عقل کی علمی قدر اور امام غزالی کا نقطہ نظر: ایک تجزیاتی مطالعہ

Epistemological value of reason and Imam al-Ghazālī Point of View: An analytical study

Abstract

Abū Hāmid Muhammad bin Muhammad al-Ghazālī (1058-1111) was one of the most influential theologian-philosophers in Islamic history. He was a polymath and wrote on several subjects, including theology, jurisprudence, philosophy, ethics, and Sufism. At a very young age, due to his excellence in Islamic science, Ghazālī was awarded the most prestigious and challenging post in the Nizāmiyyā madrasa in Baghdad by Nizām al-Mulk, the powerful vizier of the Seljuk Empire. He can be credited with around 70 books. But he is famously known for his two major works, Ihyā al-Ulūm al-Dīn and Tahāfat al-Falāsifā. The earlier work deals with almost every field of Islamic sciences and tries to create a comprehensive guide to bring Sufism and Sunni orthodoxy together. While the latter work refutes some major theories of Greek and Muslim philosophers.  Ghazālī played a major role in integrating Sufism with Sharia. His legacy continued influencing Muslims as well as non-Muslim scholars. Al-Ghazali has defined intellect, its internal movement, characteristics, degrees, and its independence, and functionality in his writings. These all aspects that al-Ghazali has delineated and explicated are related to the Absolute Intellect. The inductive and the auxiliary intellect being parts of the Absolute Intellect have the same can be analyzed in a similar way. Therefore, on the basis of this categorization, it is argued that in the thoughts of al-Ghazali, the intellect is divided into two parts. He does not mention it explicitly though. It would be misleading to believe that in Ghazalian thought the functionality and movement of the Absolute Intellect and the inductive intellect are different and contradictory. In his writings, references can be found indicating similar principles that govern both, the Absolute Intellect and the inductive intellect. This paper is an attempt to understand this concept in Ghazalian thoughts through his writings.