Educational Philosophy Of Imam Al-ghazzali.pdf

Al-Ghazzali’sPhilosophy of Education

Abstract When most read educational philosophies were done by western philosophers against racism and other social evils, Islamic theory of education and raising pupils were formed on basis of raising child capable of learning all sciences and practicing moral conduct. But, contributions of west in the field have been much celebrated as it seems that first works in the educational philosophy were done by them. As a Muslim, it is our duty to produce and release the works done by our greatest philosophers who lived before centuries from Renaissance Men. As it is based on Quran and Sunna, it is most dependable philosophy. In this critical condition Al-Ghazzali’s view on education and nurturing pupils gets prominence. Keywords: Meaning Of Education, Al-Ghazzalion Education, teaching, curriculum, code of ethics

Introduction In these times thoughts and works of Al-Ghazzali remains as dominant work in belief and practice of Islamic Society especially Sunni Muslims. Depending on his vast knowledge on both Religious and rational sciences, he developed an Islamic model of thought about Education and everything. Despite of all Islamist challenges against Islam in these periods, his thought and belief and ideas have remained as Muslim mainstream view. While some supporters call it as a revival movement the most of Muslims find his view as authentic in the field. Often Imam Al-Ghazzali is referred as most influential personality in Islamic history after Prophet (peace is upon him). In Islamic Civilization his considered as Mujaddidor rejuvenator of faith of the Fifth Century according to Islamic calendar. Mujaddidis one and only person who appears at end of the each centuries and he will challenge and defeat enemies of religion who will try to tamper some errors in the faith of common people. His works and views were a level ahead of his contemporaries as he has given honourable title of Hujjath-ul-Islam (Proof of Islam). Even after many centuries from his death he remains in the frontline of educationalists and a philosopher who had some similar views with great philosophers like Plato, Aristotle, Immanuel Kant and John Locke. His always emphasized that his views haven’t reached into level of absolute truth as because he believed like every Muslims that only knowledge acquired from Revelation could attain the quality of being absolutely truthful.

Life of Imam Al-Ghazzali Abu Hamid Muhammad bin Muhammad al-Ghazzaliborn in 1058 CE \ 450 H at Thus in Khurasan in a Persian middle class family. His father departed his family to hereafter life and entrusted his two sons into one of his Sufi friends. Sufi friend looked after them until the fund given his father was exhausted and therefore they were admitted at Madrassa or Elementary school where they education and looking after for free. He started to study and by heartening Quran and religious principles at age of 7 as well as Arabic language. After getting elementary education, he went to intermediate and higher education at a Madrassa, where he studied Fiqh or Islamic Jurisprudence, Tafsir or Quranic Exegesis andHadith or Prophetic Tradition. Then he went to Tus to learn Fiqh from Alisma’eeli and then to Imam Juwaini to learn logic,Kalam or theology and Fiqh and served him for many years. Al-Ghazali's period of studentship ended with the death of Al-Juwaini 1085 CE (478 H); he began establishing relations with ruling circles as well as actively participating in politics. As a result, he acquired higher standard of education in contemporary sciences like philosophy, logic Etc. as well as in religious sciences like Fiqh and Tafsir. He wrote and authored more than 400 books mainly like Keemiya-e-Saadath (the alchemy of happiness), IhyaUloomudheen (Revival of Islamic knowledge) and TahafathulFalasifa (the incoherence of philosophers). A Muslim chronicler Al-Subki said about him in his book “If there was a prophet after Muhammed (peace be upon him), it was Al-Ghazzali”. He passed away on 19th December in 1111 or 505 AH.

