The Development in al-Ghazālī's Epistemology

Abstract

The paper is concerned with the development in al-Ghazālī's theory of knowledge, which evolved through various stages. Both al-Ghazālī’s life and writings reflect this development. As a student, he began his academic life with an interest in traditional Islamic studies such as jurisprudence. After he assumed his first teaching position at the Nizāmīyah school of Baghdad he became a methodological skeptic, a situation which prompted him to study all schools of thought available at the time in search for peremptory knowledge (‘ilm al-yaqīn). From skepticism he moved to Sufism, and finally there are indications that he ended up studying the traditions (Ḥadith) of Prophet Muhammad (SAS), which led many to claim that he shifted to the methodology of the traditionalists [ahl al-hadīth] and that he abandoned Sufism.