Aḥmad al-Ghazālī, Remembrance,

and the Metaphysics of Love

SU
N
Y

JOSEPH E.B. LUMBARD

20
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 1
2
3
4
5
Contents 6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Acknowledgments ix 13
14
Introduction 1 15
Why Study Aḥmad al-Ghazālī? 1 16
Studies on Aḥmad al-Ghazālī 8 17
The Goal of this Book 10 18
19
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20
21
N

Part I LIfe and HIstory

22
Y

Chapter 1 23
20

Sources for the Aḥmad al-Ghazālī Tradition 15 24

16

Works by Aḥmad al-Ghazālī 16 25

Primary Sources for al-Ghazālī’s Vita 26 26
Summary 47 27
28
Chapter 2 29
The Life and Times of Aḥmad al-Ghazālī 51 30
The Saljuqs 52 31
The Stages of Aḥmad al-Ghazālī’s Life 54 32
33
34
Part II PractIce and teacHIngs 35
36
Chapter 3 37
Aḥmad al-Ghazālī’s Spiritual Practice 79 38
Spiritual Practice 80 39
Summary of Practice 107 40
41
42

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 viii Contents

1 Chapter 4
2 The Roots of Aḥmad al-Ghazālī’s Teachings 109
3 Satanology 109
4 Love 112
5 Love in Sui Literature Before the 6th/12th Century 116
6 Summary 148
7
8 Chapter 5
9 Aḥmad al-Ghazālī’s Metaphysics of Love 151
10 Between Form and Meaning 152
11 The Oneness of Love 162
12 The Stages of the Path 174
13
14 Conclusion 185
15
16 Notes 189
17
18 Bibliography 233
SU

19
20 Index of Names and Terms 251
N

21
Y

22
20

23
24
16

25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
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35
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38
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 1
2
3
4
5
Introduction 6
7
8
9
10
11
12
The name al-Ghazālī rings through the annals of Islamic intellectual 13
history. Many who know little about the Islamic tradition have heard 14
of al-Ghazālī, and most whose professional lives are dedicated to the 15
study of Islam, especially its intellectual sciences, have encountered 16
this name in one form or another. For the vast majority, it is the 17
name of Imām Abū āmid Mu ammad b. Mu ammad al-Ghazālī d. 18
SU

505/1111 with which they are familiar. Imām Abū āmid al-Ghazālī 19
had an enduring in uence on philosophy, theology, and jurisprudence 20
N

that forever changed the course of these disciplines. Muslims of dif- 21

Y

ferent eras and varying ethnicities have seen in his writings the tools 22
20

for a revival of the basic piety of Muslim life.1 Given the extent of 23
his in uence, Abū āmid al-Ghazālī is arguably the most eminent 24
16

intellectual in Islamic history. All of the attention received by Imam 25

Abū āmid al-Ghazālī has, however, overshadowed the contributions 26
of his younger brother, Shaykh A mad b. Mu ammad al-Ghazālī d. 27
517/1123 or 520/1126 , who, as an in uential Sui Shaykh and impor- 28
tant igure in the early development of Persian Sui literature, is more 29
renowned for his spiritual attainment and instruction than for his 30
achievements in the religious sciences. 31
32
33
Why Study A mad al-Ghazālī? 34
35
A mad al-Ghazālī’s Saw ni Inspirations is one of the earliest extant 36
Persian treatises to be written on Suism, preceded only by the Shar -iā 37
ta arrufā li-madhhab-iā taṣawwuf Explanation of the Introduction to the 38
Sui Way of Ismā īl b. Mu ammad al-Mustamlī d. 434/1042 3 , the 39
Kashfāal-ma jūb Unveiling of the Veiled of Alī b. Uthmān al-Hujwīrī 40
d. 465/1073 or 469/1077 , and several works of Khwājah Abdallāh 41
42

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 2 A mad al-Ghazālī, Remembrance, and the Metaphysics of Love

1 An ārī d. 481/1089 . There is clear evidence that Suism was dis-

2 cussed extensively in Persian before these treatises. Many scholars
3 whose native tongue was Persian, such as Abū Abd ar-Ra mān
4 as-Sulamī d. 412/1021 , Abū Sa īd b. Abi’l-Khayr d. 440/1049 , and
5 Abu’l- āsim al- ushayrī d. 465/1072 , were among the most in u-
6 ential Suis before A mad al-Ghazālī. But just as Arabic was at this
7 time the only language in which Islamic law and theology were pre-
8 sented, so too did it dominate the textual presentation of Suism. It
9 was, however, only a matter of time before the Persians availed them-
10 selves of the natural poetic nature of their language to express the
11 subtlest of Islamic teachings. As William Chittick observes, “Persian
12 pulls God’s beauty into the world on the wings of angels. Persian
13 poetry, which began its great owering in the eleventh century, shines
14 forth with this angelic presence.”2 Along with Abdallāh An ārī a
15 generation earlier, and his younger contemporaries Sanā ī of Ghaznah
16 d. 525/1131 , A mad b. Man ūr as-Sam ānī d. 534/1140 ,ā author of
17 Raw ā al-arw ā fīā shar ā asm ā al-malikā al-fatt The Repose of Spirits
18 Regarding the Exposition of the Names of the Conquering King ,
and Rashīd ad-Dīn al-Maybudī l. sixth/twelfth century , author of
SU

19
20 the ten-volume uran commentary, Kashfā al-asr rā waā uddatā al-abr r
The Unveiling of Secrets and the Provision of the Pious , A mad
N