His Philosophy He was one of the most influential philosophers of his time as well as a whole similar to philosophy of Plato, Aristotle and Kant. He backed Revelation as way to absolute reality ashe saw Revelation as an essential element for finding truth and was given to messengers of God (peace is upon them) by Almighty God. Al-Ghazzali’s major contributions were in jurisprudence, logic, philosophy and Sufism. He proved that all Islamic beliefs and theories according to reason too in order to develop a holistic picture of Islam and reunite Muslim society. Society is composed of human beings, and in al-Ghazali's view cannot be worth. He lived in a society in which evil outweighs Goodness as well as people shunning the society will be great than living with it. Society could become worse, and individuals have rights and duties with respect to society. However, the existence of the individual is insignificant compared with the existence and strength of the group. It is class system and co-operation between thinking and controlling elites and the masses. Religious and doctrinal questions are solved by scholars according to religious law, and material problems as well as problems surrounding the State will get solved under Rulers. The common people are obliged to obey commands both from State and religious scholars.

Lastly, this society is formed to subject completely before guidance and authority of God; it has no other goal than that of following religion and remaining under his likeness by adoring God. Being aware and acquiring knowledge are basic characters of human being, its perception are occurred from two sources; reason and our senses. What we got by the means of senses are not of reality type relating to Revelation and what we got by reason it is near to truth as dependence on it called as way to find truth through sixth sense. These two types of knowledge must not be equated, whether with respect to their source, method or reliability. True knowledge only got unveiled by finding and cultivating verses of Quran to imprint on it as truth. The more consumption of knowledge by human beings make him more interested to return God’s worship and adoration towards his divine entity. The virtuous personality according to Imam Al-Ghazzaliis a person who always kept his friends secluded from him and used to worship and venerate God in loneliness. It is verily notable that when Arabs made ideal of virtue as keeping more connection with god by prayer and being interested to do more in the case, Europeans were glorifying warrior monks rather than who were ready to take over in the churches as monks or Chief saint. While Peter the Hermit was encouraging European masses to join in war of crusades, Al-Ghazzali called people two choices: if he wants to continue in common life the he have to follow all laws ordered and implemented by the state and Religious elite. Otherwise he have to leave his aspirations about the material world and live completely worshipping God and its related practices as well as spending time for glorifying, praising of God and mingle with Divine entity through reciting many prayers and Swalaths. He urged the people to come up with any of these along with complete adherence to his plan and thus he emerged with best ideas that can mould up the future society in the best way.

His Educational Philosophy His educational philosophy is result of his experiences in the field of philosophy for ten years and it clearly has some resemblance to that of Plato. He analyzed his experiences and views he has got using the reason, something that makes the things true if it is. When he depended on his reason it was with clear conviction that Revelation is above reason but it is only endowed to prophets sent by god. He also found that his views will have some inability to get absolute truth because absolute one is limited to Messengers of God. Religious philosophy and his researches influenced him vastly to form his idea on education. It is very clear that his educational philosophy has influenced so many Muslim Generations as well as many philosophers. He believed that human mind is like a clean slate and it can be transformed to shiny drawings if there are well trained teachers through long passage of time. John Locke, Aristotle and Plato also held similar views.

Meaning of Education In Arabic, word Tarbiyais used for education which means bring up a child as mentioned in the dictionaries of Tajul-Arus and Lisanul-Arab. So it refers to bringing up and caring of child until reaching maturity or to age of adolescence. According to Islam, education comprises both mental and intellectual acquiring of knowledge.

Education according to West Educationists and philosophers have tried their best to explain and define the term “Education” in order to explicate its scientific meaning. Yet there hasn’t been a definite one that includes all of its characteristics. Here are some definitions given by great western Educational thinkers. 

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According to Plato Education stands for granting souls and bodies as much of possible amount of aesthetics and perfection. This definition comprehends both physical and spiritual education. Hubbell says that perfect education is that preserves the physical condition of the body and the strength of pupils and gives power of controlling mental and physical strengths. It also increases the speed of understanding and sharpness of intelligence, accustoms to good and precise judgement and creates gentleness in fulfilling duties deliberately.

