Al-Ghazali

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Al-Ghazālī (Algazel)
الغزالي
أبو حامد الغزالي.png
Al-Ghazālī in Arabic calligraphy
TitleHujjat ul-Islam (honorific)[1]
Personal
Born
Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ġaz(z)ālī

1058 CE
Tus, Greater Khorasan, Seljuq Empire
Died19 December 1111 (aged 53)
Tus, Greater Khorasan, Seljuq Empire
ReligionIslam
EraIslamic Golden Age
RegionGreat Seljuq Empire (Nishapur)[2]:292
Abbasid Caliphate (Baghdad) / (Jerusalem) / (Damascus) [2]:292
DenominationSunni[3][4]
JurisprudenceShafiʿi
CreedAshʿari[5][6]
Main interest(s)Sufism, theology (kalam), philosophy, logic, 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, On Legal theory of Muslim Jurisprudence
Senior posting

Al-Ghazali (/ˈɡɑːzɑːli/;[14] full name Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ghazālī أبو حامد محمد بن محمد الغزالي; latinized Algazelus or Algazel, c. 1058 – 19 December 1111) was one of the most prominent and influential philosophers, theologians, jurists, and mystics[15][16] of Sunni Islam.[17] He was of Persian origin.[18][19][20]

Islamic tradition considers him to be a Mujaddid, a renewer of the faith who, according to the prophetic hadith, appears once every century to restore the faith of the ummah ("the Islamic Community").[21][22][23] His works were so highly acclaimed by his contemporaries that al-Ghazali was awarded the honorific title "Proof of Islam" (Hujjat al-Islam).[1]

Al-Ghazali believed that the Islamic spiritual tradition had become moribund and that the spiritual sciences taught by the first generation of Muslims had been forgotten.[24] That resulted in his writing his magnum opus entitled Ihya 'ulum al-din ("The Revival of the Religious Sciences").[25] Among his other works, the Tahāfut al-Falāsifa ("Incoherence of the Philosophers") is a significant landmark in the history of philosophy, as it advances the critique of Aristotelian science developed later in 14th-century Europe.[17]

Life[edit]

The believed date of al-Ghazali's birth, as given by Ibn al-Jawzi, is AH 450 (1058/9). Modern estimates place it at AH 448 (1056/7), on the basis of certain statements in al-Ghazali's correspondence and autobiography.[26] He was a Muslim scholar, law specialist, rationalist, and spiritualist of Persian descent.[27] He was born in Tabaran, a town in the district of Tus, Khorasan (now part of Iran).[26] A posthumous tradition, the authenticity of which has been questioned in recent scholarship, is that his father, a man "of Persian descent,"[28] 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.[26]:26–27

He later studied under al-Juwayni, the distinguished jurist and theologian and "the most outstanding Muslim scholar of his time,"[26] in Nishapur, 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 Seljuq sultans, 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 at the time: in the Nizamiyya madrasa in Baghdad.[26]

He underwent a spiritual crisis in 1095, 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."[29] 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 monastery) 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.[26] 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.[26]

School affiliations[edit]

Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim
Part of a series on Islam
Sufism
Portal Mosque02.svg Portal

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 orthodox Islam, he belonged to the Shafi'i school of Islamic jurisprudence and to the Asharite school of theology.[30] Al-Ghazali received many titles such as Sharaf-ul-Aʾimma (شرف الأئمة), Zayn-ud-dīn (زين الدين) and Ḥujjat-ul-Islām (حجة الإسلام).

He is viewed[by whom?] 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.[30]

Works[edit]

Haruniyah (هارونیه) structure in Tus, Iran, named after Harun al-Rashid, the mausoleum of Al-Ghazali is thought to be situated at the entrance of this monument

A total of about 60 works can be attributed to Al-Ghazali.[31]

Incoherence of the Philosophers[edit]

His 11th century book titled The Incoherence of the Philosophers marks a major turn in Islamic epistemology. The encounter with skepticism led al-Ghazali to embrace 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, 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.[32] 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 cause cotton to burn—because creation had a pattern that they could discern."[33] [34][35]

The Incoherence also marked a turning point in Islamic philosophy in its vehement rejections of Aristotle and Plato. The book took aim at the falasifa, 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.