21
al-Ghazālī stands at the forefront of the Persian Sui tradition.
Y

22
Written in the irst decade of the sixth Islamic century, the
20

23
24 Saw ni is the irst recorded treatise in the history of Islam to pres-
16

25 ent a full metaphysics of love, in which love is seen as the ultimate

26 reality from which all else derives and all that derives from it is
27 seen as an intricate play between lover and beloved, who are them-
28 selves laid to naught before love.3 For this reason, Leonard Lewisohn
29 refers to the Saw ni as “the founding text of the School of Love in
30 Suism and the tradition of love poetry in Persian,”4 and Leili Anvar
31 a rms that the Saw ni is “justly considered as the founding text
32 of the School of Love in Suism and the tradition of love poetry in
33 Persian.”5 The centrality of love for the Sui way was in many ways
34 inaugurated a generation before al-Ghazālī in the works of Abdallāh
35 An ārī, 42ā Chapters Chihil u du fa l , Intimateā Discourses Munājāt ,
36 and Treatiseā onā Loveā Ma abbat-nāma . Nonetheless, the manner in
37 which love can also be envisioned as the ultimate origin of all that
38 exists is stated more directly in the Saw ni .6 While the precise origins
39 of this complete metaphysics of love may never be known, what is
40 clear is that A mad al-Ghazālī was among the generation of authors
41 who inaugurated the Persian Sui literary tradition as we know it
42 today. As such leading scholars of this tradition continue to declare,

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 Introduction 3

A mad al-Ghazālī is “one of the greatest expositors in Islam of the 1

meaning of love.”7 2
3
Initiaticā Inluence 4
5
In addition to his literary in uence, A mad al-Ghazālī is said to 6
have received many disciples among those mentioned are in uential 7
political igures such as the Saljūq leader Mughīt ad-Dīn al-Ma mūd 8
r. 511 525/1118 1131 , who ruled Iraq and western Persia, and his 9
brother A mad Sanjar r. 513 552/1119 1157 , who ruled Khurāsān 10
and northern Persia. But A mad al-Ghazālī’s in uence as a Sui 11
shaykh is more important for the initiatic chains silsilahs of the 12
Sui orders. As regards the initiatic history of Suism, Shaykh iyā 13
ad-Dīn Abu’n-Najīb as-Suhrawardī d. 563/1186 is his most impor- 14
tant disciple.8 It is not known just how much contact al-Ghazālī had 15
with as-Suhrawardī, but it appears that al-Ghazālī held him in high 16
regard and appointed him as his representative khalīfah while they 17
were together in I fahān.9 Abu’n-Najīb’s most famous disciple is his 18
nephew Abū af Umar as-Suhrawardī d. 632/1234 , author of the 19
SU

famous Aw rifā al-ma rif Gifts of the Gnostics , which is employed 20

N

as a manual of Sui practice to this day, and the founder of the 21

Y

Suhrawardiyyah Sui order, which spread throughout the Muslim 22

world.10 The Suhrawardiyyah gave rise to other orders such as the 23
20

ayniyyah, which spread throughout the Ottoman Empire among 24

16

other places and still exists in Turkey. Along with the Chishtiyyah, 25
Naqshbandiyyah, and ādiriyyah, the Suhrawardiyyah is one of the 26
most in uential orders in the history of India and Pakistan.11 While 27
it has died out in most parts of the Arab world, the Suhrawardiyyah 28
is still active in Iraq and Syria.12 29
Three of Abu’n-Najīb as-Suhrawardī’s disciples, Ismā īl al- a rī 30
d. 589/1193 , Ammār b. Yāsir al-Bidlīsī d. 582/1186 , and Rūzbihān 31
al-Wazzān al-Mi rī d. 584/1188 , are said to have collaborated in the 32
spiritual development of the eponymous founder of the Kubrāwiyyah 33
Sui order, Najm ad-Dīn Kubrā d. 618/1221 .13 This order spread 34
throughout the region of Khwārazm into Persia, Afghanistan, India, 35
and China. The Kubrāwiyyah still exists with kh nq hs in present day 36
Iran, though its in uence has diminished substantially. Among the 37
Sui orders that issued from the Kubrāwiyyah are the Firdawsiyyah, 38
the Hamadāniyyah, and the Ya qūbiyyah, all of which still exist in 39
India, as well as the Dhahabiyyah in Iran.14 40
Among the later luminaries of the Kubrāwiyyah are such ig- 41
ures as Najm ad-Dīn Dāya Rāzī d. 654/1256 , who either revised 42

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 4 A mad al-Ghazālī, Remembrance, and the Metaphysics of Love

1 or extended Kubrā’s uran commentary, Aynā al- ay t The Spring

2 of Life ,15 which goes to the seventeenth and eighteenth verses of
3 Sūrah 51 adh-Dh riy t under the title of Ba rā al- aq iq The Ocean
4 of Realities . Rāzī also wrote Mirṣ dā al- ib dā minā al-mabda ā ila’l-ma d
5 The Path of God’s Bondsmen from the Beginning to the Return ,
6 an in uential Persian Sui treatise that is still in use both in Iran
7 and India as a guide for Sui adepts.16 The Aynā al- ay t was later
8 completed from Sūrah 52 a - ur) under the title Najmāal-Qur n The
9 Star of the uran by another renowned shaykh of the Kubrāwiyyah
10 order,17 Alā ad-Dawlah as-Simnānī d. 736/1336 , who had many
11 disciples in his kh nq h outside of Simnān, two hundred kilometers
12 east of Tehran, and is known for opposing Ibn al- Arabī’s doctrine of
13 the oneness of being wa datā al-wujūd and proposing a perspective
14 in which is found the germ of the oneness of witnessing wa datāash-
15 shuhūd ,18 which later became prevalent among the Mujaddidī branch
16 of the Naqshbandiyyah Sui order.19
17 Another disciple of A mad al-Ghazālī who is important for the
18 initiatic history of Suism is Abu’l-Fa l al-Baghdādī d. 550/1155 . One
silsilah of the Ni matallāhī order founded by Shāh Ni mat Allāh Walī
SU

19
20 d. 834/1331 comes seven generations through al-Baghdādī.20 This
order has had great in uence in Turkey and continues to have new
N

