Conceptions of Nature and Methods Used for Its Study by the Ikhwan al-Safa’, Al-Biruni, and Ibn Sina
Revised Edition
Thames and Hudson 1978
Preface
- the intellectual ferment resulting from the impact of Hellenism
Introduction
The book is a revised and elaborated version of a thesis presented to the Department of the History of Science and Learning at Harvard University in 1958
The Muslim cosmological and natural sciences are closely bound to the metaphysical, religious, and philosophical ideas governing Islamic civilization.
Prologue. Islam and the Study of Nature
In a traditional civilization like that of Islam the cosmological sciences are closely related to the Revelation because in such civilization the immutable revealed principle manifests itself everywhere in social life as well as in the cosmos in which that civilization lives.
The relation between Revelation and the people who are its receptor is like that of form to matter in the Aristotelian theory of hylomorphism.
Unlike pure metaphysics and mathematics which are independent of relativity, cosmological sciences are closely related to the perspective of the “observer” so that they are completely dependent upon the Revelation or the qualitative essence of the civilization in whose matrix they are cultivated.
The Quran often calls Nature a book which is the macrocosmic counterpart of the Quran itself and which must be read and understood before it can be put away.
Any basic study of the cosmological sciences of a civilization must take into account not only the historical borrowing of ideas and facts from earlier cultures but also this intimate connection between Revelation and the symbols used to study Nature.
- the unicity of Nature is the natural consequence of the Unity of the Divine Principle;
- interrelatedness of all things;
Shahadah (La ilaha illa’Llah) – there is no divinity but the Divine; there is no reality outside of the Absolute Reality;
the Sufi doctrine of the Unity of Being (wahdat al-wujud) – there cannot be two orders of reality independent of each other
The formula of Unity is the most universal criterion of orthodoxy in Islam; that doctrine may be said to be Islamic that affirms this unity in one way or other.
Its fundamental dogma is Et-Tawhid – unity or the action of uniting. Each and every aspect of islam reveals the same principle.
Islam was revealed in the Arabic language to a people who were of the stock of the Semitic nomads. This gives Islamic spirituality a nomadic trait. The Revelation of Islam was given in the form of a sacred book, the Holy Quran. The Quran refers constantly to the phenomena of Nature as signs of God to be contemplated by the believers.
The Quran says that human reason, which is a reflection of the Intellect, when healthy and balanced leads naturally to tawhid rather than to a denial of the Divine and can be misled only when the passions destroy its balance.
The Arabic language has not only a precision which makes it an excellent instrument for scientific discourse but also an inner dimension which enables it to be the perfect vehicle for the expression of the most esoteric forms of knowledge.
For the word Nature itself, corresponding to the Latin natura and the Greek physis, the Arabic word tabi’ah from the root (tb’) came to be used.
In the Quran the word tab’ is used several times and is interpreted by both Sunni and Shi’ah commentators to mean the veil which separates man from God.
The term tab’ has been used by certains authors in opposition to matbu’. These two terms may have been the origin of the Latin natura naturans and natura naturata and bear the same meaning as their Latin counterparts.
To express the relation between Creator and the world the Muslim authors have used the pair of terms haqq and khalq.
tanzih – the absolute transcendence of God with respect to the world
All partial and immediate causes are absorbed into the Ultimate Cause, and God is considered as the direct cause of all things.
The Ash’arite theologians emphasize above all else the discontinuity between the finite and the Infinite, all the stages of the cosmic hierarchy above the “physical world” being absorbed in the Divine Principle.
tashbih – the manifested world is nothing that the shadow and symbol of the spiritual world and the whole of cosmic manifestation is connected to its Divine Principle through its very existence
Islam stands between tashbih and tanzih, or immanence and transcendence.
The Study of the Cosmological Sciences in Islamic History
With the establishment of the Abbasid caliphate, translations of Greek, Syriac, Pahlavi and Sanskrit sources on the various sciences became available in Arabic.
During the third century, when the Islamic spirit began to become crystallized into its permanent forms, as reflected in the formation of the schools of law and the Sufi brotherhoods, the various arts and sciences as well as philosophy also began to flourish.
The fourth century itself was a time of great activity in “the philosophy of nature” and cosmology which had a permanent influence upon the sciences in the later centuries.
Similarly, in the fifth century, although perhaps to a somewhat lesser extent, the Muslim arts and sciences continued to flourish.
Ikhwan al-Safa’, al-Biruni and Ibn Sina, can be considered as the dominant figures in the various sciences
It may be safely asserted that the rise of the Shi’ah in this period was the chief reason for the greater attention paid to the arts and sciences.
The Intellectual Dimensions in Islam and the Class of Seekers of Knowledge
The Sacred Law (Shari’ah) – the exoteric aspect of the Islamic revelation
The Way (Tariqah) – the esoteric aspect
The Truth (Haqiqah) – the esoteric aspect
the seekers of knowledge:
- the Quranic scholars and traditionalists
- grammarians
- historians and geographers
- natural scientists and mathematicians
- the Mu’tazilites and other theologians
- the Peripatetic philosophers
- the Neo-Pythagoreans and Hermeticists
- the Isma’ili philosophers
- the Sufis.
In the writings of the Ikhwan al-Safa’ we encounter a wealth of Neo-Pythagorean and Hermetic symbols, a source upon which the Isma’ilis relied greatly during the later centuries.
With al-Biruni we met one of the most eminent of Muslim mathematicians and astronomers and at the same time the independent scholar and historian in search of the knowledge of other lands and epochs.
Ibn Sina was undoubtedly the greatest of the Muslims Peripatetics and in his writings one can discover the Peripatetic philosophy of Nature in its most lucid and thorough form. The later works of Ibn Sina, especially the visionary narratives, present us with a vision of the cosmos which was adopted later by the Ishwaqis and which presents many elements in common with the views of the Sufis on Nature and on the role of cosmology in the journey of the gnostic toward illumination.
Part I. Ikhwān al-Șafā’ wa Khullān al-Wafā’ (The Brethren of Purity)
Chapter 1. The Rasā’il of the Ikhwān al-Șafā’ - Their Identity and Content
- Isma’ili autorship of the work
- the rationalistic and Mu’tazilite nature of the Rasā’il
The Ikhwān was a group or association of learned men who were at the same time the voice of he Isma’ili movement.
The purpose of the work is educational in the fullest sense of the world – to bring to fruition and perfection the latent faculties of man so that he may gain salvation and spiritual freedom.
