Al-Ghazali Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description

Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazali (born 1058 in Tus, Khorasan province of Persia, modern day Iran, died 1111, Tus) was a Persian Muslim theologian and philosopher, known as Algazel to the western medieval world. Al-Ghazali, or al-Ghazzali as he is written sometimes, contributed significantly to the development of a systematic view of Sufism and its integration and acceptance in mainstream Islam. Al-Ghazali was both a Sufi and a scholar of orthodox Islam, belonging to the Shafi school.

Al-Ghazali remains one of the most celebrated scholars in the history of Islamic thought. He lectured at the Nizamiyyah school of Baghdad (the highest ranked academy of the golden era of Islamic civilization) between 1091 and 1096. He was the scholar per excellence in the Islamic world. He had literally hundreds of scholars attending his lectures at the Nizamiyyah. His audience included scholars from other schools of jurisprudence. This position won him prestige, wealth and respect that even princes and viziers could not match.

After some years he distributed his wealth and left Baghdad to begin a spiritual journey that lasted over a decade. He went to Damascus, Jerusalem, Hebron, Madinah, Mecca and back to Baghdad where he stopped briefly. He then left for Tus to spend the next several years in seclusion. He ended his seclusion for a short lecturing period at the Nizamiyyah of Nishapur in 1106. Later he returned to Tus where he remained until his death in December, 1111.

He is also viewed as the key member of the influential Asharite school of early Muslim philosophy and the most important refuter of Mutazilites. Al-Ghazali's influence upon Christian theology was marked by the works of St. Thomas Aquinas.

Table of contents

1 Works 1.1 Literature 2 External links

Works

Theology

• al-Munqidh min al-dalal
• al-1qtisad fi'I-i`tiqad
• al-Risala al-Qudsiyya
• Kitab al-arba?in fi usul al-din
• Mizan al-?amal

Sufism

• Ihya ?ulum al-din, "The revival of the religious sciences", Ghazali's most important work
• Kimiya?-yi sa?adat, "The Alchemy of Happiness"
• Mishkat al-anwar, "The Niche of Lights"

Philosophy

• Maqasid al falasifa
• Tahafut al falasifa, "The Incoherence of the Philosophers", of which Ibn Rushd wrote his famous refutation Tahafut al-tahafut (The Incoherence of the Incoherence)

Fiqh

• al-Mustasfa min ?ilm al-usul

Logic

• Mi?yar al-?ilm (The Standard Measure of Knowledge)
• al-Qistas al-mustaqim (The Just Balance)
• Mihakk al-nazar f'l-mantiq (The Touchstone of Proof in Logic)

Literature

• Laoust, H: La politique de Gazali, 1970
• Campanini, M.: Al-Ghazzali, in S.H. Nasr and O. Leaman, History of Islamic Philosophy 1996
• Watt, W M.: Muslim Intellectual: A Study of al-Ghazali, Edinburgh 1963
• Marmura: Al-Ghazali The Incoherence of the Philosophers, (2nd ed.). Brigham: Printing Press. ISBN 0-8425-2466-5.

External links

• Al-Ghazali Web Site
• Full text of The Alchemy of Happiness tr. Claud Field, 1909.

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