21
waves of in uence in the growing Muslim communities of Europe
Y

22
and America. Although the historical validity of this silsilah cannot be
20

23
24 substantiated, it nonetheless demonstrates that later adherents of the
16

25 Ni matallāhī order recognized the spiritual authority of both A mad

26 al-Ghazālī and al-Baghdādī.
27 The only silsilah given by Shams ad-Dīn A ākī d. 761/1360
28 in his Man qibā al- rifīn The Feats of the Knowers of God for the
29 Mavlavī Sui order founded by Jalāl ad-Dīn Rūmī d. 672/1123
30 records A mad al-Ghazālī as the shaykh of A mad Khā ibī al-Balkhī
31 d. 516/1123 , upon whom he conferred the practice of remembrance
32 dhikr . Balkhī in turn conferred the dhikr upon Shams al-A imma
33 as-Sarakhsī d. 571/1175 , who was the Shaykh of Rūmī’s father, Ba ā
34 ad-Dīn Walad d. 628/1231 . Burhān ad-Dīn at-Tirmidhī d. 638/1240
35 was then the next Shaykh in this line, and was followed by Jalāl
36 ad-Dīn Rūmī.21 That later followers of the Mavlavī order recognized
37 A mad al-Ghazālī’s spiritual authority is demonstrated by a passage
38 attributed to Jalāl ad-Dīn Rūmī
39
40 Imām Mu ammad Ghazālī, may God have mercy on him,
41 has dived into the ocean of the universe, attained to a world
42 of dominion, and unfurled the banner of knowledge. The

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 Introduction 5

whole world follows him and he has become a scholar of 1

all the worlds. Still . . . If he had one iota of love ishq like 2
A mad Ghazālī, it would have been better, and he would 3
have made known the secret of Mu ammadan intimacy the 4
way A mad did. In the whole world, there is no teacher, 5
no spiritual guide, and no uniier like love.22 6
7
Despite the presence of A mad al-Ghazālī in Rūmī’s silsilah and 8
the respect he is accorded, he does not appear to have been as much 9
of a direct literary in uence upon Rūmī as was akīm Sanā ī, whose 10
adīqatā al- aqīqah Garden of Reality was the prototype for Rūmī’s 11
Mathnawī. A ākī reports that Rūmī said of the adīqatāal- aqīqah, “By 12
God this is more binding than the uran because the outer form of 13
the Koran is analogous to yoghurt, whereas these higher contents are 14
its butter and cream.”23 Of the spiritual e cacy of Sanā ī’s writings, 15
A ākī reports that Rūmī said, “Whoever reads the words of Sanā ī 16
in absolute earnestness will become cognizant of the secret of the 17
radiance san of our words.”24 Whereas A mad al-Ghazālī Saw ni 18
has had an extensive literary in uence and he is accorded initiatic
SU

19
in uence through several Sui orders uruq , Sanā ī’s in uence has 20
come only through his writings.
N

21
Y

22
Literaryā Inluence
20

23
24
16

Given the importance of Sanā ī and the still unexamined in uence 25

of igures such as Sam ānī and Maybudī, the importance of A mad 26
al-Ghazālī’s Saw ni for the history of Persian literature is a matter 27
of debate. Like his younger contemporaries Sam ānī and Maybudī, 28
he receives almost no mention in either Jan Rypka’s Historyā ofā Iranianā 29
Literature or in E.G. Browne’s Aā Literaryā Historyā ofā Persia.25 This omis- 30
sion stands in stark contrast to Nasrollah Pourjavady’s assertion that 31
“the greatest Iranian Suis and gnostics after him came under the in u- 32
ence of the special teaching which appeared from his beliefs about love 33
ishq and his manner of expression.”26 Although it might be more 34
accurate to say that A mad al-Ghazālī was a pivotal igure among a 35
generation of authors that forever changed the course of Persian Sui 36
literature, he nonetheless forms a crucial link in what some scholars 37
have called “the path of love” or “the school of love.” This “school” is 38
not a direct succession of Sui initiates marked by a deinitive spiritual 39
genealogy like the Sui orders arīqahs discussed above, but rather 40
designates a signiicant trend within Sui thought in which all aspects 41
of creation and spiritual aspiration are presented in an allusive imaginal 42

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 6 A mad al-Ghazālī, Remembrance, and the Metaphysics of Love

1 language ired by love for God. As Omid Sai observes, “The Path of
2 Love may be described as a loosely a liated group of Sui mystics and
3 poets who throughout the centuries have propagated a highly nuanced
4 teaching focused on passionate love ishq .”27 Abdallāh An ārī, A mad
5 al-Ghazālī, A mad Sam ānī, akīm Sanā ī, and Maybudī are among
6 the irst to have written in this vein.
7 The most direct evidence of A mad al-Ghazālī’s literary in u-
8 ence can be found in the commentaries on the Saw ni written in
9 both Persia and India, as well as the many extant manuscripts of
10 the Saw ni .28 His theory of love that presents all the stages of the
11 spiritual path as an interplay between love, the lover, and the beloved
12 became central to Persian Suism in later generations, while his liter-
13 ary style, blending poetry and prose in one seamless narrative, was
14 employed in many later Sui treatises. Given the degree to which
15 A mad al-Ghazālī’s literary style and teachings are re ected in later
16 Suism, his in uence must be reconsidered. It is, however, a subject
17 that can be done justice only through extensive comparative textual
18 analysis of the entire Persian Sui tradition. Here I will touch on some
of the most important traces.
SU

19
20 As the goal of al-Ghazālī’s writings is to facilitate traveling the
spiritual path, his literary in uence is intrinsically bound to his per-
N

21
ceived spiritual and initiatic in uence. All of his extant Persian writ-
Y

22
ings are in fact addressed to his disciples. He never writes as a scholar
20

23
24 of love or as a theoretician attempting to dissect love with the rational
16