They define the ideal and morally perfect man as of “East Persian derivation, Arabic in faith, of ‘Iraqi, that is, Babylonian, education, a Hebrew in astuteness, a disciple of Christ in conduct, as pious as a Syrian monk, a Greek in the individual sciences, an Indian in the interpretation of all mysteries, but lastly and especially, a Sufi in his whole spiritual life.” (31/58)
Hadith: “The world is the prison of the faithful and the paradise of the unbelievers.”
The Ikhwān identify themselves spiritually with tasawwuf.
They divided themselves into four categories:
1. Those possessing purity of physical substance, excellence of conception and assimilation. Members must be at least fifteen years old. These brothers are called the pious and the compassionate and belong to the class of the masters of crafts.
2. Those possessing tenderness and compassion toward other men. Members must be at least thirty years of age. This grade correspond to the philosophical faculty, and the members in it are called the brothers of religious and learned men, the class of political chiefs.
3. Those possessing the ability to fight wars and insurrections in the spirit of calm and mildness which leads to salvation. They represent the power of the Divine Law which men receive at the age of forty. They are called the noble man of learning and virtue and are the kings and sultans.
4. The highest degree, which is that of surrender, receiving of Divine help and direct vision of the Truth. This is the angelic period which one only reaches at the age of fifty, and is the preparation for heavenly ascension. The prophets like Abraham, Joseph, Jesus, Muhammad, and sages like Socrates and Pythagoras belong to this stage.
The Ikhwān are expounding eternal wisdom.
The Ikhwān and Philosophy
The Ikhwān often speak of the virtues of philosophy as a way of finding the Truth and their desire to combine it with the Divine law of the prophets.
They identify philosophy with hikmah, a wisdom which has its ultimate source in the Revelations given to the ancient prophets.
Identity and Significance of the Ikhwān
Given the cosmological and symbolic rather than rationalistic tendency of the Ikhwān, we must exclude them from the school of the Mu’tazilites as well as from the followers of Aristotle (Mashsha’iyun).
The Ikhwān may be connected with Pythagorean-Hermetic doctrines, much of which was best known in Islam under the name of the corpus of Jabir ibn Hayyan.
It is more significant to describe them as Shi’ah group with Sufi tendencies.
The Sources of the Rasa’il
The Rasa’il, in their cosmological aspects, draw most of all upon Pythagorean and Jabirian sources.
They say they have four sources:
a) the mathematical and scientific works written before them;
b) the Scriptures;
c) the archetypes (the Platonic “ideas”);
d) the angelic (the intellectual intuition).
The Organisation of the Rasa’il
Three categories of sciences:
I. The primary [propaedeutic] sciences (riyadiyah)
II. Religious sciences (al-shari’at al-wad’iyah)
III. Philosophic sciences (al-falsafiyat al-haqiqiyah)
I. Primary sciences
a. Reading and writing
b. Lexicography and grammar
c. Accounting and business transactions
d. Prosody and metrics
e. Doctrines of good and evil omens
f. Doctrines of magic, amulets, alchemy, stratagems, and so on
g. Business and handcrafts
h. Commerce, agriculture, and so on
i. Stories and biographies
II. Religious sciences:
a. Science of Revelation
b. Exegesis
c. Tradition (hadith)
d. Jurisprudence and law
e. Asceticism and tasawwuf
f. Interpretation of dreams
III. Philosophical sciences
a. Mathematics (riyadiyat) consisting of the Quadrivium
b. Logic
c. Natural sciences, which in turn are divided into seven parts;
i. Principles governing bodies, consisting of knowledge of hyle, form, time, space and motion
ii. The heavens, consisting of the sciences of the stars, the motion of the planets, reasons for the stationary character of the earth, and so on
iii. Generation and corruption, consisting of knowledge of the four elements, their change into each other, and the minerals, plants, and animals coming into being from them
iv. Meteorology, consisting of the knowledge of the change of weather due to the effect of the stars, winds, thunder, lightning, and so on
v. Mineralogy
vi. Botany
vii. Zoology
IV. Theology
a. Knowledge of God and His Attributes
b. Knowledge of the spiritual world
c. Knowledge of souls
d. Politics, consisting of the knowledge of prophethood, kingship, the common people, the elite, and man considered in himself.
Chapter 2. The Principles of the Study of the Cosmos and the Hierarchy of the Universe
The universe is a unified whole whose various parts are held together by the analogy which exists between them.
The language with which this interrelation is expounded is that of symbolism, particularly numerical symbolism.
The science of number – ‘ilm al-‘adad, a science which stands above Nature and is the principle of beings and the root of the other sciences, the first elixir and the most exalted alchemy.
The Pythagorean Notion of Arithmetic and Geometry
The Pythagorean Numbers, being a qualitative rather than just a quantitative entity, cannot be identified simply with division and multiplicity as can modern numbers.
Since numbers are the projection of the number one, the Rasa’il do not consider one itself to be the beginning of numbers. They believe two to be the first number and unity itself the origin and principle of all numbers.
The science of the numerical symbolism of letters – ‘ilm al-jafr
The Hierarchy of Being
9 states of being:
1. Creator – who is one, simple, eternal, permaent
2. Intellect (‘aql) – which is of two kinds: innate and acquired
3. Soul (nafs) – which has three species: vegetative, animal and rational
4. Matter (hayula’) – which is of four kinds: matter of artefacts, physical matter, universal matter and original matter
5. Nature (tabi’ah) – which is of five kinds: celestial nature and the four elemental natures
6. Body (jism) – which has six directions: above, below, front, back, left and right
7. The sphere – which has its seven planets.
8. The elements – which have eight qualities:
a. Earth – cold and dry
b. Water – cold and wet
c. Air – warm and wet
d. Fire – warm and dry
9. Beings of the world: mineral, plant, animal kingdom, each having three parts.
The Relation between God and the Universe
The Universe is “all the spiritual and material beings who populate the immensity of the skies, who constitute the reign of multiplicity which extends to the spheres, the stars, the elements, their products and the man.” (R. I, 99)
This Universe is related to God by its existence (wujud), its persistence in being (baqa’), its completeness (tamam), and its perfection (kamal).
The Universal Intellect, which is at the same time a great veil hiding God as well as the great gate to His Unity, inherits the four above-mentioned virtues from God and transmits them to the Universal Soul, which remains passive and feminine with respect to the Intellect.
The Creator is really the only Beloved (ma’shuq) and the only object of desire (murad).
