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8 ZAMAN SELEPAS NABI

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1
ABU HAMID AL- GHAZALI
(1058- 1128 A.D.)
Abu Hamid Ibn Muhammad Ibn Muhammad al-Tusi al-Shafi'i al-
Ghazali was born in 1058 A.D. in Khorasan, Iran. His father died
while he was still very young but he had the opportunity of
getting education in the prevalent curriculum at Nishapur and
Baghdad. Soon he acquired a high standard of scholarship in
religion and philosophy and was honoured by his appointment as
a Professor at the Nizamiyah University of Baghdad, which was
recognised as one of the most reputed institutions of learning in
the golden era of Muslim history.
After a few years, however, he gave up his academic pursuits
and worldly interests and became a wandering ascetic. This was
a process (period) of mystical transformation. Later, he resumed
his teaching duties, but again left these. An era of solitary life,
devoted to contemplation and writing then ensued, which led to
the author- ship of a number of everlasting books. He died in
1128 A.D. at Baghdad.
Ghazali's major contribution lies in religion, philosophy and
sufism. A number of Muslim philosophers had been following and
developing several viewpoints of Greek philosophy, including the
Neoplatonic philosophy, and this was leading to conflict with
several Islamic teachings. On the other hand, the movement of
sufism was assuming such excessive proportions as to avoid
observance of obligatory prayers and duties of Islam. Based on
his unquestionable scholarship and personal mystical experience,
Ghazali sought to rectify these trends, both in philosophy and
sufism.
In philosophy, Ghazali upheld the approach of mathematics and
exact sciences as essentially correct. However, he adopted the
techniques of Aristotelian logic and the Neoplatonic procedures
and employed these very tools to lay bare the flaws and lacunas
of the then prevalent Neoplatonic philosophy and to diminish the
negative influences of Aristotelianism and excessive rationalism.
In contrast to some of the Muslim philosophers, e.g., Farabi, he
portrayed the inability of reason to comprehend the absolute and
the infinite. Reason could not transcend the finite and was
limited to the observa- tion of the relative. Also, several Muslim
philosophers had held that the universe was finite in space but
infinite in time. Ghazali argued that an infinite time was related
to an infinite space. With his clarity of thought and force of
argument, he was able to create a balance between religion and
reason, and identified their respective spheres as being the
infinite and the finite, respectively.
In religion, particularly mysticism, he cleansed the approach of
sufism of its excesses and reestablished the authority of the
ortho- dox religion. Yet, he stressed the importance of genuine
sufism, which he maintained was the path to attain the absolute
truth.
He was a prolific writer. His immortal books include Tuhafut al-
Falasifa (The Incoherence of the Philosophers), I hya al- ' Ulum al-
Islamia (The Rivival of the Religious Sciences), "The Beginning of
Guidance and his Autobiography", "Deliverance from Error".
Some of his works were translated into European languages in
the Middle Ages. He also wrote a summary of astronomy.
Ghazali's influence was deep and everlasting. He is one of the
greatest theologians of Islam. His theological doctrines
penetrated Europe, influenced Jewish and Christian Scholasticism
and several of his arguments seem to have been adopted by St.
Thomas Aquinas in order to similarly reestablish the authority of
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IMAM AL- GHAZALI
2
orthodox Christian religion in the West. So forceful was his
argument in the favour of religion that he was accused of
damaging the cause of philosophy and, in the Muslim Spain, Ibn
Rushd (Averros) wrote a rejoinder to his Tuhafut.
Imam al- Ghazzali
By Dr. G.F. Haddad
Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad, Abu
Hamid al-Tusi al-Ghazzali [or al-Ghazali] al-Shafi i (450-505),
"the Proof of Islam" (Hujjat al-Islam), "Ornament of the Faith,"
"Gatherer of the Multifarious Sciences," "Great Siddq," absolute
mujtahid, a major Shafi i jurist, heresiographer and debater,
expert in the principles of doctrine and those of jurisprudence.
Shaykh Yusuf al-Qaradawi stated that, like Umar ibn Abd al-
Aziz and al-Shafi i for their respective times, al-Ghazzali is
unanimously considered the Renewer of the Fifth Islamic
Century. Ibn al-Subki writes: "He came at a time when people
stood in direr need of replies against the philosophers than the
darkest night stands in need of the light of the moon and stars."
Among his teachers in law, debate, and principles: Ahmad ibn
Muhammad al-Rdhakni in Tus, Abu Nasr al-Isma ili in Jurjan,
and Imam al-Haramayn Abu al-Ma ali al-Juwayni in Naysabur,
from where he departed to Baghdad after the latter s death. Ibn
Asakir also mentions that al-Ghazzali took al-Bukhari s Sahih
from Abu Sahl Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Hafsi. Among his other
shaykhs in hadith were Nasr ibn Ali ibn Ahmad al-Hakimi al-Tusi,
Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Khawari, Muhammad ibn
Yahya ibn Muhammad al-Suja`i al-Zawzani, the hadith master
Abu al-Fityan Umar ibn Abi al-Hasan al-Ru asi al-Dahistani, and
Nasr ibn Ibrahim al-Maqdisi. Among his shaykhs in tasawwuf
were al-Fadl ibn Muhammad ibn Ali al-Farmadi al-Tusi

