Ninth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

Abu Hamid al-Ghazālī was a mystic, jurist and a theologian, lived in the fifth century AH, who had significantly influenced Iranian culture. His greatest work is Iḥyaʾ ʿūlm al-dīnʾ, which he wrote in order to revive the religious knowledge. This research is dedicated to understanding Al-Ḡazālī’s principles for form and meaning in Iḥyaʾ. The Hypothesis of this research is that Al-Ghazali’s view about form and meaning was influenced mostly by the ideas of Plato and Aristotle, as many other islamic jurists were following the greek notions. This reearch was done by the interpretative approach, reading and interpreting the original text of Iḥyaʾ and Plato’s and Aristotle’s main works, and that is why just for mentioning the evidence and having an improved perception of Iḥyaʾ other Al-Ḡazālī’s works and references were used. The final outcome of this research is three steps about the form and meaning. These three are: Forces of human perception, worlds of existence, and status of recieving facts. In Al-Ghazali’s opinion two kinds of forms exist. One which is extracted from the soul and which could be extracted from the physical world. the first forms are authenticate and the second are containing less meaning. the conclusion of this research is that Al-Ghazali was under influence of Plato’s ideas about the relation between form and the meaning, by the way there seems to be some parts of Aristotle’s notions in Al-Ghazali’s view.