God-universe relation in Ghazali

God and universe constitute the pair of concepts causing one of the most fundamental problems of the history of thought. When the historical process is taken into consideration, one can witness that all philosophers, regardless of the system of thought or belief they adhere to, have taken part, in one way or another, within the discussions regarding those concepts. Al-Ghazali is interested in the concepts of God and universe in order to oppose to the thoughts of Peripatetic philosophers which he regards to be contradictory and to confute those thoughts on logical proofs. Al-Ghazali puts forth his ideas on God under three titles as God's existence, attributes and actions. According to him, God is one, eternal and ever-lasting. God does not look like to anything. He has the attributes like might, knowledge, life, will, hearing, seeing and speech. He is the creator of all things. Al-Ghazali uses the concept of universe rather in putting forward and justifying God's existence and nature. Therefore, it is obvious that the importance of the universe is beyond its being a simple proof since it signifies the existence of God. When talking about the universe, Al-Ghazali says that it is an action of God. He says that the universe cannot be eternal, since an action exists subsequently. And it is up to God whether it can be ever-lasting or not. Al-Ghazali evaluates the God-universe relation in terms of the actor-action relation. God's relation with universe takes shape within the framework of the concepts of creation, prophethood and miracle. Keywords: Ghazali, God, universe, attribute, action, actor, cause, necessary being, creation, prophethood, and miracle.