Ibn al-Rawandi

Ibn Al-Rawandi
Born827 CE
Marw al-Rudh[1] Abbasid Caliphate
Died911 CE
Other namesAbu al-Hasan Ahmad ibn Yahya ibn Ishaq al-Rawandi
OccupationWriter
EraEarly and Middle Abbasid Era

Abu al-Hasan Ahmad ibn Yahya ibn Ishaq al-Rawandi (Arabic: أبو الحسن أحمد بن يحيى بن إسحاق الراوندي), commonly known as Ibn al-Rawandi (Arabic: ابن الراوندي;‎ 827–911 CE[2]), was a scholar and theologian. In his early days, he was a Mu'tazilite scholar, but then rejected the Mu'tazilite doctrine. Afterwards, he became a Shia scholar; there is some debate about whether he stayed a Shia until his death or became a skeptic,[3] though most sources confirm his eventual rejection of all religion and becoming an atheist.[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] Although none of his works have survived, his opinions had been preserved through his critics and the surviving books that answered him.[12] His book with the most preserved fragments (through an Ismaili book refuting al-Rawandi's ideology) is the Kitab al-Zumurrud (The Book of the Emerald).

  1. ^ Sarah Stroumsa, The Blinding Emerald: Ibn al-Rāwandī's Kitāb al-Zumurrud
  2. ^ Al-Zandaqa Wal Zanadiqa, by Mohammad Abd-El Hamid Al-Hamad, First edition 1999, Dar Al-Taliaa Al-Jadida, Syria (Arabic)
  3. ^ Mirzaay, Abas (Spring 2014). "Ibn Rawandi's Defense of Kufan Shi'ism". Islamic Theology Studies. 2.
  4. ^ Inati, Shams C (2000). Concise Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. New York NY: Routledge. p. 377. ISBN 0-415-22364-4. ... Ibn ar-Rawandi wavered between a number of Islamic sects and then abandoned all of them in favour of atheism.
  5. ^ al-A'sam, A. (1975). History of Ibn Ar-Riwandi the Heretic. Beirut: dar al-afaq al-Jadida.
  6. ^ Groff, Peter (2007). Islamic Philosophy A-Z. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press Ltd. pp. 86–87. ISBN 978-0-7486-2089-0. A protean freethinker who experimented with Mu'tazilism and Shi'ism before finally embracing atheism, Ibn al-Rawandi was condemned by most Muslims as a dangerous heretic.
  7. ^ Stroumsa, Sarah (1999). Freethinkers of Medieval Islam: Ibn Al-Rāwandī, Abū Bakr Al-Rāzī, and Their Impact on Islamic Thought. Leiden: Brill. doi:10.1163/9789004452848. ISBN 978-9004315471.
  8. ^ Grant, Edward (2007). A History of Natural Philosophy: From the Ancient World to the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 84–87. ISBN 9780511292101. Retrieved 8 March 2021. Early in his life, Ibn al-Rawandi was a Mutazilite scholar, who, like all Mutazilite scholars sought to apply Greek philosophy to explicate Islamic theology. After rejecting Mutazilism, he turned for a while to Shi'ism. At some point, however, and for reasons that are apparently unknown, al-Rawandi became a free thinker and repudiated Islam and revealed religion.
  9. ^ Karabela, Mehmet (2014). Kalin, Ibrahim (ed.). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Science, and Technology in Islam. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199812578. Abū al-Ḥusayn Aḥmad b. Yaḥyā Ibn al-Rāwandī(815–860 or 910), perhaps one of the most controversial figures in early Islamic history, is frequently called the "arch-heretic"...both Muslims and non-Muslims (especially Jews) wrote polemics against Ibn al-Rāwandī in which they acknowledged the serious threat his work posed not only to Islam, but also to Judaism and all Abrahamic religions.
  10. ^ Stroumsa, Sarah (1994). "The Blinding Emerald: Ibn Al Rawandi's Kitab Al-Zumurrud". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 114 (2): 163–185. doi:10.2307/603315. JSTOR 603315. Retrieved 8 March 2021. Ibn al-Rawandi was indeed a heretic who denied the possibility of prophecy, and the K. al-Zumurrud was written in order to expound his heretical views
  11. ^ Inati, Shams. "Ibn ar-Rawandi". MuslimPhilosophy.com. Routledge. Retrieved 6 March 2021. A highly enigmatic and controversial figure in the history of Islamic thought, Ibn ar-Rawandi wavered between a number of Islamic sects and then abandoned all of them in favour of atheism. As an atheist, he used reason to destroy religious beliefs, especially those of Islam. He compared prophets to unnecessary magicians, God to a human being in terms of knowledge and emotion, and the Qur'an to an ordinary book. Contrary to Islamic belief, he advocated that the world is without a beginning and that heaven is nothing special.
  12. ^ Ibn al-Rawandi, by Mehmet Karabela, in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Science, and Technology in Islam, edited by Ibrahim Kalin, vol. 1, New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.