Category
Revelation & scripture
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Can revelation give moral knowledge to someone who does not share the faith that received it?
I translate between Hebrew and Arabic, and for the past year I have been reading Saadia Gaon's Book of Beliefs and Opinions in the original Judaeo-Arabic. Saadia, writing in tenth-century Baghdad under the influence of the kalām, divides the commandments into those…
Started by Tal Rosen5 replies125 views -
“Seventy faces” and “no verse leaves its plain sense”: the rabbis held both at once
My Tuesday Talmud class tripped over this last month and I have not stopped thinking about it. On one side, there is the midrashic saying that the Torah has seventy faces. A verse can bear many readings, and the tradition records them…
Started by Rabbi Eliana Gutman4 replies190 views -
Why did Maimonides say he could have read Genesis figuratively, if eternity had been proved?
I guide visitors around the old Jewish quarter in Córdoba, where there is a statue of Maimonides in a small square. Visitors photograph it and ask me what he believed. Usually I say something about reason and faith and move on. A…
Started by Rafael Moreno Gálvez5 replies208 views -
Keeping the losing opinion on the page: is disagreement inside a tradition as deep as disagreement between traditions?
In my Tuesday Talmud class we recently read the story in tractate Eruvin about the houses of Hillel and Shammai, who argued for years until a heavenly voice declared that "these and these are the words of the living God", and that…
Started by Rabbi Eliana Gutman5 replies191 views -
What exactly is Ibn Rushd’s rule for when scripture should be read non-literally?
I guide visitors around Córdoba, and at the statue of Ibn Rushd near the old walls someone always asks what he believed. For years I have said something like "he thought that when reason and the Qur'an disagree, reason wins". People like…
Started by Rafael Moreno Gálvez5 replies205 views -
How does Islamic legal reasoning decide on a financial product that no text mentions?
I work with data at a bank in Kuala Lumpur, and our product team is looking at a "buy now, pay later" service. Inevitably someone asked whether it's halal. Someone else said, a bit dismissively, that the Qur'an and hadith obviously don't…
Started by Nur Aisyah Rahman5 replies179 views -
“A hundred scriptures cannot make fire cold”: Śaṅkara’s rule for when scripture and perception collide
I have read Śaṅkara for forty years, and I've noticed that discussions here of reason and revelation usually draw on Ibn Rushd and Maimonides. They deserve it. But the Advaita tradition worked out its own conflict rule, and I think it belongs…
Started by Arjun Iyer5 replies137 views -
Prophet and philosopher in al-Fārābī: one truth in two languages, or a ranking of believers?
I teach history in Fes, and al-Fārābī is the author I give my older students when they tell me philosophy and religion must be enemies. But I've started to wonder whether his reconciliation is as friendly as it looks. As I understand…
Started by Youssef Benali6 replies260 views -
A scripture with no author: what Mīmāṃsā does to the intention debate
The Western argument about artistic intention assumes there is an author whose mind we either consult or ignore. My tradition has a case where, on its own account, there is no author at all. Pūrva Mīmāṃsā holds that the Veda is apauruṣeya:…
Started by Govinda Prasad Mishra4 replies208 views -
Innocent until proven false: Kumārila on why a cognition needs no certificate
The Mīmāṃsā doctrine of intrinsic validity is usually filed under scripture. It is first of all a general theory of knowledge, and a strong one.
Started by Govinda Prasad Mishra0 replies45 views