Editing Al-Ghazali (section)

== Works ==
A total of about 70 works can be attributed to al-Ghazali.<ref name=EncIr_works>"about five dozen authentic works, in addition to which some 300 other titles of works of uncertain, doubtful, or spurious authorship, many of them duplicates owing to varying titles, are cited in Muslim bibliographical literature. [...] Already Ebn Ṭofayl (d. 581/1185, q.v.) observed that Ḡazālī wrote for different audiences, ordinary men and the elite (pp. 69-72), and Ḡazālī himself completed the rather moderate theological treatise, Eljām al-ʿawāmmʿan ʿelm al-kalām "The restraining of ordinary men from theology," in the last month before his death" ''[[Encyclopedia Iranica]]''.</ref><ref name="Griffel-2016"/><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Böwering |first1=Gerhard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q1I0pcrFFSUC&q=Ghazali+Revival+Sciences&pg=PA191 |title=The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought |last2=Crone |first2=Patricia |last3=Mirza |first3=Mahan |last4=Kadi |first4=Wadad |last5=Zaman |first5=Muhammad Qasim |last6=Stewart |first6=Devin J. |date=2013 |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |isbn=978-0691134840 |pages=191 |language=en |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> He is also known to have written a fatwa against the [[Taifa]] kings of al-Andalus, declaring them to be unprincipled, not fit to rule and that they should be removed from power. This fatwa was used by [[Yusuf ibn Tashfin]] to justify his conquest of al-Andalus.<ref name="Alkhateeb-2017">{{Cite book |last=Alkhateeb |first=Firas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X5RODwAAQBAJ|title=Lost Islamic History: Reclaiming Muslim Civilisation from the Past |date=2017-11-15 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-1-84904-977-1 |language=en |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>

=== ''Incoherence of the Philosophers'' ===
Al-Ghazali's 11th-century book titled  ''[[The Incoherence of the Philosophers|Tahāfut al-Falāsifa]]'' ("Incoherence of the Philosophers")
marked a major turn in Islamic [[epistemology]]. The encounter with [[skepticism]] led al-Ghazali to investigate a form of theological [[occasionalism]], or the belief that all causal events and interactions are not the product of material conjunctions but rather the immediate and present will of God.

In the next century, [[Ibn Rushd]] (or [[Averroes]]) drafted a lengthy rebuttal of al-Ghazali's ''Incoherence'' entitled ''[[The Incoherence of the Incoherence]]''; however, the epistemological course of Islamic thought had already been set.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Craig |first1=William Lane |author-link=William Lane Craig |title=The cosmological argument from Plato to Leibniz |date=2001 |publisher=[[Wipf and Stock]] |location=Eugene, OR. |isbn=978-1579107871 |page=89}}</ref> Al-Ghazali gave as an example of the illusion of independent laws of cause the fact that cotton burns when coming into contact with fire.  While it might seem as though a natural law was at work, it happened each and every time only because God willed it to happen—the event was "a direct product of divine intervention as any more attention grabbing miracle". [[Averroes]], by contrast insisted while God created the natural law, humans "could more usefully say that fire caused cotton to burn—because creation had a pattern that they could discern."<ref name="Kadri-118">{{cite book |last1=Kadri |first1=Sadakat |title=Heaven on Earth: A Journey Through Shari'a Law from the Deserts of Ancient Arabia .. |date=2012 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=9780099523277 |pages=118–9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ztCRZOhJ10wC&q=Heaven+on+Earth:+A+Journey+Through+Shari%27a+Law |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref><ref>For al-Ghazali's argument see ''The Incoherence of the Philosophers''. Translated by Michael E. Marmura. 2nd ed, Provo Utah, 2000, pp.116-7.</ref><ref>For Ibn Rushd's response, see {{cite book |editor-last=Khalid |editor-first=Muhammad A. |title=Medieval Islamic Philosophical Writings |location=Cambridge UK |date=2005 |page=162}}</ref>

The ''Incoherence'' also marked a turning point in Islamic philosophy in its vehement rejections of [[Aristotle]] and [[Plato]]. The book took aim at the ''Falāsifa'', a loosely defined group of Islamic philosophers from the 8th through the 11th centuries (most notable among them [[Avicenna]] and [[al-Farabi]]) who drew intellectually upon the [[Ancient Greece|Ancient Greeks]].

