الإمام الغزالي

al-Imam al-Ghazali

In this book, the author presents a biography of Imam al-Ghazālī, who is regarded as one of the leading teachers of the Niẓāmiyyah madrasahs, which were among the finest institutions devised by the human intellect for devotion to learning in accordance with the circumstances of that age. The Niẓāmiyyah madrasahs were among the most effective means of spreading and disseminating knowledge and of achieving the objectives laid down by Niẓām al-Mulk: the predominance of the Qur’an and Sunnah and the creed of Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamāʿah over the state and the Muslim Ummah.

The author discusses al-Ghazālī’s diligence in seeking knowledge, his close study under Imām al-Ḥaramayn, his appointment as a teacher at the Niẓāmiyyah of Baghdad, the reasons for his brilliance and fame, the great transformation that changed the course of his life, and his return to teaching. He also discusses the chronological order of his writings, his position towards the philosophers and philosophy, theology and Sufism, his reformative methodology and its characteristics, and his diagnosis of the maladies of society.

The book also discusses the fields of reform in which he worked, his formulation of a new curriculum for education and teaching, the building of Islamic creed, the revival of the mission of commanding good and forbidding evil, his criticism of unjust rulers and call for social justice, and his struggle against deviant intellectual trends.