Imam Al-Ghazzali

Many of us would not say that we do not know who is he or where does he comes from; and some of us would be familiar with Imam Ghazzali's books like the much talked about, 'Revival of the Religious Sciences', Alchemy of Happiness, The Beginning of Guidance etc...

I attended a class about the above kitab; The Beginning of Guidance and i enjoyed the class very much. But it was way before that class i started to fall in love with this scholar's works. I think it must have been the enormous chunk of knowledge that you can derive from all that he wrote. Masya allah.

In case, you have no idea about his background:

Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazzali was born in the city of Tus, northwestern Iran, in AD 1058. He studied in Tus until he was 27 when he moved to Baghdad. He was appointed as a professor at the Nizamiyyah college there when he was 33. After 4 years of a strenuous schedule, he underwent a spiritual experience which convinced him that all of the knowledge he had gained was useless in comparison to gnosis or experiential knowledge of the Divine Presence. He realized unless he left his position and was free to search for this knowledge deeper within himself without worldly distractions, he would never attain it. He therefore provided for his family and left for Damascus and other well known cities at that time.

When he was 48 he returned to his birthplace where he lived for the next 5 years until his early death at the age of 53. He left behind over 400 works among them being his famous Revival of the Religious Sciences (ihya ulum al-din) which he wrote in Arabic. Over 2300 pages, it is a compendium of Islamic practices. A few years after he finished the Revival, he felt the need to write the same sort of compendium on being a Muslim in Persian. This is the entire work here translated into English for the first time which al-Ghazzali called the Alchemy of Happiness. It is a masterful textbook on traditional psychology.
(now a little bit more...)
While modern Western psychology focuses on describing emotions, behavior or cognition, that is, what we feel, do and think without recourse to the basic principles or causes, traditional psychology is based on the same three centers, but like all traditional sciences, includes much more. As a result of including metaphysics, theology, cosmology and the natural sciences as the basis or underlying principles for what we feel, do or think, it becomes a wholistic psychology.

The goal of traditional psychology is to assume the noble character traits, to overcome our ego which competes for our attention with our God-given instinct to attend to the One God. In tis view, there cannot be two wills and therefore our free will has to be disciplined to submit to God's will (islam).

The word psychology comes from the Greek words 'psyche' or 'soul' and 'logos'. Psyche also means breath, spirit and refers to the animating principle of the universe. Logos means 'word' and in the traditional view it refers to 'the word of God'. The science of psychology, then, when it is true to its name, is the study of the Word of God within the human soul or spirit.

Al-Ghazzali's psychology is essentially that of monotheism and unity, the world view that 'there is no god, but God' or 'there is no deity, but God.' It is to see the universe and all that is in it as aspects of the One God. The world view of monotheism (tawhid) forms the underlying basis for traditional psychology.

By the word 'tradition' we mean al-din which has been defined as: 'truths or principles of a Divine Origin revealed of unveiled to mankind through a messenger along with the ramifications and applications of these principles in different realms including law, social structure, art, symbols, the sciences and embracing Supreme Knowledge along with the means for its attainment.'

Traditional (al-din) is a point which is at one and the same time the Center and Origin of our being. Traditional psychology is oriented towards helping the individual as well as the human community find that Center as prepare for the return to our Origin.

A monotheist (hanif) like al-Ghazzali regards the whole universe as a unity, as a single form, a single living and conscious thing, possessing will, intelligence, feeling, and purpose, revolving in a just and orderly system in which there is no discrimination no matter what one's gender, color, race, class, or faith be. All comes from God and returns to God, while a multitheist views the universe as a discordant assemblage full of disunity, contradiction, and heterogeneity containing many independent and conflicting poles, unconnected desires, customs, purposes, wills, sexes, sects, colours, races, classes, and faiths.

The monotheistic world view sees the universal unity in existence, a unity of three separate relationships:
1) our relationship with others, nature and the universe; 2) our relationship with God; 3) our relationship with our 'self'.
These relationships are not alien to one another; there are no boundaries between them. They move in the same direction. Al-Ghazzali expresses this when he writes:
Then know that there is a station in gnosis (marifat) where, when a person reaches it, he really sees that all that exists is interconnectedness, one with another, and all are like one animate being. The relationship of the parts of the world such as the heavens, the earth, the stars to each other is like the relationship of the parts of one animate being to each other. The relationship of all the world to its Director - from one aspect, not from all aspects - is like the relationship of the kingdom of the body of an animal to the spirit and intellect which are its Director. Until a person recognizes this, that Verily, God created Adam in His image, it cannot be comprehended by his understanding.

Other non-monotheistic religious world views see the Divinity - or even the plural of this - as existing in a special, metaphysical world of the gods, a higher world as contrasted with the lower world of nature and matter. They teach that God is separate from the world, created it and then left it alone. In the monotheistic world view, God has never left and is the destination of the Return. In this view, our 'self' fears only one Power and is answerable to only One Judge; turns to one direction (qibliah), orientng all hopes and desires to only one Source. A belief in monotheism gives us a sense of independence and liberation from everything other than God and a connectedness to the universe and all that it contains. Submission to God's will alone liberates us from worshipping anything other than God and rebelling against anything else that purports to be God.
Introduction by Al-Ghazzali on Trust and the Unity of God

May Allah swt protects all Muslims from falling into error. amin.