Al-Ghazālī on Experiential Knowing and Imaginal Mediation

ABSTRACT This article examines al-Ghazālī’s conception of experiential knowledge and imaginal cosmology with special attention to his Kitāb sharḥ ʿajāʾib al-qalb (Marvels of the Heart) and other relevant works. In the process, it demonstrates how, for al-Ghazālī, unseen forces – benevolent and malevolent – insinuate, inspire and communicate to the human being on a subtle level through incoming suggestions or thoughts (khawāṭir; sing. khāṭir). Key to his understanding of this idea is the heart’s receptivity to influences that emerge from the hierarchical realms that descend from God all the way down to the human soul. According to later theoretical Sufism, the imagination is a faculty of the soul’s psychology, but it is also considered an external and subtle aspect of creation. This article argues that al-Ghazālī explained the teaching in a distinct fashion before the theory of imagination was elaborated by later Muslim writers.