Al Ghazali was a seeker of knowledge, and in his text Deliverance from Error, he aspires to seek the truth rather than mindlessly obey, which gave him the freedom to do so. Growing up, he encountered individuals who had various opinions merely as a result of their upbringing. “ Every infant is born endowed with the fitra: then his parents make him a jew or christian or magian.” That implies that children inherit their parents’ religion from birth since they are educated about it and experience it directly, and they subsequently adopt their parents’ beliefs. This results in unquestioning inherited ideas since a child raised by Muslim parents will grow up to be Muslim, and a child raised by Christians will grow up to be Christians.

 These beliefs make Al Ghazali want to separate uncritical and inherited beliefs from the true knowledge but in order to do so, he first needed to define what true knowledge is. Then it became clear to me that sure and certain knowledge is that in which the thing is known is made so manifest that no doubt clings to it, nor is it accompanied by the possibility of error and deception, Al Ghazali wrote. 

He uses the mathematical example that ten is more than three, which we all know to be true, yet someone else comes along and says 3+10=1 to illustrate what he means by such knowledge. Such a situation won’t be valued; instead, it will leave us scratching our heads about how this is possible. Therefore, in this instance, we have arrived at rational beliefs that are derived from self-evident knowledge and perceptual beliefs that are obtained from sense data. Human senses such as hearing, sight, smell, taste, and touch provide a type of belief known as sense-data, and self-evidence is a belief that we accept as true. Some people might possess incorrect knowledge that causes others to doubt it. If this is the case, then, in my opinion, the claim is not supported by facts or the truth. Al Ghazali claims that in terms of perceptual beliefs, sight is frequently wrong. For instance, we look at the shadow and claim it is motionless even though it is moving. This proves that sense data is wrong, unreliable, and subject to doubt, and this lives rational truth as the only truths capable of leaving the condition of truth as knowledge; However, he encounters the same issue with sense data. If reason can condemn perception then there is something higher than reason. To result in this Al Ghazali gives a state of when one is dreaming. What we experience in the dream is really true but once we wake up, we realize that it was not real so dreams are not a reliable source for truth.  Even when we strive to convince others that our dreams are real, we will wake up to reality and discover that they are just dreams. We are unable to persuade them that the dream was real because we lack any supporting evidence which makes dreams unreliable.

 But according to him, if we are not dreaming, then it is still possible, but we cannot be positive that we are dreaming, and as a result, none of our beliefs are true because we lack evidence that we were dreaming, which leaves our reasoning up to doubt. We must therefore be able to rule out the possibility of false beliefs if we are to know. Meaning the requirement for truth in knowledge is what sets it apart from merely subjective ideas. If something has a factual basis, is valuable, and is supported by sound logic, then can be certain then its the truth. For  knowledge to be considered true, it has to be based on facts, reasoning and truth.