This paper focuses on the modern Arab reception of the medieval intellectual dialogue between al-Ghazali (d. 1111) and Averroes (d. 1198). While al-Ghazali is believed by many to be the Muslim medieval scholar who defended Islam against Greek philosophy and certain medieval Muslim philosophers who attempted to reconcile between Islam and Greek philosophy, Averroes is believed by many to be refuting al-Ghazali and defending Greek philosophy and Muslim philosophers. There are two main intellectual groups in the Arab-Islamic world concerning this dialogue. One of the groups insists that Arab intellectuals should abide by the teachings of al-Ghazali if they need to protect Islamic religion and theological beliefs from what is considered by them to be foreign thought whether it be Greek or European. This group can be characterized by taking al-Ghazali for granted. The majority of them are not well trained in Islamic philosophy, but they are well educated in other fields of Islamic thought such as theology and jurisprudence. In contrast, the scholars of the other group defend the idea that Averroes’s philosophy is the lifeline for Arab intellectuals if they dream of being in line with the western civilization. The scholars of this group accuse al-Ghazali of being responsible for the intellectual decadence of Muslims. While al-Ghazali is Hujjat al-Islam (the proof of Islam) for the first group, he is Nakbat al-Islam (the catastrophe of Islam) for the second group. This paper involves a careful reading for the works of al-Ghazali and Averroes. This will help me to investigate their reception in the modern Arab-Islamic world by scholars such as Sulaiman Dunya who edited three of al-Ghazali’s main works and wrote in defense of al-Ghazali; Mohammed Abed al-Jabri whose philosophical project is based on reviving Averroes’s philosophy in the Arab-Islamic world; Abu Yarub al-Marzuqi who introduced a new reading for the dialogue between al-Ghazali and Averroes. Why did modern Arab-Islamic thought receive al-Ghazali’s thought warmly? Why was the reception of Averroes in modern Arab-Islamic thought almost nonexistent in comparison with the reception of his thought in Europe? Was al-Ghazali and Averroes’s dialogue understood correctly by Arab-Muslim intellectuals?
Religious Studies/Theology
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