Is Philosophy Halal (lawful) or Haram (prohibited) in Islam law?
It really depends on who you ask. Al-Ghazali and Ibn Rushd differed on this issue. Ibn Taymiyah also has quite a different thought on this as well. For this site we will include all opinions and let you the intelligent reader decide. It is the same as the question of Music in Islam; there are those who see nothing wrong with it whereas others see it as something forbidden. Ibn Rushd wrote a defense called the “decisive treatise” (Fasl al-Maqal). Imam Ghazali wrote Iljam al-awam an ilm al-Kalam (Keeping the masses away from Kalam (Rational theology)). Al-Ghazali in his refutation of philosophers (on this site) concludes that there are acceptable aspects and there are unacceptable aspects. Whereas Ibn Taymiyah simply sees that Islam has no need for all these sciences -See entry above and his works (Against the Greek Logicians, Majmooa al-Fatway (His Massive Compendium of Rulings) the volume on philosophy and his Dara taraud al-Aql wa Naql (Preventing Reason from going against Revelation)
