Al-Ghazali is one of the greatest Islamic jurists, theologians and mystical thinkers. He learned various branches of the traditional Islamic religious sciences in his home town of Tus, Gurgan and Nishapur in the northern part of Iran. He was also involved in Sufi practices from an early age. Being recognized by Nizam al-Mulk, the vizir of the Seljuq sultans, he was appointed head of the Nizamiyyah College at Baghdad in ah 484/ad 1091. As the intellectual head of the Islamic community, he was busy lecturing on Islamic jurisprudence at the College, and also refuting heresies and responding to questions from all segments of the community. Four years later, however, al-Ghazali fell into a serious spiritual crisis and finally left Baghdad, renouncing his career and the world. After wandering in Syria and Palestine for about two years and finishing the pilgrimage to Mecca, he returned to Tus, where he was engaged in writing, Sufi practices and teaching his disciples until his death. In the meantime he resumed teaching for a few years at the Nizamiyyah College in Nishapur.
Al-Ghazali explained in his autobiography why he renounced his brilliant career and turned to Sufism. It was, he says, due to his realization that there was no way to certain knowledge or the conviction of revelatory truth except through Sufism. (This means that the traditional form of Islamic faith was in a very critical condition at the time.) This realization is possibly related to his criticism of Islamic philosophy. In fact, his refutation of philosophy is not a mere criticism from a certain (orthodox) theological viewpoint. First of all, his attitude towards philosophy was ambivalent; it was both an object and criticism and an object of learning (for example, logic and the natural sciences). He mastered philosophy and then criticized it in order to Islamicize it. The importance of his criticism lies in his philosophical demonstration that the philosophers' metaphysical arguments cannot stand the test of reason. However, he was also forced to admit that the certainty of revelatory truth, for which he was so desperately searching, cannot be obtained by reason. It was only later that he finally attained to that truth in the ecstatic state (fana') of the Sufi. Through his own religious experience, he worked to revive the faith of Islam by reconstructing the religious sciences upon the basis of Sufism, and to give a theoretical foundation to the latter under the influence of philosophy. Thus Sufism came to be generally recognized in the Islamic community. Though Islamic philosophy did not long survive al-Ghazali's criticism, he contributed greatly to the subsequent philosophization of Islamic theology and Sufism.
Life
The eventful life of Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazali
(or al-Ghazzali) can be divided into three major periods. The first is the
period of learning, first in his home town of Tus in Persia, then in Gurgan and
finally in Nishapur. After the death of his teacher, Imam al-Haramayn al-Juwayni, Ghazali moved
to the court of Nizam al-Mulk, the powerful vizir of the Seljuq Sultans, who
eventually appointed him head of the Nizamiyyah College at Baghdad in ah 484/ad
1091.
The second period of al-Ghazali's life was his brilliant career
as the highest-ranking orthodox 'doctor' of the Islamic community in Baghdad (ah
484-8/ad 1091-5). This period was short but significant. During this time, as
well as lecturing on Islamic jurisprudence at the College, he was also busy
refuting heresies and responding to questions from all segments of the
community. In the political confusion following the assassination of Nizam
al-Mulk and the subsequent violent death of Sultan Malikshah, al-Ghazali
himself fell into a serious spiritual crisis and finally left Baghdad,
renouncing his career and the world.
This event marks the beginning of the third period of his life,
that of retirement (ah 488-505/ad 1095-1111), but which also included a short
period of teaching at the Nizamiyyah College in Nishapur. After leaving
Baghdad, he wandered as a Sufi in Syria and Palestine before returning to Tus,
where he was engaged in writing, Sufi practices and teaching his disciples
until his death.
The inner development leading to his conversion is explained in
his autobiography, al-Munqidh min
al-dalal (The Deliverer from Error), written late in his life. It
was his habit from an early age, he says, to search for the true reality of
things. In the process he came to doubt the senses and even reason itself as
the means to 'certain knowledge', and fell into a deep scepticism. However, he
was eventually delivered from this with the aid of the divine light, and thus
recovered his trust in reason. Using reason, he then set out to examine the
teachings of 'the seekers after truth': the theologians, philosophers,
Isma'ilis and Sufis. As a result of these studies, he came to the realization
that there was no way to certain knowledge except through Sufism. In order to
reach this ultimate truth of the Sufis, however, it is first necessary to
renounce the world and to devote oneself to mystical practice. Al-Ghazali came
to this realization through an agonising process of decision, which led to a
nervous breakdown and finally to his departure from Baghdad.
The schematic presentation of al-Munqidh
has allowed various interpretations, but it is irrelevant to question the main
line of the story. Though certain knowledge is explained in al-Munqidh
as something logically necessary, it is also religious conviction (yaqin)
as mentioned in the Ihya' 'ulum al-din
(The Revival of the Religious Sciences). Thus when he says that the
traditional teachings did not grip him in his adolescence, he means to say that
he lost his conviction of their truth, which he only later regained through his
Sufi mystical experiences. He worked to generalize this experience to cure 'the
disease' of his time.
The
life of al-Ghazali has been thus far examined mostly as the development of his
individual personality. However, since the 1950s there have appeared some new
attempts to understand his life in its wider political and historical context
(Watt 1963).
If we accept his religious confession as sincere, then we should be careful not
to reduce his thought and work entirely to non-religious factors. It may well
be that al-Ghazali's conversion from the life of an orthodox doctor to Sufism
was not merely the outcome of his personal development but also a manifestation
of a new stage in the understanding of faith in the historical development of
Islam, from the traditional form of faith expressed in the effort to establish
the kingdom of God on Earth through the shari'a to a faith expressed as
direct communion with God in Sufi mystical experience. This may be a reflection
of a development in which the former type of faith had lost its relevance and
become a mere formality due to the political and social confusion of the
community. Al-Ghazali experienced this change during his life, and tried to
revive the entire structure of the religious sciences on the basis of Sufism,
while at the same time arguing for the official recognition of the latter and
providing it with solid philosophical foundations.
