Fakhr al-Din al-Razi

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This article is about the 12th-century theologian. For the 10th-century physician and alchemist, see Abu Bakr al-Razi. For other uses, see Razi.
Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī
Islamic Philosophy, Logic, Astronomy, Cosmology, Ontology, Chemistry, Physics, Medicine, Anatomy
Notable work(s)Al-Tafsir al-Kabir (Mafatih al-Ghayb), Asas al-Taqdis
OccupationScholar and scientist
Muslim leader
Influenced by
Influenced

Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (

inductive logic.[6][7][8] He wrote various works in the fields of medicine, chemistry, physics, astronomy, cosmology, literature, theology, ontology, philosophy, history and jurisprudence. He was one of the earliest proponents and skeptics that came up with the concept of multiverse, and compared it with the astronomical teachings of Quran.[9][10] A rejector of the geocentric model and the Aristotelian notions of a single universe revolving around a single world, al-Razi argued about the existence of the outer space beyond the known world.[10][11]

Al-Razi was born in Ray, Iran, and died in Herat, Afghanistan.[12] He left a very rich corpus of philosophical and theological works that reveals influence from the works of Avicenna, Abu'l-Barakāt al-Baghdādī and al-Ghazali. Two of his works titled Mabāhith al-mashriqiyya fī 'ilm al-ilāhiyyāt wa-'l-tabi'iyyāt المباحث المشرقية في علم الإلهيات و الطبيعيات (Eastern Studies in Metaphysics and Physics) and al-Matālib al-'Aliya المطالب العالية (The Higher Issues) are usually regarded as his most important philosophical works.[13]

Biography

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Background
Eminent scholars
3rd AH/9th AD
  • Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari
    (d. 324/936)
  • Ibn Khafif (d. 371/982)
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Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, whose full name was Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar ibn al-Ḥusayn (

Umar ibn al-Khattab (died 644).[16]

Fakhr al-Din first studied with his father,

Ash'ari
school of theology.

His commentary on the Quran was the most-varied and many-sided of all extant works of the kind, comprising most of the material of importance that had previously appeared. He devoted himself to a wide range of studies and is said to have expended a large fortune on experiments in alchemy. He taught at Ray (Central Iran) and Ghazni (eastern Afghanistan), and became head of the university founded by Mohammed ibn Tukush at Herat (western Afghanistan).[18]

In his later years, he also showed interest in mysticism, though this never formed a significant part of his thought.[9] He died in Herat (Afghanistan) in 1209 (606 AH), where his tomb is still venerated today.[12] Many believe he was poisoned by the Karrāmīyah.[19]

The Great Commentary

Main article:
Tafsir al-Kabir (al-Razi)

One of Imam Razi's outstanding achievements was his unique interpretive work on the Quran called Mafātiḥ al-Ghayb (Keys to the Unseen) and later nicknamed Tafsīr al-Kabīr (The Great Commentary), one reason being that it was 32 volumes in length. This work contains much of philosophical interest. One of his "major concerns was the

self-sufficiency of the intellect." His "acknowledgment of the primacy of the Qur'an grew with his years." Al-Razi's rationalism undoubtedly "holds an important place in the debate in the Islamic tradition on the harmonization of reason and revelation."[9]

Development of Kalam

Al-Razi's development of

dialectician to a religious condition.[21] It seems that he adopted different thoughts of diverse schools, such as those of Mutazilite and Asharite, in his exegesis, The Great Commentary.[22]

Hypothetical concept of multiple universes

Al-Razi, in dealing with his

conception of physics and the physical world in his Matalib al-'Aliya, criticizes the idea of the geocentric model within the universe and "explores the notion of the existence of a multiverse in the context of his commentary" on the Quranic verse, "All praise belongs to God, Lord of the Worlds." He raises the question of whether the term "worlds" in this verse refers to "multiple worlds within this single universe or cosmos, or to many other universes or a multiverse beyond this known universe."[10]

Al-Razi states:[10]

It is established by evidence that there exists beyond the world a void without a terminal limit (khala' la nihayata laha), and it is established as well by evidence that God Most High has power over all contingent beings (al-mumkinat). Therefore He the Most High has the power (qadir) to create millions of worlds (alfa alfi 'awalim) beyond this world such that each one of those worlds be bigger and more massive than this world as well as having the like of what this world has of the throne (al-arsh), the chair (al-kursiyy), the heavens (al-samawat) and the earth (al-ard), and the sun (al-shams) and the moon (al-qamar). The arguments of the philosophers (dala'il al-falasifah) for establishing that the world is one are weak, flimsy arguments founded upon feeble premises.

Al-Razi rejected the

Islamic theology, which entails the existence of vacant space in which the atoms move, combine and separate [citation needed]. He discussed more on the issue of the void – the empty spaces between stars and constellations in the universe, that contain few or no stars – in greater detail in volume 5 of the Matalib.[10] He argued that there exists an infinite outer space beyond the known world,[23] and that God has the power to fill the vacuum with an infinite number of universes.[9][24]

List of works

Al-Razi had written over a hundred works on a wide variety of subjects. His major works include:

  • Tafsir al-Kabir (The Great Commentary)
    (also known as Mafatih al-Ghayb)
  • Asraar at-Tanzeel wa Anwaar at-Ta'weel (The Secrets of Revelation & The Lights of Interpretation). Tafsir of selected verses from
    The Quran
    .

