al-Ghazali: The Islamic Reformer

Chapter 1: Analytical Definition of Islāh 12
1.1 Introduction 12
1.2 Islāh in the Arabic Language 15
1.3 The Islamic Perspective of Islāh 20
1.4 Phrasing the Definition of Islāh 30
1.5 Islāh and Reform: Degree of Equivalence 31
1.6 The Relationship between Islāh and Other Concepts 32

Chapter 2: Setting the Historical Context 41
2.1 Introduction 41
2.2 The Overall Condition of Islamdom 42
2.3 The Political Setting 43
2.4 The First Crusade and the Muslim Response 70
2.5 The Religio-Intellectual life 71

Chapter 3: The Life-Experience of al-Ghazālī 88
3.1 Introduction 88
3.2 Dependent Learning and Premature Authorship 90
3.3 Highly Distinguished Scholarly Career 96
3.4 Epistemological Crisis 98
3.5 Independent Examination of the Seekers After Truth 104
3.6 Serious Inspection of the Inner State 113
3.7 Seclusion and Self-Islāh 120
3.8 Striving for General Islāh 127

Chapter 4: Survey of al-Ghazālī’s Islāhī Efforts 134
4.1 Introduction 134
4.2 Al-Ghazālī’s Diagnosis of Fasād 135
4.3 Al-Ghazālī’s Islāhī Attempts to Eradicate the Roots of Fasād 155
4.4 Al-Ghazālī’s Islāhī Treatments of the Phenomena of Fasād 173
CONTENTS ••

Chapter 5: Assessment of al-Ghazālī’s Islāhī Teachings 201
5.1 Introduction 201
5.2 Originality 201
5.3 Clarity 208
5.4 Deepness 215
5.5 Balance between Individualism and Collectivism 216
5.6 Realism and Practicality 221
5.7 Islamic-Justification 228

Chapter 6: The effects of al-Ghazālī’s Attempts at Islāh 244
6.1 Introduction 244
6.2 The Impact of al-Ghazālī’s Islāhī Teachings on his Pupils 245
6.3 The Claimed Studentship of Ibn Tūmart under al-Ghazālī 249
6.4 The Influence of the Ihyā’ 252
6.5 Al-Ghazālī’s Effect on Sufism 260
6.6 The Effect on the Movement of Philosophy 264
6.7 The Effect of al-Ghazālī’s Quarrel with the Bātinīs 268
6.8 The Influence of al-Ghazālī on the Successive Islāhī Movement 268