one of
Abu al-Qasim al-Qushayri s students

and Yusuf al-Sajjaj.
On his way back from Jurjan to Tus al-Ghazzali was robbed by
highwaymen. When they left him he followed them but was told:
"Leave us or you will die." He replied: "I ask you for Allah sake
to only return to me my notes, for they are of no use to you."
The robber asked him: "What are those notes?" He said: "Books
in that satchel, for the sake of which I left my country in order to
hear, write, and obtain their knowledge." The robber laughed
and said: "How can you claim that you obtained their knowledge
when we took it away from you and left you devoid of knowl-
edge!" Then he gave an order and the satchel was returned to
him. Al-Ghazzali said: "This man s utterance was divinely
inspired (hdh mustantaqun): Allah caused him to say this in
order to guide me. When I reached Tus I worked for three years
until I had memorized all that I had written down."
Al-Ghazzali came to Baghdad in 484 and began a prestigious
career of teaching, giving fatwa, and authoring books in nearly
all the Islamic sciences of his day. His skill in refuting opponents
was unparalleled except by his superlative godwariness, which
led him to abandon his teaching position at the Nizamiyya school
four years later, deputizing his brother Ahmad, famous for his
preaching, to replace him. Upon completion of pilgrimage to
Mecca al-Ghazzali headed for Damascus, then al-Qudus, then
Damascus again where he remained for several years, taking up
the ascetic life with the words: "We sought after knowledge for
other than Allah s sake, but He refused that it be for anything
other than Him."
He came out of seclusion in 499 and travelled to Cairo,
Iskandariyya and other places, finally returning to Baghdad
where he taught his magnum opus I hya Ulum al- Din until his
death in nearby Tus, occupying the remainder of his time with
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devotions, Qur an recitations, prayer and fasting, and the
company of Sufis. Ibn al-Jawzi narrated in al- Thabat I nda al-
Mamat ("Firmness at the Time of Death") from al-Ghazzali s
brother Ahmad: "On Monday [14 Jumada al-Akhira] at the time
of the dawn prayer my brother Abu Hamid made his ablution,
prayed, then said: Bring me my shroud. He took it, kissed it
and put it on his eyes, saying: We hear and obey in readiness to
enter the King s presence. Then he stretched his legs, facing the
Qibla, and died before sunrise

may Allah sanctify his soul!" It is
related that al-Shadhili saw a dream in which the Prophet (s)
pointed out al-Ghazzali to Musa (as) and Isa (as) asking them:
"Is there such a wise scholar in your communities?" to which
they replied no.
The following is a list of some of al-Ghazzali s works as found in
al-Zabidi s and Ibn al-Subki s recensions:

Four works in Shafi i fiqh: the large al- Basit, the medium,
seven-volume al- Wasit, and the two-volume al- Wajiz,
condensed in al- Khulasa. Al- Wasit received many
commentaries and abridgments, among them al-Nawawi s
Rawda al- Talibin.

Four books on usl al-fiqh: al- Mankhul, written in the
lifetime of his teacher, Imam al-Haramayn; Shifa al-
Ghalil fi Masa il [or Masalik] al- Ta lil; al- Maknn; and al-
Mustasfa. "Imam al-Ghazali s Encyclopedia of Shari a
Source Methodology, his fourth book on the subject, and
his last word, was al- Mustasfa, which has been printed
several times in Egypt and elsewhere. Indeed, this is the
work he wrote after coming out of his period of
meditation and seclusion."

I hya Ulum al- Din, among his last works.

al- I mla ala Mushkil al- Ihya , in which he replied to some
of the insinuations made against the Ihya in his lifetime.
This book is also called al- Aj wiba al- Muskita an al- As ila
al- Mubhita.

Tafsir al- Qur an al- Azim, now lost.

Jawahir al- Qur an.

al- Arba un fi al- Tawhid, originally part of Jawahir al-
Qur an.

al- Asma al- Husna.

al- Ma akhidh, on the divergences of jurisprudents.

Tahsin al- Ma akhidh, a commentary on al- Ma akhidh.

Kimya al- Sa ada, The Alchemy of Happiness, originally
written in Persian.

al- Lubab al- Muntakhal, on disputation.

al- Iqtisad fi al- I tiqad, in which he said:
"The anthropomorphists (al- Hashwiyya) assert direction
for Allah while guarding themselves from divesting Allah
of His attributes (tatl), falling thereby into likening Allah
to creation (tashbh). Allah has granted success to Ahl al-
Sunna in establishing the truth. They have recognized the
proper goal in establishing their method, and understood
that direction is denied and disallowed for Allah because it
pertains to bodies and complements them; while vision of
Him is firmly established because it directly follows
knowledge and attends it as its perfecting component."

Mi yar al- Nazar.

Mihakk al- Nazar.

Bayan al- Qawlayn, on al-Shafi i s two schools.

al- Mustazhiri, a refutation of the esotericists or Batiniyya.

Qawasim al- Batiniyya, another refutation.

Tahafut al- Falasifa declaring the disbelief of the
philosophers, to which the qadi of Andalus Abu al-Walid
Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Rushd al-Maliki responded
with Tahafut al- Tahafut.

al- Maqasid fi Bayan I tiqad al- Awa il, also known as
Maqasid al- Falasifa.

