Incarnation and Unification from the Viewpoint of Imam Mohammad Ghazali

Subject Areas : Persian Language and Literature

Hasan Sarbaz ¹ , Abdollah Rasoolnejad ²

1 - Assistant Professor of University of Kurdistan
2 - Assistant Professor of University of Kurdistan

Received: 2011-08-05 Accepted : 2011-11-29 Published : 2012-02-20

Keywords:

Abstract :

"Incarnation and Unification" are two of the controversial issues in Islamic  mysticism  and  Sufism  which  have  been  condemned  by  the majority of Islamic scholars and mystics. According to these scholars, it is against Sharia'ah and Tariqa (Sharia'ah and Sufi order); however, some statements have been quoted from a few of Sufis which seemingly denote incarnation  and  unification.  The  researchers  with  mystical  order  have either been uncertain on the appropriateness to attribution to Sufis, or have interpreted them in way which will lead to incarnation and unification. Imam Mohammad Ghazali is one of the hardworking and influential intellectuals  in  the  field  of  Islamic  mysticism  and  Sufism.Although Ghazali was seriously against the idea of incarnation and unification, he has  engaged  himself  in  interpreting  and  justifying  the  Great  men  of Sufism. This actual fact ended to accusing him of contradicting (inconsistency) in this respect. In this study, effort has been made to investigate the issue of incarnation and unification. This paper also investigates the ways of interpreting and commenting on the statements of some of the Great men of Sufism utilizing descriptive-analytical method shedding some light on the views of Imam Mohammad Ghazali.