Al-Ghazali : The Incoherence of the Philosophers,

A Parallel English / Arabic Text,
*[A5+] Hardback with Dustjacket - 301 pages,
by Imam Abu Hamid al-Ghazali [d.505h],
Transl. & Annotated by Michael E. Marmura,
Part of the Al-Hikma Islamic Translation Series,
Published by Brigham Young Univ. USA.




Description :


'The Incoherence of the Philosophers' - Tahafat al-Falsafa, ranks among the most important works of one of the most fascinating thinkers in the history of Islam.



The Incoherence of the Philosophers, written after more than a decade of travel and ascetic contemplation, contends that while such Muslim philosophers as Avicenna (Ibn Sina) boasted of unassailable arguments on matters of theology and metaphysics, they could not deliver on their claims; moreover, many of their assertions represented disguised heresy and unbelief. Despite its attempted refutation by the twelfth-century philosopher Ibn Rushd, Imam al-Ghazali's work remains widely read and influential.



The book is organised into twenty chapters in which Imam al-Ghazali refutes Avicenna's doctrines. He states that Avicenna and his followers have erred in seventeen points (each one of which he addresses in detail in a chapter, for a total of 17 chapters) by committing heresy. But in three other chapters, he accuses them of being utterly irreligious. Among the charges that he leveled against the philosophers is their inability to prove the existence of God and inability to prove the impossibility of the existence of two gods.









Table of Contents :


---Foreword,
---Acknowledgments.

---Translator’s Introduction – English,
---Translator’s Introduction – Arabic,
---Author’s Introduction: [The religious preface],
------[A first] introduction,
------[A second] introduction,
------[A third] introduction,
------[A fourth] introduction.

 
[Part One]
---Discussion [1]: On refuting their doctrine of the world’s past eternity,
------The [philosophers’] first [proof],
------[The philosophers’] second proof,
------[The philosophers’] third proof,
------[The philosophers’] fourth proof.
---Discussion [2]: On refuting their statement on the post-eternity of the world, time, and motion,
---Discussion [3]: On showing their obfuscation in saying that God is the world’s enactor and maker...
------Regarding the first [aspect],
------The second aspect,
------The third aspect.
---Discussion [4]: On showing their inability to prove the existence of the Maker of the world,
---Discussion [5]: On showing their inability to prove that God is one...
---Discussion [6]: [On the divine attributes],
---Discussion [7]: On refuting their statement that the First cannot share with another in terms of genus...
---Discussion [8]: On refuting their statement that the existence of the First is simple...
---Discussion [9]: On showing their inability to sustain a proof that the First is not a body,
---Discussion [10]: On their inability to show that the world has a maker and a cause,
---Discussion [11]: On showing the impotence of those among them who perceive that the First knows other[s] and knows the genera and species in a universal way,
---Discussion [12]: On showing their inability to prove that He also knows Himself,
---Discussion [13]: On refuting their statement that God... does not know the particulars divisible in terms of temporal division into what is, what was, and what will be,
---Discussion [14]: On their inability to set a proof [to show] that heaven is an animal that obeys God... through its circular motion,
---Discussion [15]: On refuting what they mentioned concerning the purpose that moves heaven,
---Discussion [16]: On refuting their statement that the souls of the heavens know all the particulars that occur in this world...
 

[Part Two] : The Natural Sciences,
---[Introduction]
---Discussion [17]: [On causality and miracles],
---Discussion [18]: On their inability to sustain a rational demonstration [proving] that the human soul is a self-subsistent spiritual substance...
------The first [proof],
------A second proof,
------A third proof,
------A fourth proof,
------A fifth proof,
------A sixth proof,
------A seventh proof,
------An eighth proof,
------A ninth proof,
------A tenth proof.
---Discussion [19]: On refuting their statement that it is impossible for human souls to undergo annihilation...
---Discussion [20]: On refuting their denial of bodily resurrection...


---The Book’s Conclusion.

---Notes to the English Text,
---Notes to the Arabic Text,
---Index.

---

*Dimensions : 23.5 x 16 x 4cm.