OTHER SITES – HIGH QUALITY ACADEMIC WEB SITES
http://www.cyberistan.org/islamic/ -
Muslim Contribution to Humanity and Islamic Civilization - This page is
dedicated to those Muslims whose multi-disciplinary contributions sparked the
light of learning and productivity and without whom the European Renaissance
would not have begun and come to maturity. As you will find in the biographies
included here, their contributions to our basic understanding of sciences,
mathematics, medicine, technology, sociology, and philosophy have been used
without giving proper credit to them. The subject has largely been left to few
obscure intellectual discourses on world history and human development. It is
rarely mentioned in formal education, and if at all mentioned their names are
Latinized or changed with the effect of obscuring their identity and origin,
and their association with the Islamic Civilization (Acknowledged Source :
Muslim Contribution to Humanity and Islamic Civilzation – located on Google ® [downloaded 2/3 May 2002]).
al-ghazali’s Website - Abu Hamid
al-Ghazali (450-1058 AH/505-1111 AD) [aka: al-Ghazzali , Algazel ] is one of the great jurists, theologians and
mystics of the 12th Century. He wrote on a wide range of topics including
jurisprudence, theology, mysticism and philosophy.
Ghazali.org (a virtual online library) provides primary
research material -hundreds of full length books and articles in addition to
the works of al-Ghazali. in
communem delectationem
·
Biography
- short
overview
- Original Sources
- Supplementary Material
·
Corpus
- Ihya
(Revival of Religious Sciences)
- Major Works (re-done!)
- Pseudo Works*
·
Bibliography
o
by
Subject
o
Monographs*
·
Projects
o
Research
tools: General - Manuscript
o
Volunteer to edit al-Ghazali E-texts
·
Miscellany
o
New
Book: Ghazali & the Poetics of Imagination
o
Chronology - Maps - Latest additions*
Found on Google ® and many other search engines
(updated 12 February 2006 by downloading above information from http://www.ghazali.org/).
http://www.humanities.mq.edu.au/Ockham/x52t07.html
- Macquarie University PHIL252 Medieval Philosophy
TAPE 7: AL G
This lecture is about
Averroes’ Tahafut al-Tahafut, The Incoherence of the Incoherence. Al-Ghazali wrote a work entitled The Incoherence of the Philosophers;
Averroes replies with The Incoherence of
the Incoherence - a defence of the philosophers, or rather of Aristotelian
philosophy. To defend Aristotle’s
philosophy Averroes rejects some of the ideas of the philosophers Al-Ghazali
attacked, notably Avicenna. Time and
again Averroes replies to Ghazali’s attack by saying that his objections have
force against Avicenna, but not against Aristotle properly understood
(Acknowldeged source: Macquarie University [downloaded 2/3 May 2002] and site
located on Google ®).
http://www.sunnah.org/history/Scholars/imam_alghazali.htm
- Lecture by Dr. G.F. Haddad:
Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn
Muhammad ibn Ahmad, Abu Hamid al-Tusi al-Ghazzali [or al-Ghazali] al-Shafi‘i
(450-505), "the Proof of Islam" (Hujjat
al-Islam), "Ornament of the Faith," "Gatherer of the
Multifarious Sciences," "Great Siddîq," absolute mujtahid, a
major Shafi‘i jurist, heresiographer and debater, expert in the principles of
doctrine and those of jurisprudence. Shaykh Yusuf al-Qaradawi stated that, like
‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz and al-Shafi‘i for their respective times, al-Ghazzali
is unanimously considered the Renewer of the Fifth Islamic Century. Ibn
al-Subki writes: "He came at a time when people stood in direr need of
replies against the philosophers than the darkest night stands in need of the
light of the moon and stars." Among his teachers in law, debate, and
principles: Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Râdhakâni in Tus, Abu Nasr al-Isma‘ili in
Jurjan, and Imam al-Haramayn Abu al-Ma‘ali al-Juwayni in Naysabur, from where
he departed to Baghdad after the latter’s death. Ibn ‘Asakir also mentions that
al-Ghazzali took al-Bukhari’s Sahih from Abu Sahl Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Hafsi.
Among his other shaykhs in hadith were Nasr ibn ‘Ali ibn Ahmad al-Hakimi al-Tusi,
‘Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Khawari, Muhammad ibn Yahya ibn Muhammad
al-Suja`i al-Zawzani, the hadith master Abu al-Fityan ‘Umar ibn Abi al-Hasan
al-Ru’asi al-Dahistani, and Nasr ibn Ibrahim al-Maqdisi. Among his shaykhs in
tasawwuf were al-Fadl ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Ali al-Farmadi al-Tusi – one of Abu
al-Qasim al-Qushayri’s students – and Yusuf al-Sajjaj.