Asrar Mu amalat al- Din.

Asrar al- Anwar al- Ilahiyya bi al- Ayat al- Matluwwa.
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Akhlaq al- Abrar wa al- Najat min al- Ashrar.

Asrar I ttiba al- Sunna.

Asrar al- Huruf wa al- Kalimat.

Bayan Fada ih al- Ibahiyya, against freethinkers.

Bada i al- Sani .

Tanbih al- Ghafilin.

Talbis I blis, a title later used by Ibn al-Jawzi against al-
Ghazzali and others.

Khulasa al- Rasa il ila I lm al- Masa il, an abridgment of al-
Muzani s Mukhtasar.

al- Risala al- Qudsiyya fi I lm al- Kalam.

al- Sirr al- Masun, a book of Qur anic invocations against
enemies.

Sharh Da ira Ali ibn Abi Talib, also known as Nukhba al-
Asma .

Aqida al- Misbah.

Unqud al- Mukhtasar, an abridgment of Imam al-
Haramayn s abridgment of al-Muzani s Mukhtasar.

Rasail ("Epistles"), published recently in a single volume,
in seven parts, comprising the following epistles:
(1) Al- Hikma fi Makhluqat Allah -- Subhan wa Ta` ala --;
Mi raj al- Salikin.
(2) Rawda al- Talibin wa Umda al- Salikin [in tasawwuf
and tawhd]; Qawa id al- Aqa- id fi al- Tawhid which he
included in the Ihya in full; Khulasa al- Tasanif fi al-
Tasawwuf in which he defines tasawwuf as follows:
Know that tasawwuf is two things:
Truthfulness with Allah Almighty and good
conduct with people. Anyone that practices
these two things is a Sufi. Truthfulness with
Allah is that the servant put an end to his
ego s shares in the divine command. Good
conduct with people is to not prefer one s
demands over theirs as long as their
demands are within the para-meters of the
Law. Whoever approves of the
contravention of the Law or contravenes it
can never be a Sufi, and if he claims he is,
he is lying.
(3) Al- Qistas al- Mustaqim; Minhaj al- Arifin; Al- Risala al-
Laduniy- ya; Faysal al- Tafriqa ( fi al- Takfir) ; Ayyuha al-
Walad, originally written in Persian.
(4) Mishkat al- Anwar; Risala al- Tayr; al- Risala al-
Wa ziyya; I lj am al- Awam an I lm al- Kalam; al- Mad- nun
bihi ala Ghayri Ahlih; Al- Ajwi- ba al- Ghazzaliyya fi al-
Masa il al- Ukh- ra- wiyya.
(5) Bidaya al- Hidaya; Kimya al- Sa ada; al- Adab fi al- Din;
al- Kashf wa al- Tabyin fi Ghurur al- Khalq Aj ma in.
(6) Sirr al- Alamayn wa Kashf ma fi al- Darayn; al- Durra
al- Fakhira fi Kashf Ulum al- Akhira.
(7) Qanun al- Ta wil; al- Ahadith al- Qudsiyya; al- Munqidh
min al- Dalal, in which he said:
The Sufi path consists in cleansing the
heart from whatever is other than Allah... I
concluded that the Sufis are the seekers in
Allah s Way, and their conduct is the best
conduct, and their way is the best way, and
their manners are the most sanctified. They
have cleaned their hearts from other than
Allah and they have made them as
pathways for rivers to run, carrying the
knowledge of Allah.
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Fatawa, in which he states the following responses:
Q. What is the reply concerning someone who
considers prayer as a means towards achieving
true worship and knowledge of Allah so that, when
he achieves the latter, he no longer feels the
necessity of prayer although he continues to pray?
A. This deluded person must realize that true
worship and know-ledge of Allah are the goals of
prayer, but they are not the only goals Just as
the words pronounced and written in the
protective invo-cations (al-ruqya) have a specific
effect towards protection from snakes

indeed,
towards the subjugation of jinns and devils; and
just as some of the supplications transmitted to us
in poetic forms attract the services of the angels in
answer to the one who supplicates; the mind
falling short of apprehending the modality and
precise character of these invocations, which are
apprehended only through the power of prophecy,
when Prophets are shown their meaning from the
Pre-served Tablet; similarly, the forms of the
prayer (al-salt) which entail one bowing, two
prostrations, specific numbers [of supplica-tions],
and specific Qur anic utterances that are recited,
at various lengths and times upon sunrise, noon,
and sunset, have a specific effect in stilling the
dragon (al-tinnn) that nestles in the human breast
and breeds many-headed snakes

