Kelam Araştırmaları Dergisi

Abstract

 Astrology, as it?s known, a type of foresee that consists in the interpretion of the influence of planets, stars and all heavenly bodies on earthly affairs in order to predict or affect the destinies of individuals, groups, or nations, etc. It was originated in Mesopotamia, perhaps in the 3rd- 2nd millennium BCE, but attained its full development in Greek and Hellenistic period and entered Islamic world in the 8th and 9th CE. centuries in three simultaneous streams?Hellenistic, Indian and S?s?nian by translation of philosophical heritages. Some Muslim philosopher added to these influences the Harranian adaptation of the Neoplatonic definition of the mode of astral influences in terms of Aristotelian physics. Astrology was often challenged by medieval Muslim astronomers and especially theologians (mutakallimûn) and lawyers (fuqaha). Their reasons for refuting astrology were religious. For example, astrology had been criticised by theologians and religious lawyers since it was thought to be harmful to the religion because of its discussed topics and its foreign origin and considered as unlawful, as knowledge of the unseen is known only by God. For this reason, thinkers who are interested in astrology, in Islamic world, have had an intellectual effort to show its legality. It is possible to see examples of these efforts in Ikhwân el-Safâ?s philosophical thought. In this article we aim to show that Ikhwân el-Safâ??s effort on astrology was a legal struggle.