al-Ghazali

Not to be confused with al-Ghazal.

For other uses, see Ghazali.

Al-Ghazali (c. 1058 – 19 December 1111; ٱلْغَزَّالِيُّ), full name Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad aṭ-Ṭūsiyy al-Ġazzālīy (أَبُو حَامِدٍ مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ مُحَمَّدٍ ٱلطُّوسِيُّ ٱلْغَزَّالِيُّ),^[a] and known in Persian-speaking countries as Imam Muhammad-i Ghazali (Persian: امام محمد غزالی) or in Medieval Europe by the Latinized as Algazelus or Algazel, was a Sunni Muslim polymath.^{[27][28][29][30][31]} He is known as one of the most prominent and influential jurisconsult, legal theoretician, mufti, philosopher, theologian, logician and mystic in Islamic history.^{[32][33][34][35]}

al-Ghazālī
Name of Imam Ghazali
Title	Ḥujjat al-Islām (honorific)^[1]
Personal
Born	Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad aṭ-Ṭūsī al-Ġaz(z)ālī c. 1058 Tus, Iran, Seljuq Empire
Died	19 December 1111(1111-12-19) (aged 52–53) Tus, Iran, Seljuq Empire
Religion	Islam
Era	Islamic Golden Age
Region	Seljuq Empire (Nishapur)^[2]^: 292 Abbasid Caliphate (Baghdad) / (Jerusalem) / (Damascus)^[2]^: 292
Denomination	Sunni^[3]^[4]
School	Shafiʿi
Creed	Ashʿari^[5]^[6]
Main interest(s)	Sufism, theology (kalam), philosophy, logic, Sharia, Islamic jurisprudence, Principles of Islamic jurisprudence
Notable work(s)	The Revival of Religious Sciences, The Aims of the Philosophers, The Incoherence of the Philosophers, The Alchemy of Happiness, The Moderation in Belief, The Condensed in Imam Shafi’i’s Jurisprudence, On Legal theory of Muslim Jurisprudence
Muslim leader
Influenced by Harith al-Muhasibi^[7] Ibn Sina al-Juwayni^[8] Al-Raghib al-Isfahani
Influenced Ibn Rushd • Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi^[9] Ayn al-Quzat Hamadani^[10] al-Nawawi^[11] Ibn Tumart^[12] René Descartes^[13] Fakhruddin Razi^[14] Suyuti^[15] Maimonides^[16] Tan Malaka Thomas Aquinas^[17] Shah Waliullah Dehlawi^[18] David Hume^[19] Sayf al-Din al-Amidi^[20] Asad Mayhani^[21] Ali al-Qari^[22] Muhammad Ibn Yahya al-Janzi^[23]

He is considered to be the 11th century's mujaddid,^[36][37] a renewer of the faith, who, according to the prophetic hadith, appears once every 100 years to restore the faith of the Islamic community.^[38][39][40] Al-Ghazali's works were so highly acclaimed by his contemporaries that he was awarded the honorific title "Proof of Islam" (Ḥujjat al-Islām).^[1] Al-Ghazali was a prominent mujtahid in the Shafi'i school of law.^[41]

Much of Al-Ghazali's work stemmed around his spiritual crises following his appointment as the head of the Nizzamiyya University in Baghdad - which was the most prestigious academic position in the Muslim world at the time.^[42][43] This led to his eventual disappearance from the Muslim world for over 10 years, realising he chose the path of status and ego over God.^[44][45] It was during this period where many of his great works were written.^[44] He believed that the Islamic spiritual tradition had become moribund and that the spiritual sciences taught by the first generation of Muslims had been forgotten.^[46] This belief led him to write his magnum opus entitled Iḥyā’ ‘ulūm ad-dīn ("The Revival of the Religious Sciences").^[47] Among his other works, the Tahāfut al-Falāsifa ("Incoherence of the Philosophers") is a landmark in the history of philosophy, as it advances the critique of Aristotelian science developed later in 14th-century Europe.^[35]

Biography

Al-Ghazali was born in c. 1058 in Tus, then part of the Seljuk Empire.^[48] He was a Muslim scholar, law specialist, rationalist, and spiritualist of Persian descent.^[49] He was born in Tabaran, a town in the district of Tus, Khorasan (now part of Iran),^[48] not long after Seljuks entered Baghdad and ended Shia Buyid Amir al-umaras. This marked the start of Seljuk influence over Caliphate. While the Seljuk dynasty's influence grew, Abu Suleiman Dawud Chaghri Beg married his daughter, Arslan Khatun Khadija^[50] to caliph al-Qa'im in 1056.^[51][52][8]

A posthumous tradition, the authenticity of which has been questioned in recent scholarship, is that his father died in poverty and left the young al-Ghazali and his brother Ahmad to the care of a Sufi. Al-Ghazali's contemporary and first biographer, 'Abd al-Ghafir al-Farisi, records merely that al-Ghazali began to receive instruction in fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) from Ahmad al-Radhakani, a local teacher and Abu ali Farmadi, a Naqshbandi sufi from Tus.^{[48]: 26–27} He later studied under al-Juwayni, the distinguished jurist and theologian and "the most outstanding Muslim scholar of his time,"^[48] in Nishapur,^[2]: 292 perhaps after a period of study in Gurgan. After al-Juwayni's death in 1085, al-Ghazali departed from Nishapur and joined the court of Nizam al-Mulk, the powerful vizier of the Seljuk empire, which was likely centered in Isfahan. After bestowing upon him the titles of "Brilliance of the Religion" and "Eminence among the Religious Leaders", Nizam al-Mulk advanced al-Ghazali in July 1091 to the "most prestigious and most challenging" professorial position at the time: the Nizamiyya madrasa in Baghdad.^[48]

He underwent a spiritual crisis in 1095, which some speculate was brought on by clinical hysteria,^[53][54][55] abandoned his career and left Baghdad on the pretext of going on pilgrimage to Mecca. Making arrangements for his family, he disposed of his wealth and adopted an ascetic lifestyle. According to biographer Duncan B. Macdonald, the purpose of abstaining from scholastic work was to confront the spiritual experience and more ordinary understanding of "the Word and the Traditions."^[56] After some time in Damascus and Jerusalem, with a visit to Medina and Mecca in 1096, he returned to Tus to spend the next several years in uzla (seclusion). The seclusion consisted in abstaining from teaching at state-sponsored institutions, but he continued to publish, receive visitors and teach in the zawiya (private madrasa) and khanqah (Sufi lodge) that he had built.