Al-Ghazzali on Education According to Imam Al-Ghazzali, knowledge itself exists in the human soul like the seed in the soil; by learning and understanding it he possesses it. He believes that child is trust by God put in the hands of parents and his heart has the capacity to take impressions on anything he likes. He believed the this world is only short-timed and ending world and there is hereafter where times are eternal and never ending , consequently, every human beings are ordered to worship God and to make some good deeds to help him in hereafter life. Man, is an immortal creature in the type of soul and mortal body covers the soul, is not meant to spend whole life in this world and supposed to die and subside to divine proceedings by achieving heaven by his good deeds or forced to enter hell by his bad activities. Since he is not meant to live forever in this world he has to strive and try hard to achieve success in the both lives. Thus he has to try hard to get salvation and success in the hereafter. Otherwise he will be destined to leave in the dark rooms of inferno forever. By these values, each individual’s righteousness and veracity is determined by his trust to God and his fear upon his punishments rather than his attempt to get supremacy and deploy his hegemony over his fellow-beings. Acquiring all these knowledge every

individual is bound to be completion of his salvation towards God as well as getting trained to moral conduct and behavioural habits.

Aims and Principles of Education Al-Ghazzali aimed by education to develop a goo d character and good conduct in the pupil as well as development of qualities like obedience, humility. Simplicity and abhorrence from vice and evils such as pride, love of wealth and material world , complete surrender to divine power, reliance to God and thankfulness to him.It can be said that aim of education is to differentiate between good and evil for the children from early ages. John Hebert also held views similar to his view after 700 years. The distinct factor in Islamic education is position given to Quran and Prophetic traditions (Sunnah) in the curriculum. According to Islam, Quran is the divine text that revealed from God to guide human beings towards the way of salvation as well as prompting them to learn lessons from the activities done by ancient communities. Intellect is what controls both attaining and distribution of knowledge as it stands as fountain and fountainhead when things come out of mind. In the view of Imam Al-Ghazzali, True knowledge is knowledge about divine texts, its exegesis, interpretational works, prophetic tradition and such things, it is the knowledge that you will get its benefit in future times. In the elementary school period, Students have to be taught about Holy Quran and Prophetic tradition because these knowledge will be carved well in the hearts of young minds as they have only started their connection with knowledge and process of thinking; they have to be kept away from politicians as well as men of letters because it causes to plant seeds of insurgency and anti-state feelings in their mind. They have to get training very systematically and practically on how to behave with parents along with respect and passion and to keep good conduct and behaviour with their friends too. There has to be attention from close quarters on boasting and being proud among his classmates expressing arrogance over father’s wealth, his family pride and such factors. Rather, they should be taught modesty, generosity and civility. Attention is drawn to the potentially pernicious influence of the children's comrades on their character. They must therefore be advised that their friends should possess the following five qualities: intelligence, good morals, good character, self-discipline and truthfulness. Education doesn’t means to energize mind and filling it with knowledge but it includes -social, moral, intellectual and religious- development of these areas too. It is not enough by learning things theoretically; this learning has to be changed into practice and obedience towards these concepts and theories. True learning is occurred when there are influence of knowledge on both behaviour and habits of the person and when it is realized practically. People undertake children are ordered to keep special attention towards forcing them to do religiousrituals like ablution and taking fast in several days of