equal to the
number of his traits

biting and snapping at him
in the grave. Its harm extends to the soul, as
indicated by the Prophet s -- Allah bless and greet
him -- saying: "A dragon with ninety-nine heads is
empowered over the disbeliever in the latter s
grave, doing such and-such etc." There are many
such dragons in the human make-up, and nothing
subdues them except divinely-prescribed
obligations. Those obligations are the deliver-ance
from peril, and they are also equal to the number
of his bad traits. ?And none knows the hosts of
your Lord save Him? (74:31). O people of
permissiveness! It shall be said to you on the Day
of Resurrection: ?What has brought you to this
burning? They will answer: We were not of those
who prayed? (74:42-43).
Q. What is the preferred course of action for
someone who has ascertained that he achieves
humility (khush) in prayer only when alone, but
if he prays in congregation, his energy disperses
and he is unable to achieve humility?
A. It is better and more correct for him to pray
alone due to the hadith of the Prophet -- Allah
bless and greet him --: "One performs prayer and
it may be that not one tenth of it is recorded to his
credit." The Prophet -- Allah bless and greet him --
said: "Con-gregational prayer is twenty-seven
times preferable to prayer alone." It follows that if
one achieves one instant of humility in congrega-
tional prayer, it is as if he had achieved twenty-
seven of them in prayer alone. Therefore, if the
rate of his humility in congregational prayer is less
than one-twenty-seventh of what it is in prayer
alone, it is better for him to pray alone, but if it is
more, then congregational prayer is better.
Ibn al-Subki comments: "Shaykh Izz al-Din ibn
Abd al-Salam gave a similar fatwa concerning one
who attends the Congregation out of self-display.
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I say, to pray in congregation is better in any
case . Abandoning humility for the sake of
following the Sunna is in itself humility, and better
than humility which results in the course of
isolating oneself. Consider this, for it is a fine
point. The gist of it is that the Sunna, even if it is
lacking something

in this case, congregation
without humility

is preferable to general
abandonment of the Sunna for the sake of a
particular Sunna which is humility."
This is obviously preferable as congregational
prayer is an emphasized Sunna by Consensus and
a communal obligation (fard kifya) whereas
humility is part of the perfection of one s manners
in and out of prayer, and Allah knows best.
Ibn al-Subki cited the following opinions from al-Ghazzali s
contemporaries:
Imam al-Haramayn: "Al-Ghazzali is a quenching
sea."
Al-Ghazzali s student Imam Muhammad ibn Yahya
ibn Mansur al-Naysaburi al-Shahid: "He is the
second al-Shafi i."
As ad al-Mhani: "None attains the knowledge of
al-Ghazzali s science nor his merit except one who
has attained or almost attained perfection in his
intelligence." Ibn al-Subki comments:
I like this verdict, for he who wishes to look into
the level of one who is above him in knowledge,
needs intelligence and understanding . I heard
the Shaykh and Imam [Shaykh al-Islam Taqi al-
Din al-Subki] say: "None knows the rank of a
person in knowl-edge except he who is his peer
and has known him per-sonally, and he only
knows him to the extent of what he himself was
granted to know." He also used to say to us:
"None of his companions knew al-Shafi i like al-
Muzani knew him, and al-Muzani knew al-Shafi i
only to the extent of al-Muzani s strength. Nor can
anyone estimate the Prophet -- Allah bless and
greet him -- as he deserves except Allah -- may
He be exalted --, and each knows him -- Allah
bless and greet him -- only to the extent of what
he himself possesses. Thus the most
knowledgeable in the Community about the
Prophet s -- Allah bless and greet him -- rank is
Abu Bakr -- Allah be well-pleased with him --
because he was the best of the Umma, and Abu
Bakr knows the Prophet -- Allah bless and greet
him -- only according to Abu Bakr s strength."
As the foremost examplar of the Sufi Ash ari
scholar of knowledge al-Ghazzali, like his teacher
Abu al-Ma ali al-Juwayni and Fakhr al-Din al-Razi,
has attracted the faultfinding skills of latter-day
critics of tasawwuf and Sunni doctrine as defined
by Ash aris. Ibn Taymiyya peppered his
discussions of al-Ghazzali with Ibn al- Arabi s
verdict

"Our master swallowed the seas of the
philosophers in order to defeat them, but when he
tried to throw them up he was unable"

and
slighted al-Ghazzali s Ihya as "containing both
good and bad, but the good outweighs the bad."
Burhan al-Din al-Biqa i (d. 885) attacked al-
Ghazzali for saying "There is no possibility of
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IMAM AL- GHAZALI
7
anything more perfect than what exists." Al-Suyuti
refuted al-Biqa i s insinuations in his epistle
Tashdid al- Arkan fi Laysa fi al- I mkan Abda u
Mimma Kan ("The Buttressing of the Pillars
Concerning al-Ghazzali s Saying There is no
possibility of anything more perfect than what
exists ") and, after him, al-Haytami who states:
Al-Biqa i s fanaticism led him to criticize the saying
of al-Ghazzali the Proof of Islam, "There is no
possibility of anything more perfect than what
exists." He went vituperating him until people
became disgusted. Then, one day, he went to visit
one of the scholars of knowledge who was sitting
somewhere alone. The latter took his slipper and
began to hit al-Biqa i with it until he almost
destroyed it, all the while scolding him and saying:
"Are you the one who criticizes al-Ghazzali?! You
are the one who says such-and-such about him?!"
until some people came and delivered him,
although no-one disapproved of the incident.
Following this, the people of his time rallied
against al-Biqa i and published many refutations
against him in defense of al-Ghazzali.
The gist of their replies concerning al-Ghazzali s
statement is that when Allah s will linked itself to
the origination of this world and He originated it,
ordaining the abiding of part of it to a set limit and
that of its remainder indefinitely

