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DOI: 10.24234/wisdom.v24i4.803
THE ROLE OF INTELLECTUAL ISLAMIC HERITAGE IN THE DISCOURSE OF MODERN ISLAMIC PHILOSOPHY
Natalie SEITAKHMETOVA 1 © | Nurbol KALDYBEKOV 1 © | Madina BEKTENOVA 1 © Laura TOKTARBEKOVA 1 * © | Zhanara TURGANBAYEVA 1 ©
1 Centre of Religious Studies, Institute for Philosophy, Political Science and Religious Studies of the CS MSHE RK, Almaty, Kazakhstan * Correspondence Laura TOKTARBEKOVA, E-mail: lauratoktarbekova@gmail.com
Abstract: The article deals with the role of classical falsafa heritage in the modern Islamic philosophical discourse. Based on interpretations of texts of modern Islamic philosophers, the authors come to the conclusion about the relevance of the philosophical heritage of the past for the development of directions and methodologies of modern humanitarian knowledge. Conducting a comparative analysis of the doctrines of the Islamic Middle Ages and modern philosophers, the authors substantiate the commonality of approaches to the conceptualization of subjectivity, obligation, and existence. Modern Islamic philosophy is an experience of interaction between philosophy and theology. In Islamic philosophy, ethical questions were posed in connection with the discovery of moral consciousness in man. Human being, defined by moral sense, is understood by Islamic philosophers as a moral sensible being, in which a moral man and a moral society are formed. Exploring this issue, the authors have come to understand the integrity of modern Islamic philosophy, its interpretation as a philosophy of morality and moral philosophy.
Keywords: Islam, falsafa, Islamic philosophy, intellectual Islamic heritage, Arab mind, Iranian philosophical discourse, Islamic tolerance.
Introduction
Many studies of Islamic philosophy are based on the question of its origins, and as this origin is taken from the ancient philosophical heritage, but in this case, we do not get an authentic Islamic philosophy, but an interpretive, fragmentary one that has lost its identity and uniqueness. Antique philosophy was undoubtedly the basis for the disclosure of philosophical problems in the
Islamic World, but to a greater extent, it was an external factor, professionalizing, as if we were talking about the narrow specialization of this or that direction in science. The depth and essence of Islamic philosophy "lies" in Islam as a tradition of spiritual thought that has allowed it to unfold its content and preserve its uniqueness.
The Islamic conception of knowledge, which incorporated and absorbed the experience of ancient philosophy, became an independent new
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culture of thought, thanks to the formulation and solution of the problems of Islamic society and Islamic thinking. Developed in falsafa - classical Islamic philosophy - methods: Islamic rationalism, Islamic hermeneutics, Islamic comparati-vism have allowed to unfold a meaningful discourse of Islamic philosophy in the 20th and 21st centuries.
The basic ideas of classical Islamic philosophy on the unity of reason and faith, philosophy and religion, intellectual illumination (as-Suhra-wardi), organic methodology of aporetic and ex-egetical to solve transcendental problems in modern philosophy represent new possibilities of falsafa and foresight studies today.
Islamic philosophy is a multidimensional concept and a multifaceted phenomenon. How to consider it in a holistic and systematic way? Usually, options related to periodization, problemati-zation, personalization, and geographicalization are offered.
All of these options are quite relevant. We can divide the content of Islamic philosophy into specific time segments, including well-known personalities, revealing the chronotope of time and the personal context of philosophical explorations. We can go the way of problematizing philosophical discourse, revealing the most complex but solved problems of Islamic philosophy. Finally, in Islamic philosophy, we can single out lines of thought of the entire Islamic World, linking them with the regions, which will avoid, by the way, excessive universalization of problems, focusing on the specifics of the regional context, such as Arab philosophy discourse, Iranian philosophy discourse, Turkish philosophy discourse, Islamic philosophy discourse in European countries, and so on. It would be productive to look at Islamic philosophy in all its variants, the main thing being to avoid fragmentation and to present it in the most comprehensive form. It is impossible to do without the historical and philosophical heritage of Islamic intellectual thought, because the history of Islamic philosophy is not just an interpretative resource for modern scholars, it is the quintessential source of all lines of thought today. The representatives of Islamic modern humanities themselves point to the need to refer to the heritage of al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, al-Kindi, al-Razi and others.
Problematization of Modern Islamic Philosophical Discourse
Many themes of modernity are related to their setting in classical Islamic philosophy: gender equality, Islamic feminism, freedom, responsibility, solidarity, Islamic identity, ecology of culture and ecology of knowledge, synthesis of science and religion.
