Al-Ghazali's Philosophical Theology

by Griffel, Frank

• ISBN13: 9780195331622
• ISBN10: 0195331621
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-05-28
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The Muslim thinker al-Ghaz=al=i (d. 1111) was one of the most influential theologians and philosophers of Islam and has been considered an authority in both Western and Islamic philosophical traditions. Born in northeastern Iran, he held the most prestigious academic post in Islamic theology in Baghdad, only to renounce the position and teach at small schools in the provinces for no money. His contributions to Islamic scholarship range from responding to the challenges of Aristotelian philosophy to creating a new type of Islamic mysticism and integrating both these traditions- falsafa and Sufism-into the Sunni mainstream. This book offers a comprehensive study of al-Ghaz=al=i's life and his understanding of cosmology-how God creates things and events in the world, how human acts relate to God's power, and how the universe is structured. Frank Griffel offers a serious revision of traditional views on al-Ghaz=al=i, showing that his most important achievement was the creation of a new rationalist theology in which he transformed the Aristotelian views of thinkers such as Avicenna to accord with intellectual currents that were well-established within Muslim theological discourse. Using the most authoritative sources, including reports from al-Ghaz=al=i's students, his contemporaries, and his own letters, Griffel reconstructs every stage in a turbulent career. The al-Ghaz=al=i that emerges offers many surprises, particularly on his motives for leaving Baghdad and the nature of his "seclusion" afterwards. Griffel demonstrates that al-Ghaz=al=i intended to create a new cosmology that moved away from concerns held earlier by Muslim theologians and Arab philosophers. This new theology aimed to provide a framework for the pursuit of the natural sciences and a basis for Islamic science and philosophy to flourish beyond the 12th century. Al-Ghazali's Philosophical Theology is the most thorough examination to date of this important thinker.

Author Biography

Frank Griffel is Professor of Islamic Studies at Yale University and has published widely in the fields of Islamic theology, Arab and Islamic philosophy, Islamic law, and Muslim intellectual history.

