# Was al-Ghazali against science and philosophy?

*Was al-Ghazali against science and reason?*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/l4n4wd2jjps/s/6/
- Date: 2021-02-09 · Kind: question · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Monday Nights with Mufti #201| Q&A Unscripted & Unrestricted! 😉 | Mufti Abu Layth (34:23–47:04)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4n4wD2jjps&t=2063s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/l4n4wd2jjps/

**Topics:** Scholars and imams of the past; Reason and revelation; Sufism and tasawwuf

**Question as asked:** Was Imam al-Ghazali against science and reason? Why was he against Greek philosophy?

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** Mufti Abu Layth says al-Ghazali was not against reason at first, but after a crisis of faith he turned to ascetic mysticism, and through later Sufism this indirectly harmed the voice of reason.

**Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth says it is true that al-Ghazali's influence had a detrimental impact on the voice of reason, although he thinks it did so indirectly.

**Evidence, his words at 44:35:** “hence i would say yes it is true that imam razali uh his influence had a detrimental impact on the voice of reason although i think it did so indirectly” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4n4wD2jjps&t=2675s)

## Longer summary

A chat question asks whether al-Ghazali was against science, reason and Greek philosophy. Mufti Abu Layth says these fell under hikmah in that era, and that al-Ghazali was at first a huge advocate of them, but went through a crisis of faith, perhaps for a month or two, became a recluse and abandoned reason for a blind spirituality, as he describes in al-Munqidh min al-Dalal. Mufti says that in his later years al-Ghazali returned to Baghdad and to teaching, seeming to mitigate his ascetic view, and that the Maliki scholar Abu Bakr [ibn al-Arabi] [?] stayed with him in the desert. He contrasts al-Ghazali's suspicion of reason with what he mocks as the Wahhabis' call to dogmatism, and says al-Ghazali's influence harmed the voice of reason only indirectly, through the Sufi tradition that later took him as a model.

## Sources and names cited

- al-Ghazali
- al-Munqidh min al-Dalal (Deliverance from Error)
- Qadi Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi [?]
- hikmah (wisdom)
- Sufi
- Wahhabi

## Transcript (machine tier, 34:23–47:04)

[33:44] oh wait so you know means like useless the diminutive form of of that then fazool so it's not only useless it's a small useless thing [Laughter] a small useless thing i'm sure there's i'm sure there's medical help for that [Laughter] don't worry about it man you you come live and we can discuss the medical issues put on our stethoscope we'll do we'll do some role play

[34:22] [Laughter] so people question for fmc oh i see i can still spiritual florentino people spirit of florentino question for the chart mufti was imam al-hazari against science and reason why was he against great philosophy hmm was he against science and reason see back then science reason all of these things really and uh

[35:00] they fell under what you'd call hikma which was biology but it was linked all of so observing the world around you and learning wisdom from it meant observing nature observing biology observing so all of these things fell under um under hikma although just medicating the art of medicating was also called thib as well but but generally hickman covered what today we would call science in addition to philosophy

[35:38] somebody said the fragrance sculptor cello will check it out um right so was imam razali against these things i think he initially wasn't he initially was a huge advocate of these things later on there was a period where imam razali went into a hermit he went through a hermit phase um he became a recluse okay and he had a crisis of faith so it's it's important to understand

[36:16] look each person in their life goes through their own journeys you know it's not um and imam razali went through his um and it and it it got messy it got rough sometimes that is well sometimes that is a sign of your own intelligence your own genius that how um you know that you face challenges and problems based on your your own

[36:55] kind of capacity that you know so this it's early faced his own demons and they were as mighty as him and there was a period where they got the better of him and this it's not an insult to imam razali per se because he he faced his demons at least you know many of us we may not have the courage

[37:35] to face our demons but he did and he struggled and he left everything he left wealth prestige um he left civilization he you know kind of um secluded himself in a desert really he went off and he had a uh maybe in modern day kind of thinking he he went through some maybe some kind of manic depression he lost his faith uh for a while

[38:12] for a brief while he disbelieved maybe in allah so there was there was a huge kind of um grapple that was going on i don't think that was a long period of time i think that may have just been a month or two or something but he you know he went through a hell of a lot and then he he came out having restored his faith but it resulted in becoming this hermit this kind of like guru phenomenon this this uh um archetype

[38:51] that just you know has nothing to do with the world lives in a tent um and that's what he did for years and it's during this time he really abandons all philosophy he abandons reason he thinks reason can't really you know it led him it's not that it led him astray but he feels that it took him on such a ride and then left him like it couldn't make it the whole way he felt that you see so he has a book called

