THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE IN THE TRETISE OF AL-GAZALI “AL-KISTASU-LMUSTAKIM” (RIGHT SCALES)

Abstract

Today, one of the urgent tasks of the social sciences is the construction of the Third Renaissance in our country, the transfer of the heritage of our ancestors to the younger generation, and their education in the spirit of moral and spiritual ideas based on Islamic philosophy. Therefore, it is important to study and research the sources that underlie the religious and philosophical views that have been formed and consolidated in our country for centuries. One of these philosophical writings is Al-Qistasu-l-Mustakim (Right scales) by Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad alGhazali, a thinker, lawyer, philosopher, and mystic who lived and worked during the early Renaissance, in the 11th century. Al-Qistasu-l-Mustakim by Abu Hamid al-Ghazali was written after his work Ihya ‘ulum ad-din and based on the philosophical views of the philosopher his logical arguments against the teachings of the Ismailis. This article analyzes his criteria for measuring views of Ismailis, what he means by Right Scales, and his religious and philosophical views. The article analyzes how the value of things is determined by the primary necessary sciences, whether knowledge arises from feelings, experience, or natural reasoning of the mind. The definition of mind (garyzatu-l-’akl) is the instinct of reason, which is embedded in a person as a quality or form of thinking. In particular, attention is paid to how the thinker compares experience with the instinct of reason, the correspondence of basic knowledge (al-’ulumu-l-awwaliyya) to the axioms of Aristotle, and the use of syllogisms of logic against the doctrine of Batynites. The article reveals what al-Ghazali understands when he talks about philosophical knowledge, on what basis we can find out the truth, what methods of opinion and analogies are, and how to make decisions in controversial situations. At the end of the article, there is a translation of the first chapter of Abu Hamid al-Ghazali’s book Al-Qistasu-lMustakim, devoted to the criteria of cognition.