How much do you know about Al-Ghazali and his views on religion and state?

• Al-Ghazali believed that religion and state are inseparable and mutually reinforce each other.
• He saw the government as an intermediary to benefit the afterlife and to lead people to the good of the Hereafter.
• Al-Ghazali did not want to separate religion and state and believed that a state government implementing religion's mandate would have to run according to spiritual matters.
• He believed that a Sultan as the holder of political power is the guardian of religion in public life, whereas the state religion is the basis for it all.
• Al-Ghazali was a Sunni Muslim Persian polymath known as one of the most prominent and influential jurisconsults, legal theorists, muftis, philosophers, theologians, logicians, and mystics of the Islamic Golden Age.
• He is considered to be the 11th century's mujaddid, a renewer of the faith, who appears once every 100 years to restore the faith of the Islamic community.
• Al-Ghazali's works were so highly acclaimed by his contemporaries that he was awarded the honorific title "Proof of Islam" (Ḥujjat al-Islām).
• Much of Al-Ghazali's work stemmed around his spiritual crises following his appointment as the head of the Nizzamiyya University in Baghdad.
• He believed that the Islamic spiritual tradition had become moribund and that the spiritual sciences taught by the first generation of Muslims had been forgotten.
• His magnum opus was entitled Iḥyā’ ‘ulūm ad-dīn ("The Revival of the Religious Sciences").

Test your knowledge on Al-Ghazali, the renowned philosopher, theologian, and mystic of the Islamic Golden Age. This quiz will cover his views on religion and state, his belief in the role of government in leading people towards the good of the Hereafter, and his works that contributed to the revival of the Islamic spiritual tradition. Discover why Al-Ghazali was considered a renewer of the faith and how his legacy still influences Islamic thought to this day. Take the quiz now