The Universal Intellect and Soul
The duality of the Universe refers to the Intellect and Soul which contain in themselves the active and the passive principles through which the life and activity of the Universe can be understood.
Creation is the “dynamic” and “feminine” aspect of the Divine.
The Intellect can be said to have only an efficient Cause which is God.
With respect to God, the Intellect is purely passive, in obedience, tranquility, and permanent desire for union with the Divine Principle.
Matter
Prime Matter is already far removed from Pure Being and possesses in itself only existence and persistence.
Its efficient cause is God, its formal cause is the Intellect, its final cause is the Soul.
Matter possesses several levels of existence, each more “condensed” and “coagulated” than the next, beginning with the primary or original matter which does not even possess quantity and is a spiritual form, and ending with the matter of particular objects which are perceptible by the senses and are the terminal stage of manifestation, being as far away from the Divine Principle as the conditions of cosmic manifestation permit.
Nature
Nature is none other than one of the faculties of the Universal Soul of the spheres which is propagated in all the bodies existing in the sublunary region beginning from the spheres of the ether until the center of the world.
The Spheres and the Elements
The astronomy of the Ikhwan places the earth at the center of the Universe with the Moon, Sun and the planets rotating about it.
Beyond the sphere of Saturn there is the Sphere of Fixed Stars, and finally the outermost sphere, or Muhit.
The “quintessence” – a substance having such properties that on the one hand the celestial bodies accept neither generation nor corruption nor change nor transformation nor augmentation nor diminution, and that on the other hand their movements are all perfect, thus circular.
Time, Space and Motion
The physics of the Ikhwan, unlike that of Aristotle, does not have the problem of motion as its central subject. Because the Universe which the Rasa’il describe is one which is alive, being composed of a body and the Universal Soul which animates the whole of it.
Time is intimately connected with creation and in fact is created with the world. The last Day is not just another day in time but the termination of time itself.
The space is one of the condition of physical existence.
There is no space outside the cosmos and the Universe cannot be said to be in space.
The Ikhwan reject the possibility of a void; space is something always filled, even when it seems empty to the senses.
All of the movements, which are so diverse in appearance, are due ultimately to a single agent who is the Universal Soul (the unicity of Nature).
The Analogy of Microcosm and Macrocosm and the Great Chain of Being
The ideas of the analogy of the microcosm and macrocosm and the chain (hierarchy) of being are universal, far from being limited to Greek, Islamic or Christian cosmologies (we can find them in China, India and elsewhere). Both ideas belong to the domain of theology and metaphysics as well as to cosmology.
The Universal Man (al-insan al-kamil)
The study of Nature in medieval science acts as a support for spiritual realization
The part of the cosmos above the Moon, which is the most beautiful and perfect part of the Universe, is compared to Universal Man, while the sublunary region, where changes occurs and where good and evil souls are mixed together, is compared to the particular man (al-insan al-juz’i).
The cosmological chain starts from the Unity, which simbolizes the Creator, up to the number 9, which is the domain of the three kingdoms.
The chain of beings essentially means that all beings in the Universe exist according to a continuous hierarchy which is ontological as well as cosmological.
Man is “the antipode of God”, the central link in the great chain; below him stands the animal kingdom, and above, the world of the angels, and he is connected to one domain as well as to the other.
The three kingdoms: mineral, plant, animal.
Good and evil (mahmud and madhmum)
In the three kingdoms, each end member is connected to the first member of the next domain. This hierarchy is based on the degree of intelligence and the development of interior faculties rather than on external similarities (the elephant is the animal closest to man, not the monkey).
This world is a shadow of another world more real than it.
There is no question of a species changing into another, because the “idea” of each species is a form which is beyond change and decay.
The traditional doctrine of gradation is not the modern theory of evolution.
The whole conception of Nature is teleological. The final purpose of the cosmos is the return of multiplicity to Unity within the heart of the saints.
The coming into being of the sublunary region after the heavens, the mineral after the elements, the plants after the minerals, the animals after the plants, and finally, man after the animals, is temporal as well as in principio.
In the perfect man, who has realized his Divine Origin, the process has come to an end. Man’s “evolution” is therefore inward; God does not create something after man as he created man after the animals, because man, by virtue of being able to return to his origin, fulfills the purpose of the whole of creation.
Man is the link between the three kingdoms and the heavens and therefore the channel of grace for the terrestrial environment. The three kingdoms depend upon him, and man in turn has the right to make use of them.
“Adaptation to the environment” is not the result of struggles for life or “survival of the fittest”, but comes from the wisdom of the Creator, Who has given to each creature what corresponds to its need. For the Ikhwan the hands of God were not cut off from creation after the beginning of the world.
Chapter 3. The Individual Cosmological Sciences
Astronomy and Astrology
There is no clear distinction in Islamic sciences between the words signifying astronomy and astrology, the term nujum can mean one as well as the other.
The heavenly bodies moving objects whose motions and periods can be studied and measured are also seats of the various faculties of the Universal Soul, which is the cause of all changes in the world of generation and corruption.
The Ikhwan divide the science of nujum into three parts:
(1) The science of spheres, stars, their dimensions, movements (‘ilm al-hai’ah)
(2) The science of astronomical tables (zij)
(3) Judicial astrology (‘ilm al-ahkam)
This science is considered to have been originally not a purely human form of knowledge, but a science revealed to the prophet Idris (Hermes Trismegistus) who “journeyed to Saturn” in order to bring to earth the science of the heavens.
Ikhwan follow the general scheme of the ancient astronomers in placing the earth at the center, followed by the seven planets, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, then the heaven of the fixed stars and finally the outermost sphere, or the Muhit.
According to the Ikhwan, the stars are luminous, spherical bodies (1029 in number), of which seven are wandering and the rest stationary.
The spheres are hollow, transparent, and concentric like the skins of an onion.
As for the signs of the Zodiac, they are located in the Muhit and are divided into six northern and six southern signs.
They divide the signs also into four parts:
(1) Aries, Leo, Sagittarius – fire, hot, dry, east
(2) Taurus, Virgo, Capricornus – earth, cold, dry, south
(3) Gemini, Libra, Aquarius – air, hot, wet, west
(4) Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces – water, cold, wet, north.
The Sun is the heart of the Universe, and the sign of God in the heavens and earth.
9 – the number of the spheres
12 – the number of constellations (or divisions of the Zodiac)
7 – the planets
28 – the lunar mansions.
In astronomy the purpose of study is “to prepare pure souls and make them desirous of celestial ascent.”
