Al Ghazali

Abu Hamid Mohammed ibn Mohammed al-Ghazali
Muslim philosopher
Middle Age
al-Ghazali
Birth	1058 ( Common Era ), 450 ( Muslim calendar ), Tus , Khorasan
Deaths	19 December 1111 ( common era ), 505 ( Muslim calendar )
Nationality	Persian
School / tradition	Muslim
Main interests	Sufism , `Aqeedah ( Kalam ), Islamic philosophy , Islamic psychology , logic , Islamic law , Islamic jurisprudence , cosmology
Influenced by	chafisme , Abu Hassan al-Ash'ari , al-Juwayni , Avicenna
Influenced	Averroes , Nicolas d'Autrecourt , Thomas Aquinas , Abdul-Qdir Bedil , Rene Descartes , Maimonides
change

Abu Hamid Mohammed ibn Mohammed al-Ghazal ( 1,058 - one thousand one hundred and eleven ), formerly known in the West as the Algazel ( Arabic : Abu Hamid al-azly) is an original thinker Muslim Persian .

Iconic figure in the Muslim culture and represents the mysticism deepest.

Al-Ghazali was a very thorough philosophical training, he wrote an essay attempting to summarize the thinking of the great Muslim philosophers ( Al-Kindi , Rhazes , Al-Farabi , Avicenna ...). Disappointed in his search for an ultimate philosophical truth, he turns to a deep mysticism denying any truth to the philosophers and accusing them of infidelity. In his book al-Tahafut Falasifa (Incoherence of philosophers) (1095), he shows, by the same method of philosophers, because he has mastered his studies, that philosophers only lead to errors, condemned as contradicting the revelation. The criticism is mainly the Aristotelianism of Avicenna.

There will be a century later still criticized by Averroes.

Biography

Imam Abu Hamid was born in the town of Tus in Khurasan (Iran) in 450 AH (after Hijrah). After the death of his father, the young imam, still a minor, settled in the town of Jardjne. Went in search of science and knowledge, he learned "the basic sciences in Islam (Usul Ad-Din). He returned to Tus, then walked to Nishapur, where he became a disciple and companion of Imam Al-Djwayn until 477 AH, when the latter's death. The Imam then went to Iraq. A sovereign influential Nidham Al-Mulk, who had heard of the value of this young imam greeted in Iraq and gave him instruction in Al-Madrasah An-Nidhmiyyah in Baghdad in 484 AH, renowned University in the time. After four years spent in teaching and writing valuable books, Imam felt the need to travel, to turn away from earthly interests in a permanent search of religious studies. It was the beginning of a mystical quest. He left Iraq and went to Al-Hijaz in Arabia. It performs the pilgrimage and met scholars of Mecca and Medina. He then settled in Palestine. He spent two years in Jerusalem before visiting Egypt and live for some time in Alexandria. Back in his hometown Tus, the Imam devoted his life to prayer and worship of God, the pious deeds. He was asked by King Fakhr al-Mulk, the son of Al-Mulk Nidham, to teach in Nishapur Madrasati. He died at the age of 53 years.

Education

Al-Ghazali was born in the city of Tus ( Khurasan ) or in a nearby village, in a Persian family of modest means, some of whose members were known for their knowledge and penchant for mysticism Sufi.

Al-Ghazali was still young when his father died, after loading one of his friends to take care of Sufi education of his two son. The friend in question carried out this mission as long as funds bequeathed by the father and two brothers advised to enroll in a madrasa where students were taking courses and were supported materially. Al-Ghazali would have started at the age of seven years by studying Arabic and Persian, the Koran and the principles of religion. At the madrasa, he entered the cycle of secondary and higher education with the fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) and the exegesis ( tafsir ) of the Koran and Hadith (about the Prophet ).

Around the age of 15, al-Ghazali moved to Jurjan , thriving center of knowledge at the time, located 160 km from Tus to study the fiqh from Imam Isma'il al-(1084 ). This type of "trip in search of knowledge" to follow the teaching of teachers deemed the time was one of the educational traditions of Islam. He returned the following year at Tus, where he remained for three years devoted to memorize and understand what he had transcribed the teaching of his masters. He then proceeded to Nishapur ( Nichapur ), where he lived from 1081 to 1085. He studied fiqh , dogmatic theology ( kalam ) and logic, and, it seems, elements of philosophy, from the Imam Abu al-al-Ma'ale Djuwayn , the lawyer rite Shafii The most famous of the time. Al-Ghazali was then 23 years. During the five years that followed he was a pupil and assistant of the Imam al-Djuwayni, and began to publish some books and studying Sufism from another sheikh , al-Farmadhi.

