What do you believe you must believe to be a Muslim?

[ajazali]

Re: What do you believe you must believe to be a Muslim?

@psyah

Another factor to look at would be the concept of Certainty … Imam Al-Ghazali has a big contribution to make in this area … he is considered the pioneer of philosophical skepticism …

Stemming from this and I do not know if a philosopher has already postulated this idea … that since the foundation of knowledge cannot be philosophically reconciled (See Incoherence of the Philosophers) … and certainty being subject to delusion as well as truth - the only way to arrive at truth is through Divine inspiration.

In addition - what may seem to be perfect and certain in matters of **2 + 2 = 4 is actually either constrained within given parameters or it is abstract (conceptual) and does not exist in the material sense. **We cannot account for God in the same way we account for numbers. Numbers exist in the abstract sense they are not concrete things … Concrete things - requiring the senses to discern them - are elusive … there is always another angle that can be taken. Abstracts can be perfect and abstract models can be applied to some degree of accuracy to the material world … however no exactness can result and hence no certainty exists in the concrete domain … except as Imam Al-Ghazali says - “through Divine inspiration”. And moments of inspiration can be given to anyone … Just like life is given to all people indiscriminately. It is however our faith that discernment of truth is a matter of inspiration that only comes to the Friends of Allah (SWT).

Hence … the surer we become of a matter the more abstract we have made it or the more abstract a matter to greater the level of certainty we can have about it … - This is a philosophical idea that I am postulating perhaps someone else has come up with this before … ? I don’t know …

and move to 2, which is equal to 1+1
then move to 1, which is equal to what? maybe equal to assumption or something