Жизнь и творчество Аль-Газали: опыт философского осмысления. Часть 1. Аль-Газали в оценках современников и "газалиана" XIX-XX вв.

Первая из цикла статей о жизни и творчестве аль-Газали посвящена изучению его трудов и наследия как современниками мыслителя, так и нынешними философами. Показана масштабность и сложность творческого наследия аль-Газали, противоречивость и неточность оценки его жизненого и творческого пути как у его современников так у исследователей XIX-XX вв.

Life and Creativity of Al-Ghazali: Experience of Philosophical Comprehension. Part I. Al-Ghazali: Assessments of Contemporaries and ‘Ghazaliana’ of the 19th-20th cc

The spiritual heritage of Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali, held such a high esteem among his contemporaries that they nicknamed him as the ‘renovator of faith’, ‘argument of Islam’, it does not only represents an integral spiritual heritage of the ‘world of Islam’, but also is one of the essential basis and sources of awareness for humanity. The subject matter of my research is a set of important aspects of life and works of al-Ghazali. These are, in particular, the assessment of al-Ghazali in writings of his contemporaries and researchers of the 19th and 20th centuries (the subject of the first article of this series). Other important aspects are the measure of intellectual independence and innovation of al-Ghazali, as well as his anti-authoritarianism and reformism as the basis of his ideological system. Having analyzed a significant body of studies on the creativity and personality of al-Ghazali, using for this purpose source, discursive (and sometimes hermeneutic), problem and historical-philosophical analysis, I show the main problem with which each researcher of al-Ghazali’s heritage is faced. Figuratively speaking, it is as harder to find the ‘true’ al-Ghazali as to find salvation in the desert of Rub al-Hali. At the same time, by dividing the incorrect and common views of theological schools and groups of fiqh, the philosophical directions came closer to recognize the merits of al-Ghazalia as a thinker. But the real merit of al-Ghazali to the philosophical tradition of the world of Islam lies within the deepening development of intellectual efforts by the philosophers themselves due to the influence of his method and system of intellectual thought on them, for example Ibn Tufayl, Ibn Rushd, Sufis such as al-Suhrawardi, al-Maktullah, Ibn Arabi and the others. His influence was linear, that is why together with the true al-Ghazali we find those who ‘followed’ him, his ideologized ‘unauthenticated’ way of life. The modern ‘ghazalian’ though comes closer to the ‘true’ al-Ghazali, but it remains under a captive illusion, something which al-Ghazali himself once declared: “Take what you see and leave what you heard, the sunrise makes it unnecessaries for contemplating the Saturn.” Ghazalians to this date are developing along the same constructions of his aspects and his ideological heritage. Hidden in this, is the vulnerability of conclusions, which has not ripened through expanding level of knowledge of his works. It turns out that, on one hand, al-Ghazali is one of the most ‘developed’ figures among Islamic thinkers. On the other hand, he looks up to such a degree of inconsistent that it is almost impossible to consider him a ‘true’ al-Ghazali. My tentative conclusion is about immensity and complexity of the creative heritage of al-Ghazali, the inconsistency and inaccuracy of the evaluation of his very ambiguous life and creative path both among his contemporaries and late modernists.