The Alchemy of Ethics in al-Ghazålì

The most important subject in the two fundamental extant works of Imam Muĕammad al-Ghazålì, that is The Alchemy of Happiness and The Revival of the Religious Sciences, is ethics (akhlåq). In those topics in which there is a disagreement between Divine Law (shar') and reason ('aql), Ghazålì takes the side of Divine Law. At the same time, he considers ethical virtues (maĕåsin-i akhlåqì) and the cultivation of ethics/virtues (tahdhìb-i akhlåq) to be acquired and to be a matter for education, believing ethics (akhlåq) to be changeable. In this article the author intends, firstly, to clarify the place of ethics in Ghazålì 's classification of the sciences; and, secondly, to show how, in the thought of Ghazålì, the principles of ethics and Divine Law conform with one another, whilst at the same time the cultivation of ethics/virtues on the basis of mysticism is the most fundamental and complete basis of ethics (akhlåq).