al-Ghazzali
Called the ``Proof of Islam,'' Abu Khamad Muhammad Ibn Muhammad Altusi was born in 1058 in Tus, Khorasan, into a family whose members were prominent in the study of canon law. Educated at Nishapur under Imam al-Haramain, a leading scholar, Abu Khamad later became a professor of canon law in Baghdad. A seeker after certain knowledge, he also studied philosophy and found both philosophy and canon law wanting. In 1092, he began to study Sufism (some legends say that he was raised among the Sufi), and three years later, he resigned his post and undertook the life of a dervish. During his nomadic years, he went on a pilgrimage to Mecca and worked to understand the unity of scholasticism and contemplation. In 1106, he returned to Baghdad, where he taught theology; five years later, he returned to the solitary life and died shortly thereafter.
al-Ghazzali (the weaver) wrote books on several and various subjects, and the progress of his intellectual and spiritual growth makes it hard for scholars to classify his work. He mastered a subject and wrote about it; when he found the subject lacking in the certainty he sought, he rejected and wrote again to attack the subject he had previously expounded. When he studied philosophy, for example, he wrote philosophy, including a treatise on logic that became widely used in Europe; when he rejected philosophy, he published The Confusion (or Destruction) of the Philosophers in which he pointed out the heresies of philosophers and their subject. To demonstrate the unity of mysticism and scholasticism, he composed, when he had returned from the desert, The Revival of the Religious Sciences, a complete guide to a pious life. His other works include Niche for Lights, commentary on light images in the Koran; Balances of Work, a description of the perfected man; and The Deliverer from Error, his autobiography.
Karen Rae Keck
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