He is considered to be the 11th century'smujaddid,[33][34] a renewer of the faith, who, according to the prophetichadith, appears once every 100 years to restore the faith of theIslamic community.[35][36][37] Al-Ghazali's works were so highly acclaimed by his contemporaries that he was awarded the honorific title "Proof of Islam" (Ḥujjat al-Islām).[38] Al-Ghazali was a prominentmujtahid in theShafi'i school oflaw.[39]
Much of Al-Ghazali's work stemmed around his spiritual crises following his appointment as the head of theNizamiyya University in Baghdad - which was the most prestigious academic position in the Muslim world at the time.[40][41] 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.[42][43] It was during this period where many of his great works were written.[42] 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.[44] This belief led him to write his magnum opus entitledIḥyā’ ‘ulūm ad-dīn ("The Revival of the Religious Sciences").[45] Among his other works, theTahāfut al-Falāsifa ("Incoherence of the Philosophers") is a landmark in thehistory of philosophy, as it advances the critique ofAristotelian science developed later in 14th-century Europe.[32]
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 brotherAhmad to the care of aSufi. Al-Ghazali's contemporary and first biographer,'Abd al-Ghafir al-Farisi, records merely that al-Ghazali began to receive instruction infiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) from Ahmad al-Radhakani, a local teacher andAbu ali Farmadi, aNaqshbandi sufi from Tus.[46]: 26–27 He later studied underal-Juwayni, the distinguished jurist and theologian and "the most outstanding Muslim scholar of his time,"[46] inNishapur,[2]: 292 perhaps after a period of study inGurgan. After al-Juwayni's death in 1085, al-Ghazali departed fromNishapur and joined the court ofNizam al-Mulk, the powerful vizier of theSeljuk empire, which was likely centered inIsfahan. 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: theNizamiyya madrasa inBaghdad.[46]
He underwent a spiritual crisis in 1095, which some speculate was brought on by clinicalhysteria,[53][54][55] abandoned his career and left Baghdad on the pretext of going on pilgrimage toMecca. Making arrangements for his family, he disposed of his wealth and adopted anascetic 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."[56] After some time inDamascus andJerusalem, with a visit toMedina and Mecca in 1096, he returned to Tus to spend the next several years inuzla (seclusion). The seclusion consisted in abstaining from teaching at state-sponsored institutions, but he continued to publish, receive visitors and teach in thezawiya (private madrasa) andkhanqah (Sufi lodge) that he had built.
Fakhr al-Mulk, grand vizier toAhmad 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.[46] He later returned to Tus and declined an invitation in 1110 from the grand vizier of the Seljuq SultanMuhammad 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.[46]
Al-Ghazali contributed significantly to the development of a systematic view ofSufism and its integration and acceptance in mainstream Islam. As a scholar of Islam,[57][58] he belonged to theShafi'i school of Islamicjurisprudence and to theAsharite school oftheology.[59] Al-Ghazali received many titles such asZayn al-Dīn (زين الدين) andḤujjat al-Islām (حجة الإسلام).[38][35][36][37]
He is viewed as the key member of the influentialAsharite school ofearly Muslim philosophy and the most important refuter of theMutazilites. 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.[59][5][60]
A total of about 70 works can be attributed to al-Ghazali.[61][32][62] He is also known to have written afatwa against theTaifa 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 byYusuf ibn Tashfin to justify his conquest of al-Andalus.[63]
Al-Ghazali's 11th-century book titledTahāfut al-Falāsifa ("Incoherence of the Philosophers")marked a major turn in Islamicepistemology. The encounter withskepticism led al-Ghazali to investigate a form of theologicaloccasionalism, 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 (orAverroes) drafted a lengthy rebuttal of al-Ghazali'sIncoherence entitledThe Incoherence of the Incoherence; however, the epistemological course of Islamic thought had already been set.[64] 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."[65][66][67]
TheIncoherence also marked a turning point in Islamic philosophy in its vehement rejections ofAristotle andPlato. The book took aim at theFalāsifa, a loosely defined group of Islamic philosophers from the 8th through the 11th centuries (most notable among themAvicenna andal-Farabi) who drew intellectually upon theAncient Greeks.