Ptolemy is considered the master and his system of astronomy is followed in detail.
The “Great Year” of the Chaldaeans is 36.000 years – the time for all the planets to be in conjunction at the spring equinox. The end of this cycle is the Last Day. This period is fundamental in determining the cycles of events on earth, whether these be natural or historical.
As the metaphysical foundations of astrology gradually disappeared, astrology became restricted to the prediction of individual events, and it is in this aspect that it is presently known in the West.
In medieval times, the important part of astrology was the cosmological role, which tried to show the dominance of “heaven” over “earth”, the unfolding of all creation from a Unique Principle, and the helplessness and passivity of earthly creatures before the angels who are symbolized by the planets.
The influence of the Moon is confined to feminine cycles occurring on earth.
The Ikhwan make each planet correspond to one prophet and to each period of history, which is divided into epochs according to the revelation of the prophetic message of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad.
The World of Generation and Corruption
It is the same domain as the sublunary region. It is subject to change, to coming into being and passing away.
The Ikhwan consider the transition from the heavens to the world of generation and corruption as the change from the odd to the even number, the odd number being the masculine, active, and intellectual principle, and even the feminine, passive, and material one.
Forms in the sublunary region are divided into groups of noble and evil qualities as well as into general categories, one being the four elements, which are the universal generating or “material” powers, and the other, the three kingdoms – mineral, plant, and animal – which are the generated powers.
Meteorology
Meteorological phenomena comprise all the natural events which occur between the surface of the earth and the sphere of the Moon.
The Ikhwan divide the air in the sublunary region into three divisions:
(1) Higher layer, or ether (athir)
(2) Middle layer (zamharir)
(3) Lower layer (nasim).
The tradition of the twenty-four winds existing in the atmosphere, of which only four are known to man.
Geology and Geography
The spherical earth has a circumference of 2267 farsakh (1 farsakh is 3 miles), equivalent to 6800 miles.
The earth is in its form and movement like an animal.
Its surface consists of three-quarters sea and one-quarter land.
Mountains in time become seas, and seas mountains. Forests become deserts and deserts lakes.
The Three Kingdoms
The efficient cause of mineral substances is Nature, which acts with the permission of Allah.
The sulphur-mercury theory of the constitution of metals
The sulphur is the masculine and active principle. The mercury is the feminine and passive principle.
When these principles are combined in a perfect manner gold is formed, which is the perfect metal because “its spirit, soul and body are all one”.
It is the angels (whose symbols are the planets) who keep order in the motion of the heavens and who generate the minerals as well as plants and animals.
Each color is related to a moving or fixed star. Black corresponds to Saturn, red to Mars, green to Jupiter, blue to Venus, yellow to Sun, white to Moon. That which is variegated with many colors belongs to Mercury.
Minerals are not dead objects but have a life of their own.
The causes of the plants:
- The material cause is the four elements
- The efficient cause is Nature (or the Universal Soul)
- The formal cause the set of planetary influences
- The final cause the use of plants by animal as food.
The seven biological functions of plants are: attraction, fixation, digestion, repulsion, nutrition, formation and growth.
Plants have the sense of touch which they share in common with the animals.
Unlike minerals, plants cannot be transformed into one another.
Just as the plant kingdom possesses all the properties of the minerals, to which the vegetative soul is added, so animal possess all the faculties of plants to which movement and sensation are added.
Chapter 4. The Microcosm and Its Relation to the Universe
Arabic saying: “Man is the symbol of Universal Existence.”
The body of man belongs to the animal kingdom and possesses much of the beauty and wisdom which the Creator has placed within the physical frame of other animals.
2 – He has divided the body into two parts, left and right
3 – He has divides the constitution of animals into two extremities and a middle
4 – Four humours
5 – Five senses
6 – Six powers of motion in the six directions
7 – Seven active powers
8 – Eight natures (four simple and four mixed)
9 – Nine levels of the body
12 – Twelve openings for the senses and limbs
28 – Twenty-eight vertebrae of the backbone
360 – Three hundred and sixty veins
The vertical position of the man symbolizes an ontological and metaphysical ascent and the yearning of man to reach toward the spiritual world.
The human body, in its embryonic growth, traverses the other kingdoms of Nature. The first period of four months is under the influence of the vegetative soul. During the other five months, the animal soul becomes powerful and dominates the child until the date of birth.
The heart is the center of the body and it is symbolically the center of man’s being, and his most noble organ. It is not only the central organ in the basic life-giving activity of breathing but also the seat of intelligence.
The human soul runs through the whole body as the jinn, men, daemons, and angels run throughout the Universe.
The nine heavens correspond the nine substances of the body: bone, brain, flesh, veins, blood, nerve, skin, hair, and nails.
The twelve signs of the Zodiac – the twelve openings of the body: the two eyes, nostrils, ears, nipples of the breast, mouth, navel and channels of excretion.
The power of speech to the Moon, the intellectual faculty to the Sun.
Not only the individual microcosm but man’s society too bears analogy to the cosmos where the Sun reigns as king.
The soul of man does not gain certainty and knowledge of things through sense impressions, but only from the Intellect.
The soul already possess all knowledge in itself potentially.
The Ikhwan describe the unicity of the vast domain of Nature so that by its study and contemplation the disciple can come to integrate and unify himself and to prepare for the journey to Heaven and even beyond all formal worlds to the Divine Presence.
Part II. Al-Biruni
Chapter 5. The Life, Works and Significance of al-Biruni
Abu Raihan Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Biruni
Born in the city of Khwarazm in the year 362/973
Court astrologer and astronomer
His most famous work is Kitab al-tafhim (India), a masterpiece of medieval science, a rich source for the knowledge of quadrivium.
Attracted early to mathematics and astronomy, his attention turned later toward chronology and history, and finally to optics, medicine, mineralogy and pharmacology. His interest in religion and cult remained always strong.
In addition to personal encounters with numerous Muslim, Christian and Hindu scholars and sages of his time, al-Biruni had access to many ancient texts of the Greek, Babylonian, Manichean and Zoroastrian sciences.
His works served throughout the succeeding centuries as source for the natural and historical sciences ad acquired authority as the writings of an undisputed master.
His study of comparative religion din not make him in any way “eclectic” but on the contrary affirmed his Muslim religious beliefs.
There is no “science for science’s sake” in the mind of al-Biruni, the arts and sciences should serve the ideal of Islamic life. The validity of the study of the sciences is not to be determined by practical utility, for utility does not determine the innate value of things.
