The Spiritual Crisis and the Ihya’
Al-Ghazali’s life was marked by a famous spiritual crisis: at the height of his fame as a professor at the Nizamiyya madrasa in Baghdad (established to counter Ismaili influence), he abandoned his position, leaving his family and career, and spent years in Sufi retreat.
The crisis: Al-Ghazali recognized that his knowledge was ‘ilm without hal — intellectual knowledge without spiritual state. His theology was correct but dead. The Sufis had something he lacked: direct experience of divine proximity.
The Ihya’: Written after his retreat, the Ihya’ ‘Ulum al-Din (Revival of the Religious Sciences) is a 40-volume encyclopaedia integrating Shafi’i jurisprudence, Ash’ari theology, and Sufi spiritual psychology. It covers: worship, social customs, vices, and virtues — the full human life organized around the heart’s approach to Allah.
Al-Ghazali’s mysticism: Despite his mainstream Sunni credentials, al-Ghazali’s mystical language often parallels Ismaili vocabulary: the centrality of the heart (qalb) over the mind, the stages of spiritual progress, the kashf (unveiling) as a form of direct knowledge beyond rational inference.
See also: Tasawwuf, Aqida Islamic Creed, Dhikr, Muhasaba, Ahlussunnah
Tahafut al-Falasifa — Against the Philosophers
In Tahafut al-Falasifa, al-Ghazali attacked the rationalist philosophical tradition — specifically three positions of Ibn Sina (Avicenna) which he declared kufr (unbelief):
- The eternity of the world (rather than creation ex nihilo)
- Allah’s knowledge of universals only (not particulars)
- The denial of bodily resurrection
This work initiated a major debate in Islamic intellectual history, answered a generation later by Ibn Rushd (Averroes) in Tahafut al-Tahafut.
The Ismaili parallel: Interestingly, the Ismaili philosophers shared al-Ghazali’s critique of naive Aristotelianism while departing in a different direction — Ismaili ta’wil transcends both the literal and the philosophical by grounding all knowledge in the Imam.
See also: Tawhid Divine Unity, Ismaili Philosophy, Hamid Al Kirmani
Fada’ih al-Batiniyya — Against Ismaili Ta’wil
Written at the request of the Abbasid Caliph al-Mustazhir, al-Ghazali’s Fada’ih al-Batiniyya (also known as al-Mustazhiri) is a sustained polemic against Ismaili doctrine. His critique focused on three main points:
The appeal to the Imam’s authority: Al-Ghazali argued that the Ismaili claim “only the infallible Imam can interpret the Quran” is self-undermining — for one must use rational criteria to identify the Imam in the first place. You cannot escape reason by appealing to authority.
The ta’wil as license: Al-Ghazali attacked Ismaili ta’wil as potentially dissolving all religious obligations by re-interpreting them as purely symbolic. If prayer means “spiritual alignment,” can one abandon the physical prayer?
The Ismaili response: Ismaili scholars, most comprehensively Nasir Khusraw (who predated the Fada’ih), and later the tradition’s response literature, argued: (1) The Imam’s authority is grounded in nass (prophetic designation), not merely rational argument; (2) The ta’wil does not abolish the zahir but deepens it — the shell protects the kernel.
See also: Ilm Al Batin, Tawil Esoteric Interpretation, Imamah, Nasir Khusraw
See also: Tasawwuf, Aqida Islamic Creed, Dhikr, Muhasaba, Ahlussunnah, Tawhid Divine Unity, Ismaili Philosophy, Hamid Al Kirmani, Ilm Al Batin, Tawil Esoteric Interpretation, Imamah, Nasir Khusraw