The influence of Al-Ghazali's book is still debated. Professor of Arabic and Islamic ScienceGeorge 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.[68]
Professor of Mathematics Nuh Aydin wrote in 2012 that one the most important reasons of the decline of science in the Islamic world has been Al-Ghazali's attack ofphilosophers (scientists, physicists, mathematicians, logicians). The attack peaked in his bookIncoherence, whose central idea of theologicaloccasionalism implies thatphilosophers cannot give rational explanations to either metaphysical or physical questions. The idea caught on and nullified the critical thinking in the Islamic world.[69]
On the other hand, author and journalistHassan 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 butNizam al-Mulk.[70]
The Revival of Religious Sciences (Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn)
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) andThe Ways to Salvation (Rub' al-munjiyat). TheIḥyāʾ 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.[72] The book was well received by Islamic scholars such asNawawi who stated that: "Were the books of Islam all to be lost, excepting only the Ihya', it would suffice to replace them all."[73] This reception, however, was not universal as the book was burned in Almoravid Spain in 1109 and 1143 as al-Ghazali criticised thefuqaha for meddling in politics and due to al-Ghazali'ssyncretism[clarification needed] and support of Sufism.[74][75] Allegedly, al-Ghazali foretold outraged upon hearing of the burning of his book the rise of the Almohad dynasty and invested is founderIbn Tumart with the duty to overthrow the Almoravid rule.[76]
The Alchemy of Happiness is a rewritten version ofThe 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 togetherThe Alchemy of Happiness.[77]
One of the key sections of Ghazali'sRevival of the Religious Sciences isDisciplining the Soul, which focuses on the internal struggles that every Muslim will face over the course of his lifetime.[78] 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 andgluttony.[78] Here, Ghazali states that indeed every man has these desires and needs, and that it is natural to want these things.[78] 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 ofTheRevival 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'sRevival of the Religious Sciences.[78]
Al-Ghazali crafted his rebuttal of the Aristotelian viewpoint on the creation of the world inThe Eternity of the World. Al-Ghazali essentially formulates two main arguments for what he views as a sacrilegious thought process. Central to theAristotelian 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.[32] This means that in essence time stretches infinitely both into the future and into the past, which therefore proves thatGod did not create the universe at one specific point in time. Al-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.[32]
The Decisive Criterion for Distinguishing Islam from Clandestine Unbelief
Al-Ghazali lays out inTheDecisive 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 theProphet 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.[46] While Ghazali does state that any Muslim practicing Islam in good faith is not guilty ofapostasy, he does outline inThe 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.[46] 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.[46]
Last page of al-Ghazali's autobiography in MS Istanbul, Shehid Ali Pasha no. 1712, datedAH 509 (AD 1115–1116).
Theautobiography al-Ghazali wrote towards the end of his life,Deliverance From Error [ar] (المنقذ من الضلالal-Munqidh min al-Dalal), is considered a work of major importance.[79] In it, al-Ghazali recounts how, once a crisis ofepistemological skepticism had been resolved by "a light which God Most High cast into my breast ... the key to most knowledge,"[80]: 66 he studied and mastered the arguments ofkalam,Islamic philosophy, andIsmailism. 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 followingSufi practices.William James, inVarieties 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.[81]: 307
Al-Ghazali wrote most of his works inPersian and inArabic. His most important Persian work isKimiya-yi sa'adat (The Alchemy of Happiness). It is al-Ghazali's own Persian version ofIhya' '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 inTehran by the edition of Hussain Khadev-jam, a renowned Iranian scholar. It is translated toEnglish,Arabic,Turkish,Urdu,Azerbaijani and other languages.[77]
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).[82] 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.[83]
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 theFazaʾil al-anam.[84] Another source is a letter known asʿAyniya 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 theMajmuʿa-yi athar-i farsi-yi Ahmad-i Ghazali (Collection of the Persian writings of Ahmad Ghazali).[85] The other is ʿAyn al-Quzat's own letter, published in theNamaha-yi ʿAyn al-Quzat Hamadani (Letters by ʿAyn al-Quzat Hamadani).[86] Later,Ay farzand was translated into Arabic and became famous asAyyuha 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.[87] The earliest known secondary translation from Arabic into Ottoman Turkish was done in 983/1575.[88] 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.[89]
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.[90]
During his life, Al-Ghazali wrote over seventy books on science, Islamic philosophy, and Sufism.[91][92][93][31][32][79][94][95][96][49][excessive citations] Al-Ghazali played a major role in integratingSufism withShariah. He was also the first to present a formal description of Sufism in his works. His works also strengthened the status ofSunni Islam against other schools. TheBatinite (Ismailism) had emerged inPersian territories and were gaining more and more power during al-Ghazali's period, asNizam al-Mulk was assassinated by the members of Ismailis. In hisFada'ih al-Batiniyya (The Infamies of the Esotericists) al-Ghazali declared them unbelievers whose blood may be spilled.[97][page needed] Al-Ghazali succeeded in gaining widespread acceptance for Sufism at the expense of philosophy.[98] At the same time, in his refutation of philosophers he made use of their philosophical categories and thus helped to give them wider circulation.[98]
