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ABU HAMID AL-GHAZALI (1058 - 1128 C.E.)
Al-Ghazali is most famous for his contributions in
philosophy, religion and Sufism. He is also known as
Algazel in the West. Abu Hamid Ibn Muhammad Ibn Muhammad
al-Tusi al-Shafi'i al-Ghazali was born in 1058 C.E.
in Khorman, 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 honored by his appointment as
a Professor at the Nizamiyah University of Baghdad,
which was recognized 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 authorship
of a number of everlasting books. He died in 1128 C.E.
at Baghdad.
Al-Ghazali made major contributions 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, Al-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 observation 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 orthodox religion. Yet, he stressed
the importance of genuine sufism, which he maintained
was the path to attain the absolute truth.
Al-Ghazali was a prolific writer. His immortal books
include Tuhafat al-Falasifa (The Incoherence of the
Philosophers), Ihya al-'Ulum al-Islamia (The Revival
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.
Al-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 orthodox Christian religion
in the West. So forceful was his argument in the favor
of religion that he was accused of damaging the cause
of philosophy and, in the Muslim Spain, Ibn Rushd (Averroes)
wrote a rejoinder to his Tuhafut.
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