Fakhr al-Mulk, grand vizier to Ahmad Sanjar, pressed al-Ghazali to return to the Nizamiyya in Nishapur. Al-Ghazali reluctantly capitulated in 1106, fearing rightly that he and his teachings would meet with resistance and controversy.^[48] He later returned to Tus and declined an invitation in 1110 from the grand vizier of the Seljuq Sultan Muhammad I to return to Baghdad. He died on 19 December 1111. According to 'Abd al-Ghafir al-Farisi, he had several daughters but no sons.^[48]

School affiliations

Al-Ghazali contributed significantly to the development of a systematic view of Sufism and its integration and acceptance in mainstream Islam. As a scholar of Islam,^[57][58] he belonged to the Shafi'i school of Islamic jurisprudence and to the Asharite school of theology.^[59] Al-Ghazali received many titles such as Zayn al-Dīn (زين الدين) and Ḥujjat al-Islām (حجة الإسلام).^{[1][38][39][40]}

 

Mausoleum of al-Ghazali in Tus

He is viewed as the key member of the influential Asharite school of early Muslim philosophy and the most important refuter of the Mutazilites. However, he chose a slightly different position in comparison with the Asharites. His beliefs and thoughts differ in some aspects from the orthodox Asharite school.^[59][5][60]

Works

A total of about 70 works can be attributed to al-Ghazali.^[61][35][62] He is also known to have written a fatwa against the Taifa kings of al-Andalus, declaring them to be unprincipled, not fit to rule and that they should be removed from power. This fatwa was used by Yusuf ibn Tashfin to justify his conquest of al-Andalus.^[63]

Incoherence of the Philosophers

Al-Ghazali's 11th century book titled Tahāfut al-Falāsifa ("Incoherence of the Philosophers") marked a major turn in Islamic epistemology. The encounter with skepticism led al-Ghazali to investigate a form of theological occasionalism, or the belief that all causal events and interactions are not the product of material conjunctions but rather the immediate and present will of God.

In the next century, Ibn Rushd (or Averroes) drafted a lengthy rebuttal of al-Ghazali's Incoherence entitled The Incoherence of the Incoherence; however, the epistemological course of Islamic thought had already been set.^[64] Al-Ghazali gave as an example of the illusion of independent laws of cause the fact that cotton burns when coming into contact with fire. While it might seem as though a natural law was at work, it happened each and every time only because God willed it to happen—the event was "a direct product of divine intervention as any more attention grabbing miracle". Averroes, by contrast insisted while God created the natural law, humans "could more usefully say that fire caused cotton to burn—because creation had a pattern that they could discern."^[65][66][67]

The Incoherence also marked a turning point in Islamic philosophy in its vehement rejections of Aristotle and Plato. The book took aim at the Falāsifa, a loosely defined group of Islamic philosophers from the 8th through the 11th centuries (most notable among them Avicenna and al-Farabi) who drew intellectually upon the Ancient Greeks.

The influence of Al-Ghazali's book is still debated. George Saliba in 2007 argued that the decline of science in the 11th century has been overstated, pointing to continuing advances, particularly in astronomy, as late as the 14th century.^[68]

Professor Nuh Aydin wrote in 2012 that one the most important reasons of the decline of science in the Islamic world has been Al-Ghazali's attack of philosophers (scientists, physicists, mathematicians, logicians). The attack peaked in his book Incoherence, whose central idea of theological occasionalism implies that philosophers cannot give rational explanations to either metaphysical or physical questions. The idea caught on and nullified the critical thinking in the Islamic world.^[69]

On the other hand, author and journalist Hassan Hassan in 2012 argued that while indeed scientific thought in Islam was stifled in the 11th century, the person mostly to blame is not al-Ghazali but Nizam al-Mulk.^[70]

The Revival of Religious Sciences (Ihya' Ulum al-Din)

See also: The Revival of the Religious Sciences

Another of al-Ghazali's major works is Ihya' Ulum al-Din or Ihya'u Ulumiddin (The Revival of Religious Sciences).^[71] It covers almost all fields of Islamic sciences: fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), kalam (theology) and sufism.^{[citation needed]}

It contains four major sections: Acts of worship (Rub' al-'ibadat), Norms of Daily Life (Rub' al-'adatat), The ways to Perdition (Rub' al-muhlikat) and The Ways to Salvation (Rub' al-munjiyat). The Ihya became the most frequently recited Islamic text after the Qur'an and the hadith. Its great achievement was to bring orthodox Sunni theology and Sufi mysticism together in a useful, comprehensive guide to every aspect of Muslim life and death.^[72] The book was well received by Islamic scholars such as Nawawi who stated that: "Were the books of Islam all to be lost, excepting only the Ihya', it would suffice to replace them all."^[73]

The Alchemy of Happiness

See also: The Alchemy of Happiness

The Alchemy of Happiness is a rewritten version of The Revival of the Religious Sciences. After the existential crisis that caused him to completely re-examine his way of living and his approach to religion, al-Ghazali put together The Alchemy of Happiness.^[74]

Disciplining the Soul

One of the key sections of Ghazali's Revival of the Religious Sciences is Disciplining the Soul, which focuses on the internal struggles that every Muslim will face over the course of his lifetime.^[75] The first chapter primarily focuses on how one can develop himself into a person with positive attributes and good personal characteristics . The second chapter has a more specific focus: sexual satisfaction and gluttony.^[75] Here, Ghazali states that indeed every man has these desires and needs, and that it is natural to want these things.^[75] However, the Prophet explicitly states that there must be a middle ground for man, in order to practice the tenets of Islam faithfully. The ultimate goal that Ghazali is presenting not only in these two chapters, but in the entirety of The Revival of the Religious Sciences, is that there must be moderation in every aspect of the soul of a man, an equilibrium. These two chapters were the 22nd and 23rd chapters, respectively, in Ghazali's Revival of the Religious Sciences.^[75]

The Eternity of the World

Al-Ghazali crafted his rebuttal of the Aristotelian viewpoint on the creation of the world in The Eternity of the World. Al-Ghazali essentially formulates two main arguments for what he views as a sacrilegious thought process. Central to the Aristotelian approach is the concept that motion will always precede motion, or in other words, a force will always create another force, and therefore for a force to be created, another force must act upon that force.^[35] This means that in essence time stretches infinitely both into the future and into the past, which therefore proves that God did not create the universe at one specific point in time. Al-Ghazali counters this by first stating that if the world was created with exact boundaries, then in its current form there would be no need for a time before the creation of the world by God.^[35]

The Decisive Criterion for Distinguishing Islam from Clandestine Unbelief

Al-Ghazali lays out in The Decisive Criterion for Distinguishing Islam from Clandestine Unbelief his approach to Muslim orthodoxy. Ghazali veers from the often hardline stance of many of his contemporaries during this time period and states that as long as one believes in the Prophet Muhammad and God himself, there are many different ways to practice Islam and that any of the many traditions practiced in good faith by believers should not be viewed as heretical by other Muslims.^[48] While Ghazali does state that any Muslim practicing Islam in good faith is not guilty of apostasy, he does outline in The Criterion that there is one standard of Islam that is more correct than the others, and that those practicing the faith incorrectly should be moved to change.^[48] In Ghazali's view, only the Prophet himself could deem a faithfully practicing Muslim an infidel, and his work was a reaction to the religious persecution and strife that occurred often during this time period between various Islamic sects.^[48]

Deliverance from Error

 

Last page of al-Ghazali's autobiography in MS Istanbul, Shehid Ali Pasha 1712^{[clarification needed]}, dated AH 509 (AD 1115–1116).