This long-held argument has been criticized. 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.[36] On the other hand, 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.[37]

Autobiography[edit]

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 (المنقذ من الضلال al-munqidh min al-ḍalāl) is considered a work of major importance.[28] In it, al-Ghazali recounts how, once a crisis of epistemological skepticism was resolved by "a light which God Most High cast into my breast ... the key to most knowledge,"[38]: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 (the state of prophecy or nubuwwa)[citation needed] 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.[39]:307

The Revival of Religious Sciences[edit]

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). 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.[40] 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."[41]

Ghazali rewrote The Revival of Religious Sciences in Persian to reach a larger audience; he published this book under the name The Alchemy of Happiness.

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[42] to reassert his fundamental belief that a connection to God was an integral part of the joy of living. The book is broken into four different sections. The first of these is Knowledge of Self, where Al-Ghazali asserts that while food, sex, and other indulgences might slake humans appetites temporarily, they in turn make a human into an animal, and therefore will never give true happiness and fulfillment.[42] In order to find oneself, people must devote themselves to God by showing restraint and discipline rather than gluttony of the senses . The second installment is called Knowledge of God, where Al-Ghazali states that the events that occur during one’s life are meant to point an individual towards God, and that God will always be strong, no matter how far humans deviate from his will[42]. The third section of The Alchemy of Happiness is Knowledge of the World. Here he states that the world is merely a place where humans learn to love God, and prepare for the future, or the afterlife, the nature of which will be determined by our actions in this phase of our journey to happiness[42]. The final section is Knowledge of the Future World, which details how there are two types of spirits within a man: the angelic spirit and the animal spirit. Al-Ghazali details the types of spiritual tortures unbelievers experience, as well as the path that must be taken in order to attain spiritual enlightenment[42]. This book serves as a culmination of the transformation Ghazali goes through during his spiritual awakening.

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.[43] 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.[43] Here, Ghazali states that indeed every man has these desires and needs, and that it is natural to want these things.[43] 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[43]. It’s also important to note here that Ghazali draws from Greek as well as Islamic philosophy in crafting this literary staple, even though much of The Incoherence of the Philosophers, his most well known work, takes a critical aim at their perspective.

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.[17] 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. 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.[17] The second argument Ghazali makes is that because humans can only imagine the time before the creation of the world, and your imagination is a fictional thing, that all the time before the world was created is fictional as well, and therefore does not matter as it was not intended by God to be understood by humans . Although these proofs would go on to be disproved by individuals such as Sir Isaac Newton (Laws of Motion), The Eternity of the World would have a major impact on the beliefs of Muslim scholars and philosophers up to the present day.

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.[26] 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.[26] In Ghazali’s view, only the Prophet himself could deem a faithfully practicing Muslim an infidel, and his work was a pushback against the religious persecution and strife that occurred often during this time period between various Islamic sects.[26]

Works in Persian[edit]

Al-Ghazali wrote most of his works in Arabic and few in Persian. His most important Persian work is Kīmyāyé Sa'ādat (The Alchemy of Happiness). It is al-Ghazali's own Persian version of Ihya'ul ulumuddin (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.[44]

Apart from Kimya, the most celebrated of al-Ghazali's works in Persian is 'Nasīhatul Mulūk (The Counseling Kings), written most probably for Sultan Ahmad Sanjar ibn Malekshah. In the edition published by Jalāluddīn Humāyī, the book consists of two parts of which only the first can reliably be attributed to al-Ghazali. The language and the contents of some passages are similar to the Kimyaye Sa'adat. The second part differs considerably in content and style from the well-known writings of al-Ghazali. It contains the stories of pre-Islamic kings of Persia, especially those of Anoshervān. Nasihatul Muluk was early translated to Arabic under the title al-Tibr al-masbuk fi nasihat al-muluk (The Forged Sword in Counseling Kings).

