AL-GHAZALI & THE CONTEMPORARY AGE

Chapter Four

(Copyright © P.A.W. Greenland 2000 – 2006)

‘The Spirituality of Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali (1058-1111CE).  An examination of al-Ghazali’s writing and teaching and its relevance for the Islamic Community in the contemporary world’.

Al-Ghazali and the Contemporary Age

The dissertation’s final chapter first discusses the part which Ghazali’s teachings can play as the ummah comes to terms with contemporary, especially Western, influence in world finance, culture, morals and lifestyle choices, and the effects these have both on Islamic countries and Muslims living in the West. But as I shall show, while this may be viewed as a crisis by some Muslims, Islam is the world’s fastest growing faith. Second, the chapter examines and gives reasons, wholly by way of an Internet literature review, for Ghazali’s texts and their continuing popularity.

Ghazali could not possibly have conceived the contemporary age with its globalization, mass media, communications, the Internet, and secularization. But he lived and wrote at a critical time for Islam, not unlike the current period because of its self-questioning and re-examination of both religious and ethical values. Ghazali was deeply upset by the excessive formalism of his day in which scholars expounded complicated texts with intentions of vainglory. And in many ways this attitude of vainglory or self-benefiting, rather than a life for the improvement of the ummah, which Ghazali discussed in Ihya, was no different to the state of pre-Islamic Mecca and the city’s depraved standards of public life and conduct which had dismayed Muhammad. Today’s Muslims are argued to need the ‘deliverance (which) could only come through a rekindling of that sincerity and sanctity for which the early generations of Islam had been celebrated (1)’ just as much as they had received during Ghazali’s age. Ghazali in seeking a purer form of Islam

apart from Orthodox answers to religious and sectarian issues had turned to Sufism for an answer (cf. Chapters One and Two).

Yet perhaps the greatest thing about Ghazali was his personality (cf. Chapter Two and the second part of this chapter) and Watt argues that ‘it may yet again be a source of inspiration…as Islam…(wrestles) with Western thought as much as (it did during Ghazali’s lifetime) with Greek philosophy (2)’. Muslims currently find themselves at a spiritual crossroad at the start of the third millennium (CE) which may appear to them have the same problems and uncertainties as the twelve century (CE) for which Ghazali was seen as Hujjat al-Islam (cf. Chapter One).

Muslims choosing to adopt or emulate Western culture and ideas may commit haram because some of the West’s lifestyle choices transgress the Shari’a. Alternatively where Muslims form a nation’s majority the leaders of the ummah may opt, instead of Western ideas, for a form of fundamentalist Islamic which includes making Shari’a a state’s common law. A third way, like Iraq, is to risk isolation by the world community by manufacturing of mass weapons of destruction in an attempt to counteract American and European military power.

Further, the Islamic world is now undergoing a most devastating period of transition. The history of economic and scientific change, which took Europe took five hundred years to complete, is being squeezed into a couple of generations. Only thirty-five years ago the capital of Saudi Arabia was the same cluster of huts made out of mud as it had been for thousands of years. But modern day Riyadh is a megacity with contemporary style glass buildings and good roads. Also two other Muslim countries – Malaysia and Indonesia – have undergone within three to four decades the same metamorphic changes as Saudi Arabia. As a consequence ordinary Muslim citizens may feel strange, bewildered, and fearful for the future (Source: Abdal-Hakim Murad - see further views by him below).

But this fear is not solely restricted to Muslims in the faith’s older homelands. Also in parts of Britain Islam also suffers from sectarian disputes other than the differences between Sunni and Shi’te Muslims. In Leicester, for example, there are numerous mosques but instead of being places of unity they have turned out to be both the result and cause of disunity. These mosques are often based on linguistic preference, racial bias and political inclinations (3). And in Southampton the building of a new mosque is often interrupted by sectarian arguments which sometimes result in the withholding of funds by Islamic evangelical agencies in Saudi Arabia. Ghazali’s guidance for Muslims set apart from each other by disputes would undoubtedly have been:

(The) occupations and businesses of the world have become more complicated and troublesome, chiefly owing to the fact that men have forgotten that their real necessities are only three – clothing, food, and shelter, and that these exist only for the soul in its journey towards the next world (4).

