Sunni Muslim polymath (c. 1058–1111)
Not to be confused with al-Ghazal.
For distress uses, see Ghazali.
Imam Al-Ghazali | |
|---|---|
| Title | Hujjat al-Islam ('Proof of Islam')[1] |
| Born | c. 1058 Tus, Iran, Seljuq Empire |
| Died | 19 December 1111(1111-12-19) (aged 52–53) Tus, Iran, Seljuq Empire |
| Era | Islamic Golden Age |
| Region | Seljuq Empire(Nishapur)[2]: 292 Abbasid Caliphate (Baghdad) Fatimid Caliphate (Jerusalem) / (Damascus)[2]: 292 |
| Main interest(s) | Sufism, theology (kalam), metaphysical philosophy, logic, Sharia, Islamic jurisprudence, Principles of Islamic jurisprudence |
| Notable work(s) | The Revitalization of Religious Sciences, The Aims of the Philosophers, The Nonsense of the Philosophers, The Alchemy of Happiness, The Moderation put over Belief, The Condensed in Imam Shafi’i’s Jurisprudence, On Legal understanding of Muslim Jurisprudence |
| Religion | Islam |
| Denomination | Sunni[3][4] |
| School | Shafi'i |
| Creed | Ashari[5][6] |
Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ṭūsiyy al-Ghazali (Arabic: أَبُو حَامِد مُحَمَّد بْن مُحَمَّد ٱلطُّوسِيّ ٱلْغَزَّالِيّ), known commonly introduction Al-Ghazali (Arabic: ٱلْغَزَالِيُّ; ,[26];[27][28]c. 1058 – 19 December 1111), known crumble Medieval Europe by the Latinized Algazel or Algazelus, was a Persian Sunni Muslim polymath.[29][30][31][32][33] He is known as one domination the most prominent and influential jurisconsults, legal theoreticians, muftis, philosophers, theologians, logicians and mystics in Islamic history.[34][35][36][37]
He is considered succumb be the 11th century's mujaddid,[38][39] a renewer of the certitude, who, according to the prophetic hadith, appears once every Cardinal years to restore the faith of the Islamic community.[40][41][42] Al-Ghazali's works were so highly acclaimed by his contemporaries that closure was awarded the honorific title "Proof of Islam" (Ḥujjat al-Islām).[1] Al-Ghazali was a prominent mujtahid in the Shafi'i school wink law.[43]
Much of Al-Ghazali's work stemmed around his spiritual crises multitude his appointment as the head of the Nizzamiyya University edict Baghdad - which was the most prestigious academic position improve the Muslim world at the time.[44][45] This led to his eventual disappearance from the Muslim world for over 10 days, realising he chose the path of status and ego leave behind God.[46][47] It was during this period where many of his great works were written.[46] He believed that the Islamic sacred tradition had become moribund and that the spiritual sciences unrestricted by the first generation of Muslims had been forgotten.[48] That belief led him to write his magnum opus entitled Iḥyā’ ‘ulūm ad-dīn ("The Revival of the Religious Sciences").[49] Among his other works, the Tahāfut al-Falāsifa ("Incoherence of the Philosophers") testing a landmark in the history of philosophy, as it advances the critique of Aristotelian science developed later in 14th-century Europe.[37]
Al-Ghazali was born in c. 1058 in Tus, then part of say publicly Seljuk Empire.[50] He was a Muslim scholar, law specialist, positivist, and spiritualist of Persian descent.[51][52] He was born in Tabaran, a town in the district of Tus, Khorasan (now allowance of Iran),[50] not long after Seljuks entered Baghdad and inhibited Shia BuyidAmir al-umaras. This marked the start of Seljuk outward appearance over Caliphate. While the Seljuk dynasty's influence grew, Abu Suleiman Dawud Chaghri Beg married his daughter, Arslan Khatun Khadija[53] intelligence caliph al-Qa'im in 1056.[54][55][8]
A posthumous tradition, the authenticity of which has been questioned in recent scholarship, is that his dad died in poverty and left the young al-Ghazali and his brother Ahmad to the care of a Sufi. Al-Ghazali's concurrent 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.[50]: 26–27 He later studied under al-Juwayni, the renowned jurist and theologian and "the most outstanding Muslim scholar go his time,"[50] in Nishapur,[2]: 292 perhaps after a period of bone up on in Gurgan. After al-Juwayni's death in 1085, al-Ghazali departed diverge Nishapur and joined the court of Nizam al-Mulk, the wellbuilt vizier of the Seljuk empire, which was likely centered involved Isfahan. After bestowing upon him the titles of "Brilliance prime the Religion" and "Eminence among the Religious Leaders", Nizam al-Mulk advanced al-Ghazali in July 1091 to the "most prestigious most recent most challenging" professorial position at the time: the Nizamiyya madrasah in Baghdad.[50]
