Al-Ghazali was the most eminent among Muslim philosophers who...

Al-Ghazali was the most eminent among Muslim philosophers who, in his spiritual auto – biography, al-Munqidh min al-dalal , elaborated the path of skepticism which he travelled to attain the ultimate truth. There have been some Muslim thinkers, like Abu Hashim al-Jubba’i, al-Baqillanis al-Nazzam and others, who advocated skepticism in order to arrive at certain religious faith.

Skepticism is a philosophy that has three different meanings: denial of all knowledge, agnosticism, and a method to approach certainty. Most of the Muslims philosophers sought the goal of certainty. Skepticism in the general sense of the impossibility of knowledge is not compatible with Islamic teachings. It is acceptable only when it leads from uncertainty to certainty. The skeptical method has two aspects, rejection of all absolute knowledge, and acceptance of the path to overcome uncertainty.

Muslim philosophers have followed the second path, because there has been an emphasis on rejecting blind faith. Shaykh al-Mufid (an eminent Shi’i faqih) said that there was a very narrow margin between faith and disbelief in so far as the believer imitated certain theologians. In his view, an imitator is on the verse of unbelief ( kufr ). In Islam, ‘ilm is not confined to the acquisition of knowledge only, but also embraces socio-political and moral aspects.

Knowledge is not mere information; it requires the believers to act upon their beliefs and commit themselves to the goals which Islam aims at attaining. In brief, I would like to say that the theory of knowledge in the Islamic perspective is not just a theory of epistemology. It combines knowledge, insight, and social action as its ingredients. I would like to cite here a tradition of the Prophet (PHUHH) narrated by Amir al-Mu’minin, ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib: Once Gabriel came to Adam.

He brought with him faith, morality ( haya’ ) and ‘ aql (reason) and asked him to choose one of the three. When he chose ‘ aql , the others were told by Gabriel to return to heaven, They said that they were ordered by Allah to accompany ‘ aql wherever it remained. This indicates the significance of intellect and knowledge in Islam, and how deeply related they are to faith and the morality.