Al-Ghazali

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Not to be confused with al-Ghazal. For other uses, see Ghazali.

Al-Ghazālī

‫الغزالي‬

Abu Hamed Al-Ghazālī in Arabic calligraphy

Title Ḥujjat al-Islām (honorific)[1]

Personal

Born Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad aṭ-Ṭūsī al-Ġaz(z)ālī

c. 1058

Tus, Iran, Seljuq Empire

Died 19 December 1111 (aged 52–53)

Tus, Iran, Seljuq Empire

Religion Islam
Era Islamic Golden Age

Region Seljuq Empire (Nishapur)[2]: 292 

Abbasid Caliphate (Baghdad) / (Jerusalem) /

(Damascus)[2]: 292 

Denomination Sunni[3][4]

School Shafiʿi

Creed Ashʿari[5][6]

Main Sufism, theology (kalam), philosophy, logic, Islamic

interest(s) jurisprudence

Notable The Revival of Religious Sciences, The Aims of the

work(s) Philosophers, The Incoherence of the

Philosophers, The Alchemy of Happiness, The

Moderation in Belief, On Legal theory of Muslim

Jurisprudence

Other names Algazel

Muslim leader

show

Influenced by

show

Influenced

Website ghazali.org
 Al-Ghazali (c. 1058 – 19 December 1111; ُّ‫)ٱل َغ َّزالِي‬,ْ full name Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad
َ ْ َ ‫)أَب‬,[a] and known
ibn Muḥammad aṭ-Ṭūsiyy al-Ġazzālīy (ُّ‫ُوُّحا ِمدٍُّم َُح َّم ُدُّبْنُ ُّم َُح َّمدٍُّٱلطوسِ يُّٱل َغزالِي‬
in Persian-speaking countries as Imam Muhammad-i Ghazali (Persian: ‫)امام محمد غزالی‬
or in Medieval Europe by the Latinized as Algazelus or Algazel, was
a Persian polymath.[27][28][29][30][31] He is known as one of the most prominent and
influential philosophers, theologians, jurists, logicians and mystics of the Islamic Golden
Age.[32][33][34]
He is considered to be the 5th century's mujaddid,[35][36] a renewer of the faith, who,
according to the prophetic hadith, appears once every 100 years to restore the faith of
the Islamic community.[37][38][39] His works were so highly acclaimed by his contemporaries
that al-Ghazali was awarded the honorific title "Proof of Islam" (Ḥujjat al-Islām).[1]
Al-Ghazali believed that the Islamic spiritual tradition had become moribund and that the
spiritual sciences taught by the first generation of Muslims had been forgotten. [40] This
belief led him to write his magnum opus entitled Iḥyā’ ‘ulūm ad-dīn ("The Revival of the
Religious Sciences").[41] 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.[34]

Contents

 1Life
 2School affiliations
 3Works
o 3.1Incoherence of the Philosophers
o 3.2Autobiography
o 3.3The Revival of Religious Sciences (Ihya' Ulum al-Din)
o 3.4Works in Persian
 4Influence
 5Number of works
 6Reception of work
 7Economic philosophy
 8Quantum mechanics
 9See also
 10References
o 10.1Notes
o 10.2Citations
o 10.3Sources
 11Further reading
 12External links

Life[edit]
The believed date of al-Ghazali's birth, as given by Ibn al-Jawzi, is AH 450 (1058/9).
Modern estimates place it at AH 448 (1056/7), on the basis of certain statements in al-
Ghazali's correspondence and autobiography.[42] He was a Muslim scholar, law
specialist, rationalist, and spiritualist of Persian descent.[43] He was born in Tabaran, a
town in the district of Tus, Khorasan (now part of Iran),[42] not long
after Seljuks entered Baghdad and ended Shia Buyid Amir al-umaras. This marked the
start of Seljuk influence over Caliphate. While the Seljuk dynasty's influence grew, Abu
Suleiman Dawud Chaghri Beg married his daughter, Arslan Khatun Khadija[44] to
caliph Al-Qa'im in 1056.[45]
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 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.[42]: 26–27  He later studied under al-
Juwayni, the distinguished jurist and theologian and "the most outstanding Muslim
scholar of his time,"[42] 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 Seljuq 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.[42]
He underwent a spiritual crisis in 1095, which some speculate was brought on by
clinical hysteria,[46][47][48] 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 ascetic 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."[49] 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.[42] 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.[42]

