Abstract
There have long been two contending narratives when it comes to situating Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad al-Ġazālī (Algazel/Algazali) (1056–1111), Islam’s most renowned theologian, within the history of philosophy. According to one, Ġazālī proved the scourge of the Arabic philosophers when he pointed out their various pretensions and self-contradictions and when he advocated a retreat to fideism as well as a practically oriented mysticism. On this view, Ġazālī’s philosophical explorations were of a uniformly dialectical character, aiming solely at defending the faith, in keeping with the tradition of Islamic speculative theology (kalām). The competing story has it that Ġazālī became so enamored of philosophy that, against his protestations, he became a crypto-Avicennian himself. On this reading, Ġazālī either salvaged philosophy for the uses of Muslim theology and mysticism, or else fatally corrupted the two with its taint. Both views have it right, and wrong. Ġazālī’s criticisms of the Arabic Aristotelians are piecemeal and local, and he certainly appropriates from the philosophers far more than he rejects. At the same time, Ġazālī’s commitments do not lie with the Peripatetics any more than with the Ashʿarite school of theology, a tradition which he also criticizes. Rather, Ġazālī is involved in developing a fresh synthesis that would reflect the insights he sees as crucial to authentic wisdom: the world’s profound contingency, the role played by the divine attributes in shaping this world, the rational soul’s ultimate destiny in the next, and the need for constant spiritual striving and prophetic guidance in purifying the soul to the point where it can attain its destiny.
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Kukkonen, T. (2020). al-Ġazālī, Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad. In: Lagerlund, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1665-7_180
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