112 DESTINY DISRUPTED
forth past a narrow slit in a fence. If we're looking through the slit from the
other side, Watts said, we keep seeing first the head of the cat and then the
tail, which doesn't mean the head causes the tail. (Actually, I think it does,
in a sense, but I won't get into that here.)
Take it however you will, the argument against causality undermines the
whole scientific enterprise. If nothing actually causes anything else, why
bother to observe the natural world in search of meaningful patterns? If
God is the only cause, the only way to make sense of the world is to know
God's will, which means that the only thing worth studying is the revela-
tion, which means that the only people worth listening to are the ulama.
Ghazali allowed that mathematics, logic, and even the natural sciences
could lead to true conclusions, but wherever they conflicted with the rev-
elations, they were wrong. But if science is right only when it reaches the
same conclusions as revelation, we don't need science. All the truth we
need we can get from the revelations.
Some of the philosophers struck back. Ibn Rushd (known to Europeans
as Averroes) wrote a riposte to Ghazali called The Incoherence of the Inco-
herence, but it did little good: when the smoke cleared, Ghazali had won
the day. From his time forward, Greek-based Muslim philosophy lost
steam and Muslim interest in natural science foundered.
Ghazali won tremendous accolades for his work. He was appointed
head of the prestigious Nizamiya University in Baghdad, the Yale of the
medieval Islamic world. The orthodox establishment acknowledged him as
the leading religious authority of the age. Ghazali had a problem, however:
he was an authentically religious man, and somehow, amid all the status
and applause, he knew he didn't have the real treasure. He believed in the
revelations, he revered the Prophet and the Book, he was devoted to the
shari' a, but he wasn't feeling the palpable presence of God-the very same
dissatisfaction that had given rise to Sufism. Ghazali had a sudden spiritual
crisis, resigned all his posts, gave away all his possessions, abandoned all his
friends, and went into seclusion.
When he came out of it many months later, he declared that the schol-
ars had it right, but the Sufis had it righter: The Law was the Law and you
had to follow it, but you couldn't reach Allah through book learning and
good behavior alone. You needed to open your heart, and only the Sufis
knew how to get the heart opened up.