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On the “Psychological Dialectic” of al-Ghazālī Regarding Philosophers, or Did Ibn Sīnā Drink Wine?

Year 2019, Volume: 10 Issue: 1, 47 - 97, 28.11.2019
https://doi.org/10.12730/13091719.2019.101.189

Abstract

Al-Ghazālī, one of the most influential figures in the history of Islamic thought, criticized the prominent religious paradigms of his day. In this regard, his settling of accounts with philosophers from whom he benefitted in terms of methodology is particularly significant and consists of three stages: first, the identification; then, the description; and finally, the judgment of the philosophers by means of dialectic criticism. There are comprehensive studies on the theoretical aspects of this struggle between al-Ghazālī and the philosophers; nevertheless, his psychological dialectic, which he advances in a manner that addresses the common feelings of Muslims, is often overlooked. This paper examines al-Ghazālī’s allegation that Ibn Sīnā used to drink wine, since it is one of the most impressive examples of the conception that al-Ghazālī tried to establish regarding philosophers and philosophy by showing how weak the relationship is between philosophers and Islam. The objective is to obtain a deeper view of the content and construction of al-Ghazālī’s psychological dialectic.

References

  • al-Ahwāzī, Abū ʿAlī Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Yazdād. “Mathālib Ibn Abī Bishr,” 151-165. In Michel Allard, “Un Pamphlet Contre al-Ašʿarī.” Bulletin d’études orientales 23 (1970), 129-165.
  • Aynî, Mehmet Ali. “İbn Sinâ’da Tasavvuf.” In Büyük Türk Filozof ve Tıb Üstadı İbni Sina: Şahsiyeti ve Eserleri Hakkında Tetkikler, 94-197. 3rd ed. Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayınları, 2014.
  • al-Bayhaqī, Abū l-Ḥasan Ẓahīr al-Dīn ʿAlī ibn Zayd ibn Muḥammad. Tatimmat Ṣiwān al-ḥikmah. Edited by Muḥammad Shafīʿ. Lahore: Panjab University Oriental Publications, AH 1351 [1935].
  • Dunlop, D. M. ed. The Muntakhab Ṣiwān al-ḥikmah of Abū Sulaimān as-Sijistānī: Arabic Text, Introduction, and Indices. The Hague: Mouton Publishers, 1979. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110806823.
  • al-Ghazālī, Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad. Tahāfut al-falāsifah. Edited by Sulaymān Dunyā. Egypt: Dār al-Maʿārif, 1966.
  • al-Ghazālī, Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad. al-Munqidh min al-ḍalāl wa-l-mūṣil ilá dhī l-ʿizzah wa-l-jalāl. Edited by Jamīl Ṣalībā and Kāmil ʿAyyād. Beirut: Dār al-Andalus, 1967.
  • al-Ghazālī, Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad. Jawāhir al-Qurʾān. Edited by Muḥammad Rashīd Riḍā al-Qabbānī. 3rd ed. Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-ʿUlūm, 1990.
  • al-Ghazālī, Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad. al-Mankhūl min taʿlīqāt al-uṣūl. Edited by Muḥammad Ḥasan Haytū. 3rd ed. Damascus: Dār al-Fikr, 1998.
  • Gohlman, William E., ed. and trans. The Life of Ibn Sina: A Critical Edition and Annotated Translation. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1974.
  • Griffel, Frank. al-Ghazālī’s Philosophical Theology. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195331622.001.0001.
  • Gutas, Dimitri. “Avicenna’s Maḏhab with an Appendix on the Question of His Date of Birth,” Quaderni di Studi Arabi 5/6 (1987-1988): 323-336.
  • Gutas, Dimitri. “The Heritage of Avicenna: The Golden Age of Arabic Philosophy, 1000 — ca. 1350.” In Avicenna and His Heritage: Acts of the International Colloquium, Leuven-Louvain-La-Neuve, September 8-11 1999, edited by Jules Janssens and Daniel de Smet, 81-97. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2002.
