Islamic leaders, their biographies and accomplishments. Saul Silas Fathi

known in the Latin West as Algazel, was born in the historic town of Tus in Khurasan (in present-day Mashhad in Iran). Al-Ghazali attended the class of a local Sufi tutor and attained proficiency in Arabic language, grammar, Qur’an, Hadith, jurisprudence (Fiqh) and aspects of Sufi thought and poetry before he was fifteen.

      Al-Ghazali was barely twenty years old when he traveled to Nishapur to pursue advanced instruction in Islamic sciences. It was during this period that he composed his al-Mankhul min Ilm al-Usul (A Summary of the Science of Fundamentals), wherein he elucidated the fundamental principles of Islamic law and legal methodology.

      In 1085 al-Juwayni died and al-Ghazali was asked to become professor of Islamic thought at the Nizamiyyah College in Baghdad by none other than Nizam al-Mulk himself, the great Seljuk Prime Minister and founder of the Nizamiyyah College. At the age of thirty-four, he became the youngest professor at Nizamiyyah. This was an extraordinary honor for young al-Ghazali since the Nizamiyyah College of Baghdad was the Oxford or Harvard of its time.

      Al-Ghazali was profoundly disturbed by the apparent conflict between the views of the rationalists, who argued that human reason (Aql) was superior to revelation (Wahy), and the traditionalists who considered Divine revelation to be infallible and, therefore, more authoritative in comparison with fallible human reason. The more al-Ghazali questioned the more he doubted the very foundation of knowledge. Thus, for a period, he became a fully-fledged sceptic, living in a state of doubt and depression.

      Al-Ghazali began studying and analyzing the works of the philosophers and theologians. He found no common ground on which all theologians could agree. He argued, therefore, that scholastic theology would be of no value to anyone unless they believed in the indispensability of human reason. Astonishingly, al-Ghazali was only thirty-six when he authored his hugely influential Tahafut.

      After this, al-Ghazali immersed himself in the ocean of Sufi thought and practices. Following a thorough study of the works of prominent Sufis like Abu Talib Amr al-Makki, Harith al-Muhasibi, Abul Qasim al-Junayd al-Baghdadi, Abu Bakr al-Shibli and Abu Yazid al-Bistami, al-Ghazali realized that ‘empirical’ – as opposed to ‘theoretical’ – knowledge was the foundation of Sufism. He devoted all his time and energy to seeking experiential knowledge in order to move closer to Divine proximity like the Sufis. He found peace of mind and intellectual reassurance in the message of Sufism.

      Al-Ghazali’s philosophical and theological views also exerted considerable influence on renowned Jewish and Christian thinkers like St Thomas Aquinas, Ramon Lull, Blaise Pascal and Musa bin Maimon (Moses Maimonides) among others. Al-Ghazali eventually returned to his native Tus in 1110 and, a year later, he died at the age of fifty-three. He was buried in the cemetery close to Sanabad.

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Abu Hanifah (700-767): The principles of Shari’ah (Islamic law) are derived from the Qur’an and the normative practice (sunnah) of the Prophet Muhammad. After the death of the Prophet, his leading companions, such as Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, Umar ibn al-Khattab, Uthman ibn Affan and Ali ibn Abi Talib, assumed the leadership of the Muslim community. The Shari’ah was not codified in a systematic way at the time. At such a critical time in Islamic history, Abu Hanifah emerged to develop one of Islamic history’s most influential legal syntheses.

      Numan ibn Thabit ibn Zuta ibn Mah, better known by his patronymic Abu Hanifah, was born in Kufah (in modern Iraq) during the reign of the great Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan. Of Persian origin, Abu Hanifah was brought up in a relatively wealthy Muslim family. He was very fortunate to have met a number of prominent companions, including Anas ibn Malik, Sahl ibn Sa’d, Abu al-Tufayl Amir ibn Watihilah and Jabir ibn Abdullah.

      Caliph Sulaiman, al-Walid’s successor, was a relatively benevolent ruler who promoted learning and scholarship. By all accounts, Abu Hanifah was a late starter and most of his peers were way ahead of him when he began his studies, but after he started he was determined to reach the very summit of Islamic learning and scholarship. Abu Hanifah went on to become one of the Muslim world’s greatest intellectuals and jurists.