Thus, in the works of a modern intellectual, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, the theme of synthesis of science and religion is considered in the ecological philosophical direction, asserting the necessity of correlation of the values of science and the values of religion. As we know, Abu Nasr al-Farabi in his works devoted to the question of correlation of religion and philosophy, claiming the priority of philosophy only in case of its moral content, substantiated the idea of publicity of religion in virtuous society. Islamic philosophers reveal the need for a dialogical construction of the relationship between philosophy and religion. The concept of "Islamic identity", deployed in the philosophical systems of the non-classical and post-non-classical periods of development of Islamic philosophy is based on the universality of understanding of Islamic identity, on the one hand, but on the other, on the need to include an ethnic component, which in the classical philosophy of al-Kindi, al-Farabi, Ibn Rushd and others, was not even a subject of consideration. The discourse of identity in modern Islamic studies includes many aspects and is considered through the prism of religious and secular, religious and liberal values, the correlation of science and religion, faith and knowledge, ideological and political component of religious (Islamic) tradition. For example, the problem of Islamic tolerance, which emerged as early as the Middle Ages, is again relevant at the present time in connection with the philosophical Islamic discourse that projected the tolerance of knowledge and faith, "ilm" and "iman". Understanding the role of the philosopher as fulfilling the sign "tasks" of God - discovering ideas, creating theories, and confirming them in the name of the great design, Islamic scholars did not and do not seek a confrontation between science and religion. Tolerance in the Islamic philosophical discourse of the Middle Ages was a value of society and the hu-
man, and, of course, it later became the basis for religious tolerance and freedom of religion, just as it was in the Christian world.
Understanding freedom as a value for the formation of a culture of thought, Islamic philosophers believed that it is freedom that forms a tolerant consciousness in which morality takes precedence, and it is this that allows modern Islamic philosophy to stand as a moral philosophy. Recently, the topic of tolerance has been criticized for its inability to become the real ideology of modern societies. Tolerance is still a preventive measure in communication, but its point is to become a natural model of communication. Islamic tolerance, which emerged in the process of and for the process of communicative practices with Christian and Jewish societies in the space of the medieval Islamic world, became the practice of everyday life and the practice of mutual enrichment of cultural, philosophical and religious traditions. In the Islamic philosophical heritage, the theme of tolerance is treated by al-Kindi, for example, as the theme of the religio-philosophical dialogue, the dialogue of the Self and the Other. The interpretation of ancient philosophy and science by Islamic scholars represents the philosophy of tolerance: objectivity, historicism. Modern Islamic philosophers pay attention to this, considering that the philosophy of modernity is based in its research on the ideas of tolerance in the treatises of al-Kindi, al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, Ibn Massara, Ibn Khaldun and many others. The topic of Islamic tolerance in the works of modern researchers is considered as historical, having a tradition and as modern, having a problem of contexts.
A lively academic interest in the concept of religious tolerance is dictated by the aggravating political realities of the modern world, both Western and Islamic. The upward trend in mutual claims is particularly clear in Great Britain, where, on the one hand, a long historical tradition of political regulation of inter-religious Iand social) relations provides a stable background for the expression of political orientations Iand desires); on the other hand, the political culture of this country is characterized by the axiology of democratization. In this regard, understanding the situation of interfaith interaction in Britain is facilitated by the presence of a transparent dialogue in the media and political sphere.
According to statistical data, the issue of Is-
lamophobia and anti-Islamic discrimination Ior, as it is defined by Sayeeda Warsi, one of the proMuslim politicians, "anti-Muslim racism") is acute in Great Britain today. This trend is reinforced by the repeated statements of the Muslim Council of Great Britain to the Commission on Equality and Human Rights about the acts of Islamophobia on the part of the current government of the country (Zaheer, 2021).
Despite the broad numerical and long-term historical representation of the Muslim population in the country - 3.4 million people (or 5% of the population) with different ethnic backgrounds, living here since the 16th century, the discourse of tolerance shows the perception of Muslims as a cultural "Other". Tolerance towards this Other is constantly being tested and transformed. Moreover, we can observe the development of this discourse in the key of intersperse etSpo-confessional categories (and practical synonymization) of "Arab" and "Muslim" (Zaheer, 2021).