Zād-e Ākherat (Provision for the hereafter) is an important Persian book of al-Ghazali but gained less scholarly attention. The greater part of it consists of the Persian translation of one of his Arabic books, Bedāyat al-Hedāya (Beginning of Guidance). It contains in addition the same contents as the Kīmyāyé Sa'ādat. The book was most probably written during the last years of his life. Its manuscripts are in Kabul (Library of the Department of Press) and in Leiden.

Pand-nāma (Book of Counsel) is another book of advice and probably attributed to Sultan Sanjar. The introduction to the book relates that Al-Ghazali wrote the book in response to a certain king who had asked him for advice. Ay farzand (O son!) is a short book of counsel that al-Ghazali wrote for one of his students. The book was early translated to Arabic entitled ayyuhal walad. Another Persian work is Hamāqāti ahli ibāhat or Raddi ebāhīyya (Condemnation of antinomians) which is his fatwa in Persian illustrated with Quranic verses and Hadiths.

Faza'ilul al-anam min rasa'ili hujjat al-Islam is the collection of letters in Persian that al-Ghazali wrote in response to the kings, ministers, jurists and some of his friends after he returned to Khorasan. The collection was gathered by one of his grandchildren after his death, under five sections/chapters. The longest letter is the response to objections raised against some of his statements in Mishkat al-Anwar (The Niche of Light) and al-Munqidh min al-dalal (Rescuer from Error). The first letter is the one which al-Ghazali wrote to Sultan Sanjar presenting his excuse for teaching in Nizamiyya of Nishapur; followed by al-Ghazali's speech in the court of Sultan Sanjar. Al-Ghazali makes an impressive speech when he was taken to the king's court in Nishapur in 1106, giving very influential counsels, asking the sultan once again for excusing him from teaching in Nizamiyya. The sultan was so impressed that he ordered al-Ghazali to write down his speech so that it will be sent to all the ulemas of Khorasan and Iraq.

Influence[edit]

During his life, he authored over 70 books on science, Islamic reasoning and Sufism.[45] Al-Ghazali distributed his book The Incoherence of Philosophers, set apart as the defining moment in Islamic epistemology. The experience that he had with suspicion drove al-Ghazali to shape a conviction that all occasions and connections are not the result of material conjunctions but are the present and prompt will of God.

Another of al-Ghazali's most prestigious works is Ihya' Ulum al-Din ("The Revival of Religious Sciences"). The work covers all fields of Islamic science and incorporates Islamic statute, philosophy and Sufism. It had numerous positive reactions, and Al-Ghazali at that point composed a condensed form in Persian under the title Kimiya-yi sa'adat ("The Alchemy of Happiness"). Although al-Ghazali said that he has composed more than 70 books, attributed to him are more than 400 books.

The golden rule ("do unto others as you would have them do unto you") has become an important focal point in modern interfaith dialogue with Muslims. As an ethical concept, it can be transferred more or less intact between different religions and philosophies, with or without the authority of scripture. Interfaith efforts with Muslims by examining the use of the golden rule in the works of Al-Ghazali. One is one of the most influential and popular of the classical scholars of Islam, his impact and appreciation is felt in the East and West. He applies the golden rule in various formulations as an axis around which great themes of religion are surrounded: God, purity of heart, justice, compassion, altruistic love, goodwill, human brotherhood and neighborliness.

Al-Ghazali likewise assumed a noteworthy part in spreading Sufism and Sharia. He was the first to consolidate the ideas of Sufism into Sharia laws and the first to give a formal depiction of Sufism in his works. His works fortify the position of Sunni Islam, contrasted with different schools of thought.

Al-Ghazali had an important influence on both later Muslim philosophers and Christian medieval philosophers. Margaret Smith writes in her book Al-Ghazali: The Mystic (London 1944): "There can be no doubt that al-Ghazali’s works would be among the first to attract the attention of these European scholars" (page 220). Then she emphasizes, "The greatest of these Christian writers who was influenced by al-Ghazali was St. Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), who made a study of the Arabic writers and admitted his indebtedness to them, having studied at the University of Naples where the influence of Arab literature and culture was predominant at the time." In addition, Aquinas' interest in Islamic studies could be attributed to the infiltration of ‘Latin Averroism’ in the 13th century, especially at the University of Paris.

