Al-Ghaza¯lı¯’s Philosophical


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heretical teachings, some of them regarded as apostasy from Islam. 

162


   Among 

the accusations were: (1) adhering to the Isma¯ ¶ı¯lite doctrine of slavishly learning 

from a teacher ( ta lı¯m ) and (2) teaching two heterodox philosophical positions, 

namely that the world is pre-eternal and that God does not know individuals. 

163

  

Al-Ghaza¯l



ı

¯ had condemned these two teachings as apostasy from Islam, pun-

ishable by death.  ¶Ayn al-Qud.a¯t admits that he used philosophical language 

that may lead to weak minds getting the impression that he believed in these 

two condemned doctrines. 

164


  Yet he maintains that these weak minds misun-

derstand his words, that he never accepted these teachings, and that he, in fact, 

refutes them in his writings: 

 Those of my words that they hold against me are all also in the books 

of al-Ghaza¯l

ı

¯—the same expressions in the same meanings. For 



example our words regarding the Creator of the world, namely that He 

is the source of being ( yanbu



¯  al-wuju¯d ) and the origin of being ( mas.dar 

al-wuju¯d ), that He is the universe ( al-kull ) and that he is the real being 

al-wuju



¯d al-h.aqı¯qı¯ ) and that everything that is not He is with regard 

to its essence empty, fading, annihilating, and non-existent. And only 

that exists whose existence the Eternal Power ( al-qudra al-azaliyya ) 

sustains. These are well-known words that appear in many passages 

in the  Revival of the Religious Sciences , in the  Niche of Lights , and in the 

 Deliverer from Error , and all these books were written by al-Ghaza¯l

ı

¯. 


165

  

 In the case of  ¶Ayn al-Qud.a¯t al-Hamadha¯nı¯, the persecuting spirit that al-Ghaza¯l



ı

¯ 

created by adding a legal judgment to his epistemological discussion in his 



 Incoherence of the Philosophers  came to haunt one of his own close followers. 

A careful study of  ¶Ayn al-Qud.a¯t’s teaching on theology and Sufi sm is still a 

desideratum. In the 1970s, Toshihiko Izutsu and Hermann Landolt made valu-

able contributions that still require further study. 

166

   ¶Ayn al-Qud.a¯t’s personal 



 

m os t   in f lue n t i a l   s t u de n t s   a nd   e a r l y   f ol low er s  

8 7

acquaintance with the brother Ah.mad and his philosophically inspired Sufi sm 



make him one of the most signifi cant early followers of al-Ghaza¯l

ı

¯. 



 The Anonymous Author of The Lion and 

the Diver (al-Asad wa-l-ghawwa¯s.

 In 1978, Rid.wa¯n al-Sayyid edited an Arabic animal fable that is extant in at least 

four manuscripts. The colophon of one of those manuscripts notes that the 

source from which the copy was made ( al-umm al-mansu



¯kh minha¯ ) was com-

pleted in Ramad.a¯n 530 / June 1136. 

167

  The novel tells the story of a wise and 



learned jackal who seeks to become a member of the lion-king’s court in order to 

counsel him and help him benefi t from his insight. In its overall composition as 

well as in the style of its dialogues and its shorter fables and parables, the novel 

owes much to  Kalı¯la and Dimna   ( Kalı¯la wa-Dimna ), a collection of animal fables 

that Ibn al-Muqaffa ¶ (d.  c. 137/755) translated from Pahlevi into Arabic during the 

mid-second/eighth century. Most plot elements in  The Lion and the Diver —with 

the notable exception of its ending—are taken from the tenth chapter, “The Lion 

and the Jackal” ( al-Asad wa-bn A¯wa¯ ) in  Kalı¯la and Dimna  (see fi gure 2.2). 

168

  

 The anonymous author of  The Lion and the Diver  was a highly accomplished 



literate who had studied the genre of Arabic animal fables well.  Kalı¯la and Dimna  

is formally written as a  fürstenspiegel , a book addressed to a prince, aiming to en-

tertain the ruler while at the same time educating him and giving him council.     