[39:29] that this salvation from uh misguidance or i don't know how you translate how maybe they've got translated the title a bit differently salvation maybe from um yeah dalal is misguidance generally but so he what he feels is that look i you know in overcoming my demons i've resorted to reason to the nth degree and although it was very good but in the end it abandoned me and i found myself defenseless against these demons

[40:08] and he says and in the end the thing that just helped me overcome this was a kind of blind spirituality that i just have faith in god close my eyes and just leap and and he did and that's what kind of saved him so he writes this in his book it's not a big book it's you know if you're interested in reading it it is available i'm sure it's translated as well and yeah so that was imam razali's journey having said that he later on this is the time that abu bakr is you know the maliki scholar links up with him in the desert stays with him a considerable while this

[40:48] is the time he's writing you know his reflects this mindset by the way you know abandon everything it's all about desires god is always going to take everything to account and this very hyper ascetic perspective on life and how you can never trust reason or trust your intellect it may abandon you at any point this kind of attitude comes forth from his book um sorry yeah so um but that said in his later years in life

[41:25] he does actually go back to baghdad he does not die upon this ascetic state he in later years does go back to resume somewhat of a career as a scholar so he does resume that and start teaching public teaching and and all of that so it seems that he backed off from some of this stuff because if you read his stuff about when he's in the desert he's he he's dissing everything he's like teaching fair is useless he's like this is all it's all you know and he speaks very in disparagingly towards scholars of philip and he considers this

[42:05] a worldly science fair it's not even something that will take you to god it's more about the dunya and but then later on he goes back to it and he seems to maybe at least if not abandon his ascetic view if not abandon it then at least mitigate it and you know bring it down a bit so it gets a bit more realistic so yeah so but this view of rosalie this ascetic thing was really it gained so much popularity after him and he was i suppose

[42:42] one of the pioneers of it and that this view of uh abandoned reason abandon don't trust your intellect don't do this don't do that and and it's not to become you know like the way the selfies say abandoned reason it's not their kind of cry their cry is a dumb cry it's like a you know the sunshine group and we do literally and you imagine it wasn't like that at all he meant be suspicious and he meant resort to a deep mystic spiritualism uh so it wasn't like not to confuse it with when you know

[43:22] wahhabi say things like don't trust reason they mean something completely different they mean uh become dogmatists and literalists like us you know jump into [Laughter] you know they're like bottom set those which are like uh you know on the bright side they they're eligible for learning disability benefits

[43:57] they really have got the short straw in all of this man and the the funny thing is they can't even see it because they're usually very kind of like autistic in the so they can't even they don't get it either so they don't understand why people are laughing [Laughter] i swear this is like divine comedy but anyway imam razali his thing was very different um but people after him this view really became a mainstream view afterwards this sufic kind of way of looking at things

[44:35] of being very ascetic and very so hence i would say yes it is true that imam razali uh his influence had a detrimental impact on the voice of reason although i think it did so indirectly it wasn't that he was saying it in his day and age and everybody was practicing it it wasn't like that it was more that he did it became this he was already a superstar because of his debating against other sects and things so it's like imagine you get a celebrity today that becomes

[45:13] something else so what happens that's what he did so use this celebrity he becomes this hermit uh this says you should be suspicious of reason and everything but maybe in the generations after him this tendency it spreads like wildfire due to sufi practices so sufism in ghazali's time was not really popular but after him when it gets popular it carries this wave of this attitude and hence imam razali because he kind of fed into this attitude he indirectly influences this uh

[45:53] the the war against reason so it was more an indirect um you know influence but yeah but i'm not you know criticizing him for like i said it was his journey obviously i'm criticizing his uh his thing but i think he didn't to you know it's it's not it's unfair to say he did it and people followed him because it that's just not true they didn't just follow him because he said it but much after when the tradition took hold he became it's a bit like hypnotamia in a way he he becomes larger than life but not

[46:33] in his time when the wahhabis rise up and take him as the amazing founding not founding but inspiration he becomes influential so it's a bit like that so when the sufis later on take razali as a kind of role model and an inspiration he becomes influential cool let's move on people

[47:03] abu safura savage what is going on what have i missed many times yeah i've covered that in my discussion on ibn rush i should have they are autistic side but don't you think a lot of religious figures were autistic they definitely were i feel that uh people like imam ahmed ibn hambal imam shafi'i i feel they were autistic people i mean that doesn't mean many autistic people

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment l4n4wD2jjps/s/6. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/l4n4wd2jjps/s/6/

Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.