Ramadan because it will be accustomed to their daily habits as they will perform all these rituals when they become to the age of adolescence. They should be trained to live under jurisdictions of religion and not to perform many things that are forbidden in Islamic law like stealing, eating forbidden food, acting disloyalty etc. By nature and level of their understanding they will be unable to understand the intricacies of what they have been taught and ordered to do. As they grow older they can understand what is meant by laws of religion as well as the practices they are occurred e in his daily habits. He strongly argues that someone leaves the school during the study period he will be banned from sporty games played in the region and considered especially until he recovers from lessons that he have missed and study time punishments put upon him. Complete control over his playing and burdening him to study time by time will create a sense of escapism as he will be spending times allotted for studying as time to plan tricks to escape from these activities. If someone performs well in studies as well as keeps moral conduct then he will be praised in the public and so it will encourage others to imitate him. If he does errors he will be advised not to repeat such an error making him understanding what makes it unpleasant and if he tries to repeat then he will be given detentions from teacher for the action privately.If anyone of teacher wants to punish students for severe errors then he will be punished as he won’t get very tensing physical effect by the action and every situation like these has to be dealt with accordance to every student’s behaviour and conduct. . The teachersshould not push the pupils beyond their capacity, nor try to grow them to a level of knowledge that they can’t get, since that is back-firing the whole plan. On the same time teachers have to be committed to keep student with beyond age smartness growing in accordance to his level rather than forcing to limit his advancement as it will make teacher in the position of someone whofeed an babyflesh which they can’t eat, digest or benefit from, or someone who give a strong man human milk, which he has grew beyond it.He strongly supported getting things in its completion as he described it as complete experiencing of matter , but he strongly condemns hearing to music prior to where it usually sung i.e. night clubs were wine is served. Only kind of singing that is allowed in the religion is song that venerates it s heroes and creates a sense of pride and being energized as well as inspiring him to spend much time for performing religious rituals. However, an over usage of music and singing should be discouraged: as with medicine, they should be taken only in prescribed doses. The same law comes to dance too as it pose desires in the human mind as well as leading him to sinful actions. With regard to poetry, Al-Ghazzali urges them to control their time spending in the field and use it in useful manner, even if thecomposition or recitation of verses is not restricted.

Thus, he takes a strong position about art and divides it into three types, licit, reprehensible and forbidden. The licit arts are works that is related to religion and sow seeds of passion towards it. Arts intended for pleasure or entertainment is forbidden or guilty in his view. In any case, he pays scant attention to the arts or artistic education. And for sure we will conclude him as a destroyer of art if we are not ready to understand the criteria and laws used by him for restricting it.

Concept of Knowledge and Methods of Classification After creating a full understanding on each subjects and sciences of his era he tried to consider relevance of each science and classify them according to it. According to Al-Ghazzali, true knowledge is knowledge about God, His divine books and His prophets as well as everything that is necessary to live according to Sharia as revealed by prophet to us. He always explicated about importance of gaining expertise in religious laws deducted by Sharia and Prophetic tradition. Muslim philosophers and educationists had a special passion in classifying knowledge by various means being influenced by Greek philosophers especially Aristotle in the style. Al-Ghazzali and many of philosophers from Islamic world like Al-Kindi, AlFarabi, Ibn-Sena and Ibn-Nadeem also classified the knowledge considering different factors as the mean of the action.

Classification of Sciences Imam Al-Ghazzali classifies the sciences in accordance with their origin and nature of the subject. He classifies them according to their 

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Nature o Theoretical sciences ( Theological and Religious sciences) o Practical ( Ethics, Economics and politics) Origin o Revealed sciences taken from Prophetic teachings(Unity of God, Exegesis, Rites and customs, morality) o Rational sciences produced and functioned by human reason and thought (mathematics, natural sciences, logic etc.)

There is no contradiction between revealed and rational sciences according to Imam Al-Ghazzali. Any apparent conflict is occurred then it means that there are some misconceptions from the side of seeker in attaining truth by his faulty understandings of reality from revealed law and judgement of reason. In fact both are indispensable to each other and complementary for perfect understanding and utilization of both sciences. There is a rising problem that one who takes one of these thinks other as wild and stupid type; it seems to be occurred by separate paths prescribed by both in their functions. One

