October 16, 2011

Al-Ghazali: The Alchemist of Happiness By Ovidio Salazar

IMDb - Al-Ghazali: The Alchemist of Happiness (2004):
Exploring the life and impact of the greatest spiritual and legal philosopher in Islamic history, this film examines Ghazali's existential crisis of faith that arose from his rejection of religious dogmatism, and reveals profound parallels with our own times. Ghazali became known as the Proof of Islam and his path of love and spiritual excellence overcame the pitfalls of the organised religion of his day. His path was largely abandoned by early 20th century Muslim reformers for the more strident and less tolerant school of Ibn Taymiyya. Combining drama with documentary, this film argues that Ghazali's Islam is the antidote for today's terror.
Director: Ovidio Salazar.

al-Ghazzālī was born in Tus, Iran in 1058 and died in 1111. He "has sometimes been referred to by historians as the single most influential Muslim after the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Besides his work that successfully changed the course of Islamic philosophy—the early Islamic Neoplatonism developed on the grounds of Hellenistic philosophy, for example, was so successfully refuted by Ghazali that it never recovered—he also brought the orthodox Islam of his time in close contact with Sufism. The orthodox theologians still went their own way, and so did the mystics, but both developed a sense of mutual appreciation which ensured that no sweeping condemnation could be made by one for the practices of the other." (Wikipedia).

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