Discussions of Astrology in Early Tafsīr

Abstract

Judicial astrology, predicting future events on the basis of celestial positions, has been a fraught topic in Islamic literature. On one hand, the spectre of humans knowing their future with certainty would weaken the principle of human responsibility. On the other hand, given God's omnipotence, it would be entirely possible that the heavens were a means for God's control over the earth. Previous research on religious reactions to astrology in Islamic civilisation has used Ḥadīth and Kalām texts to conclude that the prevailing attitude was one of disapproval. My current research uses Tafsīr literature to argue that this attitude of disapproval was far more nuanced. This paper will first survey what early Tafsīr has said about astrology and, second, present late antique Jewish and Christian texts that could be the sources or context for the views on astrology found in early Tafsīr. To help explain some of the differences between early Tafsīr's view of astrology and early Kalām's view of astrology, the third section of this article covers certain statements made in early astrology texts in Islamic civilisation, texts composed, most likely, after the discussions of astrology in early Tafsīr. Fourth, I will present some early reactions of mutakallimūn to astrology. I will conclude that discussions of astrology in early Tafsīr, as well as most Islamic literature dating from before 287/900, were not concerned with astrology's causal framework, or even with predictions in principle, but rather with a defense of prophecy. I will also argue that the discussions of astrology in early Tafsīr were not as critical as the reactions of the early mutakallimūn to astrology.