Remembering Ibn Rushd

Abstract

This year is the 800th anniversary of Ibn Rushd's (1128-1198) death.Our editorial is dedicated to his memory as a great Muslim scholar. Hislegacy is one of the greatest contributions to human understanding andintellectual scholarship. The occasion deserves much more than an editorial.This issue reports on a conference celebrating Ibn Rushd'sachievements and later this year MISS will have a report on the seminarthat the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) is organizing inAmman, Jordan, honoring his work. In this editorial I will try to clarifyIbn Rushd's place in Islamic Intellectual history and underscore his contributionsto the development of philosophical, theological, and scientificthought in the Muslim and Western worlds.Although Ibn Rushd has an important position in the Islamic intellectuallegacy, his contributions have not received due recognition in theMuslim world. Even among those who are aware of his works, to a greatextent, he has been misunderstood and misrepresented, and his positionhas undergone multiple distortions. We feel it is essential to understandhis work free of historical and contemporary ideological biases and distortionsin order to fully comprehend the problems and concerns thatmotivated Muslim scholars and provided the framework for Islamicthought. It is also important that we understand the reasons why he wasnot given the place he deserves in the Islamic heritage and why he isoften misinterpreted.Ibn Rushd was a great integrator of knowledge. He was a preeminentphysician and a prominent judge of his time. He was also a philosopherand theologian. His mastery of knowledge demonstrated two dimensions-he was both encyclopedic and specialist. In the areas of his specializations-medicine, jurisprudence, and philosophy-he was a masterwithout peer. Ibn Rushd had two outstanding qualities. He was extremelyintelligent and he was also extraordinarily just and fair in his approachto religion. It is important that we understand and appreciate his unprejudicedapproach to the study of religion. Indeed, it is one of his most distinctivequalities.Ibn Rushd was a committed Muslim and a very humble man. Thishumility manifests itself in his writings as well as in his methodology.His search for truth allowed him to explore all sources, including earlyGreek philosophers. He believed that we must examine all sources, even ...