The autobiography al-Ghazali wrote towards the end of his life, Deliverance From Error [ar] (المنقذ من الضلال al-Munqidh min al-Dalal), is considered a work of major importance.^[27] In it, al-Ghazali recounts how, once a crisis of epistemological skepticism had been resolved by "a light which God Most High cast into my breast ... the key to most knowledge,"^[76]: 66 he studied and mastered the arguments of kalam, Islamic philosophy, and Ismailism. Though appreciating what was valid in the first two of these, at least, he determined that all three approaches were inadequate and found ultimate value only in the mystical experience and insight he attained as a result of following Sufi practices. William James, in Varieties of Religious Experience, considered the autobiography an important document for "the purely literary student who would like to become acquainted with the inwardness of religions other than the Christian" because of the scarcity of recorded personal religious confessions and autobiographical literature from this period outside the Christian tradition.^[77]: 307

Works in Persian

Al-Ghazali wrote most of his works in Persian and in Arabic. His most important Persian work is Kimiya-yi sa'adat (The Alchemy of Happiness). It is al-Ghazali's own Persian version of Ihya' 'ulum al-din (The Revival of Religious Sciences) in Arabic, but a shorter work. It is one of the outstanding works of 11th-century-Persian literature. The book was published several times in Tehran by the edition of Hussain Khadev-jam, a renowned Iranian scholar. It is translated to English, Arabic, Turkish, Urdu, Azerbaijani and other languages.^[74]

Another authentic work of al-Ghazali is the so-called "first part" of the Nasihat al-muluk (Counsel for kings), addressed to the Saljuqid ruler of Khurasan Ahmad b. Malik-shah Sanjar (r. 490-552/1097-1157).^[78] The text was written after an official reception at his court in 503/1109 and upon his request. Al-Ghazali was summoned to Sanjar because of the intrigues of his opponents and their criticism of his student's compilation in Arabic, al-Mankhul min taʿliqat al-usul (The sifted notes on the fundamentals), in addition to his refusal to continue teaching at the Nizamiya of Nishapur. After the reception, al-Ghazali had, apparently, a private audience with Sanjar, during which he quoted a verse from the Quran 14:24: "Have you not seen how Allah sets forth a parable of a beautiful phrase (being) like a beautiful tree, whose roots are firm and whose branches are in Heaven." The genuine text of the Nasihat al-muluk, which is actually an official epistle with a short explanatory note on al-Manḵul added on its frontispiece.^[79]

The majority of other Persian texts, ascribed to him with the use of his fame and authority, especially in the genre of Mirrors for Princes, are either deliberate forgeries fabricated with different purposes or compilations falsely attributed to him. The most famous among them is Ay farzand (O Child!). This is undoubtedly a literary forgery fabricated in Persian one or two generations after al-Ghazali's death. The sources used for the forgery consist of two genuine letters by al-Ghazali's (number 4, in part, and number 33, totally); both appear in the Fazaʾil al-anam.^[80] Another source is a letter known as ʿAyniya and written by Muhammad's younger brother Majd al-Din Ahmad al-Ghazali (d. 520/1126) to his famous disciple ʿAyn al-Quzat Hamadani (492-526/1098-1131); the letter was published in the Majmuʿa-yi athar-i farsi-yi Ahmad-i Ghazali (Collection of the Persian writings of Ahmad Ghazali).^[81] The other is ʿAyn al-Quzat's own letter, published in the Namaha-yi ʿAyn al-Quzat Hamadani (Letters by ʿAyn al-Quzat Hamadani).^[82] Later, Ay farzand was translated into Arabic and became famous as Ayyuha al-walad, the Arabic equivalent of the Persian title. The earliest manuscripts with the Arabic translation date from the second half of the 16th and most of the others from the 17th century.^[83] The earliest known secondary translation from Arabic into Ottoman Turkish was done in 983/1575.^[84] In modern times, the text was translated from Arabic into many European languages and published innumerable times in Turkey as Eyyühe'l-Veled or Ey Oğul.^[85]

A less famous Pand-nama (Book of counsel) also written in the genre of advice literature is a very late compilatory letter of an unknown author formally addressed to some ruler and falsely attributed to al-Ghazali, obviously because it consists of many fragments borrowed mostly from various parts of the Kimiya-yi saʿadat.^[86]

Influence

During his life, Al-Ghazali wrote over 70 books on science, Islamic reasoning and Sufism.^{[87][88][89][34][35][27][28][29][30][90]} Al-Ghazali played a major role in integrating Sufism with Shariah. He was also the first to present a formal description of Sufism in his works. His works also strengthened the status of Sunni Islam against other schools. The Batinite (Ismailism) had emerged in Persian territories and were gaining more and more power during al-Ghazali's period, as Nizam al-Mulk was assassinated by the members of Ismailis. In his Fada'ih al-Batiniyya (The Infamies of the Esotericists) al-Ghazali declared them unbelievers whose blood may be spilled.^[91] Al-Ghazali succeeded in gaining widespread acceptance for Sufism at the expense of philosophy.^[92] At the same time, in his refutation of philosophers he made use of their philosophical categories and thus helped to give them wider circulation.^[92]

The staple of his religious philosophy was arguing that the creator was the center point of all human life that played a direct role in all world affairs. Al-Ghazali's influence was not limited to Islam, but in fact his works were widely circulated among Christian and Hebrew scholars and philosophers. Some of the more notable philosophers and scholars in the west include David Hume, Dante, and St. Thomas Aquinas. Moses Ben Maimon, a Jewish theologian was deeply interested and vested in the works of al-Ghazali. One of the more notable achievements of Ghazali were his writing and reform of education that laid the path of Islamic Education from the 12th to the 19th centuries. Al-Ghazali's works were heavily relied upon by Islamic mathematicians and astronomers such as At-Tusi.^[93]

Al-Ghazali was by every indication of his writings a true mystic in the Persian sense. He believed himself to be more mystical or religious than he was philosophical however, he is more widely regarded by some scholars as a leading figure of Islamic philosophy and thought. He describes his philosophical approach as a seeker of true knowledge, a deeper understanding of the philosophical and scientific, and a better understanding of mysticism and cognition.^[94] The period following Ghazali "has tentatively been called the Golden Age of Arabic philosophy" initiated by Ghazali's successful integration of logic into the Islamic seminary Madrasah curriculum.^[95]

Number of works

Al-Ghazali mentioned the number of his works "more than 70" in one of his letters to Sultan Sanjar in the late years of his life.^{[citation needed]} Some "five dozen" are plausibly identifiable, and several hundred attributed works, many of them duplicates because of varying titles, are doubtful or spurious.

The tradition of falsely attributing works to al-Ghazali increased in the 13th century, after the dissemination of the large corpus of works by Ibn Arabi.^[61]

Bibliographies have been published by William Montgomery Watt (The Works Attributed to Al-Ghazali), Maurice Bouyges (Essai de chronologie des oeuvres d'Al-Ghazali) and others.

