Deliverance From Error: Five Key Texts Including His Spiritual Autobiography, Al-Munqidh Min Al-Dalal

Book Summary

The present volume contains a translation of Ghazali's autobiography, The Deliverance from Error, one of the most remarkable personal documents to have come down to us from classical Islamic civilization. The Imam describes his education and his intellectual crisis which left him so paralyzed by doubt that he was forced to resign the most distinguished academic appointment of his day. His faith returned after years of wandering and seeking during which he achieved direct knowledge of God in the form of the illuminative experience of the Sufis. Imam Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (1058-1111) is generally acclaimed as the most influential thinker of medieval Islam. Among his most outstanding contributions to Muslim intellectual life were masterly defenses of Islamic orthodoxy, mysticism and law against the attacks of those who advocated purely legalistic or entirely esoteric readings of the religion. He hence articulated the Islam of the middle way, in balance between the extremes of the letter and the spirit. As such, his works have become a manifesto for modern Muslims struggling against extremist and hence heterodox readings of the faith. This spiritual autobiography describes Imam Abu Hamid al-Ghazali's intellectual crisis, which led him to achieve direct knowledge of God. Among his most outstanding contributions to Muslim intellectual life were masterly defenses of Islamic orthodoxy, mysticism, and law, against the attacks of those who advocated purely legalistic, or entirely esoteric, readings of the religion. He hence articulated the Islam of the middle way, in balance between the extremes of the letter and the spirit. Also included in this volume are extensive translations from key works of al-Ghazali.

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