Al-Ghazali was the most celebrated scholar in Baghdad when, at the height of his career, he suffered a crisis so severe he could not speak or eat. He resigned his position, gave away his wealth, and spent years wandering as a Sufi mystic. His Incoherence of the Philosophers attacked Ibn Sina and Al-Farabi, arguing that their methods could not prove what they claimed about God, the soul, or the eternity of the world. His Revival of the Religious Sciences rebuilt Islamic thought on the foundation of inner experience rather than pure logic.
Appointed head professor at the Nizamiyya madrasa in Baghdad at age thirty-three, the most prestigious academic post in the Islamic world. He was brilliant, famous, and deeply unhappy.
Words
“Knowledge without action is vanity, and action without knowledge is insanity.”