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.[46]

Al-Ghazali also 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. Al-Ghazali strongly rejected their ideology and wrote several books on criticism of Baatinyas which significantly weakened their status.

Al-Ghazali succeeded in gaining widespread acceptance for Sufism at the expense of philosophy.[47] At the same time, in his refutation of philosophers he made use of their philosophical categories and thus helped to give them wider circulation.[47]

His influences and impact on Sufism and Islam during the 11th century has been a subject of debate in contemporary times. Some fifty works that he had written is evidenced that he was one of the most important Islamic thinkers of his time. Three of his works, Ihaya' Ulum ad-Din (Revival of Religious Sciences), Tahafut al-Falasifa (The Incoherence of Philosophers), and al-Muniqidh min a-alal (Al-Ghazali's Path to Sufism: His Deliverance from Error) are still widely read and circulated among Islamic scholars today. After the death of Al-Ghazali, it is believed there followed a long era in which there was a notable absence of Islamic philosophers, contributing to the status of Ghazali in the modern era. 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 CE. Al-Ghazali's works were heavily relied upon by Islamic mathematicians and astronomers such as At-Tusi.[48]

Early childhood development was a central focal point of Al-Ghazali. He worked to influence and develop a program to mold the young minds of children at an early age to develop their mind and character. He stressed that socialization, family, and schools were central in the achievement of language, morality, and behavior. He emphasized incorporating physical fitness such as games that were important in the development of young minds to attract the idea of attending schools and maintaining an education. In addition, he stressed the importance of understanding and sharing cultures in the classrooms to achieve a civic harmony that would be expressed outside the classroom and kindness to one another. In his writings he placed this responsibility upon the teachers. His treatise on early education centered on Islamic laws, God, and memorizing the Qur'an to achieve literary skill. Ghazali emphasized the importance that there should be a dual respect in regard to the teacher and the pupil. Whereas the teacher guides the student and takes the role of a father figure and offers council to the student, and the student respects the teacher as a patriarch. He stressed that the teacher needed to pay attention to the learning paces of his students so that he could help them be successful in academic achievements.[49]

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.[50] In the contemporary world, Al-Ghazali is renowned not only for his contribution to Sufism, Islam, Philosophy, or education. But his work and ethical approach transcends another boundary into the Islamic business practice. In the Journal of Business Ethics, authors Yusif Sidani and Akram Al Ariss explain how Islamic business ethics are governed by the writings of Abu-Hamid Al-Ghazali and even posit that Al-Ghazali is the greatest Muslim since the prophet Muhammad. Traditional Islamist's are influenced by Ghazali's writings since he was indebted to writing about and incorporating Sharia Law. They emphasize, "His mastery of philosophical logic and reasoning earned him the title of philosopher without losing his status as a religious scholar."[51] Al-Ghazili's reasoning on the use of intellect in combination with the rational and spiritual is an integral part of Muslim society today. Therefore, they approach the business perspective with the same ideology and organizational thought.

Works[edit]

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.[31] 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[year needed] prepared a comprehensive bibliography of all works attributed to Al-Ghazali with a total of 457 entries:

  • 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

The following is a short list of his major works:

Theology

  • al-Munqidh min al-dalal (Rescuer from Error)
  • Hujjat al-Haq (Proof of the Truth)
  • Al-Iqtisād fī al-iʿtiqad (The Moderation in Belief)
  • al-maqsad al-asna fi sharah asma' Allahu al-husna (The best means in explaining Allah's Beautiful Names)
  • Jawahir al-Qur'an wa duraruh (Jewels of the Qur'an and its Pearls)
  • Fayasl al-tafriqa bayn al-Islam wa-l-zandaqa (The Criterion of Distinction between Islam and Clandestine Unbelief)
  • Mishkat al-Anwar (The Niche for Lights),[52] a commentary on the Verse of Light)
  • Tafsir al-yaqut al-ta'wil