He shows considerable interest in philosophy in its Socratic sense.
We see in his study of mathematics, geography, or astronomy how the most technical mathematical discussion or rational discourse leads quite naturally to the affirmation of some attribute of the Creator.
Chapter 6. The Creation of the World and Its Subsequent History
Al-Biruni accepts the scripturally supported belief that the world was created ex nihilo and rejects completely the arguments of the Greek philosophers for the eternity of the world.
Uniformitarianism – the modern assumption of the uniformity of events of Nature throughout time, which has even been made the basis of the study of the past, considers that the forces acting in Nature, observable by the human senses at the present moment in the particular conditions chosen for the study of these forces by modern scientists, have been acting in the same manner throughout the history of the world.
Moreover, it is assumed that any forces which cannot be observed now could not have acted in the past.
The belief in the uniformity of conditions has been extended beyond the physical domain to the social, pyschological, and even spiritual worlds and forms.
The traditional doctrine is based upon the opposite view: the cosmic environment, as well as human society which is closely wed to it, possesses certain characteristics and modes of existence belonging to the particular period in which it has come into existence.
The “laws of Nature” change during the life of the world as the form and function of an organism alter during various periods of time.
Al-Biruni, because of his familiarity with Hindu cosmological doctrines, discusses the qualitative nature of time in greater detail than most other Muslim authors.
The generation of time is due to the revolution of the Sun through the sign of the Zodiac. It is the motion of the Sun that brings order out of chaos and generates all the periods by which time is measured.
Somehow the people of earlier cycles of history were closer to man’s celestial origin and lived a more integral life.
Chapter 7. The Role of Nature and the Methods of Its Study
On Nature and Its Function
Nature is neither “dead matter” possessing motion, nor “primary matter”, nor the hylé.
The idea of “economy” in Nature is closely allied to teleology.
The “economy of Nature” implies that there is no waste or deficiency in His Work.
The Methods used to Study Nature
In Islamic sciences there is no single path toward the understanding of Nature; observation and experimentation, reason and reflection, as well as Sacred Scripture and ancient sources, lead to the knowledge of the Universe.
Al-Biruni describes his own method for determining the circumference of the earth.
He was a careful observer and experimenter.
He may be considered the founder of the science of geodesy.
Chapter 8. The Universe and Its Parts
The Heavens
In none of the sciences did al-Biruni excel as much as in astronomy and astrology.
The Cosmos has a spherical shape with the outermost heaven of fixed stars forming its boundary. Below it lie the heavens of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, and Moon and finally the sublunary region of the four elements with the Earth at the center.
He believes in the physical existence of the crystalline sphere, a body like a ball revolving in its own place. There are eight such spheres, each one enclosed within another, like the layers of an onion. The smallest sphere is that which is nearest to us.
the eight spheres of the Greeks (Ptolemy)
Al-Biruni rejects the mythological cosmology of the Hindus
In his determination of the size of the various planetary spheres and bodies, al-Biruni follows the principles and at times the values given by Ptolemy.
He emphasizes the indifference of the helio or geocentric systems to astronomy. Toward the end of his life Al-Biruni finally decided in favor of the geocentric system mainly for physical reasons.
The Sublunary Region
The Moon marks the boundary between the world of change and the incorruptible heavens.
The conception of great changes in the structure of the surface of the earth, and even the disappearance of such things as mountains which seem so solid and firm, is due to the emphasis of the Islamic perspective, supported by many Quranic verses, upon the transitory nature of all that is in the world.
He discuss also the relation of cataclysms to the rhythm of history and the rise and fall of different peoples.
Just as man and the Universe are interrelated, so is the rhythm of man’s society intimately connected to the cosmic ambiance.
the sevenfold division of the world
Al-Biruni follows the alchemical theory of sulphur and mercury, which are the masculine and feminine principles. He also believes in the growth of minerals and the perfection of metals into gold. After accepting the principles of the “natural philosophy” of alchemy, he rejects alchemy itself in a very categorical manner.
Chapter 9. The Wedding of Heaven and Earth in Astrology
Principles of Astrology
The metaphysical basis of astrology is the spontaneous identification of the rhythms of the heavens with the prototypes existing in the heaven of the signs.
The basis of astrology is symbolically the indissoluble marriage between heaven and earth and the derivation of all things on earth from their celestial counterparts.
Three basic conditions of cosmic existence: time, space and number.
The basic number of the Zodiac, 12, is a product of 4 and 3. As interpreted traditionally, these numbers symbolize the fourfold polarization of Universal Nature into the active qualities of heat and cold and the passive qualities of moistness and dryness which in their combination form the elements, and the three fundamental tendencies of the Universal Spirit (al-Ruh), which are (1) the descending movement away from the Principle, (2) horizontal expansion and (3) ascent back to the Principle. The 12 signs contain in their numerical symbolism the totality of the principles which govern the cosmos.
Each sign of the Zodiac possesses several relations with the other signs, the most important perhaps being the trigonal and square.
The right angle implies contrast.
An angle of 180 degrees opposition.
The 120 degrees perfect synthesis.
The 60 degrees affinity.
The human microcosm, which contains all of the Universe in itself, is likewise made up of the four qualities and possesses analogies with the signs, these analogies forming a part of the foundation of medieval Muslim medicine.
As the parts and humors of the body are dependent upon the signs, so are the diseases of the body, which according to traditional medicine are due to the disequilibrium of the qualities and humors in the body, dependent upon these celestial archetypes.
The following are the various parts of the body which are related to the several signs:
- The head and face to Aries
- The neck and windpipe to Taurus
- The arms and hands to Gemini
- The chest, breasts, sides, stomach and lungs to Cancer
- The heart to Leo
- The womb with its content to Virgo
- The back and buttocks to Libra
- The genitals to Scorpius
- The thighs to Sagittarius
- The knees to Capricorn
- The shanks to Aquarius
- The feet and heels to Pisces.
The Moon as the symbol of the feminine principle of the Universe measures the heavens in a passive manner as the Sun does in a masculine and active way.
The Moon acts as the intermediary between all the heavens and the terrestrial domain so that the lunar mansions synthesize in themselves all the aspects of the Intellect which are manifested in the planetary spheres and the archetypal world of the signs.
The Moon possesses a double significance, first as the symbol of the female principle which governs the “maternal” processes on earth, and second as the “cosmic memory”.
Al-Biruni and His Attitude Toward Astrology
He divided the science into its constituent parts, some of which he considers to be true and others false.
