The Philosophico-theological Controversy Between al-Ghazali and Averroes (A Critical Assessment)

Al-Ghazali and Averroe's controversy deals with whether or not religion is compatible with reason. Having illustrated the intellectual differences and similarities of al-Ghazali and Averroes, the author has examined the efforts of the two thinkers in welcoming or rejecting philosophy in the field of religion. He has also dealt with the grounds and reasons for that controversy between them. One of those reasons is the fact that the Mutazelite movement of modernism flourished in Avicenna's peripatetic philosophy. Avicenna mingled peripatetic philosophy with Platonic approach which as some structural ground paved the way for Averroes to oppose al-Ghazali. It can also be said that the socio-political circumstances of Averroe's time opposing philosophy occasioned that conflict. Accordingly, Averroes was being disturbed by the people of his time; therefore, by the criticism of al-Ghazali he tried to defend himself against the raised allegations. As a matter of fact, al-Ghazali and Averroe's controversy was occasioned both by a socio-political cause and religious doctrines in originated from the two structures of fideism and rationalism as two long-lasting opposing schools in the world of Islam.