meaning
Paradise and Hellfire

this precluded the linkage
(ta alluq) of divine power to the eradication (i dm)
of the entirety of this world. For divine power is
not linked except to the possible, while the
eradication of the entirety of this world is not
possible

not ontologically (li dhtih) but because
of the aforementioned linkage. Since its
eradication is excluded according to what we said,
it follows that its origination in the first place was
the apex of wisdom and completion, and the most
perfect of all that can possibly be created, for, as
concluded above, there is none other in existence.
Al-Ghazzali s I hya Ulum al- Din ranks as one of the most widely
read books in Islam, having earned the praise of the scholars
and the general acceptance of the Community. Among those who
praised it:
- Ibn al-Subki: "It ranks among the books which
Muslims must look after and spread far and wide
so that many people may be guided by reading
them. Seldom has someone looked into this book
except he woke up on the spot thanks to it. May
Allah grant us insight that shows us the way to
truth, and protect us from what stands between us
and the truth as a veil."
- Al-Safadi: "It is among the noblest and greatest
of books, to the extent that it was said, concerning
it, that if all books of Islam were lost except the
Ihya , it would suffice for what was lost."
- Fakhr al-Din al-Razi: "It was as if Allah gathered
all sciences under a dome, and showed them to al-
Ghazzali."
The Ihya was also strongly criticized for a variety
of reasons, among them the number of weak or
forged narrations cited in it, a list of which is
provided by Ibn al-Subki, who stressed that al-
Ghazzali never excelled in the field of hadith. Abu
Abd Allah al-Maziri al-Maliki said in al- Kashf wa al-
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IMAM AL- GHAZALI
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I nba an Kitab al- I hya

that most of the narrations
cited in it were flimsy (whin) with regard to
authenicity, while the Maliki censor Abu Bakr
Muhammad ibn al-Walid al-Turtushi (d. 420)
exclaimed in his epistle to Ibn Zafir

Abu Abd
Allah Muhammad ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Atiyya:
"He has crammed his book full with forgeries." Ibn
al-Subki replied:
"Al-Maziri was a passionate champion of al-
Ash ari s positions

both the authoritative, the
modest, the great, and the small

declaring an
innovator anyone who went beyond them in the
least. In addition to this he was a Maliki with a
strong bias for his school, which he de-fended
strenuously. On the other hand, al-Juwayni and al-
Ghazzali reached a level of expertise and
knowledge which every impartial ob-server can
acknowledge as unmatched by anyone after them,
and where they may have seen fit to contradict
Abu al-Hasan [al-Ash ari] in questions of kalm.
Ash aris, particularly the Moroccans, do not take
kindly to this nor allow anyone to contravene Abu
al-Hasan in the least. Further complicating matters
is al-Juwayni and al-Ghazzali s weakening of Imam
Malik s position on certain points, such as rulings
inferred from public welfare or the favoring of a
certain school over another. As for al-Maziri s
saying: "al-Ghazzali was not a foremost expert
(mutabahhir) in the science of kalm," I agree
with him on this, but I add: He certainly had a firm
foothold in it, even if, in my opinion, it did not
match his foothold in other sciences. As for al-
Maziri s saying: "He engaged in philosophy before
he became an expert in the science of principles,"
this is not the case. He did not look into phi-
losophy except after he had become an expert in
the science of usl, and he indicated this in his
book al- Munqidh min al- Dalal, adding that he
involved himself in the science of kalm before
turning to philosophy. As for Ibn Sina, al-
Ghazzali declares him a disbeliever

how then
could he possibly rely on him? As for his blame
of the Ihya for al-Ghazzali s indulgence in some
narrations: it is known that the latter did not have
skill in the hadith, and that most of the narrations
and stories of the Ihya are taken from his
predecessors among the Sufis and jurists. The
man himself did not provide a single isnad, but
one of our companions [Zayn al-Din al- Iraqi] took
care to document the narrations of the Ihya, and
only a small amount were declared aberrant or
anomalous (shdhdh). I shall cite them for the
sake of benefit ... Nor is al-Ghazzali s phrasing
"the Prophet -- Allah bless and greet him -- said"
meant as a definitive attribution to him but only as
an attribution that appears definite. For if he were
not assuming it true, he would not say it. The
matter was not as he thought, and that is all. As
for al-Turtushi s statement concerning the
forgeries found in the Ihya , then

I ask you

is
al-Ghazzali the one who forged them so that he
may be bla-med for them? To blame him for them
is certainly nothing more than inane fanaticism. It
is an attack which no serious examiner can accept.
" End of Ibn al-Subki's words from Tabaqat al-
Shafi`iyya al- Kubra.
Ibn al-Jawzi

a detractor of Sufis

similarly
dismisses the Ihya in four of his works: I lam al-
27.8 ZAMAN SELEPAS NABI

