Ep. 07: Imam Ghazali | Our Models – The Heroes We Want to Be

There was a Muslim king by the name of Nizham al Mulk who had started a series of Islamic schools around the country. This is primarily in the area that we call today as Iran and Iraq. These schools were called the Madressa Nizhamiyya. They were quickly renowned and become the highest level of Islamic education and the highest seats of Islamic learning, especially in one city called Nishapur. It became the head of Islamic knowledge in the whole Muslim world. The king sent his prime minster to take a look at what was happening in these schools and what the children were there for. The minister went and visited, and during his visit, he randomly went to students who were walking around or playing and asked them, “What brings you here and what would you like to study?” Some said, “I am here to learn to get a position in the government department.” Some would say, “I am here to later get a specific job.” Or some would say, “My father is holding a post in the government and I would like a post like his.” Keep in mind that Islamic schools at that time taught what we call at this time worldly knowledge. It was combined and you had to learn both. When the minister saw all of this and heard these responses, he became discouraged and disenchanted, thinking, “This is not the reason we opened these schools, so that people could acquire the knowledge of deen and look for jobs.” He made the decision to make a recommendation to the king to close these schools as those who came to get Islamic knowledge were coming for the wrong reasons and it was not a worthwhile investment.

Just as he was about to leave, he saw a student in the corner busy reading away. He thought to ask this one student so his survey would be complete. He went up to the student and said salaam. The student did not pay any attention and was lost in his studies. When the minister drew a bit of attention to himself, the boy said, “What can I do for you? I am studying right now.” He did not even look up. The minister said, “I would like a minute of your time. Why are you here? Why are you studying here?” The boy responded by saying, “That’s pretty easy, isn’t it? We know that there is absolutely a creator of this universe and we know that he would not have created all of this in vain. We need to look for the knowledge that will tell us how to spend our lives here. If this whole world has been made for a reason, there must be a way of fulfilling that reason. For this we need the knowledge of the prophet (SAW), hadith and Islam. This is the reason I am here. There is not much else.” The minister thanked him for his time and walked away, saying, “I have changed my mind. As long as we have even one student like that learning how to spend their life properly, it is worthwhile having this school.” That student grew up to be a person that we all refer to as Imam Ghazali. He was another one of the giants of Islam who was raised by a single mom, but his determination in his acquisition of deen took him far above the people of his time. It was not just his knowledge and piercing intellectual genius, but also his passion to Allah (SWT) that led him there. Another incident that occurred while he was studying and coming back home was that his caravan was raided by bandits. When they came to him, the had a chest or case in which he had his notes. These notes were word-for-word dictations that he had been taking for his classes over the years. He had a lot of those. The bandits forced it open and he said, “This is all I have. Do not take this. It will not be of any use to you, but for me, it is my life.” They said, “What is it?” He replied, “This is the knowledge that I have accumulated over all of my years. If I lose this, I have lost everything.” They started laughing at him and said, “What kind of knowledge is it that it is on paper and not in your heart? If it is knowledge, it should be inside you, but apparently, it is inside your papers. We do not know what you have been doing all of these years, but it would have made more sense for you to bring it inside of your mind.”

They left the papers as they did actually not have any use for them. This was a wake-up call for Imam Ghazali. They were right in the fact that he knew that he should have the knowledge inside. He knew all of it, but if he felt that if he lost it, he would have lost everything, so for the next few years, he went back and memorized everything that he had written down on those papers. There is much more to the life of Imam Ghazali even after he became one of the most renowned scholars of his time. There was still a burning desire inside of him to be someone even better. This is another story for another day. May Allah (SWT) give us the correct intention to acquire knowledge and let us acquire knowledge for the right reasons in the right way.