In this one day masterclass, we aim at introducing the life, works and ideas of Imam Al-Ghazali (450 AH/1058 CE-505 AH/1111 CE), one of the most important Muslim scholars of all times. His ideas, especially in the area of spirituality, continue to have a positive impact on the soul of the global Muslim communities and beyond. This virtual meeting of the hearts and minds will provide us with a serious opportunity to understand the nature of his oeuvre. The masterclass will be divided into two parts:

Part 1 will provide an overview of Imam Al-Ghazali’s milieu, the interconnectedness between his life, work and ideas, as evident in his biographic work Al-Munqidh min al-Dalal (Deliverance from Error).

Part 2 will focus on the major aspects of Imam Al-Ghazali’s contribution to the various Islamic sciences and spirituality by reading and analyzing selected passages from a few of his works, with focus on his most celebrated work, Ihya Ulum al-Din (The Revival of the Religious Sciences).

Themes to be explored include:

• Imam Al-Ghazali’s Life and Works
• Al-Ghazali's ntellectual and spiritual crisis while at the Nizamiyah College in Baghdad (Al-Munqidh min al-Dalal)
• Al-Ghazali and the Philosophers, the Batinites (i.e., Essoterics), and the Mutakallimun
• Why did Al-Ghazali write Ihya Ulum al-Din? 
• Overview of the forty books of the Ihya, with deeper examination of the books of prayer, almsgiving, fasting and pilgrimage
• Al-Ghazali’s Asharite Theology in Al-Risalah al-Qudsiyyah fi al-Aqa’id (The Jerusalem Epistle in [Islamic] Creed)