In the life time of the Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu alaihi wa sallam), the Companions never tried to search for any other source of guidance apart from the Qur’an being revealed to the Prophet through Angel Gabriel (alaihis salam), and the practical teachings of the Prophet himself.  By mere listening to him reciting the words of Allah, they comprehended the whole of the message, they believed the whole of it, certainly believing it to be true, upholding its teachings to be superior to and surpassing the ancient beliefs and customs they inherited from their forefathers.  They considered any other source running counter to the Qur’an and the prophet’s teachings to be a negation of the message and the messenger.  No foreign knowledge or philosophy was ever ascribed to them.  They lived and died according to Allah’s message.  It was only after the conquest of Persia in the days of ‘Umar ibn Al-Khattab (radiyallahu ‘anhu) when the Muslims entered the Persian lands, they found among the huge number of its treasures, large amounts of books.  At that time Sa’ad ibn Abi Waqqas (radiyallahu ‘anhu), the Muslim Jihad commander, wrote to ‘Umar asking him of what to do with them.  ‘Umar wrote him saying: ‘Throw the whole of them in the sea.  If there is any guidance in them, we are content that Allah has guided us to what is better. And if they contain falsehood and deviation, then we are pleased that Allah saved us from their evil’.  All the books were instantly drown and nothing was left.  (Ibn Khaldun: Al-Muqaddimah 2/603).

This stern action from Umar is of course, a practical application of a personal lesson he got from the Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wa sallam), when one day ‘Umar was holding a piece of writing he got from a Jew, which turned out to be a portion of the Torah.  At the sight of that the Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) was enraged, and said: “Are you people that reckless about it (the message of Islam), O, Ibn Al-Khattab? I swear by Allah, I have brought it to you perfect and pure.  Do not ask them (the Jews) anything, for they may tell you something that is true and you reject it, or they may tell you what is false and you believe them.  I swear by Allah, if Moses were alive, he would have no choice but to follow me!” (Reported by Al-Imam Ahmad, Al-Musnad 3/387; Al-Darimi, As-Sunan 1/115; Ibn Abi S haibah, Al-Musannaf No. 26421; Ibn Abd Al-Barr, Jami’ Bayanil Ilmi Wa Fadlihi 2/42; Al-Bazzar, Abu Ya’laa, Al-Baihaqi etc.).

So, if the Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) will prohibit the Muslims from following a book once revealed by Allah to Musa alaihis salam, how can they be subjected later on to the dictates of the star-worshipping Greeks?

This perfect and pure character of Muhammad’s (sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) message continued to guide the whole Muslims in the Arabian Peninsula, and the former Byzantine and Persian empires that were brought under the rule of Islam.

The coming together of Islamic teachings with Greek Philosophy did not happen overnight.  It rather materialized through two important stages that need to be studied in detail.

Stage One: The Emergence of Foreign fields of knowledge and sciences into the Muslim community, and this owes itself to the following factors:

One. The role played by the University of Alexandria and other institutes that engaged in teaching and spreading philosophy as a special field of knowledge.  As an important and strategic centre economically, industrially and culturally, the city of Alexandria became the greatest oriental civilization centre where various nations – from the Greeks, the Egyptians, Jews, Italians, Arabs, the Persians, Ethiopians, Indians, Syrians, the Nubians etc. - came together, and its inhabitants were well versed in Philosophical studies, so eventually its university was the first centre in the world for the studies of Greek philosophy. (See Will Durant, History of Civilization 11/99-101 Ar). In addition to its important place in philosophy Alexandria reached its peak in cultural development under the influence of a government professing the Christian religion at that time, and this naturally indicates why Neo-Platonism gained ground, as a result of its founders strive to harmonize Christian religion with the Greek schools especially that of Plato.  It could be rightly asserted that Neo-Platonism represents a selective systematisation of the works of Plato, plus elements from Aristotle and Stoicism. The Neo-Platonists did not see themselves as following a new philosophy: they believed that they had re-discovered the true meaning of Plato’s teachings. This school, originally founded by, and popularly ascribed to Plotinus (205-270 C.E) gave rise to different schools of thought whose main aim was to search deeply into religious facts but through allegorical methods founded by Greek philosophers.  So, it was Neo-Platonism that had the greatest influence upon Christian theology from the fourth century until it was displaced by Aristotelianism in the Middle ages.

But before Plotinus, Philo (20 BCE – 40 CE), a Hellenised Jewish philosopher born in Alexandria, did a lot to pave the way for other philosophers after him for the project of  bridging the wide gap between revelation and Greek philosophy, as he included in his philosophy both Greek wisdom and Judaism which he sought to fuse and harmonize by means of the art of allegory that he had learned as much from Jewish exegesis as from the Stoics. 

