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Theologus Autodidactus

By Ibn al-Nafis

الرسالة الكاملية في السيرة النبوية (فاضل بن ناطق)

Ibn al-Nafis's philosophical tale of a child who deduces religion and science alone on an island — the earliest complete philosophical novel, a root of science fiction.

Depth

At a glance

Identifiers
Wikidata
Review
Draft Completeness 1/5 · Help complete it

In time

126012701280
The Crusades, Ayyubids and Mamluks · The Mongol and Post-Mongol Era

LiteraturePhilosophy and logicSpirituality and Sufism

Overview

The novel of Ibn al-Nafis (thirteenth century), 'Theologus Autodidactus': a child born on a deserted island discovers for himself the existence of God, prophethood and the laws, centuries before Ibn Tufayl and Defoe. 1

Legacy

One of the oldest philosophical stories in the world; Orientalists read it as a possible influence on Robinson Crusoe and European philosophy. 1

People and things also explored

Fu'ad and qalb (the heart as insight)· Religious experience· Tests of religious experience: intellectual and pragmatic· Abu al-Wafa al-Ghunaymi al-Taftazani· The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam· Prophetic adab (proper conduct)· Akhi Baba (title of the guild shaykh and tanners' head)· Wisdom (al-hikma)

Sources

  1. Wikidata
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Theologus Autodidactus”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/work/fadil-ibn-natiq/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-17.

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Related

Fu'ad and qalb (the heart as insight)

Two Qur'anic words, fu'ad and qalb, used for an inner faculty of insight that sees and understands and through which a person reaches aspects of reality that the senses alone do not reach. Muhammad Iqbal places it beside sense-perception in Lecture I, and reads it as a way of dealing with reality rather than a special hidden faculty.