IBN SINA (Avicenna)
Abu Ali al-Husain ibn Abdallah ibn Sina (known in the west as Avicenna),
was born in 980 in Kharmaithen (near Bukhara), in Uzbekistan. He was
a famous Islamic philosopher and physician.
Ibn Sina was born into a middle class family and his father was the governor
of a village in one of Nuh ibn Mansur's estates. He was educated by his
father, and was a very intelligent child. By the age of ten, ibn Sina had
memorised the entire Qur'an and several volumes of the Arabic poetry.
Ibn Sina began studying medicine when he was thirteen and mastered the
subject by the age of sixteen, when he began his practice. Ibn Sina was
a court physician for the Samanid ruler in Bukhara - who was overthrown
a year latter. From 1023 to his death in 1037, he served as scientific
advisor with the local ruler of Esfahan. He also studied logic and metaphysics.
In his autobiography, ibn Sina stressed that he was mostly self-taught
but admits that he received instruction at several critical points in his life.
Among his works, the Canon of Medicine is the most important. It was
used in both the Middle East and in Europe (a Latin translation was made in
the 12th century). Ibn Sina's most famous philosophical work was the Book
of Healing (kitâbu sh-shifâ'), which dealt with Aristotelian logic,
metaphysics, psychology and natural sciences.
Ibn Sina, combined the ideas of Aristotle and Neoplationism. He tried to
reconcile philosophy with the religion of Islam. Ibn Sina denied the existence
of the individual soul. He also doubted that God had any interest in any
individual person. Ibn Sina also believed that there was no creation of
the world and believed that there was a dualism of mind and matter. Matter
was passive, and creation had been an act of instilling existence into the
passive substance. Only God lacked this dualism.
The thoughts of Ibn Sina were important for centuries. His views were attacked
by Sunni theologians - both in his own time, and afterwards.
(Source)
Whatever their reasons to attack him, there are
elements of astrology
in his "Book of Treasures". Astrology, magic and other animistic practices
are, however, not foreign to orthodox Islam, see Samuel Zwemer's
The Influence of Animism on Islam.
For him also the following quote is relevant:
"To give Islam the credit of Averroes and so many other illustrious thinkers, who passed
half their life in prison, in forced hiding, in disgrace, whose books were burned and
whose writings almost suppressed by theological authority, is as if one were to ascribe
to the Inquisition the discoveries of Galileo" -- Ernest Renan, "Islamisme et la science",
lecture given at the Sarbonne, 29 March 1883. Basel, Bernheim.
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