The Extend of Al-Ghazali's Influence from Avicenna in the Issue of Creation according to Creation and the Cosmic System: Al-Ghazali & Avicenna

Based on Richard Frank's book, Creation and the Cosmic System: Al-Ghazali & Avicenna, this article examines some topics on the creation of the universe and al-Ghazali's thought about them, and proposes that al-Ghazali has been affected from Avicenna and has detached himself from the Ash'arite tradition .In the popular view, especially among orientalists, Al-Ghazali is known as an Ash'arite theologian who is opposed to philosophy. In the last twenty years, a new re-reading of Al-Ghazali's works, being largely based on Frank's researches, has taken place and changed the traditional view about him. By analyzing key texts in al-Ghazali's various works, Frank goes against the common view and reaches important conclusions about al-Ghazali's various views in his book, among which are the following: Introducing the world as a series depended on causal relations, proposing a theory which is similar to Avicenna's emanation theory, asserting the direct and indirect activity of God in the universe, necessity of the creation of the world, and the closeness of the position of al-Ghazali and Avicenna in the issue of the temporality or eternity of the world. According to Frank, many of the views that al-Ghazali rejected were insignificant compared to the views in which he followed Avicenna and it can be said that his views, more than being influenced by the Ash'arites, are Avecinnian. In the present study, by referring to Frank's other works and other works of the scholars of al-Ghazali, as well as various works of al-Ghazali and Avicenna and expressing their views, an attempt has been made to acquaint the reader with the views of the new scholars of al-Ghazali as well as Frank's views in the book, and to be able to judge them to some extent; at the same time, an attempt has been made to provide an assessment of their point of view.