Al-Ghazali's Philosophical Theology [PB]

Al-Ghazali's - Philosophical Theology,
*[A5] Paperback - 424 pages,
by Professor Frank Griffel,
Published by Oxford University.

 
 
 

Description :

The Muslim thinker al-Ghazali, may Allah be pleased with him, (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 north-eastern 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-Ghazali'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-Ghazali, 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-Ghazali's students, his contemporaries, and his own letters, Griffel reconstructs every stage in a turbulent career. The al-Ghazali that emerges offers many surprises, particularly on his motives for leaving Baghdad and the nature of his "seclusion" afterwards. Griffel demonstrates that al-Ghazali 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.



Reviews:
"This work is a detailed examination of Al-Ghazali's position with respect to Greek science and philosophy as it was presented to the Muslim world in the works of Avicenna. In making this examination the author has been able to correct certain misconceptions about Al-Ghazali which have long been held by some Western scholars."---Nicholas Heer, Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization, University of Washington, Seattle.

 
"A highly useful introduction to the life and thought of one of the most important theologians, not only of the Islamic world, but of the world as a whole. Al-Ghazali is an outstanding thinker by any stretch of the imagination, and as the author points out, we still do not know enough about his life. This is an excellent work of scholarship on an important and fascinating philosopher." ---Oliver Leaman, Professor of Philosophy, University of Kentucky.

 
"Frank Griffel's new book is a lucid synthesis of the latest scholarship on al-Ghazali's life and legacy, his interpretive method and his ideas about the world's creation and about divine, human and natural causality. Griffel succeeds in presenting a coherent and nuanced picture of the cosmology of this complex thinker, who was both a scholar of jurisprudence and a mystic, both a critic of philosophy and a philosophical theologian." ---Robert Wisnovsky, Associate Professor, Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University.

 
"One of the most extensive and insightful studies of al-Ghazali ever undertaken... Frank Griffel's book is a veritable tour de force that will remain a benchmark in Ghazalian studies for a long time to come." ---Theological Review.


 
About the Author : 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,
---Introduction.

---Chapter [1]: A Life Between Public and Private Instruction: Al-Ghazali's Biography,
-------The Main Sources for Al-Ghazali's Biography,
-------Al-Ghazali's birth,
-------Al-Ghazali's Early years and Education,
-------Becoming a famous Jurist and Theologian,
-------Leaving Baghdad, travelling in Syria and the Hijaz, and returning to Khorasan,
-------The Ideal of a Secluded Life: His last years in Khorasan,

---Chapter [2]: Al-Ghazali's Most Influential Students and Followers,
-------Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi [d.542h],
-------Ibn al-Arabi's first report of his meeting with al-Ghazali,
-------Ibn al-Arabi's second report of his meeting with al-Ghazali,
-------As'ad al-Mayhani [d.523 or 527h],
-------Muhammad ibn Yahya al-Janzi [d.549h],
-------Ibn Tumart [d.524],
-------Ayn al-Qudat al-Hamadhani [d.525h],
-------The anonymous author of the 'Lion and the Diver' (al-As'ad al-Ghawwas).

---Chapter [3]: Al-Ghazali On the Role of falsafa in Islam,
-------The Refutation of the falasifa in the Incoherent (Tahafat),
-------Al-Ghazali's fatwa against Three Teachings of the falasifa,
-------Unbelief and Apostasy,
-------The Decisive Criterion (Faysal al-Tafriqa).

---Chapter [4]: The Reconciliation of Reason and Revelation Through the ''Rule of Interpretation''
-------The ''Rule of Interpretation'' (Qanun al-Tawil),
-------Three Different Types of Passages in Revelation,
-------A Dispute about al-Ghazali's Approach; Ibn Ghaylan vs Fakhr al-Din al-Razi,
-------Demonstrative Knowledge (burhan) and it's Opposite; Emulation of Authorities (Taqlid).

---Chapter [5]: Cosmology in Early Islam-Developments that led to al-Ghazali's 'Incoherence of the Philosophers,'
-------Ash'arite Occasionalism in the Generations before al-Ghazali,
-------Secondary Causes in Ash'arite Theology,
-------The falasifa's View of Creation by means of Secondary Causality,
-------The falasifa's View that this World is Neccesary,
-------Al-Ghazali's Treatment of Causality.

---Chapter [6]: The Seventeenth Discussion of the Incoherence of the Philosophers,
-------The First Position : Observation does not Establish Causal Connections,
-------The First Approach of the Second Position:
----------How the Natural Sciences are Possible even in an Occasionalist Universe,
-------The Second Approach of the Second Position:
----------An Immanent Explanation of Miracles,
-------Overcoming Occasionalism:
----------The Third Position,
-------Julian Obermann's "Subjectivist" Interpretation of the Seventeenth Discussion,
-------Al-Ghazali's Critique of Avicenna's Conception of the Modalities,
-------The Different Conceptions of the Modalities in falsafa and kalam,
-------What does Al-Ghazali mean when he claims that Causal Connections are not Necessary ?

---Chapter [7]: Knowledge of Causal Connections is Necessary,
-------The Dispute over al-Ghazali's Cosmology,
-------Five Conditions for Cosmological Explanations in the Incoherence,
-------Determination by an Unchanging Divine Foreknowledge,
-------Divine Foreknowledge in the Revival of the Religious Sciences (Ihya Ulum al-Din),
-------Prophetical Miracles and the Unchanging Nature of God's Habit,
-------Necessary Knowledge in an Occasionalist Universe,
-------Concomitant Events and Rational Judgements,
-------Experience (tajriba) in Avicenna and in al-Ghazali.

---Chapter [8]: Causes and Effects in the Revival of the Religious Sciences,
-------The Creation of Human Acts,
-------The Conditional Dependence of God's Actions,
-------The Conditions of a Creation That is the Best of All Possible Creations,
-------The Necessity of the Conditions in God's Creation.

---Chapter [9]: Cosmology in Works Written After the Revival (the Ihya),
-------God's Creation as an Apparatus:
----------The Similie of the Water Clock,
-------Cosmology in The Highest Goal in Explaining the Beautiful Names of God,
-------The Niche of Lights
----------The Philosopher's God as the First Created Being,
-------The Cosmology of the 'Fourth Group' in the Veil Section of The Niche of Lights,
-------An Isma'ilite influence on Cosmology in the Veil Section ?
-------Final Doubts about Cosmology:
----------Restraining the Ordinary People (Iljam al-Awwam).

---Conclusion.

---Notes,
---Bibliography,
---General Index.

---Index of Works by Imam al-Ghazali,
---Index of Manuscripts,
---Index of Verses in the Qur'an.

 

 

 

 
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*Dimensions : 23.5 x 15.5cm.

 

 

 

  • Shipping Weight: 0.695 kgs
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  • Written by: Imam al-Ghazali

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