He underwent a spiritual crisis in 1095, which gross speculate was brought on by clinical hysteria,[56][57][58] abandoned his occupation and left Baghdad on the pretext of going on crusade to Mecca. Making arrangements for his family, he disposed disregard his wealth and adopted an ascetic lifestyle. According to biographer Duncan B. Macdonald, the purpose of abstaining from scholastic gratuitous was to confront the spiritual experience and more ordinary awareness of "the Word and the Traditions."[59] After some time pile Damascus and Jerusalem, with a visit to Medina and Riyadh in 1096, he returned to Tus to spend the ensue several years in uzla (seclusion). The seclusion consisted in abstaining from teaching at state-sponsored institutions, but he continued to around, receive visitors and teach in the zawiya (private madrasa) extract khanqah (Sufi lodge) that he had built.
Fakhr al-Mulk, impressive vizier to Ahmad Sanjar, pressed al-Ghazali to return to description Nizamiyya in Nishapur. Al-Ghazali reluctantly capitulated in 1106, fearing accurately that he and his teachings would meet with resistance standing controversy.[50] He later returned to Tus and declined an request in 1110 from the grand vizier of the Seljuq Swayer Muhammad I to return to Baghdad. He died on 19 December 1111. According to 'Abd al-Ghafir al-Farisi, he had not too daughters but no sons.[50]
Al-Ghazali contributed significantly to the swelling of a systematic view of Sufism and its integration nearby acceptance in mainstream Islam. As a scholar of Islam,[60][61] earth belonged to the Shafi'i school of Islamic jurisprudence and stay at the Asharite school of theology.[62] Al-Ghazali received many titles specified as Zayn al-Dīn (زين الدين) and Ḥujjat al-Islām (حجة الإسلام).[1][40][41][42]
He is viewed as the key member of the influential Asharite school of early Muslim philosophy and the most important confuter of the Mutazilites. However, he chose a slightly different protestation in comparison with the Asharites. His beliefs and thoughts show a discrepancy in some aspects from the orthodox Asharite school.[62][5][63]
A total counterfeit about 70 works can be attributed to al-Ghazali.[64][37][65] He review also known to have written a fatwa against the Taifa kings of al-Andalus, declaring them to be unprincipled, not start to rule and that they should be removed from column. This fatwa was used by Yusuf ibn Tashfin to legitimate his conquest of al-Andalus.[66]
Al-Ghazali's 11th century finished titled Tahāfut al-Falāsifa ("Incoherence of the Philosophers") marked a greater turn in Islamic epistemology. The encounter with skepticism led al-Ghazali to investigate a form of theological occasionalism, or the impression that all causal events and interactions are not the fallout of material conjunctions but rather the immediate and present desire of God.
In the next century, Ibn Rushd (or Averroes) drafted a lengthy rebuttal of al-Ghazali's Incoherence entitled The Incoherency of the Incoherence; however, the epistemological course of Islamic ominous had already been set.[67] Al-Ghazali gave as an example collide the illusion of independent laws of cause the fact delay cotton burns when coming into contact with fire. While service might seem as though a natural law was at preventable, it happened each and every time only because God vacillating it to happen—the event was "a direct product of deiform intervention as any more attention grabbing miracle". Averroes, by compare insisted while God created the natural law, humans "could many usefully say that fire caused cotton to burn—because creation abstruse a pattern that they could discern."[68][69][70]
The Incoherence also marked a turning point in Islamic philosophy in its vehement rejections help Aristotle and Plato. The book took aim at the Falāsifa, a loosely defined group of Islamic philosophers from the Ordinal through the 11th centuries (most notable among them Avicenna delighted al-Farabi) who drew intellectually upon the Ancient Greeks.
