Analytic Islamic Epistemology: Critical Debates

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Analytic Islamic Epistemology

Critical Debates

Edited by: Safaruk Chowdhury and Ramon Harvey

Language: English

Published/Copyright: 2026

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About this book

The first collected volume on the Islamic tradition and analytic epistemology in conversation

Broaches a conversation between Islamic philosophy and theology, and analytic epistemology
Articulates a new subfield of scholarship within philosophy of religion
Discusses a range of significant figures, themes and perspectives within religious and Islamic epistemology

Epistemology has a distinguished history within Islamic philosophical and theological discourses. Muslim scholars sought to explain what knowledge was, where it came from, and how it could be justified. They were especially interested in religious knowledge and the core question of why human beings were justified in their belief in God and the Prophet Muhammad. In this volume, editors Safaruk Chowdhury and Ramon Harvey, alongside fifteen contributing authors, put this vibrant tradition of thought into sustained dialogue with contemporary analytic philosophy of religion and clarify what is at stake in their mutual interaction. The text acts, therefore, as a founding document for the new subfield of analytic Islamic epistemology. By bringing together the insights of intellectual historians, comparative religionists, philosophers of religion and analytic epistemologists, this book maps historical articulations of Islamic epistemology, the ongoing conversation with Christian counterparts, the advancement of key existing debates, and proposals for the future.

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Frontmatter
i

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Contents
v

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Notes on Contributors
vii

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Acknowledgements
ix

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Introduction: From Islamic Theology to Analytic Philosophy
1
Safaruk Chowdhury and Ramon Harvey

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Part I Epistemology outside Kalām: Falsafa, Traditionalism and Sufism
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1 A New Look at al-Fārābī on Philosophy versus Theology
47
Anthony Robert Booth

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2 God as an Empirical Entity: The Expanded Scope of Sense Perception in Sunnī Traditionalist Spatialism
66
Jon Hoover

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3 The Tripartite Division of Knowledge and Belief in al-Makkī’s Nourishment of the Hearts
80
Harith Ramli

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Part II Epistemological Sources in Kalām: Perception, Reason and Testimony
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4 How to Know? Justifying Experience in Classical Kalām
101
Hannah C. Erlwein

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5 Divine Freedom meets Logical Necessity: On the Relationship between Rational Speculation and Knowledge in Classical Ashʿarī Foundationalism
118
Laura Hassan

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6 Mass Transmission of Prophetic Miracles in the Contemplation and Proof of Core Creed
133
Aaron Spevack

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Part III Comparative Studies in Islamic and Christian Epistemology
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7 The Epistemological Status of Causation within al-Ghazālī’s Cosmological Argument in Light of Reid’s Modest Foundationalism
159
Ayşenur Ünügür-Tabur

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8 ‘Is There Any Doubt about God?’: Maktab-i Tafkīk’s Religious Epistemology in Comparison with Reformed Epistemology
173
Amir Mohammad Emami

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9 Knowing God Personally: Second-person Knowledge in Christian and Islamic Analytic Theology
195
David Worsley

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Part IV Contemporary Debates on the Basicality of Islamic and Christian Belief
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10 Fiṭra Foundationalism
217
Jamie B. Turner

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11 Dealing with Defeaters for Warranted Islamic Belief: A Reply to Turner
249
Erik Baldwin

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12 Creation, Sin and Salvation: Essential Categories for a Christian-Theistic Epistemology
261
K. Scott Oliphint

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Part V Islamic Epistemology Today: Disciplinary, Scriptural and Social Discourses
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13 Advice for Muslim Epistemologists
283
Kelly James Clark

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14 Epistemological Foundations of Qur’anic Ethics: Understanding, Wisdom and Righteousness
300
M. Ashraf Adeel

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15 Individualism and Anti-individualism in Islamic Epistemology
317
John Greco

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Afterword: Epistemological Themes Revisited
333
Safaruk Chowdhury and Ramon Harvey

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Glossary of Arabic Epistemological Terminology
336

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Glossary of Analytic Epistemological Terminology
339

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Index
342

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Publishing information

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

eBook published on:

September 30, 2025

eBook ISBN:

9781399533140

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

Main content:

368

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781399533140

eBook ISBN: 9781399533140

Keywords for this book

philosophy of Islam; Islamic philosophy; Islamic Philosophy and Religion; analytic philosophy; epistemology; justification; belief; knowledge

Audience(s) for this book

For universities and colleges of further and higher education

Analytic Islamic Epistemology

Overview

About this book

Topics

Table of contents

Frontmatter

Contents

Notes on Contributors

Acknowledgements

Introduction: From Islamic Theology to Analytic Philosophy

1 A New Look at al-Fārābī on Philosophy versus Theology

2 God as an Empirical Entity: The Expanded Scope of Sense Perception in Sunnī Traditionalist Spatialism

3 The Tripartite Division of Knowledge and Belief in al-Makkī’s Nourishment of the Hearts

4 How to Know? Justifying Experience in Classical Kalām

5 Divine Freedom meets Logical Necessity: On the Relationship between Rational Speculation and Knowledge in Classical Ashʿarī Foundationalism

6 Mass Transmission of Prophetic Miracles in the Contemplation and Proof of Core Creed

7 The Epistemological Status of Causation within al-Ghazālī’s Cosmological Argument in Light of Reid’s Modest Foundationalism

8 ‘Is There Any Doubt about God?’: Maktab-i Tafkīk’s Religious Epistemology in Comparison with Reformed Epistemology

9 Knowing God Personally: Second-person Knowledge in Christian and Islamic Analytic Theology

10 Fiṭra Foundationalism

11 Dealing with Defeaters for Warranted Islamic Belief: A Reply to Turner

12 Creation, Sin and Salvation: Essential Categories for a Christian-Theistic Epistemology

13 Advice for Muslim Epistemologists

14 Epistemological Foundations of Qur’anic Ethics: Understanding, Wisdom and Righteousness

15 Individualism and Anti-individualism in Islamic Epistemology

Afterword: Epistemological Themes Revisited

Glossary of Arabic Epistemological Terminology

Glossary of Analytic Epistemological Terminology

Index

Bibliographic data