In the corridors of power

The death of al-Djuwayn in 1085 saw the end of the learning period of al-Ghazali - who was then 28 years - and the start of immersion in politics and attendance corridors of power. He went to "camp" the Minister Seljuk Nizam al-Mulk , where he led for six years the lives of lawyers in court, made up of political battles, jousts and scholarly writings, until he was appointed professor at the madrasa Nizamiya of Baghdad, founded for the teaching of law Shaafa'is. During the four years he held this position, he wrote a number of books on fiqh - he teaches - the logic and Kalam , the most important being the Mustazhiri and Al-fil-Iqtisad I'tiqad (The balance in belief), two books of political jurisprudence.

During the period when he taught at the Nizamiya of Baghdad, al-Ghazali extensively studied philosophy (that of the Greeks, Aristotle , Plato and Plotinus in particular, and Islamic philosophy, particularly Ibn Sina and al-Farabi ) to better refute. The main problem it faces is that of reconciling philosophy and religion, and it resolves as follows: the philosophy is right insofar as it conforms to the principles of religion (of Islam) and in error when it is in contradiction with these principles. As a prelude to his attacks against philosophy, al-Ghazali wrote a book, al-Maqasid Falasifa (The intentions of the philosophers), in which he outlined the essence of philosophical thought known in his day, followed by his famous work, al Tahafut -Falasifa (Incoherence of philosophers) (1095). He summarized his opposition to the philosophy in twenty human issues, the world and God. For al-Ghazali, the world is a recent creation, the body joining the souls in the afterlife and God knows the individual as he knows the universal.

The al-Tahafut Falasifa had a considerable impact in the Arab-Islamic, and even in Christian Europe, this work and its author have been a factor in the decline of Greek philosophical thought in the Islamic world, despite few attempts to defend philosophy by Averroes and others .

With the intensification of military confrontation and intellectual between Sunni and Shia, between the Abbasid caliphate on the one hand, and the Fatimid State and its supporters and allies in the Mashreq , the other, al-Ghazali is mobilized and he published a series of books about it, the biggest being the esoteric Vices and Virtues of exoterism.

The esotericism of batinites based on two fundamental principles: the infallibility of the imam, compulsory source of knowledge, and the esoteric interpretation of the Shariah (revealed law of Islam) by Imam and his representatives. Al-Ghazali concentrates its attacks on the first principle, that of the infallibility of the imam, his purpose being to defend the Abbasid caliphate and justify its existence, it was symbolic (the Caliphate is now in extreme weakness), to ease the conditions of accession to the Imamat and give legitimacy to the Seljuk sultans, who hold the real power while military and political, legal and political problems which were also facing other fuqaha (lawyers) Muslim, al-Mawardi in particular. But the campaign against al-Ghazali's batinites is not as successful as his campaign against the philosophers.

He showed, in the revival of religious sciences (lhy Oloumi ed-Din), the fiqh , as intended by the strict observance of Maliki, a temporal occupancy was unrelated to religion. He denounced the actions of foqahas interested in politics, their sense of calling and folly to pretend ensure, through legal gymnastics futile, salvation of the soul, while religion is largely a matter of heart. We understand that his works shocked the Maliki Muslim in the West, less dogmatic grounds for the harsh judgments against foqahas. These also they obtained the prince Almoravid Ali Ben Youssef , the enemy of theology, burned and might endanger the confiscation of property and death whoever possesses fragments. .

Spiritual Crisis

Around 1095 , al-Ghazali, then thirty-eight years, undergoing a spiritual crisis that lasts about six months and can be summed up in a violent confrontation between reason and soul, between the world of here and that of the Hereafter. He began by doubting the doctrines and existing clans (that is to say, knowledge), then begins to doubt the instruments of knowledge. This crisis affects him physically so that he loses the use of the word and therefore becomes unable to teach, and it ends only when he resigns, his fortune and his fame.

Al-Ghazali summarizes the dominant doctrines of his time to four main doctrines: the dogmatic theology, based on logic and reason, the occult, based on initiation; philosophy based on logic and proof; Sufism based on the disclosure and testimony. Similarly, the means of attaining knowledge can be reduced: the senses, reason and inspiration. He ended up choosing Sufism and inspiration and, convinced that the unity of the world and the afterlife was difficult or impossible, excuse a pilgrimage to Mecca to leave Baghdad and go to Damascus .