The book is thus a guidebook in ethics, in politics, and in theology. These de-

scriptors are also true for  The Lion and the Diver . In addition to being a highly 

talented writer, its author was educated in medicine, and he knew some history 

of Sasanid Persia and the legends of the pre-Islamic Arabia ( ayya¯m al- arab ). 

He was a Sunni Muslim with a highly rationalist mind-set. Most important, 

he was a Ghazalian, meaning that he expressed many of the motifs, maxims, 

and insights that appear prominently in the works of al-Ghazl

ı

¯. In fact, the 



wise jackal, known as “the diver” ( al-ghawwa¯s. ), has so much in common with 

al-Ghazl

ı

¯, in opinions and in biography, that the original readers may have per-



ceived him as a literary personifi cation of the famous scholar.  The Lion and the 

Diver  may well be a  roman à clef  of al-Ghazl

ı

¯’s dealings with those in power. 



 The novel’s scholar-jackal protagonist is a virtuous, highly refl ective, and 

immensely educated soldier in the lion’s army. Later in the novel, it is revealed 

that his goal in life is to earn the afterlife rather than succeed in this world. 

169


  

At the beginning, he is presented as well aware of the potential dangers of ap-

proaching the lion’s court. In a dialogue with his best friend, the two remind 

each other that scholarship and political power do not go well with each other. 

The scholar may easily offend the ruler with all-too-candid advice. He may be-

come the victim of the ruler’s anger or of his whims. Rulers tend to surround 

themselves with courtiers who satisfy their vanity rather than those who give 

honest and sometimes tactless counsel. When a violent water buffalo threat-

ens the jackal’s community, however, his sense of duty makes him overcome 

his reservations, and he decides that he must approach the king and give him 



8 8   a l - gh a z a

¯ l 1


¯ ’ s   ph ilosoph ic a l   t h e olo g y

 gure 2.2 



The lion and the jackal. Miniature from a manuscript of Kalı¯la and Dimna

dated 755/1354 (Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, MS Pococke 400, fol. 138b). 

wise counsel. In order to avoid the well-known hazards, he aims to become a 

loyal member of the court, to please the king and win his confi dence, and only 

then will he give honest council. This strategy is successful, until the other 

courtiers become jealous of the jackal’s success and start to plot against him. 

They employ underhand tactics to cast suspicion on the jackal’s sincerity. The 

king throws the jackal in jail and has him surveyed by his agents, who tell him 



 gure 2.3 

The king and the philosopher, the king wearing a Seljuq crown and sitting 

on a Seljuq throne (cf. fi gs. 1.1, 1.2, and 1.5). Miniature from a manuscript of Kalı¯la and 



Dimna, dated 755/1354 (Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, MS Pococke 400, 

fol. 136b). 



9 0   a l - gh a z a

¯ l 1


¯ ’ s   ph ilosoph ic a l   t h e olo g y

that the jackal is innocent. The lion learns about the tricks played on the jackal 

by his enemies and rehabilitates him. The jackal, however, rejects the king’s 

invitation to become his close advisor. He leaves the king with a “testament” 

was.iyya ) and chooses to withdraw himself to one of the “houses of worship” 

buyu



¯t al- iba¯da ) in the mountains. The jackal purifi es himself from his harmful 

experience by admonishing his soul and preaching to it in an inner dialogue. 

170

  

Al-Ghaza¯lı¯ uses the same literary technique of talking to one’s soul and admon-



ishing its desires in one of his letters. 

171


  The novel ends with this sentence: “the 

lion used to visit the jackal from time to time until fate ( al-dahr ) parted them.” 

 An attentive reader of al-Ghaza¯l

ı

¯  fi nds numerous explicit hints to his bi-



ography. During his introduction, the king asks the jackal why he is called “the 

diver”; the answer is: “Because I dive deep for the subtle meanings and because 

I bring out the hidden secrets of the sciences.” 