This is especially frequent because of the political history of the Islamic Middle Ages, characterized by the rapid emergence and growth of Islamic statehood within the Arab Caliphates. The special character of the Islamic model of tolerance, the tradition of which was formed during the Islamic Middle Ages, is noted. As researchers state, a special feature of the Arab-Islamic world is the religious and demographic policy, which is very different from that of Christian Europe. For example, while the model of religious tolerance in medieval Europe was formed under conditions of numerical domination of the Christian population, Muslim leaders of the classical Middle Ages united peoples of different ethnic and religious backgrounds. It was not until several centuries later that the population professing Islam became the majority in the lands of the Caliphate. Without touching the reasons for the subsequent large-scale conversion to Islam, which were, for the most part (a large per capita tax on people of a different faith), we should state that communities of nonMuslims were given the status of "zimmis" (D^mmis) - people under the patronage of Muslims. Despite the general thrust of this practice, which consisted in granting freedom of religion and guaranteeing security of life and business to non-Muslims provided that they comply with Islamic law, the per capita tax and the frequency
of incidents of persecution varied depending on the city. Discrimination against the non-Muslim population, we might say, occurred because of a social status in which religious affiliation did not play a key role, at least formally. Christian, Jewish, and other religious communities were given the right to apply their legal traditions in family and community matters.
As the comparative analysis shows, the conditions of ethno-religious interaction in the European territories were different from those in the lands of the medieval Muslim state. The relatively homogeneous confessional composition of the European population predetermined a different character and orientation of religious tolerance. The "object" of tolerance here was the Protestant minority; in other words, heretical discourse within the Christian community was of greater concern in Europe than interaction with the population professing Islam, whose doctrine was familiar to Europeans because of the historical period of Muslim domination of Andalusia.
Understanding the concept of religious tolerance presupposes two points. First, it is a vertical model of the relationship between the "tolerable to someone" and the "tolerating someone", where the former has the power not to tolerate the lifestyle and thoughts of the latter, while freely and consciously choosing a tolerant line of behavior for himself. Second, the "tolerable to someone", despite his disagreement with the views of the "tolerating someone", nevertheless acknowledges their right to exist.
As scholars have noted, there is a difference between the intensions of religious tolerance in Islamic and Western consciousness: while Arab-Islamic doctrine proceeds from a "collective approach" and tolerance, Christian-European doctrine recognizes the priority of the individual search for God. The latter is reinforced by the granting of religious self-determination to individuals by a state separate from the church. We can note the continuity between this European approach to religious tolerance and the axiologi-calization of individual rights and freedoms that has become the hallmark of Western liberalism. Meanwhile, the collective approach to religious tolerance, which became widespread in the socio-political practice of the Islamic world (for example, the abolished groups of non-Christians "zimmis" in the Ottoman Empire in the mid-19th century), suggests equal responsibility of all citi-
zens before the law, regardless of religion (Berger, 2007, p. 4). Meanwhile, the tradition of the "zimmi", which involves the structural autonomy of the Christian and Jewish religious communities, persists in one form or another in some countries of the Islamic world. In addition, a collective approach to the practice of religious tolerance entails granting the right to religious self-determination with a focus on communities rather than on the individual. Moreover, the state may not interfere in matters (mainly family matters) regulated by aspects of other religious traditions, sometimes even when these aspects conflict with state law (Berger, 2001, pp. 88-136.) This approach promotes the coexistence of several different religious traditions - both among themselves and with dominant Islamic doctrine -and it reflects the practical realization of a multi-religious society in the realities of the Islamic world. It is, in other words, about the legal boundaries of sufficiently autonomous religious communities, which have been recognized as having the right to "otherness".
The question of religious tolerance is interspersed with the question of religious identity, which is approached differently in the Western and Islamic worlds. In this case religion refers to the right of personal choice of religious identity: unlike the Western model, the Islamic model assumes that the individual belongs to a religious tradition and that his social role is predetermined in this regard. Meanwhile, the discourse of tolerance does not focus on the restriction of individual freedom in this way, but on the right of the individual to belong to a certain community and to act under its patronage.
In this context, the situation is different in Europe, where governments tend to deal with Muslims as a religious community, which they are not. The lack of an ethnic and cultural monolithic identity among European Muslims makes the vertical (top-down) model of interactions between governments and Muslim groups more complex. Despite the importance of their shared Islamic identity, these groups have ethno-linguistic, historical, national and cultural differences that do not allow them to be considered homogeneous (Berger, 2007, p. 4). This is about the lack of monolithic self-image of European Muslims, which prevents them from being seen as a community. Certainly, such an approach by European governments is conditioned by their
desire to regulate the behavior of migrants from Islamic countries, who are perceived ambiguously by the host country.
Despite the existence of groups of European Muslims characterized as a community, overestimating the role of religious identity as a structuring feature of migrants causes difficulties in conceptualizing and categorizing aspects of religious tolerance. Simplification and reduction of the variety of problems of migrants - socio-economic and cultural-political - to religious identity, despite its obvious scale, is fraught with the formation and marginalization of Muslim minorities in Europe and is characterized by the complexity of its conceptualization due to substitution of concepts and overestimation of the role of religious affiliation in problems of purely social nature. This, as the researchers note, is unique in European politics (Berger, 2007, p. 5).