Sufi Period

Influences Sufi are numerous and strong in the life of al-Ghazali. He lives at a time when Sufism spread: his father was close to Sufism, Sufi is his guardian, his brother is at an early age, his teachers lean towards Sufism, the minister Nizam al-Mulk is close to the Sufi and al-Ghazali himself has studied Sufism. But Sufism is not just theoretical knowledge studied in books or taught by teachers, it is also an action, practice and conduct, whose basic principles are, in particular, the renunciation of the world of here below, the solitude and wandering. This is what al-Ghazali, who for eleven years, leads a life of hermit between Damascus , Jerusalem and Mecca. It was then that he began to write his most important books, Ihya '`Ulum al-Din (Revification science of religion) - it may be concluded later. Divided into four parts, dealing respectively with the practices of religion, social customs, vices causes of perdition and virtues leading to salvation, this work does not bring anything fundamentally new, but found in its four volumes and some 1,500 pages most of the Islamic religious thought of the Middle Ages , a form to be both comprehensive and clearly and simply explains the unique place it occupies in the history of Islamic thought.

Return to Baghdad

Haruniyeh Tomb, named after Harun al-Rashid. The current structure was probably built in the XIII ^century. Ghazali is buried here.

Al-Ghazali returned to Baghdad in 1097 and continues to live as a Sufi in the ribat Abu Said of Nishapur , located in front of the madrasa Nizamiya. It takes time for some education, he devoted mainly to the of Ihya '`Ulum al-Din, then went to Tus , his hometown, where, continuing to live in Sufi and write, he completed apparently it's major work above and produces other mystical works whose inspiration is obvious .

In 1104 , al-Ghazali resumed his duties at the madrassa Nizamiya of Nishapur , at the request of the Minister Seljuk Fakhr al-Mulk, after a decade of absence. He continues to live the life of the Sufis and write. He left Nishapur and returns again Tus, his hometown, where he pursued the life of renunciation of the Sufis and teaching.

Near his house, he built a khangah (sort of Sufi shrine) where he wrote at that time Al-Minhaj'Abidin (The path of devotion) , which seems to be a description of his life and that of his students: renunciation of the world worldly, loneliness and education of the soul. Thus, he runs the rest of his life until his death in 1111.

The philosophy of al-Ghazali

The philosophy of al-Ghazali, as Islamic philosophy generally revolves around the concept of God and his relationship with his creations (the world and man). Certainly, al-Ghazali begins by following the current of thought of Islamic fiqh and, more specifically, that of dogmatic theology Ash'arite , in his description of the identity and attributes of God, and the current Sufi in the definition of the relationship between God and man, but he goes further by proposing a new idea of God's identity, its attributes and its action .

Al-Ghazali is in agreement with the lawyers and theologians about the unity and eternity of God, a God without form or substance, which is unlike any thing and no thing which looks like a god omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent god endowed with life, will, hearing, sight and speech. But the god of al-Ghazali is different in that universe and its components, and acts of men, are subject to its strong influence and its direct and constant intervention, and concepts specific to human justice it can not be applied. It also differs from the consideration of many creatures.

Like many philosophers and jurists, al-Ghazali distinguishes between two worlds, one that is ephemeral, and one that is eternal. The first, of material existence, there is a provisional, subject to the will of God and is not governed by a set of scientific laws, which he considers part of this world, but dominated, governed and headed by the direct intervention of God and constant (denial of causality). He thinks that God is not only the creator of the universe, its characteristics and its laws (or because of the existence), it is also the cause of any event which occurs, insignificant or significant past present or future .

It is in this world that live human being, creature made of an immortal soul and a frail body. The human being is neither good nor bad by nature, although his natural disposition is closer to good than harm. He moves further into a small space where constraints outweigh the possible choices. It is less for the world down here, where he suffers for another, which he should aspire and to which he must tender his efforts .

The company, formed in human beings is not and can not be virtuous for al-Ghazali. It is a society where evil outweighs the good, to the point that human beings have more incentive to avoid it rather than live there. The company can only get worse. The individual has rights and duties, but its existence is insignificant next to the existence and power of the group. It is also a stratified society, composed of an intellectual elite and leader and a mass, which has fully abandoned its fate in the hands of the elite. Issues of religion and doctrine are the responsibility of scholars and world affairs and the state are in the hands of leaders. The people, he has to obey. Finally, the company is obedient to God's authority and its injunctions, its sole purpose being the religion and give people the opportunity to worship God .