      Abu Hanifah went to Mecca to perform the sacred hajj (pilgrimage) and enrolled at the school of Ata ibn Abu Rabah, who was considered to be one of the giants of Islamic learning and wisdom at the time.

      In the year 720, when Abu Hanifah was twenty-one, he left Mecca for Medina where he learned Hadith from Sulaiman and Salim ibn Abdullah. Sulaiman was an aide of ummul Mu’minin (the ‘mother of the believers’) Maymuna, the wife of the Prophet, and Salim was a grandson of Umar, the second Caliph of Islam. Abu Hanifah became a great repository of Islamic knowledge.

      The vast corpus of juristic pronouncements (fatawa) developed by Abu Hanifah and his trusted disciples became so large that, over time, a school of Islamic legal thought emerged named after him. Known as the Hanafi Madh’hab, this school of legal thought is most prevalent in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Egypt. Towards the end of his life, Abu Hanifah was imprisoned by the Abbasid Caliph Abu Ja’far al-Mansur for refusing to take of the post of Qadi (Judge) of the Abbasid Empire. Abu Hanifah died in prison at the age of around sixty-seven and was buried in Baghdad.

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Abu Hurairah (601-679): Amongst the companions of the Prophet, one man more than any other, stands out like a shining star for his utter devotion and dedication to preserving the ahadith (or sayings of the Prophet); he was Abu Hurairah.

      His pre-Islamic name was Abd ash-Shams but after embracing Islam he changed it to Abd al-Rahman ibn Sakhr, although he became well known by his nickname, ‘Abu Hurairah’ (meaning the ‘father of the kitten’), received due to his love and affection for his pet kitten. Born into the Daws tribe of southern Arabia, Abu Hurairah was about twelve when Muhammad became a Prophet and started preaching Islam in Mecca. Abu Hurairah was still in his teens when the Prophet began to preach the message of Islam to his kith and kin. This was followed by an open call to all the people of Mecca.

      After preaching in Mecca for more than a decade, the Prophet left his native city and moved to the nearby oasis of Madinah, where he received a warm welcome. At the time Abu Hurairah was in his early twenties. It was not until seven years after the Prophet’s migration (Hijrah) to Madinah that Abu Hurairah came to hear about the Prophet and his mission. Immediately he set out for Madinah in order to meet the Prophet. He set out for Khaybar – which is located around one hundred and sixty kilometers from Madinah – and after a long and exhausting journey, he formally became a Muslim at the hands of the Prophet. He was about thirty at the time. As a perceptive individual who was blessed with a highly retentive memory, he became one of the most learned among the companions of the Prophet.

      Abu Hurairah is a legend in Islamic history for not only narrating a vast quantity of Prophetic traditions, but also for his unique memory power. According to the historian and traditionist Abd al-Rahman ibn Ali ibn al-Jawzi, Abu Hurairah narrated five thousand three hundred and seventy-four Hadith in total, more than any other companion of the Prophet, including the Prophet’s wife, Aishah. Abu Hurairah breathed his last at the age of seventy-eight and was buried in Madinah, the city of the Prophet.

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Abu ‘l-Afia: Tudrus ha-Levi Ben Uyssuf Ben Tudrus: Head of the Jewish community of Castile, who exercised great influence over Alfonso X. He wrote Biblical and Talmudic commentaries with cabbalist tendencies: his Talmudic commentary Osar ha-kabod (Treasury of Glory) contained references to the mystical Zohar (Splendor). He exchanged verses with his contemporary Abraham Bedersi. He is not to be confused with his namesake Tudrus Ben Yuhuda Abu’l-Afia.

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Abu Musa Island: An offshore island on the Gulf on the eve of the independence of the Trucial emirate of Sharjah in 1971, Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi of Iran pressed his claim to three islands at the mouth of the Gulf, including Abi Musa. After Iranian troops had landed there, Britain, the erstwhile imperial power in the region, meditated. In 1994 the Gulf Cooperation Council took up the matter and urged Iran to agree to refer the issue of its occupation of Abu Musa