On his way back from Jurjan to Tus al-Ghazzali
was robbed by highwaymen. When they left him he followed them but was told:
"Leave us or you will die." He replied: "I ask you for Allah’
sake to only return to me my notes, for they are of no use to you." The
robber asked him: "What are those notes?" He said: "Books in
that satchel, for the sake of which I left my country in order to hear, write,
and obtain their knowledge." The robber laughed and said: "How can
you claim that you obtained their knowledge when we took it away from you and
left you devoid of knowledge!" Then he gave an order and the satchel was
returned to him. Al-Ghazzali said: "This man’s utterance was divinely
inspired (hâdhâ mustantaqun): Allah
caused him to say this in order to guide me. When I reached Tus I worked for
three years until I had memorized all that I had written down." –
Acknowledged source Dr G.F. Haddad and found on Google
® - downloaded 2/3 May 2002.
http://members.tripod.com/sufism/sufism/ghazali/rightword-8.htm
- a nice comprehensive site with an excellent reading list. Also has pages in German and Swedish. Found on Google
®).
http://www.cis-ca.org/voices/g/ghaz-mn.htm
- A powerful site with a considerable amount of papers on all aspects of
Ghazali:
Muhammad al-Ghazali remains
one of the most celebrated scholars in the history of Islamic thought. His
exceptional life and works continue to be indispensable in the study of
jurisprudence, theology, philosophy and mysticism. The tens of books that he
left behind were the result of an inquisitive mind that began the quest for
knowledge at a very early stage. In the introduction to his autobiographical
work Deliverance from Error (Al-Munqidh min al-Dalal, p. 81),
al-Ghazali said: “The thirst for grasping the real meaning of things was indeed
my habit and want from my early years and in the prime of my life. It was an instinctive, natural disposition
placed in my makeup by Allah Most High, not something due to my own choosing
and contriving. As a result, the fetters of servile conformism fell away from
me, and inherited beliefs lost their hold on me, when I was quite young’’
(Acknowledged Source web site [downloaded 2/3 May 2002] and found from Google ®).
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cc2002/al-ghazali.html
- Well worth visiting to see a thesis on Ghazali as a combination of canon
lawyer and moral theologian. Found on Google ®).
http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ip/gck.htm
- Al-Ghazali, Causality, and Knowledge by Peter Adamson,
University of Notre Dame. May also be located at http://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/MediAdam.htm
ABSTRACT: Few passages in Arabic philosophy have
attracted as much attention as al-Ghazali’s discussion of causality in the seventeenth
discussion of Tahafut al-Falasifa,
along with the response of Ibn Rushd (Averroës) in his Tahafut al-Tahafut. A question often asked is to what extent
al-Ghazali can be called an occasionalist; that is, whether he follows other
Kalam thinkers in restricting causal agency to God alone. What has not been
thoroughly addressed in previous studies is a question which al-Ghazali and Ibn
Rushd both see as decisive in the seventeenth discussion: what theory of
causality is sufficient to explain human knowledge? In this paper I show that
al-Ghazali’s and Ibn Rushd’s theories of causality are closely related to their
epistemologies. The difference between the two thinkers can be briefly
summarized as follows. For Ibn Rushd, the paradigm of human knowledge is demonstrative
science; for al-Ghazali, in contrast, the paradigm of human knowledge is (or at
least includes) revelation. Yet both remain committed to the possibility of
Aristotelian science and its underlying principles. Thus, I suggest that
al-Ghazali’s stance in the seventeenth discussion sheds light on his critique
of philosophy in the Tahafut: namely, philosophy is not inherently incoherent,
but simply limited in scope. I also briefly compare this position to that of
Thomas Aquinas, in order to place the view in a more familiar context
(Acknowledged Source – Peter Adamson and downloaded 2/3 May 2002. Founded from AltaVista ®).
http://www.al-islam.org/m_morals/chap2b.htm
- Chapter Two: The Islamic Sexual Morality (1) Its Foundation – Al-Ghazali seen
from a feminist viewpoint:
There are many non-Muslim
writers, especially of liberal and feminist ideology, who have attacked the
Islamic view of woman's sexuality. Their criticism is mostly based on some
misconceived ideas about the Islamic sexual morality. Basically there are two
problems with these writers: either they study Islam based on some Western
social theories and models, or they are ill-equipped to study the original
Islamic sources. They rely mostly on the work done on Islam by the Orientalists
or the European travelers of the past centuries. In some cases, books like Thousand and One Nights and The Perfumed Garden are used to explain
the Islamic view on women's sexuality! These books, at the most, reflect the
Arab view of female sexuality not the Islamic view. Therefore, these writings
do not even deserve refutation.
Quotation from Ghazali - After describing the
positive side of Islamic sexual morality, Fatima Mernissi attacks the concept
of female sexuality in Islam as she has understood it from Ghazali's writings:
According to Ghazali, the most
precious gift God gave humans is reason. Its best use is the search for
knowledge...But to be able to devote his energies to knowledge, man has to
reduce the tensions within and without his body, avoid being distracted by
external elements, and avoid indulging in earthly pleasures. Women are
dangerous distraction that must be used for the specific purpose of providing
the Muslim nation with offspring and quenching the tensions of the sexual
instinct. But in no way should women be an object of emotional investment or
the focus of attention. which should be devoted to Allah alone in the form of
knowledge-seeking, meditation, and prayer. (Beyond
the Veil, p.45)
However, for our discussion I … selected the
work of an Arab feminist writer, Fatima Mernissi. The reason for commenting on
her work is that she is an Arab writer who had easy excess to Islamic literature
and hadith, in particular Ihyau 'Ulumi
'd-Din of the famous Sunni scholar Imam Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (d. 1111
C.E.). Moreover, Mernissi's book has been translated into various European and
Asian languages and is becoming popular as an insider's report! (Downloaded 2/3
May 2002. Acknowledged Source: quoted web site and found from AltaVista ®).
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The Winchester Al-Ghazali Web Site was originally published as ‘Peter
Greenland’s Al-Ghazali Web Site’
on BT
Internet in 1999