The Role of Rational and Empirical Sciences in Otherworldly Happiness in al-Ghazālī’s Thought

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Department of Philosophy of Science, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran. Iran

10.22059/jihs.2026.409831.371871

Abstract

Among the philosophical heirs of Avicenna’s teachings who engaged in the classification of sciences and articulated the position of rational and empirical sciences within their own classificatory systems is Abū Hāmid al-Ghazālī. The central issue of this study is to elucidate the place of rational and empirical sciences in al-Ghazālī’s thought and to examine the impact of these two domains of knowledge on human otherworldly happiness from his perspective. Ghazali’s engagement with rational and empirical sciences, contrary to the common perception of him, is fundamentally affirmative. Although he opposed certain metaphysical doctrines of Aristotle and Aristotelian thinkers such as Avicenna, pure rationality and pure empirical experience occupy a significant position within his classification of the sciences. He regards the employment of these two—considered as domains distinct from the Sharia—as necessary for the attainment of worldly happiness within society. Accordingly, al-Ghazālī regards disciplines such as theology, jurisprudence, arithmetic, medicine, astronomy, and, more broadly, the natural sciences, rational sciences, and worldly technics as conditions for human flourishing in this world and as preliminaries for attaining otherworldly happiness. The present study adopts a descriptive–analytical method and is based on a step-by-step analysis and exposition of the classifications of the sciences presented in al-Ghazālī’s major works, namely Maqāṣid al-Falāsifa, al-Mustaṣfā min ʿIlm al-Uṣūl, Jawāhir al-Qurʾān, Mīzān al-ʿAmal, and Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn.

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References

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