Maquinaria de movimiento de tierras

This is not to make light of the knowledge of God that can be obtained through philosophical inquiry into the workings of the world, but such knowl- edge falls short of that obtained from mystical insight. Knowledge of God in relation to the physical world comes about as a result of effort. One has to work at it. In contrast, knowledge of God from mystical insight is in part a divine initiative whereby the “light” of the mind is further illuminated by the “light” of prophecy. Nevertheless, knowledge of God through philosophical inquiry into the workings of the world is a vital part of Ghazali’s system and has a claim on the minds of all believers, especially learned ones with reserva- tions about the rationality of revelation. It is not knowledge of God of the kind revealed to prophets and beheld by saints through mystical disclosure. It is, rather, the result of intellectual contemplation (tafakkur) of the workings of the universe, which are but the results of God’s actions in creating it. The mind apprehends them as part of the created order and, on that basis, derives knowledge about God. Ghazali wrote a treatise, The Wisdom in God’s Creations, to encourage people to pursue knowledge in this fashion:

Praise to Allah who made intellectual contemplation [tafakkur] of the things he made a means by which to ground certainty in the hearts of those of his slaves [that is, humans] who have perception [that is, the intelligent]. By means of tafakkur they derive knowledge of the Praise- worthy One [that is, God] in his attribute [of power], and so they know him, verifying that there is no god but he and declaring his oneness. By witnessing his greatness and majesty [via philosophical inquiry into the things of the world], they declare him to be transcendent. He is the one who bestows just measure on all conditions. They [that is, those who use the mind in this way] are witnesses to that through rational inquiry [naz.ar] and rational deduction [istidla-l], by which they come to know that he is wise, powerful, and possessed of knowledge. The path to knowledge of Allah the Praiseworthy comes about by exalting him for his creations, contemplating the wonders of his constructions, and understanding the wisdom in his inventions.25

In the remainder of the book, Ghazali details the wonders of God’s creation: sky, sun, moon, planets, earth, sea, water, air,fire, humans, birds, beasts, insects, fish, and plants. All of this is meant to foster contemplation of the created (as opposed to otherworldly) order of things. Knowledge of the otherworldly (or ultimate) reality of things comes with mystical insight made possible by prophetic revelation, whereas intellectual contemplation is based on the logic of philosophy, whereby God is apprehended indirectly through contemplation of his creation.

As indirect knowledge of God, it does not offer knowledge of God in rea- lity, only knowledge of the results of his actions. Here, then, logical inquiry is applicable, even obligatory. One is to examine the workings of the world on their own terms without explaining them as direct interventions by God, and knowledge of God can be obtained in this way. No recourse to the miraculous is needed. The world, it can be seen from rational observation, works according to its own system of causality.

The knowledge of God in question here is the fruit of philosophy, but prophecy, too, has a share in it, since God taught logic to the prophets. When it comes to this kind of knowledge, prophets and philosophers are alike, even if prophets receive it effortlessly whereas philosophers have to work at it. In sum, we are dealing with two ways of knowing God, mystical insight and philosophical inquiry, and prophecy pertains to both, albeit in different ways: Prophecy makes mystical insight possible, but it also has a share in philoso- phically obtained knowledge of God, namely, the attributes of the creator that necessarily follow from examination of the creation, since those are the very things prophecy describes.

Later in this same work, The Wisdom in God’s Creations, in a section on the nobility of the mind,26 _{Ghazali notes the limitations of philosophical}

inquiry. The mind, as explained above, can acquire some knowledge of God even if it is unable to know him in reality. This means that the mind is not limited to the physical realm but can peer, as it were, into the otherworldly realm. This is because the mind is metaphysical in nature: Even if drawing upon data obtained by the senses, the mind has no direct experiences of its own at the level of the senses. For this reason, it is disposed to knowledge of the metaphysical world: realities beyond physical appearances. Thus, on the basis of what it deduces from the physical world, the mind, which is not lim- ited to the physical realm, can grasp the existence of things that lie beyond the senses. It is thus because of the mind that one believes in the existence of metaphysical realities that are hidden from it by the veils of God.

In this sense, the mind can reach the edge of the otherworldly realm, and yet it is unable to know itself (‘a-jiz ‘an ma‘rifat nafsihi). Here, Ghazali alludes to the many ways in which the mind, even if it knows that it exists, does not know the particulars of its own identity. For this, it must surrender itself to the One with knowledge of it, acknowledging its ignorance of itself (muqirr bi-l-jahl bi-nafsihi).

The mind is able to examine the subtle matters and intricate aspects of creation, and it can even deduce that it is created and therefore limited.

However, this limitation keeps it from self-knowledge through its own power: When it wants to remember something, it forgets it. When it wants to forget something, it remembers it. When it wants to be happy, it becomes sad. All of this is evidence that the mind is ignorant of the truths of what it knows (ja-hil bi-h.aqa-’iq ma- ‘alima). The mind can know the realities of so many things, from the details of the created order to universal standards of ethics common to all nations. However, even if this knowledge elevates humans above ani- mals, there is a kind of knowledge nobler than anything the mind might know on its own apart from prophetic instruction. This knowledge consists of the rules of the metaphysical realm, as Ghazali explains:

Consider how Allah has ennobled the human being, creating it to benefit from this knowledge [as acquired by the mind]. Vessels are ennobled by their contents. The heart of the slave [that is, the human being], as the site for knowledge of Allah the Praiseworthy, is ennobled by it. Moreover, Allah the Praiseworthy in his foreknowledge planned for his human creatures a final destiny in a realm other than this one, but he did not create for them a faculty in their minds by which to know the rules of that realm. He therefore perfected this light that he gave to them, namely, the light of the intellect, with the light of the divine message, and so sent the prophets, Allah’s prayers upon them, with good news to the obedient and a warning to the disobedient, granting them revelation, and preparing them to receive it. The light of this revelation from Allah in relation to the light of the intellect is like the sun in relation to the light of the stars, and so they [the prophets] guide the slaves [that is, humans] to their interests in this world in those areas that their minds alone could not grasp [fı-ma- la tastiqill bi-idra-kihi ‘uqu-luhum]; and also guided them to their interests in the other world, which humans cannot know without the mediation of prophets. God showed humans evidence of the truth of the message brought by the prophets in the reports about them, the truth of which one is obliged by logic to accept.27