In astrology the whole cycle of manifestation, temporal and spatial, is seen as an unfolding of possibilities inherent in the unique Principle which itself lies above all manifestation.
Chapter 10. The Attitude of al-Biruni Toward Philosophy and Learning
It is difficult to identify him with any of the well-known schools of his day.
His intense interest in the Hermetical writings of al-Razi and others
He was well acquainted with the philosophy of the Peripatetics as well as with that of the Alexandrian followers of Plato and Pythagoras
His letters to Ibn Sina represent one of the most acute Islamic criticism of Aristotelian natural philosophy
He considers the idea that the world is eternal as the most abhorrent of the Aristotelian doctrines and that which is most opposed to the Islamic perspective.
Al-Biruni believes in the possibility of many worlds and opposes the Aristotelian argument that there cannot be any other world than the one that is visible to us.
The Aristotelians considered circular motion to be natural to the heavens as rectilinear motion is natural to objects of the sublunary world.
ḥukamā’ – the followers of the Greek philosophers
mutakallimūn – the Muslim theologians
The Role of Learning in Islam
With respect to the physical sciences he criticizes those who cover up their ignorance by appealing to God’s wisdom and who make no effort to learn about the beauty of Nature through its study.
There is for al-Biruni no separation between “sacred” and “profane” learning.
Part III. Ibn Sina
Chapter 11. The Life and Works of Ibn Sina and His Significance
Abu ‘Ali al-Husain ibn ‘Abdallah ibn Sina (Avicenna)
Surnames: Al-Shaikh al-Ra’is; Hujjat al-haqq
Over 250 books, treatises and letters of Ibn Sina have survived. It is not incorrect to divide his works into four separate groups: the philosophical, religious, cosmological and physical, and finally the symbolical and metaphysical narratives.
Ibn Sina and the Islamic Religion
He was certainly a faithful Muslim. Like his contemporary al-Biruni, he left himself uncommitted with respect to the Sunni-Shi’ah division.
It is only in the Shi’ite world that the philosophy of Ibn Sina as interpreted by Suhrawardi became combined with the gnostic doctrines of Ibn ‘Arabi and was integrated by Mulla Sadra into the intellectual perspective of Shi’ism.
The Shifa’ (the greatest encyclopedia of knowledge ever composed by an individual) and the smaller Peripatetic treatises of Ibn Sina represent the basic texts of that school in Islam.
He was called the “first Scholastic”.
He kept before him the ideal of combining the philosophy of the Greeks (falsafah) with hikmah, or wisdom, which was originally the possession of the Hebrew prophets and later revealed in its fullness in Islam.
The Augustinian interpretation of Ibn Sina involved the acceptance of much of what was essentially philosophical and the rejection of his cosmology and angelology. The “banishing” of angels helped to laicize the cosmos and prepare the Copernican Revolution.
In Islam, on the contrary, the philosophical doctrines of Ibn Sina were interpreted metaphysically by the Ishraqis and in this way became transformed into a doctrine, which, being composed of Peripatetic philosophy, Hermetic and ancient Persian ideas, and Sufi doctrines, served the purpose of leading reason from error to the vision of the truth and preparing the soul for catharsis from the world of senses, culminating in illumination and gnosis.
His “Oriental philosophy” is not at all a philosophy in the rationalistic sense, nor a system of dialectic to fulfill certain mental needs; rather, it is a form of wisdom or a “theosophy” which has for its purpose the deliverance of man from this world of imperfection to the “world of light”.
Tasawwuf – the esoteric aspect of Islam, possessing not only a doctrine whose formulations may have been borrowed from external sources, but a “spiritual alchemy” and a grace whose origin can be traced to the Prophet Muhammad.
According to the Sufi, tasawwuf is a set of doctrines, spiritual techniques, and finally a grace, or barakah, the totality of which constitutes the essence of Islam, the realization of Unity (tawhid).
It seems certain that Ibn Sina lies outside of the pure tradition of tasawwuf.
He was most likely touched deeply by the barakah of tasawwuf and even if not able to realize its aims in his life sympathized with it greatly and expressed many of its truths in his works.
Chapter 12. The Anatomy of Being
Being and Its Polarizations
Ibn Sina is above all a “philosopher of Being”; all knowledge for him involves the analogy of the beings of particular things with Being itself which stands above and anterior to the Universe.
Being in itself is the cause of all particular existents. Being is distinctions and polarizations and yet the cause of the world of multiplicity.
Two major distinctions which underlie the philosophy of Ibn Sina:
- an ontological distinction between quiddity, or essence (mahiyah), and existence (wujud)
- the tripartite division between the Necessary (wajib), contingent (mumkin) and impossible (mumtani) beings.
Only in the Necessary Being (wajib al-wujud), or God, are essence and existence inseparably united, while for all other beings unity and existence are only accidents added to their essence or quiddity.
The contingent beings are divided into two classes:
- those that are necessary in the sense that they could not not be; these beings are the simple substances (mujarradat), the Intelligences and angelic substances
- those that are only contingent, the composed bodies of the sublunary region which come into being and pass away.
The first category is the eternal effect of the Creator and must therefore always be, while the second category contains in itself the principle of “non-eternity” and therefore has a beginning and an end.
These three substances, Intellect, Soul and Body, remain in the domain of cosmology separate entities, the knowledge of the interrelation of which is the aim of all sciences dealing with the cosmos.
The cosmos is nothing but the manifestation and effusion of Being.
All creatures find their happiness and felicity in union with the source of all existence which is Pure Being.
Our intelligence receives the intelligibles by turning toward the Active Intellect after being excited by the senses in contact with the external world. In the Divine Intellect alone do the intelligible essence exist independent of all potentiality as universals.
The Generation of the Universe
In the cosmological perspective, the Universe is compared to the rays of the Sun, and God to the Sun itself. The rays of the Sun are not the Sun but also they are nothing other than the Sun.
In Islam, the doctrine of emanation can be understood and integrated only in the esoteric aspect of the Tradition.
The Sufis join Ibn Sina to say that there cannot be two independent orders of reality so that the being of the Universe cannot be other than Pure Being.
The principles according to which the manifestation of the cosmos takes place:
1) Division of beings into necessary and contingent
2) From Unity only unity can come into being
3) Intellection of God is the cause of existence.
