Keys to read Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazali

Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (d. 1111), known by the honorific title, the “Proof of Islam,” was one of the foremost scholars and authorities in the Muslim world. The epistemology of a paradigmatic figure like al-Ghazālī is central to Islamic intellectual thought, but also speaks to our modern world. In this course we embark on a study of doubt (shakk) and certainty (yaqīn) in Ghazālī’s epistemology. Ghazālī was no dogmatist or religious zealot, but a scholar with a critical spirit who relentlessly struggled in pursuit of truth and certainty. In this course we look at Ghazālī’s attitude to philosophical demonstration and Sufism as a means to certainty. In early scholarship surrounding Ghazālī, it was assumed that he was a vehement adversary to philosophy and a recluse Sufi. He has often been blamed as the one who single-handedly offered the death-blow to philosophy in the Muslim world. On the other hand, in much of contemporary scholarship, Ghazālī has been understood to give preference to philosophy as the ultimate means to certainty, undermining the place of Sufism. Ghazālī is an enigma to many, and continues to invite much discourse. Much of previous scholarship has either focused on Ghazālī as a Sufi or a philosopher; in this course we embark on a parallel approach in which we acknowledge each discipline in its right place within Ghazālī’s epistemology. We analyse Ghazālī’s approach to acquiring certainty, his methodological scepticism, his foundationalism, his attitude to authoritative instruction (taʿlim), and the place of philosophical demonstration and Sufism in his epistemology. This course will acquaint students with Ghazālī’s life and thought, and help navigate the primary literature surrounding his oeuvre.