Abdel Rahman Badawi's Bibliography of all works attributed to Al-Ghazali^[96]

Pages	Content
1–72	works definitely written by al-Ghazali
73–95	works of doubtful attribution
96–127	works which are almost certainly not those of al-Ghazali
128–224	are the names of the Chapters or Sections of al-Ghazali's books that are mistakenly thought by him
225–273	books written by other authors on al-Ghazali's works
274–389	books of other unknown scholars/writers regarding al-Ghazali's life and personality
389–457	the name of the manuscripts of al-Ghazali's works in different libraries of the world:

Short List of Major Works of Gazali

Title	Description	Type
al-Munqidh min al-dalal	Rescuer from Error	Theology
Hujjat al-Haq	Proof of the Truth	Theology
al-Iqtisād fī al-iʿtiqad	The Moderation in Belief	Theology
Iljām al-Awām an Ilm il-Kalām	Bridling the Common Folk Away From the Science of Theological Speculation	Theology
al-maqsad al-asna fi sharah asma' Allahu al-husna	The best means in explaining God's Beautiful Names	Theology
Jawahir al-Qur'an wa duraruh	Jewels of the Qur'an and Its Pearls	Theology
Faysal al-tafriqa bayn al-Islam wa-l-zandaqa	The Criterion of Distinction between Islam and Clandestine Unbelief	Theology
al-radd al-jamil li-ilahiyyat ‘Isa bi-sarih al-Injil	The Excellent Refutation of the Divinity of Jesus through the Text of the Gospel	Theology
Mishkat al-Anwar^[97]	The Niche for Lights, a commentary on the Verse of Light	Theology
Tafsir al-yaqut al-ta'wil		Theology
Mizan al-'amal	Criterion of Action	Tasawwuf
Ihya'e Ulum-ed'Deen	The Revival of the Religious Sciences	Tasawwuf
Bidayat al-hidayah	The Beginning of Guidance	Tasawwuf
Kimiya-yi sa'ādat	The Alchemy of Happiness [a résumé of Ihya'ul ulum, in Persian]	Tasawwuf
Nasihat al-muluk	Counseling Kings in Persian	Tasawwuf
al-Munqidh min al-dalal	Rescuer from Error	Tasawwuf
Minhaj al-'Abidin	Methodology for the Worshipers	Tasawwuf
Fada'ih al-Batiniyya	The Infamies of the Esotericists, a refutation of esoteric Sufism in general and Isma'ili doctrines in particular	Tasawwuf
Maqasid al falasifa	Aims of the Philosophers written in the beginning of his life, in favour of philosophy and presenting the basic theories in Philosophy, mostly influenced by Avicenna's works	Philosophy
Tahāfut al-Falāsifah	The Incoherence of the Philosophers), Book refutes the Greek Philosophy aiming at Avicenna and al-Farabi; and of which Ibn Rushd wrote his famous refutation Tahāfut al-Tahāfut (The Incoherence of the Incoherence)	Philosophy
Miyar al-Ilm fi fan al-Mantiq	Criterion of Knowledge in the Art of Logic	Philosophy
Mihak al-Nazar fi al-mantiq	Touchstone of Reasoning in Logic	Philosophy
al-Qistas al-mustaqim	The Correct Balance	Philosophy
Fatawy al-Ghazali	Verdicts of al-Ghazali	Jurisprudence
al-wajiz fi fiqh al-imam al-shafi’i	The Condensed in Imam Shafi’i’s Jurisprudence	Jurisprudence
Kitab tahzib al-Isul	Prunning on Legal Theory	Jurisprudence
al-Mustasfa fi 'ilm al-isul	The Clarified in Legal Theory	Jurisprudence
Asas al-Qiyas	Foundation of Analogical reasoning	Jurisprudence
The Jerusalem Tract ^[98]		Jurisprudence
Sources:^[99]^[100]^: 29

Economic philosophy

Al-Ghazali's economic philosophy was primarily influenced by his Islamic beliefs. He argued that the importance of economic activity lay both in its benefit to society, as well being necessary for salvation.^[101]

He established three goals of economic activity that he believed were part of one's religious obligation: "achievement of self-sufficiency for one's survival; provision for the well-being of one's progeny; and provision for assisting those in economic need."^[101] He argued that subsistence living, or living in a way that provides the basic necessities for only one's family, would not be an acceptable practice to be held by the general population because of the detrimental results that he believed that would bring upon the economy, but he acknowledged that some people may choose to live the subsistence lifestyle at their own will for the sake of their personal religious journey. Conversely, he discouraged people from purchasing or possessing excessive material items, suggesting that any additional money earned could be given to provide for the poor.^[101]

Al-Ghazali believed that the imposition of income equality in society should not be a necessity. Instead, he advocated for individuals to be guided by the "spirit of Islamic brotherhood," encouraging them to willingly share their wealth. However, he acknowledged that this ideal isn't universally practiced. According to him, earned wealth can serve two potential purposes. The first is for the good of oneself, which includes maintaining one's own health and that of their family, as well as extending care to others and engaging in actions beneficial to the Islamic community. The other is what al-Ghazali would consider misuse, spending it selfishly on extravagant or unnecessary material items.^[101]

In terms of trade, al-Ghazali discussed the necessity of exchanging goods across close cities as well as larger borders because it allows more goods, which may be necessary and not yet available, to be accessible to more people in various locations. He recognized the necessity of trade and its overall beneficial effect on the economy, but making money in that way might not be considered the most virtuous in his beliefs. He did not support people taking "excessive" profits from their trade sales.^[101]

Reception of work

According to William Montgomery Watt, al-Ghazali was considered to be the mujaddid ("Reviver") of his age.^[36][102] Many, perhaps most, later Muslims concurred and, according to Watt, some have even considered him to be the greatest Muslim after Muhammad.^[36]

As an example, the Islamic scholar al-Safadi stated:

Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad, the Proof of Islam, Ornament of the Faith, Abu Hamid al-Tusi (al-Ghazali) the Shafi'ite jurist, was in his later years without rival.^[103]

and the jurist, al-Yafi'i stated:

He was called The Proof of Islam and undoubtedly was worthy of the name, absolutely trustworthy (in respect of the Faith) How many an epitome (has he given) us setting forth the basic principles of religion: how much that was repetitive has he summarised, and epitomised what was lengthy. How many a simple explanation has he given us of what was hard to fathom, with brief elucidation and clear solution of knotty problems. He used moderation, being quiet but decisive in silencing an adversary, though his words were like a sharp sword-thrust in refuting a slanderer and protecting the high-road of guidance.^[104]

The Shafi'i jurist al-Subki stated:

"If there had been a prophet after Muhammad, al-Ghazali would have been the man".^[105][106]

Also a widely considered Sunni scholar, al-Dhahabi, in his praise of al-Ghazali wrote: "Al-Ghazzaali, the imaam and shaykh, the prominent scholar, Hujjat al-Islam, the wonder of his time, Zayn al-Deen Abu Haamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Toosi al-Shaafa'i al-Ghazzaali, the author of many books and one possessed of utter intelligence. He studied fiqh in his own town, then he moved to Nisapur in the company of a group of students. He stayed with the Imaam al-Haramayn and gained a deep knowledge of fiqh within a short period. He became well-versed in 'ilm al-kalaam and debate, until he became the best of debater."^[107]

Ibn Rushd (Averroes), a rationalist, famously responded that "to say that philosophers are incoherent is itself to make an incoherent statement."^{[citation needed]} Rushd's book, The Incoherence of the Incoherence, attempted to refute al-Ghazali's views, but the work was not well received in the Muslim community.^[108]

