665)The Institute Of Ismaili Studies Publishes Its Second Volume From The Rasail Ikhwan Al-Safa; Quotes From Blogpost Four Hundred.

"In Islamic belief, knowledge is two-fold. There is that revealed through the Holy Prophet (s.a.s.) and that which man discovers by virtue of his own intellect. Nor do these two involve any contradiction, provided man remembers that his own mind is itself the creation of God. Without this humility, no balance is possible. With it, there are no barriers. Indeed, one strength of Islam has always lain in its belief that creation is not static but continuous, that through scientific and other endeavours, God has opened and continues to open new windows for us to see the marvels of His creation"(Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan University, 16 March 1983, Karachi, Pakistan)

"Islam is fundamentally in its very nature a natural religion. Throughout the Quran God's signs (Ayats) are referred to as the natural phenomenon, the law and order of the universe, the exactitudes and consequences of the relations between natural phenomenon in cause and effect. Over and over, the stars, sun, moon, earthquakes, fruits of the earth and trees are mentioned as the signs of divine power, divine law and divine order. Even in the Ayeh of Noor, divine is referred to as the natural phenomenon of light and even references are made to the fruit of the earth. During the great period of Islam, Muslims did not forget these principles of their religion. Alas, Islam which is a natural religion in which God's miracles are the very law and order of nature drifted away and is still drifting away, even in Pakistan, from science which is the study of those very laws and orders of nature.……Islam is a natural religion of which the Ayats are the universe in which we live and move and have our being………..The God of the Quran is the one whose Ayats are the universe……"(Aga Khan III, April 4th 1952, Karachi, Pakistan)

http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html



IIS Publishes Second Volume from the Rasa’il Ikhwan al-Safa’

Another publication was released by the IIS in October: On Logic: An Arabic Critical Edition and English Translation of Epistles 10-14, edited and translated by Professor Carmela Baffioni. This is the second volume of primary text from the Epistles of the Brethren of Purity (Rasa’il Ikhwan al-Safa’), which is being published in its entirety, over sixteen bilingual volumes, by Oxford University Press in association with The Institute of Ismaili Studies. This series is vitally important as it presents for the first time a critical edition and English translation of this pervasively influential tenth-century text.

The Brethren of Purity (Ikhwan al-Safa’) were an anonymous group of learned men who met regularly in both Basra and Baghdad, syncretistically collating the philosophies and sciences of their age with the ultimate goal of providing an epistemological pathway for the salvation of the soul. Although the identity of these men remains unsettled, scholars agree on the strong Ismaili character of the work, which draws also on Greek, Persian, Indian and other sources. The encyclopaedic corpus as a whole spans four broad areas of knowledge, from the mathematical, natural, and ‘psychical’, through to theological sciences.

This volume collects those epistles dealing with logic, from the end of the first (mathematical) section of the Rasa’il Ikhwan al-Safa’. The five epistles cover Porphyry’s Isagoge, Aristotle’s Categories, On Interpretation, Prior Analytics, and Posterior Analytics; the fundamentals of logic presented here are derived principally from Aristotle’s Organon, popularly circulating in Arabic at that time, under the Neoplatonising influence of Plotinus via Porphyry and with some additional interpretation of the Ikhwan themselves. The work is contextualised by the comprehensive introduction and extensive annotations to the English translation by Carmela Baffioni.

Professor Carmela Baffioni is an expert on the Ikhwan al-Safa’, having published many articles on their Rasa’il, as well as having written extensively on other medieval Islamic philosophers such as al-Kindi, al-Farabi and Ibn Sina. She currently holds the position of Full Professor of History of Muslim Philosophy at the Universita degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale”.
Related Pages on the IIS Website

http://www.iis.ac.uk/view_article.asp?ContentID=112085

Introduction to Academic Publications
Epistles of the Brethren of Purity Series


Related Posts:
The Ikhwan Al-Safa(Brethern Of Purity), The Original Encyclopedists: Balancing Revelation And Reason; A Collection Of Posts; Quotes Of Aga Khan IV
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/05/483the-ikhwan-al-safabrethern-of-purity.html

ISMAILIMAIL Makes A Post On The Ikhwan Al-Safa Or Brethren Of Purity (Via One Land, One King’s Blog)
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/09/647ismailimail-makes-post-on-ikhwan-al.html

My Favourite Cosmologist-Philosopher-Theologian-Poets: Abu Yakub Al-Sijistani, Nasir Khusraw And Ikhwan Al-Safa; A Collection Of Posts On My Blog.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/11/428my-favourite-cosmologist-philosopher.html

Epistles of the Brethren of Purity Series
http://www.iis.ac.uk/view_article.asp?ContentID=112055

All posts on ISMAILIMAIL relating to the Ikhwan Al Safa
http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/?s=ikhwan+Al+safa



Easy Nash http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/science_and_religion_in_islam_the_link/ http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/08/500blogpost-five-hundred-is-blogpost.html http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/453a-blog-constructed-within.html

In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God: Aga Khan IV(2008)
The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)