Those Who Attack Imam Ghazali
by Sh. G. F. Haddad
Bismillah al-Rahman al-Raheem
was-salaat was-salaam `alaa Rasul-illah wa 'alaa alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam
Today's "Salafis" have revived a particularly bad trait of some
naysayers of the past, which consists in attacking Imam Ghazali and
belittling those who read his works and cite them to illustrate their
opinions. This concerns especially his major book Ihya' `Ulum al-Din,
because it is a landmark of tasawwuf whose immense success and
readership the enemies of tasawwuf find particularly galling. Some go so
far as to claim that Ghazali was mad when he wrote it, others
misconstrue Ghazali's deathbed reading of Imam Bukhari as a renunciation
of tasawwuf, others yet bring up the condemnations of the book by a
handful of scholars known for their anti-sufi bias. Yet Allah has
allowed the book to tower high above the clamor of its few detractors,
and its translations keep increasing in number and quality. The
following is intended to provide readers with reliable references
concerning his life and works so as to protect ourselves, with Allah's
help, against the slurs of ignorance and envy.
Salah al-Din al-Safadi (d. 764), Abu Hayyan al-Andalusi's student,
relates in his great biographical dictionary entitled al-Wafi -- which
contains over 14,000 biographies:
Muhammad b. Muhammad b. Muhammad b. Ahmad, the Proof of Islam, the
Ornament of the Faith, Abu Hamid al-Tusi (al-Ghazali), the Shafi`i
jurist, was in his later years without rival.
In 488 he gave up the entirety of his worldly estate (and
his professorship at the Nizamiyya, where he had taught since 484)
and followed the way of renunciation and solitude. He made the
Pilgrimage, and, upon his return, directed his steps to Syria,
where he abided a while in the city of Damascus, giving
instruction in the mosque retreat (zawiyat al-jami`) which now
bears his name in the Western quarter. He then voyaged to
Jerusalem, exerting himself greatly in worship and in visiting the
holy sites and places. Next he travelled to Egypt, remaining for a
while at Alexandria...
He returned to his native city of Tus (shortly before 492).
Here he compiled a number of valuable books [among them the Ihya']
before returning to Nisabur, where he was obliged to give lessons
at the Nizamiyya (499). He subsequently forsook this and made his
way back to his home city, where he assumed the directorship of a
retreat (khaniqah) for the Sufis and that of a neighboring college
for those occupied with learning. He divided his time among good
works such as reciting through the Qur'an and holding lessons for
the People of Hearts (the Sufis)...
It is among the noblest and greatest of books, to the extent
that it was said concerning it: If all books of Islam were lost
except the Ihya', it would suffice for what was lost... They
disapproved of him for including in it hadiths which were not
established to be authentic, but such inclusion is permitted in
works of encouraging good and discouraging evil (al-targhib wa al-
tarhib). The book remains extremely valuable. Imam Fakhr al-Din
al-Razi used to say: "It was as if Allah gathered all sciences
under a dome, and showed them to al-Ghazali," or something to this
effect. He passed away... in 505 at Tabaran... the citadel of Tus,
where he was interred.(1)
The above clearly refutes the fabrication by some that Ghazali
disavowed tasawwuf towards the end of his life. Let us turn to the
fabrication of those who try to separate between the Ghazali of usul al-
fiqh and the Ghazali of tasawwuf. When they are told that Imam Ghazali's
books on the methodology and foundations of Islamic law are considered
required reading in the field -- such as his Mustasfa and Mankhul and
Shifa' al-ghalil -- they say that he wrote them before his period of
seclusion during which he adopted tasawwuf. In reality, the greatest and
most comprehensive of the four books he wrote on Usul al-fiqh
(Principles of law) was composed in the last period of his life as
stated by Dr. Taha al-`Alwani in his book Usul al-fiqh al-islami:
Al Imam al-Ghazali's Encyclopedia of Shari`a Source Methodology,
his fourth book on the subject, and his last word, was al-
Mustasfa, which has been printed several times in Egypt and
elsewhere. Indeed, this is the work he wrote after coming out of
his period of meditation and seclusion.(2)
The notice on Ghazali in the Reliance states:
In Damascus he lived in seclusion for some ten years, engaged in
spiritual struggle and the remembrance of Allah, at the end of
which he emerged to produce his masterpiece Ihya' `Ulum al-Din
[Giving Life to the Religious Sciences], a classic among the books
of the Muslims about internalizing godfearingness (taqwa) in one's
dealings with Allah, illuminating the soul through obedience to
Him, and the levels of believers' attainment therein. The work
shows how deeply Ghazali personally realized what he wrote about,
and his masterly treatment of hundreds of questions dealing with
the inner life that no-one had previously discussed or solved is a
performance of sustained excellence that shows its author's well-
disciplined intellect and profound appreciation of human
psychology. He also wrote nearly two hundred other works, on the
theory of government, Sacred Law, refutations of philosophers,
tenets of faith, Sufism, Koranic exegesis, scholastic theology,
and bases of Islamic jurisprudence.(3)
What about Ghazali's scholarly critics? The most vocal, Ibn al-
Jawzi -- a detractor of Sufis -- dismisses the Ihya' in four of his
works: I`lam al-ahya' bi aghlat al-Ihya' (Informing the living about the
mistakes of the Ihya'), Talbis Iblis, Kitab al-qussas,(4) and his
history al-Muntazam fi tarikh al-muluk wal-umam.(5) His views influenced
Ibn Taymiyya and his student Dhahabi. The basis of their position was
Ghazali's use of weak hadiths, a list of which is provided by Taj al-Din
al-Subki in his Tabaqat. Is their criticism justified or an
exaggeration? Most likely the latter, in view of the fact that both the
hafiz al-`Iraqi (d. 806) and the hafiz al-Zabidi (d. 1205) after him
documented every single hadith in the Ihya and never questioned its
usefulness as a whole. Rather, they accepted its immense standing among
Muslims and contributed to its embellishment and spread as a manual for
spiritual progress. As Subki stressed, Ghazali never excelled in the
field of hadith.(6)
More importantly, the majority of hadith masters hold it
permissible to use weak hadiths in other than the derivation of legal
rulings, such as in the encouragement to good and discouragement from
evil (al-targhib wa al-tarhib), as countless hadith masters have
indicated as well as other scholars, such as al-Safadi himself.(7) It
must be understood that Ghazali incorporated all the material which he
judged of use to his didactic purposes on the bases of content rather
than origin or chain of transmission; that most of the Ihya consists in
quotations from Qur'an, hadith, and the sayings of other than Ghazali,
his own prose accounting for less than 35% of the work;(8) and that most
of the huge number of hadiths cited are authentic in origin.
