Imām al-Ghazālī

Imām Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (450 – 505 AH / 1058 – 1111 CE)

The Proof of Islam – Ḥujjat al-Islām (حجة الإسلام) and the Reviver of the Heart and Mind

Early Life and Background

His full name was Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Ṭūsī al-Ghazālī
[أبو حامد محمد بن محمد بن محمد بن أحمد الطوسي الغزالي].
He was born in Ṭūs – طوس (near modern Mashhad, Iran) in 450 AH / 1058 CE into a modest family; his father was a wool-spinner (ghazzāl – غزال), from which the family name likely derives.^1

Left orphaned young, he and his brother Aḥmad al-Ghazālī were raised by a pious Sufi friend of their father, who introduced them to both scholarship and spiritual discipline.

Education and Teachers

Al-Ghazālī’s brilliance emerged early. He studied in Nīshāpūr – نيسابور at the Nizāmiyyah Madrasah, one of the most advanced universities of the age.
His principal mentor was the famed Imām al-Ḥaramayn al-Juwaynī (إمام الحرمين الجويني), under whom he mastered:

ʿIlm al-Kalām (علم الكلام) – theology and logic,
Uṣūl al-Fiqh (أصول الفقه) – legal theory,
Manṭiq (منطق) – Aristotelian logic,
and Jadal (جدل) – dialectical reasoning.^2

After his teacher’s death (478 AH / 1085 CE), al-Ghazālī’s intellectual stature quickly attracted Niẓām al-Mulk (نظام الملك), vizier of the Seljuks, who appointed him professor of the Nizāmiyyah of Baghdad — the highest academic post in the Muslim world.^3

As a Teacher in Baghdad

At only 34, al-Ghazālī became Imām of the ʿUlamāʾ in Baghdad (484 AH / 1091 CE).
His lectures drew scholars, theologians, and jurists from across the empire.
Yet at the peak of fame he experienced a spiritual crisis: doubt overtook intellectual pride.

He wrote:

“I examined my intention in teaching — and found it was not for God but for reputation.”

Unable to speak in class, he abandoned his post, renounced wealth, and embarked on a decade-long retreat in Damascus, Jerusalem, and Ḥijāz, seeking certitude not in syllogisms but in purification of the soul.

Transformation and Return to Faith

This journey produced the most profound intellectual metamorphosis in Islamic history:
from dialectical theologian to spiritual reviver.
He reconciled the rigor of law with the light of mysticism, concluding that knowledge without sincerity is a veil.

He later summarized:

“I knew with certainty that Sufis are those who walk the path of God alone; their conduct is the best, their way the purest.”^4

Returning to teaching in Ṭūs, he combined jurisprudence, theology, and Sufism into a single integrated curriculum.

Major Works

Work	Arabic Title	Subject	Notes
Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn	إحياء علوم الدين	Ethics & spiritual revival	His magnum opus (“Revival of the Religious Sciences”); a four-volume synthesis of fiqh, ʿaqīdah, and taṣawwuf, uniting knowledge and practice.^5
al-Munqidh min al-Ḍalāl	المنقذ من الضلال	Autobiography & epistemology	“Deliverance from Error” — his personal intellectual confession tracing the search for yaqīn (certainty).
Tahāfut al-Falāsifah	تهافت الفلاسفة	Refutation of philosophers	Critique of Muslim Aristotelians (Avicenna and al-Fārābī); accuses them of heresy on 20 points, 3 of which he deems kufr.
al-Mustaṣfā min ʿIlm al-Uṣūl	المستصفى من علم الأصول	Legal theory	A foundational manual of uṣūl al-fiqh used for centuries in Mālikī and Shāfiʿī schools.
Maqāṣid al-Falāsifah	مقاصد الفلاسفة	Philosophy overview	Objective exposition of philosophers before refuting them — shows his methodological fairness.
Miʿyār al-ʿIlm wa Miḥakk al-Naẓar	معيار العلم ومحك النظر	Logic & epistemology	Explains standards of valid reasoning and proof.

