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Freethinkers of Medieval Islam: Ibn al-Rawandi, Abu Bakr al-Razi, and their Impact on Islamic Thought. By SARAH STROUMSA. Islamic Philosophy, Theology, and Science, vol. 35 Leiden: BRILL, 1999. Pp. xii + 261. H1l 135, $79.50.
In this well-written book, Dr. Sarah Stroumsa draws our attention to the existence of "freethinking" in Islam and presents it as a peculiarly Islamic phenomenon. This claim may surprise if one does not take into account how she defines "freethinking." By it she means "the belief in the sufficiency of the intellect" and, therefore, "the rejection of prophecy and all religions based on revelation," but not atheism or agnosticism. Such freethinkers do acknowledge the existence of God, the intellect's ability to know some of His attributes, and to infer from them a way of life. As the intellect provides all that human beings need to live a good life, there is no need for prophecy. Though Stroumsa surmises that freethinkers were very few, they had, she thinks, a...