Logic; some of it is sound and some of it is false
Ibn Taymiyya said that in itself, logic contains both truth and falsehood: “As for it in itself, some of it is truth and some of it is false.” The meaning of this phrase “it in itself” refers to its reality and essence [ mahiya ] by which it is what it is. The reality of logic is that it is a collection of principles and rules that, if followed, enable a person to avoid mistakes in his thought process. This is the meaning of logic “in itself”, so this being the case, it is in no way allowed to say that some of it is sound and some of it is false in itself. On the contrary, whatever is like that “in itself”, then it is completely valid and is in complete accordance with the Sacred Law and is completely legal.
That is with regards to logic in itself. As for logic insomuch as it is a collection of principles recorded in books, or with reference to a particular book of logic, then we are not able to say that everything in it is sound. It is possible that it might contain errors, but this is not what we call “logic in itself”. For example, if you said: “Islam in itself is the truth”, you would be completely correct. If, on the other hand, some scholars wrote on Islam, you are not able to say that all of what they wrote is completely correct because it is possible that it doesn’t express Islam “in itself”.