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. Western scholars influenced by al-Ghazali includeDante,Thomas Aquinas, andDavid Hume.Moses Ben Maimon, a Jewish theologian was deeply influenced by the works of al-Ghazali. One of the more notable achievements of al-Ghazali was his writing and reform of education that laid out 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 asNasir al-Din al-Tusi.[99][dead link]
Al-Ghazali 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.[100] The period following Ghazali "has tentatively been called the Golden Age of Arabic philosophy" initiated by Ghazali's successful integration oflogic into the Islamic seminaryMadrasah curriculum.[101]
Ghazali was cited byIsaac Abravanel to argue that the Greeks borrowed their scientific and philosophical knowledge from Jewish sources.[102]
Al-Ghazali mentioned the number of his works "more than 70" in one of his letters toSultan 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 byIbn Arabi.[61]
Bibliographies have been published byWilliam Montgomery Watt (The Works Attributed to Al-Ghazali), Maurice Bouyges (Essai de chronologie des oeuvres d'Al-Ghazali) and others.
The Infamies of the Esotericists, a refutation of esoteric Sufism in general and Isma'ili doctrines in particular
Tasawwuf
Maqasid al falasifa
Aims of the Philosophers written in the beginning of his life, in favour of philosophy and presenting the basic theories in Philosophy, mostly influenced by Avicenna's works
Al-Ghazali'seconomic philosophy was primarily influenced by his Islamic beliefs. He argued that the importance of economic activity lay both in its benefit to society, as well being necessary for salvation.[108]
He established three goals of economic activity that he believed were part of one's religious obligation: "achievement of self-sufficiency for one's survival; provision for the well-being of one's progeny; and provision for assisting those in economic need."[108] He argued that subsistence living, or living in a way that provides the basic necessities for only one's family, would not be an acceptable practice to be held by the general population because of the detrimental results that he believed that would bring upon the economy, but he acknowledged that some people may choose to live the subsistence lifestyle at their own will for the sake of their personal religious journey. Conversely, he discouraged people from purchasing or possessing excessive material items, suggesting that any additional money earned could be given to provide for the poor.[108]
Al-Ghazali believed that the imposition of income equality in society should not be a necessity. Instead, he advocated for individuals to be guided by the "spirit of Islamic brotherhood," encouraging them to willingly share their wealth. However, he acknowledged that this ideal isn't universally practiced. According to him, earned wealth can serve two potential purposes. The first is for the good of oneself, which includes maintaining one's own health and that of their family, as well as extending care to others and engaging in actions beneficial to the Islamic community. The other is what al-Ghazali would consider misuse, spending it selfishly on extravagant or unnecessary material items.[108]
In terms of trade, al-Ghazali discussed the necessity of exchanging goods across close cities as well as larger borders because it allows more goods, which may be necessary and not yet available, to be accessible to more people in various locations. He recognized the necessity of trade and its overall beneficial effect on the economy, but making money in that way might not be considered the most virtuous in his beliefs. He did not support people taking "excessive" profits from their trade sales.[108]
According toWilliam Montgomery Watt, al-Ghazali was considered to be themujaddid ("Reviver") of his age.[33][109] Many, perhaps most, later Muslims concurred and, according to Watt, some have even considered him to be the greatest Muslim afterMuhammad.[33]
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.[110]
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.[111]
The Shafi'i jurist al-Subki stated:
"If there had been a prophet after Muhammad, al-Ghazali would have been the man".[112][113]
Also a widely consideredSunni 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."[114]
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.[115]
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."[116]
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 purportedly 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.[116] This position has been challenged, however.[117][118] 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."[63] This sentence, the source of which is not indicated in the cited book, is taken fromDeliverance from Error.[119] Ghazali does not mean that neglecting the study of mathematics would be a crime against science or against reason, but that rejecting them is a crime against religion. Its aim is not to promote the study of mathematics: it is to condemn the attitude which consists in considering them as rivals of religion. For him, religion has nothing to fear from them, because they do not deal with the same subjects. To condemn the study of mathematics for fear that it endangers religion is to mistake the place of each of them. This is clarified by the sentence which immediately follows: "For the revealed Law nowhere undertakes to deny or affirm these sciences, and the latter nowhere address themselves to religious matters.[119]" A few pages later,[120] he writes that the books of the philosophers must be banned - he defines philosophy as composed of six branches: mathematical, logical, physical, metaphysical, political, and morale.[121] Al-Ghazali notably influencedIbn Rushd,[10]Ayn al-Quzat Hamadani,[11]al-Nawawi,[13]Ibn Tumart,[14]Fakhruddin Razi,[16]Suyuti,[17]Tan Malaka,[18]Thomas Aquinas,[122][19]David Hume,[21]Sayf al-Din al-Amidi,[22]Asad Mayhani,[23]Ali al-Qari,[24]Muhammad Ibn Yahya al-Janzi.[25]
^Böwering, Gerhard; Crone, Patricia (2013).The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought.Princeton University Press. p. 191.ISBN978-0691134840.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).
