Owen Moore
Abu
Bakr al-Razi
In present day, it
is common for an individual to believe that the western world of modernity is,
as Robinson puts it, is “disenchanted.” This disenchantment referred to the
once magic filled, hardcore religious societies, becoming just the opposite.
The once believed stories and myths told and heard around the globe have now
been marked as irrational, and in other words, the beliefs once held by
millions have become institutionalized. This stemmed from gaining knowledge on
the world we live in. People began to start understanding the world on a
different level once science and other subjects such as physics began advancing
to new heights. However, “understanding the world did not necessarily entail
losing God” (Robinson 91). Luckily, it did not defeat the entire belief of such
a being, but it did however naturalize Him. It made Him seem more connected to
us as human beings, and in a sense subjected him under the laws identified by
man. As Robinson describes it, “all manner of criticisms can be made of this dichotomous
and linear understanding of two spheres, the ‘secular’ and ‘religious’” (91).
The fine line between the two defined under the circumstances on how us
“moderns” experience the world. Al-Razi did not however fall in this way of
thinking, he instead identifies the precursors of Enlightenment skepticism in
in non-Christian contexts.
Abu Bakr al-Razi
born around the year 865, lived during the era of the “free thinkers.” He lived
in a once ancient and prosperous city called Rayy. He had many talents for he
was always seeking knowledge. Around the age of thirty, he was put in charge of
a hospital in Baghdad, until 907 when he returned to his hometown of Rayy. From
then on, he only travelled when and where he thought was necessary. An
alchemist who later turned into a physician, al-Razi’s works ranged from many
subjects, including politics, logic, theology, alchemy, and medicine. Most of
his works, in fact a third of them, involved philosophical problems. Unlike
present day, where everything in religion has substantially been established,
Razi’s era happened to be avant la lettre,
or, before letters or concepts actually existed. This furthers his credibility,
making his ideas and beliefs more original and authentic. In ancient times,
only the literature that was thought of as valuable or those in which contained
important knowledge worth passing on survived. The reason we do not have
possession of Razi’s work is not because his works were thought of as
non-credible or the knowledge they contained was not worth passing on. He had
numerous amounts of students and followers, but they never formed into a
school. “All this explains why we have been robbed of many biographical details
and the great bulk of his written work, which may have amounted to as many as
200 titles” (Robinson 92). Unfortunately, researchers can only reconstruct his
views from the works he took part on that did survive.
The works that did
survive displayed him devoting himself to running hospitals and teaching
medicine. He believed that medical care should not be a luxury that is only
exclusive to the wealthy, but should also be taught and spread to the poor,
resulting in the writing of He Who Is Not
Attended by a Physician, which acted as a medical handbook to the poor. He
gained his medical knowledge from Greek, Sanskrit, and Syriac authorities. He
also gained knowledge from observations he made himself, as he was well
equipped to, considering the knowledge he contained. An observation he made on
his own, for example, consisted of being the first to distinguish between
smallpox and measles.
Abu
Bakr al-Razi devoted his life not only to medicine, but also philosophy.
Philosophy, as Razi put it in his work Philosophical
Way of Life, “is a way of imitating God, ‘the Creator’ and ‘Knower Who is
not ignorant” (Robinson 95). He believed the philosophers role in life was to
redeem the gift of knowledge that God had bestowed upon humankind. Robinson
synopsizes Razi in which “his medicine is complemented by his philosophical
skepticism, which led him, infamously and scandalously, to reject revelation
and prophecy as sources of knowledge” (95). He strictly believed that although
revelations were political and social functions in ordering society, they did
not supply truths. Razi claimed to not have even believed in miracles, which at
the time was a huge part of life for people of that time, considering they
acted as confirmatory proofs of prophecy. He stood by the belief that
contemplating philosophy was what would hold out the promise of salvation.
The
thoughts and beliefs that Razi held at the time were frowned upon by society.
They contradicted almost every basic belief that the Islamic world held.
“Al-Razi ‘was to become perhaps the single figure most frequently denounced and
disapproved of as a heretic in the subsequent history of Islamic thought”
(Robinson 96). It is believed he got away with his insane denial of beliefs due
to the sacred knowledge he carried. In other words, he may had been let to
believe what he did because of the fact that his knowledge was so valuable.
Other reasons how he believed to get away with such thinking is that the time
he lived in was considered a kind of “renaissance” and he was present among
other “free thinkers,” which permitted such ways of believing.
As
he grew older, Razi faced problems that came with age. His eyesight depleted
and he became paralyzed. This led to him relying on scribes to write down the
knowledge he wanted to share orally. Being in such an education-thriving
period, Abu Bakr al-Razi really stood out regarding his knowledge and beliefs.
Although many smart scholars reigned the land at the time, Razi was definitely
one to stand out, considering his beliefs. As I mentioned earlier, he may be
thought of as a disapproved figure, however his works and knowledge found in
those works have made a very significant difference in not only ancient times
but even in today’s world. Al-Razi died in the year 925, and in those roughly 65
years of life dedicated his time to gaining as much knowledge as he possibly
could and supporting the ill with that gained mastery.
Work
Cited
Robinson, Chase F. Islamic
Civilization in Thirty Lives. N.p.: n.p., 2016. Print.
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