Al-Ghazali, also known as Abu Hamid al-Ghazali or Imam al-Ghazali, was a prominent Islamic theologian, philosopher, jurist, and mystic. He was born in 1058 in Tus, Persia (modern-day Iran), and passed away in 1111. Al-Ghazali’s contributions have had a profound impact on Islamic thought, and he is considered one of the most influential figures in the history of Islamic philosophy and theology.
Early Life: Al-Ghazali received a traditional Islamic education in theology, jurisprudence, and philosophy. He studied under renowned scholars of his time and quickly gained a reputation for his sharp intellect and mastery of various subjects.
Struggle and Spiritual Crisis: Despite his early success as an academic and a teacher, Al-Ghazali experienced a spiritual crisis and felt disillusioned with the pursuit of worldly knowledge. He embarked on a spiritual journey, seeking answers to profound questions about life, faith, and the purpose of existence. This internal struggle led him to undertake a period of intense introspection and contemplation.
Revival of Islamic Sciences: After his spiritual crisis, Al-Ghazali experienced a personal transformation and returned to his studies with renewed vigor. He went on to write numerous influential works that helped to revive and reform Islamic intellectual tradition, particularly in the fields of theology, philosophy, and mysticism. Some of his most famous works include:
“The Revival of the Religious Sciences” (Ihya’ ‘Ulum al-Din): This magnum opus consists of four parts, covering ethics, acts of worship, social responsibilities, and the mystical path. It remains a cornerstone of Islamic literature and is widely studied and respected.
“The Incoherence of the Philosophers” (Tahafut al-Falasifah): In this work, Al-Ghazali critiques the philosophical ideas of the time, particularly those of the Muslim philosophers influenced by ancient Greek thought. He argued that some of their beliefs contradicted Islamic teachings and sought to reconcile philosophy with religious faith.
“The Alchemy of Happiness” (Kimiyah al-Sa’adah): This book explores the path to spiritual enlightenment and happiness, emphasizing the importance of self-awareness and the purification of the soul.
Legacy: Al-Ghazali’s writings significantly influenced subsequent Islamic thought and continue to be studied and debated by scholars to this day. His emphasis on the role of spirituality, self-discipline, and inner transformation in the pursuit of knowledge and religious truth has left a lasting impact on Islamic philosophy, theology, and Sufism (Islamic mysticism). He is considered a pivotal figure in bridging the gap between rational philosophy and orthodox Islamic beliefs.
Al-Ghazali’s works have been translated into various languages, making his ideas accessible to a broader audience and contributing to cross-cultural dialogue. His enduring influence on Islamic intellectual history has earned him the title of “Hujjat al-Islam” (the Proof of Islam) and solidified his place as one of the greatest Muslim scholars in history.
Al-Ghazali Quotes
1. “Desires make slaves out of kings and patience makes kings out of slaves.”
— Al-Ghazali
2. “Knowledge without action is wastefulness and action without knowledge is foolishness.”
— Al-Ghazali
3. “To get what you love, you must first be patient with what you hate.”
— Al-Ghazali
4. “Declare your jihad on thirteen enemies you cannot see -egoism, arrogance, conceit, selfishness, greed, lust, intolerance, anger, lying, cheating, gossiping and slandering. If you can master and destroy them, then you will be read to fight the enemy you can see.”
— Al-Ghazali
5. “Do not allow your heart to take pleasure with the praises of people, nor be saddened by their condemnation.”
— Al-Ghazali
6. “Those who look for seashells will find seashells; those who open them will find pearls.”
— Al-Ghazali
7. “Never have I dealt with anything more difficult than my own soul, which sometimes helps me and sometimes opposes me.”
— Al-Ghazali
8. “Knowledge exists potentially in the human soul like the seed in the soil; by learning the potential becomes actual.”
— Al-Ghazali
9. “The hypocrite looks for faults; the believer looks for excuses.”
— Al-Ghazali
10. “You must convince your heart that whatever Allah has decreed is most appropriate and most beneficial for you.”
— Al-Ghazali
11. “A man of bad character punishes his own soul.”
— Al-Ghazali
12. “If you do not prepare now for the Afterlife, then when will you do so?”
— Al-Ghazali
13. “Offen love between two people intensifies not because of beauty or some advantage, but because of sheer spiritual affinity.”
— Al-Ghazali
14. “If your busy with yourself now, you will be busy with yourself then. If you are busy with Allah now, you will be with Him then.”
— Al-Ghazali
15. “Whoever says that all music is prohibited, let him also claim that the songs of birds are prohibited.”
— Al-Ghazali
16. “You possess only whatever will not be lost in a ship wreck.”
— Al-Ghazali
17. “Half of disbelief in Allah in the world is caused by people who make religion look ugly due to their bad conduct and ignorance.”
— Al-Ghazali
18. “To completely trust in Allah is to be like a child who knows deeply that even if he does not call for the mother, the mother is totally aware of his condition and is looking after him.”
— Al-Ghazali
19. “Man’s nature is made up of four elements, which produce in him four attributes, namely, the beastly, the brutal, the satanic, and the divine. In man there is something of the pig, the dog, the devil, and the saint.”
