Al-Ghazali ( – 19 December 1111), archaically Latinized as Algazelus, was a Shafi'i Sunni Muslim scholar and polymath. He is known as one of the most prominent and influential Faqih, legal theoreticians, muftis, philosophers, theologians, logicians and mystics in Islamic history.
He is considered to be the 11th century's mujaddid,William Montgomery Watt, Al-Ghazali: The Muslim Intellectual, p. 180. Edinburgh University Press, 1963. a renewer of the faith, who, according to the prophetic hadith, appears once every 100 years to restore the faith of the ummah.Dhahabi, Siyar, 4.566 Al-Ghazali's works were so highly acclaimed by his contemporaries that he was awarded the honorific title "Proof of Islam" ( Ḥujjat al-Islām). Al-Ghazali was a prominent mujtahid in the Shafi'i school of madhab.
Much of Al-Ghazali's work stemmed around his spiritual crises following his appointment as the head of the Nizamiyya University in Baghdad - which was the most prestigious academic position in the Muslim world at the time.Joseph E. B. Lumbard, Islam, Fundamentalism, and the Betrayal of Tradition: Essays by Western Muslim Scholars p90. George Makdisi, The Rise of Colleges, p27 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.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. It was during this period where many of his great works were written. 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. This belief led him to write his magnum opus entitled Iḥyā’ ‘ulūm ad-dīn ("The Revival of the Religious Sciences"). 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.
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 Ghazali 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. He later studied under al-Juwayni, the distinguished jurist and theologian and "the most outstanding Muslim scholar of his time," 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 Seljuk dynasty 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.
He underwent a spiritual crisis in 1095, which some speculate was brought on by clinical hysteria,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, 60Jacques 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)Ovidio Salazar, Al-Ghazali: The Alchemist of Happiness (2004; London: Matmedia Productions, 2006), DVD. 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 Asceticism 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."Nicholson, Reynold Alleyne. (1966). "A literary history of the Arabs." London: Cambridge University Press. p. 382. 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. 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.
He is viewed as the key member of the influential Asharite school of early Muslim philosophy and the most important refuter of the . 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.
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.
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 Greece.
The influence of Al-Ghazali's book is still debated. Professor of Arabic and Islamic Science 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."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)".
Professor of Mathematics 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.
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.
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 Iḥyāʾ 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.Hunt Janin, The Pursuit of Learning in the Islamic World 610-2003, p 83. 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." This reception, however, was not universal as the book was burned in Almoravid Spain in 1109 and 1143 as al-Ghazali criticised the fuqaha for meddling in politics and due to al-Ghazali's syncretism and support of Sufism. Allegedly, al-Ghazali foretold outraged upon hearing of the burning of his book the rise of the Almohad dynasty and invested is founder Ibn Tumart with the duty to overthrow the Almoravid rule.
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). 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.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
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.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 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).Majmuʿa-yi athar-i farsi-yi Ahmad-e Ghazali, ed. A. Mujahid, Tehran, 1979, 2nd ed., Tehran, 1991, pp. 191-238 The other is ʿAyn al-Quzat's own letter, published in the Namaha-yi ʿAyn al-Quzat Hamadani (Letters by ʿAyn al-Quzat Hamadani).Namaha-yi ʿAyn al-Quzat Hamadani, ed. ʿAli Naqi Monzawi and ʿAfif ʿUsayran, 2 vols., Tehran, 1983, II, p.103, no 73 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.George Henry Scherer, Al-Ghazali’s Ayyuha’l-walad, Ph.D. diss., Chicago University, 1930; Beirut, 1933, p. 27 The earliest known secondary translation from Arabic into Ottoman Turkish was done in 983/1575.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 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.Günaydin, Gazâlî tercümeleri: Osmanli devri ve 1928 sonrasi için bir bibliyografya denemesi, Dîvân: Disiplinlerarası Çalışmalar Dergisi 16, 2011, pp. 70-73
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.
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. Western scholars influenced by al-Ghazali include Dante Alighieri, Thomas Aquinas, and David Hume. Maimonides, a Jewish theologian was deeply influenced by the works of al-Ghazali. One of the more notable achievements of al-Ghazali was his writing and reform of education that laid out 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 Nasir al-Din al-Tusi.
Al-Ghazali 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. 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. "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."
Ghazali was cited by Isaac Abravanel to argue that the Greeks borrowed their scientific and philosophical knowledge from Jewish sources.
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.
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.
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." 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.
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.
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.
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."
Ibn Rushd (Averroes), a rationalist, famously responded that "to say that philosophers are incoherent is itself to make an incoherent statement." 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.
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."
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. This position has been challenged, however. 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." This sentence, the source of which is not indicated in the cited book, is taken from Deliverance from Error.Al-Ghazali. Deliverance from error, p. 9, §41. 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." A few pages later,Al-Ghazali. Deliverance from error, § 59, p. 13. 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.Al-Ghazali. Deliverance from error, § 36, p. 8. Al-Ghazali notably influenced Ibn Rushd, Ayn al-Quzat Hamadani, al-Nawawi, Ibn Tumart, Fakhruddin Razi, Suyuti, Tan Malaka, Thomas Aquinas, Muslim Philosophy , Islamic Contributions to Science & Math, netmuslims.com David Hume, Sayf al-Din al-Amidi, Asad Mayhani, Ali al-Qari, Muhammad Ibn Yahya al-Janzi.
+Abdel Rahman Badawi's Bibliography of all works attributed to Al-GhazaliA. Badawi, Mu'allafat al-Ghazali, 2 vols. (Cairo, 1961).
!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 Mishkāt al-Anwār The Niche for Lights, a commentary on the Ayat an-Nur 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 a 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 At the insistence of his students in Jerusalem, al-Ghazali wrote a concise exposition of Islam Jurisprudence Sources:At the insistence of his students in Jerusalem, al-Ghazali wrote a concise exposition of Islam.
Economic philosophy
Reception of work
See also
Notes
Citations
Sources
Further reading
External links
|
|