Al-Ghazali

Al-Ghazali (c. 1058 – 19 December 1111), also known in Latin as Algazelus, was a Persian scholar and polymath who belonged to the Shafi'i school of Sunni Islam. His expertise spanned jurisprudence, legal theory, philosophy, theology, logic, and mysticism, making him one of the most influential figures in Islamic history. He is recognized as the mujaddid—a renewer of the faith—for the 11th century, a role based on a prophetic hadith that a reformer appears every hundred years. His contemporaries gave him the honorific title "Proof of Islam" (Ḥujjat al-Islām). Al-Ghazali was also a prominent mujtahid within the Shafi'i legal tradition.

Born in Tabaran, a town in the district of Tus, Khorasan, al-Ghazali came of age shortly after the Seljuks entered Baghdad, ending the Shia Buyid rule and beginning Seljuk influence over the Caliphate. He began his studies in Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) with Ahmad al-Radhakani and later studied under Abu Ali Farmadi, a Naqshbandi Sufi, both in Tus. He then moved to Nishapur to study under al-Juwayni, the leading scholar of his time. After al-Juwayni’s death in 1085, al-Ghazali joined the court of Nizam al-Mulk, the powerful Seljuk vizier, likely in Isfahan. Nizam al-Mulk awarded him the titles "Brilliance of the Religion" and "Eminence among the Religious Leaders," and in July 1091 appointed him to the most prestigious academic post in the Muslim world: professor at the Nizamiyya of Baghdad.

Much of al-Ghazali’s work was shaped by a spiritual crisis that followed this appointment. Realizing he had prioritized status and ego over God, he abandoned his career in 1095, claiming he would go on pilgrimage to Mecca. He disposed of his wealth, made arrangements for his family, and adopted an ascetic lifestyle. According to biographer Duncan B. Macdonald, this withdrawal from scholastic work was meant to pursue spiritual experience and a deeper understanding of scripture. After time in Damascus and Jerusalem, and visiting Medina and Mecca in 1096, he returned to Tus for several years of seclusion (uzla). During this period, he abstained from teaching at state institutions but continued to write, receive visitors, and teach at a private madrasa and Sufi lodge he had built. Many of his major works were composed in this decade.

Al-Ghazali believed the Islamic spiritual tradition had become stagnant and that the spiritual sciences of the early Muslims had been forgotten. This led to his magnum opus, *Iḥyā’ ‘ulūm ad-dīn* ("The Revival of the Religious Sciences"). Another key work, *Tahāfut al-Falāsifa* ("Incoherence of the Philosophers"), is a landmark in philosophy, advancing a critique of Aristotelian science that later influenced 14th-century European thought.

In 1106, Fakhr al-Mulk, grand vizier to Ahmad Sanjar, pressured al-Ghazali to return to teaching at the Nizamiyya of Nishapur. He reluctantly agreed, fearing controversy. He later returned to Tus and in 1110 declined an invitation from the grand vizier of Sultan Muhammad I to go back to Baghdad. Al-Ghazali died on 19 December 1111. According to his first biographer, 'Abd al-Ghafir al-Farisi, he had several daughters but no sons. He was buried near his home in Tus, Iran.

Al-Ghazali contributed significantly to integrating Sufism into mainstream Islam and developing a systematic view of it. He belonged to the Shafi'i school of jurisprudence and the Asharite school of theology, though his beliefs differed in some respects from orthodox Asharism. He is considered a key member of the Asharite school and an important refuter of the Mutazilites. He held many titles, including Zayn al-Dīn and Ḥujjat al-Islām. His spiritual crisis in 1095 was accompanied by physical symptoms—loss of appetite, indigestion, and difficulty lecturing—which medical practitioners could not cure, attributing them to a psychological and spiritual cause. He was critical of the social and spiritual state of his institution, his scholarly peers, and the political class. He initially framed his departure as a pilgrimage to the Hajj to avoid opposition from the leadership, selling his belongings and distributing his property.