Ruling on Learning Logic

Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allah. Peace and blessings be upon Prophet Mohammad and upon his family and righteous companions: Logic is one of the Sharia sciences because it is a means of it, and because the truth and indications of things are known through it. Ibn Abdeen said: “ Logic is seeking evidence and its conditions as well as definitions and their conditions. Both of these are part of Islamic Theology.”{Rad`d Al-Mohtaar(1/43)}. Al-Imam Ibin Hajar Al-Haitami pointed out the position of Logic and that it is a means of the Sharia science: “ Sacred knowledge and its ancillary disciplines, like formal logic.”{Al-Minhajj Al-Qaweem(1/45)}. Being a Sharia science that helps in understanding other branches of Sharia such as The Principles of Jurisprudence and the like, Logic is a collective duty parallel to the rest of Sharia sciences, and it should be acquired by a class of the Muslim nation because it is a means of proving evidence and attestations in a rational manner to rule out suspicious matters about Islam. “Establishing evidence in a scholarly manner is amongst the collective duties prescribed on Muslims. “Moghni Al-Mohtajj(6/9).” Seeking a certain discipline could be an individual duty on whoever has the potential and the capability to acquire it. “ Whoever is capable of Imamah(Highest rank in Islamic jurisprudence) and Ijtihad(To exercise discretionary opinion based on evidence from the Quran and the Sunnah), then seeking knowledge is incumbent upon him i.e. it is an individual duty on whoever is capable of it.”[Manh Al-Jaleel93/138}. Logic books are of two kinds: Ones that were influenced by the false Philosophical doctrines and ones that weren`t. Therefore, the ruling on Logic rests on differentiating between these two kinds for the jurisprudential opinions that prohibit Logic actually prohibit reading the books which contain false doctrines so as to protect people from falling into sin and falsehood. As for the books of Logic accredited by the Muslim scholars for learning and teaching, they are the ones that haven`t been mixed with doctrines that contradict those of Islam. Based on this, the majority of Muslim scholars don`t consider Logic as forbidden because it is a discipline that had been edited and cleared from the false doctrines. Ibn Abdeen said: “It isn`t permissible to forbid the logic of the Muslim scholars which tackles issues pertaining to Islamic principle , rather, Alghazali named it The Criterion of Sciences, about which Muslim scholars have written many books ” Rad`d Al-Mohtaar”(1/45).” Based on the aforementioned, Logic and the discipline of Jurisprudential Principles that contain subjects from Logic are part of the Sharia sciences, and are a collective duty. In addition, books that contain these aspects of knowledge enjoy the same status as the books of Sharia as far as dealing with them is concerned. And Allah knows best.