— Al-Ghazali
20. “The corruption of religions comes from turning them to mere words and appearances.”
— Al-Ghazali
21. “Do not dispute with anyone in any matter as far as possible. For in argumentation lies much harm and its evil is greater than its benefit.”
— Al-Ghazali
22. “This visible world is a trace of that invisible one and the former follows the latter like a shadow.”
— Al-Ghazali
23. “The way to paradise is an uphill climb whereas hell is downhill. Hence, there is a struggle to get to paradise and not to hell.”
— Al-Ghazali
24. “The happiness of the drop is to die in the river.”
— Al-Ghazali
25. “People count with self-satisfaction the number of times they have recited the name of God on their prayer beads, but they keep no beads for reckoning the number of idle words they speak.”
— Al-Ghazali
26. “Whoever determines the truth from people alone will remain lost in the plains of bewilderment. Rather, know the truth, and you will know its people.”
— Al-Ghazali
27. “Understand that for every rule which I have mentioned from the Quran, the Devil has one to match it, which he puts beside the proper rule to cause error.”
— Al-Ghazali
28. “If those who do not possess knowledge avoid the scholarly discussions, disagreement will end.”
— Al-Ghazali
29. “Know, O beloved, that man was not created in jest or at random, but marvelously made and for some great end. Although he is not form everlasting, yet he lives for ever; and though his body is mean and earthly, yet his spirit is lofty and divine.”
— Al-Ghazali
30. “The soul should take care of the body, just as the pilgrim on his way to Makkah takes care of his camel; but if the pilgrim spends his whole time in feeding and adorning his camel, the caravan will leave him behind, and he will perish in the desert.”
— Al-Ghazali
31. “In God, there is no sorrow or suffering or affliction. If you want to be free of all affliction and suffering, hold fast to God, and turn wholly to Him, and to no one else. Indeed, all your suffering comes from this: that you do not turn toward God and no one else.”
— Al-Ghazali
32. “A human-being is not a human-being while his tendencies include self-indulgence, covetousness, temper and attacking other people.”
— Al-Ghazali
33. “Men have such a good opinion of themselves, of their mental superiority and intellectual depth; they believe themselves so skilled in discerning the true from the false, the path of safety from those of error, that they should be forbidden as much as possible the perusal of philosophic writings.”
— Al-Ghazali
34. “Work for your terrestrial life in proportion to your location in it, and work for your afterlife in proportion to your eternity in it.”
— Al-Ghazali
35. “Does money upset the hearts of learned men? He answered, “men whose hearts are changed by money are not learned””
— Al-Ghazali
36. “Remember it is the heart and not the body, which strives to draw near to God. By heart I do not mean the flesh perceived by the senses, but that secret thing which is sometimes expressed by spirit, and sometimes by soul.”
— Al-Ghazali
37. “The essence of knowledge is to know what obedience and worship are -Abu Hamid al.”
— Al-Ghazali
38. “Love for God is the farthest reach of all stations, the sun of the highest degrees, and there is no station after that of love, except its fruit and its consequences.”
— Al-Ghazali
39. “He who buries his head deep into a nosebag full of food cannot hope to see the invisible world.”
— Al-Ghazali
40. “Whoever passes forty without his virtue overpowering his vice, let him get ready for hellfire. This advice contains enough for people of knowledge.”
— Al-Ghazali
41. “The mere physical man is like the ant crawling on the paper, who observes black lettering and attributes its production to the pen and nothing more.”
— Al-Ghazali
42. “Do not fix hopes on your health, and do not laugh away life. Remember how they walked and now all their joints lie separately, and the tongue with which they talked lightly is eaten away by the worms.”
— Al-Ghazali
43. “He who does not arrive at the Intuition of these Truths by means of Ecstasy knows only the name of Inspiration.”
— Al-Ghazali
44. “Each of your breaths is a priceless jewel, since each of them is irreplaceable and once gone, can never be retrieved.”
— Al-Ghazali
45. “If the world had two gods, it would surely go to ruin-this is the first premise. Now it is known that it has not gone to ruin-this is the second premise. From these premises the conclusion must of necessity follow, that is, the denial of two gods.”
— Al-Ghazali
46. “It is sometimes said that we drink our religion with our mother’s milk.”
— Al-Ghazali
47. “No one who possesses snow would find any hardship in exchanging it for jewels and pearls. This world is like snow exposed to sun, which continues to melt until it disappears altogether, while the next life is like a precious stone that never passes away.”
— Al-Ghazali
48. “Worship in Islam is not only observance of the prescribed worship rites – Prayer, Almsgiving, Fasting, Pilgrimage – but living one’s entire life in obedience to God, doing His will and seeking His pleasure, exactly in the way He has laid down.”
— Al-Ghazali
49. “For surely it is not the eyes that are blind, but blinded are the hearts which are in the breasts.”
— Al-Ghazali
50. “The reason of the human spirit seeking to return to that upper world is that its origin is from thence and that it is of angelic nature.”
— Al-Ghazali
51. “Verily, the weight of half of disbelief in the world is carried by religious people who made God detestable to His servants.”
— Al-Ghazali
