject to the dominion

33

of ONE, ... " (See Onınia Opera, Horseley Vol.) And this "dominion of One", Newton called the "Universal Ruler". Now, as you can see, I did not want to give you a detailed resume of Newton's system, rather, to show, contrary to public opinion in the scientific world, that Newton was not only a . master scientist, but, more so, at heart, a natural philosopber working upon presuppositions which are conceived in theological categories. Newton shows Bentley that it was possible to be a believer and a man of science. W e can see here the analogy to falsafalı and ka/Om, except that falsafalı had a tragic fa te. Yes, I wanted to present to you the · Newton example in order to show that the typical story of the triumpb of science in the West = as typically presented - is in dire need of revision. , And this is, likewise, true of the western view of the Islamic intellectual tradition.

What I am suggesting is this: Contrary to received opinion, there is, indeed, a fulcrum in the systematic approach in the search of Oneness in Nature in the West, anda Oneness of God in the East - I have a strange feeling that there is a com­man denomioator between the philosophical tradi­tion turQed scientific in the West, and the falsafalı tradition, i.e., t~e search for the UNITY of NA­TURE, whicJı has a strong appeal among contem­porary scientists, in the West," and the search for UNITY of GOD, embedded in the idea of TA WHİD in Islam, have defınitely something in common. The basic histarical difference was that, whereas the West took positive leanings to accept­ing mathematics as the language of nature, under­standing this as the language of revelation of God's beauty and greatness, i.e. the Deist argu­ment, the East forgot about mathematics and con­tinued on the old fashion metaphysics. Whereas the West revised its metaphysics and accepted mathematics, the East kept its old mctaphysics and rejected mathematics as a language to under­stand Deity. The cost was heavy. We can also say, the West accepted mathematics and tendcd its soul, but · forgot about mathematics and method. Nevertheless, I propose and submit to you the idea which hints at the possibility that, in the

13." See H.S. Thayel' (ed.) Newton's Philosophy of Nature, NY, Hafner Publ. 1965, l.B. Cohen, The Newtonian Revolution, Harvard UP, 1980, Richard Bentley, Eight Sernions Against Atheism, London 1639, and especi­ally E.A. Burtt, The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Science,New York, Doublday, Rev. Edition, 1954 .

t ~----:-- --·· . - ' · ,ı . - .. . ... . ,. ··--:.-.......-.... - •. :·-- - -···: ·· .... .. ..

34

UNITY ofNATURE and in the UNITY of GOD, in term.s of TAWHID, West and East, can redis­cover a comman purpose to life. Science and philosophy can be seen as reconcilabl~, and the possibility of a reconciliation between Falsafalı and Kalanı may also be a possibility. I may start my conclusion, and than.k you for bearing with me, by considering the idea of TA WHİD and its rela­tion to the unity of nature.

VI. The Idea of Tawlıid and the Uoity ofNature

My proposal is a difficult undertaking, I am very much aware, but 1 do see a great chance in the future for such a grand recoociliation between philosopby/science, on the one hand, and fal­safah/kalam, on the oth~r.

If the w est has e ver produced a sin gl e thinker who comes close to this idea of the unity of nature, it was surely Spinoza. Spinoza, as you know, h~d much difficulties in his home town Amsterdam, but not only with his own people, but also with Europe's elite at that time. Among them even Leibniz, who visited Spinoza personally. Yet, if we take a look at Spinoza and Newton we have lwo representatives of the West who can help in . my suggestion of a grand reconciliation. For, in es.­sence, modern physicists do, in fact, dream of the, great unifying formula. Nevertheless, we must ask What is the idea of Tawhid? And there, I ·suggest to returo to o ur central theme - the canception ·of God in Islam.

Anyone who has listened to me attentively, so (ar, has noticed that I have tried in a succinct way to contextualize my basic theme in order to sug­gest new proposals as to a rapproachment be­twcen Islamic civilization and the West. I have spoken of the canception of God in Islam and the causes of the decline of Islamic civiliution: I have now arrived at the idea of Tawhid, whicb leads us to the heart of Islam, the shahadah, or the confes­sion of Islamic faith, expressed as: La ilaha illa Allah, there is no God, but Go~. This is the most

