The Stage-Beyond-the-Intellect as a Method of Research in al-Ghazali’s Theory

Abstract

This article deals with the stage-beyond-the-intellect as an epistemological research method and how to arrive at it, and it analyzes the role of this stage in realizing the reality of things as they are in the sensible world and the world of the [divine] kingdom, or as al-Ghazali calls them: ‘alam al-mulk wa shahadah and ‘alam al-malakut. Al-Ghazali searches for the ontological principle and the epistemological ideal that constitute the real cause of the existence of things, and for the epistemological source that supplies real knowledge for the human being.