Looking for help from someone who is good in writing book reviews. you only have to write a paper from the book its a very small book and i have attached the book and the guidelines for the paper. the

Chauhan 7

Simran Kaur Chauhan

Professor: Rory Dickson

Religion2710 – Classical Islam

November 22nd 2019

Response Paper

1. Provide a brief description of al-Ghazali’s life, as offered by his autobiography.

During his best time of the youth until now, when he is over fifty years, Al-Ghazali intended to discriminate between the faithful followers of tradition and the heterodox innovator. He had the thirst to grasp the real meaning of things as it was his habit. Al-Ghazali lost servile conformism and inherited beliefs when still young. His contemporaries so much highly acclaim his work, and he worked hard to prove that the spiritual sciences taught by the first generation of Muslims had been forgotten. He thus advances the critique on the theologians and philosophers' arguments in his quest regarding a reflection on the broader debates within classical Islam. Despite having spent ten years in solitude and seclusion, Al-Ghazali resumed teaching after the reason for excluding himself had lost its force (p. 27).

2.) What is the question at the heart of al-Ghazali’s quest? How does this question reflect broader debates within classical Islam?

Al-Ghazali wanted to seek knowledge of the true meaning of things. This meant that the issue at heart was whether his reliance on sense-data and safety from error when it came to self-evident truths of the same kind as that he formerly had regarding the dicta of authority, and the same as that of most men concerning speculative matters, or not. He also wanted to know if it was a verifiable safety with no deception or danger (p.3). He thus embarks on a mission to seek the truth until he comes to finding the primary facts, which is generally thought to be unseekable. This question reflects on the broader debates within classical Islam in many ways. For instance, most of the discussions in classical Islam are based on the various doctrines due to the multiplicity of the sects and divergence of methods. Since each group alleges to be the one saved, his question seeks to establish the truth regarding the broader debates within classical Islam. He has thus embarked on a quest targeting to discriminate between the proponent of truth and the advocate of error, and between the faithful follower and the heterodox innovator (p.2).

3) How does al-Ghazali critique theologians and philosophers? Why does he become a proponent of Sufism?

Al-Ghazali also criticized the notion that there are only four categories of people who seek the truth: the mutakallimun who allege to be men of independent judgement and reasoning, the batinites who claim to be unique possessors of al-ta‘lim and thus privileged recipients of the knowledge acquired from the Infallible Imam, the philosophers - who maintain that they are men of logic and apodeictic demonstration, and the Sufis, who claim to be familiar with Divine Presence in addition to being men of mystic vision and illumination (p.5). Al-Ghazali claims that the truth cannot transcend the four categories since these are the men who try to follow paths of the quest for truth. Therefore, if truth eludes them, there isn't any hope of ever finding the truth. He thus wastes no time but decides to follow all the four ways: starting with the science of kalam, then the way of the philosophy, the teachings of the Batinites, then concluded with the way of the Sufis (p.5).

Al-Ghazali criticizes the notion of where people follow religion blindly. For example, he criticizes the fact the children of Muslims always follow Islam; the children from Christian families followed Christianity, while children from Jews always followed Judaism (p.3). Besides, people try to prove things to use, and when they do so, whatever is proven to be true is what we think is the truth. We, therefore, tend to think that whatever we know in this way is presumed to be reliable and sure knowledge. For example, he examines the same instances of sense-data that the sense-judge uses to make judgments, but the reason-judge refutes it and repeatedly gives it the lie in an incontrovertible manner (p.4). Al-Ghazali also criticizes the tradition that stipulated that all infants were born with the fitra, which gave him an inner urge to establish the true meaning of the original fitra, together with the true meaning of the beliefs arising from slavish aping of the parents and teachers (p.3). He planned to accomplish this by sifting out the uncritical beliefs due to the differences in opinions in the discernment of the truth from the false. Al-Ghazali critiques the science of kalam, citing that it might have fulfilled its own aim of conserving the creed of the orthodox for the orthodox and guarding it against confusion introduced by innovators, but not his intent (p.6). He notes that there are several categories of philosophers, and both of them share the stigma of unbelief.

Al-Ghazali becomes a proponent of Sufism because he believes that the Sufis could hear voices from heaven and see angels, and in the process, learn useful things from them. “Their ‘state’ ascended from the vision of forms and likeness beyond the narrow range of words (p. 21). This implies that when one tried to express them, his words contained the evident error against which he could not guard himself. Al-Ghazali also noted that Sufism could lead to fruitional experience where even those not granted such experience could acquire a certain knowledge of that state through hearsay and experience of others. He also termed such men to be men whose associate was never wretched.

4) What is the “stage beyond the intellect?” How does al-Ghazali argue for its existence?

The “stage beyond the intellect” is a stage that exists beyond the stage of intellect, which is characterized by an additional eye that is opened to enable man to see the hidden and what will happen in the future. The "stage beyond the intellect also allows a man to see other things from which the intellect is as far removed as the power of discernment is from the perception of intelligible and the power of sensation is from things perceived by discernment. Some of the men that have been endowed with intellect have rejected things that are perceptible to the prophetic power and considered them to be wildly improbable, which forms the essence for ignorance (p.23).

Al-Ghazali argues that the existence of the "stage beyond the intellect" is there, but some people might fail to acknowledge its presence. For instance, he affirms that men who do not acknowledge the presence of the “stage beyond the intellect” do not have a supporting reason for the existence of the stage since they have not attained such a stage, making them believe that the stage does not exist. For example, a blind man that has never heard of colors and shapes would not understand or acknowledge their existence when told of them abruptly. This example is used to support the existence of this stage.

Works Cited

Al-Ghazāli, M. "Al-Ghazali’s Path to Sufism, his Deliverance from Error al-Munqidh min al-Dalal." (2000).