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eCourse
- Biographies
- Introduction
- A A Milne
- Swami Abhayananda
- A R Ammons
- Abbot Amakuki
- Abraham Maslow
- Adam Smith
- Al Alawi
- Al-Harraq
- Alan Watts
- Albert Camus
- Albertus Magnus
- Al Bistami
- Aldous Huxley
- Al Ghazzali
- Anandamayi
- Angela Of Foligno
- Angelus Silesius
- Apollonius Of Tyana
- Aristotle
- Ashtavakra Gita
- Asvaghosa
- Attar
- Augustine Baker
- Avadhut Gita
- Bankei
- Berdyaev
- Bhagavad Gita
- Blake
- Blosius
- Blue Cliff Record
- Boethius
- Bonhoeffer
- Brihadaranyaka
- Buddha
- Chandogya
- Chang Chen Chi
- Chao Chou Tsung Shen
- Charles Dickens
- Charles Morgan
- Chuang Tzu
- Cicero
- Colin Turnbull
- Conan Doyle
- D.H.Lawrence
- D.T.Suzuki
- Dadu
- Daito Kokushi
- Dante
- De Adhaerendo Deo
- Descartes
- Devikalottara
- Dhammapada
- Dhiravamsa
- Diamond Sutra
- Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
- Dionysius Areopagite
- Dogen
- Dom Chapman
- Dr.Hans Selye
- Eckhart
- Einstein
- Emerson
- Emily Dickinson
- Epictetus
- Erich Fromm
- Erigena
- Ernst Mach
- Eugen Herrigel
- Exodus
- F.H.Bradley
- Father Williams
- Fenelon
- Fo Yen
- Francis Bacon
- Francis Howgill
- Freud
- Galen
- Gampopa
- Gandhi
- Gandavyuha Sutra
- G B Shaw
- Genro
- George Macdonald
- Gerard Manley Hopkins
- Gospel Of John
- Gospel Of Truth
- H.H.Price
- Hadewijch
- Hafiz
- Hakim Jamal
- Hakuin
- Hakuun Yasutani
- Hans Denk
- Heidegger
- Heraclitus
- Hermann Hesse
- Hildegard
- Hongzhi
- Hora
- Hsin Hsin Ming
- Hsu Yun
- Huang Po
- Hubert Benoit
- Hugh Of St Victor
- Hui Hai
- Hui Ming Ching
- Huineng
- Ibn Arabi
- Isha Upanishad
- J.C.Powys
- J.J.Olier
- J.Maritain
- J.P.De Caussade
- Jacob Bohme
- James Thomson
- Jean Nicholas Grou
- J Krishnamurti
- Joel Goldsmith
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- John Everard
- John Keats
- John Updike
- John Smith Platonist
- John Woolman
- Jose Ortega
- Julian Of Norwich
- Kabir
- Kaivalya
- Katha Upanishad
- Kierkegaard
- Kipling
- Krishna Menon
- Abraham Kook
- Kotzker Rebbe
- Lalla
- Lao Tzu
- Laurens Van Der Post
- Leo Tolstoy
- Lewis Carrol
- Lin Chi
- Lotze
- Lucretius
- M.C.Richards
- Madame Guyon
- Malaval
- Mandukya Upanishad
- Marcus Aurelius
- Margaret Mead
- Marguerite Porete
- Marguerite Yourcenar
- Marie De L'incarnation
- Martin Israel
- Max Planck
- Menachem Mendel Schneerson
- Mechthild Magdeburg
- Michael Mayne
- Milan Kundera
- Molinos
- Nicholas Of Cusa
- Nietzsche
- Nisargadatta
- Padmasambhava
- Pai Chang
- Pali Canon
- Panchadasi
- Papaji
- Pascal
- Patanjali
- Peter Matthiessen
- Peter Sterry
- P G Wodehouse
- Philo
- Plato
- Plotinus
- R.D.Laing
- Rabbi Bunam
- Rabbi Hahman
- Ramakrishna
- Ramana Maharshi
- Ram Dass
- Ramesh Balsekar
- Rilke
- Robert Frost
- Rumi
- Ruysbroeck
- Samuel Johnson
- Sara Banerji
- Sartre
- Secret Of Golden Flower
- Seng T'san
- Seung Sahn
- Shakespeare
- Shankara
- Shelley
- Shen Hui
- Shido Bunan Zenji
- Shih T'ou
- Simone Weil
- Sir Thomas Browne
- Socrates
- St.Athanasius
- St.Augustine
- St.Basil
- St.Bernard
- St. Bonaventure
- St.Catherine Of Genoa
- St.Catherine Of Siena
- St.Francis De Sales
- St.John Of The Cross
- St.John The Divine
- St.Paul
- Stephen Levine
- Surangama Sutra
- Suso
- Svetasvatara Upanishad
- Symeon-New Theologian
- T.H.Huxley
- T.S.Eliot
- Tai Hui
- Tauler
- Teilhard de Chardin
- Tennyson
- Tenzin Palmo
- Teresa Of Avila
- Te Shan
- The Cloud Of Unknowing
- The Gospel Of Thomas
- The Iron Flute
- Theologia Germanica
