Islamic part of the course:

The muslim icon:

Ghazali as an influencer thinker of Islam mainly influenced philosophy whereas he was very
critical of Greek philosophy.
Propagation of the Shiaa <3 theology. (910-1171).
Behind the apparent meaning of the verse there is the inside meaning of the Quran.
The difference between the khalifa (mostly political) and the imam (mostly spiritual but
political).
Ghazali was a Muslim Sunni philosopher.
He talks about 1- theology very briefly, says that theology is ineffeiciant.
2- philosophy
3-Batiniyya (inside meaning of the verse)
4-Tasawwof
He rejects the first 3 and embraces tasawwof. He considers that the philosophers of this time
were not experimented enough to understand about tasawof. He felt that they were just being
conservative.
He presents himself as a critical thinker. “Climbing from the plain of naïve and second hand
belief” hints to the allegory of the cave.
Taqlid is to believe in a traditional manner.
We cannot prove if we reached the truth because our senses are not reliable, our senses can
trick us. Knowledge cannot be reached from the senses. We can go to reason.
Ghazali says that what if in reason itself we discover that there are some things that are not
constant just like in the senses.
Reason compared to something else. Sensing  reason  true belief.
Belief is beyond reason.
In Ghazali’s mind, faith is even more accurate than sciences. Mystical experience, the certainty
is stronger than epistemological philosophy. In that sense, reason itself can be doubted.
Grace is what is given to us without deserving it. Having faith is already graceful. If reason is
aligned with faith rather than against it, it helps us.
He considers that this life is an illusion and we only discover the truth when we die.
Al mulk al malakout al jabarout (look up later)
AL mulk: physical world a copy of al malakout
Malakout: intellegiable world that doesn’t manifest to us until we die
Jabarout: realm of god itself, impossible to reach.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ghazali was dissatisfied with the theology. Sometimes the theologians misunderstand the
philosopher’s argument, or they just content themselves with refusing the philosophy without
being convincing in terms of “islam”.
Mathematics can be seen as a tool for creation, it is seen as part of philosophy. He says that
there is nothing threatening to religion from math. He says, if you start following a certain
mathematician who excels at math, if he excels at math we consider that he excels at theology
(not true, he can be an atheist) . Because you admire Einstein, you become a follower of
spinoza (example).
This all means that blind imitation is wrong.
The man who excels in one art does not necessarily excel in every art. The second drawback
would be that some people reject blindly, without even trying to know the truth. They reject
everything that is not related to Islamic culture.
Everything is intertwined, but suppose you want to get rid of something that is NOT Islamic, you
would get rid of a lot of things,
Loyal to Islam = reject every science connected with the philosophers. Accuses them of
ignorance. He even rejects astronomical facts, because astronomy was making a huge progress
in the Islamic world.
This shows that Ghazali is not this narrow-minded organism. Islam was defended by the denial
of sciences (mathematical sciences in that case). All it does was portray islam in a very negative
way as a religion that does not care about the advancement of science.
The metaphysical part of philosophy affects because the philosophers have no clue what
they’re saying in theology. Not that very religious people know what happens in the afterlife,
most people don’t know what exactly is going to happen.
The first thing that the philosophers imagined:
-for the bodies there is no resurrection (the soul never dies)
-azali = has always existed abadi = will always exist. The soul is abadiyya but is it azaliyya?

DEMIURGE

Ask about point a

(b) They say that God knows universals but not particulars. This too is plain unbelief . The truth
is that 'there does not escape Him the weight of an atom in the heavens or in the earth' (Q. 34, 3).