These philosophers were overwhelmed by the ‘accuracy’ of Plato’s idealism that they sought to necessarily bring the revealed facts to come to consent with them.  This job, they found easy for the fact that Plato’s ideas differed from others in that they were mystic in nature, so their influence on Christianity was apparent.  It is believed that Pauline Christianity was a direct result of Philo, whose teachings some of the Christians accepted whole-heartedly. It was he who laid the foundations for the development of Christianity in the West and in the East, as we know it today.  So it was upon this solid foundation Plotinus laid his teachings in the days when Christianity was the religion of the government in Alexandria.

Alexandria continued to be the world’s centre of civilization up to the Muslim conquest of Egypt, when it came under Islam.  Its university also continued to be the centre of Greek philosophy the world over.  Al-Mas’udi suggests that it was during the reign of ‘Umar ibn Abd Al-‘Aziz that the school in Alexandria was relocated to Antioch (Antakia) (a boarder city between the former Byzantine and the Muslim world at that time).  The Muslims therefore found themselves amidst a stronghold of Greek philosophy that was camouflaged in a religious form, a factor that facilitated their being attracted so easily.  One other important factor that influenced the spread of Greek philosophy was the tolerant attitude of the caliphs of those days who let the adherent s of all religions to practice their religion without hindrance. So, many Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, Magians and all kinds of pagans were left to freely spread their religion among the Muslims, and were brought so close to the government that some of them even threw challenges for debates in matters of belief between them and the Muslims.

One of the notable communities that enjoyed this ‘tolerance’ to a very large extent was the Syriacs (i.e. members of the Eastern Syrian Church).  These people played a vital role in the spread of Greek philosophy in the Eastern Muslim world, for they had instituted many schools before the Muslim conquest of the area, in Edessa (al-Ruha) (now in Turkey), Nasibis (now in Syria) and Jundishapur (now in Iran) through which they disseminated philosophical studies in Syria and Mesopotamia (Iraq).  So when the Muslims conquered the area they met those schools and witnessed Greek philosophy flourishing amidst the inhabitants of the areas.  Some Muslims therefore showed their interest in learning from the Syriacs what that ‘mysterious’ sort of knowledge entails. This is where the Muslims started to get in contact with the Greek philosophy.  De Purr concludes that: “The Syriacs and the Arabs started philosophy where the Greeks stopped” (History of Islamic Philosophy p. 26).

Before concluding this part, it is imperative to emphasis the importance of the School of Jundishapur, founded by Chosroes I (Anusharwan) around the year 555, for it stands out as a major institution of Hellenic learning in Western Asia whose influence was destined to extend to the world of Islam in ‘Abbasid times.  For after Justinian closed the school in Athens, in 529, seven of the most influential philosophers of the time were cordially welcomed by Anusharwan to serve in his school. The school, with its medical faculty, its academy and observatory, achieved great fame and was still flourishing when Baghdad was founded in 762 by the ‘Abbasid caliph Al-Mansur.  Since Jundishapur was near Baghdad, the Persians were in close political contact with the ‘Abbasid caliphate.  Consequently it is from this school that important scientific and other intellectual developments spread throughout the Muslim empire. (Majid Fakhry, A History of Islamic Philosophy p. 4, 1983).

The caliphs used to seek from the school expert court physicians to assist them in their courts.  Most of those physicians sent by the school were members of the Christian Nestorian family of Bakhtishu, and they served the caliphs loyally for over two centuries.  This explains the role played by those schools in the spread of Greek philosophy among the Muslims.

Two: The Roles Played by some Individuals

The Muslim conquest of the various countries of the East and West brought them into contact with many nations with differing cultures and customs that negate the message of Muhammad (sallallahu alaihi wa sallam).  The ‘intellectuals’ of those communities were at that time free either to profess Islam openly and become Muslims, or only declare being Muslims openly but retain their old pagan practices secretly, or out-rightly declare to remain non-Muslims.  Those people had surely played a vital role in bringing Greek philosophy near the Muslims.  The most notable among them are: the Jewish philosopher Maimonides (Musa ibn Maimun ibn Yusuf Abu ‘Imran Al-Qurtubi).  This is one of the most notorious philosophers that influenced some Muslims of his time, for he was born in Cordova in 529 A.H. and traveled to various parts of Andalusia (Spain).  He lived in Fez for nine years pretending to be a Muslim, memorized the Qur’an and became well versed in the Maliki law predominant in the region, but on returning to Egypt he publicly declared his Jewish religion and became the spiritual leader of the Egyptian Jews for about thirty four years.  He became so close to the famous Muslim ruler of the time Salahuddin Al-Ayyubi (Saladin) and was made the personal medical doctor of his eldest son Nurud Deen, and Al-Qadi Al-Basyani, one of the viziers of Salahuddin.  He used his position in raising the level of the Jews in Egypt.  In fact when Salahuddin recaptured Jerusalem from the Christians and intended to drive the Jews away from the land, Maimonides convinced him to let th em stay and he did.