172


  One of al-Ghaza¯l

ı

¯’s favorite met-



aphors for the dangers of scholarship was that of a deep sea. While the trained 

scholar plunges into the deep sea of scholarship and swims through it, others, 

who lack a suffi cient education, are drawn to these depths but often drown. 

173


  

The metaphor appears so frequently in al-Ghaza¯l

ı

¯’s books that Ibn T.ufayl al-



most mockingly alludes to it in the introduction to his  H

. ayy ibn Yaqz.a¯n . 

174


  

If the well-trained scholar can swim in the sea of knowledge, then the most ac-

complished scholar is a diver who picks up secrets from the dark depths of that 

sea like a pearl diver ( ghawwa¯s. ) collecting precious pearls. In one of his letters to 

the “king of Khorasan,” Sanjar, al-Ghaza¯l

ı

¯ depicted himself as having spent forty 



years of his life “diving into the sea of religious sciences.” 

175


  

 The collection of al-Ghaza¯lı¯’s letters was compiled at some time during the 

sixth/twelfth century. Al-Ghaza¯lı¯’s letter to Sanjar was likely written before the 

composition of  The Lion and the Diver , in fact the two may have been published 

at roughly the same time. The relationship between the scholar-jackal and the 

lion-king develops very much along the lines of an idealized and even exagger-

ated picture that a follower of al-Ghaza¯lı¯ might have painted of the relationship 

between him and members of the Seljuq dynasty. Throughout the novel, the 

virtues of the jackal are unquestioned, and his temporary downfall is solely the 

result of other people’s jealousy. That mirrors al-Ghaza¯lı¯’s own perception as to 

why some people have accused him at Sanjar’s court. In his written response to 

these accusations and in his  Decisive Criterion ,  al-Ghaza¯lı¯ quotes an anonymous 

one-liner that he may have picked up from al-Qushayrı¯’s  Epistle   ( al-Risa¯la ). 

176


  

The quoted poem is meant to explain why al-Ghaza¯lı¯’s work triggered so much 

enmity: while truly virtuous scholars are impressed by his scholarship and 

often convinced by the force of his arguments, some are jealous of al-Ghaza¯lı¯’s 

natural gifts. These jealous colleagues are blind to his achievements, and their 

enmity cannot be resolved. The quoted poem goes: 

 One can overcome all kinds of hostility, 

 except for that which is due to jealousy. 

177

  

 There are more general parallels between the story and al-Ghaza¯l



ı

¯’s biogra-

phy. During his early life, the jackal educates himself. His education is driven 


 

m os t   in f lue n t i a l   s t u de n t s   a nd   e a r l y   f ol low er s  

9 1

by a universal curiosity and an independent mind. He says that he did not 



benefi t from teachers. A similar picture is painted in al-Ghaza¯l

ı

¯’s autobio-



graphy in which teachers are not given any credit. Where the jackal grew 

up, his “love of wisdom” ( h.ubb al-h.ikma )—a literary translation of the Greek  



philosophía —was discouraged. When the jackal enters the king’s court, he says 

about his education: 

 O King, I grew up among people who regard the pursuit of knowl-

edge as a mistake and love of wisdom as a blemish (  ¶ayb ).  Therefore, 

I fi rst concealed everything of this kind that I had within myself 

because I was ashamed, and I tricked the others until this became 

a habit, and the habit became a natural impulse ( gharı¯za ) that I fol-

lowed. (. . .) 

 I took it upon myself to think and I often refrained from speak-

ing. I never quarreled with others and searched knowledge for my 

own sake so that I spend my life as a prisoner of books and as a com-

panion of thoughts. The tongue needs incitement in order to become 

fl uent, and exercise in order to make it agile and sharp. 

178


  

 Initially, the wise jackal endeavors to be of service to the king, and he becomes 

a member of his court. The two have intelligent conversations in which the 

jackal reminds him that the wise man acts decisively and shows no neglect 

or fatalism, although he also knows that God predetermines all events. This 

allows him, for instance, to benefi t from astrological predictions. 

