Philosophy of Religion Research
Al-Ghazali on the Training Role of Prophets in Human's Epistemic Development
Document Type : Original Research
Author
Associate Professor, Faculty of Theology and Religions, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
According to al-Ghazali, prophets exert a profound effect on bringing other people to the highest degree of knowledge. In addition to teaching people the truths, prophets have a training role that brings knowledge to the level of certainty through changing the emotional-volitional realms. I shall show analytically that the prophets' training role leads to a "journey" to the truth that one takes in his soul, in order to achieve "the ability" of comprehending the truth. Achieving this ability requires a "settlement", "moderation" and "consistency of the self", so that one notices the truth "entirely". People faced with the prophet, receive his revelation in a lingual form. Obeying the Shari'a and following the prophets' commands and deeds accompanies people on an epistemic journey which ends with the highest level of knowledge. In this level, the people looking for the truth can achieve the "understanding" of the Bātin (the hidden meaning) of the Shari'a, as well as the knowledge of the spiritual realities, including spiritual beings as well as the relationship between them and the meaning of their existence.
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