But Ghazali primarily also wrote to address non-material necessities and showing through non-history that acts, such as comprehending the nature of Ultimate Reality, are spiritual rekindling actions which may not be apprehended by the rational intellect (cf. the end of Chapter Three). This is because once humankind in any period of history stops and thinks of where it is, the need to conceive of an inner reality of time and space in which religious convictions can be fostered or renewed becomes paramount. Many Muslims find strength for their beliefs in books written either by or about the people they seek to emulate, most especially the example of The Prophet, and for Islam in the contemporary age – as in any period – a comprehensive knowledge of the Sunna is vital because for Islam there can be only one lifestyle choice; the example set by Muhammad.

Ghazali wrote that ‘religion consists of two parts, the leaving undone of what is forbidden (cf. Chapter Three) and the performance of duties (5)’. In heeding Ghazali’s guidance modern Muslims must seek to find a middle way both to avoid haram and to live according to the Shari’a because: ‘there is little value in outward conformity to the rules (cf. Chapter Three) unless this conformity is mirrored and engendered by an authentically righteous disposition of the heart (6)’. The Prophet also said that ‘the best of all matters is the middle way (7)’. But extremism as a reaction against change has become very common during the last twenty years with the middle way giving way and becoming dislocated and confused by the actions of some fundamentalist Muslims. Abdal-Hakim Murad writes:

(The) enfeeblement of the middle ground, the wasat enjoined by the Prophetic example, is in turn accelerated by the opprobrium which the extremists bring not simply upon themselves, but upon committed Muslims everywhere. For here, as elsewhere, the preferences of the media work firmly against us (8)

Murad fears that the outcome of any act of Islamic extremism, such as the bombing of Swedish tourists in Cairo by a fringe Muslim group, instantly spreads over ‘militant Muslims everywhere (9)’. The bombing was widely reported by the world media with its violence incorrectly presented as the face of a new type of Islam. Further the bombing was used by some news editors after the Gulf War to reinforce a stereotype image of Muslims as people so lacking in concern for others that they think any action against Western interests is a form of jihad (holy war or struggle).

Ghazali in Ihya strictly warned Muslims against this and not being associated with ‘Things Destructive (10)’. Further in Munqidh he scathingly dismissed violent acts as politics which are ‘ (merely) based on considerations of worldly and governmental advantage (11)’. Violent actions in Ghazali’s view were not only morally wrong and against the sayings of Muhammad but also, inwardly, harmful to the violators. In The Beginning of Guidance (Bidayat al-Hiddayah) Ghazali advised Muslims, by quoting from The Prophet’s sayings, that ‘the real Holy War or Jihad is the warfare against one’s passions (12)’.

Bidayat like Kimiya acts as an introduction to Ihya with the same advice for zahir and batin offered to guide Muslims towards inner sanctification and salvation (cf. Chapter Three). Modern day Muslims tempted by violence to justify what they conceive to be actions of faith in a changing world are advised to carefully read and consider the meaning of Ghazali’s words in Part III of Bidayat on evil actions. In the text’s first paragraph Ghazali takes forward his teachings on inward sin:

You disobey or sin against God only through the parts of your body. Yet these are a gift to you from God and a trust committed to you. To employ God’s gift in order to sin against Him is the height of ingratitude; to betray the trust which God committed to you is the height of presumption. The parts of your body are your subjects; see to it then, how you rule over them. ‘Each of you is a ruler, and each of you is responsible for those he rules over’ (13).

Ghazali’s last sentence is similar to the Christian Epistle of 1 Peter 2.4, ‘Let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God (14)’. Both teachings offer to humankind the chance of spiritual renewal while they are still mortals and not facing the Final Judgement. Ghazali in Bidayat added to his instructions in Ihya for the observance of The Five Pillars of Islam (cf. Chapter Three) by minutely examining the zahir reasons and batin corrections for the sins of envy, hypocrisy, pride, arrogance, and boastfulness.

