Islamic philosophy according to Abu Hamid al-Ghazali

The personality of Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, "e;the Proof of Islam,"e; is a fascinating figure, filled with profound meaning and insight into what lies beyond appearances. His life spans spanned several phases, and this personality, with all its richness, is fascinating for religious, philosophical, and political study, given its recognition of its contradictions and diversity. We find him simultaneously embracing philosophy and attacking it, practicing rhetoric while disavowing it, holding an official position while condemning jurists, defending a political system, and implicitly revealing its moral and political failure. This book is a new study and a controversial scholarly investigation, unlike those studies that have failed to arrive at a convincing explanation for this diversity and contradiction. Traditional writings have remained far removed from considering political reality in interpreting the course of Islamic thought. They have addressed the contents of this thought in isolation from its sociocultural and political context, seeing only its positive aspects. As for the writings that have given importance to this aspect especially Marxist writings their results preceded their analyses. They did not read the texts, but rather their present, burdened with concerns, and they reshaped the contents of this traditional thought to serve their own ideological, supremacist goals. This book goes beyond this and that, and studies Al-Ghazali's personality objectively, looking at the debate between religion and politics within him, exploring his abstract human motives before his religious conversion and tracing their paths after his profound religious conversion, without elevating Al-Ghazali in his relationship with politics to the level of angels, and without burdening his texts and positions with what they cannot bear.