- Thomas A Kempis
- Thomas Aquinas
- Tozan Ryokai
- Traherne
- Treatise On Resurrection
- Vasishta
- Virginia Woolf
- Vivekananda
- Vladimir Solovyov
- W.B.Yeats
- Walter Hilton
- Walt Whitman
- William Law
- William Of Ockham
- William Of St.Thierry
- William Penn
- Wittgenstein
- Woodrow Wilson
- Wumen
- Yang-shan Hui-ch
- Yuan Wu
- Yung Chia Hsuan Chueh
- Zazengi
Biographies
- Introduction
- A A Milne
- Swami Abhayananda
- A R Ammons
- Abbot Amakuki
- Abraham Maslow
- Adam Smith
- Al Alawi
- Al-Harraq
- Alan Watts
- Albert Camus
- Albertus Magnus
- Al Bistami
- Aldous Huxley
- Al Ghazzali
- Anandamayi
- Angela Of Foligno
- Angelus Silesius
- Apollonius Of Tyana
- Aristotle
- Ashtavakra Gita
- Asvaghosa
- Attar
- Augustine Baker
- Avadhut Gita
- Bankei
- Berdyaev
- Bhagavad Gita
- Blake
- Blosius
- Blue Cliff Record
- Boethius
- Bonhoeffer
- Brihadaranyaka
- Buddha
- Chandogya
- Chang Chen Chi
- Chao Chou Tsung Shen
- Charles Dickens
- Charles Morgan
- Chuang Tzu
- Cicero
- Colin Turnbull
- Conan Doyle
- D.H.Lawrence
- D.T.Suzuki
- Dadu
- Daito Kokushi
- Dante
- De Adhaerendo Deo
- Descartes
- Devikalottara
- Dhammapada
- Dhiravamsa
- Diamond Sutra
- Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
- Dionysius Areopagite
- Dogen
- Dom Chapman
- Dr.Hans Selye
- Eckhart
- Einstein
- Emerson
- Emily Dickinson
- Epictetus
- Erich Fromm
- Erigena
- Ernst Mach
- Eugen Herrigel
- Exodus
- F.H.Bradley
- Father Williams
- Fenelon
- Fo Yen
- Francis Bacon
- Francis Howgill
- Freud
- Galen
- Gampopa
- Gandhi
- Gandavyuha Sutra
- G B Shaw
- Genro
- George Macdonald
- Gerard Manley Hopkins
- Gospel Of John
- Gospel Of Truth
- H.H.Price
- Hadewijch
- Hafiz
- Hakim Jamal
- Hakuin
- Hakuun Yasutani
- Hans Denk
- Heidegger
- Heraclitus
- Hermann Hesse
- Hildegard
- Hongzhi
- Hora
- Hsin Hsin Ming
- Hsu Yun
- Huang Po
- Hubert Benoit
- Hugh Of St Victor
- Hui Hai
- Hui Ming Ching
- Huineng
- Ibn Arabi
- Isha Upanishad
- J.C.Powys
- J.J.Olier
- J.Maritain
- J.P.De Caussade
- Jacob Bohme
- James Thomson
- Jean Nicholas Grou
- J Krishnamurti
- Joel Goldsmith
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- John Everard
- John Keats
- John Updike
- John Smith Platonist
- John Woolman
- Jose Ortega
- Julian Of Norwich
- Kabir
- Kaivalya
- Katha Upanishad
- Kierkegaard
- Kipling
- Krishna Menon
- Abraham Kook
- Kotzker Rebbe
- Lalla
- Lao Tzu
- Laurens Van Der Post
- Leo Tolstoy
- Lewis Carrol
- Lin Chi
- Lotze
- Lucretius
- M.C.Richards
- Madame Guyon
- Malaval
- Mandukya Upanishad
- Marcus Aurelius
- Margaret Mead
- Marguerite Porete
- Marguerite Yourcenar
- Marie De L'incarnation
- Martin Israel
- Max Planck
- Menachem Mendel Schneerson
- Mechthild Magdeburg
- Michael Mayne
- Milan Kundera
- Molinos
- Nicholas Of Cusa
- Nietzsche
- Nisargadatta
- Padmasambhava
- Pai Chang
- Pali Canon
- Panchadasi
- Papaji
- Pascal
- Patanjali
- Peter Matthiessen
- Peter Sterry
- P G Wodehouse
- Philo
- Plato
- Plotinus
- R.D.Laing
- Rabbi Bunam
- Rabbi Hahman
- Ramakrishna
- Ramana Maharshi
- Ram Dass
- Ramesh Balsekar
- Rilke
- Robert Frost
- Rumi
- Ruysbroeck
- Samuel Johnson
- Sara Banerji
- Sartre
- Secret Of Golden Flower
- Seng T'san
- Seung Sahn
- Shakespeare
- Shankara
- Shelley
- Shen Hui
- Shido Bunan Zenji
- Shih T'ou
- Simone Weil
- Sir Thomas Browne
- Socrates
- St.Athanasius
- St.Augustine
- St.Basil
- St.Bernard
- St. Bonaventure
- St.Catherine Of Genoa
- St.Catherine Of Siena
- St.Francis De Sales
- St.John Of The Cross
- St.John The Divine
- St.Paul
