Thread by @FGhoddoussi

@IbnAllan @halal_hemlocc @tafsirdoctor This is an interesting one. I am curious to know where you have heard about it. The naming is much more recent,1992 by Mohammad Reza Hakimi. Those who allegedly were members of this school did not name themselves by that,&I am not sure they were aware they are part of a school.

@IbnAllan @halal_hemlocc @tafsirdoctor The most influential of them is Shaikh MAḤMUD HALABI, not necessarily because of his association with this school, but because of the Association (Anjoman Hujjatieh) and the associated Islamic High School (Alavi) which he founded.
Please see:
iranicaonline.org/articles/halab…

@IbnAllan @halal_hemlocc @tafsirdoctor Many of the lay leaders&Islamic intellectuals after the Islamic revolution in Iran were graduates of that high school.
Including the well known intellectual AbdulKarim Soroush &the current foreign minister Javad Zarif.

@IbnAllan @halal_hemlocc @tafsirdoctor Halabi can be compared to Ignatius of Loyola the founder of Jesuits or in some aspects Fatuhllah Gulen of Turkey. Anjoman Hujjatieh was the leading association which intellectually was debating and challenging Bahais and wanted to convert them back to Islam.

@IbnAllan @halal_hemlocc @tafsirdoctor But all this said about Halabi I believe what he did specially in his high school was practically opposite of the main ideas of the maktab tafkik. In his high school they tried to train young muslims to be both knowledgeable of islamic matters, committed to Islamic, beliefs,

@IbnAllan @halal_hemlocc @tafsirdoctor morality and practices and also well educated in modern sciences and technologies. they were relatively successful. The absolute majority of their graduates were successful medical doctors, engineers and committed muslims. So what is the main idea of Maktabe -tafkik?

@IbnAllan @halal_hemlocc @tafsirdoctor From Sadri's article above:
"...a series of debates with a renowned theosophist, Mirzā Mehdi Ḡarawi Eṣfahāni (1885-1945), during which Ḥalabi felt obliged to abandon his relentless defense of philosophy and to succumb to Mirzā Mehdi’s interpretation of kalām theology that

@IbnAllan @halal_hemlocc @tafsirdoctor excoriated the Hellenistic influences on traditional Islamic philosophy and called for a separation of secular philosophy from religious thought as well as a more vigilant adherence to the Shiʿite approach to the interpretation of Islam. "

@IbnAllan @halal_hemlocc @tafsirdoctor Mirzā Mehdi Ḡarawi Eṣfahāni is one of the founders of the Maktabe Tafkik. First the maktabe Tafkik is not a house hold name. Not only more than 99% of common people have never heard about it, i do not think the percentage among the shii clerics is much different.

@IbnAllan @halal_hemlocc @tafsirdoctor But If the school name is unknown & its inception very recent the idea is very old & goes back to first century of Islam & interestingly much more spread among the sunnis theologians/clerics than among their shii counterparts. Because nearly all the sunni theologians/clerics

@IbnAllan @halal_hemlocc @tafsirdoctor after Ghazali with the near death of philosophy in the sunni world, are effectively suscribers to the main ideas of this school. Maktabe tafkik represents suspicion to elements which is considered by its adherents , represent foreign influence in Islamic intellectual realm.

@IbnAllan @halal_hemlocc @tafsirdoctor the two chief suspects Philosophy & Mysticism (sufism). The first with its certain greek and the second with its allegedly (christian, indian,...) roots.
The idea that the pure Islamic beliefs and practices are contaminated by these foreign elements.

@IbnAllan @halal_hemlocc @tafsirdoctor Now you can hear the voice of Ibn Taymiyyah, the founding intellectual of salafism. but the issue is older & deeper & goes back to more earlier times. Its root is in the idea of completeness, finality & comprehensiveness of the message of Islam as the way of life

@IbnAllan @halal_hemlocc @tafsirdoctor &as the final revelation of God to human beings. It is reflected in the sentence which is allegedly stated by the 2nd caliph Umar. " That Qur'an is Enough". It is I believe a fabricated story that when muslims army conquered new lands the commanders asked him about the

@IbnAllan @halal_hemlocc @tafsirdoctor books libraries that they have found, What they should do with them? The alleged answer was burn them. Qur'an is enough for us. Either the things in books is already in Qur'an, or it is not, if it is not then there is no need for them, if it was God would have put it in Qur'an.

@IbnAllan @halal_hemlocc @tafsirdoctor This definitely a made up story be enemies in the Islam. But the question at heart is the self sufficiency of Islam. The answer is Islam (revelation) is complete and final in its task, which is the guidance and salvation of human beings, but it is not comprehensive,

@IbnAllan @halal_hemlocc @tafsirdoctor like a super market that you can find whatever you want over there.The rest is left for human reason to find. Medicine, Engineering, Sciences, form of Government, ... Therefore there will be a need for other books besides Qur'an, & branches of knowledge besides Islamic sciences.

@IbnAllan @halal_hemlocc @tafsirdoctor As the prophet said. "Seek knowledge even in China".
( That is the farthest and all corners of the Earth.)

@IbnAllan @halal_hemlocc @tafsirdoctor But I do not want to imply all the concerns of the Maktabe Tafkik & like minded people is irrational & without justification. The Like minded people include such high towers such as Ghazali,....

@IbnAllan @halal_hemlocc @tafsirdoctor It is said all politics is local. the same way it can be said theological concerns are contemporary. The founders of Maktabe tafkik were worried of the creeping of the western/secular ideas in the domain of the islamic intellectual sciences &the ensuing secularization of belief

@IbnAllan @halal_hemlocc @tafsirdoctor the same way it happened in Europe. Ghazali was also worried philosophers are promoting views which are in direct contradiction with Quranic views (he was adamant about 4 which I agree) & they did this by expending the credit they got from their expertise in sciences,medicine,

@IbnAllan @halal_hemlocc @tafsirdoctor Even there could be valid questions in regard to the real motivations by the Abbasid Caliphs in supporting the movement of translating Greek philosophy to Arabic, ..maybe one part of their intention was to develop an intellectual class different & separate from Ulama

@IbnAllan @halal_hemlocc @tafsirdoctor Maktabe tafkik can & may have valid concerns, like guarding the purity of the islamic intellectual sciences,.. but this can easily lead to rejection of anything considered other & stagnation,...
Logic, Rhetoric, Mathematics, Medicine, .. were initially imported to Islamic lands

@IbnAllan @halal_hemlocc @tafsirdoctor from Greece, Persia, India, ... used & expanded by Muslims and used as beneficial tool both in islamic religious sciences and islamic civilization as whole.

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