The influence of Al-Ghazali's book is still debated. Professor of Arabic and Islamic Science [[George Saliba]] in 2007 argued that the decline of science in the 11th century has been overstated, pointing to continuing advances, particularly in astronomy, as late as the 14th century.<ref name=Aydin_Saliba>"Many orientalists argue that Ghazali's Tahafut is responsible for the age of decline in [[science]] in the Muslim World. This is their key thesis as they attempt to explain the scientific and intellectual history of the Islamic world. It seems to be the most widely accepted view on the matter not only in the Western world but in the Muslim world as well. George Saliba, a Professor of Arabic and Islamic Science at Columbia University who specializes in the development of astronomy within Islamic civilization, calls this view the "classical narrative" (Saliba, 2007)".</ref>

Professor of Mathematics Nuh Aydin wrote in 2012 that one the most important reasons of the decline of science in the Islamic world has been Al-Ghazali's attack of ''philosophers'' (scientists, physicists, mathematicians, logicians). The attack peaked in his book ''Incoherence'', whose central idea of theological [[occasionalism]] implies that ''philosophers'' cannot give rational explanations to either metaphysical or physical questions. The idea caught on and nullified the critical thinking in the Islamic world.<ref>
{{cite web |last=Aydin |first=Nuh |title=Did al-Ghazali kill the science in Islam?|url=http://www.fountainmagazine.com/Issue/detail/did-al-ghazali-kill-the-science-in-islam-may-june-2012 |access-date=23 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150430051445/http://www.fountainmagazine.com/Issue/detail/did-al-ghazali-kill-the-science-in-islam-may-june-2012 |archive-date=2015-04-30 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

On the other hand, author and journalist [[Hassan Hassan]] in 2012 argued that while indeed scientific thought in Islam was stifled in the 11th century, the person mostly to blame is not al-Ghazali but [[Nizam al-Mulk]].<ref name="thenational.ae">{{cite news |first=Hasan |last=Hasan |author-link=Hasan Hasan |url=https://www.thenationalnews.com/opinion/comment/how-the-decline-of-muslim-scientific-thought-still-haunts-1.382129#:~:text=It%20reported%20that%20India%20and,and%20is%20of%20lower%20quality |title=How the decline of Muslim scientific thought still haunts |work=[[The National (Abu Dhabi)|The National]] |date=9 February 2012}}</ref>

=== ''The Revival of Religious Sciences (Ihya' Ulum al-Din)'' ===
{{See also|The Revival of the Religious Sciences}}
{{Sufism|Notable early}}
Another of al-Ghazali's major works is ''[[The Revival of Religious Sciences|Ihya' Ulum al-Din]]'' or ''Ihya'u Ulumiddin'' (''The Revival of Religious Sciences'').<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sonn |first=Tamara |url=https://archive.org/details/interpretingisla00zhuz |title=Interpreting Islam: Bandali Jawzi's Islamic Intellectual History |date=1996-10-10 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780195356564 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/interpretingisla00zhuz/page/30 30] |language=en |quote=Ghazali Revival ihya. |url-access=registration}}</ref> It covers almost all fields of Islamic sciences: [[fiqh]] (Islamic [[jurisprudence]]), [[kalam]] ([[theology]]) and [[sufism]].{{citation needed|date=June 2017}}