179

  Appear-



ing prominently in the thirty-second as well as the thirty-fi fth books of the 

 Revival,  the maxim of accepting predetermination yet not falling into fatalism 

is just one of many Ghazalian motifs that appears throughout the anonymous 

novel. 


180

  The king is reminded of his duty to maintain order ( niz.a¯m ) and jus-

tice in the world and to defend the  sunna  of the Prophet and the  sharı¯ a   of 

Islam. In fact, the order in the empire depends directly on the power of its 

ruler, who is the guardian of the  sunna . 

181


  The king’s reign over his realm re-

sembles the reign of the human’s soul over his limbs. 

182

  Like al-Ghaza¯l



ı

¯, the 


jackal-scholar in the book is strongly opposed to emulating higher authorities 

taqlı¯d ). Truth ( al-h.aqq ) is known by itself and not by the authority of those 

who testify to it. 

183


  Other Ghazalian notions include the ideas that people—

including kings—should be addressed according to their intellectual capaci-

ties 

184


  and that there is no good in this world that is not also accompanied by 

some harm. 

185

  Yet, the whole world has been designed “with utmost wisdom 



and good craftsmanship” (  ¶

ala¯ gha¯yat al-h.ikma wa-h.usn al-s.ina¯ a ), and careful 

attention has been paid to even the tiniest of its details. 

186

  

 One of the most forcefully presented messages of the book is the Ghazalian 



idea that knowledge by itself is useless when it does not lead to right action. 

187


  

People who are particularly knowledgeable do not act virtuously simply as a 

consequence of their knowledge. Only the correct kind of knowledge leads to 

inner virtue, which in turn leads to right action. Such virtue is gained through 

the training of the soul. At the end of the novel, when the jackal takes his leave, 


9 2   a l - gh a z a

¯ l 1


¯ ’ s   ph ilosoph ic a l   t h e olo g y

the lion asks him why he cannot discipline his soul and also remain an advisor 

at his court. The jackal’s answer makes productive use of the novel’s technique 

to illustrates Ghazalian principles with parables and fables: 

 Then the lion asked the jackal: What prevents you from worshipping 

God where you are [right now]? 

 The jackal answered: In order for the animal soul, dear King, to 

gather itself and be trained it must be separated from the things it 

loves. I have been damaged by the exposure to things that are natu-

rally deemed nice and pleasant. I fear that this situation will become 

a habit to me and prevent me from removing these things once they 

have been fi rmly installed [in my life]. Then, it would happen to me 

what happened to the owner of the stallion. 

 The king asked: What happened to him? 

 The jackal: The story goes that a courageous man had a foal 

that grew up in his possession. The animal was of utmost grace and 

beauty, had straight limbs and a strong body. The old man was infatu-

ated with it and it occupied all his concerns. He ceaselessly indulged 

it and provided an abundance of fodder. The man was too old to train 

the animal himself, yet he was also too anxious to have someone 

else ride it, train it, and break it in. So the animal was not trained 

by anyone. Its character traits became spoiled and its temperament 

bad. Next to the young stallion stood a mare, whose scent aroused his 

passion. The stallion’s owner had great diffi culty any time he wanted 

to ride it. The days went by and as the old man became more and 

more frail, the coat became stronger and stronger. The time came 

that he needed to ride on the stallion and engage in an attack against 

his enemies. But any time the horse was not bound—at its feet, for 

instance—it did not obey its owner’s instructions. Once the old man 

mounted the stallion, it broke with him through the lines of the 

enemy to reach a mare it had scented. The enemies struck down the 

horse and killed the old man. 

 This is similar to a man and his soul. A man is like the owner 

of the horse. Had he trained it regularly, he would have had a tame 

riding animal that would have gotten him wherever he wanted to go. 

But if he doesn’t break it in and teach it good manners, it acquires 

these repulsive habits—and maybe it will gain the upper hand over 

its rider and destroy him together with itself. 