Note: Not to be confused with the book of Tafsir by Imam Nasir al-Din al-Baydawi Qadi Baydawi called: Anwaar at-Tanzeel wa Asraar at-Ta'weel (The Lights of Revelation and The Secrets of Interpretation) or more commonly Tafsir al-Baydawi

  • Anthropomorphists
  • 'Aja'ib al-Qur'an (The Mysteries of the Qur'an)
  • Al-Bayan wa al-Burhan fi al-Radd 'ala Ahl al-Zaygh wa al-Tughyan
  • Al-Mahsul fi 'Ilm al-Usul
  • Al-Muwakif fi 'Ilm al-Kalam
  • 'Ilm al-Akhlaq (Science of Ethics)
  • Kitab al-Firasa (Book on Firasa)
  • Kitab al-Mantiq al-Kabir (Major Book on Logic)
  • Kitab al-nafs wa'l-ruh wa sharh quwa-huma (Book on the Soul and the Spirit and their Faculties)
  • Mabahith al-mashriqiyya fi 'ilm al-ilahiyyat wa-'l-tabi'iyyat (Eastern Studies in Metaphysics and Physics)
  • Al-Matālib al-'Āliyyah min al- 'ilm al-ilahī (The Higher Issues) – his last work. Al-Razi wrote al-Matālib during his writing of al-Tafsir and he died before completing both works.
  • Muḥaṣṣal Afkār al-Mutaqaddimīn wal-Muta'akhkhirīn (The Harvest/Compendium of the Thought of the Ancients and Moderns)
  • Nihayat al 'Uqul fi Dirayat al-Usul
  • Risala al-Huduth
  • Ibn Sina
    )
  • Sharh Asma' Allah al-Husna (Commentary on Asma' Allah al-Husna)
  • Sharh Kulliyyat al-Qanun fi al-Tibb (Commentary on Canon of Medicine)
  • Sharh Nisf al-Wajiz li'l-Ghazali (Commentary on Nisf al-Wajiz of Al-Ghazali )
  • Sharh Uyun al-Hikmah (Commentary on Uyun al-Hikmah)
  • Kitāb al-Arba'īn Fī Uṣūl al-Dīn'

See also

References

  1. ISBN 978-0-19-957749-1
    .
  2. ISBN 9781317998525
    . Retrieved 2017-12-02.
  3. ^
    ISSN 1465-3591
    .
  4. ISBN 1107014069
  5. Encyclopaedia Iranica. Archived from the original
    on 29 Oct 2020. In spite of his adherence to the Hanafite school of law, he clearly inclined to Asḥʿarism in theology and was an admirer of Ḡazālī and Faḵr-al-Dīn Rāzī.
  6. ^ Richard Maxwell Eaton, The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204–1760, University of California Press,1996, - Page 29
  7. ^ Shaikh M. Ghazanfar, Medieval Islamic Economic Thought: Filling the Great Gap in European Economics, Routledge, 2003 [1]
  8. ^ "Philosophy".
  9. ^ a b c d John Cooper (1998), "al-Razi, Fakhr al-Din (1149-1209)", Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Routledge, retrieved 2010-03-07
  10. ^ a b c d e f Adi Setia (2004), "Fakhr Al-Din Al-Razi on Physics and the Nature of the Physical World: A Preliminary Survey" (PDF), Islam & Science, 2, retrieved 2024-03-26
  11. ^ a b Williams, Matt (11 January 2016). "What Is The Geocentric Model Of The Universe?". Universe Today. Retrieved 3 October 2020. This was followed by Fakhr al-Din al-Razi's (1149–1209) publication of his treatise Matalib, which dealt with conceptual physics. In it, he rejected the notion of the Earth's centrality within the universe and instead proposed a cosmology in which there were a "thousand thousand worlds beyond this world..."
  12. ^ a b c Anawati 1960–2007.
  13. ISBN 9780415881609
    .
  14. ^ a b Shihadeh 2013–2019, pp. viii–ix.
  15. ^ Shihadeh 2013–2019, p. ix; cf. Cannon 1998, p. 347: "The family claimed both a long tribal ancestry (associated with the Taimi tribe) and descent from the family of Abu Bakr, the first caliph".
  16. ^ Shihadeh 2013–2019, p. ix. On Ibn ʿUnayn, see Masarwa 2021.
  17. ^ Facsimile in Shihadeh 2013–2019.
  18. New International Encyclopedia
     (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
  19. ^ "Fakhr ad-Dīn ar-Rāzī | Muslim Theologian, Philosopher, Scientist | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2023-07-09.
  20. ISBN 9004124802
    .
  21. ISBN 9004106928
    .
  22. ISBN 9781908433053
    .
  23. ISBN 90-04-12480-2
  24. ISBN 9781490714462
    .

Bibliography

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Fakhr al-Din al-Razi.
Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Fakhr ud-Dīn Rāzi".
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