Islam and Rationality. The Impact of al-Ghazālī

478 Pages·2015·2.15 MB·English

by  Georges Tamer (ed.)

Islam and Rationality
Islamic Philosophy, Theology
and Science
Texts and Studies
Edited by
Hans Daiber
Anna Akasoy
Emilie Savage-Smith
Volume 94
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/ipts
Islam and Rationality
The Impact of al-Ghazālī
Papers Collected on His 900th Anniversary
VOLUME 1
Edited by
Georges Tamer
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Cover illustration by Georges Tamer and Allen Tuazon.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Islam and rationality : the impact of al-Ghazali : papers collected on his 900th anniversary / edited by
Georges Tamer.
  volumes cm. — (Islamic philosophy, theology and science ; v. 94)
 Includes bibliographical references and index.
 ISBN 978-90-04-29094-5 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-90-04-29095-2 (e-book) 1. Ghazzali,
1058-1111. 2. Faith and reason—Islam. 3. Practical reason. 4. Rationalism. I. Tamer, Georges.
 B753.G34I78 2015
 297.2092—dc23
2015014839
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issn 0169-8729
isbn 978-90-04-29094-5 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-29095-2 (e-book)
Copyright 2015 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
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This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Allen Tuazon
(25th November 1980–22nd November 2014)
In Memoriam
∵