who could get expertise in both will be successful in both paths and will be moving ahead as a polymath. The Islamic educational system was divided into two distinct levels: elementary schooling was completed by activities of Kuttab among common people, and by eloquence men in private houses for children from high class families; higher education was given in many cultural centres like Mosques, hospices, House of Wisdom and Sciences etc.The elementary education goes around topics like learning Quran and prophetic traditions, fundamentals of religion and theological concepts, but, in most cases there are special facilities to study and understand rhetoric, grammar, and many basic about arithmetic as well as what influences pupils character from being moral and committed to society both in mood and behaviour. In the beginning period of Islam, what taught in higher schools were also Tafsir, Hadeeth, Kalam etc. And many religious narratives formed as a part of some religious sciences like prophet’s military campaigns as well as rhetoric, literature and composition. As Islamic civilization got mingled with Greek sciences like philosophy and sciences, new educational curriculum was reformed as inclusive of religious sciences and human sciences like Logic, Mathematics, Rhetoric, Epistemology etc. Gradually, science got more prominence than philosophy as it acquired itself as a defining distinction for transformation of society and culture into a great civilization, but, philosophy was widely taught very commonly in independent educational centres. Criterion used by Imam Al-Ghazzali to differentiate between religious science and giving relevance was usefulness of knowledge to him and society. Then religious sciences are given prominence because it is what deals with starting close relation to God and his praise than knowledge that helps us in the world. That doesn’t mean that Islam discouraged and banned sciences in the curriculum but termed it as what simplifying the understanding about world and everything as it can be used as a proving element to existence of religious sciences. Al-Ghazzali distinguishes hi view about each science that is commonly chosen by students in that period as follows: 

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Knowledge that is praiseworthy if it is present in the student despite of amount of his expertise in the field (Knowledge about God, His attributes, His Actions the law and wisdom that he have developed about sustenance and hereafter life. Knowledge that is restricted whether it is present in small or large amounts (Like Astrology, Magic etc.). Knowledge that is praiseworthy when it is achieved to a certain extent like Tafsir, Hadeeth, Fiqh, Kalam, Linguistics and grammar.

Al-Ghazali then divides each branch of knowledge into three levels: elementary, intermediate and advanced (primary, secondary and higher), and he lists thebooks which may be studied at each level of the various sciences and subjects of study. According ti Imam Al-Ghazzali education is not process where teacher expresses all his knowledge about subject and student will be in a case where he can’t get it just understand it partially. it is a process where interaction takes place between teacher and pupil as both will be benefitting from the process as student can catch the thought completely and teacher gets some acquisition with what he has been teaching pupils. For him, teacher is not destined to act as a mere medium or helper of student to access with this knowledge but he has to be an example and model in the field before pupils. His job is not concentrated as a mere performer before the student but he has to co-ordinate development of student in every aspects of personality and morality. In turn, student is expected and ordered to see the master as his father and to deal with him with types of respect. Only education gets it value and effect when there are attempts to practice the ethics promoted by knowledge than just memorizing the knowledge and pasting it to students. he also promoted idea of proficiency learning in each subject than just learning it and move to another one, hence the teacher is expected not to enter another topic than just teaching something and move to another while pupil hasn’t mastered in the first subject , and to the concept of “Complementarity of Sciences” as teacher will do help the pupil in getting the subject along with its connections with other subjects to help student get overall meaning of everything he has studied and understood while reading. When it comes to religious perspective, Al-Ghazzali urges to memorize, by hearten and understand all principles before just understanding what is meant by sentence he has studied. A subsequent stage involves definite understanding,explanation and conscious practice. In these context too Imam Al-Ghazzali’s religious principles compelled the pupils memorize Quran as he can and fundamental principles of Islam before conviction.

Importance of Education To Al-Ghazzali, knowledge is what makeshuman closer to God and also enhances worldly respect,status of the individuals, self-respect and makes him to higher position. Al-Ghazzali classified the knowledge into two according its usefulness and such features. 

Useful Knowledge:- it is divided into two subdivisions

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Farz-i-Ain (Compulsory Knowledge): this type of knowledge is compulsory to all Muslims and it contains knowledge about Islam.