İsiilmi Araştırmalar Cilt:3, Sayı:), Ocak 1989

compact expression, in brevity, of the unity of GoÖ (14). How are we to understand this faith in term.s of the unity of nature? For this is exactly the ques­tion, where ·Eastem and Westem minds meet. In the West we are having the problem of overcom­ing the bifurcation of nature, ever since Descartes, and trying to reconcile our material and cognitive life in to an organic whole. This is, from the view of Tawhid, an irony. For, as Fazlar Rabman has com­mented, " ... the laws of nature express the Com­ınand of God. But naaı.re does not and cannot elis­obey God's com.mands and cannot violate natural laws. Hence the entirety of nature is calle.d Mus= lim by The Qur'an, for it surrenders itself to and obeys the com.mand of God" (15). Thus, it seems that those com.mands of God must be decipbered in terms of mathematics, in order to arrive at a cognition.of that very unity of God. Human beings must l!ranslate this ~city of God into a viable lan­guage that they understand, and, at the same time, not to forget, that they are working at getting a glimpse of this very unity. In a particular way, the West has searched for the unity in nature, putting, however, too much emphasis upon the inquiring subject, and thereby forgetting the basic presup­pasİtion of unity. It is this very task that the western intellectual community is searching .for; the i.u:Uty of the universe; the Muslim exercises his daily duties in term.s of Tawhid, howeve,r,:ii.e must come to a modern understanding of Taihjtf ~ .t!ıis is the real task of the Muslim contemporeaiıeous­ly. Thereby, in the task of the search for unde.r­standing Tawhiq,... and, at the same time, the westem search for a new unity of nature, the two meet. The.comınand of God can be understood in terms of the unity of nature, and the unity of na­turc can be interpreted as the command of God. I should remind you of the language of Newton. Tlie language of Newton is strong - yet, he bad, no doubt, the idea of unity of nature in his oı4ıd when he spoke of the Pantokrator and the do~ipion of One. It seems, to me, that the present concerns of the West are actually maving toward this recon­ciliation of which I had spoken in term.s of th~

14. See especially I.R. al-Faruqi, Tawhid: The Releuance for Thought and Life, IFS Pakistan, 1983, also by .aı;· Faruqi, "The Problem of the Metaphysical Status of Values in the Western and Islamic Tradition" . in Studia Islamica, XXVll, 1.968, 29-62. -

15. See Fazlur Rahman, Major Themes of the Qur'an, Bibliotlieca Islamica, Minneapolis, 1980. See the work of a .prominent .German phrsi~ist and philosopher, Friedrich von Weizsacker, Die Einheit der Nature1 Munich, Hanser Vlg., 19$0. Weizsacker pleads for the search of ·uruty in nature as being of utmost im portance to safe­guard nature from further exploitation. The ecological movement in Euı:ope and-the.United States basically presuppose the idea of unity; but not. consciously. · · · · ·

Canception of God/Vis.Prof.Dr.Emest WOLF-GAZO

ecological movement. These ecological concerns have been expressed vigorously and have, no doubt, an impact upon the younger generatioiı.s in the West. It is as yet too early to teli to what extent the idea of ecology will carry its weight in the fu­ture. Islamic civilization should take a carefullook at this ecological movement, for its intellecutuiı.I · community will fınd much, that is attractive to themin terıns ofTawhid.

VII. Conclusion

I have started with questions as to the nature of the canception of Gad in Islam, whether this canception had anything to do with the stagnation and decline of Islamic civilization after the 13th century, and proceeded to inquiry as to the very relationship between this canception of God and the West. I can suggest the following. Indeed, the

- ways and modes in which the canception of God in Islam had been conducted, exclusively in terms

35

of kalanı, after al-Ghazali, was not condusive to further inquiry into the nature of the canception of Gad. There had been much misunderstanding in this matter. The West had the advantage that it . recognized what was essential to be able to come to terıns with the cç>nceptiop of God in various ways; westem · civilization, after much blood let­ting, ctecided to apt for the search of the unity of nature. However, in this process, the bifurcation of nature was alsa introduced, contradicting the very search for nature's unity. Thus, in the contem­porary situation of science and philosophy, there is a new search for the unity of nature in order to overcome this bifurcation, masterly formu!ated by Descartes. If present day Islam is ready to try a new modus towards utıderstanding the unity of Gad, this will surcly contribute toward a recon­ciliation with the Wesl. For, after all, we must as­sist each other in every way possible in trying to understand and interpret nature and the world, as to make this life worth living.

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