On Creation, Nature, and the Ethical Self: A Comparative Analysis of Ikhwān al-Ṣafā, al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī, and Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, Brill’s Studies in Islamic Ethics, February 2025
Abstract
In this paper, I examine ideas on creation, nature, and the ethical self as conceptualized by the Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ (Brethren of Purity, fl. ca. 350–369/961–980) and al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī (d. before 409/1018), with a particular focus on Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111). Drawing from the classical scholarship on kalām, taṣawwuf, and falsafa, I analyze texts by these ethicists who wrote on nature and the role of the human as part of their ethical understanding of the universe as a means to achieve salvation in the Hereafter. By cross-referencing the abovementioned classical scholars and their ideas, I ask how nature is conceptualized in the classical Islamic tradition as part of the divine creation and how closely it was conceived in relation to obtaining a virtuous character.