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Farz-e-Kifaya (Optional Knowledge): this type of knowledge is optional and studied according to will and interest of individual.

The study of first type is compulsory to every Muslim individuals because it is compulsory and latter is not compulsory and optional if there are sufficient people to serve the society from the field after getting expertise in the subject. 

Useless Knowledge: Although, if the acquiring of knowledge makes some troubles even to studying person someone makes his society in trouble like Magic, Astrology etc.

Code of Ethics Finally, he proposes a ‘code of ethics' whereby students should: 1. Ensure that they are spiritually pure before they undertake the quest for knowledge; 2. Divest themselves of their worldly possessions, detach themselves from hearth and home, and devote themselves to the search for knowledge and the pursuit of the hereafter; 3. Respect the rights of their teachers and behave in a civil manner towards them; 4. Beware, especially at the beginning of their studies, of paying too much attention to doctrinal controversies; 5. Master the fundamentals of the praiseworthy sciences (linguistics, tafsir, hadith, fiqhand kalam), and then specialize by studying one or more of those sciences in greater depth; 6. Choose useful subjects in which to specialize, especially those that are conducive to salvation in the hereafter; 7. Study each subject thoroughly before going on to another, bearing in mind the logical sequence and interconnectedness of the various disciplines; 8. Have as their main goal in their search for knowledge the cultivation and perfection of the innermost self in this world, and proximity to God in the hereafter, rather than the attainment of high office or the acquisition of wealth or fame.

Impact of Al-Ghazzali Al-Ghazali passed away at the age of fifty five (according to the Hegira calendar), after all his life never seemed to be as long to length of his contributions to Islamic World. He is rightly considered to be one of the most important and profound Islamic

thinkers, who was aptly called the ‘renovator of the 5th century H'. Al-Ghazali's influence may be witnessed by a number of factors, such as: 

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The profundity, comprehensiveness of his thought is well evident in almost his 50 works. His great works like Ihya-Uloom-u-Deen (Revival of Islamic Sciences), Tahafat-ul-Falasifa (the Incoherence of Philosophers), and Almunqid-min-a-Dhalal (Deliverance from Error). His ideas were most apt to his age and milieu. It seemed to be more conservative than being views that promote both renovation and change. Post Al-Ghazzali period was a period of stagnation and laziness in Islamic world. Even though, it has given birth to some great talents who are memorized in our periods. So, Al-Ghazzali remained as one of the influential personalities of Islamic world.

His influence on Islamic thought can be summarized as below: 1. He introduced several principles of logic and philosophy (despite his attacks on those subjects) into the disciplines of fiqh (Jurisprudence) and kalam (Theology). 2. He reconciled shari‘a (Religious law) and Sufi mysticism (the fuqaha' and the Sufis) and promoted spreading of Sufi brotherhoods in Islamic theory. 3. He made big contributions to philosophy and logic as it was getting little prominence in the period. The theory of education he has elaborated in his works is a complete elicits thought that compromises all factors that relate to education and rising up of child. From the 12th to 19th centuries CE (6th to the 13th centuries H), Islamic thinking on education was heavily influenced by AlGhazzali. Educators came after his period generally done anything other than just compiling and revieiwing his books by borrowing many of theories he has contributed and formulated for rewriting educational concept of Medieval Islamic Era. The done by AlZamuji titled as Ta‘lim-al-Muta‘allim-wa-Tariq-at-Ta‘allum [Teaching the Student the Method of Study] is actually compilation of theories by Imam Al-Ghazzali in his works like Ihya-Uloom-u-Deen and Meezan-al-Amal: This work, which is noted forits conciseness, simplicity of style and liveliness, was one of the most widely circulated books on education. The indirect influence of al-Ghazali is found in the writings of At-Tusi (died vol 1273; AH. 672), one of the foremost scholars of the Middle Ages, the author ofa vast and varied output of over 100 books on philosophy, logic, ethics, mathematics and astronomy. His most important works on education were Akhlaq-I Nasiri [Nasirean Ethics] (in Persian) and Adab al-Muta‘allimin [Rules of Conduct for Students]. In the former, he was influenced by IbnMiskawayh'sTahdhibal-Akhlaqwa-Tathir al-A‘raq [The

