A Polemical Critique of Philosophical Heresies
The Maqāmi‘ al-Ḥadīd of Aḥmad Riḍā Khān
Abstract
This article examines Maqāmi‘ al-Ḥadīd, a little-studied treatise by Aḥmad Riḍā Khān (d. 1921), one of the most influential Sunni scholars of colonial India, as a polemical critique of philosophical doctrines deemed heretical by Islamic orthodoxy. Through a detailed analysis of Khān’s refutation of eight propositions drawn from the Aristotelian-Avicennian philosophical tradition, the study highlights Khān’s broader antagonism towards philosophy as a discipline he saw as corrosive to Islamic belief and religious certainty. By situating Maqāmi‘ al-Ḥadīd within the wider context of Khān’s writings and the colonial educational reforms of nineteenth-century British India, the article suggests how his rejection of philosophy may be part of a larger intellectual and pedagogical resistance to a broader colonial modernity. Khān’s critique reflects deep anxieties about epistemological authority, the integrity of Islamic knowledge, and the threat of secular rationalism to Muslim identity and religious life. In challenging recent portrayals of Khān as exhibiting a significant affinity for philosophy, this article argues instead that his polemics against philosophy were a conscious act of intellectual and cultural preservation in an era of profound transformation.
Keywords: Aḥmad Riḍā Khān; Maqāmi‘ al-Ḥadīd; philosophical heresies
Metadata Record
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