ABSTRACT
It is not the purpose of this chapter to state in detail the history of the doctrine of prophecy in orthodox Islam, but rather to indicate how the philosophical doctrine was received by it, how far accepted and how far rejected: the discussions of the non-philosophical Muslim thinkers are full of scholastic distinctions and subtleties which the scope of this work does not allow us to indulge in. It is also to be admitted at the outset that it is difficult to define orthodoxy in this field of doctrine. There is first the main body of the scholastic theologians called mutakallimun who are dogmatic but nevertheless allow the limited use of reason to explain and support the dogma. Then there is the acute form of dogmatism which brushes reason severely aside and uses it only and sometimes very acutely to shatter rationalist positions. Having banished reason altogether, this type of thought, not very common in Islam, seeks support for its dogmatism from the factual experience in history. The former school which is the largest, is admirably represented by al-Shahrastānī, the second by Ibn Ḥazm. In between these two, admitting some kind of ‘reason’, but rejecting the philosophers altogether, rejecting also Sufism but affirming spiritual values within the framework of Islam, stands the influential figure of Ibn Taymiya who has contributed largely to the resurgence of Islamic anti-classicism and Islamic ‘Modernism’. All these schools of thought agree in rejecting the purely intellectualist approach of the philosophers to the phenomenon of prophecy; although the mutakllaimun are perhaps less averse to accept the intellectual perfection of the prophet, they nevertheless emphasize the Sharī‘a-values more than the intellectual ones; and all of them spend most of their ingenuity in discussing the possibility, the nature and the value of miracles.
