al ghazali influence on western philosophers

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Al-Ghazali

Al-Ghazali

Persian scholarMedieval era (Islamic golden age)

Full name Ghazali (Algazel)Birth 1058 AD (450 AH)Death 1111 AD (505 AH)

School/tradition Sufism, Sunnite(Shafi'ite), AshariteMain interests Sufism, Islamic Theology (Kalam),Islamic Philosophy, Islamic Psychology, Logic,Islamic Law, Islamic Jurisprudence, Cosmology,Medicine

InfluencedAb Hmid Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazl(1058-1111) (Persian: or

) was born and died in Tus, in theKhorasan province of Persia (modern day Iran).He was a Muslim theologian, jurist, philosopher,cosmologist, physician, psychologist and mystic ofPersian origin,[3][4] and remains one of the mostcelebrated scholars in the history of Sufi Islamicthought. He is considered a pioneer of themethods of doubt and skepticism,[5] and in one of

his major works, The Incoherence of thePhilosophers, he changed the course of earlyIslamic philosophy, shifting it away from anIslamic metaphysics influenced by ancient Greekand Hellenistic philosophy, and towards an Islamicphilosophy based on cause-and-effect that weredetermined by God or intermediate angels.

Contents

1 Biography

hazali http://www.arabicmusic4u.com/al_gh

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Haruniyah structure in Tus, Iran, named afterHarun al-Rashid,the mausoleum of Ghazali is expected to besituated on the entrance of this monument

o 1.1 Life

2 Works

o 2.1 The Incoherence of thePhilosopherso 2.2 The Deliverance From Erroro 2.3 The Revival of ReligiousScienceso 2.4 The Jerusalem Tract

3 Other contributions

o 3.1 Atomismo 3.2 Biology and Medicineo 3.3 Cosmologyo 3.4 Psychology

4 Ghazali's influence

o 4.1 Ijtihad

5 List of Works

o 5.1 Works in Persian

6 Literature

7 Notes

8 References

Biography

Ghazali contributed significantly to the


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development of a systematic view of Sufism andits integration and acceptance in mainstreamIslam. He was a scholar of orthodox Islam,belonging to the Shafi'i school of Islamic

jurisprudence and to the Asharite school oftheology. Ghazali received many titles such asSharaful A'emma (Arabic: ), Zainuddin(Arabic: ), Hujjatul Islam, meaning "Proof ofIslam" (Arabic: ). He is viewed as the keymember of the influential Asharite school of earlyMuslim philosophy and the most important refuterof Mutazilites. However, he chose a slightlydifferent position in comparison with theAsharites; his beliefs and thoughts differ, in someaspects, from the orthodox Asharite school.[6]

Life

Haruniyah structure in Tus, Iran, named afterHarun al-Rashid, the mausoleum of Ghazali is

expected to be situated on the entrance of thismonument

Ghazali was born in 1058 in Tus, a city inKhorasan province of Persia. His father, atraditional sufi, died when he and his youngerbrother, Ahmad Ghazali, were still young. One oftheir father's friends took care of them for thenext few years. In 1070, Ghazali and his brotherwent to Gurgan to enroll in a madrassah. There,he studied fiqh (islamic jurisprudence) next toAhmad ibn Muhammad Rdkn and Abu'l QsimJurjn. After approximately 7 years studying, hereturned to Tus.

His first important trip to Nishapur occurredaround 1080 when he was almost 23 years old.He became the student of the famous muslimscholar Abu'l Ma'l Juwayn, known as Imamal-Haramayn. After the death of Al-Juwayni in1085, Ghazl was invited to go to the court ofNizamul Mulk Tusi, the powerful vizier of theSeljuq sultans. The vizier was so impressed byGhazali's scholarship that in 1091 he appointedhim as chief professor in the Nizamiyya of

Baghdad. He used to lecture to more than 300students, and his participation in Islamic debatesand discussions made him popular in all over theIslamic territories.