Talking about tolerance implies talking about differences. The differentiation of religious groups and the singling out of their differences leads to a fault line between the "Self' and the "Other" and their polarization.
As recommendations for overcoming this state of affairs, a shift in the discourse of religious tolerance in Europe toward civil rights and freedoms would contribute to "highlighting" the social problems of migrants rather than their religious affiliation. In fact, the latter is fraught with the spread of Islamophobic sentiments in the host society. Shifting the focus from religious tolerance to civil liberties allows us to shift the focus from differences to equality regardless of gender, color and, in particular, religion (Berger 2007, p. 7). In one way or another, the discourse on Islamic tolerance has its roots in the medieval Islamic experience, as represented in the works of philosophers.
The Continuity of Falsafa and Modern Discourse
This article examines contemporary Islamic philosophy in the context of its continuity with the Islamic philosophical experience, linked to the work of one of the most famous intellectuals of the 21st century, the Iranian-American scholar Seyyed Hossein Nasr, a man who affirms, despite all realities, transformations, and challenges of time, the idea of the transformative power of
Islamic philosophy, which awakens the human in man, creating good, humanism and the highest form of communication - dialogue.
His famous works: "Ideals and Reality of Islam" (Seyyed Hossein Nasr, 2000), "An Introduction to Islamic Cosmological Doctrines" (Seyyed Hossein Nasr, 1978), "Science and Civilization in Islam" (Seyyed Hossein Nasr, 2001), "Man and Nature: The Spiritual Crisis of Modern Man" (Seyyed Hossein Nasr, 1968), "Islamic Art and Spirituality" (Seyyed Hossein Nasr, 1987) opened a range of metaphysical problems in the postmodern era.
In all of his works he turns to the philosophical heritage of the past, updating discourses of Iranian and Arab philosophy.
Thus, in "Sadr al-Din Shirazi and His Transcendent Theosophy: Background, Life and Works" (Seyyed Hossein Nasr, 2013), "Three Muslim Sages: Avicenna, Suhrawardi, Ibn Ara-bi" (Seyyed Hossein Nasr, 2014) he, conducting a comparativist analysis of the philosophical systems of the named scholars, notes the differences and parallels in their interpretation of the human problem, in their projection of Islamic anthropology on modern problems.
The discussion of ancient discourse, however, is an ongoing one, and one or the other viewpoints are produced in connection with the consideration of the philosophical systems of the Islamic Logos.
The rediscovery of the classical philosophical heritage of the Islamic World, which is being actualized in contemporary Islamic philosophy, is associated with a number of problems that have emerged as global problems of humanity: environmental, crisis of values, the loss of traditions of cultural identity, the technocratization of science.
In his works, S. H. Nasr criticizes the Western way of philosophizing. His critique is not so much a critique of Western, European philosophy as a critique of a mode of thinking that is not personal. This way of thinking is not the way of thinking of a free man, but of a man dependent on prejudices, conventions, and total authoritarianism. In other words, Nasr problematizes the theme of the personality in Islamic philosophy. S. H. Nasr, insisting on the independence of the discourse of Islamic philosophy, believes that the theme of the philosophy of personality was put by her. Based on the recognition of the eternity
of the world and fmitude of man, he believes that man is revealed as the purpose of God, whose task is not to fund his finitude, but to join the unity, integrity through his life, his way of thinking. The discovery of the self (the finite individual) in the eternity of the world becomes a condition for the unfolding of personality and personal being. Personality is free in cognition, thinking, decomposition of the divine plan, understanding oneself in participation in the divine plan. The theme of the rational and free individual unfolds in Nasr's teaching as a theory of the moral individual, responsible for his own actions and the actions of others. Further, he speaks of the ecological dimension of the individual, whose meaning is to find harmony with the world.
The problematization of personal meaning in the philosophical systems of Islamic scholars is related to the search for the self as a free individual. S. H. Nasr writes that people interpret the meanings of things in different ways, but they acquire this possibility from the integrity, the unity of philosophy. Is he referring in this case to the substantiveism of philosophy or to the tawhidness of the world? But in his reasoning Nasr leads the individual to the realization of understanding philosophy and creating it personally, and immersion in such philosophizing is possible only in the co-creation of philosophy and religion, in the union of faith and reason. This type of philosophy becomes a cultural model of thinking, in which human communicative practice is carried out.
There is no doubt that S.H. Nasr builds his personal philosophy on the foundation of the Iranian discourse of falsafa, which begins with Ibn Sina, Naser Khosrow, Abu Bakr al-Razi and is embodied in the teachings of Kutbeddin Tahtani, Davani, Mulla Sadra, Hadi Sabzavari, Mohammad Hossein Tabataba'i and others.