In conclusion, we say as al-Safadi that the Ihya' ranks as a work
of targhib or ethics, which is the principal business of tasawwuf.
Criteria of authenticity for evidence cited in such works are less
rigorous than for works of `aqida and fiqh according to the majority of
the scholars, as the next section shows. To hold works of tasawwuf to
the criteria of the latter works is to blame apples for not being
oranges. Consequently, as al-Safadi correctly indicated, the criticism
of Ihya' `ulum al-din by some on the basis of weak hadiths does not
stand, nor does similar criticim of like works, for example Dhahabi's
criticism of Abu Talik al-Makki's Qut al-qulub and others. Those who
cling to such criticism while ignoring the massive endorsement of
tasawwuf and its books by the Muslim scholars cling to their own
prejudice rather than sound knowledge. Our advice to these brethren is:
We remind you of al-Dhahabi's advice in his biographical notice on Ibn
all-Farid in Mizan al-i`tidal: "Do not hasten to judge, rather, keep the
best opinion of Sufis";(9) of Imam Ghazali's advice in al-Munqidh min
al-dalal: "Think good thoughts (about Sufis) and do not harbor doubts in
your heart";(10) and of Ibn Hajar al-Haytami's fatwa concerning critics
of those who respect tasawwuf and believe in awliya': "Bad thoughts
about them (Sufis) is the death of the heart."(11) Take the great good
that is in each of the works of the Sufis in the proper manner, respect
the masters of tasawwuf, the least among whom towers high above you in
knowledge, do not search out the disagreements of scholars, and stick to
humbleness and respect before those who speak about Allah from Whom
comes all success.
(1) Salah al-Din Khalil ibn Aybak al-Safadi, al-Wafi bi al-wafayat
(Wiesbaden, 1962-1984) 1:274-277 (#176).
(2) Taha Jaber al-`Alwani, Usul al-fiqh al-islami: Source
Methodology in Islamic Jurisprudence, ed. Yusuf Talal DeLorenzo
(Herndon, VA: IIIT, 1411/1990) p. 50.
(3) Reliance of the Traveller p. 1048.
(4) Ibn al-Jawzi, Kitab al-qussas wa al-mudhakkirin p. 201.
(5) Ibn al-Jawzi, al-Muntazam 9:169.
(6) Taqi al-Din al-Subki, Tabaqat al-shafi`iyya 4:179-182.
(7) See al-Hakim, al-madkhal li `ilm al-hadith" (beginning), al-
Bayhaqi Dala'il al-nubuwwa (introduction), Nawawi, al-Tibyan fi `ulum
al-qur'an p. 17. The latter says: "The scholars are in agreement on the
legitimacy of using weak hadiths in the realm of virtous works." Al-
Sakhawi stated the view of the scholarly consensus on this question in
the Epilogue of of his al-Qawl al-badi` fi al-salat `ala al-habib al-
shafi` (The admirable doctrine concerning the invocation of blessings
upon the beloved intercessor) (Beirut: dar al-kutub al-`ilmiyya, 1407/
1987) p. 245-246.
(8) T.J. Winter, trans. Ghazali's "Remembrance of Death"
(Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 1989), Introduction, p. xxix n. 63.
(9) al-Dhahabi, Mizan al-i`tidal 3:214.
(10) al-Ghazali, al-Munqidh min al-dalal (Damascus 1956) p. 40.
(11) Ibn Hajar al-Haytami, Fatawa hadithiyya (Cairo: al-Halabi,
1970) p. 331.
Reproduced with permission from Shaykh M. Hisham Kabbani's
_The Repudiation of "Salafi" Innovations_ (Kazi, 1996) p. 326-330.
Blessings and Peace on the Prophet, his Family, and his Companions
GF Haddad ©
[7 Sep 1996]