Logic (Mantiq) in the Islamic Intellectual Tradition

Logic (mantiq, from the Arabic root for "speech/articulation") has been one of the most debated subjects in Islamic intellectual history. Introduced to the Muslim world through translations of Aristotle's works during the Abbasid era, logic was adopted by many Muslim scholars as a tool for clear reasoning and argumentation. Others, however, viewed it with suspicion as a foreign import that could corrupt Islamic thought. This tension produced a rich scholarly tradition of both pro-logic and anti-logic literature.

Adoption and Development

The early Muslim philosophers, al-Kindi, al-Farabi, and Ibn Sina, championed logic as a universal tool of thought. Al-Farabi wrote extensively on logic and argued it was essential for any serious intellectual endeavor. Ibn Sina's logical works became standard references. Among the theologians (mutakallimun), both the Ash'ari and Maturidi schools gradually incorporated logical methods into their argumentation, especially for defending orthodox beliefs against philosophical challenges. The integration of logic reached its peak with Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, who, despite his famous refutation of the philosophers in "Tahafut al-Falasifah," wrote "Mi'yar al-Ilm" (The Standard of Knowledge) defending the use of logic as a neutral tool.

The Opposition

Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH) mounted the most comprehensive critique of Greek logic in his "al-Radd ala al-Mantiqiyyin" (Refutation of the Logicians). He argued that the Aristotelian syllogism was not the only, or even the best, method of arriving at truth, and that the Quran and Sunnah employed their own patterns of argumentation that were more effective. He did not reject reasoning itself but argued that Islamic scholarship had its own indigenous logical tradition (the qiyas of the jurists, the methods of hadith criticism) that was superior to imported Greek models. Ibn al-Qayyim elaborated on his teacher's critique. Later scholars like al-Suyuti also wrote critically about logic.

The Settled Position

In practice, the study of logic became a standard part of the Islamic madrasa curriculum from the medieval period onward, particularly in the Ottoman, Mughal, and Central Asian educational systems. The texts of al-Abhari (Isaghuji), al-Katibi (al-Risalah al-Shamsiyyah), and their commentaries were studied as introductions to formal reasoning. Most later scholars adopted a middle position: logic as a tool is permissible and useful, but it must be subordinate to revelation and the established principles of the Islamic sciences. The philosophical conclusions drawn by al-Farabi and Ibn Sina were critiqued, but the formal methods of logic were retained as a beneficial instrument of thought.