TOMB OF ABU HAMID AL-GHAZĀLĪ RA
TOMB OF ABU HAMID AL-GHAZĀLĪ RA
- Imam Abu Hamid al-Ghazālī was born in 1058CE in the town of Ṭūs and passed away in 1111CE in Ṭūs as well. During his period, he was one of the most prominent and influential philosophers, theologians, jurists and mystics.
- His acquired his preliminary education in his hometown of Ṭūs before moving on to Jurjan and then Nishapur where he studied under Imam al-Juwaynī.
- After being so impressed with the knowledge of al-Ghazālī, the powerful vizier of the Seljuqs, Niẓām al-Mulk appointed al-Ghazālī as the chief professor in the Niẓāmiyyah College in Baghdad in 1091CE. The college at the time was one of the most reputed institutions of learning in the Muslim world. During his time at the college, his reputation grew to the extent that he drew audiences and scholars from throughout the Islamic world.
- Around 1100CE, he embarked on a long journey throughout the Middle East focussing on his own spiritual well-being and spending more of his time solitarily.
- When he was done, he returned to Ṭūs and engaged in writing, committing his philosophies to paper. His works refuted the un-Islamic aspects of Neoplatonic philosophy and also corrected the excesses in Sufism.
- He authored a large number of books of which Tuhafut al-Falasifa (The Incoherence of the Philosophers) and Ihya al-‘Ulum al-Din (The Revival of the Religious Sciences) are the most well-known.
- He passed away at the age of 53 and will be remembered as one of Islam’s greatest theologians.
