The Alchemy of Happiness (Cosimo Classics) - Hardcover

Al-Ghazzali

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1616405015 ISBN 13: 9781616405014

Publisher: Cosimo Classics, 2010

Synopsis

One of the great works of mystical religious literature, the Kimiya-i-Sa'adaat strove to bring man closer to understanding God by helping him understand himself. These excerpts from that work, by a strikingly original thinker on Islam who lived and wrote in the 11th century, were first published in 1910. They serve as a potent reminder of how powerful an influence Al-Ghazzali had upon religious philosophers of the Middle Ages, both Christian and Islamic. With its wise and warmly humanistic outlook, this little book may well foster a new measure of understanding in the current philosophical battle between the religious traditions of East and West. Also available from Cosimo Classics: Field's Shadows Cast Before and Jewish Legends of the Middle Ages. ABU HAMED MUHAMMAD IBN MUHAMMAD AL-GHAZZALI (1058-1111)was a Persian Islamic philosopher, theologian, psychologist, and mystic, known today as one of the most famous Sunni scholars in history, sometimes cited as next-in-importance only to Muhammad. Born in Tus, Al-Ghazzali was a pioneer of methodic doubt; his work The Incoherence of Philosophers shifted early Islamic philosophy from metaphysics to the theory of occasionalism, an Islamic doctrine that states cause-and-effect is controlled by God. He also succeeded in bringing orthodox Islam in contact with Sufism. The author of more than 70 books on various subjects, his influence continues to stretch far and wide even today.

About this title

From the Publisher

Gazzali's own abridgement, in Persian, of his masterwork ‘The Revival of Religious Sciences’. This excellent English version is designed for the ordinary reader.

About the Author

Al-Ghazzali in Arabic or Ghazali in Persian and known as Algazelus or Algazel to the Western medieval world, was a Persian theologian, jurist, philosopher, and mystic. Al-Ghazali has been referred to by some historians as the single most influential Muslim after prophet Muhammad. Within Islamic civilization he is considered to be a Mujaddid or renewer of the faith, who, according to tradition, appears once every century to restore the faith of the community.His works were so highly acclaimed by his contemporaries that al-Ghazali was awarded the honorific title "Proof of Islam" (Hujjat al-Islam). Others have cited his opposition to certain strands of Islamic philosophy as a detriment to Islamic scientific progress, although he argued for the separation of philosophy and science.[20][page needed][21][better source needed] [22] Besides his work that successfully changed the course of Islamic philosophy—the early Islamic Neoplatonism that developed on the grounds of Hellenistic philosophy, for example, was so successfully criticised by al-Ghazali that it never recovered—he also brought the orthodox Islam of his time in close contact with Sufism. It became increasingly possible for individuals to combine orthodox theology (kalam) and Sufism, while adherents of both camps developed a sense of mutual appreciation that made sweeping condemnation of one by the other increasingly problematic.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cosimo Classics
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1616405015
• ISBN 13: 9781616405014
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 104