In his famous autobiography, The Deliverer from Error, al-Ghazālī reconstructs the way the science of ethics is supposed to have developed. Al-Ghazālī contends that the philosophical ethics taught by the Arabic Aristotelians necessarily depends upon prior revelations handed to religious aspirants of a vaguely Sufi stamp. Al-Ghazālī’s argument is reminiscent of similar ones made in late antiquity; I maintain, however, that for al-Ghazālī the point bears added systematic significance. Given the central position held by the purification of the soul in al-Ghazālī’s conception of true religion, he can hardly admit that the philosophers should have discovered independently any of the philosophical ethics al-Ghazālī himself espouses. It is the supernatural power of prescribed ritual acts that ultimately allows al-Ghazālī to maintain the superiority of religiously predicated ethics.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
Adamson Peter Skorupski John “The Arabic Tradition.” The Routledge Companion to Ethics 2011 London and New York Routledge 63 75
Adamson Peter “Ethics in Philosophy.” Encyclopedia of Islam 2014 3rd ed 110 117
Akasoy Anna, Fidora Alexander & Dunlop Douglas M. The Arabic Version of the Nicomachean Ethics 2005 Leiden Brill
Alon Ilai Socrates in Medieval Arabic Literature 1991 Leiden Brill
Alon Ilai Ahbel-Rappe Sara & Kamtekar Rachana “Socrates in Arabic Philosophy.” A Companion to Socrates 2006 Malden, Mass. Wiley-Blackwell 317 336
Arnzen Rüdiger “On the Contents, Sources, and Composition of Two Arabic Pseudo-Platonica: Multaqaṭāt Aflāṭūn al-ilāhī and Fiqar ultuqiṭat wa-jumiʿat ʿan Aflāṭūn.” Oriens 2009 37 1 7 52
Arnzen Rüdiger “Plato, Arabic.” Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy 2011 1012 1016
Boys-Stones George Post-Hellenistic Philosophy: A Study of Its Development from the Stoics to Origen 2001 Oxford Oxford University Press
Böwering Gerhard The Mystical Vision of Existence in Classical Islam: The Qurʾanic Hermeneutics of the Sufi Sahl At-Tustari (d. 283/896) 1980 Berlin and New York Walter de Gruyter
Emon Anver M. Islamic Natural Law Theories 2010 Oxford Oxford University Press
Endress Gerhard D’Ancona Cristina “Building the Library of Arabic Philosophy: Platonism and Aristotelianism in the Sources of al-Kindī.” The Libraries of the Neoplatonists 2007 Leiden Brill 319 350
Ess Josef van Turki A.-M. “Quelques remarques sur le Munqidh min aḍ-ḍalāl.” Ghazâlî: La raison et le miracle 1987 Paris Éditions Maisonneuve et Larose 57 68
al-Fārābī Abū Naṣr Mahdi Muhsin Kitāb al-ḥurūf 1969 Beirut Dār al-Mashriq
Galen Singer P. N., Davies Daniel & Nutton Vivian Psychological Writings 2014 Cambridge Cambridge University Press
Garden Kenneth “Coming Down from the Mountaintop: Al-Ghazālī’s Autobiographical Writings in Context.” The Muslim World 2011 101 4 581 596
Garden Kenneth The First Islamic Reviver: Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī and His Revival of the Religious Sciences 2014 Oxford Oxford University Press
Garden Kenneth Tamer Georges “Revisiting al-Ghazālī’s Crisis through his Scale for Action (Mīzān al-ʿAmal).” Islam and Rationality: The Impact of al-Ghazālī 2015 vol. 1 Leiden Brill 207 228
al-Ghazālī Abū Ḥāmid Dunyā Sulaymān Mīzān al-ʿamal 1964 Cairo
al-Ghazālī Abū Ḥāmid Salība Jamīl & ʿAyyād Kāmil Al-Munqidh min al-ḍalāl 1967 Beirut Dār al-Andalus
al-Ghazālī Abū Ḥāmid Chelhot Victor Al-Qisṭās al-mustaqīm 1983 Beirut Dār al-mashriq
al-Ghazālī Abū Ḥāmid Shehadi Fadlou A. Al-Maqṣad al-asnā fī sharḥ maʿānī asmāʾ Allāh al-ḥusnā 1992 Beirut Imprimerie Catholique
al-Ghazālī Abū Ḥāmid Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn 2011 5 vols Jeddah Dār al-Minhāj
Gianotti Timothy J. “Beyond Both Law and Theology: An Introduction to al-Ghazālī’s ‘Science of the Way of the Afterlife’ in Reviving Religious Knowledge (Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn).” The Muslim World 2011 101 4 597 613
Goulet Richard & Rudolph Ulrich Entre Orient et Occident: La philosophie et la science Gréco-Romaines dans le monde arabe 2011 Geneva Fondation Hardt
Griffel Frank Al-Ghazālī’s Philosophical Theology 2009 Oxford Oxford University Press
Gutas Dimitri Heinrichs Wolfhart “Ethische Schriften im Islam.” Orientalisches Mittelalter 1990 Wiesbaden AULA-Verlag 346 365
Gutas Dimitri Greek Thought, Arabic Culture 1998 London and New York Routledge
