Thinker · TH-0006
Al-Ghazali
Persian Ash'arite theologian, jurist and Sufi who taught at the Nizamiyya college in Baghdad before a spiritual crisis led him to leave his post…
أبو حامد الغزالي
Also known as Algazel, Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali, Ghazali
c. 1058 – 1111 · Tus, Nishapur, Baghdad, Damascus, Jerusalem
Traditions: Islamic
Schools: Kalam
Persian Ash'arite theologian, jurist and Sufi who taught at the Nizamiyya college in Baghdad before a spiritual crisis led him to leave his post around 1095. His critique of the philosophers and his synthesis of law, theology and Sufism made him one of the most influential figures in Islamic intellectual history.
Key ideas
- Critique of the falasifa on the eternity of the world and divine knowledge
- Causal connections as habitual, not demonstrably necessary
- Certainty through experiential knowledge (dhawq) after doubt
- Integration of Sufi practice into mainstream religious learning
Major works
- The Incoherence of the Philosophers (Tahafut al-Falasifa, c. 1095)
- The Revival of the Religious Sciences (Ihya' 'Ulum al-Din, c. 1096–1102)
- Deliverance from Error (al-Munqidh min al-Dalal, c. 1108)
- The Niche of Lights (Mishkat al-Anwar)
In the conversation
- Question Could the constants have been different? Spinoza says no; the Ashʿarites say God could change them tomorrow
- Question Did Hume ever read al-Ghazali?
- Question Nozick gave up closure to beat the sceptic. Isn’t that too high a price?
- Question How can I know nothing is red and green all over, when I’ve never checked every red thing?
- Question What is the “no miracles” argument for believing electrons are real?
- Debate Knowledge-first epistemology is surrender dressed up as a theory
- Question Al-Ghazali says some knowledge has to be tasted. Is that an argument, or a way out of one?
- Discussion Did al-Ghazali’s Incoherence kill philosophy in the Islamic world?
- Question Eighteen and on a gap year: should I read the philosophers themselves or an introduction first?
- Question What is Benacerraf’s dilemma, in words a school leaver can follow?
- Reading group Reading group: al-Ghazālī’s Deliverance from Error, the chapters on doubt
- Question What exactly is kasb (acquisition), and is it just compatibilism with God in it?
- Discussion Al-Ghazali’s Deliverance from Error as a story about information overload
- Debate Al-Ghazali was right: causal necessity cannot be demonstrated
- Question If the Big Bang marks the edge of a theory rather than a beginning, what is left of the kalām’s physics?
- Discussion The kalam cosmological argument: what the mutakallimun actually argued
- Discussion Guo Xiang said things are ‘self-so’. Does that mean uncaused, or caused by everything?
- Discussion Nine countries in one kitchen and no agreement on salt: can food be judged like art?
- Question Why does ‘the shape caused the door’ sound so wrong if Aristotle meant it?
- Question What do Sufis mean by “tasting” (dhawq) as a way of knowing?