Ibn al-Nafīsova kritika Ibn Ṭufayla
Ibn Al-Nafīs’ Critique of Ibn Ṭufayl

Summary/Abstract: The subject of this paper is Ibn al-Nafīs’ critique of Ibn Ṭufayl’s conception that truth can be known by reason‒without the necessary mediation of the authority of Revelation or Prophethood. One century after Ibn Ṭufayl wrote the Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān, Ibn al-Nafīs in the Al-Risālah al-Kāmiliyyah fī al-Sirah al-Nabawiyah takes a similar narrative framework to develop a conservative discourse claiming that tradition is the most important topos of cognition. While Ibn Ṭufayl encourages the reader to dare to think, Ibn al-Nafīs calls for caution: knowledge and belief come through tradition. His hero spends most of his life looking for the wisdom of the Prophethood, unlike Ibn Ṭufayl’s hero who understands the world and the knowledge of the Creator through experience and reason.

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