#IMAGES AL GHAZALI HOW TO#

They are, so to speak, a good starting point but are, from Al-Ghazali's perspective, not its proper end point (for the cognitive elite, that's Sufism).įourth, that is, (and I feel most cautious about this) Al-Aghazali seems to agree with the philosophers' Plato-inspied understanding ( recall here here and here) of the text of the Quran as representation of the truth (at the level of opinion), but not as the eternal truth itself. Interestingly enough, the philosophers are in possession of elements of this alternative path.

#IMAGES AL GHAZALI HOW TO#

One could know how to live without revelation. It's (formally) not opposed to the revealed text, but it is clearly an alternative path toward the one-and-same-God. Third, unlike political science, the Sufi-apt wisdom (the true part of the philosophers' moral science) is not attributed to the Quran! Al-Ghazali treats the art of living ('the good habits of the soul') as distinct from Quran.

To be a Sufi is thus to have access to ancient and, would be, perennial wisdom (God never leaves the world destitute). Second, Al-Ghazali is, thus, committed to the idea (again with a not to the Quran) that Sufi-wisdom can predate all revelation. This has four implications worth noting:įirst, not only does Al-Ghazali share in the philosophers' hierarchical conception of (skills, talents, natures within any) population at any given time, he thinks that human demography/reproduction is such that the cognitive and spiritual elites will show up in any time and place such that Sufi-apt wisdom is always and everywhere a human possibility. If I understand him correctly, Al-Ghazali is claiming with an appeal to famous story (famous in Christianity and in Islam) of the Companions of the Cave, that the kind of knowledge the Sufis posses is not only always available, but also that in each generation there will be people that can, in principle, access this (Sufi-apt) knowledge. The philosophers are contrasted with the Sufis, who are describes as the Godly men, the pillars of the earth. (For a nice contemporary example of such a strategy: Badiou uses the prestige of set theory to advance his own philosophy.) Moreover, he suggests that they, in fact, used the prestige of the (true) Sufis's teaching, which they pass off as their own, to advance their own (false) original contributions. He treats what is true of their moral philosophy as plagiarized from the Sufis. The charge that they are unoriginal is repeated when it comes to the moral sciences of the philosophers. (A position recently d efended by Yoram Hazony. That is to say, Al-Ghazali treats the Bible and Quran (he uses the plural prophets) as - inter alia - contribution to political philosophy. They are original because they often just echo (and plagiarize) the wisdom of Scriptures. He does not deny that they know the truth, but (to simplify) he insists they are unoriginal and fail to deal with the highest matters focusing primarily on statecraft. Sura 18).-Al-Ghazali 'Deliverance from Error' translated by Richard McCarthy (50).Ī year and a half ago, I looked at Al-Ghazali's criticism of the political science of the philosophers. For they are the pillars of the earth, and by their blessings the divine mercy descends upon earthdwellers as is declared in the tradition from Muhammad - God’s blessing and peace be upon him! - in which he says: “Because of them you receive rain, and thanks to them you receive sustenance, and among them were the Companions of the Cave.” Such godly men existed in ancient times as the Qur’ ur declares (Cf. There was indeed in their age, nay but there is in every age, a group of godly men of whom God Most High never leaves the world destitute. Then the philosophers took over these ideas and mixed them with their own doctrines, using the lustre afforded by them to promote the circulation of their own false teaching. In the course of their spiritual combat the good habits of the soul and its shortcomings had been disclosed to them and also the defects that vitiate its actions. These were godly men who applied themselves assiduously to invoking God, resisting passion, and following the way leading to God Most High by shunning worldly pleasures.

This they simply took over from the sayings of the Sufis. All they have to say about the moral sciences comes down to listing the qualities and habits of the soul, and recording their generic and specific kinds, and the way to cultivate the good ones and combat the bad.

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