’Abu Hamid al-Ghazali on “Reliable Knowledge”

Abstract

The paper discusses the main approaches and problems of reason and faith in the context of the ideal of knowledge of classical Arab-Muslim thought in the teachings of al-Ghazali, one of the great system-creators of the Muslim Middle Ages, whose ideological creativity had a significant impact not only on the philosophical and religious situation within the Caliphate, but on the intellectual culture of Romano-Christian Europe as well. The problem of faith and reason is considered by him from the point of view of fiqh (Islamic law), kalam (speculative “theology”), falsafah (Eastern peripatetism) and tasawwuf (Sufism). The seekers of truth in the understanding of al-Ghazali are considered. It is noted that the key basis for understanding his teachings as a Sufi philosophical and theological system is the substantiation of metaphysics, in which faith and reason complement each other in the field of knowledge, i.e. we are talking about the unity of knowledge, both secular and religious, on the one hand, and the unity of knowledge and action as the basis of the moral state of the soul, which is the true criterion for judging the truth of any action, on the other. It is shown that the system of al-Ghazali is based on ethics. In the Sufi philosophical and theological synthesis of al-Ghazali, all the achievements of the previous thought were considered, as well as the problems of spiritual development in the theory and practice of the caliphate as an alternative to all the directions of thought known in his time.