It relates to plato because of the world of forms, the forms are universal out of which we have
many particulars. Then we have many tables. If god only knows universal this is a kind of
platonic form whos not very interested in our physical world.
So he’s taking it literally, it goes aloing with his omniscient, he knows absolutely everything

c- the azaliyya of the world which is mainly Aristotle, you have matter, what perceeds matter,
matter and so on and so fourth. You cannot have a point of beginning for matter. Nothing is
created out of nothing. For Aristotle it doesn’t mean anything, so just transformed from one
shape to the other. They ask him about the philosophers who maintain the 3 erros he says that
they can be killed.
Ibn rushd has a lot to say to Ghazali meainly about not having the right to judge other people.
Ibn rushd considers that it does not matter if resurrection happens.
Theres a nuance, he is against the mutazila that is a rationalistic school of theology that usually
appeals to reason. The mutazilah was considered as the official dpctrine, enforced. It was the
first time philosophy became so mainstream. They belived that they used reason to
understand, emphasize on free wilol. If god is going to punish me, because I have a free will.
you cannot punish Oedipus; he has no free will.
I know yall care about my oinion so here we go hshaha

The idea is that the quran was created for a certain timing of quran. (there was a reason for it
to be written, certain situation where god decided to send the quran).
Ahmad b hanbal, who wrote a book called the refutation of al motazila, theres this little detail.
The deal of the taalamiyya is the belief in the imam. What happened after the death of the
prophet, imam was the continuation of prophecy.
Ghazali belives that the quran is eternal and should not be contextualized.

Sophism definition:
We desire to go back to God and connect to him.
Do you become one with God if you connect with him?
AL HALLAJ: very famous sophist, he thinks he IS the Truth and he is god. What he meant is that
he became a art of god and that god is speaking through him.
Tasawwof is part of islam. The sophist consider that esra2 wa me3raj is a sophy experiment.
Worship of God 24/7. Remembering god always,
For most of the sophies, the soul is a divine spark that does not really belong to us. When we
enter that contact with god, this is a gateway to reach God. Most people, most of the time are
separated.

Mysticism
everything that is not god should be rejected. Plotinus says “Keep sculpting your own statue..”
multitasking is the enemy of tasawof.
You should not make yourself busy with the world, Ghazali went through that, he went through
a spiritual crisis from Baghdad to Damascus. He deprived himself from goods of the world. This
crisis was bothered/annoyed because he thought that everything, he did wasn’t for god but for
himself including the teaching so he thought he was selfish. Even harsher than Augustine, for
Augustine the sin was kind of apparent. But here he is not doing something that he shouldn’t be
doing, he’s just teaching. He is blaming himself for doing what he’s doing =. Teaching. He feels
like the intention should be pure, you should do it because it is your duty not because you like it
or enjoy it. The more you refrain from your inclinations the more you’re ethical.
Go back to the part of you that most resembles God.
Ascetic life = deprive yourself.
Forsaking the world = Augustine could not let go of the world’s pleasure. It was not an
intellectual issue, he needed to change his behavior, which was something he kept on
postponing, he needed to convert. To put himself in a position where he would receive the
grace of God.
His crisis manifested in a way where he couldn’t eat or sleep anymore.
The whole point of tasawof is to create a distance between yourself and material wealth.
They emphasize productivity (doing good)
They keep themselves lacking from everyday thing just for the sake of reaching higher spiritual
points. Altruism is an important concept in their beliefs.
The way they see it is that the deprivement they get would not harm them (against self-harm).
Fasting in islam itself is a form of deprivation
Prophecy: the faculty of prophets, Ghazali says that we have some sample of prophethood in
ourselves, we can taste prophecy within ourself. Beyond the intellect there is another state, the
Doors of perception: “if the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man
as it is infinite”
He believed that sometimes in some dreams we could see the future.
Some people like Ibn Rushd believe that all of this is an illusion, but Ghazali considers that they
never actually went through a similar experience.
Denying any mystical experience meanwhile you never tried it,
Freud would say that religion is a consolation for the suffering in life (father figure who always
help us) took it from Nitche.
Ghazali is saying that the person denying it might not have experienced anything similar in their
life. You haven’t experienced it, you can’t prove or disapprove.
According to Ghazali prophets are doctors of souls, just like a medical doctor would heal your
body, the prophet heals your soul. The prophet knows what’s good for our soul, he gives
examples like why it is 5 prayers/day. But according to Ghazali it is good not for rational reason,
reason will not be able to explain. There is a remedy for the soul through praying.
Sometimes we take medication, we do not know why we trust them, but we do.

Ghazali attacke