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people of the book
[ 53 ]
Throughout the Qur’an, the pursuit of knowledge is portrayed as an impor-
tant virtue. Because Allah is all-knowing, humans, in acquiring knowledge,
become more godlike. In the eighth and ninth centuries, at a time when learning
in Europe had sunk to its lowest point, Muslim culture entered a golden age in
which Arabic, Byzantine, Indian, and Persian perspectives and cultural tradi-
tions were successfully integrated into a remarkably robust and intellectually
vital civilization. Muslim scholars preserved ancient Greek learning, which they
had acquired from their contact with Byzantine scholars. They also wrote com-
mentaries and glosses on Greek philosophy, thus augmenting what would
become the Western intellectual tradition.
The Qur’an describes humans as God’s
agents, albeit agents who are ignorant
and morally weak. Although humans have the greatest potential of any created
being, they alone are capable of evil. This tension is at the heart of the human
situation. There is no original sin or redemption. Humans are responsible, both
individually and collectively, for their behavior. Although Allah is said to con-
trol history, humans are free to accept or reject the Qur’anic teachings. When
history ends, each human will face judgment and be held responsible for his or
her behavior. The Qur’an provides detailed accounts of the joys of Heaven and
the horrors of Hell.
The majority of believers interpret these accounts to mean that the afterlife is
just like one’s normal life, except that it goes on forever. There is even sex in
heaven. But according to some Muslims, one’s future existence differs from the
earthly one either in being corporeal in a different way or in being spiritual. In
any case, immortality is not guaranteed by humans having an indestructible soul
but is due entirely to God’s mercy. Like the ancient Hebrews, Muslims tend to
see humans as an animated body, not as an incarnated soul or an ensouled body.
Hence, death is not separation of soul from body, but the dissolution of one’s
whole being, which is later resurrected whole. Because Islamic scripture places
few constraints on how the afterlife is understood philosophically, Arab theolo-
gians and philosophers were free to integrate their religious beliefs about the
afterlife derived from Scripture with conceptions of the soul and human nature
that they acquired from Greek philosophy. They did this within the context of
three different sorts of Islamic philosophy: kalam, which consisted of scriptural
apologetics, especially arguments
in defense of monotheism (its opponents
included polytheists, members of mystery cults, Neoplatonists, and Christians);
falsafah, which was pursued relatively independently of scriptural apologetics;
and sufism, a mystical tradition that originated toward the beginning of the elev-
enth century, primarily in Spain. In a later chapter, we shall return to consider
Islamic philosophy.
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