Abu hamid al-ghazali biography definition

GHAZĀLĪ, ABU ḤAMID MUḤAMMAD IBN MUḤAM-MAD AL-TŪSĪ AL- ° (1058–1111), Persian Muslim theologian, jurist, mystic, and religious reformer, who wrote mainly in Arabic.

Al-Ghazālī's best-known work is his Iḥyā' 'Ulūm al-Dīn ("Revival of the Religious Sciences," 1096–7), in which he successfully reconciled orthodox Islam and *Sufism.

In his early career, al-Ghazālī wrote his famous Tahāfutal-Falāsifa ("Incoherence of the Philosophers," 1095) in which he directly confronted the claims of the philosophic systems of al-*Fārābī and *Avicenna.

The book is divided into 20 topics, the most important of which is the discussion of the creation of the world. At the end of his work, he offers the legal opinion that the philosophers are guilty of heresy and are liable to the death penalty on three counts: they believe in the eternity of the world, they disbelieve in the omniscience of God, and they do not accept the dogma of bodily resur