But Murad who presents a plausible argument for the present day problem in Islam – its encounter with the West –despairs for the religion’s future:

If these things go on, the Islamic movement will cease to form an authentic summons to cultural and spiritual renewal, and will exist as little more than a splintered array of maniacal factions. The prospect of such an appalling and humiliating end to the story of a religion which once surpassed all others in its capacity for tolerating debate and dissent is now a real possibility (15).

Murad appears to advance that Islam cannot stand up to the challenges of the contemporary age. But in contrast to him I contend that the teachings of Ghazali continue to offer the ummah a chance of spiritual renewal in the way outlined by Ahmad Mashhur al-Haddad:

The fruits thus yielded – the palpable benefits of the religious life – are permanent at every time, and are not man’s own accomplishment, for they only come ‘by the leave of its Lord’. This is the sound life of faith. The contrast is then drawn with the only alternative – kufr – which is not grounded in reality but in illusion, and is hence possessed of no stability (16).

Al-Haddad reflects on Ghazali’s teachings of batin in that the relationship between faith and its application in the everyday world (i.e. its praxis) is true faith by which every Muslim should abide. ‘It is against this criterion that we must judge the quality of contemporary "activist" styles of faith (17)’. Further, as I have already observed in this chapter, if this was not correct then Islam would not be the world’s fastest growing faith, not only in the Third World, especially in Africa, but also in the West.

Apart from violent acts another sin, which may be committed by the current age ummah, is to follow the West’s drift towards secularization often with Muslims feeling it by their ‘psychic sense of insecurity (18)’. This insecurity is sometimes caused by their geographic dislocation in the modern world, rather than by a disillusionment or questioning of the validity of Islam. Muslims in common with people of other faiths who are frequently split up from the traditional nuclear family by economic circumstances, such as the need to find work, often lack the ‘natural religious virtues which are acquired by contact with a continuous tradition (19)’. Ghazali clearly recognized these dangers and their effect on the religious life. Writing on marriage he felt that a husband and wife living with their children within the ummah all contribute towards the others’ spiritual development because:

…an advantage of marriage is that to sit with and be friendly to one’s wife is a relaxation for the mind after being occupied in religious duties, and after such relaxation one may return to one’s devotions with renewed zest (20).

Ghazali wrote on the advantages of living with children that the:

…prayers of children profit their parents when the latter are dead, and children who die before their parents intercede for them on the Day of Judgement (21).

Conversely a Muslim away from the family lacks such advantages and may instead find relaxation in secular ways rather than religious activities, which, like drinking and illicit sex, are haram. This may also be the case where a Muslim family lives apart from the ummah and Muslim children and young people share the same pleasures as their Western peers. But Ghazali did not necessarily subscribe to such a chain of thought because he wrote, ‘We must remember that all novelties are not forbidden, but only those which directly contravene the Law (22)’.

Arguably the problem for modern Muslims alone in a Western environment and separated from tradition is not so much direct disobedience to the Law, instead it is the lack of readily accessible teachers of the Shari’a. Again Ghazali offers sound advice, ‘we judge by the actual text where there is text, and by our independent reasoning when there is no text (23)’.

Further, Ghazali strongly believed in the development of character building and that all people should be encouraged to independently seek answers to problems including the Law. He commented, ‘as a matter of fact prayer fulfils the Law even when directed to do what is wrongly supposed to be qiblah (i.e. facing the direction of Mecca for the saying of prayers [24])’. This teaching which is definitely Sufi is found in Book IX of Ihya (Kitab al-adhkar wa’l daawat). A modern reader of Book IX after considering Ghazali’s advice has said:

Although prayerfulness and the remembrance of God suffuse all the formal practices of Islam, there are times when the Muslim simply ‘sits alone with his Lord’ to repeat formulas drawn from the Qur'an and the sayings of the Prophet, seeking remission of his sins and the purification of his heart (Book IX of Ihya (25).

