Encyclopedia of Islam

Ghazali, Abu Hamid al-

  

261  J

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as was their position on the eternity of the world. 

Al-Ghazali’s main critique of the Ismaili Shia, who 

were posing a serious threat to Sunni hegemony 

during the 11th and 12th centuries, was that they 

gave too much 

aUthority

 to their i

mams

. Believ-

ers only had to recognize God’s existence and 

adhere to the 

sUnna

 of m

Uhammad

  to conduct 

their lives. Moreover, al-Ghazali cautioned against 

allowing commoners to engage in theological or 

philosophical speculation because it would harm 

their chances for salvation. He also criticized the 

exaggerated claims of Sufi mystics, who spoke of 

divine knowledge and complete annihilation of 

the self in God. Only God can fully know himself, 

he wrote, and annihilation, if achieved at all, was 

only for the moment.

Al-Ghazali’s contributions to the history of 

Islamic thought and mysticism are still being 

debated today. Many recognize that his writings 

helped give new meaning to Muslim practices by 

conjoining them to Sufi values and insights. The 

use of logical argumentation in his theological 

writings set a standard for later Muslim theo-

logians to follow. Al-Ghazali’s bold criticisms 

of Muslim philosophers echoed throughout the 

Muslim intellectual world and obliged i

bn

 r

Ushd

(d. 1198), the Andalusian philosopher-jurist, 

to write a retort entitled The Incoherence of the 

Incoherence. On the negative side, he may have 

contributed to the decline of Islamic philosophi-

cal reflection by the forcefulness of his theologi-

cally based arguments against many of its main 

tenets.

See also  a

llah

; 

ethics

 

and

 

morality

;  i

smaili

s

hiism

; 

philosophy

; s

haFii

 l

egal

 s

chool

.