From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
IslamQA quotes Al-Ghazali who declared in
It is a common misconception that the Kimiya-yi sa'ādat is a rewrite of the Ihya'e Ulum-ed'Deen (The Revival of Religious Sciences). Ihya'e Ulum-ed'Deen was written by al-Ghazali after abandoning his duties as a professor due to a "spiritual crisis" which led him to live in seclusion for several years. It was composed in Arabic, and was an attempt to show ways in which the lives of a Sufi could be based on what is demanded by Islamic law.<ref>Watt, Montgomery. "Ghazali, /Abu /Hamed /Mohammad,ii,iii." Encyclopedia Iranica. 1-12. Print.</ref> There are definite parallels between Ihya'e Ulum-ed'Deen and Kimiya-yi sa'ādat, however the four introductory chapters of the Kimiya-yi sa'ādat contain relevant theological discussions that set the two apart. The Kimiya-yi sa'ādat is noticeably much shorter than the Ihya'e Ulum-ed'Deen, however in the original Persian introduction of the Kimiya-yi sa'ādat, Ghazālī explicitly states he wrote Kimiya-yi sa'ādat to mirror the essence of Ihya'e Ulum-ed'Deen and a few of his other theological writings; he wrote it in Persian so that it could reach a broader, popular audience in his homeland.<ref name=netton>Netton, Ian R. "(Untitled)." Rev. of The Alchemy of Happiness Translated by Claud Field. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Apr. 1993: 117-18. Print.</ref>
that of the "four branches" of philosophy (geometry and mathematics, logic, theology, and natural sciences), some of the natural sciences "go against shari’ah, Islam and truth", and that except for medicine, "there is no need for the study of nature".
|
Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ghazālī (c. 1058–1111), known as Al-Ghazali or Algazel to the Western medieval world, was a Muslim theologian, jurist, philosopher, and mystic of Persian descent.
His 11th century book titled The Incoherence of the Philosophers marks a major turn in Islamic epistemology. The encounter with skepticism led al-Ghazali to embrace a form of theological occasionalism, or the belief that all causal events and interactions are not the product of material conjunctions but rather the immediate and present Will of God.
See also