He passed through a spiritual crisis in 1095,abandoned his career, and left Baghdad on thepretext of going on pilgrimage to Mecca. Makingarrangements for his family, he disposed of hiswealth and adopted the life of a poor Sufi. Aftersome time in Damascus and Jerusalem, with a


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visit to Medina and Mecca in 1096, he settled inTus to spend the next several years in seclusion.He ended his seclusion for a short lecturing periodat the Nizamiyyah of Nishapur in 1106. Later hereturned to Tus where he remained until his deathin December, 1111. He had one son named Abdu'lRahman Allam.

Works

1308 Persian Edition of the Alchemy of Happiness.

Ghazali wrote more than 70 books on Islamicsciences, early Islamic philosophy, Islamic

psychology, Kalam and Sufism. His 11th centurybook titled The Incoherence of the Philosophersmarks a major turn in Islamic epistemology, asGhazali effectively discovered philosophicalskepticism that would not be commonly seen inthe West until Ren Descartes, George Berkeleyand David Hume. The encounter with skepticismled Ghazali to embrace a form of theologicaloccasionalism, or the belief that all causal eventsand interactions are not the product of materialconjunctions but rather the immediate andpresent will of God.

The Incoherence of thePhilosophers

The The Incoherence of the Philosophers marked aturning point in Islamic philosophy in itsvehement rejections of Aristotle and Plato. Thebook took aim at the falasifa, a loosely definedgroup of Islamic philosophers from the 8ththrough the 11th centuries (most notable amongthem Avicenna and Al-Farabi) who drew


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intellectually upon the Ancient Greeks. Ghazalibitterly denounced Aristotle, Socrates and otherGreek writers as non-believers and labeled thosewho employed their methods and ideas ascorrupters of the Islamic faith.

Last page of Al-Ghazali's autobiography in MSIstanbul,Shehid Ali Pasha 1712, dated A.H. 509 =1115-1116.

In the next century, Averroes drafted a lengthyrebuttal of Ghazali's Incoherence entitled TheIncoherence of the Incoherence; however, theepistemological course of Islamic thought hadalready been set.

The Deliverance From Error

The autobiography Ghazali wrote towards the endof his life, The Deliverance From Error(Al-munqidh min al- all; several Englishtranslations[7]) is considered a work of majorimportance.[8] In it, Ghazali recounts how, once acrisis of epistemological skepticism was resolvedby "a light which God Most High cast into mybreast...the key to most knowledge,"[9] hestudied and mastered the arguments of kalam,

Islamic philosophy, and Ismailism. Thoughappreciating what was valid in the first two ofthese, at least, he determined that all threeapproaches were inadequate and found ultimatevalue only in the mystical experience and insight(the state of prophecy or nubuwwa) he attained asa result of following Sufi practices. William James,in Varieties of Religious Experience, consideredthe autobiography an important document for "thepurely literary student who would like to become


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acquainted with the inwardness of religions otherthan the Christian" because of the scarcity ofrecorded personal religious confessions andautobiographical literature from this periodoutside the Christian tradition.[10]

The Revival of Religious Sciences

Another of Ghazali's major works is Ihya al-Ulumal-Din or Ihya'ul Ulumuddin (The Revival ofReligious Sciences). It covers almost all fields ofIslamic sciences: fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence),kalam (theology) and sufism. It contains fourmajor sections: Acts of worship (Rub' al-'ibadat),Norms of Daily Life (Rub' al-'adatat), The ways toPerdition (Rub' al-'muhlikat) and The ways toSalavation (Rub' al-'munjiyat). Many admirablecomments were made regarding his this book: "Ifall Islamic sciences were disappeared, they couldbe taken back from Ihya'ul Ulumuddin."[citation

needed] He then wrote a brief version of this bookin Persian under The Alchemy of Happiness(Kmyye Sa'dat).

