Hayy Ibn Yaqzan Reviews
Hayy Ibn Yaqzan
71 pages, translated by L. E. Goodman with 91 page Introduction + 79 pages of Notes. Spine is uncreased. Remainder marks on all 3 edges. Minor rumples to upper part of front cover + top margins of first few pages. Else Bright Clean Tight!
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Aristotle versus Muhammad – why the fuss?,
The History of Hayy Ibn Yaqzaan (Alive Son of Awake) was written by Abu Bakir Muhammad ibn `Abd al-Malik Ibn Tufayl al-Qa’isi in pre-Spanish Iberia around 1170 with the aim of illustrating the equivalency between reason and faith as well the role of natural law. It is interesting to note that Ibn Tufayl was Averroes’s teacher and predecessor as court philosopher, who in turn sparked Aquinas to write his Summa Theologica. This philosophical romance is a tale of two philosophies, represented by two islands. Ibn Tufayl compared the path of Divine Revelation with the path of Aristotelian “fitrah” (innate knowledge of right and wrong) and thereby illuminated and rationalized the Abrahamic faiths. On the fictitious and uninhabited island of “fitrah” or natural law somewhere near the Maldives appeared a lone child that some say was fashioned naturally similar to the first man Adam, while others say he was a Moses-like orphan washed ashore in a basket.
He is suckled by a roe (female deer) who eventually dies, whereupon the young lad becomes a Doctor Quincy of ’70s tv fame and begins his foray into forensics to discover the source of the roe’s malady. Without language, this individual observes and reflects on the natural order around him in Aristotelian fashion until he is contemplating questions of metaphysics and Intelligent Design. By the age of 49 years, Hayy Ibn Yaqzaan has reached intellectual communion with his Creator.
Then he saw his first human, a visitor to the island named Asaal. Asaal is a practicing Muslim brought up in the third stage of the Abrahamic faith. Having said that, it is confusing that Asaal has come to the island to be a hermit and worship God when the Islaamic religion forbids hermitage and monkdom.
After the two awkwardly meet and eventually settle down to inquire about the other, Asaal teaches Hayy how to speak his language – no doubt a dialect of Arabic. Through conversation they realize that they are on the same spiritual page; one via Qur’aanic revelation, the other via Aristotelian reflection or “fitrah”. Asaal invites Hayy to return to his city and meet other humans, which they do. But the other humans cannot understand Hayy’s advanced metaphysical thinking; for them the Qur’aan is sufficient. Hayy returns to his uninhabitated island to live in communion with his Maker.
The book is far-fetched in thinking that it does not take a village to raise a child, just a roe and God-given intellect. In real-life cases where children were cut-off from others, their development was stunted intellectually as well as socially. Humans are social animals and cannot become Einsteins of their own accord. Even Einstein owes a debt to his first wife who was a senior majoring in physics when he was but a freshman.
The value of this book lies in its attempt to say that Greek philosophy is correct and Divine Revelation is correct – that there is no dichotomy between them. Ibn Tufayl is saying that natural law is no more than the rational creature’s participation of the Islaamic law (or Submission to God law). Historically, this book is the mainspring to the field of natural law that Aquinas later devoted his life to. “Fitrah” is the Arabic word for “synderesis” – “natural law is promulgated by the very fact that God instilled it into man’s mind so as to be known by him naturally” said Aquinas.
Ibn Tufayl’s short treatise is worth reading then. The only caveat is the introduction by Goodman; his Arabic is faulty and he doesn’t seem to know that Spain was created in 1479 when King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella merged their respective kingdoms. Prior to 1479, there was no Spain – but that doesn’t stop Goodman from referring to such nonsense as Mohammedan Spain. This story was written in pre-Spanish Iberia after the Muslims there fell into decadence and corruption and therefore represents a valuable cultural artifact in the decline and fall of Submission to God (al-Islaam) in addition to its contribution to the blossoming of natural law.
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