It contains four major sections: ''Acts of worship'' ({{lang|ar|Rub' al-'ibadat}}), ''Norms of Daily Life'' ({{lang|ar|Rub' al-'adatat}}), ''The ways to Perdition'' ({{lang|ar|Rub' al-muhlikat}}) and ''The Ways to Salvation'' ({{lang|ar|Rub' al-munjiyat}}). The {{lang|ar|Ihya}} became the most frequently recited Islamic text after the Qur'an and the hadith. Its great achievement was to bring orthodox Sunni theology and Sufi mysticism together in a useful, comprehensive guide to every aspect of Muslim life and death.<ref>Hunt Janin, The Pursuit of Learning in the Islamic World 610-2003, p 83. {{ISBN|0786429046}}</ref> The book was well received by Islamic scholars such as [[Yahya ibn Sharaf al-Nawawi|Nawawi]] who stated that: "Were the books of Islam all to be lost, excepting only the Ihya', it would suffice to replace them all."<ref>{{cite book |first=Joseph E. B. |last=Lumbard |title=Islam, Fundamentalism, and the Betrayal of Tradition: Essays by Western Muslim Scholars |year=2004 |page=291 |publisher=World Wisdom |isbn=0941532607}}</ref> This reception, however, was not universal as the book was burned in Almoravid Spain in 1109 and 1143 as al-Ghazali criticised the [[fuqaha]] for meddling in politics and due to al-Ghazali's [[syncretism]] and support of Sufism.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Clancy-Smith |first1=Julia |title=North Africa, Islam and the Mediterranean World: From the Almoravids to the Algerian War |date=5 November 2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-31213-8 |page=67 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=seH9AQAAQBAJ |access-date=26 February 2025 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Bennison |first1=Amira K. |title=Almoravid and Almohad Empires |date=5 July 2016 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-0-7486-4682-1 |pages=243–244 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=19JVDwAAQBAJ |access-date=26 February 2025 |language=en}}</ref> Allegedly, al-Ghazali foretold outraged upon hearing of the burning of his book the rise of the Almohad dynasty and invested is founder [[Ibn Tumart]] with the duty to overthrow the Almoravid rule.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fromherz |first1=Allen J. |title=The Almohads: The Rise of an Islamic Empire |date=30 July 2010 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-0-85771-207-3 |pages=30–31 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AA6MDwAAQBAJ |access-date=26 February 2025 |language=en}}</ref>

=== ''The Alchemy of Happiness'' ===
{{See also|The Alchemy of Happiness}}
''The Alchemy of Happiness'' is a rewritten version of ''The Revival of the Religious Sciences''. After the existential crisis that caused him to completely re-examine his way of living and his approach to religion, al-Ghazali put together ''The Alchemy of Happiness''.<ref name="Kimiya" />

=== ''Disciplining the Soul'' ===
One of the key sections of Ghazali's ''[[The Revival of the Religious Sciences|Revival of the Religious Sciences]]'' is ''Disciplining the Soul'', which focuses on the internal struggles that every Muslim will face over the course of his lifetime.<ref name="Winter-2016">{{Cite book |title=Al-Ghazali on Disciplining the Soul and on Breaking the Two Desires |last=Winter |first=T.J |publisher=The Islamic Text Society |year=2016}}</ref> The first chapter primarily focuses on how one can develop himself into a person with positive attributes and good personal characteristics . The second chapter has a more specific focus: sexual satisfaction and [[gluttony]].<ref name="Winter-2016" /> Here, Ghazali states that indeed every man has these desires and needs, and that it is natural to want these things.<ref name="Winter-2016" /> However, the Prophet explicitly states that there must be a middle ground for man, in order to practice the tenets of Islam faithfully. The ultimate goal that Ghazali is presenting not only in these two chapters, but in the entirety of ''The'' ''Revival of the Religious Sciences'', is that there must be moderation in every aspect of the soul of a man, an equilibrium. These two chapters were the 22nd and 23rd chapters, respectively, in Ghazali's ''Revival of the Religious Sciences''.<ref name="Winter-2016" />

=== ''The Eternity of the World'' ===
Al-Ghazali crafted his rebuttal of the Aristotelian viewpoint on the creation of the world in ''The Eternity of the World''. Al-Ghazali essentially formulates two main arguments for what he views as a sacrilegious thought process. Central to the [[Eternity of the world|Aristotelian]] approach is the concept that motion will always precede motion, or in other words, a force will always create another force, and therefore for a force to be created, another force must act upon that force.<ref name="Griffel-2016" /> This means that in essence time stretches infinitely both into the future and into the past, which therefore proves that [[God]] did not create the universe at one specific point in time. Al-Ghazali counters this by first stating that if the world was created with exact boundaries, then in its current form there would be no need for a time before the creation of the world by God.<ref name="Griffel-2016" />