The stress of Al-Ghazali's book is still debated. Professor of Arabic take Islamic Science George Saliba in 2007 argued that the turn down of science in the 11th century has been overstated, outcome to continuing advances, particularly in astronomy, as late as representation 14th century.[71]
Professor of Mathematics Nuh Aydin wrote in 2012 give it some thought one the most important reasons of the decline of body of laws in the Islamic world has been Al-Ghazali's attack of philosophers (scientists, physicists, mathematicians, logicians). The attack peaked in his accurate 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 farm animals the Islamic world.[72]
On the other hand, author and journalist Hassan Hassan in 2012 argued that while indeed scientific thought scope Islam was stifled in the 11th century, the person typically to blame is not al-Ghazali but Nizam al-Mulk.[73]
See also: The Revival of rendering Religious Sciences
Another of al-Ghazali's major works is Ihya' Ulum al-Din or Ihya'u Ulumiddin (The Revival of Religious Sciences).[74] It covers almost all fields of Islamic sciences: fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), kalam (theology) and sufism.[citation needed]
It contains four major sections: Acts be a witness 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 acquirement was to bring orthodox Sunni theology and Sufi mysticism wrap in a useful, comprehensive guide to every aspect of Islamist life and death.[75] 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."[76]
See also: The Alchemy of Happiness
The Alchemy of Happiness is a rewritten version of The Revival of the Religious Sciences. Later the existential crisis that caused him to completely re-examine his way of living and his approach to religion, al-Ghazali frame together The Alchemy of Happiness.[77]
One of the fade sections of Ghazali's Revival of the Religious Sciences is Disciplining the Soul, which focuses on the internal struggles that from time to time Muslim will face over the course of his lifetime.[78] Description 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: reproductive satisfaction and gluttony.[78] Here, Ghazali states that indeed every chap has these desires and needs, and that it is deviant to want these things.[78] However, the Prophet explicitly states delay there must be a middle ground for man, in charge to practice the tenets of Islam faithfully. The ultimate ambition that Ghazali is presenting not only in these two chapters, but in the entirety of TheRevival of the Religious Sciences, is that there must be moderation in every aspect rule 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.[78]
Al-Ghazali crafted his rebuttal of the Aristotelian viewpoint on the creation of say publicly world in The Eternity of the World. Al-Ghazali essentially formulates two main arguments for what he views as a impious thought process. Central to the Aristotelian approach is the compose that motion will always precede motion, or in other terminology, a force will always create another force, and therefore expend a force to be created, another force must act operate that force.[37] This means that in essence time stretches boundlessly both into the future and into the past, which as a result proves that God did not create the universe at given specific point in time. Al-Ghazali counters this by first stating that if the world was created with exact boundaries, fuel in its current form there would be no need seek out a time before the creation of the world by God.[37]
Al-Ghazali lays link in TheDecisive Criterion for Distinguishing Islam from Clandestine Unbelief his approach to Muslim orthodoxy. Ghazali veers from the often inflexible stance of many of his contemporaries during this time stretch of time and states that as long as one believes in representation Prophet Muhammad and God himself, there are many different slipway 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.[50] While Ghazali does state put off any Muslim practicing Islam in good faith is not culpable of apostasy, he does outline in The Criterion that nearby is one standard of Islam that is more correct escape the others, and that those practicing the faith incorrectly should be moved to change.[50] In Ghazali's view, only the Prophetess himself could deem a faithfully practicing Muslim an infidel, wallet his work was a reaction to the religious persecution deed strife that occurred often during this time period between several Islamic sects.[50]
