# How can I be sure my reason is not wrong? *Al-Ghazali's doubt in Deliverance from Error: how can I trust my reason?* - URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/8xuhmcz2n3u/s/42/ - Date: 2021-04-13 · Kind: question · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Monday Nights with Mufti #210 | Q&A Unscripted & Unrestricted! 😉 | Mufti Abu Layth (2:52:58–2:58:11) - Status: latest answer on its topic; general teaching - Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XuHMCz2N3U&t=10378s - Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/8xuhmcz2n3u/ **Topics:** Atheism and the existence of God; Philosophy and ideas; Soul, nafs and consciousness **Question as asked:** What is the response to al-Ghazali's formulation of Cartesian doubt in Deliverance from Error? My reason helps me realise my sense faculty can be wrong; how can I be certain my rational faculty is not wrong? **Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** Mufti Abu Layth says al-Ghazali answered his doubt by relying on God; today, he says, the very existence of a consciousness that can doubt is itself the sign of God. **Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth says al-Ghazali resolved his doubt by reliance on God, that science has since taken us far beyond his time, and that for him the existence of consciousness is the sign of God. **Evidence, his words at 2:56:43:** “to me the fact that god is out there is through consciousness the fact that we are conscious to me is that sign” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XuHMCz2N3U&t=10603s) ## Longer summary Asked for a response to al-Ghazali's formulation of Cartesian doubt in Deliverance from Error, that reason shows the senses can be wrong, so how can one be certain reason is not wrong, Mufti Abu Layth says al-Ghazali arrived at this before Descartes and, nine hundred years ago, resolved it by surrendering and relying on God and finding his salvation as a hermit. He says we have come a long way since, helped by science and technology: the ancients had only the night sky and philosophy, while we have discovered galaxies and entered quantum physics, which broke our logic before we made sense of it. He accepts that all this could be a dream or a brain in a jar, but says the fact that the mind can conceive this speaks volumes. For him, consciousness is the sign of God, much as for Descartes it was that we think, and a consciousness that wanders and ponders reflects the necessity of the divine. ## Sources and names cited - al-Ghazali - al-Munqidh min al-Dalal (Deliverance from Error) - Rene Descartes ## Transcript (machine tier, 2:52:58–2:58:11) [2:52:23] some weird things or whatever all right what's the response to hazali's formulation of cartesian doubt [Laughter] uh in deliverance from error my reason helps me realize my sense uh faculty can be wrong how can i be certain my rational faculty is not wrong yeah i mean this you see imam khazali arrives at this before descartes but imam ghazali fair enough you know 900 years ago what what could you do you know so he eventually just kind of [2:53:02] surrenders it all by saying you know what i just rely on god you know and and the way i've found my salvation is by becoming a hermit you know and that that that was his response 900 years ago i think and it saved him and hence he writes his monkeys but we have come a long way from that a long way wallahi [2:53:30] and i feel along the way science and technology have helped massively you know because because we have discovered so much you have to remember you know these people for them they didn't even like they didn't even unders like they wouldn't have truly grasped solar systems they wouldn't have truly grasped they would never have known about galaxies they would never have known about universes like this uh you know they would never have even understood existence like that they would [2:54:08] like they may have had a theory but they would never have known all they have is the night sky and they have stars and they have they understand these planets that kind of seem to rotate as well that are like stars but they behave differently they understood this but they didn't have a but we today you know but in in the past they just had philosophy they looked up at the stars and they philosophized but we today have actualized that knowledge you know where we couldn't reach our knowledge has reached then we brought it into the quantum we've dealt with the with with [2:54:48] with the untenable you know we've we've handled the unhandleable it's it's like it's crazy because we we we locked in a rule a system of logic and reason and rationality and and use science to discover things and as we got deeper and deeper we broke into quantum physics which then destroyed all our understanding of logic in that world and then we made sense of that at least to get by with you know it's [2:55:26] wow honestly you know joe joe zarina you know in the words of uh he says that that's the that you know a life that i mean allegorically speaking that could not have been lived we have lived that life so i feel we have reached like we have gone light years ahead of where imam razali was the problem is that most people don't understand this stuff [2:56:05] so they don't appreciate it because they don't understand physics they don't understand i mean i accept that quantum physics does anybody really understand it but they don't even they haven't even encountered what it's about so to them they're still living in a kind of newtonian world which is still ahead of ghazali but it's imam but it's not um you know it's still a bit behind so yeah it's true this could all be a dream for all we know that is true this would you know we could just be you know just a brain in a jar somewhere [2:56:43] that's true you know it's like somebody said that this whole universe could just be in a jar on a shelf a minus c project for an average achieving student somewhere you know it could be but the fact that the mind can even conceptualize that to me speaks volumes so i feel that yeah to me the fact that god is out there is through consciousness the fact that we are conscious to me is that sign i get for for descartes it was the fact that we think which in some way was kind of [2:57:22] consciousness but he doesn't term it as you know kogito ergosome i suppose that i have cognition so in some way he is kind of saying that as well but the fact that we have this this consciousness that allows us to wander and ponder to me reflects the necessity of a divine but that's to me so yeah [2:57:53] all right what is going on right i don't know what's going on there something in the chat uh maryam right or any verses from the quran where people will infer this hellfire will freeze over during ramadan no there's no verses like that about hellfire and ramadan etc but this hadith saying that the shayateen will be locked up and stuff and basically that just means it'll be easier to do good deeds and there'll be more ## Cite Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 8XuHMCz2N3U/s/42. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/8xuhmcz2n3u/s/42/ Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.