Certainty and Ibn Ḥazm’s Idea of Religion

Dr. Moh’d Khair S. Eiedat

Abstract

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to reconstruct and thus critically reevaluate Ibn Ḥazm (Abū Muḥammad ‘Alī ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥazm 994-1064AD)’s Islamic thought. Ibn Ḥazm’s idea of faith is that of certainty. The basic assumption of certainty led Ibn Ḥazm 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-Islamic. This led Ibn Ḥazm to reject reason or reasoning, analogy, and ijtihād (individual opinion). Ibn Ḥazm had also to reject the use of abrogation and the occasion of revelation as potential methods for revisiting and interpreting the faith. Ibn Ḥazm’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.