AL – GHAZALI AND HIS

THOUGHT ON SUFISM
BY : MUHAMMAD DAFFA HUBERTA
18511162
AL GHAZALI

•  was one of the most prominent and influential Muslim philosophers, 

theologians, jurists, and mystics of Sunni Islam
• Some Muslims consider him to be a Mujaddid, a renewer of the faith who,
according to the prophetic hadith, appears once every century to restore the
faith of the ummah
AL GHAZALI

•  After bestowing upon him the titles of "Brilliance of the Religion" and
"Eminence among the Religious Leaders," Nizam al-Mulk advanced al-Ghazali
in July 1091 to the "most prestigious and most challenging" professorial at the
time
• He underwent a spiritual crisis in 1095, abandoned his career and left Baghdad
on the pretext of going on pilgrimage to Mecca. Making arrangements for his
family, he disposed of his wealth and adopted an ascetic lifestyle
A Persian miniature depicting the medieval 
saint and mystic Ahmad Ghazali (d. 1123),
brother of the famous Abu Hamid al-Ghazali
 (d. 1111), talking to a disciple, from
the Meetings of the Lovers (1552)
SUFISM

• Al-Ghazali contributed significantly to the development of a systematic view of 

Sufism and its integration and acceptance in mainstream Islam
• Sufism is a method of approaching or a way of understanding the religion, which
strives to take the regular practice of the religion to the "supererogatory level"
through simultaneously "fulfilling ... [the obligatory] religious duties“ and finding
a "way and a means of striking a root through the 'narrow gate' in the depth of
the soul out into the domain of the pure arid unimprisonable Spirit which itself
opens out on to the Divinity
SUFISM

• To the Sufi, it is the transmission of divine light from the teacher's heart to the heart
of the student, rather than worldly knowledge, that allows the adept to progress.
They further believe that the teacher should attempt inerrantly to follow th
• ccording to Moojan Momen "one of the most important doctrines of Sufism is the
concept of al-Insan al-Kamil "the Perfect Man". This doctrine states that there will
always exist upon the earth a "Qutb" (Pole or Axis of the Universe)—a man who is
the perfect channel of grace from God to man and in a state of wilayah (sanctity,
being under the protection of Allah)
SUFISM

• Many Sufi believe that to reach the highest levels of success in Sufism
typically requires that the disciple live with and serve the teacher for a long
period of time
AL GHAZALI THOUGHT ON SUFISM

• Al-Ghazali succeeded in gaining widespread acceptance for Sufism at the

expense of philosophy
• He argued that Sufism originated from the Qur'an and thus was compatible
with mainstream Islamic thought and did not in any way contradict Islamic
Law—being instead necessary to its complete fulfillment
The works of Al-Ghazali firmly
defended the concepts of Sufism
within the Islamic faith.
QUESTION?