Causality and its ethical status in al-Ghazali's epistemological system

Abstract

This article deals with the issue of causality and its ethical status in al-Ghazali's epistemological system, which is connected with the issue of Jabr and ikhtiyar (compulsion and choice); the issue of al-šabābiyya and tawakkul (causality and reliance), i.e., dependence on God and trust in him; and the issue of work. These issues are based on the relationship between Man and God, be He exalted, and on other issues involving the components of Man himself. Al-Ghazali seeks to revive the necessary relationship between Man and God, be He exalted. tawḥīd (the unity and oneness of God) is the existential origin and epistemological example from which relationships between Man and himself, people and nature are derived, and the establishment of human work, physical or mental, is based on the knowledge of tawḥīd, which guarantees the process of this work will reach the end for which it was created.