The The ‘Light’ of Reason in the Philosophical and Theological Teachings of al-Ghazali in Relation to the Byzantine Mysticism of Light
Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Philosophy and Conflict Studies January 1, 2024 Nur S. Kirabaev
Al-Ghazali's concept of reason integrates sensory, discursive, and moral components, forming a philosophical 'theology' that guides cognition of the Absolute—the One, Eternal, and self-equal. Although the Absolute is unknowable, progress toward it as Truth proceeds through the ideal of the 'perfect man' (al-insan al-kamal) in epistemology and ethics. Al-Ghazali unifies knowledge and action, logic and morality in practical reason, critiquing al-Farabi and Ibn Sina for inadequately correlating theoretical and practical reason and for reason's scope in ethics and religion. The article compares this with the Byzantine mystical tradition of Simeon the New Theologian, who describes striving for absolute knowledge through Divine light and attaining unity with God, paralleling al-Ghazali's Sufi concept of the perfect man.