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ILAHIYAT TETKIKLERI DERGISI-JOURNAL OF ILAHIYAT RESEARCHES, vol.0, no.55, pp.301-325, 2021 (ESCI)
As one of the most influential Muslim thinkers al-Ghazali's thoughts on a number of important subjects are not entirely clear. The difficulty in determining his views is generally due to the differences observed between al-Ghazali's works. These differences are not only related to style but also manifest as al-Ghazali's defending contradictory views from time to time. The nature of the soul is one of them. In this paper, I will focus on the salient differences in his views on the nature of the soul in his different works, al-Iktisad fi'l-Itikad and some others. Al-Ghazali seems to present conflicting views on the nature of the soul in his different works. On the one hand, in his work named al-Iktisad fi'l-Itikad, he states that the soul is an extended and material entity, while in other works he defends the opposite of this view and emphasizes that the soul is immaterial. This very fact has been the subject of an ongoing debate as to how to handle these apparent differences among the commentators of al-Ghazali, such as Michael E. Marmura, Richard Frank, Timothy Gionatti, Ayman Shihadeh, Frank Griffel and others. After summarizing briefly the ongoing debate about what is taken to be al-Ghazali's real thoughts by the commentators on the issue within the purview of the abovementioned two books, I will offer some possible conciliatory remarks on his seemingly incoherent statements.