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Theodicy in Islamic Thought: The Dispute over al-Ghazali's 'Best of All Possible Worlds' byEric L. OrmsbyReview by: W. Montgomery WattReligious Studies, Vol. 22, No. 1 (Mar., 1986), pp. 153-154Published by: Cambridge University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20006264 .

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REVIEWS 153influence of Kaufmann on his work is both a strength and a weakness: hisbook helps to disseminate Kaufmann's work, though it is a great pity thathe refers only to the original modern Hebrew volumes and makes no mentionof what is available in English of that formidable work (e.g. The Religion ofIsrael an abridgment of the four volume work by Moshe Greenberg andpublished by the University of Chicago Press, I960 or what there isof thefour-volume History of theReligion of Israel published by Ktav Publishing

House, I977). Kaufmann was a stimulating polemicist and thus Zeitlin'sbook inevitably stimulates a vigorous response. In that sense it possesses somevirtue, but the footnotes are slipshod (it is disconcerting to read referencesto scholars called Rad and Vaux) and lines appear to be missing on pageI23. I suppose it is refreshing to read a book which contains material onIsrael's origins without reference toGottwald or Mendenhall (the latter is

dismissed in a footnote on page I 6), but Zeitlin's reading inmodern biblicalscholarship is curiously selective and therefore grosslsy defective.

ROBERT CARROLL

Eric L. Ormsby. Theodicy in IslamicThought: theDispute overal-Ghazali's 'Bestof all Possible Worlds'. Pp. xv + 3I0. (Princeton, New Jersey: PrincetonUniversity Press, I984.) C27.90.

This is a remarkable book in several ways. For one thing it deals with thefield of Islamic theological thought between the twelfth and nineteenthcenturies; and this is a period about which Western scholars have littleknowledge, not even an adequate overview of the course of developmentduring these centuries, despite - or perhaps because of - the vast masses ofmaterial available. For another thing this book pioneers a new method ofexploring this territory; it follows theworking out of a single theme accordingto a logical rather than a historical perspective. And for an author who isa newcomer to this field the book shows great maturity, possibly helped inthis respect by his obvious familiarity with medieval Christian thought.

The selected theme is the debate arising out of a sentence ascribed to thetheologian al-GhazMri (d. I I I ) - 'there is not in possibility anything more

wonderful than what is' - which is roughly equivalent to the Leibnizianassertion that 'this is the best of all possible worlds', and like the latter foundopponents and defenders. The first chapter of the book looks at the sentencein its context inal-GhazMll's thought. The chief passage where itoccurs (witha slightly different wording) is in his Ihjy&''The Revival of the ReligiousSciences') in the treatise on 'trust inGod' (tawakkul).He insists that forcomplete trust inGod the believer must be assured that the actual world isin accordance with the divine wisdom and that nothing more wonderful ispossible.

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154 RELIGIOUS STUDIESA second chapter gives a list, century by century, of about forty theologians

who took part in the debate, and, for nearly half of these, works on the topicare extant. Of this latter group descriptions are given. The author sees themas falling into twomain classes - thosewith a traditional Islamic juristic andtheological training, and those who belonged rather to a sufistic tradition.

The remaining three chapters outline the course of the debate accordingto three main aspects: divine power and possibility; creation as 'naturalnecessity'; the problem of optimism. The arguments are sometimes subtleand abstruse - for example, distinguishing three or four different senses of'possibility' - but they are presented in clear and readable fashion, andillustrated by short translated passages from the writers discussed. Thetranslations are specially useful, since theworks quoted are often not easilyaccessible. Finally there isa brief conclusion inwhich the author restates the

Ghazalian position in the light of the refinements which have been introducedin the course of the debate. His sympathies are clearly with al-Ghazall,although he admits that the arguments of the critics are weighty.

Some readers will wonder what light this study throws on the generaldevelopment of Islamic theology during the period in question. With a littlefurther work on themen concerned the light thrownmight be considerable.Even without such work, however, one begins to discern dimly certain trends.On the one hand are the sufis likeMuhyi-d-din ibn-al-'Arab! and thosewhoapprove of him, and all these accept al-Ghazall's view and argue for it.Within the group of traditionally educated ulema, however, it is interesting

to find thatmany have leanings towards sufism or may be practising sufis;and these are all supporters of al-Ghazall's view. This isnot surprising, sincethe basic assertion was closely linked with themystical experience of 'trustinGod' in themidst of suffering and disaster. There issomething very similarat thedeeper levelsof Christian experience. The opposition to the view comesfrom traditionally educated ulema whose primary concern seems to be to

maintain a somewhat abstract conception of the absolute omnipotence ofGod.A small quibble: is it not a rule of English typography that all sentences

start with a capital? In this book (and in a few others) this rule is not followedwhere a sentence opens with the Arabic article 'al-' in transliteration; andin this book there are many such sentences. This practice is irrational, forthere isno system of transliteration which prescribes it, and in any case Arabictransliteration cannot prescribe toEnglish typography.

Finally, in thanking the author for this book, may one express the hopethat he will continue and extend his studies in a field in which he is clearlyat home.

W. MONTGOMERY WATT

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