- Stephen Levine
- Surangama Sutra
- Suso
- Svetasvatara Upanishad
- Symeon-New Theologian
- T.H.Huxley
- T.S.Eliot
- Tai Hui
- Tauler
- Teilhard de Chardin
- Tennyson
- Tenzin Palmo
- Teresa Of Avila
- Te Shan
- The Cloud Of Unknowing
- The Gospel Of Thomas
- The Iron Flute
- Theologia Germanica
- Thomas A Kempis
- Thomas Aquinas
- Tozan Ryokai
- Traherne
- Treatise On Resurrection
- Vasishta
- Virginia Woolf
- Vivekananda
- Vladimir Solovyov
- W.B.Yeats
- Walter Hilton
- Walt Whitman
- William Law
- William Of Ockham
- William Of St.Thierry
- William Penn
- Wittgenstein
- Woodrow Wilson
- Wumen
- Yang-shan Hui-ch
- Yuan Wu
- Yung Chia Hsuan Chueh
- Zazengi
Al-Ghazzali (1058–1111)
Al-Ghazali is one of the greatest Islamic Jurists, theologians and mystical thinkers. He learned various branches of traditional Islamic religious sciences in his home town of Tus, Gurgan and Nishapur in the northern part of Iran. He was also involved in Sufi practices from an early age. Being recognized by Nizam al-Mulk, the vizir of the Seljuq sultans, he was appointed head of the Nizamiyyah College at Baghdad in AH 484/AD 1091. As the intellectual head of the Islamic community, he was busy lecturing on Islamic jurisprudence at the College, and also refuting heresies and responding to questions from all segments of the community. Four years later, however, al-Ghazali fell into a serious spiritual crisis and finally left Baghdad, renouncing his career and the world. After wandering in Syria and Palestine for about two years and finishing the pilgrimage to Mecca, he returned to Tus, where he was engaged in writing, Sufi practices and teaching his disciples until his death. In the meantime he resumed teaching for a few years at the Nizamiyyah College in NishapurAl-Ghazali explained in his autobiography why he renounced his brilliant career and turned to Sufism. It was, he says, due to his realization that there was no way to certain knowledge or the conviction of revelatory truth except through Sufism. (This means that the traditional form of Islamic faith was in a very critical condition at the time.) This realization is possibly related to his criticism of Islamic philosophy. In fact, his refutation of philosophy is not a mere criticism from a certain (orthodox) theological viewpoint. First of all, his attitude towards philosophy was ambivalent; it was both an object of criticism and an object of learning (for example, logic and the natural sciences). He mastered philosophy and then criticized it in order to Islamicize it. The importance of his criticism lies in his philosophical demonstration that the philosophers’ metaphysical arguments cannot stand the test of reason. However, he was also forced to admit that the certainty, of revelatory truth, for which he was so desperately searching, cannot be obtained by reason. It was only later that he finally attained to that truth in the ecstatic state (fana’) of the Sufi. Through his own religious experience, he worked to revive the faith of Islam by reconstructing the religious sciences upon the basis of Sufism, and to give a theoretical foundation to the latter under the influence of philosophy. Thus Sufism came to be generally recognized in the Islamic community. Though Islamic philosophy did not long survive al-Ghazali’s criticism, he contributed greatly to the subsequent philosophization of Islamic theology and Sufism.
From Gazali
See also The Window Philosophers
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