Ibn Rushd: An Islamic Rationalist Who Enlightened the Europe
By Nastik Durrani, New Age Islam
10 May, 2014
“Those who will not
reason are bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not,
are slaves.” (Andrew Carnegie, a Scottish-American industrialist who led
the enormous expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th
century).
Al-Walid Muhammad bin
Ahmad Ibn Rushd al-Andalusi, widely known as Ibn Rushd or Averroes, was
the last true philosopher of Islam. He was a man of manifold
intelligence; a well-versed translator, physician, Islamic jurist
(Faqih), judge, theologian, geographer, mathematician, astronomer,
musician and a wonderful expert of the Maliki Islamic school of thought.
Ibn Rushd’s contributions to philosophy captivated the Europe for four
centuries. When St. Thomas Aquinas and Yaqub Anatoli stumbled upon the
Latin and Hebrew translations of his original works, he turned into the
spiritual and intellectual father of the Europe. His ideas greatly
contributed to the creation of “Age of Enlightenment” in the
Europe.
Ibn Rushd was born in
Cordoba in 1126 A.D. He belonged to a family of the Qazis (Islamic
jurists). His grandfather used to be the Qazi al-Quzat (the
supreme jurist) of Cordoba in the period of Murabiteen. Afterwards, Ibn
Rushd’s father assumed this post and carried on with it until the fall
of the Murabiteen’s regime.
Ibn Rushd learned law
and philosophy from the great scholar of his time, Ibn Tufail. When he
attained maturity, he chose to live in company with the renowned
physician, Ibn Zuhr, with an aim to get expertise in physics and medical
sciences. He outshined his teachers and masters in sciences and went so
far as being the private physician of the Caliph Abu Yusuf al-Mansur.
His teacher, Ibn Zuhr took great pride in him declaring him the greatest physician after Jalinus Fahmi (Galen).
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