Sufism

Philosophy

  • 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]
  • Tahafut al-Falasifa (The Incoherence of the Philosophers), [in this book he refutes the Greek Philosophy aiming at Avicenna and Al-Farabi; and of which Ibn Rushd wrote his famous refutation Tahafut al-tahafut (The Incoherence of the Incoherence)
  • Miyar al-Ilm fi fan al-Mantiq (Criterion of Knowledge in the Art of Logic)
  • Mihak al-Nazar fi al-mantiq (Touchstone of Reasoning in Logic)
  • al-Qistas al-mustaqim (The Correct Balance)

Jurisprudence

  • Fatawy al-Ghazali (Verdicts of al-Ghazali)
  • Al-wasit fi al-mathab (The medium [digest] in the Jurisprudential school)
  • Kitab tahzib al-Isul (Prunning on Legal Theory)
  • al-Mustasfa fi 'ilm al-isul (The Clarified in Legal Theory)
  • Asas al-Qiyas (Foundation of Analogical reasoning)
  • The Jerusalem Tract.[53]:29

Reception of work[edit]

According to William Montgomery Watt, Al-Ghazali considered himself to be the Mujaddid ("Revivier") of his age. Many, perhaps most, later Muslims concurred and, according to Watt, some have even considered him to be the greatest Muslim after Muhammad.[54]

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

and the jurist, al-Yafi'i stated:

The Shafi'i jurist al-Subki stated:

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.”[59]

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.[60]

According to 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."[61]

Al-Ghazali was commonly accused by Orientalist scholars of causing a decline in scientific advancement in Islam because of his refutation of the new philosophies of his time. He believed he saw danger in the statements made by philosophers that suggested that God was not all-knowing or even non-existent, which strongly contradicted his orthodox Islamic belief. He is known today for his role in protecting the traditional Islamic beliefs of the Muslim culture. His contributions played a role in the revival of the Islamic faith as taught by the prophet Muhammad before him, despite the challenges presented by philosophy during his time.[61]

Economic philosophy[edit]

Most aspects of Al-Ghazali's life were heavily influenced by his Islamic beliefs, and his economic philosophy was no exception. He held economic activity to a very high level of importance in his life and thought that others should as well, as he felt that it was not only necessary for the overall benefit to society but also to achieve spiritual wholeness and salvation. In his view, the worldly life of humanity depended on the economic activity of people and so he considered being economically active to be a mandated part of the Sharia law.[62]

He established three goals of economic activity that he believed were part of one's religious obligation as well as beneficial to the individual: "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."[62] 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.[62]

Al-Ghazali thought that it should not be necessary to force equality of income in society but that people should be driven by "the spirit of Islamic brotherhood" to share their wealth willingly, but he recognized that it is not always the case. He believed that wealth earned could be used in two potential manners. One is for good, such as maintaining the health of oneself and their family as well as taking care of others and any other actions seen as positive for the Islamic community. The other is what Al-Ghazali would consider misuse, spending it selfishly on extravagant or unnecessary material items.[62]