The progression of the Iranian logos begins with Abu Bakr al-Razi, Naser Khosrow, Ibn Sina, Suhrawardl, and al-Tusi.
Tusi attempted a synthesis of Ismailism with Avicenna's version of Aristotelianism. The famous ideological enlightenment movement known as Isfahan Renaissance gives new philo-sophica! names: Mir Damad, Mulla Sadra, Moh-sen Kashani, Abd al-Razzaq Lahijiand others who played a role in reviving Ishraqism and post-Aristotelianism. They also reconstruct the philosophical legacy of Ibn Sina in the new reali-
ties of the 16th-17th centuries. And in Western Europe at this time great philosophical events are also taking place, with F. Bacon and R. Descartes coming to the forefront of philosophy. Bacon proclaims the famous "Knowledge is power" and René Descartes proclaims "Cogito ergo sum! - I think, therefore I exist!", striking a blow to Baader's - Cogitor, ergo sum - 'I am thought -by God (a deo), therefore I exist.
Many of the philosophers polemicized on common themes. One such topic is the interpretation of the ayat of the Throne (Ayat al-Kursi). Jalal al-Din Davani, Sadr Al-Din Dashtaki and many other philosophers who combined the ideas of Ishraqism, Platonism, Peripateticism created unique in content philosophical systems, which today play a significant role in the development of Iranian discourse of Islamic philosophy (Seytahmetova, 2016).
The line of continuity between contemporary Islamic philosophy and the heritage of the philosophical experience of Iran is related to the fact that the ontologization of contemporary problems cannot take place outside the comprehension of the ideas of Islamic intellectuals. For example, contemporary Iranian philosophers, interpreting the legacy of Mulla Sadra, consider his ideas as contextual to those of Martin Heidegger. Let us turn to some of Mulla Sadra's ideas in order to understand the origins of modern Islamic thought.
Sadr al-Din Muhammad Shirazi, known as Mulla Sadra, is a thinker making an ontological turn in Islamic philosophy. The creative period of his life falls in the 16th and 17th centuries, a time already known in the space of philosophical ideas as the New Age. At this time begins the era of science and the Enlightenment of reason.
Mulla Sadra's views influenced the intellectual atmosphere of Iran. It is known that he studied under Mir Damad. The main works of Mulla Sadra are: "Transcendental wisdom in four spiritual journeys" known as "Asfar", "al-Mabda' wa'l-ma'ad" ('The beginning and the end"), "Al-Shawadhid al-rububiyyah" ("Proof (evidence) of divine care"), etc.
The intellectual background for the scholar is presented as his historical inheritance of the entire philosophical corpus of the Islamic World. His philosophical views were influenced by al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, as-Suhrawardi, Ibn Arabi and Mir Damad.
As we can see, falsafa and Sufism were the starting point of his philosophizing, especially the ideas of unity and multiplicity. Iranian modern researchers believe that Mulla Sadra in his philosophy anticipates the ideas of the most famous philosopher of the 20th century, Martin Heidegger, about being and time. Mulla Sadra's theme of being is related to the problem of cognition.
Noting that man can comprehend the being of the world through practical knowledge and through intellectual intuition (a Western philosophy term used by Plato, Descartes, Spinoza, etc.). Intellectual intuition is the link between theoretical and practical knowledge. Mulla Sadra raises the question of the origin, clarification of the essence of concepts and things as the main task of philosophy. He begins his doctrine of being by clarifying the question of what "being" is. The most used concept of his teaching is "transcendent wisdom", and the method is "transcendental wisdom". The main concept defining being, according to Sadra, is tawhid, representing the principle of the integrity of the universe, in which man is included as the "trustee" of God, this man must not merely govern in the world according to the laws of God, but show concern for the world. The task of man - too make sense of the world through knowledge and worship of God (Seytahmetova, 2016).
In comprehending the being one must base himself on an ethical worldview system in which all components are related to the attributive names of God. Being and its gradation in the teachings of Mulla Sadra is a new interpretation of the ontology of al-Farabi and Ibn Sina. He introduces such concepts as connecting being, being-there (Dasein), being obligatory, being authentic. The multiplicity of these definitions is proof of the unity of God.
Mulla Sadra's method is the unity of logical proof and mystical experience.
Since his philosophy is a synthesis of rational and irrational knowledge of the world, he calls it transcendental philosophy. We first hear of such a method of cognition in the teachings of Sufi Ibn Arabi. Mulla Sadra takes this method to "logical proof' (El-Rouayheb & Schmidtke, 2016).
