Biography

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അഹ്മദ് ഗസാലി

അഹ്മദ് ഗസാലി:
Ahmad Ghazālī was a Persian mystic, writer, and eloquent preacher (c. 1061–1123 or 1126). He is best known in the history of Sufism for his ideas on love expressed through literature and poetry. He is the younger brother of most celebrated theologian, jurist, and Sufi, Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad al-Ghazālī.

Ahmad Ghazālī was a Persian mystic, writer, and eloquent preacher (c. 1061–1123 or 1126). He is best known in the history of Sufism for his ideas on love, expressed primarily in the celebrated work entitled Sawāneḥ. The younger brother of the celebrated theologian, jurist, and Sufi, Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad al-Ghazālī, Aḥmad Ghazālī was born in a village near Tūs, in Khorasan. Here he was educated primarily in jurisprudence. He turned to Sufism while he was young. Aḥmad Ghazālī’s thought, centred as it was on the idea of love, left a profound mark on the development of Persian mystical literature, especially poetry celebrating love. He was influenced most strongly by Ḥallāj, and he made of his idea of essential love the basis of his own thought. Aḥmad Ghazālī travelled extensively in the capacities of both Sufi master and a popular preacher. He died in Qazvin in 1123 or 1126 and is buried there.