Table Of ContentAL-GHAzILI'S VIEWS ON LOGIC
by
• AZMI T • a.l-SA! YED AIDan
Thesis presented for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts,
University of Edinburgh.
Februa.ry, 1981.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of contents.
Acknowledgement.
Abstract.
List of abbreviations.
Transliteration.
INTRODUCTION.
1 - 4
CHAPTER ONE •
.AN INTRODUCTORY SURVEY OF LOGIC IN THE ISLAHIC
WORLD UP TO THE TllIE OF AL-GHAzALI.
(1) Introduotion. 6
(2) The introduction of Greek logie into
the Islamic Yorld.
7 9
(3) The period of translation. 9 - 13
(4) The period of assimilation. 13 - 17
(5) The period of genuine writing. 17 - 21
(6) The period of introducing logic into
Islamic sciences. 21 - 24
(7) Logic after the time of A1-Ghazali. 24 - 25
CHAPTER TVO.
AL-GHAZILlfS ATTITUDE TOWARDS LOGIC.
(1) Introduction. 27
(2) Al-Ghazali's attitude towards logic
in his works:
(8.) in Ma.qa:~id a.nd Ta.hafut. 29 - 31
(b) in his books on logic. 31 34.
(c) in Il;ya' and a1-}!unqidh. 34 - 35
(d) in genera.1. 35 37
(3) The sources of the ideas of a1-Ghazali's
attitude to logic. 37 - 51
(4) Discussion and comments. 51 - 59
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CHAPTER THREE.
LOGIC AND CERTAIN KNOWLEDGE ACCORDING TO
AL-GIL\ZILI.
(1) Introduction. 61
(2) The concept of certain knowledge. 61 - 69
(3) The method of achieving new certain
knowledge. 69 - 70
(4) The premises of syllogism. 71 - 82
(5) The epistemological bases of certainty. 83 - 93
(6) Natural sciences and certainty. 94 - 102
(7) Kalam and certainty. 102 - 114
(8) Discussion and comments. 114 - 124
CHAPTER FOUR
LOGIC AND QUR'AN ACCORDING TO AL-GHAZALI.
(1) Introduction. 126 - 127
(2) The Qur'an classifies the kinds of
arguments according to the different
classes of people. 127 - 132
(3) The Qur'an contains criteria of
knowledge. 132 - 135
(4) The trueness of the criteria of
knowledge and the Qur'an. 135 - 138
(5) The criteria of l~owledge in the Qur'an.
(I) The great criterion of equiv-
alence. 139 - 147
(II) The middle criterion of equiv-
a1ence. 147 - 151
(III) The small criterion of equiv-
a1ence. 152 - 156
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(IV) The criterion of concomitance. 156 - 160
(V) The criterion of opposition. 160 - 162
(6 ) The Satanic criteria. 162 - 166
(7) Al-GhazalI's style in expounding these
criteria. 167 - 173
(8) The general method of rational dis-
cussions. 173 - 174
(9) The co-operation between logic and
the Qur'an in the fields of knowledge
and faith. 175 - 177
(10) General discussion and comments. 177 - 185
CHAPTER FIVE
LOGIC AND JURISPRUDENCE ACCORDING TO AL-GHAZIL!.
(1) Introduction. 187 - 188,
(2) The emergence of ufu1 al-fiqh. 188 - 191
(3) Definition:
(a) In Aristotelian logic. 191 - 193
(b) in the Stoic logic. 193 195
(c) in the u~ul al-fiqh before
al-Ghaza1i. -195-196
(d) according to al-GhazalI. 196 - 198
(e) what al-Ghazali introduced into
the u~ul al-fiqh regarding defin-
ition. 198 - 204
(4) Inference:
(a) in Aristotelian and Stoic logic. 204 - 207
(b) in the science of u~ul al-fiqh
before al-Ghazali. 207 - 212
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MISSING
IN
ORIGINAL
ACKNOWLEDG~mNT.
This thesis has been prepared and written in Edinburgh,
and, firstly, I should like to acknowledge the immense debt
that I feel lowe to the City and to its people.
But, my principal gratitude must certainly go to my super
visors: to Professor W. Montgomery Yatt for his wisdom, scho -
:ar'ship and the special interest he has shown in this work;
and, to Dr. I.K. Howard for his wisdom, scholarship, encour
agement and the special, and kind, treatment he has shown to
me.
I would like to thank the members of staff in the Depart
ment of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies for their kindness,
especially Dr. Carol Hillenbrand for reading part of my work
and making useful comments.