School affiliations[edit]
hidePart of a series on Islam

Sufism
 Tomb of Abdul Qadir Gilani, Baghdad, Iraq

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Ideas

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Practices

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Sufi orders

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List of sufis

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Topics in Sufism

Islam portal

 v
 t
 e
Al-Ghazali contributed significantly to the development of a systematic view
of Sufism and its integration and acceptance in mainstream Islam. As a scholar of Sunni
Islam, he belonged to the Shafi'i school of Islamic jurisprudence and to
the Asharite school of theology.[50] Al-Ghazali received many titles such as Sharaf-ul-
Aʾimma (‫)شرفُّاألئمة‬, Zayn-ud-dīn (‫ )زينُّالدين‬and Ḥujjat-ul-Islām (‫)حجةُّاإلسالم‬.
He is viewed as the key member of the influential Asharite school of early Muslim
philosophy and the most important refuter of the Mutazilites. 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.[50]

Works[edit]

Mausoleum of Al-Ghazali in Tus, located near the tomb of the Persian poet Ferdowsi.[51] The mausoleum was
discovered in the 1990s after being lost for many centuries and remains neglected.

A total of about 70 works can be attributed to Al-Ghazali.[52] He is also known to have

written a fatwa against the Taifa kings of al-Andalus, declaring them to be unprincipled,
not fit to rule and that they should be removed from power. This fatwa was used by
Yusuf ibn Tashfin to justify his conquest of al-Andalus.[53]
Incoherence of the Philosophers[edit]
His 11th century book titled The Incoherence of the Philosophers marks a major turn in
Islamic epistemology. The encounter with skepticism led al-Ghazali to investigate a form
of theological occasionalism, or the belief that all causal events and interactions are not
the product of material conjunctions but rather the immediate and present will of God.
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.[54] Al-Ghazali gave as
an example of the illusion of independent laws of cause the fact that cotton burns when
coming into contact with fire. While it might seem as though a natural law was at work, it
happened each and every time only because God willed it to happen—the event was "a
direct product of divine intervention as any more attention grabbing miracle". Averroes,
by contrast insisted while God created the natural law, humans "could more usefully say
that fire caused cotton to burn—because creation had a pattern that they could
discern."[55] [56][57]
The Incoherence also marked a turning point in Islamic philosophy in its vehement
rejections of Aristotle and Plato. The book took aim at the falasifa, a loosely defined
group of Islamic philosophers from the 8th through the 11th centuries (most notable
among them Ibn Sina or Avicenna and Al-Farabi) who drew intellectually upon
the Ancient Greeks.
This long-held argument has been criticized. 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.[58] 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.[59]
Autobiography[edit]

Last page of Al-Ghazali's autobiography in MS Istanbul, Shehid Ali Pasha 1712[clarification needed], dated AH 509
(AD 1115–1116).

