INTRODUCTION

Ghazzālī (d. 505/1111) in the title of his major work promised a revival of the religious sciences (Iḥyā''ulūm al-dīn). It was not a humble title, and must have given grave offence to many of his contemporaries, but he meant it and lived up to it. Though not as intellectually systematic as some Mu'tazilites, nor as clever as the later Imāmī scholars, his characteristic disregard for the settled habits of his colleagues enabled him to rethink the entire doctrine of forbidding wrong in a way that was to prove immensely influential far beyond the boundaries of his law-school.

Ghazzālī's account of the duty takes up the ninth book of the second ‘quarter’ (rub') of the work, and is larger than most of those we have considered by an order of magnitude. It is also, as might be expected from Ghazzālī, highly organised, and in a manner that in some ways departs radically from earlier treatments. Ghazzālī himself wrote a shorter Persian recension of the work; even here, the discussion of forbidding wrong is still substantial. I shall begin by presenting his doctrine in an extended summary.

THE DOCTRINE OF GHAZZĀLĪ: A SUMMARY

Introduction

After a brief rhetorical introduction on the vital importance of the duty, its virtual disappearance in this day and age, and the near-absence of anyone seeking to revive it, Ghazzālī turns to business and announces the four chapters he will devote to the topic.