Gutas Dimitri “Suhrawardī and Greek Philosophy.” Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 2003 13 2 303 309
Gutas Dimitri Pacheco M. C. & Meirinhos J. F. “Intellect without Limits: The Absence of Mysticism in Avicenna.” Intellect et imagination dans la philosophie médiévale 2006 vol. 1 Turnhout Brepols 351 372
Gutas Dimitri Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition 2014 2nd ed Leiden Brill
Halman Hugh Talat Where Two Seas Meet: Al-Khidr and Moses — The Qurʾanic Story of al-Khidr and Moses in Sufi Commentaries as a Model for Spiritual Guidance 2013 Louisville, Ky. Fons Vitae
Hayes Josh Alwishah Ahmed & Hayes Josh “The Arabic Reception of the Nicomachean Ethics.” Aristotle and the Arabic Tradition 2015 Cambridge Cambridge University Press 200 213
Hourani George Fadlou Reason and Tradition in Islamic Ethics 1985 Cambridge Cambridge University Press
Ibn ʿAdi Yaḥyā Griffith Sidney H. The Reformation of Morals 2002 Provo Brigham Young University Press
Ibn al-Qifṭī Lippert Julius Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ 1903 Leipzig Dieterich’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung
Ibn Sīnā ʿAbū Alī Mehren M. A. F. Traités mystiques d’Abou Alî al-Hosain b. Abdallah b. Sînâ ou d’Avicenne, Volume 3 1894 Leiden E. J. Brill
Janssens Jules Akasoy Anna & Raven Wim “Al-Ghazālī’s Mīzān al-ʿamal: An Ethical Summa Based on Ibn Sīnā and al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī.” Islamic Thought in the Middle Ages: Studies in Text, Transmission, and Translation in Honour of Hans Daiber 2008 Leiden Brill 123 137
Janssens Jules “Al-Ghazālī between Philosophy (Falsafa) and Sufism (Taṣawwuf): His Complex Attitude in the Marvels of the Heart (ʿAjāʾib al-Qalb) of the Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn.” The Muslim World 2011 101 4 614 632
Johnson Aaron P. Ethnicity and Argument in Eusebius’ 2006 Oxford Oxford University Press Praeparatio evangelica
Karamustafa Ahmet T. Sufism: The Formative Period 2007 Edinburgh Edinburgh University Press
Karliga Bekir Janssens Jules & De Smet Daniel “Un nouveau traité d’éthique d’Ibn Sīnā inconnu jusqu’à nos jours.” Avicenna and His Heritage 2002 Leuven Leuven University Press 21 35
Klein-Franke Felix “Zur Überlieferung der platonischen Schriften im Islam.” Israel Oriental Studies 1973 3 120 139
Knysh Alexander Islamic Mysticism: A Short History 2000 Leiden Brill
Kraemer Joel L. Humanism in the Renaissance of Islam: The Cultural Revival During the Buyid Age 1986 Leiden Brill
Kraus Paul “The Book of Ethics by Galen.” Bulletin of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Egypt 1937 5 1 1 51 (Arabic section)
Kukkonen Taneli Remes Pauliina & Sihvola Juha “The Self as Enemy, the Self as Divine: A Crossroads in the Development of Islamic Anthropology.” The Ancient Philosophy of Self 2008 Heidelberg Springer Verlag 205 224
Kukkonen Taneli Lagerlund Henrik “Al-Ghazālī’s Skepticism Revisited.” Rethinking the History of Skepticism 2010 Leiden Brill 29 59
Kukkonen Taneli “Al-Ghazālī on Accidental Identity and the Attributes.” The Muslim World 2011 101 4 658 679
Kukkonen Taneli “Receptive to Reality: Al-Ghazālī on the Structure of the Soul.” The Muslim World 2012 102 3–4 541 561
Kukkonen Taneli Tamer Georges “Al-Ghazālī on the Emotions.” Islam and Rationality: The Impact of al-Ghazālī 2015 vol. 1 Leiden Brill 138 164
Kukkonen Taneli Griffel Frank “Al-Ghazālī on Error.” Islam and Rationality: The Impact of al-Ghazālī 2016a vol. 2 Leiden Brill 3 31
Kukkonen Taneli Kaukua Jari & Ekenberg Tomas “Sources of the Self in the Arabic Tradition: Remarks on the Avicennan Turn.” Subjectivity and Selfhood in Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy 2016b Heidelberg Springer
Mattila Janne “The Philosophical Worship of the Ikhwān al-Ṣafā.” Journal of Islamic Studies 2016 27 1 17 38
Menn Stephen Miller Jon & Inwood Brad “The Discourse on the Method and the Tradition of Intellectual Autobiography.” Hellenistic and Early Modern Philosophy 2003 Cambridge Cambridge University Press 141 191
Miskawayh Abū ʿAlī Aḥmad Muḥammad Zurayk Constantine K. Tahdhīb al-akhlāq 1967 Beirut American University of Beirut
O’Meara Dominic J. Platonopolis: Platonic Political Philosophy in Late Antiquity 2003 Oxford Oxford University Press