25 faculties rather, his is an attempt to guide and encourage others who

26 are on the path, helping them realize the Ultimate Reality that he
27 considers to be inexpressible. The irst traces of A mad al-Ghazālī’s
28 literary in uence are found in the works of his disciple Ayn al- u āt
29 Hamadānī d. 526/1131 , to whom al-Ghazālī addressed his Persian
30 treatise Ayniyyah and perhaps nine other letters.29 Hamadānī’s let-
31 ters and his Tamhīd t take up many of the same themes expressed in
32 al-Ghazālī’s writings, such as the sincerity of Satan, the limitations
33 of religious law, and the all-encompassing nature of Love. In many
34 instances, the Tamhīd t can be read as a commentary that expands
35 on the central themes of the Saw ni . In particular, the sixth chap-
36 ter, “The Reality and States of Love,” examines both the written and
37 unexpressed dimensions of al-Ghazālī’s teachings.30 The Tamhīd t has
38 had an extensive in uence on the Persian and Indian Sui traditions
39 and has been the subject of several commentaries.31 Ayn al- u āt
40 instructed many students, teaching seven or eight sessions a day, and
41 had many disciples,32 but he is not recorded in any major silsilahs.
42

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 Introduction 7

In addition to his in uence on Ayn al- u āt, al-Ghazālī likely 1

had a continued in uence on the aforementioned writings of both 2
the Kubrāwiyyah and Suhrawardiyyah orders. Among those whom 3
Pourjavady mentions are Abu’n-Najīb as-Suhrawardī and Abū af 4
Umar as-Suhrawardī, as well as Najm ad-Dīn Rāzī. But such in u- 5
ence is not as evident as that which he had on the writings of Farīd 6
ad-Dīn A ār d. 617/1220 and Fakhr ad-Dīn Irāqī d. 688/1289 . The 7
latter’s Lama t Divine Flashes is indebted to al-Ghazālī’s Saw ni 8
for both its style and content. Irāqī expresses a subtle metaphysics 9
that gives an intellectual architecture to the question of love in Sui 10
thought. As Irāqī writes in the beginning of the Lama t, it is intended 11
to be “a few words explaining the levels of love in the tradition of the 12
Saw ni , in tune with the voice of each spiritual state as it passes.”33 13
Like al-Ghazālī, Irāqī bases the entirety of his metaphysical discourse 14
on the idea that “the derivation of the lover and the beloved is from 15
Love,”34 and sees all of reality as an unfolding of Love wherein none 16
but Love is the lover or the beloved. Like al-Ghazālī’s Saw ni , Irāqī’s 17
Lama t is both a work of art and a sublime metaphysical treatise. 18
The Lama t continues to be regarded as a treasure of Persian Suism,
SU

19
and Abd ar-Ra mān Jāmī’s d. 833/1477 commentary on it, Ashi atā 20
al-Lama t Rays of the Flashes , is still used as an introductory text
N

21
for the study of the science of irf n recognition in Iran.35
Y

22
A mad al-Ghazālī’s Dast n-iā Murgh n Ar. Ris latā a - ayr The
20

23
Treatise of the Birds most likely provided the outline for A ār’s 24
16

famous Man iqā a - ayr The Conference of the Birds .36 Both works 25
begin with a gathering of the birds, which, despite their di erences, 26
recognize their mutual need for a sovereign and set out to ind Him 27
for, as the birds say in Dast n-iāMurgh n, “If the shadow of the King’s 28
majesty is not upon our heads, we will not be secure from the ene- 29
my.”37 Both works describe a journey of many trials by which the birds 30
ind their sovereign, the Simurgh. But being of much greater breadth, 31
A ār’s Man iqā a - ayr deals with the theme of spiritual wayfaring in 32
greater detail. As Seyyed Hossein Nasr writes 33
34
He A ār uses the Ghazzalean theme of su ering through 35
which the birds are inally able to enter the court of the 36
celestial King. But he passes beyond that stage through the 37
highest initiatic station whereby the self becomes annihilated 38
and rises in subsistence in the Self, whereby each bird is 39
able to realize who he is and inally to know him-Self, for 40
did not the Blessed Prophet state, “He who knows himself 41
42

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 8 A mad al-Ghazālī, Remembrance, and the Metaphysics of Love

1 knows his Lord”? In gaining a vision of the Simurgh, the

2 birds not only encounter the beauty of Her Presence, but
3 also see themselves as they really are, mirrored in the Self
4 which is the Self of every Self.38
5
6 Like Rūmī, Irāqī and A ār are both said to have received
7 initiations that owed from the initiatic chains attributed to A mad
8 al-Ghazālī’s disciples. A ār was a disciple of Majd ad-Dīn al-Baghdādī
9 d. 616/1219 ,39 a disciple of Najm ad-Dīn Kubrā,40 and Irāqī was a
10 close disciple of Bahā ad-Dīn akariyyā d. 659/1262 , a disciple of
11 Abū af Umar as-Suhrawardī.41
12 As Persian was the language of discourse for educated Muslims
13 in India until the colonial period, the in uence of the Persian masters
14 of love in the subcontinent has been extensive. Among the many
15 masters who are indebted to A mad al-Ghazālī and his pupil Ayn
16 al- u āt are Ni ām ad-Dīn Awliyā d. 1325 , Na īr ad-Dīn Chirāgh-i
17 Dihlī d. 757/1356 , Burhān ad-Dīn Gharīb d. 738/1337 , Rukn ad-Dīn
18 Kāshānī d. after 738/1337 , and Gīsū Darāz d. 825/1422 ,42 the last
of whom is reported to have taught the Saw ni and to have com-
SU

19
20 pared his own treatise, ẓ irā al-Quds, to it.43 When the Sui poet,
musician, and scholar Amir Khusraw d. 1325 catalogued the nine
N