The Jerusalem Tract

At the insistence of his students in Jerusalem,Ghazali wrote a concise exposition of Islamentitled The Jerusalem Tract.[11]

Other contributions

Atomism

Al-Ghazali was responsible for formulating theAsh'ari school of atomism. He argued that atomsare the only perpetual, material things inexistence, and all else in the world is accidentalmeaning something that lasts for only an instant.Nothing accidental can be the cause of anythingelse, except perception, as it exists for a moment.Contingent events are not subject to naturalphysical causes, but are the direct result of Godsconstant intervention, without which nothing

could happen. Thus nature is completelydependent on God, which is consistent with otherAsh'ari Islamic ideas on causation, or the lackthereof.[12]

In atomic theory, al-Ghazali alluded to thepossibility of dividing an atom. In reference to thewide divisions among Muslims, he wrote: "Muslimsare so good at dividing that they can divide theatom. If you see two Muslims, probably theybelong to 3 parties."[13]


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In the fourteenth century, Nicholas of Autrecourtconsidered that matter, space, and time were allmade up of indivisible atoms, points, and instantsand that all generation and corruption took placeby the rearrangement of material atoms. Thesimilarities of his ideas with those of al-Ghazalisuggest that Nicholas was familiar with the workof al-Ghazali, who was known as "Algazel" in

Europe, either directly or indirectly throughAverroes.[14]

Biology and Medicine

Al-Ghazali's writings are believed to have been asource of encouragement for the study of Islamicmedicine, and anatomy in particular. In TheRevival of the Religious Sciences, he classesmedicine as one of the praiseworthy (mahmud)non-religious sciences, in contrast to astrologywhich he considered blameworthy (madhmutn). In

his discourse on meditation (tafakkur), he"devotes a number of pages to a fairly detailedanatomical exposition of the parts of the humanbody, advocating such study as a suitable subjectfor contemplation and drawing nearer toGod."[15]

In The Deliverer from Error, Al-Ghazali made astrong statement in support of anatomy anddissection:

"The Naturalists (al-tabi'yun): They are a group ofpeople who are constantly studying the naturalworld and the wonders of animals and plants.They are frequendy engaging in the science ofanatomy/dissection ('Urn al-tashiih) of animalbodies, and through it they perceive the wondersof God's design and the marvels of His wisdom.With this they are compelled to acknowledge awise Creator Who is aware of die ends andpurposes of things. No one can studyanatomy/dissection and the wonders of theutilities of the parts widiout deducing thisunavoidable inferencethat is, the perfection ofthe design of the Creator with regard to the

structure (binyah) of animals and especially thestructure of humans."[16]

His support for the study of anatomy anddissection was influential in the rise of anatomyand dissections carried out among Muslimphysicians in the 12th and 13th centuries,[17] bythe likes of Avenzoar and Ibn al-Nafis, amongothers. Averroes, a critic of Al-Ghazali, alsoagreed with him on the issue of dissection.[18]


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Cosmology

In cosmology, in contrast to ancient Greekphilosophers such as Aristotle who believed thatthe universe had an infinite past with nobeginning, Medieval philosophers and theologiansdeveloped the concept of the universe having afinite past with a beginning. This view wasinspired by the creation myth shared by the threeAbrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity andIslam. The Christian philosopher, John Philoponus,presented the first such argument against theancient Greek notion of an infinite past. However,the most sophisticated Medieval argumentsagainst an infinite past were developed by theearly Muslim philosopher, Al-Kindi (Alkindus); theJewish philosopher, Saadia Gaon (Saadia benJoseph); and finally Al-Ghazali, under whom thearguments reached their most developed form.Al-Ghazali proposed two logical arguments against

an infinite past, the first being the "argumentfrom the impossibility of the existence of an actualinfinite", which states:[19]

"An actual infinite cannot exist."

"An infinite temporal regress of events is anactual infinite."

".. An infinite temporal regress of events cannotexist."

His second argument, the "argument from theimpossibility of completing an actual infinite bysuccessive addition", states:[19]

"An actual infinite cannot be completed bysuccessive addition."

"The temporal series of past events has beencompleted by successive addition."

".. The temporal series of past events cannot bean actual infinite."

