Reading Ibn Rushd in Beirut…

This week, I’ve been busy reading Ibn Rushd by the sea in Beirut. As my students and I begin discussing his treatise on the relationship between religion and philosophy, we’ll be contemplating and debating his argument that there’s no conflict between demonstrative and scriptural truth…

Now since this religion is true and [it] summons to the study which leads to knowledge of the Truth, we the Muslim community know definitely that demonstrative study does not lead to [conclusions] conflicting with what Scripture has given us; for truth does not oppose truth but accords with it and bears witness to it…

— Ibn Rushd (ابن رشد), On the Harmony of Religion and Philosophy