21
literary styles of his day, the irst that he listed was the style of the
Y

22
Suis, for which he names two varieties. The irst variety is that of
20

23
24 “the people of gravity and stations,” and the second variety is that
16

25 of “the people of states,” for which he gives the works of A mad

26 Ghazālī and Ayn al- u āt Hamadānī as examples.44 In addition, the
27 Mughal prince Dara Shikuh d. 1659 states that his treatise aqqā
28 num should explain all of the wisdom from the great writings on
29 the subject, among which he lists the Saw ni , Ibn al- Arabī’s Fuṣūsā
30 al- ikamāand Futu tāal-Makiyyah, Irāqī’s Lama t, and Jāmī’s Law mi
31 and Law ih.45 Such references demonstrate the high regard in which
32 the Saw ni was held in the Indian subcontinent. Nonetheless, despite
33 the respect accorded to the Saw ni , the Tamhīd t of Ayn al- u āt
34 played a more prominent role in Indian Suism.46
35
36
37 Studies on A mad al-Ghazālī
38
39 Despite A mad al-Ghazālī’s extensive in uence, little information
40 was available in the scholarly literature until 1979. This oversight
41 was amended by the appearance of three monographs in Persian
42 Majmū eh-yeā th r-iā f rsī-yeā A madā Ghaz lī Compendium of the

SP_LUM_INT_001-012.indd 8 3/14/16 9:08 AM

 Introduction 9

Persian Works of A mad Ghazālī by A mad Mujāhid, Sul n-iā arīq t 1

The Master of Sui Paths by Nasrollah Pourjavady, both in 1979, 2
and y t-iā usnā va- ishq Signs of Beauty and Love ā by Hishmatallāh 3
Riyā ī in 1989.47 The studies by Mujāhid and Pourjavady made solid 4
contributions to the study of Persian Suism in general and of A mad 5
al-Ghazālī in particular. Mujāhid presented critical editions of all the 6
extant Persian writings attributed to A mad al-Ghazālī. His exten- 7
sive introduction documents the majority of the available resources 8
for the life and work of A mad al-Ghazālī and thus proves to be an 9
invaluable resource. But Mujāhid provides no analysis of either the 10
literary works or of the historical information. For this one must look 11
to Pourjavady, who provides a biography of A mad al-Ghazālī and 12
then examines his teachings. Pourjavady’s insightful study does not, 13
however, analyze the historical accuracy of the available biographical 14
information, and his examination of A mad al-Ghazālī’s teachings 15
includes Ba rā al- aqīqah The Ocean of Realities and Baw riqā al-ilm ā 16
fī’r-raddā al āmanāyu arrimu’s-sam ābi’l-ijm Glimmers of Allusion in 17
Response to Those who Forbid Sui Music ,48 works whose attribution 18
to A mad al-Ghazālī has since been disproven. As Pourjavady himself
SU

19
has observed, this signiicantly undermines the value of the analyses in 20
Sul n-iā arīq t.49 Riyā ī’s study shows a great appreciation for A mad
N

21
al-Ghazālī, but seems to borrow from Mujāhid and Pourjavady more
Y

22
than build on them. The works of Mujāhid and Pourjavady provide
20

23
a solid foundation for studies of A mad al-Ghazālī, and this study 24
16

is greatly indebted to them. 25

A mad al-Ghazālī’s introduction to Western audiences came in 26
1936 through James Robson’s translation of Baw riqāal-ilm , a treatise 27
that defends the use of music in Sui gatherings and provides guid- 28
ance for its implementation. As will be demonstrated in Chapter 1, 29
the attribution of this text to A mad al-Ghazālī is erroneous. Many 30
scholars still believe him to be the author of this work and thus count 31
him among the chief defenders of Sui music sam . The inclusion 32
of this text in his oeuvre has led to misunderstandings about A mad 33
al-Ghazālī that persist to this day.50 34
Aside from a minor article by Helmut Ritter in the Encyclopaediaāofā 35
Islam,51 it was not until almost forty years later that A mad al-Ghazālī 36
was reintroduced to Western audiences through the translation of his 37
Saw ni into German by Richard Gramlich.52 The Saw ni was trans- 38
lated into German a second time by Gisela Wendt two years later.53 It 39
was then introduced to the English-speaking public through a transla- 40
tion by Nasrollah Pourjavady published in 1986.54 A mad al-Ghazālī’s 41
most substantial Arabic treatise, at-Tajrīdā fīā kalimatā at-taw īd Abstract 42

SP_LUM_INT_001-012.indd 9 3/14/16 9:08 AM

 10 A mad al-Ghazālī, Remembrance, and the Metaphysics of Love

1 Regarding the Expression of Testifying to Unity , was translated into

2 German by Gramlich in 1983 and into French by Muhammad ad-
3 Dahbi in 1995.55 Only the translations of the Saw ni by Gramlich
4 and Pourjavady provide substantial introductory material, but neither
5 is intended to be comprehensive. Pourjavady also provides a brief
6 insightful commentary for the Saw ni to accompany his translation.
7
8
9 The Goal of this Book
10
11 This study provides the irst full examination of the life and work of
12 A mad al-Ghazālī in any European language. It builds on the foun-
13 dations established by Mujāhid and Pourjavady, but adds to their
14 invaluable contributions by fully ascertaining the authenticity of
15 works attributed to A mad al-Ghazālī and critically evaluating the
16 biographical literature regarding him. The irst chapter provides an
17 extensive analysis of all extant primary-source material on A mad
18 al-Ghazālī. It examines the Arabic and Persian sources for his life and
teachings, both the works attributed to him and the writings about
SU

19
20 him in the extensive Islamic biographical tradition. The authenticity
of works attributed to him is examined. Then the biographical tradi-
N

21
tions are evaluated to see which authors provide new material, which
Y

22
authors borrow from previous authors, what are the dominant ideo-
20

23
24 logical trends in the biographical presentation of A mad al-Ghazālī,
16

25 and how these trends change over time, moving from biography to
26 hagiography. Examined in this light, many of the accounts regarding
27 A mad al-Ghazālī appear to be hagiographical embellishments that
28 developed over time. When one accounts for the sources, motiva-
29 tions, and historicity of these accounts, almost one hundred pages
30 of extant biographical material boils down to less than two pages of
31 raw historical data.
32 Chapter 2 draws on the biographical sources and other primary
33 historical sources to reconstruct the life and times of A mad al-Ghazālī
34 in the early Saljuq period. The biographies of A mad al-Ghazālī in
35 and of themselves do not provide enough information to thorough-
36 ly reconstruct his life. But through an examination of the period in
37 which he lived and references to his brother’s life in the biographical
38 literature, we can gain important insights into this period of Saljuq
39 history and the nature of his position within it. This was a period
40 of great intellectual fervor in all of the Islamic sciences. Abū āmid
41 al-Ghazālī came to be a central igure in several substantial develop-
42 ments in jurisprudence iqh and theology kal m . His intellectual