=== ''The Decisive Criterion for Distinguishing Islam from Clandestine Unbelief'' ===
Al-Ghazali lays out in ''The'' ''Decisive Criterion for Distinguishing Islam from Clandestine Unbelief'' his approach to Muslim orthodoxy. Ghazali veers from the often hardline stance of many of his contemporaries during this time period and states that as long as one believes in the [[Muhammad|Prophet Muhammad]] and God himself, there are many different ways to practice Islam and that any of the many traditions practiced in good faith by believers should not be viewed as heretical by other Muslims.<ref name="Griffel-2009" /> While Ghazali does state that any Muslim practicing Islam in good faith is not guilty of [[apostasy]], he does outline in ''The Criterion'' that there is one standard of Islam that is more correct than the others, and that those practicing the faith incorrectly should be moved to change.<ref name="Griffel-2009" /> In Ghazali's view, only the Prophet himself could deem a faithfully practicing Muslim an infidel, and his work was a reaction to the religious persecution and strife that occurred often during this time period between various Islamic sects.<ref name="Griffel-2009" />

=== Deliverance from Error ===
[[File:Munqidh min al-dalal (last page).jpg|thumb|Last page of al-Ghazali's autobiography in MS Istanbul, Shehid Ali Pasha no. 1712, dated [[Anno Hegirae|AH]] 509 ([[Anno Domini|AD]] 1115–1116).]]

The [[autobiography]] al-Ghazali wrote towards the end of his life, ''{{ill|Deliverance From Error|ar|المنقذ من الضلال}}'' ({{lang|ar|المنقذ من الضلال}} ''al-Munqidh min al-Dalal''), is considered a work of major importance.<ref name=Iranica>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Böwering |first=Gerhard |title=ḠAZĀLĪ |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/gazali-i-biography |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Iranica |access-date=17 December 2012}}</ref> In it, al-Ghazali recounts how, once a crisis of [[epistemological skepticism]] had been resolved by "a light which God Most High cast into my breast ... the key to most knowledge,"<ref name=McCarthy>{{cite book |last=McCarthy |first=Richard Joseph |title=Freedom and fulfillment: "al-Munqidh min al-Dalal" and other relevant works |year=1980 |publisher=Twayne |location=Boston |isbn=978-0805781670 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/freedomfulfillme0000ghaz}}</ref>{{rp|66}} he studied and mastered the arguments of [[kalam]], [[Islamic philosophy]], and [[Ismailism]]. Though appreciating what was valid in the first two of these, at least, he determined that all three approaches were inadequate and found ultimate value only in the mystical experience and insight he attained as a result of following [[Sufi]] practices. [[William James]], in ''[[Varieties of Religious Experience]]'', considered the autobiography an important document for "the purely literary student who would like to become acquainted with the inwardness of religions other than the Christian" because of the scarcity of recorded personal religious confessions and autobiographical literature from this period outside the Christian tradition.<ref name=James>{{cite book |last=James |first=William |title=The Varieties of Religious Experience |year=2012 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=9780199691647 |editor-last=Bradley |editor-first=Matthew}}</ref>{{rp|307}}

=== Works in Persian ===
Al-Ghazali wrote most of his works in [[Persian language|Persian]] and in [[Arabic]]. His most important Persian work is ''[[Kimiya-yi sa'adat]]'' (The Alchemy of Happiness). It is al-Ghazali's own Persian version of ''Ihya' 'ulum al-din'' (The Revival of Religious Sciences) in Arabic, but a shorter work. It is one of the outstanding works of 11th-century-Persian literature. The book was published several times in [[Tehran]] by the edition of Hussain Khadev-jam, a renowned Iranian scholar. It is translated to [[English language|English]], [[Arabic]], [[Turkish language|Turkish]], [[Urdu]], [[Azerbaijani language|Azerbaijani]] and other languages.<ref name="Kimiya">Translated into English by Mohammed Asim Bilal and available at [https://archive.org/details/KimiyaISaadatAnEnglishTranslationOfImamGhazzalisAlchemyOfEternalBlissabuHamidAlGhazali archive.org]</ref>

