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( T never said most of the things I said," said Yogi Berra, with his signature
Xblend of candor and precision. If Confucius could speak from the Great
Beyond, he might well issue a similar disclaimer, as would the widely influ-
ential but much less famous Muslim thinker, Abu Hamid al-Ghazl.
Though pervasive misattribution has generally exercised negligible drag on
the catcher's comic cachet or the sage's storied sagacity, it has contributed
to entrenched misinterpretation of the Muslim theologian's life and work.
One of many hints that Islamic religious studies remains in its infancy is the
persistence of a narrative propounded by pioneering "orientalists," that
cast Ghazl as the man whose mission in life was to discredit ^ / s a ^
(philosophy) and the falsifa (philosophers) in favor of trans-rational
mysticism.
According to this long unchallenged scenario, Ghazl searched for cer-
tainty by immersing himself successively in systematic theology {kalm),
philosophy, reliance on an infallible teacher (Shi'i imam), and Sufi mysti-
cism. Judging the first three paths deficient for various reasons, the story
goes, Ghazl concluded that certitude resided only in the experiential
knowledge at the heart of Sufism. Most importantly, Ghazl has been
unfairly labeled as an implacable enemy of rational inquiry, and especially
of the methods of Avicenna and his feUow philosophers. Thanks to a new
generation of Ghazl scholarship, however, a much more nuanced and
complex picture has begun to emerge. Yes, Ghazl leveled a withering
attack on philosophy in major works, not hesitating to rank its practitio-
ners among the worst of sinners. Yes, he also faulted proponents of system-
atic theology {kalm) as profoundly off-target. And, yes, he seems to express
an undeniable preference for an already well-established tradition of Sufi
epistemology. But Ghazal's real story is about how he integrates elements
of all these three methods (decidedly not including those of the Ismaili
Shi'is) in a program of religious reform.
Alexander Treiger's Inspired Knowledge in Islamic Thought: Al-Ghazll's
Theory of Mystical Cognition and its Avicennian Foundation makes a superb
contribution toward a deeper understanding of the work of this most
intriguingfigure.Treiger shows convincingly how Ghazl, ever the master
Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2013 DOI: 10.U63/15685292-12341312
Booi Reviews /ReUgion and the Arts 17 (2013) 607-632 627