Both arguments were adopted by later Christianphilosophers and theologians, and the secondargument in particular became more famous afterit was adopted by Immanuel Kant in his thesis ofthe first antimony concerning time.[19]

Psychology

In Islamic psychology, al-Ghazali discussed theconcept of the self and the causes of its miseryand happiness. He described the self using four


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terms: Qalb (heart), Ruh (spirit), Nafs (soul) and'Aql (intellect). He stated that "the self has aninherent yearning for an ideal, which it strives torealize and it is endowed with qualities to helprealize it." He further stated that the self hasmotor and sensory motives for fulfilling its bodilyneeds. He wrote that the motor motives compriseof propensities and impulses, and further divided

the propensities into two types: appetite andanger. He wrote that appetite urges hunger, thirst,and sexual craving, while anger takes the form ofrage, indignation and revenge. He further wrotethat impulse resides in the muscles, nerves, andtissues, and moves the organs to "fulfill thepropensities."[20]

Al-Ghazali was one of the first to divide thesensory motives (apprehension) into five externalsenses (the classical senses of hearing, sight,smell, taste and touch) and five internal senses:

common sense (Hiss Mushtarik) which synthesizessensuous impressions carried to the brain whilegiving meaning to them; imagination (Takhayyul)which enables someone to retain mental imagesfrom experience; reflection (Tafakkur) whichbrings together relevant thoughts and associatesor dissociates them as it considers fit but has nopower to create anything new which is not alreadypresent in the mind; recollection (Tadhakkur)which remembers the outer form of objects inmemory and recollects the meaning; and thememory (Hafiza) where impressions receivedthrough the senses are stored. He wrote that,

while the external senses occur through specificorgans, the internal senses are located in differentregions of the brain, and discovered that thememory is located in the hinder lobe, imaginationis located in the frontal lobe, and reflection islocated in the middle folds of the brain. He statedthat these inner senses allow people to predictfuture situations based on what they learn frompast experiences.[21]

In The Revival of Religious Sciences, he writesthat the five internal senses are found in both

humans and animals. In Mizan al Amal, however,he later states that animals "do not possess awell-developed reflective power" and argues thatanimals mostly think in terms of "pictorial ideas ina simple way and are incapable of complexassociation and dissociation of abstract ideasinvolved in reflection." He writes that "the selfcarries two additional qualities, whichdistinguishes man from animals enabling man toattain spiritual perfection", which are 'Aql(intellect) and Irada (will). He argues that the


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intellect is "the fundamental rational faculty,which enables man to generalize and formconcepts and gain knowledge." He also arguesthat human will and animal will are both different.He writes that human will is "conditioned by theintellect" while animal will is "conditioned byanger and appetite" and that "all these powerscontrol and regulate the body." He further writes

that the Qalb (heart) "controls and rules overthem" and that it has six powers: appetite, anger,impulse, apprehension, intellect, and will. Hestates that humans have all six of these traits,while animals only have three (appetite, anger,and impulse).[21] This was in contrast to otherancient and medieval thinkers such as Aristotle,Avicenna, Roger Bacon and Thomas Aquinas whoall believed that animals cannot becomeangry.[22]

Al-Ghazali writes that knowledge can either be

innate or acquired. He divides acquired knowledgeinto phenomenal (material world) and spiritual(related to God and soul), and divides acquiredknowledge into imitation, logical reasoning,contemplation and intuition. He also argues thatthere are four elements in human nature: thesage (intellect and reason), the pig (lust andgluttony), the dog (anger), and the devil(brutality). He argues that the latter threeelements are in conflict with the former elementand that "different people have such powers indifferent proportions."[21]

Al-Ghazali divides the Nafs into three categoriesbased on the Quran: Nafs Ammarah (12:53)which "exhorts one to freely indulge in gratifyingpassions and instigates to do evil", NafsLawammah (75:2) which is "the conscience thatdirects man towards right or wrong", and NafsMutmainnah (89:27) which is "a self that reachesthe ultimate peace." As an analogy betweenpsychology and politics, he compares the soul tothat of a king running a kingdom, arguing that thebodily organs are like the artisans and workers,intellect is like a wise vizier, desire is like a wicked

servant, and anger is like the police force. Heargues that a king can correctly run the state ofaffairs by turning to the wise vizier, turns awayfrom the wicked servant, and regulating theworkers and the police; and that in the same way,the soul is balanced if it "keeps anger undercontrol and makes the intellect dominate desire."He argues that for a soul to reach perfection, itneeds to evolve through several stages: sensuous(like a moth which has no memory), imaginative(lower animal), instinctive (higher animal),