The autobiography al-Ghazali wrote towards the end of his life, Deliverance From
Error (‫ المنقذُّمنُّالضالل‬al-munqidh min al-ḍalāl), is considered a work of major
importance.[27] In it, al-Ghazali recounts how, once a crisis of epistemological
skepticism had been resolved by "a light which God Most High cast into my breast ...
the key to most knowledge,"[60]: 66  he studied and mastered the arguments
of kalam, Islamic philosophy, and Ismailism. Though appreciating what was valid in the
first two of these, at least, he determined that all three approaches were inadequate and
found ultimate value only in the mystical experience and insight he attained as a result
of following Sufi practices. William James, in Varieties of Religious Experience,
considered the autobiography an important document for "the purely literary student
who would like to become acquainted with the inwardness of religions other than the
Christian" because of the scarcity of recorded personal religious confessions and
autobiographical literature from this period outside the Christian tradition. [61]: 307 
The Revival of Religious Sciences (Ihya' Ulum al-Din)[edit]
See also: The Revival of the Religious Sciences
Another of al-Ghazali's major works is Ihya' Ulum al-Din or Ihya'u Ulumiddin (The
Revival of Religious Sciences). It covers almost all fields of Islamic
sciences: fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), kalam (theology) and sufism.[citation needed]
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 Ihya 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.[62] 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."[63]
The Alchemy of Happiness
See also: The Alchemy of Happiness
The Alchemy of Happiness is a rewritten version of The Revival of the Religious
Sciences. After the existential crisis that caused him to completely re-examine his way
of living and his approach to religion, Al-Ghazali put together The Alchemy of
Happiness[64] to reassert his fundamental belief that a connection to God was an integral
part of the joy of living. The book is divided into four different sections. The first of these
is Knowledge of Self, where Al-Ghazali asserts that while food, sex, and other
indulgences might slake humans appetites temporarily, they in turn make a human into
an animal, and therefore will never give true happiness and fulfillment. In order to find
oneself, people must devote themselves to God by showing restraint and discipline
rather than gluttony of the senses. The second installment is called Knowledge of God,
where Al-Ghazali states that the events that occur during one's life are meant to point
an individual towards God, and that God will always be strong, no matter how far
humans deviate from His will. The third section of The Alchemy of Happiness is
Knowledge of the World. Here he states that the world is merely a place where humans
learn to love God, and prepare for the future, or the afterlife, the nature of which will be
determined by our actions in this phase of our journey to happiness. The final section is
Knowledge of the Future World, which details how there are two types of spirits within a
man: the angelic spirit and the animal spirit. Al-Ghazali details the types of spiritual
tortures unbelievers experience, as well as the path that must be taken in order to attain
spiritual enlightenment. This book serves as a culmination of the transformation Ghazali
goes through during his spiritual awakening.
Disciplining the Soul
One of the key sections of Ghazali's Revival of the Religious Sciences is Disciplining the
Soul, which focuses on the internal struggles that every Muslim will face over the course
of his lifetime.[65] The 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: sexual satisfaction and gluttony.[65] Here, Ghazali states that
indeed every man has these desires and needs, and that it is natural to want these
things.[65] However, the Prophet explicitly states that there must be a middle ground for
man, in order to practice the tenets of Islam faithfully. The ultimate goal that Ghazali is
presenting not only in these two chapters, but in the entirety of The Revival of the
Religious Sciences, is that there must be moderation in every aspect of 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[65]. It's also important to note
here that Ghazali draws from Greek as well as Islamic philosophy in crafting this literary
staple, even though much of The Incoherence of the Philosophers, his most well known
work, takes a critical aim at their perspective.
The Eternity of the World
Al-Ghazali crafted his rebuttal of the Aristotelian viewpoint on the creation of the world
in The Eternity of the World . Al-Ghazali essentially formulates two main arguments for
what he views as a sacrilegious thought process. Central to the Aristotelian approach is