Many Islamic educational institutes in Britain, including the Islamic Foundation (Leicester) and The Sufi Trust (London), publish extracts of Ghazali’s texts or whole books and most public libraries in Britain hold basic texts on Islam. In other words the mass publication facilities of the modern age, especially the Internet, have been used by members of the global ummah to ensure that no Muslims, wherever they are living, need feel isolated from the rich body of traditional Islamic and Sufi literature, especially texts by Ghazali. Additionally the majority of Muslim bookshops throughout the West are able to supply copies of most of Ghazali’s well known texts, and contributors to the prominent Islamic monthly magazines, such as Q-News and Impact International, frequently refer to Ghazali’s words on a wide variety of subjects. This leads to the second part of the chapter, which is the subject of mass communication, which supports Muslim education and renewal by focussing solely on the use of the Internet by Muslim theologians, imams, Sufis, scholars, and ordinary people interested in the life and teachings of Ghazali.

It is first argued that the Internet offers both a means to publish current thinking on Ghazali and for the ummah, as well as non-Muslims, to publicly express their views on his teaching in a way which would have been impossible fifteen to twenty years ago. Second, Ghazali wrote much on subjects as diverse as the marvels of the soul and marriage and sexuality (cf. Chapters One and Two). Additionally he has been thought by scholars, not only to have influenced some Christian theologians during the Counter- Reformation (cf. Chapter Preface and Chapter one), but also to have anticipated the poet Dante (d.1321 CE) as well as the philosophers Descartes (d.1650 CE) and Hume (d.1776 CE). As a result of Ghazali’s influence in these varied schools of education and human experience, and the interest in him by web users (‘surfers’), a considerable amount of his work is published on the Internet.

Many Muslim sites including Masud’s own site, http://www.ds.dial.pipex.com/masud, and one for Islamic education –Mosque of The Internet – provide both new information on Ghazali and very often full, previously unknown, texts. Additionally The Islamic Texts Society and the two English Muslim periodicals – quoted above – also offer high quality Internet facilities. The site’s editors it is argued are in no doubt about both the current interest in Ghazali and the value of his teachings for the ummah. To show this three examples from Muslim Internet sites have been selected for discussion together with an appraisal on The Internet of The Islamic Text’s Society’s (ITS) translation of Ihya and The Ninety-Nine Beautiful Names of God (26).

The first example is from Murad’s interview in 1999 of Enes Karic. Murad asked Karic to define the benefit of Ghazali’s works in an attempt to revivify Islam in the contemporary age. Karic answered:

Ghazali’s significance is manifold. He not only understood philosophy, but he showed the dangerously speculative nature of its basic premises in a way which anticipates much modern positivism. This awareness led him to develop a Muslim epistemology rooted in ‘tasting’ (dhawq), i.e. the illuminative fruits of systematic and divinely-assisted introspection, as the only sure path to knowledge. This makes him a figure of profound and immediate relevance to Westerners of my generation who often feel that post-modernism and the notion of the ‘equality of all discourse’ have thrown humanity into … a state of ideologically rigorous ignorance…. Ghazali… in Ihya offers the only intellectually rigorous escape from the trap of postmodernity (27).

Apart from Karic’s discussion of the nature of Ghazali’s spirituality (cf. Chapter Two) his reference to the importance of Ihya is argued to be very important as the magnum opus is a subject which has, during my research, attracted the greatest amount of Internet interest in Ghazali. Out of the 1,800 sites listed on the Yahoo search engine over half are devoted to drawing browser’s attention to recently published translations of Ihya. The same number of entries with Ihya as the predominant subject are on the other search systems although over half the entries were discovered, after downloading, to be duplicating each other.