Table of Contents

Timetable	p. xi
Introduction	p. 3
A Life between Public and Private Instruction: Al-Ghaz&abar;l&ibar;'s Biography	p. 19
The Main Sources for al-Ghaz&abar;l&ibar;'s Biography	p. 21
Al-Ghaz&abar;l&ibar;'s Date of Birth: Around 448/1056	p. 23
Al-Ghaz&abar;l&ibar;'s Early Years and His Education	p. 25
Becoming a Famous Jurist and Theologian	p. 31
Leaving Baghdad, Traveling in Syria and the Hijaz, and Returning to Khorasan	p. 40
The Ideal of a Secluded Life-His Last Years in Khorasan	p. 49
Al-Ghaz&abar;l&ibar;'s Most Influential Students and Early Followers	p. 61
Ab&ubar; Bakr ibn al-'Arab&ibar; (d.543/1148)	p. 62
Ibn al-'Arab&ibar;'s First Report of His Meeting with al-Ghaz&abar;l&ibar;	p. 65
Ibn al-'Arab&ibar;'s Second Report of His Meeting with al-Ghaz&abar;l&ibar;	p. 66
As'ad al-Mayhan&ibar; (d.523/1130 or 527/1132-33)	p. 71
Mu$$ammad ibn Ya$$y&abar; al-Janz&ibar; (d.549/1154)	p. 74
Ibn T&ubar;mart (d. 524/1130)	p. 77
'Ayn al-Qu$$&abar;t al-Hamadh&abar;n&ibar; (d. 525/1131)	p. 81
The Anonymous Author of The Lion and the Diver (al-Asad wa-l-ghaww&abar;$$)	p. 87
Al-Ghaz&abar;l&ibar; on the Role of falsafa in Islam	p. 97
The Refutation of the fal&abar;sifa in the Incoherence (Tah&abar;fut)	p. 98
Al-Ghaz&abar;l&ibar;'s fatw&abar; against Three Teachings of the fal&abar;sifa	p. 101
Unbelief and Apostasy	p. 103
The Decisive Criterion (Fay$$al al-tafriqa)	p. 105
The Reconciliation of Reason and Revelation through the "Rule of Interpretation" (Q&abar;n&ubar;n al-ta'w&ibar;l)	p. 111
Three Different Types of Passages in Revelation	p. 115
A Dispute about al-Ghaz&abar;l&ibar;'s Approach: Ibn Ghayl&abar;n versus Fakhr al-D&ibar;n al-R&abar;z&ibar;	p. 116
Demonstrative Knowledge (burh&abar;n) and Its Opposite: Emulation of Authorities (taql&ibar;d)	p. 120
Cosmology in Early Islam: Developments That Led to al-Ghaz&abar;l&ibar;'s Incoherence of the Philosophers	p. 123
Ash'arite Occasionalism in the Generations before al-Ghaz&abar;l&ibar;	p. 124
Secondary Causes in Ash'arite Theology	p. 128
The fal&abar;sifa's View of Creation by Means of Secondary Causality	p. 133
The fal&abar;sifa's View That This World Is Necessary	p. 141
Al-Ghaz&abar;l&ibar;'s Treatment of Causality in MS London, Or. 3126	p. 143
The Seventeenth Discussion of The Incoherence of the Philosophers	p. 147
The First Position: Observation Does Not Establish Causal Connections	p. 150
The First Approach of the Second Position: How the Natural Sciences Are Possible Even in an Occasionalist Universe	p. 153
The Second Approach of the Second Position: An Immanent Explanation of Miracles	p. 156
Overcoming Occasionalism: The Third Position	p. 157
Julian Obermann's "Subjectivist" Interpretation of the Seventeenth Discussion	p. 160
Al-Ghaz&abar;l&ibar;'s Critique of Avicenna's Conception of the Modalities	p. 162
The Different Conceptions of the Modalities in falsafa and kal&abar;m	p. 167
What Does al-Ghaz&abar;l&ibar; Mean When He Claims That Causal Connections Are Not Necessary?	p. 172
Knowledge of Causal Connection Is Necessary	p. 175
The Dispute over al-Ghaz&abar;l&ibar;'s Cosmology	p. 179
Five Conditions for Cosmological Explanations in the Incoherence	p. 183
Determination by an Unchanging Divine Foreknowledge	p. 187
Divine Foreknowledge in the Revival of Religious Sciences	p. 190
Prophetical Miracles and the Unchanging Nature of God's Habit	p. 194
Necessary Knowledge in an Occasionalist Universe	p. 201
Concomitant Events and Rational Judgments	p. 204
Experience (tajriba) in Avicenna and in al-Ghaz&abar;l&ibar;	p. 208
Causes and Effects in The Revival of the Religious Sciences	p. 215
The Creation of Human Acts	p. 216
The Conditional Dependence of God's Actions	p. 222
The Conditions of a Creation That Is the Best of All Possible Creations	p. 225
The Necessity of the Conditions in God's Creation	p. 231
Cosmology in Works Written after The Revival	p. 235
God's Creation as an Apparatus: The Simile of the Water Clock	p. 236
Cosmology in The Highest Goal in Explaining the Beautiful Names of God	p. 242
The Niche of Lights: The Philosophers' God as the First Created Being	p. 245
The Cosmology of the "Fourth Group" in the Veil Section of The Niche of Lights	p. 253
An Ism&abar;'&ibar;lite Influence on the Cosmology in the Veil Section?	p. 260
Final Doubts about Cosmology: Restraining the Ordinary People (Ilj&abar;m al-'aw&abar;mm)	p. 265
Conclusion	p. 275
Notes	p. 287
Bibliography	p. 361
General Index	p. 395
Index of Works by al-Ghaz&abar;l&ibar;	p. 403
Index of Manuscripts	p. 405
Index of Verses in the Qur'an	p. 407
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