the concept that motion will always precede motion, or in other words, a force will
always create another force, and therefore for a force to be created, another force must
act upon that force.[34] This means that in essence time stretches infinitely both into the
future and into the past, which therefore proves that God did not create the universe at
one specific point in time. Ghazali counters this by first stating that if the world was
created with exact boundaries, then in its current form there would be no need for a time
before the creation of the world by God.[34] The second argument Ghazali makes is that
because humans can only imagine the time before the creation of the world, and your
imagination is a fictional thing, that all the time before the world was created is fictional
as well, and therefore does not matter as it was not intended by God to be understood
by humans.
The Decisive Criterion for Distinguishing Islam from Clandestine
Unbelief
Al-Ghazali lays out in The Decisive Criterion for Distinguishing Islam from Clandestine
Unbelief his approach to Muslim orthodoxy. Ghazali veers from the often hardline
stance of many of his contemporaries during this time period and states that as long as
one believes in the Prophet Muhammad and God himself, there are many different ways
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.[42] While Ghazali does state that any
Muslim practicing Islam in good faith is not guilty of apostasy, he does outline in The
Criterion that there is one standard of Islam that is more correct than the others, and
that those practicing the faith incorrectly should be moved to change.[42] In Ghazali's
view, only the Prophet himself could deem a faithfully practicing Muslim an infidel, and
his work was a reaction to the religious persecution and strife that occurred often during
this time period between various Islamic sects.[42]
Works in Persian[edit]
Al-Ghazali wrote most of his works in Arabic and few in Persian. His most important
Persian work is Kimiya-yi sa'adat (The Alchemy of Happiness). It is al-Ghazali's own
Persian version of Ihya' 'ulum al-din (The Revival of Religious Sciences) in Arabic, but a
shorter work. It is one of the outstanding works of 11th-century-Persian literature. The
book was published several times in Tehran by the edition of Hussain Khadev-jam, a
renowned Iranian scholar. It is translated
to English, Arabic, Turkish, Urdu, Azerbaijani and other languages.[64]
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).[66] 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 [67] and the title
given to it later, discloses the verse image of the “beautiful tree” (shajara tayyiba)
consisting of ten roots and ten branches.
Faza'il al-anam min rasa'il Hujjat al-Islam is the collection of letters in Persian that al-
Ghazali wrote in response to the kings, ministers, jurists and some of his friends after he
returned to Khorasan. The collection was gathered by one of his grandchildren after his
death, under five sections/chapters. The longest letter is the response to objections
raised against some of his statements in Mishkat al-Anwar (The Niche of Light) and al-
Munqidh min al-dalal (Rescuer from Error). The first letter is the one which al-Ghazali
wrote to Sultan Sanjar presenting his excuse for teaching in Nizamiyya of Nishapur;
followed by al-Ghazali's speech in the court of Sultan Sanjar. Al-Ghazali makes an
impressive speech when he was taken to the king's court in Nishapur in 1106, giving
very influential counsels, asking the sultan once again for excusing him from teaching in
Nizamiyya. The sultan was so impressed that he ordered al-Ghazali to write down his
speech so that it will be sent to all the ulemas of Khorasan and Iraq.
Zad-e Ākhirat (Provision for the hereafter) is an important Persian book of al-Ghazali but
gained less scholarly attention. The greater part of it consists of the Persian translation
of one of his Arabic books, Bidayat al-Hidaya (Beginning of Guidance). It contains in
addition the same contents as the Kimiya-yi Sa'adat. The book was most probably
written during the last years of his life. Its manuscripts are in Kabul (Library of the
Department of Press) and in Leiden.
Another Persian work is Hamāqāt-i ahl-i ibahat or Radd-i ebāhīyya (Condemnation of
antinomians) which is his fatwa in Persian illustrated with Quranic verses and Hadiths.
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.[68] 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).[69] The other is ʿAyn al-
Quzat's own letter, published in the Namaha-yi ʿAyn al-Quzat Hamadani (Letters by
ʿAyn al-Quzat Hamadani).[70] 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.[71] The earliest known secondary translation from
Arabic into Ottoman Turkish was done in 983/1575.[72] 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.[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.[74]

