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“The Light of Certain Belief” – orthodoxy versus innovation according to Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī’s al-Risāla al-Qudsiyyah
This thesis examines the question of Islamic orthodoxy in the thought of Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, with particular attention to his Risāla al-Qudsiyya and its place within his wider intellectual and reformative project. It begins by exploring concepts of orthodoxy and heterodoxy across the Christian and...
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AUC Knowledge Fountain
2027
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| Summary: | This thesis examines the question of Islamic orthodoxy in the thought of Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, with particular attention to his Risāla al-Qudsiyya and its place within his wider intellectual and reformative project. It begins by exploring concepts of orthodoxy and heterodoxy across the Christian and Islamic traditions, arguing that orthodoxy emerges through processes of interpretation, doctrinal conflict, boundary formation, and communal consensus. Islamic orthodoxy is understood as the historically consolidated mainstream of belief rooted in the Qurʾān, the Sunnah, the authority of the early community, and the scholarly tradition.
The central argument of the thesis is that al-Ghazālī conceives of orthodoxy as a structured “architecture of belief” articulated in his Risāla al-Qudsiyya. Organised around four pillars concerning doctrines on God, divine attributes, divine action, prophecy, and eschatology, the Risāla presents faith not as a collection of isolated propositions but as an integrated doctrinal whole. Innovation (bidʿa) becomes intelligible in relation to this structure as that which distorts, displaces, or destabilises its coherence.
Through close textual analysis of the Risāla alongside the Tahāfut al-falāsifa, Fayṣal al-tafriqa bayna al-Islām wa-l-zandaqa, Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn, and al-Munqidh min al-ḍalāl, this thesis demonstrates that al-Ghazālī’s orthodoxy is both principled and nuanced. While firmly defending core doctrines, he distinguishes between error, innovation, and unbelief, allowing for legitimate disagreement within defined limits. It further argues that the Risāla contributes to al-Ghazālī’s self-understanding as a mujaddid by providing a doctrinal framework through which right belief could be restored, ordered, lived, and transmitted, thereby serving his wider project of religious renewal. |
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