^abHeinrichs, Karin; Oser, Fritz (12 June 2013).Terence Lovat, Handbook of Moral Motivation: Theories, Models, Applications. Springer. p. 257.ISBN978-9462092754.
^abNasr, 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.
^Foundation, Encyclopaedia Iranica."Welcome to Encyclopaedia Iranica".iranicaonline.org. Retrieved2024-03-07.A man of Persian descent, Ḡazālī (variant name Ḡazzālī; Med. Latin form, Algazel; honorific title, Ḥojjat-al-Eslām"The Proof of Islam"), was born at Ṭūs in Khorasan in 450/1058 and grew up as an orphan together with his younger brother Aḥmad Ḡazālī (d. 520/1126; q.v.).
^abBloch, Ernst (2019).Avicenna and the Aristotelian Left. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 77.ISBN9780231175357.Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazali (ca.1058-1111) was a Persian antirationalist philosopher and theologian.
^Bosworth, C. E. (1968). "The Political and Dynastic History of the Iranian World". In Boyle, J. A. (ed.).The Cambridge History of Iran. Vol. 5.Cambridge University Press. p. 48.
^Abū Ḥāmid b. Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. Muḥammad al-Ghazzālī, "al-Munqidh min al-Ḍalāl" inMajmūʿa Rasāʾil al-Imām al-Ghazzālī. Ed. by Aḥmad Shams al-Dīn (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1988), 29, 60
^Jacques Lacan, "Some Reflections on the Ego" inThe International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 1953, No. 34, 13. (presentation, the British Psycho-Analytical Society, London, May 2nd, 1951)
^Ovidio Salazar,Al-Ghazali: The Alchemist of Happiness (2004; London: Matmedia Productions, 2006), DVD.
^Nicholson, Reynold Alleyne. (1966). "A literary history of the Arabs." London: Cambridge University Press. p. 382.
^Meri, Josef W.; Bacharach, Jere L. (2006).Medieval Islamic Civilization: A-K. Taylor and Francis. p. 293.ISBN978-0415966917.
^Böwering, Gerhard; Crone, Patricia (2013).The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought. Princeton University Press. p. 191.ISBN978-0691134840.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).
^abR.M. Frank,Al-Ghazali and the Ashʿarite School, Duke University Press, London 1994
^ab"about five dozen authentic works, in addition to which some 300 other titles of works of uncertain, doubtful, or spurious authorship, many of them duplicates owing to varying titles, are cited in Muslim bibliographical literature. [...] Already Ebn Ṭofayl (d. 581/1185, q.v.) observed that Ḡazālī wrote for different audiences, ordinary men and the elite (pp. 69-72), and Ḡazālī himself completed the rather moderate theological treatise, Eljām al-ʿawāmmʿan ʿelm al-kalām "The restraining of ordinary men from theology," in the last month before his death"Encyclopedia Iranica.
^For al-Ghazali's argument seeThe Incoherence of the Philosophers. Translated by Michael E. Marmura. 2nd ed, Provo Utah, 2000, pp.116-7.
^For Ibn Rushd's response, seeKhalid, Muhammad A., ed. (2005).Medieval Islamic Philosophical Writings. Cambridge UK. p. 162.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^"Many orientalists argue that Ghazali's Tahafut is responsible for the age of decline inscience in the Muslim World. This is their key thesis as they attempt to explain the scientific and intellectual history of the Islamic world. It seems to be the most widely accepted view on the matter not only in the Western world but in the Muslim world as well. George Saliba, a Professor of Arabic and Islamic Science at Columbia University who specializes in the development of astronomy within Islamic civilization, calls this view the "classical narrative" (Saliba, 2007)".