The First Intellect – al-‘aql al-awwal
The Cause of Causes – ‘illat al-‘ilal
The First Intellect has three forms of knowledge:
1) Knowledge of the Essence of the Necessary Being
2) Knowledge of its essence as a being necessary by virtue of another being
3) Knowledge of its own essence as a contingent being.
The knowledge which the Intelligences have of the First Cause is the prototype of all gnosis and all epiphany.
Being the third principle in the hierarchy of being, after the Intellect and the Soul, Nature has three powers:
1) The power of putting into motion which comes from the world of Divine Command;
2) The power of guidance from the world of the Intellect;
3) The power of inclining toward movement from the world of the Soul.
Universal Nature is a force which moves the Element toward that perfection which is possible for it.
As so often with the Peripatetics, basic intuitions which are metaphysical rather than merely philosophical are enclosed within a rationalistic system whose interest is more in satisfying the thirst for causality than in leading to the direct contemplation of the Truth.
In a sermon on unity (al-Khutbat al-gharra’), Ibn Sina offers his metaphysical vision of the view of Nature in which Nature appears as a unified domain and the Universe as the manifestation of the Divine Principle in conformity with the essence of Islam.
He symbolizes the stages of the generation of the cosmos by letters of the Arabic alphabet.
The division of beings:
- the hierarchy of pure Intelligence, or angels, separated completely from matter and above change and multiplicity
- the animated world of Intelligences not completely divorced from matter but “dressed” by the stable matter of the heavens and causing the celestial motion
- the world of physical Nature comprising the forces which circulate in bodies, which are completely bound to matter and which are the source of all movement
- the corporeal world itself.
In this tetrad, the stages of manifestation are limited to the number 9.
The Relation between God and the Universe
In his ontology Ibn Sina clearly separates Being from all particular beings, while in his cosmology he considers the Universe as an effusion of Being.
The manifestation of the Universe is God’s eternal knowledge of Himself.
In the perspective of Ibn Sina the invisible world depends for its subsistence upon the Divine Intellect, and even the physical domain can be said to be dependent not only upon God’s Will but also His Being.
Chapter 13. Principles of Natural Philosophy
Natural Philosophy – tabi’iyat – that aspect of wisdom which deals with the domain that moves and changes.
The branches of natural philosophy:
1. tibb – medicine
2. nujum – astrology
3. firasah – physiognomy
4. ta’bir – oneiromancy
5. talismat – natural magic (drawing celestial forces upon terrestrial ones)
6. nairanjiyat – theurgy (employing terrestrial forces to produce effects which appears as supernatural)
7. kimiya’ - alchemy
Ibn Gabirol: “One cannot prove the principles of a science by that science itself.”
The Aristotelian use of word “nature”:
natura generatio
natura essentia
natura substantis simplex
natura rei corporeae.
The primary conditions of terrestrial existence: time and space, form and matter.
The principles of the traditional sciences of Nature do not lie in these sciences themselves but in metaphysics.
Form and Matter
Form – the quality of quiddity (mahiyah) by which a body (jism) is what it is.
Matter – that which supports (hamil) the quality of form.
Matter can only exist by the form imparted to it by the Intellect; without form it would be pure receptivity deprived of reality.
The Aristotelian division into the contradictory, in potentiality and in act, are for Ibn Sina the classes of the impossible, contingent and necessary.
The body is the sum of corporeal form and matter.
Matter is pure passivity, it does nothing on its own but remains always the subject upon which celestial influences act.
His argument against atomism include the well-known one that anything which occupies space can be divided by virtue of the fact that space has a beginning, middle and end and can itself be divided.
All bodies, besides consisting of form and matter, exist in the corporeal state by virtue of time and space.
Time and space are never considered as realities independent of bodies, but as two conditions of corporeal manifestation. There is no space if there is no corporeal existence, because space is a condition of this state of manifestation and not an independent reality.
The South Pole is considered as the upward direction and the North as the downward because: “If a person lies down, facing the heavens with his right hand toward the East his head will be toward the South.”
It is only with reference to the heavens that the indefiniteness of space can be crystallized into its basic directions, which give space a qualitative aspect of fundamental importance.
Time has a more qualitative nature than space and is not so easily defined or measured. Time is, in fact, the quantity, or measure, of motion.
Time is change.
Motion
The problem of motion becomes important in natural philosophy only after Nature has ceased to be alive, when a distinction has been made between living beings and “dead matter”.
In the contemplative view of Nature, there is no distinction between “dead” and “alive”.
In the gnostic works of Ibn Sina, the “problem of motion” does not exist, and, if treated, it remains peripheral. In his Peripatetic writings, motion becomes a central topic.
There are four types of motion:
1) from one quantity to another
2) from one quality to another
3) from one place to another
4) from one substance to another.
When an object is between potentiality and act it is in motion.
An object moves because it still has something potential and therefore imperfect in it, because it seeks perfection as part of the total purpose of the Universe.
There are three types of motion:
1) Accidental
2) Violent
3) Natural.
Ibn Sina returns to the very ancient view of a live cosmos in which all change is due to the love and sympathy of things for each other and the love of the Universe for God.
On Causes
The Sunni theological attitude in Islam toward causality is the absorption of the finite, immediate causes of things into the Transcendent Cause so that God is considered directly as the Cause of all things. A parallel view can be seen in the Sufi doctrine of the continuous creation of the Universe. Ibn Sina does not adopt this point of view. He follows the Aristotelian doctrine of the four causes which considers not only the final cause of things but also the immediate ones.
The four causes:
1. The efficient cause (fa’ili) – that which is the source of motion in something other than itself
2. The material cause (maddi) – the support for an action other than itself
3. The formal cause (suri) – a variety of meanings
4. The final cause (gha’i) – the purpose for which form is produced in matter.
There is no place for chance or probability in Nature.
Ibn Sina and the Study of Nature
Nature is the domain where everything possesses a meaning and an end and where the wisdom of the Creator is everywhere manifest.
The end and purpose which Nature intends are always toward goodness and perfection if obstacles are not placed in its way. Even what seems like evil is for the purpose of a greater good.
The study of Nature, in which the purpose and wisdom of God is manifested, leads ultimately to the knowledge of the source of all beings.
True science is to relate the phenomena to their inner aspect, or noumena, which is the essence and the center relating them to Pure Being.
To relate the particular to the Universal or the realm of Nature to Being is to bring into focus the sense of mystery which resides in Universal Existence itself.
Ibn Sina makes use of observation, experiment, and reasoning in trying to understand the various manifestations of Nature in the light of cosmological principles which derive from intellectual intuition.
