Walking Holidays in Andalucia
Books
Ibn Rushd (Averroes) - The Distinguished
Jurist's Primer - Bidayat Al-Mujtahid Wa Nihayat Al-Muqtasid: Vol 1
(Great Books of Islamic Civilization) - Imran Nyazee (Translator)
“Ibn Rushd (Averroes) is
regarded by many as the most important of the Islamic philosophers.
A product of twelfth-century Islamic Spain, he set out to integrate
Aristotelian philosophy with Islamic thought. A common theme
throughout his writings is that there is no incompatibility
between religion and philosophy when both are properly understood.
Born in 1126 AD in Cordoba to distinguished line of jurists
and theologians, who like him served as public officials. Due to
the political turmoil in Andalus (Islamic Spain) at the time, he
was not always in favour. His contributions to philosophy took many
forms, ranging from his detailed commentaries on Aristotle, his defence of
philosophy against the attacks of those who condemned it as
contrary to Islam and his construction of a form of Aristotelianism
which cleansed it, as far as was possible at the time, of,
Neoplatonic influences.
His thought is genuinely creative and highly controversial,
producing powerful arguments that were to puzzle his philosophical
successors in the Jewish and Christian worlds. He seems to argue
that there are two forms of truth, a religious form and a
philosophical form, and that it does not matter if they point in
different directions. He also appears to be doubtful about the
possibility of personal immortality or of God's being able to know
that particular events have taken place. There is much in his
work also which suggests that religion is inferior to philosophy
as a means of attaining knowledge, and that the understanding of
religion which ordinary believers can have is very different and
impoverished when compared with that available to the philosopher.
When discussing political philosophy he advocates a
leading role in the state for philosophers, and is generally
disparaging of the qualities of theologians as political figures.
Ibn Rushd's philosophy is seen to be based upon a complex and
original philosophy of languages which expresses his critique of
the accepted methods of argument in Islamic philosophy up to his
time. ” |
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Most valuable resource - Even if you have
several books of Islamic law, this book is extremely valuable for
two main reasons. First, it outlines the positions of the major
schools and the sources and reasoning they use to arrive at those
positions. Second, and more importantly, Ibn Rushd (Averroes to
most of his European admirers) explains the divergence of views
among the schools on the basis of the different methodologies they
employ on a particular issue; or the different weight they might
give to two apparently conflicting verses or hadith; or their
different judgements about abrogation or the relative authority of
Qur'an and Sunnah.
Because of this, both Muslims and students of Islam are
able to grasp how Muslim law is not simply reducible to a code but
remains an ongoing conversation (even an argument) about how God
wants us to act.
The translation is excellent and the production of the
book is of very good quality. The work is available in two volumes
or one. One volume is obviously cheaper, but I would recommend
the two-volume version because of the size. |
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Ibn Rushd's "Bidayat al-Mujtahid"
("The Distinguished Jurist's Primer") occupies a unique place
among the authoritative manuals of Islamic law. It is designed to
prepare the jurist for the task of the mujtahid, the independent
jurist, who derives the law and lays down precedents to be followed
by the judge in the administration of justice. In this manual Ibn
Rushd traces most of the issues of Islamic law, describing not
only what the law is, but also elaborating the methodology of some
of the greatest legal minds in Islam to show how such laws were
derived. This text provides a still-relevant basis for the
interpretation and formulation of Islamic law. Combining his legal
and philosophical knowledge, Ibn Rushd transcends the boundaries
of different schools and presents a critical analysis of the
opinions of the famous Muslim jurists and their methodologies. The
legal subject areas covered include marriage and divorce; sale and
exchange of goods; wages, crop-sharing and speculative
partnership; security for debts and insolvency; gifts, bequests
and inheritance; and offences and judgements. |
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