Al-Ghazali

Not to be confused with al-Ghazal.
For other uses, see Ghazali.
Imam
Al-Ghazali
ٱلْغَزَّالِيّ
TitleHujjat al-Islam ('Proof of Islam')[1]
Personal
Bornc. 1058
Tus, Iran, Seljuq Empire
Died19 December 1111(1111-12-19) (aged 52–53)
Tus, Iran, Seljuq Empire
ReligionIslam
EraIslamic Golden Age
RegionSeljuq Empire(Nishapur)[2]: 292 
Abbasid Caliphate (Baghdad)
Fatimid Caliphate (Jerusalem) / (Damascus)[2]: 292 
DenominationSunni[3][4]
SchoolShafi'i
CreedAshari[5][6]
Main interest(s)Sufism, theology (kalam), philosophy, logic, Sharia, Islamic jurisprudence, Principles of Islamic jurisprudence
Notable work(s)The Revival of Religious Sciences, The Aims of the Philosophers, The Incoherence of the Philosophers, The Alchemy of Happiness, The Moderation in Belief, The Condensed in Imam Shafi’i’s Jurisprudence, On Legal theory of Muslim Jurisprudence
Muslim leader
Influenced by
Influenced

Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ṭūsiyy al-Ghazali (Arabic: أَبُو حَامِد مُحَمَّد بْن مُحَمَّد ٱلطُّوسِيّ ٱلْغَزَّالِيّ), known commonly as Al-Ghazali (Arabic: ٱلْغَزَالِيُّ; UK: /ælˈɡɑːzɑːli/,[26] US: /ˌælɡəˈzɑːli, -zæl-/;[27][28] c. 1058 – 19 December 1111), known in Medieval Europe by the Latinized Algazelus or Algazel, was a Persian Sunni Muslim polymath.[29][30][31][32][33] He is known as one of the most prominent and influential jurisconsults, legal theoreticians, muftis, philosophers, theologians, logicians and mystics in Islamic history.[34][35][36][37]

He is considered to be the 11th century's mujaddid,[38][39] a renewer of the faith, who, according to the prophetic hadith, appears once every 100 years to restore the faith of the Islamic community.[40][41][42] Al-Ghazali's works were so highly acclaimed by his contemporaries that he was awarded the honorific title "Proof of Islam" (Ḥujjat al-Islām).[1] Al-Ghazali was a prominent mujtahid in the Shafi'i school of law.[43]

Much of Al-Ghazali's work stemmed around his spiritual crises following his appointment as the head of the Nizzamiyya University in Baghdad - which was the most prestigious academic position in the Muslim world at the time.[44][45] This led to his eventual disappearance from the Muslim world for over 10 years, realising he chose the path of status and ego over God.[46][47] It was during this period where many of his great works were written.[46] He believed that the Islamic spiritual tradition had become moribund and that the spiritual sciences taught by the first generation of Muslims had been forgotten.[48] This 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") is a landmark in the history of philosophy, as it advances the critique of Aristotelian science developed later in 14th-century Europe.[37]

