EN
The paper describes an interesting intellectual venture of Al-Ghazālī in his quest for the truth. In the process, he came to doubt the senses and even reason itself as the means of attaining truth and fell into a deep skepticism that lasted about two months. however, he was eventually delivered from this with the aid of the divine light, and thus recovered his trust in reason. Al-Ghazālī’s extensive studies in Islamic law, tradition, theology, philosophy and Ṣūfīsm, together with his long period of self-discipline led him, using his method, described as that of “courage to know and the courage to doubt,” to present his position with regard to various schools of Islamic thought of his days. In his quest for the truth he carefully examined various “seekers after the truth”, that is theologians, philosophers, authoritarians (the Ismā'īlīs whom he called the party of or authoritative instruction) and finally the Ṣūfīs, or mystics. Because of these studies, he reached the conclusion that there was no way to ascertain knowledge except through However, in order to reach this ultimate truth of the Ṣūfīs, it was necessary to renounce the world and to devote oneself to mystical practice.