Imam al-Ghazali
أبو حامد محمد بن محمد الغزالي
Ḥujjat al-Islām
Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ghazālī
- Birthplace
- Ṭūs, Khurāsān
- Madhhab
- Shāfiʿī in fiqh, Ashʿarī in ʿaqīdah
- Reference
- Wikipedia ↗
Reviving the inner life of Islam through the Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn — one of the most influential works ever written in any religious tradition.
Al-Ghazali was a jurist, theologian, and mystic whose spiritual crisis at the height of his career in Baghdad led him to a decade of withdrawal and self-examination. He returned with a body of work that redrew the relationship between law, theology, and the heart — insisting that outward practice without inward sincerity is a building without a foundation.
- Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn (Revival of the Religious Sciences)
- Al-Munqidh min al-Ḍalāl (Deliverance from Error)
- Bidāyat al-Hidāyah (The Beginning of Guidance)
- Kīmiyā al-Saʿādah (The Alchemy of Happiness)
Called the Proof of Islam (Ḥujjat al-Islām), al-Ghazali is cited by everyone from Ibn Taymiyyah to Thomas Aquinas. The Iḥyāʾ remains a touchstone of Islamic spirituality nine centuries after it was written.
Imam al-Ghazali, from the books.
-
"This water would be purer, more lasting, and possibly more copious. In the same way, the heart is like a basin, knowledge is like water, and the five senses are like the channels. Knowledge can be conveyed to the heart through the channels of the senses, influenced by what is observed, until it is filled with knowledge. Or, these channels may be blocked by solitude, isolation, and lowering the gaze, while penetrating the depth of the heart by purifying it and removing layers of obstructions until the springs of knowledge burst from within. If you ask how knowledge erupts from the heart itself when it is void, know that this is one of the wondrous secrets of the heart."
-
"them called grasping, so too is knowledge the connection of a concept to the heart. While the reality exists and the heart exists, knowledge comes into being through the truth's presence within the heart. Similarly, a sword and a hand exist, but the act of grasping isn't named until the sword occupies the hand. Indeed, grasping is having the sword in the hand, while knowledge is about the presence of truth in the heart. Just as mirrors fail to reveal images for several reasons, so too can the heart struggle to grasp the truth."
-
"Allah says I accept the testimony of my servants according to what they know and I forgive him for what I know. The soul's control over the body ceases when the body no longer obeys it. The limbs are tools employed by the soul enabling it to grasp, hear, see, and understand. The heart in this context refers to the soul which perceives things independently. It can experience sorrow, distress, joy, and delight all unrelated to the organs. Traits inherent to the soul remain with it after it departs the body. However, what the soul does through the organs becomes inoperative with the body's death until the soul is returned to the"
— Book 40: The Book of the Remembrance of Death and the Afterlife
-
"Just as each color has its image imprinted in the mirror, so too does every known thing have a reality depicted in the heart's mirror. Here, three things are noted, the heart, the realities of things, and the presence of these realities within the heart. The scholar is related to the heart, where the likeness of the truths of things resolves itself, and knowledge pertains to the acquisition of semblance within the mirror. Just as grasping requires an active grasper like a hand, an object grasped like a sword, and a connection between them called grasping, so too is knowledge the connection of a concept to the heart."
-
"and supporters, and told, "Take this in exchange for your knowledge—or even a tenth of your knowledge," they would not take it. This is due to their hope that the blessing of knowledge leads them to closeness with Allah in the hereafter. If told, "In the hereafter, you will have everything you hope for, but exchange these worldly pleasures for the enjoyment and happiness from knowledge," they would refuse because they know that the pleasure of knowledge is continuous, never-ending, and remains untainted, unrecognizable, coveted, or envied by others, while all worldly pleasures are incomplete, tainted,"