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.[62]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ a b Hunt Janin, The Pursuit of Learning in the Islamic World, p. 83. ISBN 0786419547
  2. ^ a b 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 and 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. p. 84. ISBN 978-0415326391.
  7. ^ Frank Griffel, Al-Ghazali's Philosophical Theology, p. 77. ISBN 0199724725
  8. ^ Frank Griffel, Al-Ghazali's Philosophical Theology, p 75. ISBN 0199724725
  9. ^ Andrew Rippin, The Blackwell Companion to the Qur'an, p 410. ISBN 1405178442
  10. ^ Frank Griffel, Al-Ghazali's Philosophical Theology, p 76. ISBN 0199724725
  11. ^ The Influence of Islamic Thought on Maimonides Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, June 30, 2005
  12. ^ Karin Heinrichs, Fritz Oser, Terence Lovat, Handbook of Moral Motivation: Theories, Models, Applications, p 257. ISBN 9462092753
  13. ^ Muslim Philosophy Archived 2013-10-29 at the Wayback Machine, Islamic Contributions to Science & Math, netmuslims.com
  14. ^ "Ghazali". Collins English Dictionary.
  15. ^ "Ghazali, al-". The Columbia Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17 December 2012.
  16. ^ Ludwig W. Adamec (2009), Historical Dictionary of Islam, p.109. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0810861615.
  17. ^ a b c d Griffel, Frank (2016). Zalta, Edward N., ed. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2016 ed.). Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University.
  18. ^ The Spirit of Creativity: Basic Mechanisms of Creative Achievements "Persian polymath Al-Ghazali published several treatises...."
  19. ^ AL-GHAZALI « Al-Ghazali est né en 450 de l’Hégire, soit 1058 de l’ère chrétienne, dans la ville de Tus (Khorassan) ou dans un des villages avoisinants, au sein d’une famille persane de condition modeste... »
  20. ^ 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...."
  21. ^ Jane I. Smith, Islam in America, p. 36. ISBN 0231519990
  22. ^ Dhahabi, Siyar, 4.566
  23. ^ Willard Gurdon Oxtoby, Oxford University Press, 1996, p 421
  24. ^ 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.
  25. ^ Sonn, Tamara (1996-10-10). Interpreting Islam: Bandali Jawzi's Islamic Intellectual History. Oxford University Press. p. 30. ISBN 9780195356564.
  26. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Griffel, Frank (2009). Al-Ghazālī's Philosophical Theology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195331622.
  27. ^ Rahman, Yucel (2016). "The Mujaddid of His Age".
  28. ^ a b Böwering, Gerhard. "ḠAZĀLĪ". Encyclopædia Iranica. Retrieved 17 December 2012.
  29. ^ Nicholson, Reynold Alleyne. (1966). "A literary history of the Arabs." London: Cambridge University Press. p. 382.
  30. ^ a b R.M. Frank, Al-Ghazali and the Ashʿarite School, Duke University Press, London 1994
  31. ^ a b "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.
  32. ^ Craig, William Lane (2001). The cosmological argument from Plato to Leibniz. Eugene, OR.: Wipf and Stock. p. 89. ISBN 978-1579107871.
  33. ^ Kadri, Sadakat (2012). Heaven on Earth: A Journey Through Shari'a Law from the Deserts of Ancient Arabia . macmillan. pp. 118–9. ISBN 9780099523277.
  34. ^ For al-Ghazali's argument see The Incoherence of the Philosophers. Translated by Michael E. Marmura. 2nd ed, Provo Utah, 2000, pp.116-7.
  35. ^ For Ibn Rushd's response, see Khalid, Muhammad A. ed. Medieval Islamic Philosophical Writings, Cambridge UK, 2005, p.162)
  36. ^ "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)." Aydin, Nuh. "Did al-Ghazali kill the science in Islam?". Archived from the original on 2015-04-30. Retrieved 23 February 2014.
  37. ^ Hasan Hasan, How the decline of Muslim scientific thought still haunts, The National, 9 February 2012.
  38. ^ McCarthy, Richard Joseph (1980). Freedom and fulfillment: "al-Munqidh min al-Dalal" and other relevant works. Boston: Twayne. ISBN 978-0805781670.
  39. ^ James, William (2012). Bradley, Matthew, ed. The Varieties of Religious Experience. Oxford Univ Press. ISBN 9780199691647.
  40. ^ Hunt Janin, The Pursuit of Learning in the Islamic World 610-2003, p 83. ISBN 0786429046
  41. ^ Joseph E. B. Lumbard, Islam, Fundamentalism, and the Betrayal of Tradition: Essays by Western Muslim Scholars, p. 291. ISBN 0941532607
  42. ^ a b c d e Butler-Bowdon (2017). "The Alchemy of Happiness". Spiritual Classics. Retrieved April 23, 2018.
  43. ^ a b c d Winter, T.J (2016). Al-Ghazali on Disciplining the Soul and on Breaking the Two Desires. The Islamic Text Society.
  44. ^ Translated into English by Mohammed Asim Bilal and available at archive.org
  45. ^ Smith, Margaret, “The Forerunner of al-Ghazali ”, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1936, pp. 65-78., Margaret (1936). "The Forerunner of Al-Ghazali": 13.CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
  46. ^ "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." Tony Street (July 23, 2008). "Arabic and Islamic Philosophy of Language and Logic". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 2008-12-05.
  47. ^ a b Sells, Michael Anthony (1996). Early Islamic Mysticism: Sufi, Qurʼan, Miraj, Poetic and Theological Writings. New York: Paulist. ISBN 9780809136193.
  48. ^ "AL-Ghazali" (PDF). Quarterly Review of Comparative Education. 23: 3–4.
  49. ^ Soussi, Khalid (2016-11-01). "AL Ghazali Cultivates Education: A Comparison with Modern Theories". International Journal of Education and Research. 4.
  50. ^ 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.
  51. ^ Sidani, Yusuf; Al Ariss, Akram (2014-04-04). "New Conceptual Foundations for Islamic Business Ethics: The Contributions of Abu-Hamid Al-Ghazali". Journal of Business Ethics. 129 (4): 847–857. doi:10.1007/s10551-014-2136-5. ISSN 0167-4544.
  52. ^ "The Mishkat al-Anwar of al-Ghazzali Index".
  53. ^ At the insistence of his students in Jerusalem, al-Ghazali wrote a concise exposition of Islam Khalidi, Walid; Khalidi, commentary by Walid (1984). Before their diaspora : a photographic history of the Palestinians, 1876-1948. Washington, D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies. ISBN 978-0887281433.
  54. ^ William Montgomery Watt, Al-Ghazali: The Muslim Intellectual, p. 180. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1963.
  55. ^ al-Wafa bi'l wafayat, p. 274 - 277. Also see Tabaqat al-Shafiyya, subki, 4, 101.
  56. ^ Margaret Smith, Al-Ghazali, The Mystic, p. 47
  57. ^ Tabaqat al-Shafi’iyyah al-Kubra, Cairo, 1324/1906, Vol. IV, p. 101
  58. ^ Margaret Smith, Al-Ghazali, The Mystic, p. 48
  59. ^ Al-Dhahabi. Siyar A'laam al-Nubala'. 9. Lebanon: Dar Al-Hadith. p. 323.
  60. ^ 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.
  61. ^ a b "Al-Ghazali and the Revival of Islamic Scholarship". 22 May 2013.
  62. ^ a b c d e Ghazanfar and Islahi (1997). "Economic Thought of Al-Ghazali" (PDF). Islamic Economics Research Series, King Abdulaziz University. 2: 7–18 – via Google Scholar.