According to historian Firas Alkhateeb, "When one reads Imam al-Ghazali's works at a very superficial level, one can easily misunderstand what he is saying as anti-scientific in general. The truth, however, is that al-Ghazali's only warning to students is to not fully accept all the beliefs and ideas of a scholar simply because of his achievements in mathematics and science. By issuing such a warning, al-Ghazali is in fact protecting the scientific enterprise for future generations by insulating it from being mixed with theoretical philosophy that could eventually dilute science itself to a field based on conjecture and reasoning alone."^[109]

Al-Ghazali has been seen by Orientalist scholars as causing a decline in scientific advancement in Islam, because of his refutation of the new philosophies of his time. He purportedly saw danger in the statements made by philosophers that suggested that God was not all-knowing or even non-existent, which strongly contradicted his conservative Islamic belief.^[109] This position has been challenged, however.^[110][111] The following statement made by al-Ghazali has been described as evidence that he was not against scientific advancement: "Great indeed is the crime against religion committed by anyone who supposes that Islam is to be championed by the denial of mathematical sciences."^[63] This sentence, the source of which is not indicated in the cited book, is taken from Deliverance from Error.^[112] Ghazali does not mean that neglecting the study of mathematics would be a crime against science or against reason, but that rejecting them is a crime against religion. Its aim is not to promote the study of mathematics: it is to condemn the attitude which consists in considering them as rivals of religion. For him, religion has nothing to fear from them, because they do not deal with the same subjects. To condemn the study of mathematics for fear that it endangers religion is to mistake the place of each of them. This is clarified by the sentence which immediately follows: "For the revealed Law nowhere undertakes to deny or affirm these sciences, and the latter nowhere address themselves to religious matters.^[112]" A few pages later,^[113] he writes that the books of the philosophers must be banned - he defines philosophy as composed of six branches: mathematical, logical, physical, metaphysical, political, and morale.^[114] Al-Ghazali notably influenced Ibn Rushd,^[9] Ayn al-Quzat Hamadani,^[10] al-Nawawi,^[11] Ibn Tumart,^[12] René Descartes,^[115] Fakhruddin Razi,^[14] Suyuti,^[15] Tan Malaka,^[16] Thomas Aquinas,^[116][17] David Hume,^[19] Sayf al-Din al-Amidi,^[20] Asad Mayhani,^[21] Ali al-Qari,^[22] Muhammad Ibn Yahya al-Janzi.^[23]

See also

•  Biography portal
•  Islam portal

• List of Ash'aris and Maturidis
• List of Muslim theologians
• List of Sufis
• Mujaddid
• Nasîhatnâme