Refinement of Character and the Purification of Races] and Greek philosophy. The latter is merely a resumé of Az-Zarnuji'sTa‘lim, which in turn was influenced by al-Ghazali. Similarly, IbnJama‘a (died 1332; 733 H), the author of Tadhkirat as-Sami‘ wa-lMutakallim fi Adab al-‘Alimwa-l-Muta‘allim [Memorandum for the Pupil andMaster on the Rules of Conduct of the Scholar and Student] was directly influenced by al-Ghazali, as well as by Az-Zarnuji and At-Tusi, both of whomborrowed from al-Ghazali. He lived in Egypt, Palestine and Syria and worked variously as a teacher, preacher and judge. His book is noted for its simplicityand orderliness, and contains an abundance of hadith, and Prophetic sayings and stories. He deals in a traditional manner with themes that had becomefamiliar in Islamic education, such as the merit of knowledge and the rules of conduct for scholars, teachers and pupils. A chapter is devoted to the rules ofconduct for boarders at madaris (which had become widespread at that time), and a further chapter deals with the art of using books. The work by Ibn al-Hajj al-‘Abdari (died 1336 CE; 737 H), Madkhal ash-Shar‘ ash-Sharif [Introduction to the Sublime Revelation] is practically in the samemould as Ihya' ‘Ulum ad-Din, but reflects the great difference between the Islamic civilization of the 5th century H and that of the 8th century H. The authormentions al-Ghazali frequently, and appears to be well acquainted with his ideas and writings on both general topics and on education. In the 16th century CE (8th century H) we find IbnHajar al-Haitami, the author of Tahrir al-Maqal fi Adabwa-Ahkamwa-Fawa'idYahtajuilaihaMu'addibu-l-Atfal [The Liberation of Discourse on the Rules of Conduct and Moral Advantages Required by the Educators of Children], an Egyptian who studied andtaught at al-Azhar before moving to the vicinity of Mecca. His writings are typical of the thought and literature of the Ottoman era. He concentrates on teachingin katatib and the situation and statutes of school-teachers. He quotes al-Ghazali and refers to him frequently.Islamic (particularly Sunnite) educational thought followed the course mapped out by al-Ghazali and this influence has remained valid even after the influx ofWestern civilization and the emergence of a modern, contemporary Arab civilization.

Conclusion In spite of all the religious restrictions he promoted the religion as he can and always raged for creating a new world of educational access to students. There are many severe criticisms against his strong religious stands but researcher finds by it is occurred by incomplete or improper reading of his works. Researcher admits that he described every type of knowledge which is religiously not allowed as useless and reprehensible. Although, he strongly backed rational sciences and used it as a subordinate to religious sciences since it can be used as proof for religious theories in Theology, Jurisprudence and exegesis.

References 1. ‘Abdulkarim al-‘Uthman, Sirat al-Ghazaliwa-Aqwal al-Mutaqaddiminfihi. 2. Ad-Durra al-Fakhira fi Kashf ‘Ulum al-Akhira and Iljam al-‘Awamm ‘an ‘Ilm alKalam by Imam Al-Ghazzali 3. Othman, A. I. The Concept of Man in Islam in the Writings of Al-Ghazzali, Cairo, Dar Al-Maarif, 1960 4. M Smith. Al-Ghazali the Mystic, London, 1944. 5. M Watt. Muslim Intellectual: A Study of Al Ghazali. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 1963 6. Ihya' ‘Ulum ad-Din, in particular, vols. 3 and 4. 7. Al-Munqidh min ad-Dalal,

Prepared By: MurshidRahman Degree Second Year Darul Huda Islamic University [email protected]