The parallel circulation in the Islamic World of different intellectual currents: Falsafa, Ishra-qism, Ismailism, Kalam, Mu'tazilism, etc., conditioned the mutual influence and possibility of
plural hermeneutics of many philosophical, theological and Sufi positions.
There were complementarities and there were mutual accusations. Suffice it to recall al-Gha-zali's "Refutation of Philosophy" and Ibn Rushd's "Refutation of Refutation". Al-Hallaj, as-Suhrawardi, and many other intellectuals were executed for trying to bring a new culture of thought to society.
The intellectual world influenced Sadra's worldview philosophy. He could not accept absolute rationalism as his main method because he considered it insufficient for comprehending the deeper nature of things.
In a work briefly called "Asfar", "Journeys", Sadra gives the idea of knowing existence by a "journey" of thought toward the transcendent, pure synthesis of Being that is possible at the throne of God.
A man of remarkable spirituality and modesty, Mulla Sadra believed that all his knowledge was the effort of the human spirit embodied in the philosophical systems of the past. Gathered in a philosophical necklace of thought, they are a source of extracting and understanding wisdom.
Wisdom consists in surrendering oneself to God and reflecting on the meaning of one's own being in the context of One Being. Asfar, which must be done according to Sadr, is a continuous thought process that is peculiar to man, for the discovery of reason was the greatest discovery of all. His ideas about the mind, the abilities and capabilities of the mind, as well as those of his predecessors-al-Farabi, Ibn Sina and Ibn Rushd -became basic to the discourse of al-Jabri Arabic mind (2007) and Mohammed Arkoun (1991).
The theological (Shiite) discourse in his philosophy is refracted in comparativism with Sunni doctrines.
His detailed reference to the works of Ibn Arabi, who had a notable influence on him, should be noted. His brilliant knowledge of Greco-Latin antiquity should also be noted.
The philosophical ideas of Plato and Aristotle, Pythagoras were interesting for the philosopher in constructing a picture of the universe. Undoubtedly, he, as well as many Islamic philosophers, was influenced by the famous "Theology" - "Usulujiyah", attributed to Aristotle, the compilation of "Enneads" of Plotinus (Seytahmetova, 2016).
The scholar admires the work of al-Farabi,
Ibn Sina. It is necessary to note his idea about the reactualization of Ibn Sina's heritage. It is in this vein that he considers the philosophy of Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, the philosopher and scholar. In the space of Islamic philosophy, Iranian discourse played an enormous role in the intellectual rediscovery of the world. Tusi, Shu^, Dashtaki, Mir Damad - were the continuators of Ibn Sina's ideas about the unity of being, which in the teach-Ipos of Mulla Sadra reaches perfection and transcendental understanding. An excellent work has been written on Sadra's work by the Islamic intellectual Seyyed Hossein Nasr.
For the Western world, the discovery of Shute philosophical discourse was a startling phenomenon. With Henry CoAi] (2009) began a rethinking of the teachings of Suhrawardi, Mir Damad and Mulla Sadra. The history of Islamic philosophy was also dedicated to the work of this up0rdipary thinker (SeytaSmetova, 2016).
S. H. Nasr says that the hermeneutics of the philosophical heritage of the past must be very deep, otherwise its philosophical reconstruction is impossible. His famous statement that "To write about the teachings of Mulla Sadra in English is to invent a new vessel into which one can pour the contents of another vessel" is well known. How to interpret, avoiding subjectivism? - This is the question S. H. Nasr raises as the most important in the study of Islamic philosophical heritage.
Like Gadamer (1988), Nasr believes that understanding does not mean revealing the context, but revealing the meaning which the author has put into the text. That is why we observe in all representatives of Islamic philosophy such a careful attitude to the texts of classical falsafa.
The analysis of the philosophical texts of al-Kindi, al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, Ibn Rushd and other representatives of the classical humanistic Islamic heritage is related not to reproducing their philosophical experience and philosophical culture of thought, but in revealing the meaning of things and objects on which the authors of the philosophical texts worked.
Islamic modern philosophers consider past philosophical experience as an essential part of the intellectual discourse of the present, since it is impossible to solve problems important to man and society without reference to it in order to understand the place and significance of Islam, the Islamic tradition, and Islamic culture in the reali-
ties of today.
The beginning of the 21st century raised a number of questions for Islamic studies: the sounding of Islam in the new post-modernist framework, and the integration of Muslims into the European community.
The first of these problems became a field of research for a number of Muslim intellectuals. For example, Asghar Ali Engineer has been working on the relationship between modernism and tradition in Islam.