SP_LUM_INT_001-012.indd 10 3/14/16 9:08 AM

 Introduction 11

gifts brought him favor in the court, and he advanced to the highest 1
academic position in the land as the head of the Ni āmiyyah madrasah 2
college . A mad al-Ghazālī also found favor at court. He too was 3
actively engaged in many di erent aspects of the thriving intellectual 4
culture of the era and also attained a high degree of proiciency in 5
iqh and kal m. But from an early age, his primary focus was Suism. 6
The central focus of A mad al-Ghazālī’s life and teachings is 7
the Sui path, and he spent all of his adult life engaged in devotional 8
and spiritual exercises. Nonetheless, this aspect of his teachings has 9
not been discussed in any of the secondary literature devoted to him. 10
Chapter 3 endeavors to reconstruct this practice. A mad al-Ghazālī 11
did not provide any explicit Sui manuals in the manner of some of 12
his spiritual descendants. Nonetheless, his Arabic treatise at-Tajrīdā fīā 13
kalimatā at-taw id provides an extended discussion that portrays the 14
spiritual path as various stages and degrees of remembrance and 15
discusses the process whereby one becomes ever more immersed in 16
dhikr, remembrance or invocation. For al-Ghazālī, as for most Suis 17
before and after him, dhikr is the central axis of Sui life and practice. 18
He envisions three way stations for the spiritual traveler the irst is
SU

19
the world of annihilation fan wherein one’s blameworthy attri- 20
butes predominate and one should invoke “No god, but God.” The
N

21
second way station is the world of attraction jadhabiyyah wherein
Y

22
one’s praiseworthy attributes predominate and one should invoke the
20

23
name All h. In the third way station, the world of possession qabḍ , 24
16

praiseworthy attributes have vanquished blameworthy attributes and 25

one invokes Huwa,āHuwa He, He , subsisting in God alone. This chap- 26
ter also draws on al-Ghazālī’s occasional advice scattered throughout 27
his writings and sessions maj lis , as well as the works of his con- 28
temporaries and his spiritual descendants in order to esh out the 29
nature of his spiritual practice. The majority of his extant writings 30
appear to come from the later period of his life when he was already 31
an established Sui shaykh, and the biographical tradition provides 32
only vague allusions to his spiritual practice. It is therefore di cult 33
to trace the development of these practices over time. But it is clear 34
that some form of supererogatory spiritual practice played a central 35
role in al-Ghazālī’s life from an early age. 36
The inal two chapters turn from the life and practice of A mad 37
al-Ghazālī to his central teachings, especially his understanding of 38
love ishq . After brie y examining his controversial teachings regard- 39
ing Satan, Chapter 4, “The Roots of al-Ghazālī’s Teachings” provides 40
an in-depth examination of the historical development of the Sui 41
understanding of love and the place of al-Ghazālī’s Saw ni within 42

SP_LUM_INT_001-012.indd 11 3/14/16 9:08 AM

 12 A mad al-Ghazālī, Remembrance, and the Metaphysics of Love

1 it. A broad examination of the various Sui teachings regarding love

2 before the Saw ni demonstrates that although traces of A mad
3 al-Ghazālī’s ideas regarding love can be found in the Sui tradition
4 preceding him, there is no text before the Saw ni that expresses a
5 full metaphysics of love in which all aspects of creation are presented
6 as manifestations of Love and all phases of spiritual wayfaring are
7 deined in relation to Love.
8 Chapter 5 delves into the ocean of A mad al-Ghazālī’s Saw ni .
9 In his writings and sermons, the Shaykh is always aware of the short-
10 comings inherent in language because a signiier can never be the
11 same as that which it signiies. This chapter thus begins by examin-
12 ing his attitude toward the medium he must use to convey his mes-
13 sage. It irst surveys his allusions to the relativity of language in the
14 Saw ni and in the recorded public sessions maj lis) that he held in
15 Baghdad. Then it discusses his relation to the secular literary tradi-
16 tion, particularly the udhrīā ghazal longing love and the khamriyyahā
17 wine traditions, arguing that, like many Suis before and after him,
18 A mad al-Ghazālī borrowed themes from these traditions but trans-
ferred them to a Sui context. This is followed by a brief examination
SU

19
20 of A mad al-Ghazālī’s use of uran, adīth, and poetry as a means to
incite his audience to seek love and recognition irf n . The last half
N

21
of the chapter is devoted to a close reading of the teachings of love
Y

22
in the Saw ni . It begins by considering the central terms for A mad
20

23
24 al-Ghazālī’s discussion of love, ishq,ārū spirit , qalb heart , and usn
16

25 beauty . Then it examines the stages of spiritual wayfaring whereby

26 the heart is brought to complete maturity until it is immersed in the
27 ocean of love, beyond duality, separation, and union.
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42

SP_LUM_INT_001-012.indd 12 3/14/16 9:08 AM

 1
2
3
4
5
6
Notes 7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
Introduction 15
16
  1.  For  a  study  of  Abū  Ḥāmid  al-Ghazālī’s  place  as  a  “reviver”  of  17
Islamic moral life and the importance of his The Revival of the Religious Sciences, 18
see  Kenneth  Garden,  The First Islamic Reviver: Abū āmid al-Ghazālī and His 19
Revival of the Religious Sciences  (Oxford/New  York:  Oxford  University  Press,  20
2014).  The  best  overview  of  Abū  Ḥāmid  al-Ghazālī’s  teachings  is  found  in 
SU