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rational ("transcends animal stage andapprehends objects beyond the scope of hissenses") and divine ("apprehends reality ofspiritual things").[23]

He stated that there are two types of diseases:physical and spiritual. He considered the latter tobe more dangerous, resulting from "ignorance and

deviation from God", and listed the spiritualdiseases as: self-centeredness; addiction towealth, fame and social status; and ignorance,cowardice, cruelty, lust, waswas (doubt),malevolence, calumny, envy, deception, andgreed. To overcome these spiritual weaknesses,al-Ghazali suggested the therapy of opposites("use of imagination in pursuing the opposite"),such as ignorance & learning, or hate & love. Hedescribed the personality as an "integration ofspiritual and bodily forces" and believed that"closeness to God is equivalent to normality

whereas distance from God leads toabnormality."[24]

Al-Ghazali argued that human beings occupy aposition "midway between animals and angels andhis distinguishing quality is knowledge." He arguesthat a human can either rise to "the level of theangels with the help of knowledge" or fall to "thelevels of animals by letting his anger and lustdominate him." He also argued that Ilm al-Batin(esotericism) is fard (incumbent) and advisedTazkiya Nafs (self-purification). He also noted that"good conduct can only develop from within and

does not need total destruction of naturalpropensities."[24]

Ghazali's influence

The grave believed to belong to al-Ghazali

Ghazali had an important influence on bothMuslim philosophers and Christian medievalphilosophers along with Jewish thinkers likeMaimonides.[25][26] Margaret Smith writes in herbook Al-Ghazali: The Mystic (London 1944):"There can be no doubt that Ghazalis works would


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be among the first to attract the attention of theseEuropean scholars" (page 220). Then sheemphasizes, "The greatest of these Christianwriters who was influenced by Al-Ghazali was St.Thomas Aquinas (12251274), who made a studyof the Islamic writers and admitted hisindebtedness to them. He studied at theUniversity of Naples where the influence of

Islamic literature and culture was predominant atthe time."

Ghazali's influence has been compared to theworks of St. Thomas Aquinas in Christiantheology, but the two differed greatly in methodsand beliefs. Whereas Ghazali rejected non-Islamicmetaphysical philosophers such as Aristotle andsaw it fit to discard their metaphysical teachingson the basis of their "unbelief," Aquinas embracednon-Christian philosophers and incorporatedancient Greek, Latin and Islamic thought into his

own philosophical writings.

"A careful study of Ghazali's works will indicatehow penetrating and widespread his influence wason the Western medieval scholars. A case in pointis the influence of Ghazali on St. Thomas Aquinas who studied the works of Islamic philosophers,especially Ghazali's, at the University of Naples.In addition, Aquinas' interest in Islamic studiescould be attributed to the infiltration of LatinAverroism in the 13th century, especially at [theUniversity of] Paris."[27]

It is also believed that Ren Descartes' ideas fromhis book called Discourse on the Method wereinfluenced by Ghazali and very much similar toGhazali's work. Thus, some scholars today believethat Descartes was being dishonest by writing the"Discourse on Methods" without giving anyacademic reference to Ghazali's work in hisbook.[5]

Ghazali also played a very major role inintegrating Sufism with Shariah. He combined theconcepts of Sufism very well with the Shariah

laws. He was also the first to present a formaldescription of Sufism in his works. His works alsostrengthened the status of Sunnite Islam againstother schools. The Batinite (Ismailism) hademerged in Persian territories and were gainingmore and more power during Ghazali's period, asNizam al-Mulk was assassinated by the membersof Ismailis. Ghazali strictly refuted their ideologyand wrote several books on refutation ofBaatinyas which significantly weakened theirstatus.


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Ijtihad

Ijtihad is the process through which Islamicscholars can generate new rules for Muslims.Ijtihad was one of the recognized sources ofIslamic knowledge by early Islamic scholars - thatis, in addition to Quran, Sunnah and Qiyas. Whileit is not widely agreed that Al-Ghazali himselfintended to "shut the door of ijtihad" completelyand permanently, such an interpretation ofAl-Ghazali's work led the Islamic societies to be"frozen in time". Works of critics of Al-Ghazali(such as Ibn-Rushd, a rationalist), as well as theworks of any ancient philosopher, were practicallyforbidden in these "frozen societies" through thecenturies. As a result, all chances were lost togradually revitalize religion - which may havebeen less painful had it been spread over a periodof centuries.

