Al-Ghazālī’s Heart as a Medium of Light: Illumination and the Soteriological Process

Abstract

This article focuses on the centrality of the heart in al-Ghazālī’s (d. 505/1111) thought. More specifically, it shifts the focus from al-Ghazālī’s doctrinal position, at stake when he defines the heart—which has already received much attention—to the practical aspect of the heart, namely its role within al-Ghazālī’s reformative project. In doing so, it brings to the fore the entanglement between knowledge acquisition, character refinement, and illumination at the end of the soteriological path, that is, the path leading to the soul’s salvation. Paying particular attention to the heart as a medium of light, this article seeks to extend the recent interrogation of philosophy as a way of life, expanding philosophy’s perceived boundaries in contemporary thought. In al-Ghazālī’s writings, the heart serves not only as the essence of man, but also as a synecdoche for the individual, that is, for the very essence of human subjectivity. As a medium of light, through proper training and spiritual practices, the heart becomes the locus of knowledge acquisition, character refinement, and the final conversion of the gaze. Al-Ghazālī’s conception of the heart, then, stands at the crossroads of Sufism and philosophy, where a conception of knowledge that is inseparable from ethics and aesthetics emerges. By examining this merging of ethics and aesthetics in al-Ghazālī’s thought, this article argues for the significance of aesthetics to al-Ghazālī, despite his ambivalence towards analogies and sense-perception.