  • Ibn Khaldūn, Abū Zayd Walī al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad. Muqaddimat Ibn Khaldūn. Edited by Aḥmad al-Zuʿbī. Beirut: Dār al-Arqam, n.d.
  • Ibn Qutaybah, Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muslim al-Dīnawarī. Taʾwīl mukhtalif al-ḥādīth. Edited by Muḥammad Muḥyī al-Dīn al-Aṣfar. Beirut: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 1999.
  • Ibn Sīnā, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlī. “Maktūb Abī Saʿīd ilá l-Shaykh wa-jawābuh.” In Rasāʾil İbn Sīnā: İbn Sînâ Risâleleri, edited by Hilmi Ziya Ülken, II, 37-39. Istanbul: İstanbul Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Yayınları, 1953.
  • Ibn Sīnā, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlī. Risālah fī dafʿ al-maḍārr al-kullīyyah. Istanbul: Nuruosmaniye Library of Manuscripts, MS 4894, fols. 307v-316v.
  • Ibn Sīnā, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlī. “Risālat al-ʿahd.” In Majmūʿat al-rasāʾil, 204-208, edited by Muḥyī al-Dīn Ṣabrī al-Kurdī. Egypt: Maṭbaʿat Kurdistān al-ʿIlmiyyah, AH 1328.
  • Ibn Sīnā, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlī. Risâleler. Translated by Alparslan Açıkgenç and M. Hayri Kırbaşoğlu. Ankara: Kitâbiyât Yayınları, 2004.
  • al-Jūzjānī, Abū ʿUbayd ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn Muḥammad. “Büyük Üstat [İbn Sînâ’nın] –Allah ona rahmet etsin– Sergüzeşt Olarak Bilinen Hayatı, Kitaplarının Listesi, [Yaşadığı] Hallerin ve Hayat Hikâyesinin Anlatımı.” Translated by M. Cüneyt Kaya. www.academia.edu/37630881/Ibn_Sînânın_Hayatı_Sîretüş-Şeyhir-reîs_Autobiography_of_Ibn Sina_. Accessed May 25, 2019.
  • al-Kafawī, Abū l-Baqāʾ Ayyūb ibn Mūsá. al-Kulliyyāt: Muʿjam fī l-muṣṭalaḥāt wa-l-furūq al-lughawiyyah. Edited by ʿAdnān Darwīsh and Muḥammad al-Miṣrī. 2nd ed. Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risālah, 2011.
  • Kaya, M. Cüneyt, comp. and trans. İbn Sînâ’nın Mirası by Dimitri Gutas. Istanbul: Klasik, 2004.
  • Kaya, Mahmut. “İbn Sînâ’nın Filozof Yemini: Ibn Sînâ and the Philosopher’s Oath.” In Uluslararası İbn Sînâ Sempozyumu: Bildiriler II [International Ibn Sina Symposium Papers II], edited by Mehmet Mazak and Nevzat Özkaya, 155-160. Istanbul: İstanbul Büyükşehir Belediyesi Kültür A. Ş. Yayınları, 2008.
  • Kaya, Mahmut. “Gazzalî Filozofları Tekfir Etmekte Haklı mıydı?” In 900. Vefat Yılında Uluslararası Gazzālî Sempozyumu: Milletlerarası Tartışmalı İlmî Toplantı, edited by İlyas Çelebi, 43-51. Istanbul: Marmara Üniversitesi İlâhiyat Fakültesi Vakfı Yayınları, 2012.
  • Lameer, Joep. “İbn Sîna’nın Şehveti [Avicenna’s Concupiscence].” Translated by Serdar Cihan Güleç. Kutadgubilig 30 (2016): 1047-1059.
  • al-Marghīnānī, Abū l-Ḥasan Burhān al-Dīn ʿAlī ibn Abī Bakr. al-Hidāyah sharḥ Bidāyat al-mubtadī. 4 vols. in 2 vols. Edited by Ṭalāl Yūsuf. Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1995.
  • al-Sijistānī, Abū Sulaymān Muḥammad ibn Ṭāhir ibn Bahrām. Ṣiwān al-ḥikmah wa-thalāth rasāʾil. Edited by ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Badawī. Tehran: Intishārāt-i Bunyād-i Farhang-i Īrān, 1974.
  • Okumuş, Mesut. “İbn Sinâ’nın Hayatı, Eserleri ve Düşünce Sistemi Üzerine.” In eş-Şeyhu’r-Reis İbn-i Sînâ, 17-43. 2nd ed. Ankara: Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı Yayınları, 2015.
  • Öztelli, Cahit. “Halk Hikâyelerinde İbni Sîna.” Türk Dili Araştırmaları Yıllığı - Belleten 16 (1968): 213-219.
  • Ünver, A. Süheyl. “Şark Folklorunda İbn Sinâ Hakkında Yaşayan ve Kaybolan Efsaneler.” In Büyük Türk Filozof ve Tıb Üstadı İbni Sina: Şahsiyeti ve Eserleri Hakkında Tetkikler, 577-607. 3rd ed. Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayınları, 2014.
  • Vural, Mehmet. İslâm Felsefesi Sözlüğü. Ankara: Elis Yayınları, 2016.
Year 2019, Volume: 10 Issue: 1, 47 - 97, 28.11.2019
https://doi.org/10.12730/13091719.2019.101.189