21
Eric  Ormsby,  Ghazali: The Revival of Islam  (Oxford:  Oneworld,  2008).  For  an  22
example  of  the  manner  in  which  the  I yā   is  still  seen  as  a  model  for  reviv-
N

23
ing  aspects  of  Islamic  life  and  thought,  see  Hamid  Algar,  Imam Abu Hamid
Y

24
Ghazali: An Exponent of Islam in Its Totality (Oneonta, NY: Islamic Publications 
20

25
International,  2000).  Particularly  noteworthy  is  the  manner  in  which  Abū  26
Ḥāmid  al-Ghazālī’s  magnum  opus,  The Revival of the Islamic Sciences,  contin-
16

27
ues  to  serve  as  the  basis  for  Islamic  spiritual  life  in  parts  of  the  Hadramawt  28
in  Yemen. 29
  2. William C. Chittick, Divine Love: Islamic Literature and the Path to God 30
(New  Haven/London:  Yale  University  Press,  2013),  xii. 31
  3.  For  the  place  of  the  Sawāni   in  the  Sui  love  tradition,  see  Chapter  32
4 of this study and Joseph Lumbard, “From  ubb to Ishq: The Development  33
of  Love  in  Early  Suism,” The Oxford Journal Of Islamic Studies, vol.  18,  no.  2,  34
April  2008,  345–385.  While  ʿAbdallāh  Anṣārī’s  Ma abbat Nāma and Munājāt 35
also speak extensively of the love of God, Anṣārī does not provide a complete  36
metaphysics  of  love  as  do  Ghazālī  and  Samʿānī.  37
  4.  Leonard  Lewisohn,  introduction  to  Haiz and the Religion of Love in 38
Classical Persian Poetry, ed. Leonard Lewisohn (London: I.B. Taurus, 2010), xxii.  39
  5.  Leili Anvar,  “The  Radiance  of  Epiphany:  The  Vision  of  Beauty  and  40
Love  in  Ḥāiẓ’s  Poem  of  Pre-Eternity,”  in  Haiz and the Religion of Love in 41
Classical Persian Poetry, 124 42
  6.  For  a  full  exposition  of  this  aspect  of  the  Sawāni ,  see  Chapters  4  43
and  5  of  this  study. 44
  7. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, in foreword to William C. Chittick, Divine Love: 45
Islamic Literature and the Path to God  (New  Haven/London:  Yale  University  46
47
48
189

SP_LUM_Notes_189-232.indd 189 3/14/16 9:36 AM

 190 Notes to Introduction

1 Press,  2013),  viii.  In  a  previous  publication,  Nasr  wrote,  “With  the  Sawāni  
2 begins  an  extremely  rich  spiritual  tradition,  leading  to  that  elusively  subtle 
3 treatise  by  Rūzbihān,  the  Abhār  al-ʿāshiqīn—The  Lovers’  Jasmine,  and  on 
4 down  to  Fakhr  al-Dīn  ʿIrāqī  (d.  688/1289)”;  Introduction  to  The Rise and
5 Development of Persian Suism,  ed.  Leonard  Lewisohn  (London/New  York: 
6 Khaniqahi  Nimatullahi  Publications,  1993),  7.
7   8.  For  a  view  of  the  initiatic  chains  that  are  said  to  have  come 
8 through  both  A mad  al-Ghazālī  and  Abū  Najīb  as-Suhrawardī,  see  J. 
9 Spencer  Trimingham,  The Sui Orders  (Oxford:  Oxford  University  Press, 
10 1971),  insert  between  30  &  31  and  the  diagram  of  Sui  orders  in  the  back  of 
11 A mad  Mujāhid’s  Majmū ah-yi āthār-i fārsī-yi Aḥmad Ghazālī  (Tehran:  Tehran 
12 University  Publications,  1979;  reprint  1997).
13   9.  Shihāb  ad-Dīn  Abū  afṣ  ʿUmar  as-Suhrawardī,  ʿAwārif al-ma ārif
14 (Cairo: Maktabat al-Qāhirah, 1393/1973), 69. The relationship between A mad 
15 al-Ghazālī  and  as-Suhrawardī  is  examined  more  fully  in  Chapter  1.
16 10.  For  a  study  of  the  Awārif al-ma ārif  and  the  history  of  the 
17 Suhrawardiyyah,  see  Qamar  ul  Huda,  Striving for Divine Union: Spiritual
18 Exercises for Suhrawardī Ṣūfīs  (London/New  York:  RoutledgeCurzon,  2002).
19 11.  Saiyid Athar Abbas  Rizvi,  A History of Suism in India,  vol.  1  (New 
20 Delhi:  New  Delhi:  Munshiram  Manoharlal  Publishers,  2003  [originally  pub-
SU

21 lished  in  1978]).

22 12.  “Suhrawardiyyah,”  in  The Encyclopaedia of Islam (hereafter  cited  as 
N

23 EI),  9:784–786.
Y

24 13. Muhammad Isa Waley, “Najm ad-Dīn Kubrā and the Central Asian 
School of Suism (The Kubrawiyyah),” in Islamic Spirituality II: Manifestations,
20

25
26 ed.  S.H.  Nasr  (New  York:  Crossroad  Publication  Company,  1991),  81.  ʿAbd 
16