Overwhelmingly critics on regard the ITS Ihya to be the finest translation currently available in addition to The Ninety-Nine Beautiful Names of God (al-Maqsad al-asna fi sharh asma Allah al-husna). Commercial sites prominently feature these texts together with many of Ghazali’s other works, and the largest on-line bookshop – Amazon – uses the Internet to its fullest advantage in offering ordinary browsers the facilities to publish their own reviews in addition to those of the scholars. T.J. Winter’s translation of the ITS Ihya (Books XXII and XIII) is especially popular:

This translation … details the sophisticated spiritual techniques adopted by classical Islam. In … On Disciplining the Soul (Book XXII) … Ghazali explains how to acquire good character traits, and goes on to describe how the sickness of the heart may be cured. In …Breaking the Two Desires (Book XXIII Ghazali) focuses on …gluttony and sexual desire…. (Winter) has added an introduction and notes which explore Ghazali’s ability to make use of Greek as well as Islamic ethics. The work will prove of special interest to people (in the current age) interested in Sufi mysticism, comparative ethics, and the question of sexuality in Islam (28).

H.T. Norris and other prominent scholars added further comments which, it is argued, will interest modern Muslims enough to read Ihya:

‘I warmly recommend Winter’s translation to everyone interested in Islamic eschatology and Islamic thought’. Annemarie Schimmel (stated): ‘This book is an excellent translation of a very important work.… (The) translation and the series as a whole, are significant contributions to our understanding of this key figure in Islamic intellectual thought’. Oliver Leaman wrote: ‘Winter’s rendering combines exactness with fluency and dignity of style. The introduction, notes, appendix, bibliography, index - all make this an exemplary publication, produced to the highest standards’. (And finally) Christian Troll said: ‘(The translation is) of considerable value and solace to many who will buy it for reasons both religious and academic (29).

Ghazali’s The Ninety-Nine Beautiful Names of God (ITS) was regarded by an ordinary browser as very important for contemporary Muslims because, ‘this book (is) one of the perennial classics of Muslim thought (and) popular among Muslims to this day (30). Another browser described it as an ‘Islamic classic and gem for developing piety’ concluding:

This small volume will take the observant Muslim through the mental and physical regimen required to grow in devotional respect for his (or her) religion. No single book outside the Qur'an has so moved me. Obtain it, study it, practice it, and see for yourself. (31).

But Mosque of The Internet, the second example from a Muslim site, offers other materials on Ghazali including ‘The sayings of Jesus’. It is claimed by its translator into English, Ahmad Darwish, to have been originally translated from Aramaic into Arabic by Ghazali and never before published. And although most scholars agree that there are a considerable number of texts incorrectly credited to him ‘The sayings of Jesus’ bears a definite similarity to the Christian Gospels with the accounts of Jesus’ birth, miracles, and temptation. Ghazali is also known to have studied The Gospel of John (cf. Chapter Two) and to be considerably interested in all the books of the New Testament. But it is argued that the value of ‘The sayings of Jesus’ for modern Muslims is that it may help to stimulate a renewed interest in their spiritual beliefs because of Islam’s claim for the ascendancy of all the prophets from Adam to Muhammad.

The third example is a Muslim educational site managed by Waqf Ikhlas. In 1995 Ikhlas included a translation from Latin of another previously unknown text by Ghazali, Eyy Uhelved (O Son). It is submitted, this book has a definite Islamic evangelical appeal for Muslims tempted by the secular way of life away from the example of the Prophet, especially by the words of its Introduction:

O my beloved son and faithful friend! May Allahu ta’ala give you a long, long life and bless you with the fortune of spending your lifetime worshipping and following the way He has prescribed! All sorts of teachings have been taken from our Prophet Muhammad…. Any teaching not coming from him will be of no use. (32).

Concluding both this chapter and the dissertation it is argued that it is impossible to conceive of the concept of Islamic study and devotion without the influence of Ghazali. The once popularly held view of him as the greatest Muslim after Muhammad (cf. Chapter One) may now be thought of in the West as passe. But I submit such a thesis has still to be proved and I have found no evidence to support it in the work of the majority of contemporary educated Muslims. On the contrary my research has led me to believe that Islam without Ghazali would equate almost to Christianity without St. Paul.