As for his role in spreading philosophy among the Muslims he did that through about thirteen of his writings the most important of which is “The Guide for the Perplexed”.  This book was studied by Muslims of his time under close supervision of outstanding Jewish teachers.  He was the first to declare that the Bible must be brought to consent with human reasoning. (Will Durant 14/129 Ar.).  He lived for about twenty years never carried away from his treatise on expounding on the Mishna for which he was raised by the Jews to the highest level among the expounders of the Talmud.

His sons carried on with his assignment of spreading philosophy among the Muslims and Jews alike, among whom are Ibrahim ibn Musa, his grandsons Dawud ibn Ibrahim and Sulaiman ibn Ibrahim.

Mention must also be made of the role played by The Zoroastrian Philosopher and astrologer, Nobakht, who was one of the closest people to Abu Ja’far Al-Mansur the ‘Abbasid caliph (D. 158 A.H.).  He engaged fully in the study of astrology and spread of philosophy.  When he was too old, Al-Mansur, who was deeply fond of philosophy and astrology, demanded him to bring his son to pick from where he stopped.  He brought his son Abu Sahl. (This name was given to him by Al-Mansur, as a result of his amazement with his original name. In a ridiculous narrative it is reported that when Al-Mansur asked the young man what his name was he replied: ‘Khurshmadh Mah Taimadh Ma Baazaar Daabad Khusro Nahshah’.  Al-Mansur asked him: is your name the whole of these words ? He said yes, and at that time he called him Abu Sahl).

As noted above this slack and too ‘tolerant’ attitude of the caliphs in matters of belief contributed so much to the spread of philosophy among the Muslims.

Three: The Role of Translations

Ibn An-Nadeem, the most ancient source in this respect traced the earliest efforts of translating alchemical, astrological and medical works to Khalid ibn Yazid (d. 85 or 90 AH), the Umayyad prince who turned to the study of alchemy., and was highly fond of it. He was the first to bring foreign translators to render chemical works into Arabic, and that was the first translation that occurred in Islam, although it was confined at that time to some fields like wisdom and general history of philosophy, without getting into the deeper aspects of the metaphysical studies of Greek philosophy.

Then came the era of the ‘Abbasids when those steps were continuously taken seriously to import foreign books and translators to a very large extent, starting in the time of Abu Ja’afar Al-Mansur, the second ‘Abbasid caliph, who was referred to above. One of the most notable contributors in the field of translation during the reign of Al-Mansur was Abdullah ibn Al-Muqaffa’, a Persian convert from Zoroastrianism, who was killed in the year 142 A.H., and who translated to Arabic many works of Aristotle on logic.  He also translated the fables of the Indian sage Bidpai, known as Kalilah Wa Dimnah, a literary classic which continues even now to be regarded as a model of Arabic prose.  It was alleged that he translated it in order to replace the Qur’an that occupied the minds of the Muslims.

