Searching for the Truth: The Life and Work of Abū Ḥāmid Al-Ghazālī

• Authors: Rudnicka-Kassem Dorota
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

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.

Keywords

EN

Abū Ḥāmid Al-Ghazālī

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Kultur Śródziemnomorskich i Orientalnych PAN
• Journal: Acta Asiatica Varsoviensia
• Year: 2015
• Issue: 28
• Pages: 181-192

Dates

published

2015-12-01

Contributors

author

Rudnicka-Kassem Dorota

• University of Cracow

References

• Al-Ghazālī’s life and work is discussed by E. Ormsby in his book: Ghazali: The Revival of Islam, Oxford: Oneworld, 2008. Also refer to: H. Algar, Imam Abu Hamid Ghazali: An Exponent of Islam in its Totality, Oneonta, NY: iPi, 2001, p. 3-43; M. Marmura, Probing in Islamic Philosophy: Studies in the Philosophies of Ibn Sīnā, Al-Ghazālī, and Other Major Muslim Thinkers, Binghamton: Global Academic Pub., Binghamton University, 2005.
• For Al-Ghazālī’s political theology see: Y. Said, Ghazālī’s Politics in Context, Abingdon–Oxon–New York: Routledge, 2013.
• About the significance of learning institutions, see: G. Makdisi, “Muslim Institutions of Learning in Eleventh-Century in Baghdad,” BSOAS, vol. 24 (1961), p. 1-56: The Rise of the Colleges, Edinburgh, 1981.
• See: M. Sharif (ed.), History of Muslim Philosophy, Karachi: Royal Book Co., 1983.
• W. M. Watt, Muslim Intellectual: A Study of Al-Ghazali, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1963, p. 109.
• Al-Ghazālī, Iḥya’‘ulūm al-dīn, [The Revival of the Religious Sciences].4 vol., Cairo, Al-Matba‘a al-Azhariya, 1898., vol. 1, p. 2. English translation Cf. W. M. Watt, Muslim Intellectual… p. 112.
• Ibid., p. 113-114.
• It was composed towards the end of his stay in Baghdad and after his critique of philosophy.
• It was composed soon afterwards in Jerusalem.
• The date, which has been found for a small work called The Restraining of the Commonalty from the Science of Theology, marks the completion of this work only a few days before his death (W. M. Watt, Muslim Intellectual …, p. 119). For a thorough account on Al-Ghazālī’s theological views refer to: R. Frank, Al-Ghazālī and the Ashʻarite School, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1994.
• W. M. Watt, Muslim Intellectual…, p. 123.
• See: F. Griffel, Al-Ghazālī’s Philosophical Theology, Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press, 2009.
• Islamic philosophy (al-falsafa) has been one of the major intellectual traditions in the Islamic world, and it has influenced and been influenced by many other intellectual perspectives including scholastic theology (kalām) and doctrinal Ṣūfīsm (al-ma‘arifa). It developed as a result of Muslim philosophical reflection on the heritage of Greco-Alexandrian philosophy. During the period from the eight to tenth centuries in Baghdād, under the patronage of the ‘Abbāsids, the more or less correct translations of philosophical treaties of Plato, Aristotle, Neo-Platonists (predominantly Plotinus) into Arabic were prepared. These translations gave Muslim scholars, immersed in the teachings of the Qur’an and living in a universe in which revelation was a central reality, the basis and the starting point to prepare original commentaries and eventually their own original philosophical systems. In contrast to the Greeks, Muslim philosophers focused on “prophetic philosophy.” The Qur’an, as well as the ḥadīth, served as the central source of Islamic philosophical speculation for centuries. In later Islamic philosophy the sayings of the Shī ‘ī imam also played a major role. Far from being simply Greek philosophy in Arabic, Persian or Turkish, Islamic philosophy integrated certain elements of Greek philosophy into the Islamic perspective, creating new philosophical schools. One may say that Islamic philosophy became an original and productive assimilation of Greek thought created by open-minded scholars of very different cultural traditions, including Arabic, Persian, Turkish, as well as an attempt to make a “foreign,” namely Greek element an integral part of Islamic tradition.
• Abū Naṣr Muḥammad ibn al-Farakh al-Fārābī (870-950), was a famous philosopher, scientist, cosmologist, logician, and musician of the Islamic Golden Age. He became well known among medieval Muslim intellectuals as “The Second Teacher,” that is, the successor to Aristotle, “The First Teacher.” For a thorough discussion on the philosophy of Al-Fārābī see: M. Fakhry, Al-Fārābī, Founder of Islamic Neoplatonism: His Life, Works and Influence, Oxford: Oneworld, 2002; M. S. Mahdi, Alfarabi and the Foundation of Islamic Political Philosophy, with a foreword by Charles E. Butterworth, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001.
