Saturday, March 7, 2009
Reminiscing
I was amazed in my Islamic Education's class , when I came to know that students did not know much about the legend of Islam and his philosophical contributions, so here is a breif introduction about of Imam Ghazali. Abu Hamid al-Ghazali is one of the great Muslim jurist, theologian and mystics of the Muslim world. He lived in the 12th Century. He was a polymath who wrote on a wide range of topics including jurisprudence, theology, mysticism and philosophy. In the west he is famous for his devastating attack on philosophy specifically metaphysics in his tahfut al-falasifa, Incoherence of the philosophers. He is also the author of the famed ihya' `ulum al-din (Revival of Religious Sciences) a book that combined mysticism with practical everyday life actions by emphasizing the underlying psychology of daily life practices and its ramification on life in this world and the hereafter. AKA: al-Ghazzali , Algazel (450-505 AH/1058-1111 AD)
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Now that's pathetic to know.
ReplyDeleteAnother important feature of al-Ghazali's writing's is his use of Greek logic. Perhaps syllogism. But above all, positive and negatively, his contribution lies in, as Iqbal notes, establishing independent content for religion by taking refuge in mystic experience, independent of science and metaphysics. And herein lies his fault. Intellect doesn't lack the quality of knowing God. Because in Islam the role of intuition and intellect (summarized in the word al 'aql) is complementary.
Umer, you sound like the proponent of Ash'arite movement! Remember that we've an obscured history, when it comes to theologians trying to explain religious thought in the light of logic.Mu'tazilites are its prime example.
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