IMAM AL- GHAZALI
9
Ahya bi Aghlat al- I hya

("Informing the Living of
the Mistakes of the Ihya ), Talbis I blis, Kitab al-
Qussas, and his history al- Muntazam fi Tarikh al-
Muluk wal- Umam. His views influenced Ibn
Taymiyya and others. The basis of their position
was also that al-Ghazzali used too many weak or
baseless hadiths.
Other moderate hadith masters documented
almost every single hadith in the Ihya without
questioning its usefulness as a whole, accepting its
immense standing among Muslims and
contributing to its embellishment and spread as a
manual for spiritual progress. Among these
scholars:
- Zayn al-Din al- Iraqi (d. 806): al- Mughni
an Haml al- Asfar;
- His student Ibn Hajar: al- I stidrak ala
Takhrij Ahadith al- Ihya;
- al-Qasim ibn Qatlubagha al-Hanafi: Tuhfa
al- Ahya fi ma Fata Min Takhrij Ahadith al-
I hya ;
- Sayyid Murtada al-Zabidi al-Husayni (d.
1205): I thaf al- Sada al- Muttaqin fi Sharh
Asrar I hya Ulum al- Din in ten massive
volumes, each scholar completing the
previous scholar s documentation.
More importantly, the majority of hadith masters
hold it permissible to use weak hadiths in other
than the derivation of legal rulings, such as in the
encouragement to good and discouragement from
evil (al- targhb wa al- tarhb), as countless hadith
masters have indicated as well as other scholars,
such as Imam al-Safadi. It must be under-stood
that al-Ghazzali incorporated all the material which
he judged of use to his didactic purposes on the
bases of content rather than origin or chain of
transmis-sion; that most of the Ihya consists in
quotations from Qur an, hadith, and the sayings of
other than Ghazali, his own prose accounting for
less than 35 of the work; and that three quarters
of the huge number of hadiths cited are authentic
in origin.
The Hanafi hadith master Murtada al-Zabidi began
his great commentary on the Ihya with an
explanation that al-Ghazzali s method of hadith
citation by conveying the general meaning without
ascertaining the exact wording, had a basis in the
practice of the Companions and Salaf:
"The verification of the wording of narrations was
not an obligation for al-Ghazzali

may Allah have
mercy on him! He would convey the general
meaning, conscious of the different significations
of the words and their mutual conflict with one
another avoiding what would consti-tute
interpolation or arbitrary rendering of one term
with an-other.
"A number of the Companions have permitted the
conveyance of Pro-phetic hadiths in their meanings
rather than their wordings. Among them: Ali, Ibn
Abbas, Anas ibn Malik, Abu al-Darda , Wathila ibn
al-Asqa , and Abu Hurayra

may Allah be well-
pleased with them! Also, a greater number of the
27.8 ZAMAN SELEPAS NABI

IMAM AL- GHAZALI
10
Successors, among them: the Imam of imams al-
Hasan al-Basri, al-Sha bi, Amr ibn Dinar, Ibrahim
al-Nakha i, Mujahid, and Ikrima . Ibn Sirin said:
"I would hear a hadith from ten different people,
the meaning reamining one but the wordings
differing." Similarly, the Companions wordings in
their narrations from the Prophet -- Allah bless and
greet him -- have differed one from another. Some
of them, for example, will narrate a complete
version; others will narrate the gist of the
meaning; others will narrate an abridged version;
others yet replace certain words with their
synonyms, deeming that they have consider-able
leeway as long as they do not contradict the
original meaning. None of them intends a lie, and
all of them aim for truthfulness and the report of
what he has heard: that is why they had leeway.
They used to say: "Mendacity is only when one
deliberately intends to lie."
" Imran ibn Muslim [al-Qasir] narrated that a man
said to al-Hasan [al-Basri]: "O Abu Sa id! When
you narrate a hadith you put it in better and more
eloquent terms than when one of us narrates it."
He replied: "There is no harm in that as long as
you have fully expressed its meaning." Al-Nadr ibn
Shumayl (d. 208) said: "Hushaym (d. 183) used to
make a lot of mistakes in Arabic, so I adorned his
narrations for you with a fine garment"

meaning,
he arabized it, since al-Nadr was a philologist
(nahw). Sufyan [al-Thawri] used to say: "When
you see a man show strictness in the wordings of
hadith, know that he is advertising himself." He
narrated that a certain man began to question
Yahya ibn Sa id al-Qattan (d. 198) about a specific
wording inside a hadith. Yahya said to him: "O So-
and-so! There is not in the whole world anything
more sublime than Allah s Book, yet He has
permitted that its words be recited in seven
different dialects. So do not be so strict!"
"In the hadith master al-Suyuti s commentary on
[al-Nawawi s] al- Taqrib, in the fourth part of the
twenty-sixth heading, the gist of what he said is as
follows:
"If a narrator is not an expert in the wordings and
in what shifts their meanings to something else,
there is no permission for him to narrate what he
has heard in terms of meaning only. There is no
disagreement concerning this. He must relate the
exact wording he has heard. If he is an expert in
the matter, [opinions have differed:] a large group
of the experts of hadith, fiqh, and usl said that it
is not permitted for him to narrate in other than
the exact same words. This is the position of Ibn
Sirin, Tha lab, and Abu Bakr al-Razi the Hanafi
scholar. It is also narrated as Ibn Umar s position.
But the vast majority of the Salaf and Khalaf from
the various groups, among them the Four Imams,
permit narration in terms of meaning in all the
above cases provided one adduces the meaning.
This dispensation is witnessed to by the practice of
the Companions and Salaf, and shown by their
narrating a single report in different wordings.
"There is a hadith of the Prophet -- Allah bless and
greet him -- relevant to the issue narrated by Ibn
Mandah in Ma rifa al- Sahaba and al-Tabarani in al-
Kabir from Abd Allah ibn Sulayman ibn Aktham al-
27.8 ZAMAN SELEPAS NABI