• Abū ‘Alī al-Ḥusayn ibn ‘Abd Allāh ibn Sīnā (980-1037), known as Ibn Sīnā and as Avicenna, was a Persian philosopher, medical doctor, and scientist. His most famous works are The Book of Healing, a vast philosophical and scientific encyclopaedia, and The Canon of Medicine, which was a standard medical text at many medieval universities in Europe. See: J. McGinnis, Avicenna, Great Medieval Thinkers, New York–Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010; D. Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition: Introduction to Reading Avicenna’s Philosophical Works, Leiden–New York: E. J. Brill, 1988.
• There was an important Persian tradition of the theosophical philosophy.
• Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā ibn al-Ṣā’igh al-Tūjībī (1085-1138), known as Ibn Bajja (or Avempace in the West) was one of the most important philosophers of Muslim Spain. See: M. Chemli, La philosophie morale dʼIbn Bâjja (Avempace) à travers le Tadbîr al-mutawaḥḥid (Le régime du solitaire), Tunis: Impr. N. Bascone & S. Muscat, 1969.
• Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Muḥammad ibn Ṭufayl (1105-1185) was an Andalusian philosopher and novelist, most famous for writing the first philosophical novel, Hayy ibn Yaqdhan. See: Z. A. Siddiqi, Philosophy of Ibn Tufayl, Faculty of Arts publication series, no. 18, Aligarh: Aligarh Muslim University, 1965.
• Abū l-Walīd Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Rushd (1126–1198) commonly known as Ibn Rushd or by his Latinized name Averroës, was a Spanish Andalusian Muslim philosopher, theologian, jurist, and scientist. He was a defender of Aristotelian philosophy against Ash‘ari theologians led by Al-Ghazālī, whom he attacked in his famous work Tahafut al-tahafut. See: M. Fakhry, Averroës (Ibn Rushd): His Life, Works and Influence, Oxford: Oneworld, 2001.
• See: Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, The Incoherence of the Philosophers (Tahāfut al-falāsifa), A Parallel English-Arabic Text, translated, introduced, and annotated by Michael E. Marmura, Provo, UT: Birmingham Young University Press, 2000.
• Refer to: Ibid., p. 161-225.
• The Aristotelian logic, and in particular syllogism impressed Al-Ghazālī. He also wrote several books on logic.
• Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, The Incoherence of the Philosophers…, p. 1-3.
• Ibid., p. 4, 8.
• For a thorough discussion on the issue of reason and revelation see: A. J. Arberry, Revelation and Reason in Islam, London: Allen & Unwin, 1957.
• See: Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, The Incoherence of the Philosophers…, p. 12-160.
• See: Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, The Incoherence of the Philosophers… (“First Discussion: On refuting their doctrine of the world’s past eternity”) p. 12-46.
• See: Ibid., ( “Thirteenth Discussion: On refuting their statement that the First does not know particulars)
• p. 134-143.
• See: Ibid., (“Twentieth Discussion: On refuting their denial of bodily resurrection”), p. 208-226.
• Ibid., p. 46.
• See: W. M. Watt, Islamic Philosophy and Theology, Edinburgh: University Press, 1962; H. A. Wolfson, The Philosophy of the Kalam, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1976.
• About the Greek philosophy as as translated and commented by Muslims see: R. Walzer, Greek into Arabic. Essays on Islamic Philosophy, Cambridge: Harward University Press, 1962.
• A. Treiger, Inspired Knowledge in Islamic Thought: Al-Ghazālī’s Theory of Mystical Cognition and its Avicennian Foundation, London–New York: Routledge, 2012.
• For a thorough account on Al-Ghazālī’s polemical engagement with the Ismā‘īlīs see: F. Mitha, Al-Ghazālī and the Ismailis: A Debate on Reason and Authority in Medieval Islam, Ismaili heritage series, 5, London: I. B. Tauris, in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2001.
• W. M. Watt, Muslim Intellectual…, p. 82
• Bāṭin is defined as as the interior or hidden meaning of the Qur’ān. See: M. Ghālib, Al-Ḥarakāt al-bāṭinīyah fī al-Islām, Bayrūt–Lubnān: Dār al-Andalus, 1982.
• W. M. Watt, Muslim Intellectual…, , p. 85.
• Ibidem
• Ibid., p. 85-86.
• Ibid., p. 131.
• Ibid., p. 133.
• Ibidem
• Ibidem
• Ibid., p. 134.
• Al-Ghazālī Al-Munqidh min ad-Dalal [Deliverance from Error]. Cairo, Al-Maktaba al-Anglo-Misriya, 1962, p.34. Cf. W. M. Watt, Muslim Intellectual…, p. 135.
• A small part of it, namely Al-Risāla al-Qudsīyya (1097, The Jerusalem Epistle) was probably written separately during his stay in Jerusalem in 1096. (W. M.Watt, Muslim Intellectual…, p. 151.)
• Ibid., p. 152.
• Ibid., p. 153.