My sincere thanks are due to Miss I. Crawford, the secre
tary of the Department, for her kind help, on both personal and
official levels.
I have to thank the University of Edinburgh for offering
me a Postgraduate Studentship for two years.
lowe a special debt of gratitude to Mrs. M. Batchelor,
for her sincere help and conscientious effort in typing this
thesis.
I also wish to thank my eldest brother, Abu lhab, for his
encouragement and some financial help.
Finally, I would like to record my warm thanks to my wife,
who, in spite of being away from home, has coped with the res
ponsibility of our big family.
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ABSTRACT.
Greek logic was transmitted to the Islamic World
within the Greek philosophical tradition.
Although various Greek books on logic had been
translated into Arabic several times, logic remained, up
to the time of Al-Ghazali, suspected as dangerous for re
ligious belief and confined to the circles of the philos-
ophers. It was not able to enter overtly into religious
education.
Al-Ghazali found many schools of thought in his
time, each one claiming that truth and certainty were con
fined to it. He was acquainted with all these different
schools of thought. At first, h. was not able to deter
mine which was right or wrong. Thus he searched for a
criterion by which he could distinguish between certain
and non-certain knowledge. After a comprehensive quest,
he found that logic was the only criterion of knowledge
and its methods of inference are the only methods of re
search by which one can achieve new certain knowledge. Thus
he adopted Aristotle's theory of certainty. Furthermore,
he tried to build his concept of certainty and certain know-
ledge on epistemological bases. After becoming complete-
ly convinced of the great importance of logic, al-Ghazali,
in an attempt to restore the system of religious education,
worked out a plan aiming to introduce logic into the cur
ricula of religious education. In the first stage, he de
elared the neutrality of it while at the same time attack-
ing the philosophers. Then he claimed that logic was found
in the Qur'an. After that he wrote books on logic, in which
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he was interested mostly in the formal parts of logic, and
he endeavoured to clothe logic with an Islamic clothing.
All that was not sufficient to make his attempt successful.
So he shoved the scholars and students in religious-educ
ation how logic could be used in the Islamic sciences - this
was clear in his books on kalam and u~ul al-fiqh, where he
applied definition and the methods of inference in Aristo-
telian logic. In doing this, he was the first Muslim schol-
ar to mix, overtly, logic with the Islamic sciences, and to
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Islamicise Greek logic (Aristotelian).
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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.
van Eas, Josef, "The Logical Structure of
Islamic Theology ••• ". LSrT
=-
AI-Farah!, Iha. a' al-·Ullim. • Ih. s. a'
,
-
Al-Ghazali, Ihy;' 'Ulnm aI-Din. Ihy.' .
Al-Iqti,ad fI al-I·tiq&d •••• • al-Iqtif8d•
-
as.
AI-Qisl&~ al-MustsgIm •••• al-Qisi
-
Maqafid al-F&lasifah Maqa~id.
-
Mihakk aI-Nazar •••• Mihakk.
• • •
Mi 'yar a~Ilm •••• • Mi·yar.
-
AI-Munqidh min al-~alal ••.• Mun9.idh•
-
AI-Mu5tasfa min Usul al-fiqh. '&l-Musta§fa.
-
« - •
-,
Shifa al-Ghalil •••• Shita'.
-
Tahafut al-Falasifah •••• Tahafut.
-
Kraus, Paul ttzu ibn al-Mugaffa'" •••• -ZIM.
Marmura,Michael E. "Ghazali a.nd Demonstra.tive
-
SC·l ence rt •••• ems.
"Ghazali's Attitude to the
Secular Seiences and Logic". GASSL.
-~
Meyerhof, Max "Von Alexandrien nach
-
Baghdad" •••• VANB.
Rescher, Nicholas The Development of Arabic
Logic •••• _ DAL.
- -
..,.
Ibn S1na, AI-Isharat va al-Tanbihat ••• Isharat.
AI-SiyU~i, J. aI-Din
~aYn al-Man}iq wa a.l-kalam
'an Fann al-Mantiq wa al
kalam. _ Sawn.
e
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TRANSLITERATION.
I have folloved the system adopted by the Depart
ment of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, University of
Edinburgh.
Description:ation how logic could be used in the Islamic sciences - this was clear in his books on . reasoning and he wrote five works to expound this method.(5). There is no .. Ibn Taimiyyah in his work: Na~1hat ahl al-Iman £1 al-Radd. 'ala Mantiq . dent treatises"(4) covering all the topics in logic. (c) Du