Contents
Preface ix
Notes on Contributors xx
1 God versus Causality
Al-Ghazālī’s Solution and its Historical Background 1
Hans Daiber
2 Al-Ghazālī’s Changing Attitude to Philosophy 23
Wilferd Madelung
3 Al-Ghazālī and the Rationalization of Sufism 35
Binyamin Abrahamov
4 Revelation, Sciences and Symbolism
Al-Ghazālī’s Jawāhir al-Qurʾān 49
Georges Tamer
5 Al-Ghazālī at His Most Rationalist
The Universal Rule for Allegorically Interpreting Revelation
(al-Qānūn al-Kullī fī t-Taʾwīl) 89
Frank Griffel
6 The Comedy of Reason
Strategies of Humour in al-Ghazālī 121
Eric Ormsby
7 Al-Ghazālī on the Emotions 138
Taneli Kukkonen
8 Sex, Marriage and the Family in Al-Ghazālī’s Thought
Some Preliminary Notes 165
Avner Giladi
9 The Duties of the Teacher
Al-Iṣfahānī’s Dharīʿa as a Source of Inspiration for al-Ghazālī’s
Mīzān al-ʿAmal 186
Yasien Mohamed
viii contents
10 Revisiting al-Ghazālī’s Crisis through His Scale for Action
(Mizān al-ʿAmal) 207
Kenneth Garden
11 Al-Ghazālī on Knowledge (ʿilm) and Certainty (yaqīn)
in al-Munqidh min aḍ-Ḍalāl and in al-Qisṭās al-Mustaqīm 229
Luis Xavier López-Farjeat
12 Ghazālī’s Hermeneutics and Their Reception in Jewish Tradition
Mishkāt al-Anwār (The Niche of Lights) and Maimonides’
Shemonah Peraqim (Eight Chapters) 253
Scott Michael Girdner
13 Al-Ghazālī, Averroes and Moshe Narboni
Conflict and Conflation 275
Alfred L. Ivry
14 The Changing Image of al-Ghazālī in Medieval Jewish Thought 288
Steven Harvey
15 The Influence of al-Ghazālī on the Juridical, Theological
and Philosophical Works of Barhebraeus 303
Hidemi Takahashi
16 R. Marti and His References to al-Ghazālī 326
Jules Janssens
17 Al-Ghazālī’s Esotericism According to Ibn Taymiyya’s Bughyat
al-Murtād 345
Yahya M. Michot
18 Arbitrating between al-Ghazālī and the Philosophers
The Tahāfut Commentaries in the Ottoman Intellectual Context 375
M. Sait Özervarlı
Bibliography 399
Index of Works by al-Ghazālī 440
Index of Authors 442
Index of Subjects 452
Preface
The studies included in this volume will discuss important topics of al-Ghazālī’s
work, which demonstrate rational aspects of his interpretation of Islamic
theology and spirituality, as rooted in the Qurʾān. In the Qurʾān, the root
ʿ-Q-L – meaning at its core, “reason/reasoning” and “understanding” – occurs
fifty-nine times; the verbs are not exclusively meant to imply rational activities.
In almost all occurrences, these verbs are semantically related to the senses,
and in several instances connote a conversion to the proclaimed religion as
a result of the perception of natural phenomena.1 Rationality as presented
throughout the Qurʾān is clearly a cognitive activity in which a sensual per-
ception is involved that in turn leads man to believe in God. In reverse, to not
believe in God means that man eliminates his rational faculty. Remarkably,
this conception of a ‘towards-faith-oriented-rationality’ corresponds with the
Qurʾānic characterization of Arabia’s pre-Islamic era as a period of ignorance,
the jāhiliyya.2
While the faculty of reasoning – that is, the intellect – does not appear in
the scripture of Islam, it is nevertheless declared in a statement attributed to
the Prophet Muhammad as the noblest ability created by God. The first act the
newly created ʿaql performs is the requirement of total submission to God’s
obedience: God commanded the intellect to first approach Him, and then
conversely to get away from Him, and each time the intellect obeyed God’s
command. Furthermore, the intellect serves within this ḥadīth as a reminder
of God’s reward and punishment of humans.3 The beginning of the state-
ment might be interpreted in two different ways, however. According to one
interpretation (awwalu mā khalaqa Allāhu l-ʿaqlu) the intellect is the very first
1  See for example: Q 2:164, 242; 3:118; 16:12; 23:80; 30:28; 37:138; 59:14; 67:10.
2  Q 3:154; 5:50; 48:26. In his MA-Thesis, Allen Tuazon provided a semantic study of the root ʿ-Q-L
in the Qurʾān: “ ‘Understanding’ in Revelation: the root ʿ-Q-L in the Qur’ān,” 2011: https://etd.
ohiolink.edu/!etd.send_file?accession=osu1306868259&disposition=inline.
3  “Awwal mā khalaqa Allāhu l-ʿaql qāla lahu: aqbil fa-aqbal. Thumma qāla lahu: adbir fa-adbar.
Thumma qāl: wa-ʿizzatī wa-jalālī mā khalaqtu khalqan akrama ʿalayya minka, bika ākhudhu
wa-bika uʿṭī wa-bika uthību wa-bika uʿāqib.” This is the wording of the ḥadīth as it is quoted by
al-Ghazālī (s. below n. 10). The ḥadīth is weak without reliable authorities of transmission. It
is not mentioned in the canonical collections. In aṭ-Ṭabarānī, Al-Muʿjam al-awsaṭ, Ed. Ṭāriq
b. ʿAwaḍ Allāh b. Muḥammad and ʿAbdalmuḥin b. Ibrāhīm al-Ḥusaynī, 10 Vols., Cairo: Dār
al-Ḥramayn 1415/1996, No. 1845 (Vol. 2, p. 235f.) and No. 7241 (Vol. 7, p. 190f.), the ḥadīth begins
with a temporal assertion: “Lammā khalaqa Allāhu [. . .],” “When God created [. . .].”
x preface
being created by God and thus holds a primary position amongst all beings.4
Another version begins with a more temporal genesis (awwala mā khalaqa
Allāhu l-ʿaqla), and states merely that the first thing that happened to the intel-
lect upon its creation was that it immediately received God’s command, and
consequently submitted itself accordingly.5 The former version corresponds
to the cosmologies of the philosophers who ascribe to the intellect primacy
in the chain of beings.6 By contrast, theologians who accept only the latter
version indicate an accidental nature to the intellect.7 As confirmed by Ibn
Taymiyya, this ḥadīth has been persistently subjected to extensive controversy
within theological and philosophical circles, although its authenticity remains
in doubt.8
Both the scriptural evidence as well as the contradictory versions of the
above-mentioned prophetic statement demonstrates the strained position
that rationality occupies in relation to religion in pre-modern Islamic intellec-
tual discourses.9 Yet, the history of the Arab-Islamic civilization shows brilliant
articulations of rational thought throughout different fields of scholarship.
4  “Awwalu mā khalaqa Allāhu l-ʿaqlu qāla lahu: aqbil fa-aqbal. Thumma qāla lahu: adbir fa-
adbar. Thumma qāl: wa-ʿizzatī wa-jalālī mā khalaqtu khalqan akrama ʿalayya minka, bika
ākhudhu wa-bika uʿṭī wa-bika uthību wa-bika uʿāqib.”
“The first thing which God created was the intellect. On creating it He said to it: ‘Come
forth!’ and it came forth. He then said to it ‘Return!’ and it returned. Thereupon He said: ‘By
my power and glory! I have not created anything which is more reverent to me than you.
Through you I take and through you I give; through you I reward and through you I punish.’ ”
5  “Awwala mā khalaqa Allāhu l-ʿaqla qāla lahu: aqbil fa-aqbal. Thumma qāla lahu: adbir fa-
adbar. Thumma qāl: wa-ʿizzatī wa-jalālī mā khalaqtu khalqan akrama ʿalayya minka, bika
ākhudhu wa-bika uʿṭī wa-bika uthību wa-bika uʿāqib.”
“At first, when God created the intellect, He said to it: ‘Come forth!’ and it came forth. He
then said to it ‘Return!’ and it returned. Thereupon He said: ‘By my power and glory! I have
not created anything which is more reverent to me than you. Through you I take and through
you I give; through you I reward and through you I punish.’ ”
6  See for instance Al-Fārābī on the Perfect State: Abū Naṣr al-Fārābī’s Mabādiʾ ārāʾ ahl al-madīna
al-fāḍila. A revised text with introduction, translation, and commentary by Richard Walzer,
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985, Ch. 3, p. 100; Ibn Sīnā, Ash-Shifāʾ. Al-Ilāhiyyāt, Ed. G. C. Anawati
and S. Zayed, Rev. I. Madkour, Beirut: n.p., n.d., IX, 4, pp. 402–409.
7  See for instance Taqī d-Dīn Ibn Taymiyya, Majmūʿ fatāwā Ibn Taymiyya, 37 Volumes,
Mujammaʿ al-Malik Fahd, Riad 1416/1995. Vol. 18, pp. 336–338.
8  Ibid. See above n. 3.
9  It should be mentioned in this context that the subordination of the human intellectual
faculty to God’s power is also substantial in the Scriptures of Judaism and Christianity. See
for instance: Proverbs 1:7, where the fear of God precedes wisdom; St. Paul, 1 Cor. 1: 18–21,
declares that through Christ’s crucifixion God made foolish the wisdom of the world.