IMAM AL- GHAZALI
11
Laythi [= Abd Allah ibn Sulaym ibn Ukayma] who
said: "I said: O Messenger of Allah! Verily, when I
hear a hadith from you I am unable to narrate it
again just as I heard it from you. " That is, he adds
or omits something. The Prophet -- Allah bless and
greet him -- replied: "As long as you do not make
licit the illicit or make illicit the licit, and as long as
you adduce the meaning, there is no harm in
that." When this was mentioned to al-Hasan he
said: "Were it not for this, we would never narrate
anything."
"Al-Shafi i adduced as his proof [for the same
position] the hadith "The Qur an was revealed in
seven dialects."
"Al-Bayhaqi narrated from Makhul that he and Abu
al-Azhar went to see Wathila [or Wa ila] ibn al-
Asqa and said to him: "Narrate to us a hadith of
the Prophet -- Allah bless and greet him -- in
which there is no omission, no addition, and
nothing forgotten." He replied: "Has any of you
recited anything from the Qur an?" (*) They said:
"Yes, but we have not memorized it very well. We
sometimes add and or the letter alif, or omit
something." He said: "If you cannot memorize the
Qur an which is written down before you, adding
and omitting some-thing from it, then how about
narrations which we heard from the Prophet --
Allah bless and greet him --, some of them only
once? Suffice yourself, when-ever we narrate them
to you, with the general meaning!" He narrated
something similar from Jabir ibn Abd Allah in al-
Madkhal: "Hudhayfa said to us: We are Beduin
Arabs, we may cite a saying without its proper
order. " He also narrated from Shu ayb ibn al-
Hajjab: "I visited al-Hasan together with Abdan.
We said to him: O Abu Sa id! Someone may
narrate a hadith in which he adds or from which he
omits something. He replied: Lying is only when
someone deliberately intends this. " [He also
narrated something similar from Ibrahim al-
Nakha i, al-Sha bi, al-Zuhri, Sufyan, Amr ibn
Dinar, and Waki .] " End of al-Suyuti s words from
Tadrib al- Rawi as quoted by al-Zabidi, and end of
al-Zabidi s excerpt from Ithaf al- Sada al- Muttaqin.
(*) In al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi s version in Nawadir al-
Usul (p. 389) Makhul asks: "Has any of you stood
in prayer at length at night?"
The Imams of hadith are unanimous in accepting
the narration in meaning only on condition that the
narrator has mastered the Arabic language and his
narration does not constitute an aberration or
anomaly (shudhdh), among other conditions. Al-
Zabidi s documentation of the majority position
that it is permissible to narrate the hadiths of the
Prophet -- Allah bless and greet him -- in their
meanings rather than their wordings is also the
position of Ibn al-Salah in his Muqaddima, but the
latter avers that the dispensation no longer applies
at a time when the hadiths are available to all in
published books. Shaykh Nur al-Din Itr adopts this
latter position: "The last word on this subject is to
prohibit hadith narration in the sense of meaning
only, because the narrations have all been
compiled in the manuals of hadith, eliminating the
need for such a dispensation."
27.8 ZAMAN SELEPAS NABI

IMAM AL- GHAZALI
12
A generation after al-Ghazzali s death, the I hya

was burnt in Andalus upon the recommendation of
the qadi Ibn Hamdayn who was named
Commander of the Believers in Qurtuba in 539
then fled to Malaga where he died in 548. Shortly
thereafter, the Moroccans rehabilitated the book as
stated by Shaykh al-Islam Taqi al-Din al-Subki

in
a long poem that begins with the words "Abu
Hamid! You are truly the one that deserves
praise." Ibn al-Subki narrated with his chain from
Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhili that Ibn Hirzahm, one of
the Moroccan shaykhs who had intended the
burning of the book, saw the Prophet -- Allah bless
and greet him -- in his dream commending the
book before al-Ghazzali and ordering that Ibn
Hirzahm be lashed for slander. After five lashes he
was pardoned and woke up in pain, bearing the
traces of the lashing. After this he took to praising
the book from cover to cover.
Another rallying-cry of the critics of the I hya

is
that it contains no exhortation towards jihad and
that its author remained in seclusion between the
years 488-499, at a time when the Crusaders
ravaged the Antioch and al-Qudus, killing Muslims
by the tens of thousands. Shaykh Yusuf al-
Qaradawi replied to these insinuations with the
following words:
The great Imams excuse may be
that his most pressing engagement
was the reform of his own self first,
and that it is one s personal
corruption which paves the way for
external invasions, as indicated by
the beginning of Sura al-Isra . The
Israelites, whenever they became
corrupt and spread corruption in the
earth, were subjected to the
domination of their enemies. But
whenever they did good and
reformed themselves and others,
they again held sway over their
enemies. He directed his greatest
concern toward the reform of the
individual, who constitutes the core
of the society. The reform of the
individual can be effected only
through the reform of his heart and
thought. Only through such reform
can his works and behavior be
improved, and his entire life. This is
the basis of societal change to which
the Qur an directs us by saying
"Lo! Allah changes not t he
condit ion of a folk unt il t hey
( first ) change t hat which is in
their hearts" (13:11).
Shaykh al-Islam Taqi al-Din al-Subki said about
the detractors of the Ihya:
I consider them similar to a group of pious and
devoted men who saw a great knight issue from
the ranks of the Muslims and enter the fray of
their enemies, striking and battling until he
subdued them and unnerved them, breaking their
ranks and routing them. Then he emer-ged
covered with their blood, went to wash himself,
and entered the place of prayer with the Muslims.
27.8 ZAMAN SELEPAS NABI