🜂 Al-Ghazālī’s Dialogue with Reason and Philosophy

1. Philosophy within Limits

Al-Ghazālī mastered Greek-inspired logic to protect the faith, not to replace revelation.
He divided philosophical inquiry into:

Mathematics & Logic – permissible (mubāḥ – مباح) and useful;
Natural Sciences – neutral unless tied to heresy;
Metaphysics – dangerous when it contradicts the Qurʾān.

He declared:

“We reject not mathematics or logic, but their misuse against revelation.”

Thus, reason (ʿaql – عقل) is a tool within revelation, not above it.

2. Tahāfut al-Falāsifah – The Incoherence of the Philosophers

In this famous work, he confronted Avicenna and al-Fārābī on twenty issues, chiefly:

Eternity of the world,
God’s knowledge limited to universals,
Denial of bodily resurrection.

He ruled the last three as contrary to faith.
But his aim was not to abolish philosophy — it was to restore it to reverent reasoning within the bounds of waḥy (وحي – revelation).

Later Ibn Rushd (see previous entry) answered him in Tahāfut al-Tahāfut, and their dialogue defined Islam’s classical debate between reason and revelation.

3. Certitude and the Heart

After years of skepticism, al-Ghazālī found that intellectual certainty alone was insufficient:

“Knowledge of the tongue is one thing; knowledge of the heart is another.”

True ʿilm (علم) must be illumined by dhawq (ذوق – inner taste) through sincerity and asceticism (zuhd – زهد).
This realization shaped his Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn, where he organized religion into four parts:

Acts of Worship (ʿIbādāt – عبادات)
Social Dealings (ʿĀdāt – عادات)
Destructive Vices (Muhlikāt – مهلكات)
Saving Virtues (Munjiyāt – منجيات)

He thus fused Sharia law and Sufi spirituality into a complete ethico-spiritual system.

4. Influence and Legacy

In Islamic thought: He revived religious ethics and integrated Sufism with Sunni orthodoxy, curbing both philosophical excess and juristic dryness.
In Christian scholasticism: Latin translations of his Maqāṣid al-Falāsifah and Tahāfut were read by Thomas Aquinas and Albertus Magnus.
In spiritual life: The Iḥyāʾ became a standard text for mystical training and preaching from North Africa to Indonesia.

Ibn Rushd criticized him philosophically, but admired him as a moral force.
Later Sufis called him “Imām al-ʿĀrifīn – إمام العارفين (The Imam of the Gnostics).”

Death and Legacy

Al-Ghazālī died in his hometown Ṭūs on the 14th of Jumādā II, 505 AH (December 19, 1111 CE).
It is reported that on the morning of his death he performed ablution, read the Qurʾān, wrapped his shroud around him, and said to his brother:

“Take this shroud for me, for I am going to meet my Lord.”

He was buried in the Maqbarah al-Ṭūsīyah (مقبرة الطوسية) near Nishapur.
For centuries, pilgrims visited his grave to recite from the Iḥyāʾ and pray for revival of hearts.

Legacy Summary

Field	Contribution
Theology (Kalām)	Re-grounded faith in logic while purifying its intentions.
Fiqh & Uṣūl	Authored one of the most systematic manuals of legal theory.
Philosophy	Balanced reason and revelation; criticized excessive metaphysics.
Sufism	Integrated mystical practice with Sunni orthodoxy.
Education	Reformed curricula of the Nizāmiyyah and revived ethical learning.

“Whosoever knows himself, knows his Lord — and whoever knows his Lord, forgets himself.” — al-Ghazālī

References (Chicago-style)

Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., s.v. “al-Ghazālī.”
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Badawī, Muʾallafāt al-Ghazālī (Cairo: Dār al-Andalus, 1961).
Frank Griffel, Al-Ghazālī’s Philosophical Theology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009).
al-Ghazālī, al-Munqidh min al-Ḍalāl, ed. J. Bouyges (Beirut: Dār al-Mashriq, 1969).
al-Ghazālī, Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn (Cairo: Dār al-Ḥadīth, 1998).
Michael Marmura, The Incoherence of the Philosophers (Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 1997).
Richard Frank, Creation and the Cosmos in al-Ghazālī (Albany: SUNY Press, 1992).