^Hunt Janin, The Pursuit of Learning in the Islamic World 610-2003, p 83.ISBN0786429046
^Lumbard, Joseph E. B. (2004).Islam, Fundamentalism, and the Betrayal of Tradition: Essays by Western Muslim Scholars. World Wisdom. p. 291.ISBN0941532607.
^Makatib-i farsi-yi Ghazali ba nam-i Faza’il al-anam min rasa’il Ḥujjat al-Islam, ed. ʿAbbas Iqbal Ashtiyani, Tehran, 1954, pp. 11-12
^Makatib-i farsi-yi Ghazali ba nam-i Faza’il al-anam min rasa’il Hujjat al-Islam, ed. ʿAbbas Iqbal Ashtiyani, Tehran, 1954, pp. 13-23, 83-85
^Majmuʿa-yi athar-i farsi-yi Ahmad-e Ghazali, ed. A. Mujahid, Tehran, 1979, 2nd ed., Tehran, 1991, pp. 191-238
^Namaha-yi ʿAyn al-Quzat Hamadani, ed. ʿAli Naqi Monzawi and ʿAfif ʿUsayran, 2 vols., Tehran, 1983, II, p.103, no 73
^George Henry Scherer, Al-Ghazali’s Ayyuha’l-walad, Ph.D. diss., Chicago University, 1930; Beirut, 1933, p. 27
^Hilmi Ziya Ülken, Gazali’nin bazi eserlerinin Türkçe tercümeleri. Les traductions en Turc de certains livres d’al-Ghazali, Ankara Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi 9/1, 1961, p. 61
^Günaydin, Gazâlî tercümeleri: Osmanli devri ve 1928 sonrasi için bir bibliyografya denemesi, Dîvân: Disiplinlerarası Çalışmalar Dergisi 16, 2011, pp. 70-73
^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...."
^"AL-Ghazali"(PDF).Quarterly Review of Comparative Education.23:3–4. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 20 March 2023.
^Louchakova-Schwartz, Olga (2011). "The Self and the World: Vedanta, Sufism, and the Presocratics in a Phenomenological View".Phenomenology/Ontopoiesis Retrieving Geo-cosmic Horizons of Antiquity. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands. pp. 423–438.doi:10.1007/978-94-007-1691-9_33.ISBN9789400716902.
^"Ghazâlî had successfully introduced logic into the madrasa (though it was studied in other venues as well (Endress 2006)). What happened to it after this time was the result of the activities of logicians much more gifted than Ghazâlî. This period has tentatively been called the Golden Age of Arabic philosophy (Gutas 2002). It is in this period, and especially in the thirteenth century, that the major changes in the coverage and structure of Avicennan logic were introduced; these changes were mainly introduced in free-standing treatises on logic. It has been observed that the thirteenth century was the time that "doing logic in Arabic was thoroughly disconnected from textual exegesis, perhaps more so than at any time before or since" (El-Rouayheb 2010b: 48–49). Many of the major textbooks for teaching logic in later centuries come from this period. [...] For all his historical importance in the process of introducing logic into the madrasa, the logic that Ghazâlî defended was too dilute to be recognizably Farabian or Avicennan."Street, Tony (July 23, 2008)."Arabic and Islamic Philosophy of Language and Logic".Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved2008-12-05.
^abcdeGhazanfar, Shaikh Mohammad; Islahi, Abdul Azim (1997).Economic Thought of Al-Ghazali(PDF). Islamic Economics Research Series, King Abdulaziz University. Jeddah, Saudi Arabia: Scientific Publishing Centre, King Abdulaziz University. p. 13.ISBN978-9960-06-574-8.
Campanini, Massimo, Ghazali, inMuhammad in History, Thought, and Culture: An Encyclopedia of the Prophet of God (2 vols.), Edited by C. Fitzpatrick and A. Walker, Santa Barbara, ABC-CLIO, 2014.ISBN1610691776
Watt, W. M.:Muslim Intellectual: A Study of al-Ghazali, Edinburgh 1963
Zwemer, S. M.A Moslem Seeker after God, New York 1920
Nakamura, K. "Al-Ghazali",Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Dougan, A.The Glimpse: The Inner teaching of Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazzali's Mishkat al-Anwar (The Niche for Lights) byAbdullah DouganISBN0-9597566-6-3
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