Journal of European Baptist Studies, 2017

dered knowledge to be not just important, but essential, the most important aspect of all of life as it points to and prepares for the afterlife. 42 True knowledge, he argued, is knowledge of God, His books, prophets and messengers, theological cosmology, and shariah as revealed through the Prophet Muhammad. 43 In al-Ghazali's concept of knowledge, faith and reason are not held in opposition as contradictory ways of knowing. Rather, they are complementary, just as technique supports the actions of a practitioner. 44 Al-Ghazali posited a number of categories of knowledge, nearly always using a dichotomy to contrast two types within each category. For example, regarding the nature of knowledge, he divides between the theoretical (religious sciences) and practical (medicine, agriculture, etc.). Concerning the obligation of knowledge, some knowledge is obligatory for every individual, while other knowledge is obligatory on the community as a whole, not on individuals. His dichotomous approach is sometimes 3S Griffel, Al-Ghazali’s Philosophical Theology, p. 6. 39 Griffel , Al-Ghazali’s Philosophical Theology’, pp. 111-22. 40 al-Ghazali, Ihya ’ 'ulum Al-DTn [Revival of the Religious Sciences] (Cairo: Lajnat Nashr al-Thaqafa al- Islamiyya, 1937) <http://www.ghazali.org/site/ihya.htm> 41 Latefah Alkanderi, ‘Exploring Education in Islam: Al-Ghazali’s Model of the Master-Pupil Relationship Applied to Educational Relationships within the Islamic Family’ (PhD dissertation, Pennsylvania State University, 2001), p. 94. 42 In al-Ghazali, Ihya bk. I, p. 2; a point often echoed in expositions of al-Ghazali, for example: Ibid., p. iv; Raudlotul Firdaus Fatah Yasin and Mohd Shah Jani, ‘Islamic Education: The Philosophy, Aim, and Main Features’ (unpublished conference paper presented at the International Conference on Psychology in Health, Educational, Social and Organization Settings, Surabaya, Indonesia, 2013), p. 4 <http://irep.iium.edu.my/34152/> [accessed 11 February 2016] 43 Ihya’, bk. 1, sec. 1. 44 Ihya bk. 3, sec. 1.; discussed by Nofal, p. 7. 64 Journal of European Baptist Studies 17:1 (2017) explained in popular understanding as a distinction between ‘sacred and profane’, though to do so misses the integral relationship al-Ghazali maintains between his categories. All beneficial knowledge ultimately has its cause and source in True knowledge, direct mystical experience of the All-knowing God. 45 All forms of knowledge in this world are held to this pragmatic standard: to what extent is learning it useful for the goal of knowing and pleasing God? 46 Religious sciences are seen as superior because they directly concern knowledge about God and salvation in the world to come; while non-religious sciences are analysed on the basis of the extent to which they either enable or inhibit gaining knowledge that pleases God. His categorisations, in practice, introduce a binary valuation to non¬ religious knowle