IS AL-GHAZALI AN OCCASIONALIST OR INFLUENCED BY AVCENNAN IDEAS

Back to Page Authors: Kainat Jalaluddin

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Keywords: philosophy, natural causation, occasionalism, theology

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Abstract: Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (d.1111 CE) was one of the most influential philosophers, theologian, mystic and jurist of Sunni Islam. His scholarly contributions in the field of theology, jurisprudence and spirituality are prominent until today. Al-Ghazali, as a dedicated theologian aimed to protect religion from any doubts or contradictions. While he studied falsafa in depth and acknowledged its importance, he critiqued and refuted, though logically, some of the philosophical teachings which, according to him, challenged the foundations of religion. With such aim, one of the most important works al-Ghazali produced was Tahāfut al-Falāsifa, in which he attempted to argue against various claims of Aristotelian philosophers he found theologically problematic. While the book covers twenty significant discussions, this essay will particularly analyse the seventeenth discussion of Tahāfut on natural causation. While critically analysing the seventeenth discussion and al-Ghazali’s position on natural causation, this essay argues that al-Ghazali, instead of strictly taking an occasionalist position, seems to modify his stance and takes an intermediary position between Islamic occasionalism and Philosopher’s position on natural causation by not compromising on logic. However, one needs to be careful that this essay only deals with one of the works of al-Ghazali and any position taken here is not representative of al-Ghazali’ all works or his general position on a subject matter.

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