Olympiodorus Westerink Leendert G. The Greek Commentaries on Plato’s Phaedo: Vol. 1, Olympiodorus 2009 Westbury, UK The Prometheus Trust
Picken Gavin Spiritual Purification in Islam: The Life and Works of al-Muḥāsibī 2011 London and New York Routledge
al-Qushayrī, ʿAbd al-Karīm Ibn Hawāzin Basyūnī Ibrāhīm Laṭāʾif al-ishārāt: Tafsīr Ṣūfī kāmil li-l-Qurʾān al-karīm 1968–1971 6 vols Cairo Dār al-kātib al-ʿarabī
Renard John Knowledge of God in Classical Sufism 2004 New York Paulist Press
Roberts Nancy P. “A Parable of Blessing.” The Muslim World 1993 83 3–4 295 317
Rowson Everett A Muslim Philosopher on the Soul and Its Fate 1988 New Haven American Oriental Society
al-Sarrāj Abū Naṣr Abdallah b. ʿAlī Nicholson Reynold A. Kitāb al-lumaʿ 1914 Leiden Brill
Shaw Gregory Theurgy and the Soul: The Neoplatonism of Iamblichus 1995 University Park, Pa. Pennsylvania State University Press
Sherif Mohamed Ahmed Ghazali’s Theory of Virtue 1975 Albany The State University of New York Press
Smith Margaret An Early Mystic of Baghdad: A Study of the Life and Teaching of Ḥārith b. Asad al-Muḥāsibī, ad 781–ad 857 1935 London The Sheldon Press
Smith Mark S. God in Translation: Deities in Cross-Cultural Discourse in the Biblical World 2010 Grand Rapids, Mich. Eerdmans
Strohmaier Gotthard “Platon in der arabischen Tradition.” Würzburger Jahrbücher für die Altertumswissenschaft. Neue Folge 2002 26 185 200
Suhrawardī Shihāb al-Dīn Yaḥyā Corbin Henry Opera metaphysica et mystica, volume 1 1976 Tehran Academie Imperiale Iranienne de Philosophie
al-Tirmidhī Ḥakīm Shams al-Dīn Ibrāhīm Riyāḍat al-nafs 2005 Beirut Dār al-kutub al-ʿilmiyya
Treiger Alexander Inspired Knowledge in Islamic Thought: Al-Ghazālī’s Theory of Mystical Cognition and its Avicennian Foundation 2012 London and New York Routledge
van Bladel Kevin The Arabic Hermes: From Pagan Sage to Prophet of Science 2009 Oxford Oxford University Press
Van Nuffelen Peter Rethinking the Gods: Philosophical Readings of Religion in the Post-Hellenistic Period 2011 Cambridge Cambridge University Press
Walbridge John The Leaven of the Ancients: Suhrawardī and the Heritage of the Greeks 2000 Albany State University of New York Press
Walbridge John The Wisdom of the Mystic East: Suhrawardī and Platonic Orientalism 2001 Albany State University of New York Press
Walzer Richard Alfarabi on the Perfect State 1985 Oxford Oxford University Press
Weiss Bernard “Knowledge of the Past: The Theory of ‘Tawātur’ According to al-Ghazālī.” Studia Islamica 1985 61 1 81 105
Wensinck A. J. “Al-Khaḍir (al-Khiḍr).” Encyclopedia of Islam 1978 vol. 4 2nd ed 902 905
Winter Timothy J. “Introduction.” On Disciplining the Soul and On Breaking the Two Desires 1995 Cambridge Islamic Texts Society xv xcii In al-Ghazālī
Yazaki Saeko Islamic Mysticism and Abū Ṭālib al-Makkī: The Role of the Heart 2013 London and New York Routledge
Yücesoy Hayrettin “Translation as Self-Consciousness: Ancient Sciences, Antediluvian Wisdom, and the ʿAbbāsid Translation Movement.” Journal of World History 2009 20 4 523 557
Ghazālī 1967: 86[0]. All English translations in this article are my own.
All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 349 | 72 | 1 |
Full Text Views | 275 | 11 | 0 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 110 | 28 | 0 |
In his famous autobiography, The Deliverer from Error, al-Ghazālī reconstructs the way the science of ethics is supposed to have developed. Al-Ghazālī contends that the philosophical ethics taught by the Arabic Aristotelians necessarily depends upon prior revelations handed to religious aspirants of a vaguely Sufi stamp. Al-Ghazālī’s argument is reminiscent of similar ones made in late antiquity; I maintain, however, that for al-Ghazālī the point bears added systematic significance. Given the central position held by the purification of the soul in al-Ghazālī’s conception of true religion, he can hardly admit that the philosophers should have discovered independently any of the philosophical ethics al-Ghazālī himself espouses. It is the supernatural power of prescribed ritual acts that ultimately allows al-Ghazālī to maintain the superiority of religiously predicated ethics.
All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 349 | 72 | 1 |
Full Text Views | 275 | 11 | 0 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 110 | 28 | 0 |