Benarkah Aristoteles dan Confucius menganut ajaran tauhid?‎

Abstract

This article aims to delineate the weakness of Osman Bakar's notions who claims that al-Ghazali regarded Aristotle to have tawhidic belief and supporting a Muslim to recognize Confucius’s prophethood, as he will not contradict to any Islamic teachings. This opinion may lead to different views because it causes confusion concerning this great figure of Hujjah al-Islâm. In al-Ghazali’s various works, the author does not find such a claim. He merely classified the philosophers with their backgrounds, without showing any belief of their monotheistic principles. Osman’s opinion also seems to invite readers to acknowledge Confucius’s prophethood even as a Muslim intellectual. These two figures are often the objects of study by number of researchers in the fields of philosophy and religion. However, a Muslim scholar must be able to place them according to their role and contribution critically and carefully. The author concludes that the above-mentioned claims are baseless and inaccurate arguments, so they deserve to be rejected. Number of works by those two figures do not show the arguments of the claim. The result of this reseach shows findings of the author thorough analysis of the relevant authoritative sources. In this article, the author applies the analytical text and descriptive analysis method by analysing the main sources that are relevant to the context of the issue.