  1. ^ a b Janin, Hunt (2005). The Pursuit of Learning in the Islamic World. McFarland. p. 83. ISBN 0786419547.
  2. ^ a b Griffel, Frank (2006). Meri, Josef W. (ed.). Medieval Islamic civilization: an encyclopedia. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0415966900.
  3. ^ Meri, Josef W.; Bacharach, Jere L. (2006). Medieval Islamic Civilization: A-K. Taylor & Francis. p. 293. ISBN 978-0415966917.
  4. ^ Böwering, Gerhard; Crone, Patricia (2013). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought. Princeton University Press. p. 191. ISBN 978-0691134840. Ghazali (ca. 1058–1111) Abu Hamid Muhammad b. Muhammad al-Ghazali al-Tusi (the "Proof of Islam") is the most renowned Sunni theologian of the Seljuq period (1038–1194).
  5. ^ A.C. Brown, Jonathan (2009). Hadith: Muhammad's Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World (Foundations of Islam). Oneworld Publications. p. 179. ISBN 978-1851686636.
  6. ^ Leaman, Oliver (2006). The Qur'an: An Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. pp. 84. ISBN 978-0415326391.
  7. ^ Smith, Margaret (1936). "The Forerunner of Al-Ghazali". The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. 68 (1): 65–78. doi:10.1017/S0035869X00076358. JSTOR 25182038. S2CID 163151146.
  8. ^ "Imam Ghazali's Teachers: al-Ghazali's Website". www.ghazali.org.
  9. ^ https://phm.znu.ac.ir/article_19567.html?lang=en [bare URL]
  10. ^ Griffel 2009, p. 62.
  11. ^ Griffel 2009, p. 81.
  12. ^ Norman Calder (22 March 2010). Islamic Jurisprudence in the Classical Era. Cambridge University Press. p. 88. ISBN 9781139485715.
  13. ^ Griffel 2009, p. 76.
  14. ^ Griffel 2009, p. 77.
  15. ^ Marenbon, John (2007). Medieval Philosophy: an historical and philosophical introduction. Routledge. p. 174. ISBN 978-0-415-28113-3.
  16. ^ Griffel 2009, p. 75.
  17. ^ Andrew Rippin, The Blackwell Companion to the Qur'an, p 410. ISBN 1405178442
  18. ^ "The Influence of Islamic Thought on Maimonides". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. June 30, 2005.
  19. ^ Heinrichs, Karin; Oser, Fritz (12 June 2013). Terence Lovat, Handbook of Moral Motivation: Theories, Models, Applications. Springer. p. 257. ISBN 978-9462092754.
  20. ^ "Muslim Philosophy". Islamic Contributions to Science & Math, netmuslims.com. Archived from the original on 2013-10-29.
  21. ^ James Robert Brown, Philosophy of Science: The Key Thinkers, p. 159. ISBN 1441142002
  22. ^ Sayf Din al-Amidi Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, September 18, 2019
  23. ^ Griffel 2009, p. 71.
  24. ^ Ayn al-`Ilm wa Zayn al-Hilm, Muqadimmah, Page 1
  25. ^ Griffel 2009, p. 74.
  26. ^ "Ghazali". Collins English Dictionary. HarperCollins. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
  27. ^ "Al-Ghazali". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (5th ed.). HarperCollins. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
  28. ^ "Ghazālī, al-". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
  29. ^ Cite error: The named reference Iranica was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  30. ^ The Spirit of Creativity: Basic Mechanisms of Creative Achievements "Persian polymath Al-Ghazali published several treatises...."
  31. ^ http://www.ibe.unesco.org/sites/default/files/ghazalie.pdf « Al-Ghazali was born in A.D. 1058 (A.H. 450) in or near the city of Tus in Khurasan to a Persian family of modest means... »
  32. ^ The Ethics of Suicide: Historical Sources "A native of Khorassan, of Persian origin, the Muslim theologian, sufi mystic, and philosopher Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali is one of the great figures of Islamic religious thought...."
  33. ^ Bloch, Ernst (2019). Avicenna and the Aristotelian Left. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 77. ISBN 9780231175357. Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazali (ca.1058-1111) was a Persian antirationalist philosopher and theologian.
  34. ^ Banuazizi, Ali; Weiner, Myron (March 1994). The Politics of Social Transformation in Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan. Syracuse University Press. p. 108. ISBN 9780815626091.
  35. ^ "Ghazali, al-". The Columbia Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17 December 2012.
  36. ^ Adamec, Ludwig W. (2009). Historical Dictionary of Islam. Scarecrow Press. p. 109. ISBN 978-0810861619.
  37. ^ a b Griffel, Frank (2016). "Al-Ghazali". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2016 ed.). Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University.
  38. ^ William Montgomery Watt, Al-Ghazali: The Muslim Intellectual, p. 180. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1963.
  39. ^ Rosmizi, Mohd; Yucel, Salih (2016). "The Mujaddid of his age: Al-Ghazali and his inner spiritual journey". UMRAN - International Journal of Islamic and Civilizational Studies. 3 (2): 1–12. doi:10.11113/umran2016.3n2.56. ISSN 2289-8204.
  40. ^ Smith, Jane I. (19 November 2009). Islam in America. Columbia University Press. p. 36. ISBN 978-0231519991.
  41. ^ Dhahabi, Siyar, 4.566
  42. ^ Oxtoby, Willard Gurdon (1996). Oxford University Press. p. 421. {{cite book}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  43. ^ Al Beirawi, Abu Ismael (12 April 2016). Essays on Ijtihad in the 21st Century. CreateSpace. p. 35. ISBN 9781539995036.
  44. ^ Joseph E. B. Lumbard, Islam, Fundamentalism, and the Betrayal of Tradition: Essays by Western Muslim Scholars p90. ISBN 0941532607
  45. ^ George Makdisi, The Rise of Colleges, p27
  46. ^ a b Nasr, Seyyed Hossein (2014). "Happiness and the Attainment of Happiness: An Islamic Perspective". Journal of Law and Religion. 29 (1): 76–91 [80]. doi:10.1017/jlr.2013.18. JSTOR 24739088.
  47. ^ "Al-Ghazali's Turning Point: On the Writings on his Personal Crisis". www.ghazali.org. Retrieved 2023-07-30.
  48. ^ Böwering, Gerhard; Crone, Patricia; Mirza, Mahan; Kadi, Wadad; Zaman, Muhammad Qasim; Stewart, Devin J. (2013). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought. Princeton University Press. p. 191. ISBN 978-0691134840 – via Google Books.
  49. ^ Sonn, Tamara (1996-10-10). Interpreting Islam: Bandali Jawzi's Islamic Intellectual History. Oxford University Press. pp. 30. ISBN 9780195356564. Ghazali Revival ihya.