al-Ghazali: The Islamic Reformer
Chapter 1: Analytical Definition of Islāh 12
1.1 Introduction 12
1.2 Islāh in the Arabic Language 15
1.3 The Islamic Perspective of Islāh 20
1.4 Phrasing the Definition of Islāh 30
1.5 Islāh and Reform: Degree of Equivalence 31
1.6 The Relationship between Islāh 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-Islāh 120
3.8 Striving for General Islāh 127
Chapter 4: Survey of al-Ghazālī’s Islāhī Efforts 134
4.1 Introduction 134
4.2 Al-Ghazālī’s Diagnosis of Fasād 135
4.3 Al-Ghazālī’s Islāhī Attempts to Eradicate the Roots of Fasād 155
4.4 Al-Ghazālī’s Islāhī Treatments of the Phenomena of Fasād 173
CONTENTS ••
Chapter 5: Assessment of al-Ghazālī’s Islāhī 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 Islāh 244
6.1 Introduction 244
6.2 The Impact of al-Ghazālī’s Islāhī Teachings on his Pupils 245
6.3 The Claimed Studentship of Ibn Tūmart under al-Ghazālī 249
6.4 The Influence of the Ihyā’ 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 Bātinīs 268
6.8 The Influence of al-Ghazālī on the Successive Islāhī Movement 268