Hujjat al-Islam Imam Ghazali (d. 505) on Tasawwuf
“The Proof of Islam” Abu Hamid al-Tusi al-Ghazali, the Reviver of the Fifth Islamic century, scholar of usul al-fiqh, and author of the most well-known work on tasawwuf, Ihya’ `ulum al-din (The revival of the religious sciences). He says in his autobiography, al-Munqidh min al-dalal (Deliverance from error):
The Sufi path consists in cleansing the heart from whatever is other than Allah… I concluded that the Sufis are the seekers in Allah’s Way, and their conduct is the best conduct, and their way is the best way, and their manners are the most sanctified. They have cleaned their hearts from other than Allah and they have made them as pathways for rivers to run, carrying knowledge of Allah.1
As Ibn `Ajiba mentions in his Iqaz al-himam, al-Ghazali declared tasawwuf to be a fard `ayn or personal obligation upon every legally responsible Muslim man and woman, “as none but Prophets are devoid of internal defects and diseases.”2
1 al-Ghazali, al Munqidh min al dalal, p. 131.
2 Ibn `Ajiba, Iqaz al-himam p. 8.
Reproduced with permission from Shaykh M. Hisham Kabbani’sThe Repudiation of “Salafi” Innovations (Kazi, 1996) p. 320-321.
Blessings and Peace on the Prophet, his Family, and his Companions
