Al-Ghazali’s Unspeakable Doctrine of the Soul
Gianotti’s purpose behind this monograph is to draw out Ghazali’s position on the vexed question of the true nature of the soul and its state in the afterlife. Ghazali’s actual views on this question have been a point of serious debate in both the Muslim intellectual tradition and Ghazali scholarshi...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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International Institute of Islamic Thought
2006-01-01
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| Series: | American Journal of Islam and Society |
| Online Access: | https://www.ajis.org/index.php/ajiss/article/view/1655 |
| _version_ | 1818893018485227520 |
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| author | Atif Khalil |
| author_facet | Atif Khalil |
| author_sort | Atif Khalil |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Gianotti’s purpose behind this monograph is to draw out Ghazali’s position
on the vexed question of the true nature of the soul and its state in the afterlife.
Ghazali’s actual views on this question have been a point of serious
debate in both the Muslim intellectual tradition and Ghazali scholarship in
the West. At the heart of this debate lies the question of his true allegiance:
Was the man, widely held to be the mujaddid (renewer of religion) of the
fifth Islamic century, a full-fledged Asharite, as tradition has made him out
to be, or was he, as others have suggested, a closet Avicennian? Or was he,
to complicate matters even further, neither? The source of the problem rests
on the apparently conflicting doctrines he articulated in various places concerning
the soul in various places in his vast and multi-layered literary oeuvre.
These seeming inconsistencies led Averroes, in the thirteenth century, to
accuse Ghazali of adhering “to no one doctrine in his books,” and of being
a Sufi with Sufis, an Asharite theologian with the Asharites, and a philosopher
with the philosophers (p. 19).
Gianotti confesses that the “tensions and ambiguities are real and beg
resolution” (p. 8). He poignantly asks, however, whether they were the
“unintentional mess left by a brilliant but indisciplined mind,” or whether ... |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-19T18:05:56Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-7e14e9113d3a4b698083a39dd98cf0e7 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2690-3733 2690-3741 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-19T18:05:56Z |
| publishDate | 2006-01-01 |
| publisher | International Institute of Islamic Thought |
| record_format | Article |
| series | American Journal of Islam and Society |
| spelling | doaj.art-7e14e9113d3a4b698083a39dd98cf0e72022-12-21T20:11:29ZengInternational Institute of Islamic ThoughtAmerican Journal of Islam and Society2690-37332690-37412006-01-0123110.35632/ajis.v23i1.1655Al-Ghazali’s Unspeakable Doctrine of the SoulAtif KhalilGianotti’s purpose behind this monograph is to draw out Ghazali’s position on the vexed question of the true nature of the soul and its state in the afterlife. Ghazali’s actual views on this question have been a point of serious debate in both the Muslim intellectual tradition and Ghazali scholarship in the West. At the heart of this debate lies the question of his true allegiance: Was the man, widely held to be the mujaddid (renewer of religion) of the fifth Islamic century, a full-fledged Asharite, as tradition has made him out to be, or was he, as others have suggested, a closet Avicennian? Or was he, to complicate matters even further, neither? The source of the problem rests on the apparently conflicting doctrines he articulated in various places concerning the soul in various places in his vast and multi-layered literary oeuvre. These seeming inconsistencies led Averroes, in the thirteenth century, to accuse Ghazali of adhering “to no one doctrine in his books,” and of being a Sufi with Sufis, an Asharite theologian with the Asharites, and a philosopher with the philosophers (p. 19). Gianotti confesses that the “tensions and ambiguities are real and beg resolution” (p. 8). He poignantly asks, however, whether they were the “unintentional mess left by a brilliant but indisciplined mind,” or whether ...https://www.ajis.org/index.php/ajiss/article/view/1655 |
| spellingShingle | Atif Khalil Al-Ghazali’s Unspeakable Doctrine of the Soul American Journal of Islam and Society |
| title | Al-Ghazali’s Unspeakable Doctrine of the Soul |
| title_full | Al-Ghazali’s Unspeakable Doctrine of the Soul |
| title_fullStr | Al-Ghazali’s Unspeakable Doctrine of the Soul |
| title_full_unstemmed | Al-Ghazali’s Unspeakable Doctrine of the Soul |
| title_short | Al-Ghazali’s Unspeakable Doctrine of the Soul |
| title_sort | al ghazali s unspeakable doctrine of the soul |
| url | https://www.ajis.org/index.php/ajiss/article/view/1655 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT atifkhalil alghazalisunspeakabledoctrineofthesoul |