Al-Ghazali

Proof of Islam and renewer of the faith

According to a prophetic hadith about a faith renewer appearing each century, al-Ghazali is regarded as the mujaddid for the 11th century.^[1]

Last updated 2026-09-30 from the source article.

Quick Facts

Region

Seljuk Empire (Nishapur)292
Abbasid Caliphate (Baghdad)
Fatimid Caliphate (Jerusalem) (Damascus)292

Era

Islamic Golden Age

Born

c. 1058

Birthplace

Tus, Seljuk Empire

Died

19 December 1111

Religion

Islam

Denomination

Sunni

School

Shafi’i

Facts from the source article.

Life and work

Al-Ghazali was born in 1058 in Tabaran, a town in the district of Tus, Khorasan.^[2] He began to receive instruction in fiqh from Ahmad al-Radhakani and Abu ali Farmadi, a Naqshbandi sufi from Tus.^[3] Nizam al-Mulk advanced al-Ghazali in July 1091 to the most prestigious professorial position at the Nizamiyya of Baghdad.^[4] In Nishapur, al-Ghazali later became a student of al-Juwayni, who was a prominent jurist and theologian.^[3]

In 1095, al-Ghazali experienced a spiritual crisis, left his career, and departed Baghdad, using the pilgrimage to Mecca as his stated reason.^[5] Al-Ghazali's death occurred on 19 December 1111, and his burial place is near his home in Tus, Iran.^[6]

What the cited sources add

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy notes that al-Ghazali was active when Sunni theology faced challenges from Shiite Ismâ'îlite theology and Aristotelian philosophy.^[7] The same source states that his critique of falsafa in the Incoherence of the Philosophers advances the nominalist critique of Aristotelian science later developed in 14th century Europe.^[7] The TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi records that his crisis of doubt began in July 1095 and led to psychological depression and physiological ailments.^[8]

References

Wikipedia, "Al-Ghazali" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Rosmizi, "The Mujaddid of his age: Al-Ghazali and his inner spiritual journey", UMRAN - International Journal of Islamic and Civilizational Studies, 2016, p. 1–12; Smith, "Islam in America", Columbia University Press, 19 November 2009, p. 36; Dhahabi, Siyar, 4.566; Oxtoby, Oxford University Press, 1996, p. 421; Janin, "The Pursuit of Learning in the Islamic World", McFarland, 2005, p. 83; Al Beirawi, "Essays on Ijtihad in the 21st Century", CreateSpace, 12 April 2016, p. 35 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Al-Ghazali" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Griffel, "Al-Ghazālī's Philosophical Theology", Oxford University Press, 2009; Foundation, "Welcome to Encyclopaedia Iranica", iranicaonline.org; Rahman, "The Mujaddid of His Age", 2016; Bloch, "Avicenna and the Aristotelian Left", Columbia University Press, 2019, p. 77; Griffel, "Al-Ghazālī's Philosophical Theology", Oxford University Press, 2009 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Al-Ghazali" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Griffel, "Al-Ghazālī's Philosophical Theology", Oxford University Press, 2009; Griffel, "Al-Ghazālī's Philosophical Theology", Oxford University Press, 2009; Griffel, "Medieval Islamic civilization: an encyclopedia", Routledge, 2006 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Al-Ghazali" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Griffel, "Al-Ghazālī's Philosophical Theology", Oxford University Press, 2009 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Al-Ghazali" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Nicholson, Reynold Alleyne. (1966). "A literary history of the Arabs." London: Cambridge University Press. p. 382. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Al-Ghazali" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Griffel, "Al-Ghazālī's Philosophical Theology", Oxford University Press, 2009; zirrar, "Finding Imam Al-Ghazali", Zirrar, 2019-05-21 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
Griffel, "The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy", Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, 2016. facts only, no text reused. plato.stanford.edu
"GAZZÂLÎ", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi. facts only, no text reused. islamansiklopedisi.org.tr

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Al-Ghazali (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.