References

Notes

1. UK: /ælˈɡɑːzɑːli/,^[24] US: /ˌælɡəˈzɑːli, -zæl-/;^[25][26]

Citations

1. Janin, Hunt (2005). The Pursuit of Learning in the Islamic World. McFarland. p. 83. ISBN 0786419547.
2. Griffel, Frank (2006). Meri, Josef W. (ed.). Medieval Islamic civilization: an encyclopedia. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0415966900.
3. Meri, Josef W.; Bacharach, Jere L. (2006). Medieval Islamic Civilization: A-K. Taylor & Francis. p. 293. ISBN 978-0415966917.
4. Böwering, Gerhard; Crone, Patricia (2013). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought. Princeton University Press. p. 191. ISBN 978-0691134840. Ghazali (ca. 1058–1111) Abu Hamid Muhammad b. Muhammad al-Ghazali al-Tusi (the "Proof of Islam") is the most renowned Sunni theologian of the Seljuq period (1038–1194).
5. A.C. Brown, Jonathan (2009). Hadith: Muhammad's Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World (Foundations of Islam). Oneworld Publications. p. 179. ISBN 978-1851686636.
6. Leaman, Oliver (2006). The Qur'an: An Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. pp. 84. ISBN 978-0415326391.
7. Smith, Margaret (1936). "The Forerunner of Al-Ghazali". The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. 68 (1): 65–78. doi:10.1017/S0035869X00076358. JSTOR 25182038. S2CID 163151146.
8. "Imam Ghazali's Teachers: al-Ghazali's Website". www.ghazali.org.
9. Griffel 2009, p. 62.
10. Griffel 2009, p. 81.
11. Griffel 2009, p. 76.
12. Griffel 2009, p. 77.
13. Marenbon, John (2007). Medieval Philosophy: an historical and philosophical introduction. Routledge. p. 174. ISBN 978-0-415-28113-3.
14. Griffel 2009, p. 75.
15. Andrew Rippin, The Blackwell Companion to the Qur'an, p 410. ISBN 1405178442
16. "The Influence of Islamic Thought on Maimonides". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. June 30, 2005.
17. Heinrichs, Karin; Oser, Fritz (12 June 2013). Terence Lovat, Handbook of Moral Motivation: Theories, Models, Applications. Springer. p. 257. ISBN 978-9462092754.
18. . Islamic Contributions to Science & Math, netmuslims.com. Archived from the original on 2013-10-29.
19. James Robert Brown, Philosophy of Science: The Key Thinkers, p. 159. ISBN 1441142002
20. Sayf Din al-Amidi Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, September 18, 2019
21. Griffel 2009, p. 71.
22. Ayn al-`Ilm wa Zayn al-Hilm, Muqadimmah, Page 1
23. Griffel 2009, p. 74.
24. "Ghazali". Collins English Dictionary. HarperCollins. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
25. "Al-Ghazali". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (5th ed.). HarperCollins. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
26. "Ghazālī, al-". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
27. Böwering, Gerhard. "ḠAZĀLĪ". Encyclopædia Iranica. Retrieved 17 December 2012.
28. The Spirit of Creativity: Basic Mechanisms of Creative Achievements "Persian polymath Al-Ghazali published several treatises...."
29. http://www.ibe.unesco.org/sites/default/files/ghazalie.pdf « Al-Ghazali was born in A.D. 1058 (A.H. 450) in or near the city of Tus in Khurasan to a Persian family of modest means... »
30. The Ethics of Suicide: Historical Sources "A native of Khorassan, of Persian origin, the Muslim theologian, sufi mystic, and philosopher Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali is one of the great figures of Islamic religious thought...."
31. Bloch, Ernst (2019). Avicenna and the Aristotelian Left. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 77. ISBN 9780231175357. Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazali (ca.1058-1111) was a Persian antirationalist philosopher and theologian.
32. Banuazizi, Ali; Weiner, Myron (March 1994). The Politics of Social Transformation in Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan. Syracuse University Press. p. 108. ISBN 9780815626091.
33. "Ghazali, al-". The Columbia Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17 December 2012.
34. Adamec, Ludwig W. (2009). Historical Dictionary of Islam. Scarecrow Press. p. 109. ISBN 978-0810861619.
35. Griffel, Frank (2016). "Al-Ghazali". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2016 ed.). Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University.
36. William Montgomery Watt, Al-Ghazali: The Muslim Intellectual, p. 180. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1963.
37. Rosmizi, Mohd; Yucel, Salih (2016). "The Mujaddid of his age: Al-Ghazali and his inner spiritual journey". UMRAN - International Journal of Islamic and Civilizational Studies. 3 (2): 1–12. doi:10.11113/umran2016.3n2.56. ISSN 2289-8204.
38. Smith, Jane I. (19 November 2009). Islam in America. Columbia University Press. p. 36. ISBN 978-0231519991.
39. Dhahabi, Siyar, 4.566
40. Oxtoby, Willard Gurdon (1996). Oxford University Press. p. 421. {{cite book}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
41. Al Beirawi, Abu Ismael (12 April 2016). Essays on Ijtihad in the 21st Century. CreateSpace. p. 35. ISBN 9781539995036.
42. Joseph E. B. Lumbard, Islam, Fundamentalism, and the Betrayal of Tradition: Essays by Western Muslim Scholars p90. ISBN 0941532607
43. George Makdisi, The Rise of Colleges, p27
44. Nasr, Seyyed Hossein (2014). "Happiness and the Attainment of Happiness: An Islamic Perspective". Journal of Law and Religion. 29 (1): 76–91 [80]. doi:10.1017/jlr.2013.18. JSTOR 24739088.
45. "Al-Ghazali's Turning Point: On the Writings on his Personal Crisis". www.ghazali.org. Retrieved 2023-07-30.
46. Böwering, Gerhard; Crone, Patricia; Mirza, Mahan; Kadi, Wadad; Zaman, Muhammad Qasim; Stewart, Devin J. (2013). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought. Princeton University Press. p. 191. ISBN 978-0691134840 – via Google Books.
47. Sonn, Tamara (1996-10-10). Interpreting Islam: Bandali Jawzi's Islamic Intellectual History. Oxford University Press. pp. 30. ISBN 9780195356564. Ghazali Revival ihya.
48. Griffel, Frank (2009). Al-Ghazālī's Philosophical Theology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195331622.
49. Rahman, Yucel (2016). The Mujaddid of His Age.
50. Bosworth, C. E. (1968). "The Political and Dynastic History of the Iranian World". In Boyle, J. A. (ed.). The Cambridge History of Iran. Vol. 5. Cambridge University Press. p. 48.
51. Bosworth, C. E. (1970). "Dailamīs in Central Iran: The Kākūyids of Jibāl and Yazd". Iran. 8 (1): 73–95 [p. 86]. doi:10.2307/4299634. JSTOR 4299634.
52. Smith, Margaret (1936). "The Forerunner of Al-Ghazali". The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. 68 (1): 65–78. doi:10.1017/S0035869X00076358. JSTOR 25182038. S2CID 163151146.
53. Abū Ḥāmid b. Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. Muḥammad al-Ghazzālī, "al-Munqidh min al-Ḍalāl" in Majmūʿa Rasāʾil al-Imām al-Ghazzālī. Ed. by Aḥmad Shams al-Dīn (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1988), 29, 60
54. Jacques Lacan, "Some Reflections on the Ego" in The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 1953, No. 34, 13. (presentation, the British Psycho-Analytical Society, London, May 2nd, 1951)
55. Ovidio Salazar, Al-Ghazali: The Alchemist of Happiness (2004; London: Matmedia Productions, 2006), DVD.
56. Nicholson, Reynold Alleyne. (1966). "A literary history of the Arabs." London: Cambridge University Press. p. 382.
57. Meri, Josef W.; Bacharach, Jere L. (2006). Medieval Islamic Civilization: A-K. Taylor and Francis. p. 293. ISBN 978-0415966917.
58. Böwering, Gerhard; Crone, Patricia (2013). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought. Princeton University Press. p. 191. ISBN 978-0691134840. Ghazali (ca. 1058–1111) Abu Hamid Muhammad b. Muhammad al-Ghazali al-Tusi (the "Proof of Islam") is the most renowned Sunni theologian of the Seljuq period (1038–1194).
59. R.M. Frank, Al-Ghazali and the Ashʿarite School, Duke University Press, London 1994
60. Leaman, Oliver (2006). The Qur'an: An Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. pp. 84. ISBN 978-0415326391.
61. "about five dozen authentic works, in addition to which some 300 other titles of works of uncertain, doubtful, or spurious authorship, many of them duplicates owing to varying titles, are cited in Muslim bibliographical literature. [...] Already Ebn Ṭofayl (d. 581/1185, q.v.) observed that Ḡazālī wrote for different audiences, ordinary men and the elite (pp. 69-72), and Ḡazālī himself completed the rather moderate theological treatise, Eljām al-ʿawāmmʿan ʿelm al-kalām "The restraining of ordinary men from theology," in the last month before his death" Encyclopedia Iranica.
62. Böwering, Gerhard; Crone, Patricia; Mirza, Mahan; Kadi, Wadad; Zaman, Muhammad Qasim; Stewart, Devin J. (2013). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought. Princeton University Press. p. 191. ISBN 978-0691134840 – via Google Books.
63. Alkhateeb, Firas (2017-11-15). Lost Islamic History: Reclaiming Muslim Civilisation from the Past. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-1-84904-977-1 – via Google Books.
