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Refuting the claims that al-Ghazālī's Iljam is a refutation of kalām & that he did not remain Ashʿarī.1/ The fact lies in the very title of the book, iljam al-ʿawwām which means "Barring the (unlearned) laity" and not Iljām al-Khawāṣṣ or "Barring the (intellectual) elite". https://twitter.com/AlAthariiii/status/1327611842814939136
2/ This of course begs the question of what is meant by ʿawwām and what is meant by khawāṣṣ.
3/ It is the duty of ahl al-jaddal to prevent themselves from delving into such topics in the presence of ʿawwām—not something exclusive to al-Ghazālī nor for someone who subscribes to Ḥanbalī ʿaqīdah. Long before Iljam al-ʿawwām, al-Ghazālī warns against it Iḥya ʿulūm al-dīn:
4/ As for the claim that al-Ghazālī subscribed to what these salafīs understand to be the madhhab of the salaf then, first of all, tafwīḍ al-maʿna is one of the two positions within Ashʿarī school (anyone who studied their positions will know this).
5/ Yet, tafwīḍ al-maʿna is mentioned, salafīs jump to declare Ashʿarīs as innovators.
Guess who else advocated for this? None other than al-Ghazālī, and the irony is, this is what he advocates for in iljam al-ʿawwām.
Guess who else advocated for this? None other than al-Ghazālī, and the irony is, this is what he advocates for in iljam al-ʿawwām.
6/ Jon Hoover writes in his one his essays on Ibn Taymiyya's Darʾ Taʿāruḍ al‐ʿAql wa l‐Naql:
What al-Ghazālī calls for cannot be said to be the same as these people call for. This is clear since they ascribe to the position of Ibn Taymiyya.
What al-Ghazālī calls for cannot be said to be the same as these people call for. This is clear since they ascribe to the position of Ibn Taymiyya.
7/ Also: why don't you continue the paragraph quoted from iljam? al-Ghazālī goes on to say:
8/ Notice how al-Ghazālī negates a body for Allāh—something these people rather stay silent on. For example, the Salafī Ibn Jibrīn says commenting on al-Taḥāwī negating limbs etc. that it's a bidʿa of the mutakallimūn:
9/ Another point: if iljam al-ʿawwām was really a rebuttal of Ashʿarī ʿaqīda why is al-Ghazālī referring back to Kitāb al-Qawāʿid of the Iḥya—a striking defense of Ashʿarism? Shouldn't he be warning against it? So this claim is thus proved fallacious.
10/ Going back to the point of preaching such matters on the pulpit: one of the harshest critics of Ibn Taymiyya, Ibn Jahbal al-Kilābī outlines al-Ghazālīs points in Iljam in his radd against Ibn Taymiyya. This should open the eyes of salafīs who think this is exclusive to them.