In the time of Harun Al-Rashid (d. 198 A.H.) a special translation academy was founded called “Baitul Hikmah” (House of Wisdom).  The preponderance of astronomical and astrological works is linked to a significant feature of the reign of this caliph, who assigned his vizier, Yahya ibn Khalid Al-Barmaky (d. 190 A.H.), a notorious Zindeeq known for his secret conspiracies against Islam (See As-Suyuti, Saunul Mantiq p. 7-8).  He was known to have sent to the Roman ruler of that time asking for the huge amount of Greek literature in their possession to be sent to the Muslim lands.  The Roman ruler himself, as it was related, had packed those books in a secure place underground and blocked it from the top with a solid building, for fear of his people getting into contact with them so as not to divert them from their Christian faith.  Abu Muhammad ibn Abi Zaidin Al-Qirawani (the renown Maliki scholar and author of Ar-Risala, d. 386 A.H.), was reported to have referred to this incident.  He said: “May Allah bless the Umayyads;  none of their caliphs was known to invent any bid’ah into Islam, and most of their servants and close labourers were Arabs.  But when it was the turn of the ‘Abbasids, their governments were wholly supported by Persian servants and viziers, most of whom were accused of disbelief and concealing a great deal of hatred and contempt against Islam and the Muslim government.  As such they introduced serious innovations that could undermine and cause the end of Islam.  If not for the fact that A llah (subhanahu) Has promised his prophet that his deen and its adherents will prosper and be victorious to the day of Judgement, they would have destructed Islam, although they have already injured it and weakened its pillars, but Allah will surely fulfill His promise in sha Allah…” he then listed the innovations that found way into Islam in the reign of the Abbasids, among which is the act of importing Greek literature to Muslim lands. He further mentioned that when the books were brought to Yahya ibn Khalid Al-Barmaki, he called on all philosophers to come and get to acquaint themselves with them, and free inter-religious and inter-denominational debates were conducted in his house for a long period.  Among the books imported was one “Definition of Logistics” on which Ibnu Abi Zaidin Al-Qirawaani commented: “Hardly will one go through this book and remain free from Zandaqah…”. (Reported by Al-Maqdisi, Al-Hujjah ‘ala Tarikil Mahajjah p. 954-957, and Ad-Dabbi, Bughyatul Multamis p. 144, from Al-Humaidi in Jadhwatul Muqtabis p. 109).

This is as far as the reign of Haroun Ar-Rashid is concerned.  In the time of Al-Ma’mun, the seventh ‘Abbasid caliph, the issue of translating Greek literature reached its apogee, when he sent to various foreign leaders asking for the books to be sent to him, and he was known to personally oversee the practice himself under curious and regular supervision.  Suyuti comments on this: “… Be that as it may, the knowledge of the ancients came to Muslims in the first century after they conquered the A’aajim (non-Arabs), but it was not rampant between them as the Salaf were warning and prohibiting people from plunging into reading them.  It was later in the time of Al-Barmaky that they were made prevalent, and their spread was strengthened by Al-Ma’mun”. (Saunul Mantiq p. 11-12).

Al-Ma’mun was not only confined to encouraging the translations of Greek books, but rather he boldly imposed their contents on his subjects.  Scholars among the Salaf, like Al-Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Yazid ibn Haroun and others were repressed and tortured for refusing to endorse the Kufr that was found in the Greek literature.

But despite all this you find some contemporary pseudo-philosophers calling Al-Ma’mun the most liberal and tolerant Muslim leader in history who gave people their right of thought and expression and set them free from the bonds of irrational dogma.  One of them (Muhammad Lutfy Jumu’ah, in his History of Islamic Philosophers, intro) even considered this to be one of the prides of Islam as it is an element that gave rise to the development of ‘Islamic thought’ in the form of the various sects of bid’ah and religious denominations, each contributing with his own ‘interpretation’ of Islam, and asserted that Al-Ma’mun’s greatest contribution to Islamic thought was his support of the Mu’tazilah.  Majid Fakhry, another contemporary philosopher calls him ‘the most enlightened caliphs of the period’ . (A History of Islamic Philosophy, p. 8).

It is not irrelevant to mention some of the books translated to Arabic within those periods of time.

From Greek to Arabic: 8 works written by Plato on philosophy, 19 works for Aristotle in philosophy and logic, 10 by Hippocrates in Medicine, 48 by Galin, 20 by Euclid and Ptolemy.

From Syriac to Arabic, about 20 works, from Persian to Arabic about 20 other works, 20 from Latin and Hebrew to Arabic and 30 from Sanskrit to Arabic, all by a number of philosophers.

This totals to around 195 books, a little number compared to the great number imported.  Some researchers list the number of books translated in the reign of Ma’mun alone to about 256 books.

And all of the translators have been Christians of the Nestorian or Jacobite sect, except for an outstanding translator in the person of the pagan astrologer-philosopher Thabit ibn Qurra, who hailed from Harran in north Syria, settled in Baghdad. (For a detailed study on the translators and the books translated see: Muhammad Lutfy (Tarikhu Falasifatil Islam, intro., and Majid Fakhry, A History of Islamic Philosophy, p. 12-19).

Next, I will, in sha Allah, come to discuss the second stage in which I will show the impact of these books on the Muslims and look into the lives of some proponents of philosophy among the Muslims to see how their indulgence in Greek philosophy affected their faith, of course, negatively.

Wa sallallahu wa sallama wa baraka ‘ala Nabiyyina Muhammadin wa ‘ala aalihi wa ashaabih.