The test of doubt in Abū Ḥāmid al-Ġazālī (d.1111)

In his work al-Munqiḏ min aḍ-ḍalāl (Deliverance from Error), the Muslim theologian Abū Ḥāmid al-Ġazālī (d.1111) brought to light, in the form of a confession, how he had overcome what had seemed to be an experience of radical doubt to finally reach certainty. Applying its interpretative framework and values, Western scholarship, which paradoxically saw al-Ġazālī as a fierce critic of philosophy, started to compare al-Ġazālī’s approach to that of the French philosopher René Descartes (1596–1650). While the question of whether Descartes was directly or indirectly influenced by the Muslim theologian cannot be clarified, we propose here to study to what extent a reconciliation of their respective approaches is possible, especially on an epistemological level.