The range of natural sciences with which Ibn Sina deals varies from his treatise on simple machine, to his symbolic narratives and treatises on what today are called “the occult science”.
Chapter 14. The Universe, Man, and their Relation
The Heavens
The classification of beings:
a) separate Intelligences (angels)
b) celestial Souls
c) celestial bodies
d) sublunary bodies.
The Universe consists of nine spheres, the eight of Ptolemaic astronomy and the starless heaven added by Muslim astronomers which stands above the heaven of the fixed stars and symbolize the transition between becoming and Being.
The heavens possess circularity, which is the most perfect of forms, and nobility of being, which manifests itself in their luminosity.
The cosmology and astronomy of Ibn Sina are wed in an inseparable fashion to angelology and can therefore provide the appropriate setting for the religious vision of the cosmos.
In the religious perspective angels are the prototypes upon whose model main is made and toward whom he aspires in his life on earth.
The attacks of Ibn Sina upon astrology is primarily upon its claim to predict future events; he does not attack the cosmological foundations upon which astrology is based.
The World of Generation and Corruption
It is the realm of beings in whom form and matter are inseparably united.
Matter is made to discard one form and accept another in a ceaseless process.
The four elements out of which all sublunary beings are composed (air, fire, water and earth) consist basically of the same matter which on different occasions accepts different forms.
Despite his fame as an alchemist and magician in medieval Europe, Ibn Sina was firmly opposed to the possibility of the transformation of one metal into another by human agency, and wrote many paragraphs ridiculing the alchemists.
The Constitution of the Microcosm
Ibn Sina has written much about man as a spiritual, psychical, and physical entity whose body he studies by observation and whose illnesses he seeks to cure by experimental means.
His medicine is plunged deeply into his metaphysical view of man as the microcosm in whom creation return to its source.
For Ibn Sina the study of the body of man is intricately related to that of the human soul.
The interaction of the qualities of the four elements determines the temperament of the human being.
Ibn Sina considers all disease, in fact, to be due to the destruction of this equilibrium by the excess of some quality, and all cure an attempt to re-establish the harmony between opposites.
The body possesses faculties which originate the functions of various organs:
a) the vital – preserving the integrity of the breath, sensation, and movement of the heart;
b) the natural – governing the nutritive powers of the liver and the reproductive powers of the generating organs;
c) the animal – controlling the brain and the rational faculty.
The breath acts as the link between the physical and the psychic and spiritual worlds, and plays a basic role not only in the physiological functions of the human being but also in his deliverance from the life of the body.
Man contains within himself the nature of minerals, plants and animals as well as, potentially, the nature of the angels or Intelligences. Just as the Universe has as its highest principle the Intellect, below which exist the other domains of being, so does man as the microcosm possess all the levels of existence within himself and have the Intellect as the inner principle of his being. The complex faculties of the various souls within man are so many stages between the vegetative and angelic life.
The human soul stands between the earthly and heavenly worlds. Its felicity lies in uniting itself with the Intellect and in leaving the sensible world in favor of the Intelligible. This is its entelechy and delivrance. As the Universe is generated by God’s contemplation and intellection of Himself, so does it become integrated in its Divine archetype in the act of intellection within man which results in the return of the sensible world to the intelligible one.
Sympathy between Man and the Universe
The sympathy, which is hidden to most men, becomes more evident as the soul increases in purity until in the case of the prophets the inner harmony between man and the cosmos becomes universally manifested.
The soul of man can also act upon the world in the degree that it can purify itself and concentrate its energies.
The sympathy between man and the Universe is based upon the love which pervades the cosmos.
Chapter 15. Nature and the Visionary Recitals
Background and Setting of the Narrative Cycle
Ibn Sina wrote three visionary narratives, which form the parts of a great cycle differing in point of view from his better-known Peripatetic works. These narratives are the record of his intellectual visions of the author described in a symbolic language which itself constitutes an integral aspect of the visions and which is not simply an allegory more or less made up by the author.
The vision of the Universe as a vast “cosmos of symbols”
The cosmos, instead of being an exterior object, becomes for the gnostic an interior reality
There are three categories of gnostics:
a) the zahid – who practices ascetism and is pious
b) the ‘abid – who turns his thought to the sanctity of the Divine
c) the ‘arif – who knows through illumination and ecstasy.
The gnostic leaves the world of illusions for the world of Reality, and when his journey is complete he becomes himself the mirror in which Truth and its cosmic manifestation are reflected.
The whole being of the gnostic is transformed by the Truth he has realized in the center of his being; not only is his soul illuminated by It but even his body becomes immune to disorder and illness because of the presence of the spiritual light within the tabernacle of his heart.
When the consciousness of the adept becomes awakened by the visit from the angel, when he stops being an “ordinary” man and begins on the path as a “traveler” (salik), then the cosmos becomes for him a crypt, a prison from which he must escape.
The illumination of the consciousness of the gnostic and the transformation of the cosmos from fact to symbol cannot be told but in terms of symbols (the “science of the elite”).
The “science of the elite” depends upon the symbolic interpretation of the Sacred Scriptures.
All the Ibn Sina’s cosmology derives from angelology.
Conclusion
The cosmological sciences came into being in the matrix of the traditional conception of the cosmos and were molded and conditioned by the principles of the Islamic revelation.
The Ikhwan al-Safa’ present the study of Nature as a part of a more general program for the education of the mankind. The study of the Universe is a valid and necessary step toward the knowledge of Divine realities.
All authors studied consider the study of Nature not as an end in itself but as a means to an end, as a scientia which leads to sapientia because it is always cultivated in the bosom of a wisdom which lies above the purely human domain of reason.
Muslim authors share the belief that the coordinate which determines knowledge of Nature is ultimately the Divine Intellect and not just the mind of man.
All knowledge of the cosmos must be able to relate the Universe to Him Who is the ontological origin.
The major perspectives presented in the writings of the Ikhwan al-Safa, al-Biruni, and Ibn Sina, for whom the study of the cosmos implies either the application of metaphysical principles, or the projection of the microcosm upon it, or the observation and contemplation of the handiwork of God, are to be found among many other Muslims authors as well.
There is a deep intuition in Islam, and in fact in most Oriental doctrines, that to have a knowledge of things is to know from where they originate, and therefore where they ultimately return.
Creation is the bringing into being of multiplicity from Unity, while gnosis is the complementary phase of the integration of the particular in the Universal.
The consideration of cosmology as branch of metaphysics.
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