The issue of God's knowledge in the Tahafut of al-Ghazali and Ibn Rushd

Islamic Civilization has been and continues to be a host to a multitude of thought structures since its first century. This situation inevitably leads to the emergence of debates and signifies a pluralistic societal structure. Some of the debates within Islamic civilization occur between philosophers and theologians. Numerous theologians and philosophers have taken part in these debates, contributing to a rich accumulation of knowledge from the perspective of Islamic civilization. One of the example to this is the 'Tahafut' tradition. Gâzali penned a work titled "Tahafut al-Falasifa" to criticize and refute the arguments of Islamic philosophers, especially Ibn Sina. In response, Ibn Rushd produced a counter-argument in his work "Tahafut al-Tahafut". Subsequently, this tradition of 'Tahafut' continued with the contributions of scholars like Hocazade and many others. This study investigates the views on God's knowledge of prominent philosophers of Islamic thought, namely Avicenna, Al-Ghazali, and Averroes. Ibn Sina asserts that divine knowledge is absolute and universal, while Ghazali's criticisms suggest that Avicenna fails to prove this theory. Averroes, on the other hand, critiques the views of Ibn Sina and Gâzali and proposes that divine knowledge encompasses both general and specific knowledge. However, all three philosophers agree that God's knowledge is distinct and superior to human knowledge.