Факхр ад-Дин ар-Рази: Жизнь, учение и вклад в науку

12th century Sunni Muslim theologian and philosopher

Fakhr al Dīn al Rāzī (فخر الدين الرازي) or Fakhruddin Razi (فخر الدين رازی) (1149 or 1150 – 1209), often known by the sobriquet Sultan of the Theologians, was an influential Iranian and Muslim polymath, scientist and one of the pioneers of inductive logic. He wrote various works in the fields of medicine, chemistry, physics, astronomy, cosmology, literature, theology, ontology, philosophy, history and jurisprudence. He was one of the earliest proponents and skeptics that came up with the concept of multiverse, and compared it with the astronomical teachings of Quran. A rejector of the geocentric model and the Aristotelian notions of a single universe revolving around a single world, al Razi argued about the existence of the outer space beyond the known world. Al Razi was born in Ray, Iran, and died in Herat, Afghanistan. He left a very rich corpus of philosophical and theological works that reveals influence from the works of Avicenna, Abu'l Barakāt al Baghdādī and al Ghazali. Two of his works titled Mabāhith al mashriqiyya fī 'ilm al ilāhiyyāt wa 'l tabi'iyyāt المباحث المشرقية في علم الإلهيات و الطبيعيات (Eastern Studies in Metaphysics and Physics) and al Matālib al 'Aliya المطالب العالية (The Higher Issues) are usually regarded as his most important philosophical works.

Fakhr al Din al Razi, whose full name was Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar ibn al Ḥusayn (أبو عبد الله محمد بن عمر بن الحسين), was born in 1149 or 1150 CE (543 or 544 AH) in Ray (close to modern Tehran), whence his nisba al Razi. Either his great grandfather or his grandfather migrated from Mecca to Tabaristan (a mountainous region located on the Caspian coast of northern Iran) in the 11th century, and some time after that the family settled in Ray. However, it is not clear from which precise lines of descent al Razi envisioned his purported ties with Abu Bakr to result, and the poet Ibn ʿUnayn (died 1233) actually praised him as a descendant of the second caliph Umar ibn al Khattab (died 644). Fakhr al Din first studied with his father, Ḍiyāʾ al Dīn al Makkī, himself a scholar of some repute whose magnum opus in kalam has recently been rediscovered in part, and later at Merv and Maragheh, where he was one of the pupils of Majd al Din al Jili, who in turn had been a disciple of al Ghazali. He was a leading proponent of the Ash'ari school of theology. His commentary on the Quran was the most varied and many sided of all extant works of the kind, comprising most of the material of importance that had previously appeared. He devoted himself to a wide range of studies and is said to have expended a large fortune on experiments in alchemy. He taught at Ray (Central Iran) and Ghazni (eastern Afghanistan), and became head of the university founded by Mohammed ibn Tukush at Herat (western Afghanistan). In his later years, he also showed interest in mysticism, though this never formed a significant part of his thought.

One of Imam Razi's outstanding achievements was his unique interpretive work on the Quran called Mafātiḥ al Ghayb (Keys to the Unseen) and later nicknamed Tafsīr al Kabīr (The Great Commentary), one reason being that it was 32 volumes in length. This work contains much of philosophical interest. One of his "major concerns was the self sufficiency of the intellect." His "acknowledgment of the primacy of the Qur'an grew with his years." Al Razi's rationalism undoubtedly "holds an important place in the debate in the Islamic tradition on the harmonization of reason and revelation." According to Tony Street, we should not see in Razi's theoretical life a journey from a young dialectician to a religious condition. It seems that he adopted different thoughts of diverse schools, such as those of Mutazilite and Asharite, in his exegesis, The Great Commentary.

Al Razi, in dealing with his conception of physics and the physical world in his Matalib al 'Aliya, criticizes the idea of the geocentric model within the universe and "explores the notion of the existence of a multiverse in the context of his commentary" on the Quranic verse, "All praise belongs to God, Lord of the Worlds." He raises the question of whether the term "worlds" in this verse refers to "multiple worlds within this single universe or cosmos, or to many other universes or a multiverse beyond this known universe." Al Razi states: and that God has the power to fill the vacuum with an infinite number of universes.