In the Light of the Enlightenment: The False Theorization of a Dissonance Between the ʿUlamāʾ and Philosophy

Modern Arab and Muslim intellectuals have theorized a cultural crisis that dates back to the medieval age of Islam. At the foundation of this crisis is a claim that the ʿulamāʾ led an attack on philosophy and philosophers. This paper demonstrates that the historicization by modern scholars of a rift between orthodox Islam and philosophy in medieval times in fact stems from the application of the paradigm of rationality drawn from the heritage of the European Enlightenment. The paper is essentially theoretical and makes use of the juridical, historical, and literary literature of medieval Islamic civilization. This study points out the lack of historical foundations in all the discourse put forth by Muslim-reformist intellectuals regarding the roots of what they perceived as a regression of science and philosophy in the Islamic world during the medieval era. A deep historical examination reveals that the ʿulamāʾ never produced a coherent conceptual movement of polemicism against philosophy and rationalism. Furthermore, the fact that certain orthodox circles stood against philosophy was a reaction to its perceived association with “heterodoxism” in Islam, namely, the employment of philosophy by “heterodox” movements. The encounter between these two polarities led to a prevalent orthodox view among Sunni scholars that “heterodox” religious streams and intellectual movements have always sought to destroy Islam from within, through rationalism and philosophy. However, the anti-philosophic discourse of certain orthodox scholars in and of itself reveals the extent to which rationalism influenced and shaped Islamic civilization. Rather than being a denunciation of philosophy per se, the opposition of certain orthodox circles is in fact a critique of the recruitment of philosophy by “heterodoxism” in Islam.