Ibn al-Rawandi

Ibn al- Rāwandī, full name Abū l -Hasan Ahmad ibn Yahya ibn Ishaaq al- Rāwandī was (Arabic أبو الحسن أحمد بن يحيى بن إسحاق الراوندي, DMG Abū l - Ḥasan Aḥmad b. Yahya b. Ishaq al- Rāwandī ) an Islamic theologian of the 9th century, the first belonged to the Mu ʿ tazila, but then turned away from the teachings and works authored in which he total recited critical objections not only against the mu ʿ tazilite theology but also against Islam and the revealed religions. The later Islamic theologians regarded him as a heretic. His works are only from quotations in works that were written to his refutation, known.

In the Western Research Ibn ar - Rāwandī is evaluated differently today. While Sarah Stroumsa sees a religion critical freethinkers in him, says Josef van Ess, that Ibn al- Rāwandī not " made ​​in all seriousness to own" to the points made in his works, theses have, but only " made ​​a joke of it [ was ] the to show self-satisfied theologians on what shaky ground they moved. "

Life

Ibn al- Rāwandīs life data are not clear, what is known is that he was born in Khorasan and was staying most of the time in Baghdad. After his break with the Mu ʿ tazila school he turned first to the Shia and then frequented the circle of Manichaeism thinker Abū ʿ related Īsā al - Warraq. He left Baghdad, probably in order to escape persecution.

Works

The "Book of emerald "

From Ibn ar - Rāwandīs books, especially the "Book of emerald " ( Kitāb az- Zumurrud ) has gained greater prominence, in which his rationalist and critical position especially violent religion is expressed. Ibn al- Rāwandīs negated in this book the existence of prophetic revelation did so at a fundamental pillar of Islam. Paul Kraus has reconstructed this work of quotations in the older literature. Most passages of this writing, he discovered in the collection of sermons by al -Mu ʾ fī Aiyad d -Din al- Shirazi, the supreme leader of the Ismaili Da ʿ wa at the time of the Fatimid caliph al - Mustansir. Whose writings were at the beginning of the 20th century revealed in an Indian private library. More quotes Kraus found in the scholar Ibn al - Jawzi and Abū l -Husayn al - Chayyāt.

From these fragments Kraus tried to open the original composition of the font, where he came to the following conclusion: the book was divided into three main parts, one should first emphasize the primacy of reason before the revelation. The second criticism was put forward on Islam. A third part, which was to refute the thesis of the original of the thesis of the prophetic origin of human talents, closed the book. The ideas put forward in the form of an exchange of words between representatives of the Brahmins and the Muslims.

Against the revealed religions, the argument put forward in the first part of statement was generally well directed against the prophets, where it says: . "It is clear that the reason is the greatest blessing of God Therefore, when the Messenger has come to the judgment of good and evil to confirm the obligation and the prohibition which are already given in and of itself in reason, we are the single, us to take care of his authority, and to make his mission sequence. because by what may in reason is, we can do without that. " The starting point of the versions of Ibn ar - Rāwandīs is so human reason, is at the scale measured the revelation and subsequently declared redundant.

In the third part of the book goes to Ibn al- Rāwandī against the common perception that people have received music, astronomy, languages ​​of God through the prophets by superhuman instruction. At blasphemous to orthodox Muslims has probably worked the second part, in which striking out Ibn ar - Rāwandī to sharp attacks against the Islamic cult rules and the doctrine of Muhammad's miracles. These miracles were at an early stage as an important proof of his prophecy, and were just in the first half of the 9th century, the focus of theological discussion. So asks Ibn ar - Rāwandī for example, where for the angels had remained on the day of the battle of Uhud, when Muhammad half dead, covered with the slain, lying there, and why they did not come to him in this situation to help. Even the Quran criticized Ibn al- Rāwandī and said that the language ancient Arab poets to be superior to his own. He even went so far as to claim that there are language errors in the Quran. In the same part criticizes Ibn ar - Rāwandī the Islamic tradition tradition and ijma ʿ ( consensus of the community) and denies them any value to determine the law from. He leads them through the absurdity Note that the matching in a religious question or in a tradition Muslims only a contemptible little group were compared to the total of other religious communities.

Ibn al- Rāwandī should have called his book because of the "Book of emerald " because the emerald is said to have the property that the otters and all other snakes, when they see him become blind. His intention, as was narrated from him, it was, with his doubts, which he had laid down in his book to make the arguments of his opponents blind in the same way.

Although the sharp criticism of Ibn ar - Rāwandī in some respects parallels the attitude of other Mu ʿ has taziliten then, he provoked but so great sensation among his contemporaries and even for the next generations. This can be particularly clearly seen in the number of complaints against him Widerlegungsschriften. Kraus has a total of 14 authors who have written a polemic against him, including such well-known scholars such as al -Kindi, Abū l - Ḥasan al - ʿ arī Asch, al -Farabi and Ibn al - Haitham.

The picture that Paul Kraus has drawn on the basis of the edited by him Zumurrud fragments of Ibn ar - Rāwandī was questioned later by Josef van Ess. He had found another Ibn ar - Rāwandī quotes at Abu Mansur al - Maturidi and qadi ʿ Abd al - Jabbar, in which Ibn al- Rāwandī appears as a defender of prophecy. From this he concluded that not even the testimony of Ibn ar - prophetiefeindlichen Brahmins Rāwandī must be attributed in Zumurrud book, but those of Muslims who defend the prophecy. However, he has not been enforced with this view, Ibn ar - Rāwandī in science. Sarah Stroumsa, Daniel de Smet and Ilkka Lindstedt, who have worked in recent years with Ibn al- Rāwandī, continue to hold firmly that he was an anti - religious freethinker.

The "Book of the Crown"

Another work of Ibn al- Rāwandīs was the "Book of the Crown" ( Kitaab at- Tāǧ ). In it, he criticized the proof of God of Mu ʿ taziliten Abū l - Hudhail, who had closed God of the transience of accidents on the necessity of existence. Against this turned Ibn ar - Rāwandī one that the transience of accidents do not necessarily reflect the transience of the body inclusive, but there are good reasons to block for the eternity of the body, because nothing can emerge from nothing. This Ibn ar - Rāwandī has entered later the reputation of the heretical doctrine of " eternity of the world " ( al - ʿ qidam Ālam ) to represent.

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