SOURCE: Umaruddin, M. “The Freedom of the Will.” In The Ethical Philosophy of Al-Ghazzālī, pp. 69-81. Aligarh, India: The Aligarh Muslim University Press, 1962.

In the following excerpt, Umaruddin explains al-Ghazālī's views on divine will, human freedom, and causation.

The problem of the freedom of the will, because of its great ethical significance, received the close attention of al-Ghazzālī. There are three aspects of this problem. Al-Ghazzālī believes that the efficacy of will in changing and improving character is a necessary postulate of ethics. Secondly, he considers that will is determined by knowledge. This he tries to prove by a penetrating analysis of human actions. Freedom, he thinks, consists in the acceptance or rejection by Reason of one or the other alternatives that are presented to it. But this acceptance or rejection is not wholly undetermined. On the contrary it is caused by the...