Reconstruction of Four Models of Believe in God in Al-Gazali’s Thought

Al-Gazali proposed four models of belief in God, each corresponding to a different class of people: prophetic, saintlike, theological, and vulgar. He argued that the prophetic model, grounded in mystical experience, provides the strongest foundation for theism. This model resembles contemporary evidential arguments based on religious experience. His theory can be reconstructed as a graded model, where prophets and saints achieve the highest grade of belief, while others occupy lower grades.

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Abstract

Al-Gazali is one of the thinkers who has tried to build a strong foundation for theism. In his theory of belief in God, he introduces four models which pertains to four different classes of people. This models include prophetic, saintlike, theological and the vulgar ones. Al-Gazali believes that the first model which is based on mystical experience is the strongest one. This model is similar to what we call belief in God on the basis of religious experience. Thus, it can be considered as an evidential model which is based on religious experience. Al-Gazali’s theory can be reconstructed in a graded model of belief in god in which the prophets and saints attain the higher grade and others have the lower ones.