Rational Theology and Revelation

A Comparative Analysis of Al-Farabi and Al-Ghazali's Thoughts on God

Bibliographic Data

ID13114887
AuthorsFernanda Putra Adela (0000-0002-8021-4572, Universitas Sumatera Utara), Surya Yudha Regif (0000-0003-0272-9447, University of Timor)
Year2026
Volume107
Issue2
Publication date2026-02-13
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePharos Journal of Theology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2414-3324 • E-ISSN: 2414-3324
PublisherFrIcAjOuRnAlS (PUBLISHER • ZA)
DOI10.46222/pharosjot.107.214
OpenAlexW7128801758
LanguageEN
References cited51

This article examines distinct theological frameworks of Al-Farabi and Al-Ghazali, whose arguments significantly contributed to the evolution of Islamic philosophy. Employing a library-based qualitative comparative research lens, the study uncovers the differing conceptions of God, Al-Farabi’s rationalist God of Necessary Existence and Al-Ghazali’s voluntarist God of Absolute Will, and how each conceived of creation, causality, knowledge, and eschatology. Al-Farabi, drawing from Aristotle and Neoplatonism, envisioned a cosmos rationally organised and emanating from the self-contemplation of God, where reason and revelation meet harmoniously as the expressions of a singular truth. Al-Ghazali, following Ash’arite and Sufi teachings, argues for the divine’s unbounded power and freedom in creation ex nihilo, the causation of events as occasionalist, and the dominance of revelation over reason, in Al Ghazali’s critique of the falasifa in Tahafut al-Falasifah, a new boundary of philosophical thought and Islamic orthodoxy. The central claim of this study is that the conflict between each other’s ideas is not simply a clash of doctrines, but a deeper conflict between two opposing metaphysical worldviews—rational necessity and divine volition. These worlds profoundly changed the course of Islamic philosophy, kalam, and mysticism, as well as contemporary debates in Islamic philosophy, addressing the integration of reason and revelation. This article contributes originally by reframing the al-Fārābī - al-Ghazālī debate as a paradigmatic metaphysical conflict between rational necessity and divine volition, rather than a merely doctrinal disagreement

Absolute (philosophy · Causation · Dominance (genetics · Islam · Metaphysics · Power (physics · Rationality · Revelation · Islamic Studies and History · Islamic Thought and Society Studies · Medieval and Classical Philosophy

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