Whether the actual outcome of "freezing Islamicthinking in time" was the goal of Al-Ghazali ishighly debatable. While he himself was a critic ofthe philosophers, Al-Ghazali was a master in theart of philosophy and had an immense educationin the field. After such a long education inphilosophy, as well as a long process of reflection.But only taking Al-Ghazali's final conclusions,while lacking a comparable education (and areflection process) in the area, and as a resultbeing unable to trace Al-Ghazali in his thoughtprocess, only exacerbates the probability of themisuse of Al-Ghazali's conclusions.

List of Works

The pen box belonging to al-Ghazali, preserved in the Cairomuseum.

Ghazali had mentioned the number of his works"more than 70", in one of his letters to SultanSanjar in the late years of his life. However, thereare more than 400 books attributed to him today.Making a judgment on the number of his works


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and their attribution to Ghazali is a difficult step.Many western scholars such as WilliamMontgomery Watt (The works attributed toAl-Ghazali), Maurice Bouyges (Essai dechronologie des oeuvres d'Al-Ghazali) and othersprepared a list of his works along with theircomments on each book.

Finally, Abdel Rahman Badawi, an Egyptianscholar, prepared a comprehensive l ist of Ghazali'sworks under 457 titles:

from 1 to 72: works definitely writtenby Ghazali

from 73 to 95: works of doubtfulattribution

96 - 127: works which are not those ofGhazali with most certainty

128 - 224: are the names of theChapters or Sections of Ghazali's books that aremistakenly thought books of his

225 - 273: books written by otherauthors regarding Ghazali's works

274 - 389: books of other unknownscholars/writers regarding Ghazali's life andpersonality

389 - 457: the name of the manuscripts

of Ghazali's works in different libraries of theworld

The following is a short list of his Major works:

Theology

al-Munqidh min al-dalal (Rescuer fromError)

Hujjat al-Haq (Proof of the Truth)

al-Iqtisad fil-i`tiqad (Median in Belief)

al-maqsad al-asna fi sharah asma'Allahu al-husna (The best means in explainingAllah's Beautiful Names)

Jawahir al-Qur'an wa duraruh (Jewels ofthe Qur'an and its Pearls)

Fayasl al-tafriqa bayn al-Islamwa-l-zandaqa (The Criterion of Distinction


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between Islam and Clandestine Unbelief)

Mishkat al-Anwar (The Niche of Lights)

Tafsir al-yaqut al-ta'wil

Sufism

Mizan al-'amal (Criterion of Action)

Ihya' ulum al-din, "Revival of ReligiousSciences", Ghazali's most important work

Bidayat al-hidayah (Beginning ofGuidance)

Kimiya-ye sa'dat (The Alchemy ofHappiness) [a rsum of Ihya'ul ulum, in Persian]

Nasihat al-muluk (Counseling Kings) [in

Persian] al-Munqidh min al-dalal (Rescuer fromError)

Minhaj al-'Abidin (Methodolgy for theWorshipers)

Philosophy

Maqasid al falasifa (Aims ofPhilosophers) [written in the beginning of his life,in favour of philosophy and presenting the basic

theories in Philosophy, mostly influenced byAvicenna's works]

Tahafut al-Falasifa (The Incoherence ofthe Philosophers), [in this book he refutes theGreek Philosophy aiming at Avicenna andAl-Farabi; and of which Ibn Rushd wrote hisfamous refutation Tahafut al-tahafut (TheIncoherence of the Incoherence)]

Miyar al-Ilm fi fan al-Mantiq (Criterionof Knowledge in the Art of Logic)

Mihak al-Nazar fi al-mantiq (Touchstoneof Reasoning in Logic)

al-Qistas al-mustaqim (The CorrectBalance)

Jurisprudence

Fatawy al-Ghazali (Verdicts ofal-Ghazali)


