CU prof examines Islam through philosophy

Listening to Souleymane Bachir Diagne, one understands that philosophy involves not lofty contemplation, but rather self-motivated action.

Professor Diagne derives this notion of action specifically from his studies in Islamic religious philosophy. Nevertheless, he views the process of creating a religious identity in universal terms, and Islam is no exception.

Born in French-colonized Senegal in 1955, Diagne was raised in a devout Muslim family of philosophers. This environment greatly influenced his future path in academia. His father, a civil servant, was also a theologian and taught religion outside of his role in the government. He received a French-based education in Senegal and higher education at the École Normale Supérieure on fellowship.

Before coming to Columbia, Diagne returned to Senegal—after his stay in France­—to teach philosophy at the University of Dakar. He also taught philosophy and religion at Northwestern University from 2002 until 2007. Since arriving at Columbia last fall, Diagne, a professor of philosophy and French, has taught Contemporary Civilization and two graduate seminars: The Oral and the Written, a seminar offered through the French department on African tale narratives, and Islamic Philosophy.

Throughout his academic career, Diagne has written extensively on the subject of Islam and philosophy. In his 2001 book Islam et societé ouvert: La fidélité et le mouvement dans la philosophie d’Iqbal, Diagne discusses the modernist Islamic poet and philosopher Muhammad Iqbal’s use of poetry to express the relationship between Islam and modern society. Considered a founding father figure of Pakistan, Iqba, in Diagne’s words­, advocated for “pluralism and openness” in a new modernist milieu while advocating for a return to early Islam’s outlook on philosophy. “It was a matter of urgency,” Diagne added, “that these Muslim societies recapture their own principle of movement to Greek philosophy common in early Muslim culture.”

In his upcoming book, Comment philosopher en Islam, Professor Diagne explores similar topics but with a larger scope. He traces the development of Muslim philosophy from its earliest encounters with Greek philosophy until the present day. His argument validates Iqbal’s charge to rediscover an Islam that is open to contemporary philosophies and simultaneously emphasizes an active search for religious self-definition.

This openness naturally leads to religious introspection, which many radical believers conflate with doubt and sin. But Diagne, echoing Descartes, does not view such introspection as a sign of religious deviance, and Diagne maintains that Islam’s original philosophical precepts do not either. “Doubt,” he concluded, “can be used as a method to find truth that you can trust.”

This is precisely where religion and philosophy unite. As Diagne observed, “Religious faith is also about critical examination, which is truly the spirit of philosophy.” By opening up to contemporary ideologies, “this would be a way of recapturing the spirit of inquiry associated with philosophy.”

But is this intellectual discourse on religious philosophy actually practical for modern Muslim worshippers? Diagne believes it is.
While an intellectual endeavor, “it insists on something which is normally internal to Islam itself, which is the spirit of interpretation.” He further asserts that this interpretive spirit, known in Islam as ijtihad, is not only a function of an evolving Islamic philosophy but also prevalent within Muslim observance on the most basic level.

Diagne’s work underlies a humanistic ideology that people of all religions, races, and creeds should absorb. With political Islam at the forefront and Iqbal’s philosophy pushed aside, Diagne asserts the need to reclaim ideological openness to the myriad cultures surrounding us, just as the Muslims of the ninth century did with classical learning. This is a credo that he hopes all of us, philosophy majors included, can embrace.