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65. Kadri, Sadakat (2012). Heaven on Earth: A Journey Through Shari'a Law from the Deserts of Ancient Arabia . Macmillan. pp. 118–9. ISBN 9780099523277 – via Google Books.
66. For al-Ghazali's argument see The Incoherence of the Philosophers. Translated by Michael E. Marmura. 2nd ed, Provo Utah, 2000, pp.116-7.
67. For Ibn Rushd's response, see Khalid, Muhammad A., ed. (2005). Medieval Islamic Philosophical Writings. Cambridge UK. p. 162.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
68. "Many orientalists argue that Ghazali's Tahafut is responsible for the age of decline in science in the Muslim World. This is their key thesis as they attempt to explain the scientific and intellectual history of the Islamic world. It seems to be the most widely accepted view on the matter not only in the Western world but in the Muslim world as well. George Saliba, a Professor of Arabic and Islamic Science at Columbia University who specializes in the development of astronomy within Islamic civilization, calls this view the "classical narrative" (Saliba, 2007)".
69. Aydin, Nuh. . Archived from the original on 2015-04-30. Retrieved 23 February 2014.
70. Hasan, Hasan (9 February 2012). "How the decline of Muslim scientific thought still haunts". The National.
71. Sonn, Tamara (1996-10-10). Interpreting Islam: Bandali Jawzi's Islamic Intellectual History. Oxford University Press. pp. 30. ISBN 9780195356564. Ghazali Revival ihya.
72. Hunt Janin, The Pursuit of Learning in the Islamic World 610-2003, p 83. ISBN 0786429046
73. Lumbard, Joseph E. B. (2004). Islam, Fundamentalism, and the Betrayal of Tradition: Essays by Western Muslim Scholars. World Wisdom. p. 291. ISBN 0941532607.
74. Translated into English by Mohammed Asim Bilal and available at archive.org
75. Winter, T.J (2016). Al-Ghazali on Disciplining the Soul and on Breaking the Two Desires. The Islamic Text Society.
76. McCarthy, Richard Joseph (1980). Freedom and fulfillment: "al-Munqidh min al-Dalal" and other relevant works. Boston: Twayne. ISBN 978-0805781670.
77. James, William (2012). Bradley, Matthew (ed.). The Varieties of Religious Experience. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199691647.
78. "SANJAR, Aḥmad b. Malekšāh". 11 August 2020.
79. Makatib-i farsi-yi Ghazali ba nam-i Faza’il al-anam min rasa’il Ḥujjat al-Islam, ed. ʿAbbas Iqbal Ashtiyani, Tehran, 1954, pp. 11-12
80. Makatib-i farsi-yi Ghazali ba nam-i Faza’il al-anam min rasa’il Hujjat al-Islam, ed. ʿAbbas Iqbal Ashtiyani, Tehran, 1954, pp. 13-23, 83-85
81. Majmuʿa-yi athar-i farsi-yi Ahmad-e Ghazali, ed. A. Mujahid, Tehran, 1979, 2nd ed., Tehran, 1991,pp. 191-238
82. Namaha-yi ʿAyn al-Quzat Hamadani, ed. ʿAli Naqi Monzawi and ʿAfif ʿUsayran, 2 vols.,Tehran, 1983, II, p.103, no 73
83. George Henry Scherer, Al-Ghazali’s Ayyuha’l-walad, Ph.D. diss., Chicago University, 1930; Beirut, 1933, p. 27
84. Hilmi Ziya Ülken, Gazali’nin bazi eserlerinin Türkçe tercümeleri. Les traductions en Turc de certains livres d’al-Ghazali, Ankara Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi 9/1, 1961, p. 61
85. Günaydin, Gazâlî tercümeleri: Osmanli devri ve 1928 sonrasi için bir bibliyografya denemesi, Dîvân: Disiplinlerarası Çalışmalar Dergisi 16, 2011, pp. 70-73
86. "Kimiā-Ye Saʿādat". 29 June 2021.
87. Smith, Margaret (1936). "The Forerunner of Al-Ghazali". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society: 65–78.
88. Banuazizi, Ali; Weiner, Myron (March 1994). The Politics of Social Transformation in Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan. Syracuse University Press. p. 108. ISBN 9780815626091.
89. "Ghazali, al-". The Columbia Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17 December 2012.
90. Bloch, Ernst (2019). Avicenna and the Aristotelian Left. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 77. ISBN 9780231175357. Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazali (ca.1058-1111) was a Persian antirationalist philosopher and theologian.
91. Adang, Camilla; Ansari, Hassan; Fierro, Maribel (2015). Accusations of Unbelief in Islam: A Diachronic Perspective on Takfīr. Brill. p. 19. ISBN 9789004307834. Retrieved 25 December 2020 – via Google Books.
92. Sells, Michael Anthony (1996). Early Islamic Mysticism: Sufi, Qurʼan, Miraj, Poetic and Theological Writings. New York: Paulist. ISBN 9780809136193 – via Google Books.
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94. Louchakova-Schwartz, Olga (2011). "The Self and the World: Vedanta, Sufism, and the Presocratics in a Phenomenological View". Phenomenology/Ontopoiesis Retrieving Geo-cosmic Horizons of Antiquity. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands. pp. 423–438. doi:10.1007/978-94-007-1691-9_33. ISBN 9789400716902.
95. "Ghazâlî had successfully introduced logic into the madrasa (though it was studied in other venues as well (Endress 2006)). What happened to it after this time was the result of the activities of logicians much more gifted than Ghazâlî. This period has tentatively been called the Golden Age of Arabic philosophy (Gutas 2002). It is in this period, and especially in the thirteenth century, that the major changes in the coverage and structure of Avicennan logic were introduced; these changes were mainly introduced in free-standing treatises on logic. It has been observed that the thirteenth century was the time that "doing logic in Arabic was thoroughly disconnected from textual exegesis, perhaps more so than at any time before or since" (El-Rouayheb 2010b: 48–49). Many of the major textbooks for teaching logic in later centuries come from this period. [...] For all his historical importance in the process of introducing logic into the madrasa, the logic that Ghazâlî defended was too dilute to be recognizably Farabian or Avicennan." Street, Tony (July 23, 2008). "Arabic and Islamic Philosophy of Language and Logic". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 2008-12-05.
96. A. Badawi, Mu'allafat al-Ghazali, 2 vols. (Cairo, 1961).
97. Hesova, Zora (2012). "The Notion of illumination in the perspective of Ghazali's Mishkat Al-Anwar". Journal of Islamic Thought and Civilization. 2 (2): 65–85. doi:10.32350/jitc.22.04. S2CID 188876050.
98. At the insistence of his students in Jerusalem, al-Ghazali wrote a concise exposition of Islam Khalidi, Walid (1984). . Washington, D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies. ISBN 978-0887281433. Archived from the original on 2018-03-02. Retrieved 2012-12-17.
99. "The Mishkat al-Anwar of al-Ghazzali Index". www.ghazali.org.
100. At the insistence of his students in Jerusalem, al-Ghazali wrote a concise exposition of Islam. Khalidi, Walid (1984). . Washington, D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies. ISBN 978-0887281433. Archived from the original on 2018-03-02. Retrieved 2012-12-17.
101. Ghazanfar, Shaikh Mohammad; Islahi, Abdul Azim (1997). Economic Thought of Al-Ghazali (PDF). Islamic Economics Research Series, King Abdulaziz University. Jeddah, Saudi Arabia: Scientific Publishing Centre, King Abdulaziz University. p. 13. ISBN 978-9960-06-574-8.
102. Rosmizi, Mohd; Yucel, Salih (2016). "The Mujaddid of his age: Al-Ghazali and his inner spiritual journey". UMRAN - International Journal of Islamic and Civilizational Studies. 3 (2): 1–12. doi:10.11113/umran2016.3n2.56. ISSN 2289-8204.
103. al-Wafa bi'l wafayat, p. 274 - 277. Also see Tabaqat al-Shafiyya, subki, 4, 101.
104. Margaret Smith, Al-Ghazali, The Mystic, p. 47
105. Tabaqat al-Shafi’iyyah al-Kubra, Cairo, 1324/1906, Vol. IV, p. 101
106. Margaret Smith, Al-Ghazali, The Mystic, p. 48
107. al-Dhahabi. Siyar A'laam al-Nubala'. Vol. 9. Lebanon: Dar al-Hadith. p. 323.
108. Menocal, Maria Rosa (29 November 2009). The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain. Little, Brown. ISBN 9780316092791 – via Google Books.
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110. Jamil Ragep (February 2008). "When did Islamic science die (and who cares)?" (PDF). Viewpoint. No. 85. Retrieved 2023-03-23.
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113. Al-Ghazali. Deliverance from error^{[permanent dead link]}, § 59, p. 13.
114. Al-Ghazali. Deliverance from error, § 36, p. 8.
115. Marenbon, John (2007). Medieval Philosophy: an historical and philosophical introduction. Routledge. p. 174. ISBN 978-0-415-28113-3.
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• Abd Rahman, Mohd Rosmizi Bin; Yucel, Salih (2016). "The Mujaddid of His Age: Al-Ghazali and His Inner Spiritual Journey". Umran. 3 (2). doi:10.11113/umran2016.3n2.56.
• Saritoprak, Zeki (2018). "Al-Ghazali". Islamic Spirituality: Theology and Practice for the Modern World. doi:10.5040/9781474297820.0013. ISBN 978-1-4725-7204-2.
• Parrott, Justin (2017). "Al-Ghazali and the Golden Rule: Ethics of Reciprocity in the Works of a Muslim Sage". Journal of Religious & Theological Information. 16 (2): 68–78. doi:10.1080/10477845.2017.1281067. S2CID 171854695.
• Smith, Margaret (1936). "The Forerunner of al-Ghazālī". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1): 65–78. JSTOR 25182038.