Engineer justifies the relevance of Islamic doctrines to the requirements and conditions of modernity. His point of view is supported by the fact that Islam appeals to all spheres of society -from personal aspects to the legal organization of society, adapting to both changing over time social needs and cultural differences of Muslims. Engineer notes in his writings that medieval scholars ('ulama) understood the need to match religious doctrine with changing social needs over time. While modern 'ulama seek to conserve Islamic tradition and sacralize the past. The author criticizes this approach by understanding religion as a dynamic system whose vitality depends on its relevance to transforming realities. In this regard, as Engineer notes, the interpretation of sacred Scripture is relevant, because Allah gave people to understand His postulates (and not only to reproduce the works of scholars of the 10th-12th centuries). In the question of the methodology of interpretation of Islamic postulates, the author proposes to rely directly on the Qur'an, dividing the text into normatively and conceptually understandable lines (normative and contextual verses).
In other words, not everything in the Qur'an can be understood in a literal sense; there are lines/concepts in the text which can be interpreted in a figurative sense, depending on the context.
From his position on the primacy of the Qur'an (as opposed to the Hadith corpus), Engineer suggests that the Prophet Muhammad should be seen as a religious figure, a guide to the pillars of Islam. He notes that Muhammad's mode of action in secular life is conditioned by the socio-historical context, and thus patterns of behavior and decision-making in modern times may differ from the injunctions of the hadith. Of course, variation is inadmissible in the religious (not social) injunctions of the Prophet, issues of
worship and religious practice ('ibadat).
In addition to the issues mentioned above, the author considers the compatibility (relevance) of Islam with such aspects of social reality as democracy, rights, cultural and in particular religious tolerance. Having considered the compatibility of Islam with the above criteria as demonstrated by the author, we cannot help but ponder their exhaustive nature. Traditionally, the West is taken as an example of a democratic form of government and the primacy of rights, whereas in history and modern times we can observe numerous departures from the high standards proclaimed.
In his writings, another Muslim intellectual, Abdolkarim Soroush (2000), offers a critical reflection on the criteria of "modernity" into which Islam must fit. The main doubt about the appropriateness of this problem for the author is the very understanding of modernity in the study of the relation of Islam to it. Thus, the rational way of studying the Islamic worldview (religious in nature) is perceived critically by Soroush.
In addition, Soroush wonders whether a mystical experience such as that experienced by the Prophet can take place in the context of rationalized modernity. The author explains the current practice of studying the axiological guidelines of Islam in connection with the problem field of civil society (democratic system, human rights, freedom) by the fact that modern history entered the Islamic World precisely through politics, and, therefore, it was politics that paved the way for "modernity" to Islam. Actually, this was the reason for the lack of philosophical understanding of Islam in the modern world, while it is precisely the philosophical issues of Islam that Soroush understands as critically important. In this regard, according to Soroush, the category of Islam, as well as the category of modernity (modernism) is interpreted through the prism of history and culture. This cultural-historical view of phenomena requiring philosophical understanding by Muslim intellectuals caused a division (opposition between the concepts of modernity and religion). The thinker notes that Muslim intellectuals should reconsider the hermeneutic approach to the text of Holy Scripture, which in the absence of critical reflection in a historical context, causes conservative thinking. Another line of disconnect between the modern and (Islamic) religious worldview is the tension between pluralism
(which permits doubt and skepticism) and absolutism (which recognizes the oneness of truth). Hence the third point that divides the bridge between the modern and the religious-the relationship between rights and duties. The perception of God as obligatory in contemporary discourse must be reconsidered in favor of God as giver, permissive, permissive. Such a shift in intellectual thought is responsible for rethinking the philosophical concept of freedom, and, in turn, its legal sounding (Hoebnic, 2020).
Soroush's position, called "religious intellec-tualism", which encompasses the views of philosophy, science, and modern hermeneutics, has supporters among Muslim intellectuals who are familiar (like Soroush) with the basics of Western philosophy and Islamic philosophy (Sayeh, 2013).
In the studies of such intellectuals, the idea of reconciling immutable religious norms with the dynamic transformations of the contemporary world runs through red lines, as does an understanding of the fluid nature (and limitations) of human knowledge and beliefs about religious truths. The latter is particularly well-founded in the works of Ziauddin Sardar, Abdolkarim Soroush, and Asghar Ali Engineer.
While Z. Sardar talks about the impossibility of closing the gates of ijtihad, referring to the non-finality of the process of knowledge of the divine, A. Soroush focuses on the idea that the ideologization of Islam is harmful to the latter, turning religion into a political tool. Soroush warns against religious totalitarianism, dictated by the 'ulama community, which promotes the solidification of religious knowledge and seeks to privilege the position of religious clergy in matters that require contemporary rethinking, both social and political. An axiological rethinking of religion, according to Soroush, can overcome the narrow identity problem associated with Islam.
