Al Ghazali Quotes

“Aklın bütün meseleleri kavramada müstakil ve bütün müşkillleri halledecek durumda olmadığını anladım.”
― İmam Gazali, El-Münkız Mine'd-Dalal Hakikate Giden Yol

“The question of divine knowledge is so deep that it is really known only to those who have it.”
― Idries Shah, The Way of the Sufi

“La cuestión del conocimiento divino es tan profunda que realmente la conocen solamente aquellos que lo poseen.”
― Idries Shah, The Way of the Sufi

“Fire causes burning, lightning causes thunder, winds cause waves, and gravity causes bodies to fall. Such connections between an effect and its cause form the cornerstone of scientific thinking, both modern and classical. But this notion of causality is one which is specifically rejected by Asharite doctrine, and the most articulate and effective opponent of physical causality was AI-Ghazzali”
― Pervez Hoodbhoy, Islam and Science: Religious Orthodoxy and the Battle for Rationality

“Al-Ghazali immodestly claims that, to prepare for the enterprise, he mastered the sum total of relevant knowledge: “There is no philosopher whose system I have not fathomed, nor theologian the intricacies of whose doctrine I have not followed out. Sufism has no secrets into which I have not penetrated.” He is the master of all.”
― Robert R. Reilly, The Closing of the Muslim Mind: How Intellectual Suicide Created the Modern Islamist Crisis

“In a line worthy of Robespierre, Sayyid Qutb said that a “just dictatorship” would “grant political liberties to the virtuous alone.”26 Hassan al-Banna, whose bedside reading was al-Ghazali, also regarded the Soviet Union under Stalin as a model of a successful one party system.”
― Robert R. Reilly, The Closing of the Muslim Mind: How Intellectual Suicide Created the Modern Islamist Crisis

“To contemplate is, as we have seen, to gain knowledge; and although the extent of knowledge attainable by ordinary human beings is very limited, and even the most knowledgeable of Prophets or Angels know almost nothing in comparison with the Divine Knowledge, it is incumbent on every human being to seek knowledge in this and other ways; and the merits of contemplation is the point where this discussion began”
― Muhammed Isa Waley

“A tradition (hadith of Prophet Muhammad [May peace and blessings of Allah be upon him]) says:

“[O Human Being!] Spend your life the way you like but [keep in mind that one day] you will die, and love whoever you like but [keep in mind that one day you] will get separated from him/her, and perform deeds the way you like but [keep in mind that one day] you will surely get their just compensation [good or bad depending on your deeds].”
― Imam al-Ghazali, O Son! A Translation of Ayyuhal Walad

“for Ghazālī, there is no essential self that can
guide itself; there are only potentialities of the soul that can be realized through or against a living tradition”
― Talal Asad, Secular Translations: Nation-State, Modern Self, and Calculative Reason