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Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī

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Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ghazālī (450-505 AH / 1058-1111) was one of the greatest scholars in the history of Islam. A jurist, theologian, thinker and spiritual master, he received the honorary title of Ḥujjat al-Islām, “the Proof of Islam”. His journey is exceptional in its richness. He was first a famous professor, at the height of intellectual and social success. Then he went through a deep inner crisis which led him to leave everything to devote himself to the search for certainty and the purification of the soul. At the heart of his work is a fundamental question: how can we achieve certain knowledge of God and live in accordance with it? A childhood in Ṭūs Al-Ghazālī was born in 1058 (450 AH) in Ṭūs, in the Khorasan region, in the northeast of present-day Iran. His father, a modest and pious man, died while his children were still young. Before his death, he entrusted the education of Abū Ḥāmid and his brother Aḥmad to a Sufi friend. The two brothers then continued their studies in a madrasa, where they were housed and fed. Aḥmad al-Ghazālī also became a renowned Sufi master. The training years After his early studies in Ṭūs, al-Ghazālī studied in Jurjān, then in Nishapur, one of the great intellectual centers of the Muslim world. In Nishapur, he became a student of al-Juwaynī, nicknamed Imām al-Ḥaramayn, one of the greatest jurists and theologians of his time. With him, he goes deeper: Muslim law (fiqh) according to the Shāfiʿite school; the foundations of law (uṣūl al-fiqh); theology (kalām) according to the Ashʿarite school; logic and the art of debate. Very quickly, he distinguished himself by his remarkable intelligence and analytical capacity. At the peak of success After the death of al-Juwaynī in 1085, al-Ghazālī joined the entourage of Niẓām al-Mulk, the powerful vizier of the Seljuk Empire, who gathered around him many scholars. In 1091, he was appointed professor at the Niẓāmiyya of Baghdad, one of the most prestigious educational institutions in the Muslim world. His classes attract hundreds of students. He is consulted on the major religious and political questions of his time. During this period, he studied in depth Greek philosophy and its Muslim commentators, such as al-Fārābī and Ibn Sīnā. He first presents the ideas faithfully in Maqāṣid al-falāsifa (“The Intentions of the Philosophers”), before criticizing them. The criticism of the philosophers In Tahāfut al-falāsifa (“The Inconsistency of the Philosophers”), al-Ghazālī examines the theses of the philosophers of his time. He does not reject logic or mathematical sciences, which he considers useful. But he contests certain metaphysical theses, notably the idea of ​​the eternity of the world, which he considers contrary to the teachings of revelation and not demonstrated by reason. This work had a considerable influence. Later, the Andalusian philosopher Ibn Rushd responded in Tahāfut al-tahāfut (“The Incoherence of Incoherence”), giving rise to one of the most famous debates in the history of thought. The internal crisis Around 1095, at the height of his career, al-Ghazālī went through a deep crisis. He himself says that he realized that his intentions were not entirely pure: he was teaching partly for reputation and honors. This realization affected him to the point that he lost the use of speech for a time and could no longer teach. He then decides to leave Baghdad, his position and his possessions, to devote himself to God. The years of spiritual retreat For almost ten years, al-Ghazālī lived in retirement, prayer and meditation. He stayed in particular in Damascus, where he isolated himself in the Umayyad mosque, then in Jerusalem and Hebron. He also performed the pilgrimage to Mecca and went to Medina. During this period, he practiced the Sufi path and discovered, in his own words, that the certainty he was seeking was not only obtained through study, but also through spiritual experience and purification of the heart. It is in this context that he wrote his major work. Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn (“The Revivification of the Sciences of Religion”) is considered one of the most important works of Islamic literature. Divided into four main parts, it covers the entire life of the believer: acts of worship (prayer, fasting, almsgiving, pilgrimage); the uses of daily life (marriage, commerce, friendship, travel); the vices that lead to loss (pride, envy, avarice, ostentation); the virtues that lead to salvation (repentance, patience, gratitude, trust in God, love of God). Its objective is to revive the spirit of religion, recalling that external practices must be accompanied by sincerity, humility and interior purification. Al-Munqidh min al-ḍalāl In Al-Munqidh min al-ḍalāl (“That which delivers from error”), al-Ghazālī recounts his own intellectual and spiritual journey. He describes his doubts, his examination of the different schools of thought of his time and the reasons which led him towards the Sufi path.…