al-Ghazali
Philosophers cannot prove what they claim: there is no necessary link between cause and effect, only God acting – and certainty comes through mystical experience.
Placement
Attacked the philosophers in “The Incoherence of the Philosophers” – and found his way to mysticism through doubt.
Key ideas
- Critique of causality
- Occasionalism
- Crisis of doubt and the search for certainty
Influence
Influenced by 2
Rabia al-Adawiyya
influenced by
In the Book of Love of his Revival of the Religious Sciences al-Ghazali quoted and explained Rabia’s verses on the two kinds of love for God. al-Ghazali, Ihya ulum al-din, Kitab al-mahabba, tr. E. Ormsby, Love, Longing, Intimacy and Contentment (2011); M. Smith, Rabia the Mystic (1928)
Evidence: AI draft
Rabia al-Adawiyya › traditionally c. 714–801
al-Ashari
influenced by
Al-Ghazali wrote as a theologian of al-Ashari’s school: his Moderation in Belief (c. 1095) expounds Asharite doctrine, and his critique of necessary causation follows Asharite occasionalism. al-Ghazali, al-Iqtisad fi l-itiqad (c. 1095); Tahafut al-falasifa (1095); SEP “al-Ghazali”
Evidence: AI draft
al-Ashari › c. 874–936
Influenced 10
Fakhr al-Din al-Razi
influenced
Ibn Khaldun named Fakhr al-Din al-Razi as al-Ghazali’s successor in the new approach of the later theologians, which Razi carried further by engaging the philosophers’ arguments in detail. Ibn Khaldun, al-Muqaddima (1377), section on kalam, tr. F. Rosenthal (1958); F. Griffel, The Formation of Post-Classical Philosophy in Islam (2021)
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
Fakhr al-Din al-Razi › c. 1150–1210
Ibn Arabi
influenced
Ibn Arabi took up al-Ghazali’s view that inspired unveiling (kashf) gives surer knowledge of God than rational reflection, refining how the two relate in the Meccan Revelations. Ibn Arabi, al-Futuhat al-makkiyya; W. C. Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge (1989); SEP “Ibn Arabi”
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
Ibn Arabi › 1165–1240
Thomas Aquinas
influenced ✓
Thomas, like Albert, used the Latin translation of al-Ghazali’s Doctrines of the Philosophers (Maqasid, by Gundissalinus) as a source on Arabic philosophy – taking “Algazel”, whose critical frame the translators had left out, for a follower of Avicenna. SEP “al-Ghazali” (F. Griffel), section on the Latin reception; al-Ghazali, Maqasid al-falasifa, Latin Summa theoricae philosophiae (12th c.)
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Thomas Aquinas › c. 1225–1274
Ramon Llull
influenced
Llull adapted the logic of al-Ghazali’s Intentions of the Philosophers in his Compendium logicae Algazelis and its Catalan verse version, the Lògica del Gatzell (c. 1271–72). R. Llull, Compendium logicae Algazelis; Lògica del Gatzell; A. Bonner, The Art and Logic of Ramon Llull (2007); SEP “Ramon Llull”
Evidence: AI draft
Ramon Llull › c. 1232–1316
Ibn Khaldun
influenced
Ibn Khaldun named al-Ghazali the first to write in the way of the later theologians and shared his doubts about the philosophers’ metaphysical proofs (Muqaddima, 1377). Ibn Khaldun, al-Muqaddima (1377), sections on kalam and on philosophy, tr. F. Rosenthal (1958)
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
Ibn Khaldun › 1332–1406
Shah Waliullah
influenced
In the introduction to The Conclusive Argument from God Shah Waliullah named al-Ghazali with respect among the forerunners who had explained the reasons behind the revealed law. Shah Wali Allah, Hujjat Allah al-baligha, introduction, tr. M. K. Hermansen, The Conclusive Argument from God (1996)
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
Shah Waliullah › 1703–1762
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Judah Halevi
influenced disputed
Halevi’s critique of the philosophers in the Kuzari (c. 1140) resembles al-Ghazali’s Incoherence of the Philosophers; whether he knew al-Ghazali’s works directly is disputed. Judah Halevi, Kuzari (c. 1140); D. H. Baneth, “Jehuda Hallewi und Gazali” (1924); SEP “Judah Halevi”
Evidence: AI draft
Judah Halevi › c. 1075–1141
Ibn Tufayl
influenced
In the introduction to Hayy ibn Yaqzan Ibn Tufayl cited al-Ghazali’s mystical experience as a model, while noting that his popular and esoteric works contradict each other. Ibn Tufayl, Hayy ibn Yaqzan, introduction, tr. L. E. Goodman (1972); SEP “Ibn Tufayl”
Evidence: AI draft
Ibn Tufayl › c. 1105–1185
Muhsin Fayd Kashani
influenced
