Dijital Çağda Gazzâlî’nin İlcâm İlkesinin İmkânı Üzerine Bir İnceleme
An Examination of the Possibility of al-Ghazālī’s Principle of Iljām in the Digital Age

Summary/Abstract: This study examines how al-Ghazālī’s principle of iljām, as formulated in his work Iljām al-ʿAwāmm ʿan ʿIlm al-Kalām, can be reinterpreted in the context of the digital age. The aim of the study is to discuss the possibility of this principle—originally intended to regulate the transmission of knowledge according to the audience’s level of understanding in the classical period—in the face of the new audience structure emerging within contemporary digital communication environments. Employing a qualitative methodology, the study first analyzes al-Ghazālī’s conception of iljām through conceptual and textual analysis and then evaluates the effects of digital communication environments on the circulation of religious knowledge. The analysis demonstrates that characteristics of digital platforms, such as speed, fragmentation, and loss of context, can transmit complex theological debates to broad and unprepared audiences, thereby leading to confusion of meaning. In this regard, the article proposes reinterpreting iljām not as a prohibition that restricts knowledge, but as a communicative principle advocating the gradual, contextualized, and responsible presentation of religious knowledge according to the audience. Accordingly, the study aims to offer a normative framework for addressing the communicative challenges faced by kalām thought in the digital age.

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