Influence[edit]
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During his life, he wrote over 70 books on science, Islamic reasoning and Sufism. [75] Al-
Ghazali distributed his book The Incoherence of Philosophers, set apart as the defining
moment in Islamic epistemology. The experience that he had with suspicion drove al-
Ghazali to shape a conviction that all occasions and connections are not the result of
material conjunctions but are the present and prompt will of God.
Another of al-Ghazali's most prestigious works is Ihya' Ulum al-Din ("The Revival of
Religious Sciences"). The work covers all fields of Islamic science and incorporates
Islamic statute, philosophy and Sufism. It had numerous positive reactions, and Al-
Ghazali at that point composed a condensed form in Persian under the title Kimiya-yi
sa'adat ("The Alchemy of Happiness"). Although al-Ghazali said that he has composed
more than 70 books, attributed to him are more than 400 books.
Al-Ghazali likewise assumed a noteworthy part in spreading Sufism and Sharia. He was
the first to consolidate the ideas of Sufism into Sharia laws and the first to give a formal
depiction of Sufism in his works. His works fortify the position of Sunni Islam, contrasted
with different schools of thought.
Al-Ghazali had an important influence on both later Muslim
philosophers and Christian medieval philosophers. 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). Then she emphasizes, "The greatest of these Christian writers who was
influenced by al-Ghazali was St. Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), who made a study of
the Arabic writers and admitted his indebtedness to them, having studied at
the University of Naples where the influence of Arab literature and culture was
predominant at the time." In addition, Aquinas' interest in Islamic studies could be
attributed to the infiltration of ‘Latin Averroism’ in the 13th century, especially at
the University of Paris.
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.[76]
Al-Ghazali also played a major role in integrating Sufism with Shariah. He was also the
first to present a formal description of Sufism in his works. His works also strengthened
the status of Sunni Islam against other schools. The Batinite (Ismailism) had emerged
in Persian territories and were gaining more and more power during al-Ghazali's period,
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,[77] and wrote several books on criticism of Baatinyas which
significantly weakened their status.
Al-Ghazali succeeded in gaining widespread acceptance for Sufism at the expense of
philosophy.[78] At the same time, in his refutation of philosophers he made use of their
philosophical categories and thus helped to give them wider circulation. [78]
His influences and impact on Sufi thought and Islam at large during the 11th century
has been a subject of debate in contemporary times. Some fifty works that he had
written is evidenced that he was one of the most important Islamic thinkers of his time.
Three of his works, Ihaya' Ulum ad-Din (Revival of Religious Sciences), Tahafut al-
Falasifa (The Incoherence of Philosophers), and al-Muniqidh min a-alal (Al-Ghazali's
Path to Sufism: His Deliverance from Error) are still widely read and circulated among
Islamic scholars today. After the death of Al-Ghazali, it is believed there followed a long
era in which there was a notable absence of Islamic philosophers, contributing to the
status of Ghazali in the modern era.
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. Some of the more notable philosophers and
scholars in the west include David Hume, Dante, and St. Thomas Aquinas. Moses Ben
Maimon, a Jewish theologian was deeply interested and vested in the works of Al-
Ghazali. One of the more notable achievements of Ghazali were his writing and reform
of education that laid 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 At-Tusi.[79]
Early childhood development was a central focal point of Al-Ghazali. He worked to
influence and develop a program to mold the young minds of children at an early age to
develop their mind and character. He stressed that socialization, family, and schools
were central in the achievement of language, morality, and behavior. He emphasized
incorporating physical fitness such as games that were important in the development of
young minds to attract the idea of attending schools and maintaining an education. In
addition, he stressed the importance of understanding and sharing cultures in the
classrooms to achieve a civic harmony that would be expressed outside the classroom
and kindness to one another.
In his writings he placed this responsibility upon the teachers. His treatise on early
education centered on Islamic laws, God, and memorizing the Qur'an to achieve literary
skill. Ghazali emphasized the importance that there should be a dual respect in regard
to the teacher and the pupil. Whereas the teacher guides the student and takes the role
of a father figure and offers council to the student, and the student respects the teacher
as a patriarch. He stressed that the teacher needed to pay attention to the learning
paces of his students so that he could help them be successful in academic
achievements.[citation needed]
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 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.[80]
In the contemporary world, Al-Ghazali is renowned not only for his contribution to
Sufism, Islam, philosophy, or education but his work and ethical approach transcends
another boundary into the Islamic business practice. In the Journal of Business Ethics,
authors Yusif Sidani and Akram Al Ariss explain how Islamic business ethics are
governed by the writings of Abu-Hamid Al-Ghazali and even posit that Al-Ghazali is the
greatest Muslim since the prophet Muhammad. Traditional Islamist's are influenced by
Ghazali's writings since he was indebted to writing about and incorporating Sharia Law.
They emphasize, "His mastery of philosophical logic and reasoning earned him the title
of philosopher without losing his status as a religious scholar."[81] Al-Ghazali's reasoning
on the use of intellect in combination with the rational and spiritual is an integral part of
Muslim society today. Therefore, they approach the business perspective with the same
ideology and organizational thought.