Abstract

References

  • al-Ahwāzī, Abū ʿAlī Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Yazdād. “Mathālib Ibn Abī Bishr,” 151-165. In Michel Allard, “Un Pamphlet Contre al-Ašʿarī.” Bulletin d’études orientales 23 (1970), 129-165.
  • Aynî, Mehmet Ali. “İbn Sinâ’da Tasavvuf.” In Büyük Türk Filozof ve Tıb Üstadı İbni Sina: Şahsiyeti ve Eserleri Hakkında Tetkikler, 94-197. 3rd ed. Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayınları, 2014.
  • al-Bayhaqī, Abū l-Ḥasan Ẓahīr al-Dīn ʿAlī ibn Zayd ibn Muḥammad. Tatimmat Ṣiwān al-ḥikmah. Edited by Muḥammad Shafīʿ. Lahore: Panjab University Oriental Publications, AH 1351 [1935].
  • Dunlop, D. M. ed. The Muntakhab Ṣiwān al-ḥikmah of Abū Sulaimān as-Sijistānī: Arabic Text, Introduction, and Indices. The Hague: Mouton Publishers, 1979. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110806823.
  • al-Ghazālī, Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad. Tahāfut al-falāsifah. Edited by Sulaymān Dunyā. Egypt: Dār al-Maʿārif, 1966.
  • al-Ghazālī, Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad. al-Munqidh min al-ḍalāl wa-l-mūṣil ilá dhī l-ʿizzah wa-l-jalāl. Edited by Jamīl Ṣalībā and Kāmil ʿAyyād. Beirut: Dār al-Andalus, 1967.
  • al-Ghazālī, Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad. Jawāhir al-Qurʾān. Edited by Muḥammad Rashīd Riḍā al-Qabbānī. 3rd ed. Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-ʿUlūm, 1990.
  • al-Ghazālī, Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad. al-Mankhūl min taʿlīqāt al-uṣūl. Edited by Muḥammad Ḥasan Haytū. 3rd ed. Damascus: Dār al-Fikr, 1998.
  • Gohlman, William E., ed. and trans. The Life of Ibn Sina: A Critical Edition and Annotated Translation. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1974.
  • Griffel, Frank. al-Ghazālī’s Philosophical Theology. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195331622.001.0001.
  • Gutas, Dimitri. “Avicenna’s Maḏhab with an Appendix on the Question of His Date of Birth,” Quaderni di Studi Arabi 5/6 (1987-1988): 323-336.
  • Gutas, Dimitri. “The Heritage of Avicenna: The Golden Age of Arabic Philosophy, 1000 — ca. 1350.” In Avicenna and His Heritage: Acts of the International Colloquium, Leuven-Louvain-La-Neuve, September 8-11 1999, edited by Jules Janssens and Daniel de Smet, 81-97. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2002.
  • Ibn Khaldūn, Abū Zayd Walī al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad. Muqaddimat Ibn Khaldūn. Edited by Aḥmad al-Zuʿbī. Beirut: Dār al-Arqam, n.d.
  • Ibn Qutaybah, Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muslim al-Dīnawarī. Taʾwīl mukhtalif al-ḥādīth. Edited by Muḥammad Muḥyī al-Dīn al-Aṣfar. Beirut: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 1999.
  • Ibn Sīnā, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlī. “Maktūb Abī Saʿīd ilá l-Shaykh wa-jawābuh.” In Rasāʾil İbn Sīnā: İbn Sînâ Risâleleri, edited by Hilmi Ziya Ülken, II, 37-39. Istanbul: İstanbul Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Yayınları, 1953.
  • Ibn Sīnā, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlī. Risālah fī dafʿ al-maḍārr al-kullīyyah. Istanbul: Nuruosmaniye Library of Manuscripts, MS 4894, fols. 307v-316v.
  • Ibn Sīnā, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlī. “Risālat al-ʿahd.” In Majmūʿat al-rasāʾil, 204-208, edited by Muḥyī al-Dīn Ṣabrī al-Kurdī. Egypt: Maṭbaʿat Kurdistān al-ʿIlmiyyah, AH 1328.