188

  

 In Book 22 of his  Revival , “Disciplining the Self, Refi nement of Character



and Treating the Diseases of the Heart,” al-Ghaza¯l

ı

¯ writes that “an allegory for 



desire ( shahwa ) is the horse which one rides during a chase. It is sometimes 

well-disciplined and well-behaved and sometimes it is defi ant.” 

189

  Desire is a 



character trait ( khulq ) that needs to be trained like any other. Earlier genera-

tions of scholars that had worked on Muslim ethics, al-Ghaza¯l

ı

¯ complains, had 



hardly ever dealt with the human character, but were merely concerned with 

 

m os t   in f lue n t i a l   s t u de n t s   a nd   e a r l y   f ol low er s  

9 3

its fruits, the human actions. 



190

  Muslim jurists are mostly concerned with the 

bare compliance to the rules of Shari’a and thus cannot give council on matters 

of good character. They are mere “scholars of this world” (  ¶ulama¯ 7 al-dunya¯ )  who 

cannot guide Muslims on the best way to gain the afterlife. 

191


  The substance of 

the human ( gawhar-i a¯damı¯ ),  al-Ghaza¯l

ı

¯ says in his Persian  Alchemy of Happi-



ness   ( Kı¯mya¯-yi sa a¯dat ), is initially defi cient and ignoble ( na¯qis. wa-khası¯s );  only 

strict efforts and patient treatment can lead the soul from its defi cient state to 

its perfection. The human soul’s temperament becomes imbalanced through 

the infl uence of other people and needs to undergo disciplining ( riya¯d.a )  and 

training ( tarbiya ) in order to keep the character traits ( akhla¯q )  at  equilibrium. 

192


  

Al-Ghaza¯l

ı

¯ rejected the notion that one should try to give up potentially harm-



ful affections such as anger or sexual desire. These character traits are part of 

human nature, he teaches, and they cannot be given up. Rather, disciplining 

the soul allows control over these potentially harmful traits through one’s ra-

tionality (  ¶aql ).  Al-Ghaza¯l

ı

¯ compares the human pursuit of redemption in the 



afterlife with the hunter’s pursuit of game. Sexual desire and anger are not 

always negative. Anger, for instance, is a positive character trait in the war 

against infi dels. Sexual desire and anger are to the human rational faculty 

what the horse and the dog are to the hunter. The hunter trains his horse and 

dog in order to benefi t from their service. In the hunt for the afterlife’s reward, 

anger and sexual desire are just as useful to the human, yet rationality must 

train them and control them like the hunter trains and controls his horse and 

dog. 


193

  

 None of these notions and ideas, which I identify as “Ghazalian,” is par-



ticularly unique to al-Ghaza¯l

ı

¯ and could not also have been picked up from 



other Muslim rationalist literature of this or earlier times. Many of the theo-

logical motifs and the moral teachings in  The Lion and the Diver , such as the 

imperative to develop one’s inner virtuous character rather than to focus on 

the fulfi llment of Shari’a’s prescriptions, come from philosophical and from 

Sufi  literature. These philosophical and mystical motifs became more wide-

spread during the sixth/twelfth century, particularly in mainstream religious 

literature, in which earlier obedience to the rules of Shari’a had dominated the 

debate on morality. Al-Ghaza¯l

ı

¯’s work played a signifi cant part in this develop-



ment. The accumulation of teachings in this novel that appear prominently 

in al-Ghaza¯l

ı

¯’s work is signifi cant. Most diffi cult to determine is, however, 



whether the author has been directly inspired by elements in al-Ghaza¯l

ı

¯’s bi-



ography. The novel is clearly modeled after the story of the lion and the jackal 

in  Kalı¯la and Dimna ; in that book, the jackal stays with the lion-king and again 

becomes his trusted advisor after his suffering from the ruses of the courtiers 

and subsequent rehabilitation. By staying at court, the jackal fulfi lls the wishes 

of the king. In the  Lion and the Diver,  the rift between the scholar-jackal and 


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