SOURCE: Fakhry, Majid. “The Synthesis: al-Ghazālī (D. 1111).” In Ethical Theories in Islam, pp. 193-206. Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1991.

In the following excerpt, Fakhry explores al-Ghazālī's beliefs concerning the soul, happiness, and the seeking of God.

I. the Relation of Ethics to the Other Sciences

We have in al-Ghazālī's thought, both speculative and practical, the most articulate synthesis of the fundamental currents in Islamic thought, the philosophical, the religious and the mystical. His ethical theory is contained in his only extant ethical treatise, Mīzān al-‘Amal (Criterion of Action), and his ethico-religious summa, Iḥyā’ ‘Ulūm al-Dīn (Revival of the Religious Sciences).¹ In view of the fact that the discussion of ethics in the Iḥyā’ follows essentially the same lines as the Mīzān, to the point of verbal identity in many places, it will be...