Ghazali and the Poetics of Imagination

Islamic Civilization and Muslim Networks

by Ebrahim Moosa

Abu Hamid al-Ghazālī, a Muslim jurist-theologian and polymath who lived from the mid-eleventh to the early twelfth century in present-day Iran, is a figure equivalent in stature to Maimonides in Judaism and Thomas Aquinas in Christianity. He is best known for his work in philosophy, ethics, law, and mysticism. In an engaged re-reading of the ideas of this preeminent Muslim thinker, Ebrahim Moosa argues that Ghazālī's work has lasting relevance today as a model for a critical encounter with the Muslim intellectual tradition in a modern and postmodern context.

Moosa employs the theme of the threshold, or dihliz, the space from which Ghazālī himself engaged the different currents of thought in his day, and proposes that contemporary Muslims who wish to place their own traditions in conversation with modern traditions consider the same vantage point. Moosa argues that by incorporating elements of Islamic theology, neoplatonic mysticism, and Aristotelian philosophy, Ghazālī's work epitomizes the idea that the answers to life's complex realities do not reside in a single culture or intellectual tradition. Ghazālī's emphasis on poiesis--creativity, imagination, and freedom of thought--provides a sorely needed model for a cosmopolitan intellectual renewal among Muslims, Moosa argues. Such a creative and critical inheritance, he concludes, ought to be heeded by those who seek to cultivate Muslim intellectual traditions in today's tumultuous world.

Genres: Islam, Religion, Philosophy

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Umar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Moosa seemed to me to be pretentious and showy at first- dry and terse, but as I kept reading I am grateful we have thinkers such as him. He doesn't hesitate to use new terminology or coin his own terms and ideas, which is refreshing and direly needed in Muslim discourse. His insights and message can be drowned out by using the language of western social theory (ethics, instead of adab/tasawwuf or subjectivity instead of nafs or ruh, conscience instead of sirr). But he draws from a lot of sources (massive bibliography of books I want to follow up on) and its good to see some real analysis of Ghazali's thought through combining Islamo-centric and Euro-centric viewopints. I found it challenging but I grew into it. I still can't grasp poeisis to clearly though

Some interesting concepts so: dihliz, bricolage, heteroglossia, hikaya (islamic-style narrative). When he gets to the discuss of ta'bir (oneiromancy or dream interpretation in Islam) you begin to finally get a grasp on dissecting Ghazali's imagination. This was my initially very favorite part of the book. This book is good if only for that- to get an idea of the Muslim imagination and creatively employing it for the purposes of piety. But then again, one can pick up that style too just from reading Ghazali...

I really liked his chapter on imagination, heart-writing and the role of learning and and writing on Ghazali's development. Very important to read for any Muslim trying to find his way through the Word.

Moosa dedicates 1-3 chapters on Ghazali's bouts with the philosophers and his opponents (Ibn Rushd, al-Ma'ari, and Ibn Taymiyyah etc.) but these criticisms aren't denouncements, but in my view, provide greater elaboration to the Islamic tradition (and a strong sign of the tradition being alive!). Ghazali was not for this or that, he was if anything for ihsan (or arete as the Greeks say)- excellence; he criticized taqlid, kalam scholars and the jurist theatrics of his day. I admit I skipped the chapter that went into his relation with Mutazili an Asharism- wayyy too boring if you ask me and so overdone !

The chapter on liminality and exile is important- not very often, you hear Muslims talking about exile and talking of searching for one's soul. The last chapter "Technologies of the Self" is by far, my favorite b/c he expounds the fiqh an-nafs, the importance of tasawwuf, and tazkiya and recommends the reader to take his development into his own hands, rather than blindly follow others. Learning the movements of your own heart, and constantly finding new ways to refine your soul, is the life-mission and fruit of a Muslim.

I'll try and put up a few great quotes from this awesome read!

[Faisal Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

So overall I was impressed by both the scope and the content of the book. Moosa attempts to present Ghazali (a seminal Islamic intellectual and religious figure), as template for the encounter of contemporary Muslims with modern knowledge and the profound social changes which have occasioned this new knowledge. At times the text is dense, and Moosa sometimes gets carried away. But his basic thesis is that Ghazali became a seminal figure in the Islamic intellectual tradition because he was able to think on the threshold (dihliz) between multiple disciplines and modes of thought, which allowed him to synthesise these disciplines producing something new (a bricoleour he says) whilst also leaving his ideas open to dialogical development. I think this book is probably best for people studying the Islamic sciences but general readers might find plenty of ideas here that might be of value.

[Shirin Salah Eddine · Rating 5 out of 5]

completely and utterly captivated by al-Ghazāli‘s brilliant and beautiful philosophy

[Muhammad Yusra · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book, Moosa conducts a historical survey in the Foucauldian sense, where trying to understand the past inevitably imposes present categories of understanding upon it. Alas, from the understanding, what can be beneficial for us is the template of a person, al-Ghazali, who ventured into the middle of ideological differences (in Wittgenstein's term: different "grammar") and came out triumphant with a new subversive reconstruction of religious understanding.

In other words, al-Ghazali was at the crossroads of a journey which can probably be summed up in a question: "where does the projection of understanding Islam need to go?" And he found the answer in Sufism. And the answer was heteronomous ethics.

Although interesting, I do think that Moosa's understands the phenomena of intra-Islam differences quite peculiarly. For he understands differences as total, although reconciliable. While I think sectarian differences in Islam are not total, but only a matter of degree. Which means that all of these epistemologies were not new innovations, but were existing latencies of Islam emphasized differently by different sects.

Therefore, no reconciliations are needed. But only recalibrations or rearrangements of these different - in degree - epistemologies. And this was exactly what al-Ghazali did. Which then begs the question: is there such a thing as legitimate subversive discourse in Islam?