Debate Tradition in Islamic Intellectual History

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Debate Illustration (special)

sukabumiNews.net – Centuries before interacting with Aristotle’s dialectic works, Muslims have practiced a culture of debate. They describe this argumentative tradition with various concepts, such as al-hijā’ (satire) and al-naqā’iḍ (flytings/competition in poetry), mujādalah (polemic) in the context of the Qur’an, khilāf (disagreement/difference of views), and jadal (dialectical/debate) in law and theology.

The writing below will focus on jadal. The main reference is the writing of the Member of the Tarjih and Tajdid Council of PP Muhammadiyah Mohammad Syifa Amin Widigdo entitled “Aristotelian Dialectic, Medieval Jadal, and Medieval Scholastic Disputation”. This article written by a lecturer at the Muhammadiyah University of Yogyakarta is available in The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences volume 35 number 4 published in 2018. In this article, Syifa describes the historical aspects of jadal in the tradition of Islamic intellectual history.

Aristotle's influence on Muslim intellectuals began when scholars, especially theologians (mutakallimūn), first encountered Aristotle's dialectic work. Caliph al-Mahdī (d. 169/785) ordered the translation of Aristotle's book "Topics" in 165/782. He also asked Muslim theologians to respond to the arguments of heretics (heretics) and skeptics (philosophers) by integrating dialectics (jadal) into their practices and scientific works. The goal was only one: to defend the Islamic faith.

Yaḥyā b. Muḥammad b. Isḥāq b. Rīwandī (d. 298/910), better known as Ibn Rīwandī, a prominent theologian, wrote a treatise entitled “Ādāb al-Jadal” in the late third or early fourth century. After that, other theological jadal writings appeared, either to criticize or defend Ibn Rīwandī, as in the case of al-Kaʿbī al-Balkhī (d. 319/931) and al-Ashʿarī (d. 319/931). These writings focused more on developing the theory of jadal, with the aim of reaching the truth, defeating opponents, or defending a particular theological position from external challenges.

Some of the theologians who wrote on jadal include Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī (d. 332-6/944-8), Ibn Wahb al-Kātib (c. 335/946), al-Muṭahhar b. Ṭāhir al-Maqdisī (c. 355/966), Abū Bakr Muḥammad Ibn Furāk (d. 406/1015), Ibn Ḥazm (d. 456/1064), and al-Khātib al-Baghdādī (d. 463/1071). This period reflects significant developments in the use and understanding of jadal among Muslim intellectuals, marking an early stage in the formulation of their own jadal theory.

The development of works on jadal by Muslim theologians, although including apologetic purposes, has a normative claim that jadal can achieve truth. In this regard, Muslim theologians try to distinguish the purpose of their dialectics from Aristotelian dialectics.

If the purpose of Aristotelian dialectics is to show contradictions in the opponent's reasoning so that one can win the debate; Muslim scholars claim that their goal through the development of jadal practice and theory is to achieve truth. In order to achieve truth, Muslim theologians modified the questions of Aristotelian dialectics, namely the restrictive “yes” or “no” questions (erotema), into more open questions (pusma) that require longer answers. In addition, they shifted from logical questions that assess the logical validity of the opponent to epistemic questions that seek knowledge and its evidence. Thus, this approach reflects the efforts of Muslim scholars to achieve substantive truth through the application of jadal.

Islamic scholars disagree if the jadal which is a way to seek truth uses unethical methods. Jadal which has unethical motives usually grows in the theological genre rather than law. Abū Bakr al-Qaffāl al-Syāsyī (d. 365/976) then differentiates between “praiseworthy jadal” whose goal is to seek truth; and “despicable jadal” whose only goal is to win. “Praiseworthy jadal” is the right way to achieve substantive truth; while “despicable jadal” will only lead to counterproductive hostility.

The scholars then wrote books about the rules of “praiseworthy jadal” in the context of legal discourse. Some of them are al-Qaffāl al-Syāsyī (d. 365/976), Abū al-Ḥusayn al-Ṣaymirī (d. 436/1044), Ibn Ḥazm (d. 456/1063), Abū al-Walīd al-Bājī (d. 474/1081), Abū Bakr al-Khaffāf (c. 4th/10th century), Abū Isḥāq al-Syīrāzī (d. 476/1083), Abū al-Wafā’ b. ʿAqīl (d. 513/1119). The development of the theory of time in this period reached its peak, according to Wael B Hallaq, with the presence of Imam al-Ḥaramayn al-Juwaynī (d. 478/1085).

Al-Juwaynī was not only a jurist (faqīh), but also a theologian (mutakallim) who wrote influential theological treatises such as Kitāb al-Irsyād and al-Syāmil fī uṣūl al-dīn. He followed the Shāfiʿī school of thought in fiqh (law) and the Ashʿarī school of law in kalām (theology). He formulated a systematically organized dialectical theory in al-Kāfīyah fī al-jadal, which was later also applied in his kalām and fiqh works. In this context, as a faqīh and mutakallim, Imam al-Ḥaramayn uses "praiseworthy jadal" in both legal and theological settings.

Al-Juwaynī defines jadal (both in the discussion of fiqh and theology) as “jadal that aims to seek the truth and expose falsehood, aspiring to obtain divine guidance, along with those who want to return to the truth from falsehood.” Truth, said Imam al-Ḥaramayn, is al-tsubūt (certainty or certainty). The level of al-tsubūt resulting from the jadal process is “stronger certainty” (ghalabat al-ẓann), namely the existence of epistemological certainty (qaṭʿī) and psychological certainty (al-yaqīn).

In other words, although Aristotle's dialectic had an influence on Islamic scholars in the Middle Ages, they were able to modify it to suit the interests of Muslims. They successfully developed the idea of ​​"praiseworthy jadal" which did not aim to defeat the opponent rhetorically in order to gain fame, wealth, or prestige. In Islam, the jadal tradition is directed at the effort to obtain the truth. In this context, the truth that is sought includes epistemic and psychological dimensions.

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References:

Mohammad Syifa Amin Widigdo, "Aristotelian Dialectic, Medieval Jadal, and Medieval Scholastic Disputation", in The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, Vol. 35 No. 4 (2018).

Imam al-Ḥaramayn al-Juwaynī, al-Kāfīya fī al-Jadal, ed. Fawqīyah Ḥusayn Maḥmūd (Cairo: Dār al-Iḥyā’ al-Kutub al-ʽArabīya, 1979).

Wael B. Hallaq, A History of Islamic Legal Theories: An Introduction to Sunnī Uṣūl Al-Fiqh (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997).