27 ar-Ra mān Jāmī lists all three as Kubrā’s instructors in Suism, but only lists 
28 Qaṣrī  as  the  one  who  bestowed  the  Sui  mantle  (khirqah)  upon  him;  Nafaḥāt
29 al-uns,  421–422.  J.  Spencer  Trimingham  writes  that  Kubrā  received  his  irst 
30 khirqah from Rūzbihān, but that his real training took place under Qaṣrī, who 
31 also  gave  him  a  khirqah; Sui Orders, 55.
32 14. For a brief history of the orders that lowed from the Kubrāwiyyah, 
33 see Sui Orders, 56–57. For a history of the Dhahabiyyah, see Richard Gramlich, 
34 Die schiitschen Derwischorden Persiens, Erster Teil: Ailiationen (Wiesbaden:
35 Franz  Steiner,  1965),  chap.  1.
36 15.  For  the  best  account  of  this  commentary  and  its  various  stages  of 
37 development  under  diferent  Kubrāwiyyah  authors,  see  Jamal  J.  Elias,  The
38 Throne Carrier of God: The Life and Thought of Alā ad-Dawla as-Simnānī (Albany, 
39 NY:  SUNY  Press,  1995),  203–206.
40 16.  This  text  has  been  translated  into  English  with  an  excellent  intro-
41 duction  by  Hamid  Algar,  The Path of God’s Bondsmen from Origin to Return
42 (Delmar,  NY:  Caravan  Press,  1982).
43 17. Najm al-qur ān  is  also  known  as  Tafsīr najm al-qur ān, at-Ta wīlāt
44 an-najmiyyah, and Tafsīr baṭn al-qur ān (A Commentary on the Inner Meaning of
45 the Quran). Simnānī’s introduction to the commentary is known by the name 
46 Maṭla an-nuqat wa-majma al-luqat.
47
48

SP_LUM_Notes_189-232.indd 190 3/14/16 9:36 AM

 Notes to Introduction 191

18. Hermann Landolt, “Der Breifwechsel zwischen Kāšānī und Simnānī  1
über  Wa dat  al-Wuǧūd,”  in  Landolt, Recherches en Spiritualité Iranienne 2
(Tehran: Institut Fraçais de Recherche en Iran, 2005), 246–300; idem, “Simnānī  3
on wa dat-al-wujûd,” Collected Papers on Islamic Philosophy and Mysticism, ed. 4
M.  Mohaghegh  and  H.  Landolt  (Tehran,  1971),  93f. 5
19.  See  The Throne Carrier of God,  2,  162. 6
20.  For  a  history  of  the  Niʿmatallāhī  silsilah, see  Richard  Gramlich,  Die 7
schiitschen Derwischorden Persiens, Erster Teil: Die Ailiationen, chap.  2;  Javad  8
Nurbaksh, “The Nimatullāhī,” in Islamic Spirituality II: Manifestations, 144–161. 9
21.  Shams  ad-Dīn  A mad  Alākī,  Manāqib al-ʿārifīn,  ed.  Ta sīn  Yazici  10
(Tehran:  Dunyā-yi  Kitāb,  1362/1983);  translated  by  John  O’Kane  as  The Feats 11
of the Knowers of God  (Leiden:  E.  J.  Brill,  2002),  700. 12
22. Manāqib al-ʿārifīn,  1:219;  Feats of the Knowers, 152. 13
23. Feats of the Knowers of God, 154. 14
24.  Ibid.,  153. 15
25.  Jan  Rypka,  History of Iranian Literature  (Dordrecht:  D.  Reidel,  1968);  16
Edward  Granville  Brown,  A Literary History of Persia: From Firdawsī to Saʿādī 17
(New  York:  Charles  Scribner’s  &  Sons,  1906). 18
26.  Nasrollah  Pourjavady,  Sulṭān-i ṭarīqāt  (Tehran:  Intishārāt-i  Agāh,  19
1358  HS/1979),  75. 20
SU

27.  Omid  Sai,  “The  Sui  Path  of  Love  in  Iran  and  India,”  in  A Pearl in 21
Wine  (New  Lebanon,  NY:  Omega  Publications,  2001),  224. 22
N

28.  The  full  extent  of  commentaries  on  the  Sawāniḥ  is  a  subject  that  23
Y

merits  further  investigation.  Three  of  these  commentaries—one  from  the  24

ninth/ifteenth century by an unknown author, one by ʿIzz ad-Dīn Ma mūd 
20

25
Kāshānī (d. 730/1330), and one by  usayn Nāgūrī (d. 901/1496)—have been  26
16

published in Sharḥ-i Sawāniḥ: seh sharḥ bar Sawāniḥ al-ʿushshāq-i Aḥmad Ghazālī, 27
ed. A mad  Mujāhid  (Tehran:  Soroush  Press,  1372  HS). 28
29.  A mad  al-Ghazālī,  Makātibāt-i Khwājah Aḥmad Ghazālī bā ʿAyn 29
al-Quḍāt Hamadānī,  ed.  Nasrollah  Pourjavady  (Tehran:  Khānqāh-i  Niʿmat  30
Allāhī,  1356/1978). 31
30. ʿAyn al-Quḍāt Abu’l-Maʿālī ʿAbdallāh b. Muḥammad b. ʿAlī al-Mīyānagī 32
Hamadānī, Tamhīdāt,  ed.  ʿAfīf  ʿUsayrān  (Tehran:  Tehran  University  Press,  33
1962),  96–141. 34
31. For an examination of the commentaries on the Tamhīdāt in India, see  35
Firoozeh  Papan-Matin,  Beyond Death: The Mytsical Teachings of ʿAyn al-Quḍāt 36
al-Hamadhānī  (Leiden/Boston:  E.  J.  Brill,  2010),  161–190. 37
32.  Gerhard  Böwering,  “ʿAyn  al-Qoẓāt  Hamadānī,”  in  Encyclopaedia 38
Iranica,  2:140–143. 39
33.  Fakhr  ad-Dīn  ʿIrāqī, Lamaʿāt, ed.  Mu ammad  Khwājavī  (Tehran:  40
Intishārāt-i Mūlā, 1413 AH), 45; translated by W.C. Chittick and Peter Lamborn  41
Wilson as Fakhr ad-Dīn ʿIrāqī: Divine Flashes (New York: Paulist Press, 1982), 70.  42
I have consulted the translation of Chittick and Wilson, but altered it slightly. 43
34.  Lamaʿāt,  49;  Divine Flashes, 73. 44
35.  ʿAbd  ar-Ra mān  Jāmī,  Ashiʿʿat al-Lamaʿāt  (Qum:  Būstān-i  Kitāb,  45
1383/2004). 46
47
48

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