THE INCOHERENCE OF THE PHILOSOPHERS- (Tahāfatu al-Falāsifah by Al-Ghazāli) THE INCOHERENCE OF THE PHILOSOPHERS (Tahafatu al-Falcisifah by Al-Ghazali) Michael E. Marmura The Incoherence of the Philosophers ranks among the most important works of one of the most fascinating thinkers in the history of Islam, Abu Hamid Muhammad Ghazali, who established himself as a pivotal figure throughout the Islamic world. But then, overcome by skepticism and finding no other satisfactory way to combat his doubts, he abandoned his academic position to devote himself to re-attaining religious certainty through the practice of Sufi mysticism. By his own account, he succeeded. After somewhat more than a decade of travel and ascetic contemplation, and at the instance of the sultan at that time, he emerged again into public life and teaching during his final years. He contends that, although Muslim philosophers such as Al-Farabi and Ibn Sina boasted of absolutely unassailable arguments on crucial matters of theology and metaphysics, they could not, in fact, deliver on their claims. Additionally, maintained Al-Ghazalr, some of their assertions represented mere disguised heresy and unbelief. The great twelfth-century Andalusian philosopher and Aristotle commentator Ibn Rushd (Averroes) attempted to refute Al-Ghazali’s critique in his own book The Incoherence of the Incoherence, but it remains widely read and influential today 62