Like Paul’s three missionary journeys, both for the development of his own spirituality and to found and encourage the early Christian Church, Ghazali could not, also without a journey, seek the full benefits of Islam. Again with a similarity to Paul and his Christian Epistles, Ghazali left for Muslims of all ages, including those of the contemporary era, as I have detailed in this chapter, precise guidance for the ummah. Finally, in a comparison to Paul’s style, Ghazali was not frightened to speak and write on controversial matters he deemed necessary for the well-being of the Muslim community. As a result Ihya and Ghazali’s other books were often pronounced to be heretical by some Muslim leaders who also ordered copies to be publicly burned.

But no religious faith can exist be standing still and dwelling solely on the past, though often with the introduction of new ideas dire results may befall its followers. Today it is, though, healthy for the future of Islam that peaceful academic research is being conducted into Ghazali’s ideas, especially with reference to the influence of other Muslim intellectuals, notably Averroes and Avicenna. But as I have emphasized in the dissertation, Ghazali’s greatest gift to Islam was his personality, his integrity, and his wisdom. And for people of all religions, or none at all, this seminal figure and his texts are of lasting spiritual value.

Notes

  1. Al-Ghazali, Abu Hamid (1058-1111 CE), Winter, T.J., Trans. and Introduction, Ihya Ulum al-Din (Revival of The Religious Sciences) On Disciplining The Soul (Kitab Riyadat al-nafs) and Breaking The Two Desires (Kitab Kasr al-shahwatayn) Books XXII and XXIII, (The Islamic Texts Society, Cambridge, 1997, Introduction, p.xvi).
  2. Watt, W. Montgomery, Trans. and Introduction, The Faith and Practice of Al-Ghazali, (OneWorld, Oxford, 1998, p.13).
  3. Al-Toma, Batool, ‘Islam in Ireland’, (Q-News, May 1998, p.34).
  4. Al-Ghazali, Abu Hamid (1058-1111 CE), Field, Claus, Trans., The Alchemy of Happiness (Kimiya-yi sa’adat), (Octagon, London, 1991, p.45).
  5. Watt, p.145.
  6. Murad, Abdal-Hakim, ‘The Forgotten Revolution’, (Islamic Spirituality http://www.islamicbookclub.com – downloaded 13th July 2000).
  7. Amazon on-line bookshop, (http://www.amazon.com - downloaded 15th August 2000).
  8. Murad.
  9. ibid.
  10. Watt, p.159.
  11. ibid, p.39.
  12. ibid.
  13. ibid.
  14. Holy Bible (NRSV) (Nelson, Nashville, Tennessee, USA, 1990).
  15. Murad.
  16. al-Haddad, Habib Ahmed, Key to the Garden, (Central Books, London, 1990, pp.78-81).
  17. Murad.
  18. ibid.
  19. ibid.
  20. Kimiya, p.92.
  21. ibid,, p.90.
  22. ibid., p.76
  23. Watt, p.48
  24. Ihya Ulum al-Din (Revival of The Religious Sciences) Book IX (Invocations & Supplications), Nakamura, K, Introduction and Trans., (The Islamic Texts Society, Cambridge, 1996, cover).
  25. Ibid.
  26. Al-Maqsad al-asna fi Sharh asma Allah al-husna (The Ninety-Nine Most Beautiful Names of God), Burrell, David B., and Daher, Nazih, Introduction and Translators, (The Islamic Texts Society, Cambridge, 1992). Sixteen books of Ihya remain to be translated to the same high standards of the ITS Ihya.
  27. ‘Transcript of interview of Abdal Hakim Murad, by Enes Karic, Minister of Education, Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina. First published in Ljliljan, a Bosnian-language, newspaper’ (Downloaded from http://www.ds.dial.pipex.com/masud, 30th June 1999)
  28. Amazon.
  29. ibid.
  30. ibid.
  31. ibid.
  32. Ihlas ,Holding A.S., (Cagaloglu-ISTANBUL – downloaded 16th November 1999).

 

 

(The Winchester Al-Ghazali Site was originally called ‘Peter Greenland’s Web Site’ published

on BT Internet in 1999)