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Al-wasit fi al-mathab (The medium[digest] in the Jurisprudential school)

Kitab tahzib al-Isul (Prunning on LegalTheory)

al-Mustasfa fi 'ilm al-isul (The Clarifiedin Legal Theory)

Asas al-Qiyas (Foundation of Analogicalreasoning)

Works in Persian

Al-Ghazali wrote most of his works in Arabic andfew in Persian. His most important Persian work isKmyy Sa'dat (The Alchemy of Happiness). It isAl-Ghazali's own Persian version of Ihya'ululumuddin (The Revival of Religious Sciences) inArabic, but a shorter work. It is one of the

outstanding works of 11th-century-Persianliterature. The book was published several timesin Tehran by the edition of Hussain Khadiv-jam, arenown Iranian scholar. It has been translated toEnglish, Arabic, Turkish, Urdu and otherlanguages.

Apart from Kimya, the most celebrated ofGhazali's works in Persian is Nashatul Mulk (TheCounseling Kings), written most probably forSultan Ahmad Sanjar ibn Malekshah. In theedition published by Jalluddn Humy, the bookconsists of two parts of which only the first canreliably be attributed to Ghazali. The languageand the contents of some passages are similar tothe Kimyaye Sa'adat. The second part differsconsiderably in content and style from thewell-known writings of Ghazali. It contains thestories of pre-Islamic kings of Persia, especiallythose of Anoshervn. Nasihatul Muluk was earlytranslated to Arabic under the title al-Tibral-masbuk fi nasihat al-muluk (The Forged Swordin Counseling Kings).

Zd-e kherat (Provision for the hereafter) is an

important Persian book of Ghazali but gained lessscholarly attention. The greater part of it consistsof the Persian translation of one of his Arabicbooks, Bedyat al-Hedya (Beginning ofGuidance). It contains in addition the samecontents as the Kmyy Sa'dat. The book wasmost probably written during the last years of hislife. Its manuscripts are in Kabul (Library of theDepartment of Press) and in Leiden.

Pand-nma (Book of Counsel) is another book of


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advice and probably attributed to Sultan Sanjar.The introduction to the book relates that Ghazaliwrote the book in response to a certain king whohad asked him for advice. Ay farzand (O son!) is ashort book of counsel that Ghazali wrote for oneof his students. The book was early translated toArabic entitled ayyuhal walad. His another Persianwork is Hamqti ahli ibhat or Raddi ebhyya

(Condemnation of antinomians) which is his fatwain Persian illustrated with Quranic verses andHadiths.

Faza'ilul al-anam min rasa'ili hujjat al-Islam is thecollection of letters in Persians that Ghazali wrotein response to the kings, ministers, jurists andsome of his friends after he returned to Khorasan.The collection was gathered by one of hisgrandchildren after his death, under fivesections/chapters. The longest letter is theresponse to objections raised against some of his

statements in Mishkat al-Anwar (The Niche ofLight) and al-Munqidh min al-dalal (Rescuer fromError). The first letter is the one which Ghazaliwrote to Sultan Sanjar presenting his excuse forteaching in Nizamiyya of Nishapur; followed byGhazali's speech in the court of Sultan Sanjar.Ghazali made an impressive speech when he wastaken to the king's court in Nishapur in 1106,giving very influential counsels, asking the sultanonce again to excuse him from teaching inNizamiyya and refuting the accusations madeagainst him for disrespecting Imam Abu Hanifa inhis books. The sultan was so impressed that he

ordered Ghazali to write down his speech so thatit would be sent to all the ulemas of Khorasan andIraq.