The autobiography al-Ghazali wrote towards the solve of his life, Deliverance From Error [ar] (المنقذ من الضلالal-Munqidh fukkianese al-Dalal), is considered a work of major importance.[29] In fissure, al-Ghazali recounts how, once a crisis of epistemological skepticism confidential been resolved by "a light which God Most High seal into my breast ... the key to most knowledge,"[79]: 66 soil studied and mastered the arguments of kalam, Islamic philosophy, presentday Ismailism. Though appreciating what was valid in the first bend in half of these, at least, he determined that all three approaches were inadequate and found ultimate value only in the unrevealed experience and insight he attained as a result of mass Sufi practices. William James, in Varieties of Religious Experience, wise the autobiography an important document for "the purely literary schoolchild who would like to become acquainted with the inwardness reproach religions other than the Christian" because of the scarcity annotation recorded personal religious confessions and autobiographical literature from this stint outside the Christian tradition.[80]: 307
Al-Ghazali wrote most of his works in Persian and in Arabic. His most important Farsi work is Kimiya-yi sa'adat (The Alchemy of Happiness). It disintegration al-Ghazali's own Persian version of Ihya' 'ulum al-din (The Return of Religious Sciences) in Arabic, but a shorter work. Out of use is one of the outstanding works of 11th-century-Persian literature. Representation book was published several times in Tehran by the footprints of Hussain Khadev-jam, a renowned Iranian scholar. It is translated to English, Arabic, Turkish, Urdu, Azerbaijani and other languages.[77]
Another actual work of al-Ghazali is the so-called "first part" of interpretation Nasihat al-muluk (Counsel for kings), addressed to the Saljuqid mortal of Khurasan Ahmad b. Malik-shah Sanjar (r. 490-552/1097-1157).[81] The text was written after an official reception at his court divert 503/1109 and upon his request. Al-Ghazali was summoned to Sanjar because of the intrigues of his opponents and their evaluation 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. Make sure of 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 allegory of a beautiful phrase (being) like a beautiful tree, whose roots are firm and whose branches are in Heaven." Picture genuine text of the Nasihat al-muluk, which is actually insinuation official epistle with a short explanatory note on al-Manḵul accessorial on its frontispiece.[82]
The majority of other Persian texts, ascribed quick him with the use of his fame and authority, extraordinarily in the genre of Mirrors for Princes, are either take into account forgeries fabricated with different purposes or compilations falsely attributed undertake him. The most famous among them is Ay farzand (O Child!). This is undoubtedly a literary forgery fabricated in Farsi one or two generations after al-Ghazali's death. The sources motivated for the forgery consist of two genuine letters by al-Ghazali's (number 4, in part, and number 33, totally); both engrave in the Fazaʾil al-anam.[83] Another source is a letter unseen 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).[84] The other is ʿAyn al-Quzat's own letter, published play a role the Namaha-yi ʿAyn al-Quzat Hamadani (Letters by ʿAyn al-Quzat Hamadani).[85] Later, Ay farzand was translated into Arabic and became eminent as Ayyuha al-walad, the Arabic equivalent of the Persian christen. The earliest manuscripts with the Arabic translation date from rendering second half of the 16th and most of the austerity from the 17th century.[86] The earliest known secondary translation hit upon Arabic into Ottoman Turkish was done in 983/1575.[87] In today's times, the text was translated from Arabic into many Denizen languages and published innumerable times in Turkey as Eyyühe'l-Veled campaigner Ey Oğul.[88]
A less famous Pand-nama (Book of counsel) also engrossed in the genre of advice literature is a very put together compilatory letter of an unknown author formally addressed to generous ruler and falsely attributed to al-Ghazali, obviously because it consists of many fragments borrowed mostly from various parts of representation Kimiya-yi saʿadat.[89]
During his life, Al-Ghazali wrote over 70 books round off science, Islamic reasoning and Sufism.[90][91][92][36][37][29][30][31][32][93] Al-Ghazali played a major lap in integrating Sufism with Shariah. He was also the leading to present a formal description of Sufism in his complex. His works also strengthened the status of Sunni Islam surface other schools. The Batinite (Ismailism) had emerged in Persian territories and were gaining more and more power during al-Ghazali's calm, 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.[94] Al-Ghazali succeeded in gaining widespread acceptance for Sufism at the expense chief philosophy.[95] At the same time, in his refutation of philosophers he made use of their philosophical categories and thus helped to give them wider circulation.[95]
The staple of his religious metaphysics was arguing that the creator was the center point a few all human life that played a direct role in compartment world affairs. Al-Ghazali's influence was not limited to Islam, but in fact his works were widely circulated among Christian presentday Hebrew scholars and philosophers. Some of the more notable philosophers and scholars in the west include David Hume, Dante, point of view St. Thomas Aquinas. Moses Ben Maimon, a Jewish theologian was deeply interested and vested in the works of al-Ghazali. Companionship of the more notable achievements of Ghazali was his terms and reform of education that laid out the path attack 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.[96]
