Islamic Philosophy from Its Origin to the Present: Philosophy in the ...

142 Part 3: Islamic Philosophy in History
the Moon in accordance with the nine heavens of Ptolemaic astronomy
as modified by Muslim astronomers. Below that level stand the spheres
of the four elements governed by the Tenth Intellect, which is the
“giver of forms” (wåhib al-„uwar) for all the existents in the sublunar
region. 35 The sublunar region is also organized in a hierarchical order
consisting of the three kingdoms crowned by man, who represents the
point of return to the Origin. By means of knowledge, he can ascend
through the levels of cosmic manifestation to gain union with the
Active Intellect (al-‘aql al-fa‘‘ål). His mind ascends from the state of
potentiality to actuality in which it becomes intellectus in actu.
The universe consists of a vast hierarchy beginning with the ten
Intellects, which emanate from each other and ultimately from the
Necessary Being. Below them stand the sublunar beings stretching
from the materia prima to man, in whom the arc of ascent commences,
terminating with the return to the purely intelligible world. The universe
is generated through contemplation and returns to its origin
through knowledge. The world is not created in time because time is
a condition of the world, but it is not eternal in the sense that God is
eternal. There is, rather, a basic distinction between the world and
God, for God is the Necessary Being in need of nothing but Itself, and
all existents are contingent in themselves, gain their existence from the
Necessary Being, and remain in utter existential poverty in themselves.
The Avicennan universe is one that preserves the transcendence of
God through the radical distinction between necessity and contingency
and at the same time emphasizes the emanation of the levels of cosmic
existence from the Necessary Being as a result of the very nature of
the Origin that generates the universe like the sun that radiates light
by its very nature. Ibn S¥nå also accepts fully prophecy and seeks to
explain it through his theory of the soul and the intellect. 36 Avicennan
philosophy is a major expression of philosophy in the land of prophecy
and has exercised wide influence over many other schools of
philosophy in both East and West.
SOME INDEPENDENT PHILOSOPHERS
Although Islamic philosophy developed for the most part in schools
rather than being identified with individual philosophers as in the
postmedieval West, there were some independent philosophers who
cannot be classified as members of any of the major schools such as
the Peripatetic, Ismå‘¥l¥, or Illuminationist. Among these independent
thinkers some such as Miskawayh, although possessing many inde-