The first Islamic reviver : Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī and his Revival of the religious sciences

257 Pages·2014·1.13 MB·English

by  Kenneth Garden

The First Islamic Reviver
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The First Islamic

Reviver

Abū Ḥ ā mid al-Ghaz ā l ī and
His Revival of the Religious
Sciences
KENNETH GARDEN
3
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3
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Garden, Kenneth.
The fi rst Islamic reviver : Abu Hamid al-Ghazali and his Revival of the religious sciences /
Kenneth Garden.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978–0–19–998962–1 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Ghazzali, 1058–1111. 2. Ghazzali,
1058–1111. Ihya’ ‘ulum al-din. 3. Islam—Doctrines—History. 4. Islamic
renewal—HIstory. I. Title.
BP80.G3G37 2014
297.2—dc23
2013017174

1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
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For all my parents
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Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
A Misleading Autobiography 1
Recent Reassessments 5
Al-Ghaz ā l ī the Reviver 8
Chapter Overview 11
PART ONE: Al-Ghaz ā l ī Before His Revival
Chapter 1—Al-Ghaz ā l ī and the Seljuk Regime  17
Al-Ghaz ā l ī ’s Service to the Seljuk Regime 19
Collapse into Civil War 22
Al-Ghaz ā l ī ’s Crisis and Transformation in a Political Context 25
Chapter 2— The Scale of Action : An Intellectual Portrait of al-Ghaz ā l ī
on the Eve of His Departure from Baghdad 30
Sufi sm and Philosophy 31
The Scale of Action 40
Felicity in the Hereafter Is Attained through Knowledge and
Practice 41
A Third Way 47
Are the “Theoreticians” and the Philosophers One and
the Same? 49
Modifying Philosophy’s Practical Science 53
Al-Ghaz ā l ī and the Guides on the Path to Felicity 55
The Turning Point of 488/1095 56
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viii Contents
PART TWO:  The Revival of the Religious Sciences
Chapter 3—The Revival and Its Agenda 63
The Content of the R evival 63
Felicity and the T elos of the Science of the Hereafter 70
The Science of Unveiling and the Theoretical Science 72
The Science of Praxis and the Practical Science 75
The Legal Ethics of the First Two Quarters 81
Acts of Worship 81
Acts of Daily Life 83
The Second Half on Ethical Self-Cultivation 87
Qualities Leading to Perdition 87
Qualities Leading to Salvation 92
Al-Ghaz ā l ī ’s Cosmology 92
Love, Logic, and Death 98
Conclusion 101
Chapter 4—The Rhetoric of Revival: Authorizing Strategies and the
Presentation of the Science of the Hereafter 104
Conjuring a Sense of Crisis 105
Fingering the Culprits: Who Killed the Religious
Sciences? 107
Reviving the “Science of the Hereafter” 109
Demoting Law and Theology 111
The Law as a Science of the World 112
The Law’s Eclipse of the Science of the Hereafter 112
Kaāl m ’s Eclipse of the Science of the Hereafter 115
The Science of the Hereafter Has Greater Authority than
Law or Theology in the Key Jurisdictions of Those
Disciplines 118
Did al-Ghaz ā l ī ’s Authorizing Strategies Infl uence the
Substance of the Revival as Well as Its Presentation? 120
Conclusion 121
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Contents ix
PART THREE: Promoting the Revival in the World
Chapter 5—Promoting the Revival 125
Al-Ghaz ā l ī ’s Self-Presentation to Members of the Regime 127
Writing Works on the Science of the Hereafter for Diff erent
Audiences 130
Polemics Against the Ib ā ḥ i yya 133
Promoting Careers of Scholars of the Hereafter 134
Recruiting, Instructing, and Retaining Disciples 135
Fakhr al-Mulk: al-Ghaz ā l ī ’s Vizier-Disciple 138
Conclusion 141
Chapter 6—Defending the R evival 143
Hopes for the Return to Teaching 147
The Controversy—What It Was About 149
Al-Ghaz ā l ī Responds 155
Responding to Critics through The Distinguishing
Criterion 156
Responding to Critics by Casting Himself as the Deliverer
f rom Error 158
Al-Ghaz ā l ī ’s Enemies Move against Him through an
Outside Agent 161
Al-Ghaz ā l ī ’s Summons and Trial 163
Conclusion 166
Epilogue—Rereading the Deliverer 169
Notes 1 77
Works Cited 2 17
Index 2 25
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