  • Ibn Sīnā, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlī. Risâleler. Translated by Alparslan Açıkgenç and M. Hayri Kırbaşoğlu. Ankara: Kitâbiyât Yayınları, 2004.
  • al-Jūzjānī, Abū ʿUbayd ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn Muḥammad. “Büyük Üstat [İbn Sînâ’nın] –Allah ona rahmet etsin– Sergüzeşt Olarak Bilinen Hayatı, Kitaplarının Listesi, [Yaşadığı] Hallerin ve Hayat Hikâyesinin Anlatımı.” Translated by M. Cüneyt Kaya. www.academia.edu/37630881/Ibn_Sînânın_Hayatı_Sîretüş-Şeyhir-reîs_Autobiography_of_Ibn Sina_. Accessed May 25, 2019.
  • al-Kafawī, Abū l-Baqāʾ Ayyūb ibn Mūsá. al-Kulliyyāt: Muʿjam fī l-muṣṭalaḥāt wa-l-furūq al-lughawiyyah. Edited by ʿAdnān Darwīsh and Muḥammad al-Miṣrī. 2nd ed. Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risālah, 2011.
  • Kaya, M. Cüneyt, comp. and trans. İbn Sînâ’nın Mirası by Dimitri Gutas. Istanbul: Klasik, 2004.
  • Kaya, Mahmut. “İbn Sînâ’nın Filozof Yemini: Ibn Sînâ and the Philosopher’s Oath.” In Uluslararası İbn Sînâ Sempozyumu: Bildiriler II [International Ibn Sina Symposium Papers II], edited by Mehmet Mazak and Nevzat Özkaya, 155-160. Istanbul: İstanbul Büyükşehir Belediyesi Kültür A. Ş. Yayınları, 2008.
  • Kaya, Mahmut. “Gazzalî Filozofları Tekfir Etmekte Haklı mıydı?” In 900. Vefat Yılında Uluslararası Gazzālî Sempozyumu: Milletlerarası Tartışmalı İlmî Toplantı, edited by İlyas Çelebi, 43-51. Istanbul: Marmara Üniversitesi İlâhiyat Fakültesi Vakfı Yayınları, 2012.
  • Lameer, Joep. “İbn Sîna’nın Şehveti [Avicenna’s Concupiscence].” Translated by Serdar Cihan Güleç. Kutadgubilig 30 (2016): 1047-1059.
  • al-Marghīnānī, Abū l-Ḥasan Burhān al-Dīn ʿAlī ibn Abī Bakr. al-Hidāyah sharḥ Bidāyat al-mubtadī. 4 vols. in 2 vols. Edited by Ṭalāl Yūsuf. Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1995.
  • al-Sijistānī, Abū Sulaymān Muḥammad ibn Ṭāhir ibn Bahrām. Ṣiwān al-ḥikmah wa-thalāth rasāʾil. Edited by ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Badawī. Tehran: Intishārāt-i Bunyād-i Farhang-i Īrān, 1974.
  • Okumuş, Mesut. “İbn Sinâ’nın Hayatı, Eserleri ve Düşünce Sistemi Üzerine.” In eş-Şeyhu’r-Reis İbn-i Sînâ, 17-43. 2nd ed. Ankara: Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı Yayınları, 2015.
  • Öztelli, Cahit. “Halk Hikâyelerinde İbni Sîna.” Türk Dili Araştırmaları Yıllığı - Belleten 16 (1968): 213-219.
  • Ünver, A. Süheyl. “Şark Folklorunda İbn Sinâ Hakkında Yaşayan ve Kaybolan Efsaneler.” In Büyük Türk Filozof ve Tıb Üstadı İbni Sina: Şahsiyeti ve Eserleri Hakkında Tetkikler, 577-607. 3rd ed. Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayınları, 2014.
  • Vural, Mehmet. İslâm Felsefesi Sözlüğü. Ankara: Elis Yayınları, 2016.
There are 30 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Subjects Religious Studies
Journal Section Research Articles
Authors

Mehmet Fatih Birgül 0000-0002-9404-6266

Publication Date November 28, 2019
Submission Date June 2, 2019
Published in Issue Year 2019 Volume: 10 Issue: 1

Cite

ISNAD Birgül, Mehmet Fatih. “On the ‘Psychological Dialectic’ of Al-Ghazālī Regarding Philosophers, or Did Ibn Sīnā Drink Wine?”. Ilahiyat Studies 10/1 (November 2019), 47-97. https://doi.org/10.12730/13091719.2019.101.189.
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