The Theory of the Individual Substance: Its Religious Justifications, Specificity, and Prospects

Abstract

Natural philosophy will remain the first and primary level through which human beings engage with existence, knowledge, reality, and thought. No matter how strong the motive may be to move toward higher levels of being or knowledge, theorizing about this first level, the natural world, remains unavoidable.
Natural questions have always been, and will continue to be, a central axis of rational activity in every time and place. The results of this activity differ from one age to another, yet thinkers, theorists, and philosophers must remain aware of the natural knowledge available in their own time and incorporate it into their theories.
This can be seen in Abu Uthman al-Jahiz, who was among the pioneers of the naturalist tendency in Mu‘tazilite theology and one of the prominent figures of Arab culture. He emphasized that the true scholar should combine the study of theology with the study of natural science. He himself wrote on different aspects of natural phenomena, and natural philosophy strongly influenced the early Mu‘tazilites.