ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how Ghazālī’s polemical engagement with the Bāṭinites (Ismāʿīlī Shiʿī Esotericists) was an attempt to place reason and religious authority in its proper place. He sought to undermine the anti-rationalism of the Bāṭinites and defend the role of philosophical demonstration. The chapter indicates that Ghazālī rejects the taʾlīm (authoritative instruction) of the Bāṭinites, which he associates with an irrational taqlīd. But he advocates for a rational taqlīd, which rationally accepts the higher epistemic authority of the Prophet (ṣ). Furthermore, it discusses how Ghazālī’s hermeneutical theory rejects the Bāṭinites’ arbitrary esoteric reading of the texts and propounds a mastery of syllogistic reasoning to justify the use of figurative interpretation (taʾwīl). This chapter focuses on The Infamies of the Esotericists (Faḍāʾiḥ al-bāṭīniyya) and The Straight Balance (al-Qisṭās al-mustaqīm). It discusses how the former defends the veracity of reason and how the latter shows the Quranic support for syllogistic reasoning. The chapter illustrates that the acquisition of certainty in Ghazālī’s thought is at the nexus of both reason and religious authority.
