An Analysis of Reason and Revelation in al-Tawhidi's Epistle On [the Classification of] Knowledge (Risala fi al-'Ulum) This paper assesses the roles that al-Tawhidi ascribes to the Qur'an and reason as sources for moral enquiries. Both sources will be discussed through an analysis of al-Tawhidi's epistle Rissla fs al-'Ulum within its socio-political and intellectual contexts, including the debate in tenth-century Buyid society over scepticism about valid sources of knowledge. Also treated will be his al-Muqabasat in which he deals with similar issues. Al-Tawhidi attempted to reconcile contemporary intellectual tensions about the divided status of scholarly disciplines in order to fit them all into a cohesive framework. Refuting the view that logic has nothing to do with religious law, al-Tawhidi relates 'arabiyya (Arabic religious science) to a broader context, offering a view of perfection where knowledge of this science is integrated with logic and Greek philosophy. Thus he ascribes numinous qualities to 'arabiyya as the language of the Qur'an, also making explicit the juristic prerogative in the proper understanding of the use of Arabic. Al-Tawhidi classifies the forms of knowledge as: 1) Jurisprudence, which deduces religious law on the basis of the Qur'an and the Prophet's sunna; 2) Qiyas (Analogy); 3) Kalam (Theology), assuming that its methods avoid hypocrisy and extremism; 4) Grammar, Lexicography, and Eloquence, which assume a set of values that determines social behaviour, reflecting one's religio-cultural identity; 5) Logic; 6) Medicine; 7) Astronomy, which leads to appreciation of God's creation; 8) Mathematics; and 9) Tasawwuf. Al-Tawhidi's use of both religion and philosophy as valid paths to truth shifted the focus in determining the validity of knowledge from a normative value of revealed or non-revealed knowledge to a basis of the practical moral value of knowledge and its societal function for the well-being of the community. This classical Islamic model can serve as an example for Muslims' current attempts to define the place of the sacred and human reason in their relationship with the modern world.

Causality in post-formative Ash'arism: Comparing al-Yusi (d. 1691) and al-Nabulusi (d. 1731) Many scholars, as well as Muslim reformers (such as Muhammad Abduh (d. 1905) have argued that it was precisely due to the prevalence of Ash'ari theology (kalam) in the Muslim world in the early modern period that scientific research was not pursued. This stance is closely associated with the widespread view that this school of Islamic theology--largely dominant in North Africa during these centuries--denied natural law and secondary causation outright, arguing instead for an occasionalism in which God created the world anew at each moment. The view is most often expounded in light of the fact that such prominent Ash'ari theologians as al-Ghazali (d. 1111) denied that wool being brought into the proximity of fire would necessarily burn. More recently, Frank Griffel, while acknowledging the difficulty of al-Ghazali's texts, has shown that al-Ghazali, though working within an Ash'ari occasionalist framework, did in fact subscribe to a theory of secondary causality, most clearly so in his comparison of God's creation to a water-clock. Islamic theology in the Early Modern period has not been nearly as well studied as it has for the earlier classical or formative period, but it seems safe to say that during the 16-18th centuries--the period in which I am interested for this paper--Ash'ari theology contained multiple understandings of causality. In this paper I will argue that the Moroccan scholar al-Yusi (d. 1691) clearly accepted a theory of secondary causation within the broader reliance upon God mandated by Ash'arism, redefining the nature of socially accepted theological views during his time. While al-Yusi's stance was exceptional in that it offered a clear corrective to al-Sanusi's (d. 1490) authoritative manual of Ash'ari theology, it was not without influence, and as I will show, was cited as late as the early twentieth century in legal opinions as proof of the permissibility of studying the natural sciences. In order to better contextualize the work of al-Yusi, I will compare his views to those of his Syrian contemporary, the famed mystic and theologian 'Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi (d. 1731), whose views on causality were remarkably similar to those of al-Yusi. Through a rereading of both of their writings this paper will present a more complex and nuanced understanding of Ash'ari theology in the Early Modern period.

In the Physics, Aristotle refutes the atomism of Democritus and Leucippus through a series of arguments. The later atomist Epicurus therefore had to answer the challenge of the Aristotelian critique in his revision of atomism. Similarly, Ibn Sina refutes the atomism of the mutakallimun in the Physics of the Shifa' (and in other works). My paper will examine the response of post-Avicennan mutakallimun to the challenge posed by Ibn Sina's critique of kalam atomism. I intend to focus primarily on the Ash'arites, in particular Fakhr al-din al-Razi, al-Iji and his commentators, and al-Taftazani, but will also review the positions of the Mu'tazili-leaning Zaydi mutakallim al-Jushami, the Shi'i mutakallims al-Hilli and al-Bahrani, and the Maturidi mutakallim Abu al-Mu'in al-Nasafi.