Q0575

“The connection between what is usually believed to be a cause and…” — Al-Ghazali (The Incoherence of the Philosophers, on…)

Verified English quotation. Primary source: The Incoherence of the Philosophers, on causation. Theme: fate.

English

The connection between what is usually believed to be a cause and what is believed to be an effect is not necessary; each of the two has its own individuality.
Thinker Al-Ghazali
School Islamic Philosophy
Source The Incoherence of the Philosophers, on causation
Theme Fate
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source and attribution

The archive attributes this English wording to The Incoherence of the Philosophers, on causation and files it under Islamic Philosophy. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

About Al-Ghazali

Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (1058–1111) taught law and theology in Baghdad before a crisis of certainty drove him from public office into Sufi practice and writing. He mastered the falāsifa well enough to attack their metaphysics in The Incoherence of the Philosophers, then narrated his own epistemic itinerary in Deliverance from Error.

How to read this passage

Across 4 recurring voices here (notably Epictetus and Seneca), fate is framed through Stoicism and Philosophy of Will. Some passages define fate; others warn how it fails; still others relocate it inside habit, community, or language. This passage enters that discussion through fate, god.

Concepts in this quote

Fate
Fate appears in this archive as a live philosophical concern—not a slogan. These verified English passages show how thinkers treat fate as a problem of judgment, practice, or explanation.
God
God appears in this archive as a live philosophical concern—not a slogan. These verified English passages show how thinkers treat god as a problem of judgment, practice, or explanation.

How to cite this quotation

APA: Al-Ghazali. (n.d.). The connection between what is usually believed to be a cause and what is believed to be an effect is not necessary; each of the two has its own individuality. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0575

MLA: Al-Ghazali. “The connection between what is usually believed to….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0575.

Chicago: Al-Ghazali. “The connection between what is usually believed to….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0575.

Frequently asked questions

What is the source of the quotation “The connection between what is usually believed to…”?

The passage is attributed to Al-Ghazali, The Incoherence of the Philosophers, on causation. The archive attributes this English wording to The Incoherence of the Philosophers, on causation and files it under Islamic Philosophy. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

What does Al-Ghazali mean by fate?

Across 4 recurring voices here (notably Epictetus and Seneca), fate is framed through Stoicism and Philosophy of Will. Some passages define fate; others warn how it fails; still others relocate it inside habit, community, or language. This passage enters that discussion through fate, god.

Same thinker

More from Al-Ghazali

  1. Knowledge without action is vanity, and action without knowledge is madness.
  2. Certainty is not attained by imitation, but by tasting (direct experience).
  3. Sense-data are not a secure foundation; the eye sees the star as small, yet demonstration shows it larger than the earth.
  4. Beyond the intellect there is another stage in which another eye is opened, by which one sees the unseen and what will be in the future.
  5. Knowledge is not perfected by learning alone; it is perfected when it becomes a state that moves the limbs to action.

All quotations by Al-Ghazali

Same theme

More on fate

  1. It is through wonder that people both now begin and first began to philosophize.
  2. A person's character is their destiny.
  3. What is opposed brings together; from what differs comes the finest harmony.
  4. Death is nothing to us: for what has been dissolved has no sensation, and what has no sensation is nothing to us.
  5. Pleasure is the beginning and end of the happy life — not the pleasures of profligates, but freedom from pain in the body and from disturbance in the soul.

Browse the fate theme