أبو حامد الغزالي... المسيرة العلمية معالم سيرة ذاتية ... أو حينما يكون سؤال المعرفة طريقا لمعرفة الذات

Abstract EN

The significance El Ghazali’s thought concerning “Biography”, lies in that it is not merely a narration of factual events of an author’s social life, as it is not but a description of his/her own thought and intellectual facts.

That is, according to El Ghazali, “Biography” is not simply a record of an author’s intellectual or social activity.

In fact, it is the outcome of an essential questioning that was raised from an existentialist confusion and worry that threatened the balance of the “Self” and prevented it from recognising its searched-for existence.

This confusion was resulted from El Ghazali’s belief in that the submission to the already existing knowledge is the cause of ignorance.

Based on that, El Ghazali went to search for the key to end this ignorance, the accurate, exact spectrum of knowledge being the key to end it.

He further questioned the means by which he can find knowledge and how can it transform into the means to end ignorance? And finally, he wondered how come the question of knowledge leads to that of existence? That is, how come the moment of reaching “truth” be a journey to reach the “Self’s Truth”? In other words, how come “biography” overlaps in knowledge? Hence, relying on El Ghazali’s perception of “Biography” in his book “El Munkedh Mina Dhalal” he considered “biography” a mechanism of developing the “Self” to ascend it to its best forms of existence.

This is evident in his own biography in which, in addition to, promoting for his perceptions and ideas, he narrates his own intellectual struggle and experience of his journey towards uncovering the “truth”.

Thus, his work “El Munkedh Mina Dhalal” is not a narration of the social aspect of his life, however, it is a record of his intellectual and spiritual journey in addition to his experience with his fellow philosophers of Sufism.