In addition to this sphere, Soroush problema-tizes the tendency to reduce Islam to the legal sphere of shari'a and fiqh, which, moreover, are perceived as a given that cannot be revised or reformed. The intellectual warns against the stagnation of religious thought due to the ritualiza-tion of religious experience, associated for the most part with external practices-'amal. This simplification of Islam is fraught with the depreciation of its intellectual and spiritual compo-
nents in favor of political ends. A. Soroush stresses the need for ytihad, both intellectual and legal (JahapbakSsh & Soroush, 2001).
In unison with the last of these ideas of A. Soroush, Ziauddin Sardar calls for a critical understanding of the events and phenomena of the world around us that inspire the transformation of the modern understanding of Islam (Sardar, 1997). Z. Sardar insists on critical and self-critical Muslims to effectively interact with a diverse and pluralistic world and understand their past from which to construct a future. For the intellectual, it is unacceptable to reduce the meaning of human life to religion, which itself is then simplified: the intellectual spheres of the realization of human potential - literature, music, the fine arts, philosophy, science - are just as important to us. Religion alone cannot act as a human-forming factor, nor can it satisfy the diversity of spiritual and intellectual needs. In other words, Islam, in order to remain viable, must be relevant to modernity and meet the spiritual needs of Muslim societies.
Speaking of the redefinition of Islam, Sardar cites the example of Turkey and Indonesia, where being a Muslim means being an active and conscious member of civil society, free to express his views on the basis of Islamic moral and ethical constants. In other words, the integration of Islam with politics has as its goal not the reduction of the Islamic state (as in the past), but an active civic position that gives priority to Islamic moral principles. Sardar also mentions the experience of Morocco, where shari'a was reinterpreted in the direction of human rights (the Mudawana Code), and thus actualized in modern times.
Sardar, like Soroush, warns against the excessive politicization and ideologization of Islam, which in the hands of politicians becomes merely a tool for achieving power; against the deification of the shari'a complex, which is a product of human intellectual and legal activity; and, consequently, against the hardening and conservation of religion through its dogmatization. Islam, as a living system sent down by Allah, is capable of adjusting itself to the existing spiritual demand of man, who is created to reason, to think, and to develop. Any ideological extremes come from people and should not be canonized, but subjected to critical reflection.
Methods
The methodological approaches to the study of modern Islamic philosophy remain steadily historical-reconstructive and hermeneutic, since the continuity in it of classical falsafa is permanent. The article uses the named methods, because revealing the role of Islamic intellectual heritage is possible with an objective historical position, the logical connectivity of time and existence of Islamic thought, which generated knowledge, relevant even today.
The appeal of Islamic modern thinkers to the classical heritage is necessary as a support and retention of that source of spiritual thought in which the intellectual tradition of the unity of faith and knowledge was concentrated. Outside this tradition, the metaphysical meaning of philosophy was lost.
Moreover, it is possible to understand modern questions of philosophy, its tasks and problems only in a holistic consideration of the unified philosophical process of the Islamic world. It is impossible to understand the development of modern philosophical thought outside Islamic philosophy, because in this case the integrity would be lost.
Islamic philosophy is unique because the problem of the relationship between faith and reason, which it solved in the Middle Ages, turned out to be relevant in the post-non-classical discourse of modernity.
The methodology of its study, of course, must be interdisciplinary, because the construction of the phenomenon of "modern Islamic philosophy" is possible only as a deployment of philosophical reflection in all forms of Islamic cultural being.
Conclusion
The study of the role of Islamic intellectual heritage shows the relevance and applicability of both the methodological approaches developed in intellectual Islamic schools and the way of Islamic reflection. Philosophical experience of the past is necessary for modern researchers in search and assertion of cultural and religious identity, identifying the origins of philosophizing to determine their own way of understanding objects and phe-
nomena. As early as the 20th century, Islamic scholars raised questions about whether we are heirs of Islamic civilization, deconstructionists, or debtors. Hassan Hanafi said that we should finally pay tribute to the Islamic tradition in order to understand the problem of being and obligation, which al-Farabi and Ibn Sina had solved back in the Islamic Middle Ages. The continuity of ideas and philosophical traditions in the discourse of modernity is necessary not only for the foundation of identity and religious and cultural sovereignty, but also for the transfer of cultural and civilizational traditions for the purpose of co-creative communication.
Acknowledgement
This research was funded by the SC MES RK (Grant No. AP08855962 "Modern Islamic Philosophy as a New Humanitarian Knowledge: Discourse and Praxis").
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