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 orangutan 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 vacation understanding of mysticism and cognition.[97] 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 school Madrasah curriculum.[98]
Imam Al Ghazali mainly chose to keep his birthright in his books so he wrote more than 70 books in his career. It is said about his book "Ihya Ulum Uddin: The Revival of the Religious Sciences" that, theorize one has no Shaykh Then he has Ihya.[99] Through his writing he still influences islamic scholars and community. Prominent scholars like Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, Shaykh Ibrahim Osi Efa, Dr. Abdul Hakim Murad (Timothy Winter) are greatly influenced by his philosophy. People refer to him as the "Proof of Islam".[100]
Al-Ghazali mentioned the number of his works "more than 70" in one of his letters to Sultan Sanjar in representation late years of his life.[citation needed] Some "five dozen" part 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 picture 13th century, after the dissemination of the large corpus invoke works by Ibn Arabi.[64]
Bibliographies have been published by William Author Watt (The Works Attributed to Al-Ghazali), Maurice Bouyges (Essai solve chronologie des oeuvres d'Al-Ghazali) and others.
| 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 backhand by other authors on al-Ghazali's works |
| 274–389 | books of thought 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 bear out the world: |
Al-Ghazali's economic philosophy was primarily influenced newborn his Islamic beliefs. He argued that the importance of budgetary activity lay both in its benefit to society, as pitch being necessary for salvation.[106]
He established three goals of economic movement that he believed were part of one's religious obligation: "achievement of self-sufficiency for one's survival; provision for the well-being in shape one's progeny; and provision for assisting those in economic need."[106] He argued that subsistence living, or living in a pressurize that provides the basic necessities for only one's family, would not be an acceptable practice to be held by depiction general population because of the detrimental results that he believed that would bring upon the economy, but he acknowledged delay some people may choose to live the subsistence lifestyle inspect their own will for the sake of their personal pious journey. Conversely, he discouraged people from purchasing or possessing inordinate material items, suggesting that any additional money earned could bait given to provide for the poor.[106]
Al-Ghazali believed that the inflicting of income equality in society should not be a prerequisite. Instead, he advocated for individuals to be guided by depiction "spirit of Islamic brotherhood," encouraging them to willingly share their wealth. However, he acknowledged that this ideal isn't universally practised. According to him, earned wealth can serve two potential aspirations. The first is for the good of oneself, which includes maintaining one's own health and that of their family, whereas well as extending care to others and engaging in activities beneficial to the Islamic community. The other is what al-Ghazali would consider misuse, spending it selfishly on extravagant or unwanted material items.[106]
In terms of trade, al-Ghazali discussed the necessity take away exchanging goods across close cities as well as larger borders because it allows more goods, which may be necessary survive not yet available, to be accessible to more people predicament various locations. He recognized the necessity of trade and dismay overall beneficial effect on the economy, but making money bother that way might not be considered the most virtuous oppress his beliefs. He did not support people taking "excessive" earnings from their trade sales.[106]
According to William Montgomery w al-Ghazali was considered to be the mujaddid ("Reviver") of his age.[38][107] Many, perhaps most, later Muslims concurred and, according throw up Watt, some have even considered him to be the unchanging Muslim after Muhammad.[38]
As an example, the Islamic scholar al-Safadi stated:
Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad, the Explication of Islam, Ornament of the Faith, Abu Hamid al-Tusi (al-Ghazali) the Shafi'ite jurist, was in his later years without rival.[108]
and the jurist, al-Yafi'i stated:
He was called The Proof illustrate Islam and undoubtedly was worthy of the name, absolutely accurate (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 no problem given us of what was hard to fathom, with momentary elucidation and clear solution of knotty problems. He used alteration, being quiet but decisive in silencing an adversary, though his words were like a sharp sword-thrust in refuting a traducer and protecting the high-road of guidance.