The Just Balance is Al-Ghazali's concise yet profound examination of religious reasoning, theological proof, and the disciplined use of argument in Islamic thought.
Known in Arabic as Al-Qistas Al-Mustaqim, the work presents a sustained engagement with the claims of the Ta'limiyyah and the wider Isma'ili intellectual challenge of Al-Ghazali's age. Rather than responding only through polemic, Al-Ghazali develops a method of weighing knowledge through rules of demonstration derived from the Qur'an itself.
The text explores the "rules of measurement" by which truth and error may be distinguished. These include the Great, Middle, and Small Rules of Equivalence, the Rule of Concomitance, and the Rule of Opposition. Through these forms, Al-Ghazali examines the relation between revelation, reason, analogy, opinion, and authoritative teaching. He argues that the Muslim community has no need of a hidden or infallible Imam beyond the guidance brought by Muhammad, peace be upon him, and the knowledge transmitted through the Qur'an and the learned scholars of his community.
The work also addresses the misuse of argument, the "rules of the Devil," the limits of personal opinion and analogy, the dangers of sterile controversy, and the proper method for guiding different classes of people: the common folk, the people of insight, and the dialecticians.
This translation, with introduction and notes by D. P. Brewster, situates the work within Al-Ghazali's intellectual world and the theological debates between Sunni orthodoxy and Isma'ili thought. It is especially useful for students and scholars of Islamic theology, logic, kalam, usul al-fiqh, intellectual history, and classical Muslim polemical literature.
The Just Balance remains an important text for understanding how Al-Ghazali joined Qur'anic reasoning, formal logic, and Sunni theological discipline in the service of religious knowledge.
Table of Contents
Chapter One: Introduction Concerning the Rules of Knowledge
Chapter Two: The Great Rule of Equivalence
Chapter Three: The Middle Rule of Measurement
Chapter Four: The Small Rule of Measurement
Chapter Five: The Rule of Concomitance
Chapter Six: The Rule of Opposition
Chapter Seven: On the Rules of the Devil and How These Are Used by the Täl¿miyyah
Chapter Eight: How Muhammad and the Learned Men of His Community Have No Need of Another Imam, and the Way in Which the Knowledge of the Veracity of Muhammad is Shown, That of Those Who Know, A Way Which is Clearer Than the Consideration of Miracles and More Sure Than It
Chapter Nine: How to Deliver Men from the Darkness of Controversies
Chapter Ten: Of the Forms of Opinion and Analogy and Their Falsity
Appendix I: Nomenclature of the Ism¿¿¿l¿ Movement
Appendix II: Al-¿asan Ibn Mu¿ammad Al-¿abb¿¿'s Teaching
Appendix III: Al-Ghaz¿l¿ and the Syllogism
Appendix IV: English Translations of the Works of Al-Ghaz¿l¿