Awareness and knowledge are the major distinguishing features of the human being, which draws its attention to two sources, one man, which allows him to explore the material world where he lives, with these limited tools that are perceived and reason, and one divine, which allows him to know the world beyond, by revelation and inspiration. Both types of knowledge can not be placed on an equal footing in terms of their source as their methods or their degree of truth. True knowledge can only come from the unveiling, once reformed and purified the soul through education of the mind and body, and therefore ready to record what is engraved in the memory. It is a knowledge that the vector is neither speech nor writing, who invests the soul insofar as it is clean and ready to receive it. And over the soul acquires this knowledge, the more she knows God is close, and the happiness of human beings is big .

According to al-Ghazali, the virtuous person is one who renounces the world to strive for the Hereafter, who prefers solitude to the attendance of his fellows, destitution to wealth and hunger to satiety. It is surrender to God and not the taste of combat that dictates its behavior and is more inclined to be patient as aggression . Curiously, just when the image of the virtuous man began to evolve in Europe, "the monk knight" supplanting the wandering monk, the garment of the righteous man also changed in the Arab East, with the difference that armor of the knight fighting gave way to the ragged Sufi. And while Peter the Hermit roused the European masses and mobilizing for the Crusades , al-Ghazali exhorted Arabs to submit to the sovereign and to turn away from society. Thus, the thinker and philosopher helped to shape society and change the course of history.

The influence of al-Ghazali

Al-Ghazali died at the age of fifty-five, after a short life we can estimate when you consider the size, wealth and influence of his work. It is permissible to say that he was one of the greatest Muslim thinkers, one of those that left the deepest impression, earning the nickname "reviver of the fifth century of the Hegira. " The great influence of al-Ghazali had can be attributed to several factors, namely:

• The depth, strength and breadth of his thought, recorded in over fifty books, including the most important are Ihya '`Ulum al-Din (Revival of the Religious Sciences), al-Tahafut Falasifa (Inconsistent philosophers) and Al-min al-Dalal Munquidh (Error and Grant), works that we continue today to study.

• His views were consistent with his time and environment, reflecting the time probably more than they were responding to their needs and requirements, and constituting an element of continuity and order more than a factor of renewal and change.

• After him, the Islamic society and thought are then entered a long era of sclerosis, which thinkers have made themselves scarce, which explains that the thought of al-Ghazali has remained alive and influential.

The influence of al-Ghazali on Islamic thought can be reduced to the following elements:

• Return of the "principle of fear" in religious thought and insistence on the existence of the Creator sitting in the center of human existence and constantly and directly regulating the course of events (after the Sufis had defeated the "principle of love ").

• Introduction of certain principles of logic and philosophy (notwithstanding the attacks of al-Ghazali against these disciplines) in the case law and dogmatic theology.

• Reconciliation between Shariah and Sufism (between jurists and Sufis) and multiplication of Sufi brotherhoods.

• Defense of Islam against Sunni and Shiite philosophy.

• Weakening of philosophy and natural sciences.

The influence of al-Ghazali has spread beyond the Islamic world to train up on thoughts European Jewish and Christian.
At the end of XI ^century and especially in the ^twelfth century AD, many Arabic works, mathematics, astronomy, natural science, chemistry, medicine, philosophy and theology were translated into Latin , some works of al-Ghazali, in particular, Ihya '`Ulum al-Din (Revival of the Religious Sciences), al-Maqasid Falasifa (The intentions of the philosophers) that some have mistaken for a presentation the thought of al-Ghazali as he was a summary of current philosophical principles at the time, al-Tahafut Falasifa (The Incoherence of the Philosophers) and Mizan al-'Amal (Criterion of action).

In addition, a number of European scholars knew Arabic and were able to hear directly the views of al-Ghazali, the influence is clearly evident among many philosophers and scholars of the Middle Ages and the beginning of an era modern, especially in Thomas Aquinas , Dante and David Hume. Thomas Aquinas ( 1,225 - one thousand two hundred seventy-four ), in his Summa Theologiae (Summa Theologica) owes much to al-Ghazali (in particular - the Ihya '`Ulum al-Din (Revival of the Religious Sciences), to Kimiya-yi Sa 'adat (Alchemy of Happiness), Ar-Risala al-Laduniyya (The wisdom in the creatures of God) and Divine Message.

The writings of Dante ( in 1265 - 1321 ) clearly show the power of the Islamic al-Ghazali and al-Risalat Ghufran (Epistle of Forgiveness) to al-Maari. And al-Ghazali was also influenced Blaise Pascal ( 1 623 - in 1662 ), especially by giving precedence to intuition over reason and senses, and this influence is felt in David Hume ( one thousand seven hundred and eleven - one thousand seven hundred seventy-two ) in his refutation of causality. (Source?)

