Ikhwan Al-Safa

Ikhwan al-Safa or Brethren of Purity’s religious views: Islam and Tolerance.
Author: Clara Martínez Jiménez
Alfredo Gutierrez Kavanagh
Estudios Regionales: Middle East
Universidad Pontificia Comillas
12 de marzo de 2013

SUMMARY:
The encyclopaedia Treatises of the Pious Brethren consists of fifty-two treatises that compile the knowledge of different philosophical sciences, from mathematicsto music. The topic discussed in this paper is the Brethren’s views on religion tolerance taking into account they were Muslim and thought Islam was the religion par excellence.
KEY TERMS:
Rasa’il Ikhwan al-Safa’, Epistles of the Brethren of Purity, Ikhwan al-Safa’, encyclopaedia, science, philosophy, Basra, Shi‘a, religion, Islam, tolerance.

BACKGROUND AND ARGUMENT:

The Brethren of Puritywas a secret society of Muslim philosophers based in Basra, Iraq in our 10th century, 3rd or 4th century for Muslims. They were “a self-professed brotherhood of piously ascetic scholars [that] in order to advertise and propagate their special mix of philosophy and religion, […] wrote a lengthy account of all the known sciences and how the study of each in turn contributes to help liberate the souland set it on a course toward a future angelic existence once detached from its earthly prison upon the death body.” (Kavanagh, 2013) The structure of their organization has always been discussed, nevertheless their teachings are compiled in the Rasa’il Ikwan al-Safa’ or the Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity, which is composed by fifty-two epistles that would later influence laterencyclopedias and philosophers.
The name of the Brethren it is thought to come from a story in Kalilah wa-Dimnah, in which a group of animals (Ikhwan al-Safa) that have a faithful friendship finally end by escaping the snares of a hunter. And this story can be taken to explain the basic principle of mutual aid of the Brethren, which is reflected in one of the rasa’il:
“In this Brotherhood, self inforgotten; all act by the help of each, all rely upon each for succor and advice, and if a Brother sees it will be good for another that he should sacrifice his life for him, he willingly gives it.” (Lane-Poole, 1883)

It has been also hard to decide which identities are the main ones in the compound of the Brethren, because of the definition given in their Rasa’il of a perfect man as “of East Persianderivation, of Arabic faith, of Iraqui, that is Babylonian, in education Hebrew in astuteness, a disciple of Christ in conduct, as pious as a Syrian monk, a Greek in natural sciences, an Indian in the interpretation of mysteries and, above all a Sufi or a mystic in his whole spiritual outlook”. So forth there are and have always been problems in determining which would be the most suited identity ofaffiliation, whether Ismalii, Sufist … (Seyyed Hossein, 1993)
Their work, called the Treatises of the Pious Brethren, as I mentioned before, is usually taken as an early mode of an encyclopedia because of its massive comprehension of sciences and its encompass of such a wide variety of topics going from arithmetic to magic and music (including geometry, geology, astronomy, biology, psychology,politics, religion, medicine, education, meteorology, ethics…) (Kavanagh, 2013). Their work is mainly an educational tool that starts with the easiest and most basic pieces of information, such as tools and numbers; then in second course it mentions subjects as physics and biology or meteorology; on its third part of this division mentions sciences that affect intellect and soul, it starts with thework of Pythagoras and goes on in the explaining of the universe and its soul, theory that is very famous. And finally the last part makes reference to law, religion and religion legislation. (Kavanagh, 2013)
The Brethren speaks practically about religion, relating it with law and obedience. In Arabic the word religion is din, which also means: obedience to one head. Religion is for the Brethren...