References[edit]

  • Haque, Amber (2004), "Psychology from Islamic perspective: contributions of early Muslim scholars and challenges to contemporary Muslim psychologists", Journal of Religion & Health, 43 (4): 357–377, doi:10.1007/s10943-004-4302-z
  • Savage-Smith, Emilie (1995), "Attitudes toward dissection in medieval Islam", Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, 50 (1): 67–110, doi:10.1093/jhmas/50.1.67, PMID 7876530
  • Rahman, M. R., & Yucel, S. (2016). The Mujaddid of His Age: Al-Ghazali And His Inner Spiritual Journey. UMRAN - International Journal of Islamic and Civilizational Studies (EISSN: 2289-8204),3(2). doi:10.11113/umran2016.3n2.56
  • Soussi, K. (2016). Al Ghazali Cultivates Education: A Comparison with Modern Theories. Islamic Spirituality : Theology and Practice for the Modern World,4(11). doi:10.5040/9781474297820.0013
  • Justin Parrott (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
  • Smith, Margaret, “The Forerunner of al-Ghazali ”, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1936, pp. 65–78.

Further reading[edit]

  • 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 S.H. Nasr and O. 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. A study of the inner teaching of the Mishkat al-Alwar (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). "Causality Then and Now: al-Ghazali and Quantum Theory" (PDF). American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences. 1 (2): 165–177. 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[edit]

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