The Concert of Causality and ALGhazali's Position it

Abstract

This research raises the problem of the relationship between what we can call a cause and what we can call an effect, and what is the nature of that relationship linking them?

This research presents a great attempt by a great philosopher, one of the icons of Islamic philosophical thought, who had a prominent role in its development, namely “Abu Hamid al-Ghazali,” nicknamed “Hujjat al-Islam.” In this attempt, he shows his unique opinion about the concept of causal relationship.

The research aims to study his most important ideas about the concept of causal relationship, comparing him with his predecessors among philosophers. Therefore, the researcher used the comparative method, in addition to using the analytical method specific to analyzing some of Al-Ghazali’s philosophical texts about the concept of causal relationship.

The researcher concluded that Al-Ghazali was different from his predecessors in his analysis of the concept of causal relationship, as he criticized them for saying that this relationship is inevitable. Al-Ghazali replaces this term “inevitability or logical necessity” with another term that explains the relationship between things and their causes, which is the term “habit or repetition,” where we notice and witness the succession of two events in a continuous and repeated manner, so we call one of them a cause and the other an effect, while the real cause is God’s decree and will. There is no necessity or inevitability in the causal relationship, but rather it is a possible relationship.