Further reading

• Macdonald, Duncan B. (1899). "The life of al-Ghazzali", in Journal of the American Oriental Society. 20, p. 122 sqq.
• Laoust, H: La politique de Gazali, Paris 1970
• Campanini, M.: Al-Ghazzali, in Seyyed Hossein Nasr and Oliver Leaman, History of Islamic Philosophy 1996
• Campanini, Massimo, Ghazali, in Muhammad in History, Thought, and Culture: An Encyclopedia of the Prophet of God (2 vols.), Edited by C. Fitzpatrick and A. Walker, Santa Barbara, ABC-CLIO, 2014. ISBN 1610691776
• Watt, W. M.: Muslim Intellectual: A Study of al-Ghazali, Edinburgh 1963
• Zwemer, S. M. A Moslem Seeker after God, New York 1920
• Nakamura, K. "Al-Ghazali", Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Dougan, A. The Glimpse: The Inner teaching of Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazzali's Mishkat al-Anwar (The Niche for Lights) by Abdullah Dougan ISBN 0-9597566-6-3
• A comparison between the philosophy of Ghazali and the Copenhagen Interpretation: Harding, Karen (1993). (PDF). American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences. 1 (2): 165–177. doi:10.35632/ajis.v10i2.2505. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-07-04.
• Watt, W. Montgomery (1953). The Faith and Practice of Al-Ghazali. London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd.

External links

 

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• Translation of the Ihya ulum al-din (The Revival of Religious Sciences), Vol 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3, Vol.4
• Griffel, Frank. "Al-Ghazali". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
• Al-Ghazali website
• Ghazali Series page at the Islamic Texts Society
• Works by Al-Ghazali at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)  
• A detailed biography on Imam Ghazzali (450-505H) الغزَّالِي 2020-09-02 at the Wayback Machine
• Works by or about Al-Ghazali at Internet Archive
• Ghazali and Islamic reform
• Full text of Incoherence of the Philosophers, from Al-Ghazali website
• Short commentary on The Alchemy of Happiness
• The Alchemy of Happiness, by Mohammed Al-Ghazzali, the Mohammedan Philosopher, trans. Henry A. Homes (Albany, N.Y.: Munsell, 1873). See original text in The Online Library of Liberty.
• "Al-Ghazali Contra Aristotle: An Unforeseen Overture to Science In Eleventh-Century Baghdad". Richard P. Aulie. PSCF 45. March 1994. pp. 26–46.
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• (in French)

v t e Early Islamic scholars

Muhammad, The final Messenger of God(570–632 the Constitution of Medina, taught the Quran, and advised his companions Abdullah ibn Masud (died 653) taught Ali (607–661) fourth caliph taught Aisha, Muhammad's wife and Abu Bakr's daughter taught Abd Allah ibn Abbas (618–687) taught Zayd ibn Thabit (610–660) taught Umar (579–644) second caliph taught Abu Hurairah (603–681) taught Alqama ibn Qays (died 681) taught Husayn ibn Ali (626–680) taught Qasim ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr (657–725) taught and raised by Aisha Urwah ibn Zubayr (died 713) taught by Aisha, he then taught Said ibn al-Musayyib (637–715) taught Abdullah ibn Umar (614–693) taught Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr (624–692) taught by Aisha, he then taught Ibrahim al-Nakha’i taught Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-Abidin (659–712) taught Hisham ibn Urwah (667–772) taught Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri (died 741) taught Salim ibn Abd-Allah ibn Umar taught Umar ibn Abdul Aziz (682–720) raised and taught by Abdullah ibn Umar Hammad bin ibi Sulman taught Muhammad al-Baqir (676–733) taught Farwah bint al-Qasim Jafar's mother Abu Hanifa (699–767) wrote Al Fiqh Al Akbar and Kitab Al-Athar, jurisprudence followed by Sunni, Sunni Sufi, Barelvi, Deobandi, Zaidiyyah and originally by the Fatimid and taught Zayd ibn Ali (695–740) Ja'far bin Muhammad Al-Baqir (702–765) Muhammad and Ali's great great grand son, jurisprudence followed by Shia, he taught Malik ibn Anas (711–795) wrote Muwatta, jurisprudence from early Medina period now mostly followed by Sunni in Africa, Sunni Sufi and taught Al-Waqidi (748–822) wrote history books like Kitab al-Tarikh wa al-Maghazi, student of Malik ibn Anas Abu Muhammad Abdullah ibn Abdul Hakam (died 829) wrote biographies and history books, student of Malik ibn Anas Abu Yusuf (729–798) wrote Usul al-fiqh Muhammad al-Shaybani (749–805) al-Shafi‘i (767–820) wrote Al-Risala, jurisprudence followed by Sunni, Sunni sufi and taught Ismail ibn Ibrahim Ali ibn al-Madini (778–849) wrote The Book of Knowledge of the Companions Ibn Hisham (died 833) wrote early history and As-Sirah an-Nabawiyyah, Muhammad's biography Isma'il ibn Ja'far (719–775) Musa al-Kadhim (745–799) Ahmad ibn Hanbal (780–855) wrote Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal jurisprudence followed by Sunni, Sunni sufi and hadith books Muhammad al-Bukhari (810–870) wrote Sahih al-Bukhari hadith books Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj (815–875) wrote Sahih Muslim hadith books Dawud al-Zahiri (815–883/4) founded the Zahiri school Muhammad ibn Isa at-Tirmidhi (824–892) wrote Jami` at-Tirmidhi hadith books Al-Baladhuri (died 892) wrote early history Futuh al-Buldan, Genealogies of the Nobles Ibn Majah (824–887) wrote Sunan ibn Majah hadith book Abu Dawood (817–889) wrote Sunan Abu Dawood Hadith Book Muhammad ibn Ya'qub al-Kulayni (864- 941) wrote Kitab al-Kafi hadith book followed by Twelver Shia Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari (838–923) wrote History of the Prophets and Kings, Tafsir al-Tabari Abu Hasan al-Ash'ari (874–936) wrote Maqālāt al-islāmīyīn, Kitāb al-luma, Kitāb al-ibāna 'an usūl al-diyāna Ibn Babawayh (923–991) wrote Man La Yahduruhu al-Faqih jurisprudence followed by Twelver Shia Sharif Razi (930–977) wrote Nahj al-Balagha followed by Twelver Shia Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (1201–1274) wrote jurisprudence books followed by Ismaili and Twelver Shia Al-Ghazali (1058–1111) wrote The Niche for Lights, The Incoherence of the Philosophers, The Alchemy of Happiness on Sufism Rumi (1207–1273) wrote Masnavi, Diwan-e Shams-e Tabrizi on Sufism Key: Some of Muhammad's Companions Key: Taught in Medina Key: Taught in Iraq Key: Worked in Syria Key: Travelled extensively collecting the sayings of Muhammad and compiled books of hadith Key: Worked in Persia