On the surprisingly modern story of a medieval Muslim

Last updated on: December 15, 2018 at 12:56 pm by Dan Peterson

On the surprisingly modern story of a medieval Muslim 2018-12-15T12:56:56-07:00 Dan Peterson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

مشهد لغروب الشمس في بغداد على ضفاف نهر دجلة “A sunset view in Baghdad, on the banks of the Tigris River” (Wikimedia Commons public domain)

This item from the United Kingdom, kindly shared with me a few days ago by (I think!) Matthew Wheeler, would fit nicely into both your “Religion Poisons Everything” and your “All Muslims Want to Kill Us” files:

“Mosques and Muslim groups donate an amazing 4869kg to foodbank”

***

Here is some interesting analysis of a recent report from the Islamic Republic of Iran:

“PBS story on Iran’s Jews hurt by failure to fully explain what captive minorities must do to survive”

***

Bill Hamblin and I published this column in the Deseret News back on 19 October 2013:

In late 1997, Brigham Young University Press published a new translation (with the original Arabic text on the facing page) of a volume by the 11th-12th century Islamic thinker al-Ghazali. Titled “The Incoherence of the Philosophers,” it ranks among the most important books ever written in the Islamic world.

Many of his faith consider al-Ghazali the second greatest Muslim after the Prophet Muhammad himself. His story is an interesting one with a distinctly modern ring to it.

Al-Ghazali was born within the borders of today’s Iran but spent much of his life in Baghdad, the great capital of the far-flung Islamic empire. Superbly educated, he established himself at a young age among the keenest minds of his time and as a phenomenally popular lecturer on law and theology at the university in Baghdad, the Nizamiyya. What is more, he had the personal interest and patronage of Nizam al-Mulk, the remarkable prime minister of his day, after whom the school had been named.

Yet, he was inwardly unsatisfied. And suddenly he simply couldn’t go on any longer. (His crisis may have been provoked when his patron was murdered by a group known as the “Assassins” — from whom we get that unhappy word.) He gave up teaching, and literally couldn’t speak for a time. His teaching seemed to him to have no real value. Most catastrophically, he began to doubt virtually everything.

Finally, he left Baghdad to try to put his life back together. And, fortunately for us, he eventually also left behind an autobiography titled “The Deliverer from Error,” in which he recounts the path that restored him, in the end, to confidence, faith and conviction.

There were, he records, four basic groups who claimed to provide the religious certainty he craved. The theologians, for example, said that by applying sound interpretive techniques and rigorous logic to the revealed text of the Qur’an, they could lead their followers to indisputable truths.

But al-Ghazali was not convinced. Even if they could prove to him that the Qur’an taught such and such, how did he know that the Qur’an itself was true? And if he was uncertain about that, no interpretation of the Qur’an, no matter how carefully derived, could prove itself absolutely true. A stream cannot rise above its source. A building cannot be more firm than its foundation. Anybody can see that Homer’s “Iliad” says that Zeus is divine, but we non-pagans aren’t obliged to agree. Homer has no particular authority for us.

The same problem nullified the claims of the various groups in his day — the “Assassins” were among them — who said that they had an infallible religious leader and that one had only to follow him in order to be led, infallibly, to absolute truth. How, al-Ghazali asked, could a seeker after certainty know for sure which of the many “infallible” leaders was the real thing? (They all disagreed among themselves.) And if the initial decision was doubtful, nothing depending on it thereafter could be certain.

The philosophers of al-Ghazali’s day, by contrast, claimed that their arguments were so airtight that anyone who really understood them could not doubt that their conclusions were true, just as anyone who understands geometry knows by definition that a circle has 360 degrees and a triangle 180. So al-Ghazali studied them, intensely. This resulted in a book summarizing their ideas titled “The Aims of the Philosophers” — which, translated into Latin, ironically led Europeans to regard “Algazel” himself as a philosopher. But once again, he was not convinced, and his great book “The Incoherence of the Philosophers” explains in detail, using their own logic and methods, why the philosophers too could not deliver the kind of certainty that they promised.

Finally, he turned to the mystics of Islam, the Sufis. Here al-Ghazali found peace of mind. Through his own mystical experience — by personal revelation, one might say — he came to know that revelation was possible, that divine knowledge could be had and that life was meaningful. Such personal experience was, he said, like the sense of taste. A person knows what it is, and that he or she has experienced it, but the experience remains individual, personal and subjective. It cannot really be communicated to others. The believer can point in the correct direction, can explain how he or she came to faith, but, ultimately, seekers of truth and religious certainty must find it for themselves.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

December 15, 2018

My Secret

Next Post

December 16, 2018 "A hack that denies the realities of Islam"

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 March 2014 August 2013 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What did Jeremiah see in his first vision as a young prophet?

Select your answer to see how you score.

A scroll A burning coal A lion An almond branch