Joined Jan 2017
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Republika Srpska
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One of the most notable arguments of Muslim apologists today was that Islam ushered the Golden Age and was the main catalyst behind it. Obviously Islamic civilization had a Golden Age where it excelled in mathematics, poetry, philosophy etc. It was arguably more advanced than the Christian world at the time. But how much of it was due to the religion of Islam itself? Apparently some notable Golden Age figures had some less than orthodox views when it came to religion. Al-Ma'arri apparently wrote "do not suppose the statements of the prophets to be true; they are all fabrications", Abu Isa al-Warraq was a critic of Islam and the Quran, Abu Nuwas' poems are censored in modern Muslim world, a Christian was placed in charge of the famous House of Wisdom in Baghdad, there were many other notable Christians during the Golden Age (Yusuf al-Khuri, Janus Damascenus, Jibril ibn Bakhtisha), al-Razi was also hardly an orthodox Muslim and was criticized by al-Biruni because of it, Omar Khayyam's religious convictions were also questioned and there is a lot of dispute regarding whether or not how religious he was etc. It seems that many important figures of the Golden Age were not quite orthodox Muslims but held a number of heterodox views. Now there were those like al-Biruni or Ibn Sina or Ibn Khaldun that espoused a clearly Islamic worldview. Even then al-Ghazali criticized them in his Tahāfut al-Falāsifa.
Now obviously this is a question that cannot boil down to simple yes or no and given the shifting nature of religious interpretation might not have a clear answer but I am interested in what other views are.
Now obviously this is a question that cannot boil down to simple yes or no and given the shifting nature of religious interpretation might not have a clear answer but I am interested in what other views are.
