Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī and the Art of Knowing

The role of philosophy in the thought of Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī has been a source of much debate among scholars of Islamic intellectual history and among Muslim intellectuals of varying disciplines. 1 If one takes al-Ghazālī at his word, his use of philosophy was calculated and reasoned. He was not its implacable adversary as earlier scholarship proposed, based upon passages from the Incoherence of the philosophers and statements in the deliverer from error. 2 Rather, he approached philosophy just as he advises one to approach all intellectual output: Those with weak minds know truth by men, not men by truth. The intelligent person follows the saying of ʿAlī [b. Abī Ṭālib],“Do not know truth through men. Know truth and then you will know its people.” 3 So the intelligent person knows truth then looks at the claim itself. If it is true he accepts it.