Al-Ghazali
Islamic · Middle East · 1058 to 1111
Islamic scholar who questioned how far philosophical reasoning can go. He looked for certainty through faith and inner experience.
What it is
Al-Ghazali was a Muslim theologian, jurist and mystic who was born in Tus in Persia around 1056 and died in 1111. He is one of the most influential thinkers in Sunni Islam. He taught at a leading college in Baghdad and then turned to a life of Sufi practice.
He is best known for The Incoherence of the Philosophers, in which he criticised twenty positions of the Aristotelian philosophers, and for The Revival of the Religious Sciences. He did not reject philosophy altogether; he accepted its logic and used it, while rejecting some of its teachings.
The main ideas
- Against the philosophers. In The Incoherence of the Philosophers he criticised twenty positions of the Aristotelian philosophers, among them the claim that the world has no beginning.
- Cause and effect. He argued that the link between fire and the burning of cotton is not shown by reason alone; God can be taken to produce each event, and the tie is not a necessary one in itself.
- A crisis of doubt. In his autobiographical Deliverance from Error he describes a period of deep scepticism and his turn to Sufi practice.
- Mysticism and law together. He joined legal and mystical Islam, and his Revival of the Religious Sciences is the best-known statement of the combined path.
What it looks like in practice
Picture someone who has taken for granted that a flame always burns what it touches, and who is asked what their evidence is beyond having seen it repeatedly. Al-Ghazali used that kind of question to show the limits of what reason alone can establish. This is an illustration of the idea, not a quotation.
Books and moments
- The Incoherence of the Philosophers is his critique of the Aristotelian philosophers.
- The Deliverance from Error is his account of his doubts and his turn to Sufism.
- The Revival of the Religious Sciences is his large work on faith, practice and the inner life.
Questions and criticism
- Did he end philosophy in Islam? He is sometimes blamed for turning Islamic thought away from philosophy, but others point out that he accepted logic and that philosophy continued.
- How much of the philosophers did he keep? He accepted logic and demonstration while rejecting some teachings, so where he drew the line is still discussed.
- Can practice answer doubt? He turned from argument to Sufi practice as his answer to scepticism, which some find convincing and others find a way of leaving the question open.
Close neighbours
He criticised Avicenna and Al-Farabi. Aquinas later cited his works. The pages on Ibn Sina and Aquinas show those links.
Written by epchē in our own words, and checked against independent sources on 9 October 2026. The sources are listed below.
Philosophies they belong to or are close to
Who they connect to
Influenced
- Ibn Khaldun · Ibn Khaldun's doubts about arguments on ultimate reality follow al-Ghazali's attack on philosophy. (scholars disagree about this link)
- Judah Halevi · He shared the view that reason has limits, and used it against the philosophers. (scholars disagree about this link)
- Thomas Aquinas · Latin translations of Al-Ghazali's summary of philosophy reached scholastic writers such as Aquinas. (scholars disagree about this link)
Reacted against
- Ibn Sina (Avicenna) · Al-Ghazali's Incoherence of the Philosophers attacked Avicenna's views.
Reacted against by
- Averroes (Ibn Rushd) · The Incoherence of the Incoherence answers Al-Ghazali's attack on the philosophers point by point.
Runs parallel to
- David Hume · Al-Ghazali's doubts about causation are often compared with Hume's. (scholars disagree about this link)
Other Islamic thinkers
- Al-Kindi · 801 to 873
- Al-Razi · 865 to 925
- Al-Farabi · 872 to 950
- Ibn Miskawayh · 932 to 1030
- Ibn Sina (Avicenna) · 980 to 1037
- Ibn Tufayl · 1105 to 1185
- Averroes (Ibn Rushd) · 1126 to 1198
- Suhrawardi · 1154 to 1191
- Ibn Arabi · 1165 to 1240
- Nasir al-Din al-Tusi · 1201 to 1274
Sources we used
- Al-Ghazali · Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, read on 9 October 2026
- Al-Ghazali · Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, read on 9 October 2026
- Al-Ghazali · New World Encyclopedia, read on 9 October 2026