Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (d. 505/1111), theologian, logician, jurist and mystic, was born and died in Tus in Central Asia, but spent much of his life lecturing at Baghdad or leading the life of a wandering dervish. His most celebrated work, Revival of the Religious Sciences, has exercised a profound influence on Muslim intellectual history by exploring the mystical significance of the practices and beliefs of Islamic orthodoxy, earning him the title of Hujjat al Islam, the ‘Proof of Islam’. A theologian of the golden age of Islam, he remains its truest advocate in modern times. As a teacher of both inward and outward faith, he recorded these practical teachings in his forty-book compendium of Islamic knowledge.

Originally from California, Abdurrahman Fitzgerald and his wife migrated to Morocco in the late 1970s. Since that time, he has been involved in education and the study of Arabic, Islam, and Sufism for the past thirty years. He co-translated Ibn al‑Qayyim on the Invocation of God (Islamic Text Society, 2000), worked on the editing and annotation of Denys Johnson-Davies’s translation of al-Ghāzali’s Kitāb ādab al‑akl (Islamic Texts Society, 2000), and also on Dr. Kenneth Honerkamp’s edition of al‑Rasāʾil al‑kubrā by Ibn ʿAbbād (Dār al-Machreq, 2005).

Other works translated with Fouad Aresmouk include The Immense Ocean, a portion of Ibn ʿAjība’s Qurʾānic commentary; The Book of Ascension, Ibn ʿAjība’s spiritual glossary; and a portion of the work, Two Sufi Commentaries, all published by Fons Vitae. Abdurrahman holds degrees from the University of California and Shenandoah University, Virginia, and is the director of the Center for Language and Culture, Marrakesh.

On the Revival of the Religious Sciences (Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al‐dīn):

“The Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al‐dīn is one of al-Ghazālī’s best works.” —Aḥmad b. ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm (d. 728/1328)

“The Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al‐dīn is a marvelous book containing a wide variety of Islamic sciences intermixed with many subtle accounts of Sufism and matters of the heart.” —Ibn Kathīr (d. 774/1373)

“The Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al‐dīn is one of best and greatest books on admonition, it was said concerning it, ‘if all the books of Islam were lost except for the Iḥyāʾ it would suffice what was lost.’” —Ḥājjī Khalīfa Kātib Čelebī (d. 1067/1657)

“The Iḥyāʾ [ʿulūm al‐dīn] is one of [Imām al-Ghazālī’s] most noble works, his most famous work, and by far his greatest work’” —Muḥammad Murtaḍā l‐Zabīdī (d. 1205/1791)

On Abu Hamid al-Ghazali r.a.:

“Al-Ghazālī is the second [Imām] Shāfiʿī.” —Muḥammad b. Yaḥyā l-Janzī (d. 549/1154)

“Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, the Proof of Islam (Ḥujjat al-Islām) and the Muslims, the Imām of the imāms of religion, [is a man] whose like eyes have not seen in eloquence and elucidation, and speech and thought, and acumen and natural ability.” —ʿAbd al-Ghāfir b. Ismāʿīl al-Fārisī (d. 529/1134)

“[He was] the Proof of Islam and Muslims, Imām of the imāms of religious sciences, one of vast knowledge, the wonder of the ages, the author of many works, and [a man] of extreme intelligence and the best of the sincere.” —Imām al-Dhahabī (d. 748/1347)

“Al-Ghazālī is without doubt the most remarkable figure in all Islam.” —T.J. DeBoer

“. . . A man who stands on a level with Augustine and Luther in religious insight and intellectual vigor.” —H.A.R. Gibb

“I have to some extent found, and I believe others can find, in the words and example of al-Ghazālī a true iḥyāʾ . . .” —Richard J. McCarthy, S.J.