Characteristics of Philosophy and its relation to the Sciences

The epistle at hand treats of the qualities and characteristics of philosophy and its relation to the other sciences, holding firstly that philosophy is the leader of all other sciences, and secondly that divine philosophy is a particular world view that transforms possible propositions into necessary propositions and necessary propositions into eternally [necessary] propositions. The latter are the most fundamental bases for knowledge and without them we can have no recourse to the truth. The article further illustrates that philosophy, on account of its subsistent, universal, and absolute nature, is the criterion for the validity and invalidity, or the truth and falsehood of other sciences. Accordingly the sacred or profane nature of other sciences is dependent upon this [supra-scientific] philosophy that they are all attached to. Hence if pure philosophy becomes a divine philosophy, all other sciences in their turn become sacred and properly religious. The fundamental reason for this is the fact that all existents, whether material or immaterial, real or mentally posited, are the creations of God; and as the realm of existence is nothing but the created order, creation is the object of human knowledge—the latter then becoming nothing but the exposition of creation. The study concludes by elucidating on some points pertaining to Islamic philosophy in its role as a divine and religious science, as opposed to a profane and secular enterprise.