Another authentic work of al-Ghazali is the so-called "first part" of the Nasihat al-muluk (Counsel for kings), addressed to the Saljuqid ruler of Khurasan Ahmad b. Malik-shah Sanjar (r. 490-552/1097-1157).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-iranica-online/sanjar-ahmad-b-maleksah-COM_10458#|title = SANJAR, Aḥmad b. Malekšāh|date = 11 August 2020}}</ref> The text was written after an official reception at his court in 503/1109 and upon his request. Al-Ghazali was summoned to Sanjar because of the intrigues of his opponents and their criticism of his student's compilation in Arabic, al-Mankhul min taʿliqat al-usul (The sifted notes on the fundamentals), in addition to his refusal to continue teaching at the Nizamiya of Nishapur. After the reception, al-Ghazali had, apparently, a private audience with Sanjar, during which he quoted a verse from the Quran 14:24: "Have you not seen how Allah sets forth a parable of a beautiful phrase (being) like a beautiful tree, whose roots are firm and whose branches are in Heaven." The genuine text of the Nasihat al-muluk, which is actually an official epistle with a short explanatory note on al-Manḵul added on its frontispiece.<ref>Makatib-i farsi-yi Ghazali ba nam-i Faza’il al-anam min rasa’il Ḥujjat al-Islam, ed. ʿAbbas Iqbal Ashtiyani, Tehran, 1954, pp. 11-12</ref>

The majority of other Persian texts, ascribed to him with the use of his fame and authority, especially in the genre of Mirrors for Princes, are either deliberate forgeries fabricated with different purposes or compilations falsely attributed to him. The most famous among them is Ay farzand (O Child!). This is undoubtedly a literary forgery fabricated in Persian one or two generations after al-Ghazali's death. The sources used for the forgery consist of two genuine letters by al-Ghazali's (number 4, in part, and number 33, totally); both appear in the ''Fazaʾil al-anam''.<ref>Makatib-i farsi-yi Ghazali ba nam-i Faza’il al-anam min rasa’il Hujjat al-Islam, ed. ʿAbbas Iqbal Ashtiyani, Tehran, 1954, pp. 13-23, 83-85</ref> Another source is a letter known as ''ʿAyniya'' and written by Muhammad's younger brother Majd al-Din Ahmad al-Ghazali (d. 520/1126) to his famous disciple ʿAyn al-Quzat Hamadani (492-526/1098-1131); the letter was published in the ''Majmuʿa-yi athar-i farsi-yi Ahmad-i Ghazali'' (Collection of the Persian writings of Ahmad Ghazali).<ref>Majmuʿa-yi athar-i farsi-yi Ahmad-e Ghazali, ed. A. Mujahid, Tehran, 1979, 2nd ed., Tehran, 1991, pp. 191-238</ref> The other is ʿAyn al-Quzat's own letter, published in the ''Namaha-yi ʿAyn al-Quzat Hamadani'' (Letters by ʿAyn al-Quzat Hamadani).<ref>Namaha-yi ʿAyn al-Quzat Hamadani, ed. ʿAli Naqi Monzawi and ʿAfif ʿUsayran, 2 vols., Tehran, 1983, II, p.103, no 73</ref> Later, ''Ay farzand'' was translated into Arabic and became famous as ''Ayyuha al-walad'', the Arabic equivalent of the Persian title. The earliest manuscripts with the Arabic translation date from the second half of the 16th and most of the others from the 17th century.<ref>George Henry Scherer, Al-Ghazali’s Ayyuha’l-walad, Ph.D. diss., Chicago University, 1930; Beirut, 1933, p. 27</ref> The earliest known secondary translation from Arabic into Ottoman Turkish was done in 983/1575.<ref>Hilmi Ziya Ülken, Gazali’nin bazi eserlerinin Türkçe tercümeleri. Les traductions en Turc de certains livres d’al-Ghazali, Ankara Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi 9/1, 1961, p. 61</ref> In modern times, the text was translated from Arabic into many European languages and published innumerable times in Turkey as Eyyühe'l-Veled or Ey Oğul.<ref>Günaydin, Gazâlî tercümeleri: Osmanli devri ve 1928 sonrasi için bir bibliyografya denemesi, Dîvân: Disiplinlerarası Çalışmalar Dergisi 16, 2011, pp. 70-73</ref>

A less famous Pand-nama (Book of counsel) also written in the genre of advice literature is a very late compilatory letter of an unknown author formally addressed to some ruler and falsely attributed to al-Ghazali, obviously because it consists of many fragments borrowed mostly from various parts of the Kimiya-yi saʿadat.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-iranica-online/kimia-ye-saadat-COM_362424 |title=Kimiā-Ye Saʿādat |date=29 June 2021}}</ref>