The Deliverance from Error — Abu Hamid Al Ghazali | Al Bouraq Editions

Presentation

Masterpiece of medieval Islamic thought, The Deliverance from Error (Al Munqidh min al-dalâl) is the most intimate and philosophical work of Al Ghazali: a true spiritual journal in which the greatest theologian of Sunni Islam recounts his personal quest for absolute certainty. Through a pen of rare lucidity, Ghazali takes us on an inner journey that upsets inherited certainties and opens the doors to living and experienced knowledge. A foundational text for anyone questioning the meaning of faith, truth, and the path to God.

Content

• Ghazali's spiritual crisis: the author describes with striking frankness the radical doubt that led him to question all his intellectual and religious certainties.
• The rejection of taqlîd: a critical reflection on blind imitation of inherited beliefs and the requirement for faith founded on personal and reasoned conviction.
• Examination of schools of thought: Ghazali reviews the different schools — theologians, philosophers, bâtinites — to assess their capacity to lead to Truth.
• The Sufi path as culmination: the author recognizes in Sufism — the mysticism of Islam — the path most apt to lead the soul toward divine Presence, after inner purification and self-mastery.
• Tawhîd at the heart of the approach: the quest for authentic monotheism, lived from within, as the ultimate goal of the spiritual journey.
• Apologetic and didactic dimension: beyond the personal narrative, the work offers a rigorous argumentative framework, useful for understanding the intellectual stakes of classical Islam.

For whom?

This book is addressed to adults curious about Islamic spirituality, students of philosophy and religious studies, as well as French-speaking readers drawn to Sufi mysticism and classical Islamic thought. It is also suitable for anyone undergoing a quest for meaning and wishing to understand how a great scholar reconciled reason, faith, and spiritual experience.

The author

Abu Hamid Al Ghazali (1058–1111), surnamed Hujjat ul-Islam (the Proof of Islam), is one of the most influential thinkers in the intellectual history of Muslims. Theologian, jurist, philosopher, and mystic, he is notably the author of the encyclopedic Ihyâ' 'Ulûm al-Dîn (Revivification of the Sciences of Religion), of which the present collection forms a part. His work has left a lasting mark on Sunni, Sufi, and even medieval Western philosophy.

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