It seems that al-Ghazali has exerted a more profound influence on Jewish thought on theology and Christian thought. Judah Halevi is inspired to compose his Kuzari. Albalag Isaac , Jewish follower of Averroes wrote a commentary on the Tahafut strongly resembling the al-Tahafut Tahafut his master.
Many indeed were the Jewish scholars of the Middle Ages who were familiar with the Arabic language, and some works of al-Ghazali were translated into Hebrew. His book Mizan al-'Amal .

The writings of al-Ghazali on Education, representing the pinnacle of thought in Islamic civilization. The design of the education he has developed can be considered the most complete construction in this area, clearly defining the aims of education, tracing the route and setting out ways of achieving the goal. Al-Ghazali had an obvious influence on educational thought of Islamic life in the thirteenth century AH (twelfth to nineteenth century AD). One can almost say that with few exceptions, practitioners and theorists of education have done nothing other than copying al-Ghazali and summarize his views and writings.

Almost all of the Islamic educational thought (particularly Sunni) followed the footsteps of al-Ghazali, whose influence has survived the continuous onslaught of Western modernity and the emergence of modern contemporary Arab civilization .

Bibliography

Works translated into French (in alphabetical order)

• The Alchemy of Happiness, trans. Notes & Marcelot Muhammad, Alif , Lyon, 2010, (EAN 978-2-908087-22-2 ).
• The path to Paradise. The Minhaj, translated from Arabic by Djamel Ibn Fatah Beirut Albouraq, 2005, 296 pages.
• Error and grant (Al-Munqid adall min), trans. F. Jabre, Beirut, 1959. (Autobiographique. story of his conversion to Sufism).
• Islamic ethics, in Mr. Fateh Muhammad al Ghazali. The ethics of the Muslim, Paris, Al Qalam, 1993.
• Licit and illicit, ed. al-Bustani, Paris, 2002 ( ISBN 2-910856-32-1 ). al-Ghazzali, The Book of lawful and unlawful (al-Kitab wa-l-halal haram), introduction, translation from Arabic and notes Regis Morelon, Paris, Vrin, 1981, 339 p. XVIII (Collection "Islamic Studies", XXV), second revised edition, Paris, Vrin, 1991, 208 p.
• Book of Love, the Longing, privacy and perfect contentment, introduction, translation and notes by ML Siauve. Preface by Roger Arnaldez. Librairie J. Vrin, Paris, 1986.
• The Book of patience, Tayeb Chouiref, Ed La Ruche, 2002
• The Book of Science, Tayeb Chouiref, Ed La Ruche, 2004
• The Book of Knowledge, Ed de l'Aire, 2010
• Diseases of the heart and soul of the Master, Book XXII of the hya '' Ulum al-Din entitled "Book of Discipline of the soul, the education of moral behavior and treatment of diseases of the heart" Preface by Maurice Borrmans, Introduction, translation and notes by Marie-Therese Hirsch Collection "Islamic Heritage", Paris, Cerf, 2007, 192 pages.
• Peace of heart. The alchemy of happiness here and in the Hereafter (Kimiya' Sa'adat-yi) (1097), trans. La Ruche, 2006, 54 p. ("From animal to the angel": self-knowledge, knowledge of God, knowledge of this world, knowledge of the other world).
• The precious pearl (Al-Durra al-fakhir), trans. Lucien Gauthier, Alif , Lyon, 1995 ( ISBN 2908087081 )
• The pearl (Ad-Doura fakhir al-), trans. L. Gautier, 1878, repr. The Two Oceans, 1986.
• The revival of the Religious Sciences (Ihya 'Ulum ad-Din), trans. A. Massouli, Algiers, National Book Company, 1985.
• The tabernacle of Lights (Mishkat al-Anwar), trans. R. Ladrire, Seuil, 1981. (His last work. On the veracity of language).
• The virtues of marriage, trans. A. Demazire, Alif , Condrieu, 1997 (EAN 978-2-908087-12-3 )

Studies on al-Ghazali

• Henry Laoust , policy Ghazali, Paris, Geuthner, 1970, 414 p. (essential).
• Roger Arnaldez, "Ghazali," in Dictionary of philosophers, Encyclopaedia Universalis / Albin Michel, 1998 605-611.
• M.-L. Siauve, Love in Ghazali god. A philosophy of love in Baghdad in the early twelfth century, Librairie J. Vrin, 1986
• AJ Wensinck, Ghazali's thought, Adrien Maisonneuve, 1940.

Films on al-Ghazali

• Al-Ghazali The Alchemist of Happiness, DVD, Tasnim Editions, 2007. Directed by Ovidio Salazar Matmedia Productions.

References

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