Abu Isa al-Warraq, full name ''Abū ʿĪsā Muḥammad ibn Hārūn al-Warrāq'' ( ar, أبو عيسى محمد بن هارون الوراق, died 861-2 AD/247 AH), was a 9th-century

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

skeptic scholar and

critic of Islam Criticism of Islam is broadly defined as criticism of the Islamic religion in its beliefs, principles, and/or any other ideas attributed to Islam. Criticism of Islam has existed since Islam's formative stages. Early written disapprovals came f ...

and religion in general. He was a

mentor Mentorship is the influence, guidance, or direction given by a mentor. A mentor is someone who teaches or gives help and advice to a less experienced and often younger person. In an organizational setting, a mentor influences the personal and p ...

and friend of scholar

Ibn al-Rawandi Abu al-Hasan Ahmad ibn Yahya ibn Ishaq al-Rawandi ( ar, أبو الحسن أحمد بن يحيى بن إسحاق الراوندي), commonly known as Ibn al-Rawandi ( ar, ابن الراوندي;‎ 827–911 CEAl-Zandaqa Wal Zanadiqa, by Moham ...

in whose work ''The Book of the Emerald'' he appears. A modern critic of

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

Ibn Warraq Ibn Warraq is the pen name of an anonymous author critical of Islam. He is the founder of the Institute for the Secularisation of Islamic Society and used to be a senior research fellow at the Center for Inquiry, focusing on Quranic criticis ...

, derives his pseudonym from al-Warraq.

Views of revealed religions

Al-Warraq was skeptical of the existence of God. He wrote "He who orders his slave to do things that he knows him to be incapable of doing, then punishes him, is a fool," referring to a God that would order humans to act in unrealistic ways then punish them for failing. Al-Warraq challenged the notion of revealed religion. He argued that if humans are capable of figuring out that, for instance, it is good to be forgiving, then a prophet is unnecessary, and that we should not heed the claims of self-appointed prophets, if what is claimed is found to be contrary to good sense and reason. Al-Warraq admired the intellect not for its capacity to submit to a god, but rather for its inquisitiveness towards the wonders of science. He explained that people developed the science of astronomy by gazing at the sky, and that no prophet was necessary to show them how to gaze; he also said that no prophets were needed to show them how to make flutes, either, or how to play them.

Views of Islam

Al-Warraq doubted claims portraying Muhammad as a prophet:

Views on Christianity

Few Arab scholars of the period directly engaged with Christianity, partially due to a lack of access to Christian scriptures in Arabic, and partially due to a belief that Christian documents were defective and unfruitful to study. Al-Warraq wrote ''Radd ʿalā al-thalāth firaq min al-Naṣārā'' ("The Refutation of three Christian sects"), one of the most detailed attacks on Christianity of the period, where he shows unusual familiarity with Christian theology and history. He criticizes the conflicting notions of the

Incarnation of Jesus In Christian theology, the incarnation is the belief that the pre-existent divine person of Jesus Christ, God the Son, the second person of the Trinity, and the eternally begotten ''Logos'' (Koine Greek for "word"), took upon human nature and ...

as contradictory, that he was both human and divine. He cites how Christian denominations themselves have struggled and disagreed with each other on the meaning of the Incarnation and the

Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the F ...

References

9th-century people from the Abbasid Caliphate Former Muslim critics of Islam Freethought Place of birth unknown 889 births 994 deaths 9th-century Arabs Shia hadith scholars {{Islamic-scholar-stub