IMAM AL- GHAZALI
13
But that group thought that he still had some of
their blood on his person, and they criticized him
for it.
Among the most famous commentaries of the
I hya :
- The hadith master Murtada al-Zabidi s ten-
volume I thaf al- Sada al- Muttaqin Sharh I hya
Ulum al- Din ("The Lavish Gift of the Godwary
Masters: Commentary on al-Ghazzali s Giving Life
to the Religious Sciences ") which contains the
most comprehensive documentation of the hadith
narrations cited by al-Ghazzali.
- Abd al-Qadir ibn Abd Allah al- Aydarus Ba
Alawi s Ta rif al- Ahya bi Fada il al- Ihya ("The
Appraisal of the Living of the Immense Merits of
the Ihya").
- Mulla Ali al-Qari s Sharh Ayn al- I lm wa Zayn al-
Hilm ("The Spring of Knowledge and the
Adornment of Understanding") on the abridged
version. Al-Qari begins it by stating:
"I wrote this commentary on the abridgment of
I hya Ulum al- Din by the Proof of Islam and the
Confirmation of Creatures hoping to receive some
of the outpouring of blessings from the words of
the most pure knowers of Allah, and to benefit
from the gifts that exude from the pages of the
Shaykhs and the Saints, so that I may be
mentioned in their number and raised in their
throng, even if I fell short in their fol-lowing and
their service, for I rely on my love for them and
content myself with my longing for them."
End of biographical notice on Hujjatul Islam al-Ghazzali by Hj.
Gibril --
Allah forgive him! -- written out of duty and love, not arrogance.
Main source: Ibn al-Subki, Tabaqat al- Shafi` iyya al- Kubra (
6:191-389 #694).
O Allah! bring us out of the darkness of illusion into the light of
knowledge, adorn our manners with gentleness, and grant us
deeds that are accepted in Your Presence. Glory to You! Truly we
know nothing except what You teach us.
O Allah! benefit us with the Proof of Your Religion, Imam al-
Ghazzali, and thank him on behalf of Muhammad's Community --
upon him Your blessings and peace.
Allah's blessings and peace upon the best of prophets and
messengers, our master Muhammad, and upon his Family and all
his Companions. Praise belongs to Allah, the Lord of the worlds.
copyright as- Sunna Foundation of America permission granted to
reproduce with author's consent.
27.8 ZAMAN SELEPAS NABI

IMAM AL- GHAZALI
14
THE LAST WORDS OF
IMAM GHAZALI
Imam Ghazali woke up one early morning and as usual offered his prayers and
then enquired what day it was, his younger brother, Ahmad Ghazali
replied,"Monday." He asked him to bring his white shroud, kissed it, stretched
himself full length and saying
"Lord, I obey willingly," breathed his last. And underneath his head rest they
found the following verses; composed by him, probably, during the night:.
"Say to my friends, when they look upon me, dead
Weeping for me and mourning me in sorrow
Do not believe that this corpse you see is myself
In the name of God, I tell you, it is not I,
I am a spirit, and this is naught but flesh
It was my abode and my garment for a time.
I am a treasure, by a talisman kept hid,
Fashioned of dust, which served me as a shrine,
I am a pearl, which has left it's shell deserted,
I am a bird, and this body was my cage
Whence I have now floron forth and it is left as a token
Praise to God, who hath now set me free
And prepared for me my place in the highest of the heaven,
Until today I was dead, though alive in your midst.
Now I live in truth, with the grave - clothes discarded.
Today I hold converse with the saints above,
With no veil between, I see God face to face.
I look upon "Loh-i-Mahfuz" and there in I read
Whatever was and is and all that is to be.
Let my house fall in ruins, lay my cage in the ground,
Cast away the talisman, it is a token, no more
Lay aside my cloak, it was but my outer garment.
Place them all in the grave, let them be forgotten,
I have passed on my way and you are left behind
Your place of abode was no deweling place for me.
Think not that death is death, nay, it is life,
A life that surpasses all we could dream of here,
While in this world, here we are granted sleep,
Death is but sleep, sleep that shall be prolonged
Be not frightened when death draweth night,
It is but the departure for this blessed home
Think of the mercy and love of your Lord,
Give thanks for His Grace and come without fear.
What I am now, even so shall you be
For I know that you are even as I am
The souls of all men come forth from God
The bodies of all are compounded alike
Good and evil, alike it was ours
I give you now a message of good cheer
May God's peace and joy for evermore be yours."