Al-Ghazali

Introduction:
Abu Hamid Muhammad bin Muhammad bin Muhammad bin Ahmad, surnamed al-Imam-ul-Jalilm, Hujjat-ul-Islam and Zainuddin, was born at Ghazzalah near Tus in 1058. He is one of the greatest and distinguished original philosophers not only in the history of Muslim philosophy but also in the history of human thought. He was educated at Tus proper in the early years of his career and later on he shifted to Jurjan, and then finally migrated to Nishapur to imbibe wisdom and philosophy by sitting at the feet of perhaps the most versatile genius of his time, Abul-Maali Muhammad al-Juwaini Imam-ul-Haramain, who was invited back from Hijaz to preside over one of the great colleges founded by Nizam-ul-Mulk Tusi. He was accepted first as the pupil and the assistant by the Imam. Al-Ghazali won great fame and prominence because his philosophical doctrines and consequently as a great sage of the age, he was called to the court of Nizam-ul-Mulk Tusi while still in his twenties. He was the intellectual adviser and chief canonist till 1091 when he was formally appointed to the great foundation of Baghdad.

Al-Ghazali was aptly considered a mujaddid and reckoned at par with the four Imams. There have been many philosophers and scholars in Islam and other religions, but the distinct caliber of one of great philosophers ushered a unique era of knowledge of his age. He left behind indelible impressions because of his immortal works and philosophical-cum-political doctrines which have still influence upon this modern age. In 1095, he had discontinued his work of teaching in Baghdad. His mind continually in a state of doubt, probably found no satisfaction in dogmatic predictions. Sherwani said, “Baghdad did not see very much of Ghazali and it seems that deep thought, coupled with murder of his patron Nizam-ul-Mulk Tusi and the death of Malik Shah in 1092, all these things had a tremendous effect on his psychology.”

For about ten years, in the period of utter disillusionment, Al-Ghazali extensively traveled here and there to imbibe wisdom and intellect from every source, dividing his time between pious exercises and literary work. Al-Ghazali remained in fretful years because of state politics which took a serious turn. He died in Tus on 19th of December, 1111. His closing years were chiefly devoted to pious contemplation and the study of the Traditions, which as a youth he could never remember. A beautifully complete and rounded life in which the end comes back to the beginning.

Principle political works of Al-Ghazali are as follows:

1. Munqidh Min ad-Dalal (Deliverance from Waywardness)

2. Ihya-ul-Ulam (Renaissance of Sciences)

3. Tibr-ul-Masbuk (Molten Gold)

4. Sirr-ul-Alamain (The Mystery of the Two Worlds)

5. Fatihat-ul-Ulum (Introduction to Sciences)

6. Kimiya-i-Sa’adat (Alchemy of Goodness)

7. Iqtisad Fil-I’tiqad (Moderation in Belief)

8. Kitab-ul-Wajiz (a hand book of Fiqah, canon law)

Contribution of Al-Ghazali
to Islamic Political Thought

Al-Ghazali is undoubtedly an outstanding and remarkable political scholar in Islam. His philosophy is an expression of his own personality. He abandoned the attempt to understand this world. But the religious problem he comprehended much more profoundly than did the philosophers of his time. Dr. T. T. Debeer said, “These were intellectuals in their methods, like their Greek predecessors, and consequently regarded the doctrines of Religion as merely the products of the conception of fancy or even caprice of the law givers. According to them Religion was either blind obedience, or a kind of knowledge which contained truth of an inferior order. On the other hand, Al-Ghazali represents Religion as the experience of his inner being; it is for him more than Law and more than Doctrine, it is the Soul’s experience.”

Al-Ghazali’s philosophical analysis, logical positivism and religious empiricism have profoundly influenced every age of philosophy and religion and even today, modern student of the political history seeks inspiration in solving all philosophical and political inquiries. His liberalism and intellectualism completely dominated Western Philosophy and even Western thinkers preserved main elements of his great philosophy in their works. Europe, about the end of the eleventh and beginning of the twelfth century of the Christian era, was in the abyss of degradation and political degeneration. This period is dubbed by one of the greatest of modern political scientists as “essentially unpolitical”.

In the contemporary age of Al-Ghazali, Europe was engulfed in perpetual controversy between Pope and the Emperor. This controversy led to political cleavage and intransigents and wreckers mutilated all traits of progress and prosperity. There was nothing but blood, destruction and wars, which snapped all resources and economy. Poverty and wrangling had become regular features of the day. At that time, East was at the pinnacle of glory and progress.

It is certainly difficult to agree with unfounded and sweeping statement of Hitti that Al-Ghazali constructed such a scholastic shell for Islam that all its future progress became arrested within it. If the progress of the West consisted as it is said in breaking a similar shell within context of his own religion then quite a few hammer strokes therein were wrought by the hands of the Muslim thinkers of which the uppermost hand was the hand of Al-Ghazali. This anybody might see for himself by making a close study of Al-Ghazali’s influence on the West.

Al-Ghazali as a great savant was decidedly superior to some of those who had gone before him. For while he had become conversant with the working of the political system when he was attending the court of his patron, Nizam-ul-Mulk Tusi, Prime Minister of Suljuqi Kings, Al-Ghazali, while living in such surroundings had made a close study of the problems of politics. It was his efforts to leave off his luxurious life and write most of his works from a mental point of vantage in Syria or Arabia or else in the seclusion of his paternal hearth and home. Al-Ghazali is definitely superior to Al-Mawardi in being analytical as well as comparative in his arguments.

Sherwani was of the view that “A student of the history of political theories is aware of the great gap which seems to exist between the decline of Roman thought about the beginning of Christian era till about the thirteenth century, when thought seems dull, constitutions unscientific and people lethargic and pleasure-loving. Knowledge would be the richer and chains of thought more continuous if that artificial blank were to be filled by such giants of wisdom as Mawardi, Nizam-ul-Mulk Tusi and Al-Ghazali. Even in oriental thought, Al-Ghazali’s place is certain. His greatness lies partly in having successfully refilled the desired outlined by brilliant Islamic colors, although they were not destined to last very long, giving place once again, and finally to barbaric hues.”