You desire to learn what I have borrowed, first of all from scholastic theology and secondly from the method of the Talimites who, in seeking truth, rest upon the authority of a leader and why, thirdly, I have been led to reject philosophic systems and finally what I have accepted of the doctrines of the Sufis, and the sum total of truth which I have gathered in studying every variety of opinion. You wish to know my experiences while disentangling truth lost in the medley of sects and divergencies of thought, and how I have dared to climb from the low-levels of traditional belief to the topmost summit of assurance. You have asked me, O brother in the faith, to expound the aim and the mysteries of religious sciences, the boundaries and depths of theological doctrines.

May the blessings of God rest on Muhammad His Prophet and His Apostle, on his family and companions, by whose guidance error is escaped.

Quoth the Imam Ghazzali: Glory be to God, Whose praise should precede every writing and every speech. He was well known in medieval Europe by his Latin name, Algazel. Al-Ghazali is most important for his attempt to reconcile mysticism with orthodox Islam. Al-Ghazali’s chief work, The Revival of the Religious Sciences, outlines a complete and orthodox system of the mystical attainment of unity with God. Al-Ghazali was the author of several important works his ‘Inconsistency of the Philosophers’, written just prior to his spiritual crisis, had a great influence on the future of speculative thought in Islam. After ten years of wandering he settled down to teach again a teaching which was inspired with his new mystical insights, and which he formulated very closely to orthodox Islam. Following a spiritual crisis in 1095 he abandoned his career to become a Sufi mystic. Al-Ghazali made a significant philosophical contribution at a time which was important for the continuing legitimate existence of the sufi component of Islam.Īl-Ghazali was appointed professor at Baghdad University in 1091. He is considered one of the greatest theologians in Islam. He was an Islamic theologian, philosopher, and mystic. in Khorasan, Irandad, in the west of what is now called Iran. Algazel, better known as al-Ghazali, was born Abu Hamid Ibn Muhammad Ibn Muhammad al-Tusi al-Shafi’i al-Ghazali in 1058 A.D.

Al ghazali the alchemist of happiness