According to, Al-Kindi, philosophy is “the science of things with their facts,” as well as “the industry of industries and the wisdom of all wisdom”. He vigorously defended it against narrow-minded jurists and clerics who declared philosophers infidels, accusing them of heresy out of their false belief that religion does not allow mind thinking. He described them as short-sighted, narrow-minded, and ignorant.
In his defense of philosophy, Al-Kindi not only encouraged people to pursue their philosophical studies but also negated the notions of infidelity and heresy. This encouraged him to seek a reconciliation of philosophical and religious facts. As a result, he became the first to engage in the grand controversy in Islamic philosophy: regarding the questionable relationship between reason and written heritage, or wisdom and the law, according to the well-known term adopted by Ibn Rushd later.
