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

Introduction 9
gradually the main schools of philosophy, in the West ceased to be
Christian philosophy, and in fact philosophy in many of its schools
turned against religion in general and Christianity in particular, pitting
philosophy as the main rival to religion. In contrast, in the Islamic
world philosophy continued to function within a universe dominated
by the reality of prophecy, and this situation has persisted to a large
extent to this day despite the appearance of secular philosophies here
and there in various Islamic countries.
Strangely enough, while a number of secularized Muslim scholars
of Islamic philosophy who write about it but do not belong to the
Islamic philosophical tradition tend these days to criticize the very
notion of “prophetic philosophy” and want to separate philosophy
from prophecy à la the modern West, a notable number of American
philosophers, have now joined the society of Christian philosophers,
while interest in Jewish philosophy as a living philosophy is also on
the rise in the West. In such a context the continued living presence
of the Islamic philosophical tradition, which has always functioned in
a world dominated by prophecy, can also be of interest as living
philosophy to Western philosophers in quest of the resuscitation of
Jewish or Christian philosophy. Furthermore, this study can perhaps
also be of some help to certain Muslims who are philosophically inclined
but who have become severed from their own philosophical
tradition without having forsaken the reality of prophecy.