
| The Perpetual Relevance Of Alghazali |
| FAKHR AL-DIN AL-RAZI, Imam Al-Ghazali |
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The Perpetual Relevance of alGhazali and Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī – Reviving Kalām Jadid in the Modern Age: Adi Setia Mohd Dom
THE PERPETUAL RELEVANCE OF ALGHAZALI AND FAKHR AL-DĪN AL-RĀZĪ
Abstract:
The new kalām (kalām jadid or new dialectics) intellectual movement started by al-Ghazali and matured by Fakhr al-Din al-Rāzi succeeded in putting all the hellenising philosophical and natural sciences within the theological and epistemological ambit of tradition.
This historical success provides pertinent lessons for Muslim scholars and intellectuals today to formulate what can be called a kalam al-asr, or the Dialectics of the Age, in order to bring tradition to engage creatively and evaluatively with the challenge and allure of contemporary westernising sciences.
The original 1st draft was presented at the seminar entitled “Build- ing on the Shoulders of Giants,” organised by the Glasgow-based Solas Foundation at the University of Glasgow on Tuesday 20 April 2010.
My thanks to Shaykh Ruzwan of the Solas Foundation for his kind invitation to me to speak at the seminar.
This revised and extended version arose out of the first as a discus- sion paper for the workshop on Islamic
Theology organised by Kalam Research & Media (KRM) in Dubai, 8-9 May 2010. My gratitude to Dr. Aref Nayed, and his assistant, Sohayl Omar, for inviting me to and hosting me at the workshop
Assistant Professor, Department of General Studies, Kulliyyah of the Is- lamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences,
Preamble
In. Knowledge Triumphant, Franz Rosenthal observes that the Islamic civilisation is one that is essentially characterised by knowledge (‘ilm), “for ‘ilm is one of those concepts that have dominated Islam and given Muslim civilization its distinctive shape and complexion.”
This should not be surprising since the divine revelation itself repeatedly emphasises that its signs or verses are only understandable “for a people who think,” (li qawmin ya‘qilūna) and exhorts believers, nay, even non- believers, to look to the cosmic horizons (al-āfāq) and into their very selves (al-anfus) for empirical/experiential evidences/ indications/āyāt“ demonstrating the revealed truth (al-haqq).
For many scholars, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, the seeds of rational/cognitive thinking were already in early Islam, in the Qur’ānic revelation itself, or as Nuh Ha Mim Keller puts
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