The Secret Architect of Modernity: Al-Ghazali

In this study, we challenge Eurocentric narratives of modernity by revealing Ghazali’s influence on Western thought. While traditional narratives present the transition from Aristotelianism to empiricism as entirely Western, our study shows how Ghazali’s critiques of causality and rationalism reshaped Western epistemology. In his Incoherence of the Philosophers, Ghazali rejected necessary causality, arguing instead that observed patterns of cause and effect reflect divine will. Thus, Ghazali’s “occasionalist view” foreshadowed Hume’s skepticism. It also anticipated Pascal’s “intellects of the heart” by emphasizing the limitations of reason and intuitive knowledge (the eye of the heart). Although direct translations are rare, his views reached Europe through figures such as Ibn Rushd and Ramon Martí and influenced Aquinas, Ockham, and Malebranche. Ghazali's challenge to cosmic determinism by divine voluntariness and randomness foreshadowed modern debates about scientific certainty. As a result, we position Ghazali as a vital bridge between Islamic and Western thought.