Al-Ghazali Contribution

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INTRODUCTION Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ghazālī, popularly known as Al-Ghazali, was a Muslim jurist, philosopher, theologian, and mystic. He was born near Tus in Iran in 1058. He is one of the greatest and distinguished original philosophers not only in the history of Muslim philosophy but also in the history of human thought. He received his education in Islamic philosophy. He wrote many books on political issues out of which a few became very popular. He is generally remembered as the “Defender of Islam” (Hujjat al-Islam, hujjat literally meaning “proof”). Some even consider him as the most influential muslim philosopher after the Holy Prophet. He was also involved in Sufi practices from an early age. Al-Ghazali won great fame and…show more content…
For instance, in his Naseehat, he made “impartial use of examples attributed to Arab Caliphs and Sassanid Kings, to Sufi saints and ancient Persian sages; they (Muslim writers like al-Mawardi and those who came after him) Islamize Zoroastrian maxims such as “religion and empire are bothers”; and they assume rightly or wrongly a substantial identity and continuity between Sassanian and Islamic State institutions” This is one reason why we find frequent reference to the Greek, Persian and Indian stories in his writings, far more than we find in al-Mawardi’s writings Thus while admonishing the Seljuk Sultan, he said that “he should hear the sayings of the kings, ponder over their doings, study their stories as related in books and try to copy their acts of justice and benevolence.” According to al-Ghazali, the Khilafat is a divine state .The supreme authority is Allah( SWT ). Therefore, His divine laws should rule. He thought that the khilafat is important to protect the religious, social and political rights of the Muslims . It must also protect the socitey from any internal conspiracies or external problems. His definition of khalifah as khalifatulllah was an advancement in a sense that the four earliest caliphs, Khulaf-e-Rashideen, never claimed to be Khalifatullah but Khalifatur-Rasool (the successor of the…show more content…
In fact, “the good order of religion is possible only through the good order of the world”, which, in its turn, is dependent on an “imam who is obeyed”. And by Imam he meant the sultan, as he said a few lines later. Quoting a Hadith of the Holy Prophet^, he said further that “din is the foundation and the sultan is the guardian.” Duties of the Khalifa( or Imam): Al-Ghazali has enumerated ten duties of the Khalifa. These are as follows: 1. He must have the ability to wage jihad or holy war. He should discharge the duties of government and administration, called kifaya in fiqh or Islamic jurisprudence, even though indirectly, through the experts and a conscientious vizier. 2. He should have knowledge or Ilm for purposes of ijtihaad. In this respect al-Ghazali advises the imam to consult the ulema or religious experts. 3. He must be pious. Indeed, piety is an important duty, for although a caliph might not have political power, he must be a religious leader and preceptor of the
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