Then she emphasizes, "The greatest of these Christian writers who was influenced by al-Ghazali was St. 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). 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.Īl-Ghazali had an important influence on both later Muslim philosophers and Christian medieval philosophers. 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." 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. The Ihya became the most frequently recited Islamic text after the Qur'an and the hadith. 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). It covers almost all fields of Islamic sciences: fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), kalam (theology) and sufism. The Most significant of al-Ghazali's major works is Ihya' Ulum al-Din or Ihya'u Ulumiddin (The Revival of Religious Sciences). He later returned to Tus, and declined an invitation in 1110 from the grand vizier of Muhammad I to return to Baghdad. This seclusion consisted in abstaining from teaching at state-sponsored institutions, though he continued to publish, to receive visitors, and to teach in the zawiya (private madrasa) and khanqah (Sufi monastery) that he had built.įakhr 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. 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). Macdonald, the purpose of abstaining from scholastic work was to confront the spiritual experience and more ordinary understanding of "the Word and the Traditions". Making arrangements for his family, he disposed of his wealth and adopted an ascetic lifestyle. He underwent a spiritual crisis in 1095, and consequently abandoned his career and left Baghdad on the pretext of going on pilgrimage to Mecca. 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. 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. 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. 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. A posthumous tradition-the authenticity of which has been questioned in recent scholarship-tells that his father, a man "of Persian descent", died in poverty and left the young al-Ghazali and his brother Ahmad to the care of a Sufi. He was born in Tabaran, a town in the district of Tus, Khorasan (today part of Iran). Modern estimates place it at AH 448 (1056/7), on the basis of certain statements in al-Ghazali's correspondence and autobiography.
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Also primary research material – including hundreds of full length books, monographs, dissertations and articles are available gratis – in communem delectationem.The believed date of al-Ghazali's birth, as given by Ibn al-Jawzi, is AH 450 (1058/9). ( a virtual online library) that aims to provide the complete works of al- Ghazālī in the original language -that have been published in print- and in translation. He wrote on a wide range of topics including jurisprudence, theology, mysticism and philosophy. Because of him the lame walked briskly, And the songless through him burst into melody.Ību Hamid al- Ghazālī (450-505 AH/1058-1111 AD) is one of the great jurists, theologians and mystics of the 6th/12th century.