Literature

Laoust, H: La politique de Gazali, Paris1970

Campanini, M.: Al-Ghazzali, in S.H.Nasr and O. Leaman, History of Islamic Philosophy1996

Watt, W. M.: Muslim Intellectual: AStudy of al-Ghazali, Edinburgh 1963

Zwemer, S. M. A Moslem Seeker afterGod, New York 1920

Nakamura, K. Al-Ghazali, Encyclopediaof Philosophy

Notes


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1. ^ The Influence of Islamic Thought onMaimonides Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy,June 30 2005

2. ^ Muslim Philosophy, IslamicContributions to Science & Math, netmuslims.com

3. ^ Ghazali, The Columbia Encyclopedia,

Sixth Edition 2006

4. ^ [1] Bwering, Gerhard - AZLentry in Encyclopaedia Iranica

5. ^ a b Najm, Sami M. (July-October1966), "The Place and Function of Doubt in thePhilosophies of Descartes and Al-Ghazali",Philosophy East and West 16(3-4): 133-41

6. ^ R.M. Frank, Al-Ghazali and theAsh'arite School, Duke University Press, London

1994

7. ^ Annotated translations by RichardJoseph McCarthy (Freedom and Fulfillment,Boston: Twayne, 1980; Deliverance From Error,Louisville, Ky.: Fons Vitae, 1999) and George F.McLean (Deliverance from error and mysticalunion with the Almighty, Washington, D.C.:Council for Research in Values and Philosophy,2001). An earlier translation by WilliamMontgomery Watt was first published in 1953 (Thefaith and practice of al-Ghazl, London: G. Allenand Unwin).

8. ^ Gerhard Bwering, EncyclopediaIranica, s.v. Ghazali.

9. ^ McCarthy 1980, p. 66

10. ^ William James, Varieties of ReligiousExperience, Harvard University Press, 1985, p.319 [= 2002 Modern Library Paperback Edition, p.438].

11. ^ Walid Khalidi (1984). Before TheirDiaspora. Institute for Palestine Studies,Washington D.C., 29.

12. ^ Gardet, L., djuz in Encyclopaedia ofIslam, CD-ROM Edition, v. 1.1, Leiden: Brill, 2001.

13. ^ Dr. Suwaidan, Tareq (13 July 2002),"Challenges Facing the Islamic Reawakening",Salam Magazine (FAMSYs 20th AnnualConference, RMIT Melbourne) (May-August 2002),


19/20

/Challenges0802.htm>. Retrieved on 14 February2008

14. ^ Marmara, Michael E. "Causation inIslamic Thought." Dictionary of the History ofIdeas. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons,1973-74. online at the of Virginia Electronic TextCenter.

15. ^ Savage-Smith, Emilie (1995),"Attitudes Toward Dissection in Medieval Islam",Journal of the History of Medicine and AlliedSciences (Oxford University Press) 50(1): 67-110[94-5]

16. ^ Savage-Smith, Emilie (1995),"Attitudes Toward Dissection in Medieval Islam",Journal of the History of Medicine and AlliedSciences (Oxford University Press) 50(1): 67-110[95-6]

17. ^ Savage-Smith, Emilie (1995),"Attitudes Toward Dissection in Medieval Islam",Journal of the History of Medicine and AlliedSciences (Oxford University Press) 50(1): 67-110[83 & 94]

18. ^ Savage-Smith, Emilie (1995),"Attitudes Toward Dissection in Medieval Islam",Journal of the History of Medicine and AlliedSciences (Oxford University Press) 50(1): 67-110

19. ^ a b c Craig, William Lane (June

1979), "Whitrow and Popper on the Impossibilityof an Infinite Past", The British Journal for thePhilosophy of Science 30(2): 165-170 [165-6]

20. ^ (Haque 2004, p. 366)

21. ^ a b c (Haque 2004, p. 367)

22. ^ Simon Kemp, K.T. Strongman, Angertheory and management: A historical analysis,The American Journal of Psychology, Vol. 108, No.3. (Autumn, 1995), pp. 397-417

23. ^ (Haque 2004, pp. 367-8)

24. ^ a b (Haque 2004, p. 368)

25. ^ H-Net Review: Eric Ormsby onAverroes (Ibn Rushd): His Life, Works andInfluence

26. ^ The Influence of Islamic Thought onMaimonides (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)


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27. ^ Shanab, R. E. A. 1974. Ghazali andAquinason Causation. The Monist: TheInternational Quarterly Journal of GeneralPhilosophical Inquiry 58.1: p.140

References

Haque, Amber (2004), "Psychology from

Islamic Perspective: Contributions of Early MuslimScholars and Challenges to Contemporary MuslimPsychologists", Journal of Religion and Health 43(4): 357-377


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