Overview
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. The Revival of the Religious Sciences integrates Ashʿarite doctrine with ethical-spiritual discipline for a broad audience.
Main ideas
Al-Ghazālī denies that observed regularities prove necessary causal links independent of God’s will, while still defending disciplined reasoning within theology. Sense and unaided intellect can fail; certainty may require an experiential ‘taste’ beyond imitation. Knowledge that does not move the limbs remains incomplete. Prophecy and inspiration open a stage beyond ordinary intellect without abolishing law or dialectic.
Major works
- The Incoherence of the Philosophers
- Deliverance from Error
- The Revival of the Religious Sciences
- The Alchemy of Happiness
Legacy
He reshaped Sunni theology, Sufism, and later debates on science, causation, and faith. Averroes answered him point by point; modern philosophy of religion still returns to his critique of necessary connection and his autobiography of doubt.