A Deliberation on the Agreement between Shams Tabrizi’s and Muhammad Ghazali’s Ideas on Kalam

Abstract

In discussions about kalam, usually the cases in which the viewpoints of a speaker and a well-known mystic and scholar are in complete accordance with each other are almost very rare. There are significant similarities between Imam Muhammad Ghazali’s and Shams Tabrizi’s verbal ideas that have been unnoticed from the sight of researchers and have remained understudied. In this study, the researchers have enumerated their views of kalam and then determined their accordance with each other. One of the findings of this study is the indication of the accordance of Shams’s and Ghazali’s thoughts about “faith” with each other, as both of them have valued faith in heart over faith in words, and basically, in higher level, count that as acceptance in heart. Moreover, they both believe that there is no direct relationship between faith and miracle, but that true faith relies on having special qualifications. Also, in the discussion of “predestination and free will”, they have widely criticized the arguments of both absolute determinists and libertarians, pursuing a way to build the basis of their own system of thought. Furthermore, in the discussion of “temporality and eternity” considering the nature and attributes of God, neither of them believe in any separation between the nature of God and his attributes. Also, about “vision” of God, they both try to prove this claim that vision of God does not entail any quantification or embodiment for the holy nature of God.

Keywords

• mystical literature
• ilm al-kalam
• shams tabrizi
• imam muhammad ghazali