Al-Ghazali’s Empirical–Rational–Spiritual Epistemology and Its Implications for Contemporary Islamic Religious Education
Keywords:
Al-Ghazālī’s Epistemology, Holistic Islamic Education, Integrative Epistemology, Islamic Religious Education, Spiritual KnowledgeAbstract
The purpose of this study is to analyze Ghazālī’s integrative empirical–rational–spiritual epistemology and its relevance to contemporary Islamic Religious Education as well as to identify possible implications thereof. This study is literature-based and employs philosophical-hermeneutic approaches to engage with Ghazālī’s works and relevant academic writings. Results of this study indicate that Ghazālī’s epistemology is hierarchical and integrative in that empirical and rational knowledge is foundational and is perfected by ma‘rifah (spiritual knowledge) as its zenith. The combination of the latter three dimensions (knowledge) directs the knowledge to the cultivation of ethics, divine consciousness, and wholeness of personality. This result demonstrates that the epistemic crisis in Islamic Religious Education is in dire need of integrative epistemology that and crisis. This study contributes to the body of knowledge by proposing a conceptual framework to inform holistically and transformational Islamic Education pedagogy and curriculum development.
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