In the Alchemy of Happiness, al-Ghazali begins by writing that “He who knows himself is truly happy.” Self-knowledge consists in realizing that we have a heart or spirit which is absolutely perfect, but which has been covered with dust by the accumulation of passions derived from the body and its animal nature. This would prove the key secret to happiness, one that would satisfy the very purpose for which Man is created. His task was to transform Islam, away from the mere adherence to rules, to the inward mystery of a live encounter with God. Then he went on the pilgrimage to Mecca, where he became convinced that he had been appointed to be the next great reformer of the faith. He went to Syria to live with Sufi monks and to adopt a lifestyle that was solely based on discovering the real truth about the self and one’s relation to God. The prophets of all times are the ones who have experienced this reality based on transforming themselves away from a self-centered to a God-centered existence.Īrmed with this new insight, al-Ghazali left Baghdad and all of his material possessions (except some books which were later stolen by thieves, a sign that he had to also leave those behind), as well as his cozy position at the University. This way was that of immediate experience, an inward discovery that depends not on logic but on intuition and imagination. He finally concluded that there was no rational way to refute skeptical doubt, but that there was another way to discover truth, one hinted at by the prophet Muhammad and the sages within the Sufi tradition, the mystical side of Islam. But for the next five years he was gripped in a spiritual crisis, trying to find a rational foundation for Islam’s basic principles as outlined in the Qu’ran. He was appointed Professor of Theology at the University of Baghdad at the tender age of thirty-three. One of al-Ghazali’s nicknames is “The Proof of Islam,” and he is called that not only because of the sagacity of his writings, but because of the quality of the life he lived. The ultimate ecstasy, al-Ghazali contends, is not found in any physical thing, but rather lies in discovering through personal experience one’s identity with the Ultimate Reality. In this we see some of his core ideas: that happiness consists in the transformation of the self, and that this transformation consists in the realization that one is primarily a spiritual being. Indeed, his monumental Revival of the Religious Sciences, which runs over 6000 pages and 4 volumes, was reprised as a shorter text in Persian, labeled the Alchemy of Happiness. What most people don’t know, however, is that al-Ghazali wrote extensively on the topic of happiness. Make a Difference: Change the World, Change YourselfĪbu Hamid al-Ghazali (1058-1111 A.D.) was not only one of the great Islamic philosophers, he is also considered to be, after the Prophet Muhammad, the foremost authority on Islamic theology and jurisprudence.High School Happiness and Wellbeing Curriculum.Student Mental Health and Wellbeing: Remarkable News from Scotland.Annotated Bibliography – Mindfulness & Positive Thinking.Review of Key Studies on Mindfulness & Positive Thinking.The Philosophy & Science of Mindfulness.Review of Key Studies on Caring/Volunteering.The Philosophical Basis of Caring, Compassion, and Interdependence.The result is the most thorough available examination of a major thinker. Throughout, he offers a serious revision to traditional views of al-Ghazali, showing that his most important achievement was the creation of a new rationalist theology in which he transformed the Aristotelian views of thinkers such as Avicenna to accord with motives that were well-established within Muslim theological discourse. He explicates al-Ghazali's views on epistemology, cosmology, physical theory, creation, ethics, theodicy, and a host of other topics. In the second part, he provides a systematic exploration of al-Ghazali's theology. In the first, Griffel gives an account of what it known about al-Ghazali's life, offers brief discussions of his major works, and examines the legacy of his thought by tracing the lineage of his students and followers. In this book, Frank Griffel will present the most comprehensive examination to date of the life and thought of this important figure.
The Muslim theologian al-Ghazali, who was active at the turn of the 12th century in Iran, Iraq, and Syria, was one of the most influential theologians of Islam.
#Al ghazali college of sciences kotli series
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