Fayd Kashani’s White Path (1636) is a Shiʿi recension of al-Ghazali’s Revival of the Religious Sciences that keeps its structure and most of its ethical teaching. Fayd Kashani, al-Maḥajja al-bayḍāʾ fī tahdhīb al-Iḥyāʾ, ed. A. A. Ghaffari (8 vols.); Aqa Buzurg Tihrani, al-Dharīʿa (for the date)
Evidence: AI draft
Muhsin Fayd Kashani › 1598–1680
Usman dan Fodio
influenced
Usman dan Fodio echoed al-Ghazali’s Revival of the Religious Sciences in the title of his Ihya al-sunna, joining Sufi piety with a call to revive the Sunna. M. Hiskett, The Sword of Truth: The Life and Times of the Shehu Usuman dan Fodio (1973); al-Ghazali, Ihya ulum al-din
Evidence: AI draft
Usman dan Fodio › 1754–1817
Criticism
Criticized by 2
Ibn Rushd (Averroes)
criticised by
Averroes answered al-Ghazali’s Incoherence point by point: whoever denies natural causes denies the intellect, since knowledge is knowledge through causes (Tahafut al-tahafut, c. 1180). Ibn Rushd, Tahāfut al-tahāfut, 17th discussion, tr. S. van den Bergh, 1954
Evidence: AI draft
Ibn Rushd (Averroes) › 1126–1198
Fatima Mernissi
criticised by
Mernissi read al-Ghazali’s book on marriage in the Ihya as treating women’s sexuality as an active danger (fitna) that justified seclusion and segregation (Beyond the Veil, 1975). F. Mernissi, Beyond the Veil: Male–Female Dynamics in a Modern Muslim Society, 1975
Evidence: AI draft
Fatima Mernissi › 1940–2015
Criticizes 3
Aristotle
criticised
Al-Ghazali judged that Aristotle’s metaphysics, as transmitted by al-Farabi and Avicenna, contains unbelief, while accepting his logic as neutral (al-Munqidh min al-dalal, c. 1108). al-Ghazālī, al-Munqidh min al-ḍalāl, tr. R. J. McCarthy, Freedom and Fulfillment, 1980
Evidence: AI draft
Aristotle › 384–322 BCE
al-Farabi
criticised
Al-Ghazali named al-Farabi and Avicenna as the philosophers he meant to refute, condemning their eternal world, God’s knowing only universals and denial of bodily resurrection (Tahafut al-falasifa, 1095). al-Ghazālī, Tahāfut al-falāsifa (1095), introduction and conclusion; SEP “al-Ghazali”
Evidence: AI draft
al-Farabi › c. 872–950
Ibn Sina (Avicenna) influenced by
influenced by
Al-Ghazali summarised Avicenna’s philosophy in The Aims of the Philosophers and took over much of his logic and psychology, even while condemning three of his doctrines. al-Ghazali, Maqasid al-falasifa (c. 1094); F. Griffel, Al-Ghazali’s Philosophical Theology (2009); SEP “al-Ghazali”
Evidence: AI draft
criticised
Al-Ghazali’s Incoherence of the Philosophers attacked Avicenna’s system on twenty points, among them the world’s eternity, emanation and the necessary link between cause and effect (1095). al-Ghazālī, Tahāfut al-falāsifa (1095), tr. M. Marmura, 2000; SEP “al-Ghazali”
Evidence: AI draft
Ibn Sina (Avicenna) › 980–1037
Works
20 theses of the philosophers refuted – among them necessary causation.
Forty books on worship, social life, the vices and the virtues that lead to God – the Sufi path as the inner life of the law; the book on love quotes Rabia.
An account of his own search for certainty: a crisis of doubt, the claims of theologians, philosophers and Ismailis examined, and the Sufi path as the way to knowledge by experience.
Position
Al-Ghazali studied the philosophers thoroughly in order to refute them. In The Incoherence of the Philosophers he argued that Avicenna’s followers could not prove their key claims, and that three of them – the eternity of the world, God’s knowing particulars only in a universal way, and the denial of bodily resurrection – contradicted Islam. Famously he denied that fire necessarily burns cotton: what we call causes are only regular conjunctions created by God at each moment. In his autobiography he describes how doubt led him to the certainty of mystical experience. He secured a place for logic in Islamic theology and made Sufism respectable within Sunni Islam.
Life & context
Born in 1058 in Tus in north-eastern Iran, al-Ghazali became the leading teacher at the Nizamiyya college in Baghdad. In 1095 a spiritual crisis made him give up his post; he lived for years as a wandering Sufi in Damascus, Jerusalem and Mecca. He later taught again briefly in Nishapur and died in his home town in 1111.
Further main works
- The Intentions of the Philosophers (c. 1094)
- Deliverance from Error (c. 1108)
Appears in
- Journey ‘The Journey of Aristotle’ · Stop 5 of 9
- Journey ‘From Baghdad to Isfahan’ · Stop 4 of 9
- Debate ‘Al-Ghazali and Averroes: Can Philosophy Prove What It Claims?’
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