Certainty and Ibn Hazm’s idea of religion

Abstract EN

The main purpose of this paper is to reconstruct and thus critically reevaluate Ibn Hazrn (Abu Muhammad ‘All ibn Ahmad ibn Hazrn 994- 1064AD)’s Islamic thought.

Ibn Hazrn" s idea of faith is that of certainty.

The basic assumption of certainty led Ibn Hazrn to advocate a single interpretation of faith dismissing any possibility of reevaluating and revisiting the faith.

Plurality of interpretation of the faith was dismissed as untrue and un-Islainic.

This led Ibn Hazrn to reject reason or reasoning, analogy, and ijtihad (individual opinion).

Ibn Hazrn had also to reject the use of abrogation and the occasion of revelation as potential methods for revisiting and interpreting the faith.

Ibn Hazrn's project raises a fundamental challenge, namely, whether it is possible to reconstruct an idea of faith that is based on the need for certainty and yet endorses the plurality of views in Islam and is also reasonable.

Challenging the fundamentalists' narrative should start with that.