The Qur'an says that all the good that befalls you is from God, and all the bad that befalls you is from yourself.
Author: Dr. Farid Younes, retired professor of Middle Eastern cultural anthropology and Islamic philosophy, founder and innovator of Islamic democracy (California, USA), member of Sangar advisory board.
I teach an online course in Islamic sociology on Tuesdays for about ninety students, and it turns out that they are very interested. One of the students wrote to me that he was watching sociology lessons with the whole family and that it was educational and interesting for the whole family, for which I am grateful to all dear students.
One of the students asked that Islam has nothing to do with philosophy, is this true?
This question is interesting because religion is not philosophy, but it is related to philosophy. Those who do not see this connection are influenced by the thinking of the late Imam al-Ghazali Tusi, who had intellectual debates with the philosophers of his time, such as Ibn Sina and Farabi, and achieved success.
The reason for his success was that there are many questions that philosophy cannot answer, because philosophy, which I taught for several years, is a type of thinking that confuses people more than it gives a convincing answer. The important point is that all scientists believe that the prophets were much more successful in attracting people than the philosophers.
Philosophy is a Greek word meaning “the love of wisdom.” In Islam, the Qur'an is the book of wisdom, and Surah Baqarah, verse 269, states: "He grants wisdom to those whom He wills; and whoever is granted wisdom has indeed been granted much good. Yet none except people of understanding take heed”.
One of the reasons why recitation of the Qur'an is given great importance in religious texts is the understanding of wisdom. So, we see that wisdom is discussed not only in philosophy, it is also discussed in the Koran, with the difference that in philosophy man tries to achieve truth without the existence and role of God.
In Islamic philosophy, that is, the love of wisdom, which was more emphasized by talented poets of the Persian language, such as Rumi, Saadi, Hafez, etc., they understood wisdom from the knowledge of God and the Prophet, and not otherwise. For example, no one can correctly understand Rumi's poems without knowing the hadith that Rumi wrote in his wisdom poems. Please refer to the book “Ahadisi Masnavi”, collected and compiled by Prof. Badiuzzaman Forozanfar, and published in 1955.
When we talk about philosophy, to get to the truth, and in this case, Islamic philosophy in philosophical issues such as the unity of existence, monotheism, the mystery of existence, and the role of man as God's best creation is very important or the philosophy of occasionalism with causality is a deep philosophical problem that was raised more by Muslims, and philosophers avoided answering.
For example, the fact that God creates at every moment and the Universe changes every moment, and the reason for this is the Creator himself, and not a person who is trying to understand these natural realities. For example, “predestination and fate,” which has a direct connection with nature and is rather a natural philosophical topic, was raised by Muslims.
It should be noted that several people have misunderstood predestination and destiny and imagine that every misfortune that befalls them is from God, whereas the Koran says that every good thing that befalls you is from God and every bad thing that befalls you - from yourself. Please refer to this researcher's philosophical content under the title "The Qur'an's View of Predestination and Free Will" on the Khorasanzamin website.
There is nothing wrong when we say Islamic philosophy because considering the above content, philosophy, mysticism, and Sufism are part of the studies of Islamic philosophy and are extremely interesting. In Islamic philosophy, the center of everything is God, and in Greek philosophy is the human intellect, which does not have the power to understand all matters in the universe. For example, we Muslims consider dark energy in the solar system to be the secret of existence, through which the truth is revealed, but the human mind is not able to understand it.