Number of works[edit]
Al-Ghazali mentioned the number of his works "more than 70" in one of his letters
to Sultan Sanjar in the late years of his life.[citation needed] Some "five dozen" are 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 the 13th century,
after the dissemination of the large corpus of works by Ibn Arabi.[52]
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.

Abdel Rahman Badawi's Bibliography of all works attributed to Al-Ghazali[82]

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– are the names of the Chapters or Sections of al-Ghazali's books that are mistakenly thought by
224 him

225–
books written by other authors on al-Ghazali's works
273

274–
books of other unknown scholars/writers regarding al-Ghazali's life and personality
389

389–
the name of the manuscripts of al-Ghazali's works in different libraries of the world:
457

Short List of Major Works of Gazali

Title Description Type

al-Munqidh min al-
Rescuer from Error Theology
dalal

Hujjat al-Haq Proof of the Truth Theology

Al-Iqtisād fī al-
The Moderation in Belief Theology
iʿtiqad

Iljām al-Awām an Bridling the Common Folk Away From the Science of Theological
Theology
Ilm il-Kalām Speculation

al-maqsad al-asna
fi sharah asma' The best means in explaining Allah's Beautiful Names Theology
Allahu al-husna

Jawahir al-Qur'an
Jewels of the Qur'an and Its Pearls Theology
wa duraruh

Faysal al-tafriqa
bayn al-Islam wa-l- The Criterion of Distinction between Islam and Clandestine Unbelief Theology
zandaqa

Al-radd al-jamil li-

The Excellent Refutation of the Divinity of Jesus through the Text of
ilahiyyat ‘Isa bi- Theology
the Gospel
sarih al-Injil

Mishkat al-Anwar[83] The Niche for Lights, a commentary on the Verse of Light Theology

Tafsir al-yaqut al-

Theology
ta'wil

Mizan al-'amal Criterion of Action Tasawwuf

Ihya'e Ulum-
The Revival of the Religious Sciences Tasawwuf
ed'Deen
Bidayat al-hidayah The Beginning of Guidance Tasawwuf

Kimiya-yi sa'ādat The Alchemy of Happiness [a résumé of Ihya'ul ulum, in Persian] Tasawwuf

Nasihat al-muluk Counseling Kings in Persian Tasawwuf

al-Munqidh min al-

Rescuer from Error Tasawwuf
dalal

Minhaj al-'Abidin Methodology for the Worshipers Tasawwuf

Fada'ih al- The Infamies of the Esotericists, a refutation of esoteric Sufism in

Tasawwuf
Batiniyya general and Isma'ili doctrines in particular

Aims of the Philosophers written in the beginning of his life, in

Maqasid al falasifa favour of philosophy and presenting the basic theories in Philosophy, Philosophy
mostly influenced by Avicenna's works

The Incoherence of the Philosophers), [Book refutes the Greek

Tahāfut al- Philosophy aiming at Avicenna and Al-Farabi; and of which Ibn
Philosophy
Falāsifah Rushd wrote his famous refutation Tahāfut al-Tahāfut (The
Incoherence of the Incoherence)

Miyar al-Ilm fi fan

Criterion of Knowledge in the Art of Logic Philosophy
al-Mantiq

Mihak al-Nazar fi
Touchstone of Reasoning in Logic Philosophy
al-mantiq

al-Qistas al-
The Correct Balance Philosophy
mustaqim

Fatawy al-Ghazali Verdicts of al-Ghazali Jurisprudence

 Al-wasit fi al-
(The medium [digest] in the Jurisprudential school) Jurisprudence
mathab

Kitab tahzib al-Isul Prunning on Legal Theory Jurisprudence

al-Mustasfa fi 'ilm
The Clarified in Legal Theory Jurisprudence
al-isul

Asas al-Qiyas Foundation of Analogical reasoning Jurisprudence

The Jerusalem
Jurisprudence
Tract [84]

Sources:[85][86]: 29 

Reception of work[edit]
According to William Montgomery Watt, Al-Ghazali was considered to be
the mujaddid ("Reviver") of his age. Many, perhaps most, later Muslims concurred and,
according to Watt, some have even considered him to be the greatest Muslim
after Muhammad.[35] This statement is refuted by scholars who came after him for it was
witnessed that he was giving strengths to weak narrations[sheikh Albani silsilatul huda
wan Noor]
As an example, the Islamic scholar al-Safadi stated:
Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad, the Proof of Islam, Ornament
of the Faith, Abu Hamid al-Tusi (al-Ghazali) the Shafi'ite jurist, was in his later years
without rival.[87]
and the jurist, al-Yafi'i stated:
He was called The Proof of Islam and undoubtedly was worthy of the name, absolutely
trustworthy (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 he given us of
what was hard to fathom, with brief elucidation and clear solution of knotty problems. He
used moderation, being quiet but decisive in silencing an adversary, though his words
were like a sharp sword-thrust in refuting a slanderer and protecting the high-road of
guidance.[88]
The Shafi'i jurist al-Subki stated:
"If there had been a prophet after Muhammad, al-Ghazali would have been the
man".[89][90]
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." [91]
Ibn Rushd (Averroes), a rationalist, famously responded that "to say that philosophers
are incoherent is itself to make an incoherent statement."[citation needed] 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.[92]
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."[93]
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
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.[93] This position has been challenged, however.[94][95] 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."[53]