From Logic in Islam to Islamic Logic

Abstract

Speaking of relations between logic and religion in Islamic world may refer to logic in two respects: (1) logic in religious texts, from doctrinal sacred texts such as Qur’ān and sayings of the Prophet (as well as Imāms, in Shī’īism) to the Qur’ānic commentaries and the texts related to the principles and fundamentals of jurisprudence, all of which make use of some reasoning to persuade the audiences or to infer the rules and prescripts for religious behavior of the members of religious community; and (2) logic as a discipline that is studied and applied both independently and as a tool for reasoning in (a) schools of Islamic theology (from Ash’arīs to Mu’tazilīs and Shī’īs), (b) systems of Islamic philosophy (from Peripatetics to Illuminationists), and (c) other types of knowledge in medieval Islamic world, all being strongly influenced by religious doctrines of Islam. Accordingly, this paper speaks of (i) the different manifestations of using logical reasoning, particularly analogy, in Qur’ānic arguments, e.g. for the existence of God and resurrection after death; (ii) some contradictions or paradoxes reported by different opponents in the verses of Qur’ān; (iii) the place of logic in the classification of disciplines and the courses taught at the schools and seminaries; (iv) the influence of the attitudes of different religious sects on logic; (v) the instrumental role of logic for both religious and secular reasonings; (vi) the relation between reason and dogmatic religious doctrines, and, finally, (vii) the reflection of this relation on progress or recession of logic in medieval Islamic world.