Ghazali and the Poetics of Imagination

“An exciting and ambitious work. It is also deeply textual and traditional. . . . Has much to offer and is an exemplar of the work of a committed and engaged Muslim intellectual.” — Journal of the American Oriental Society

“The novel, and indeed groundbreaking, character of this work . . . assures that the readers not only discover Ghazali as an interlocutor, but overhear centuries of exchange as well.” — Modern Theology

“Makes us encounter fresh ways of thinking of and listening to Ghazali’s texts.” — JRAS

“Moosa demonstrates the contemporary relevance of one of the greatest thinkers in Islam. . . . Spellbinding.” — New Statesman

“Moosa’s study breathes of an intellectual spirit that is rare in modern Muslim thinking. Creativity, imagination, philosophical sophistication, intellectual perspicacity and ideational fecundity are all found aplenty here.” — Muslim World Book Review

“[Moosa’s] nuanced understanding of Ghazali’s world allows us to enter the dihiliz ('a passage way') into the intellectual/spiritual edifice that Ghazali built. . . . Interesting, informative, and a great read.” — Theological Studies

“Illuminating. . . . One of the most original and provocative stud[ies] of al-Ghazali yet to have been produced by a Muslim.” — The Muslim News

“Moosa brilliantly argues that Ghazali did not reconcile contradictions between different systems of thought by forging middle grounds or by producing a great synthesis of multiple systems of knowledge. Rather, he imagined new forms of knowledge through which contradictory views can be simultaneously maintained. Ghazali thus exemplifies the ability to position oneself in intellectual exile while remaining a committed insider. Moosa’s study of Ghazali offers creative solutions to the contemporary crisis of Muslim thought.” — Ahmad Dallal, Georgetown University

“Moosa’s book shows better than any work I am aware of how Ghazali transformed Islamic thought at a critical moment when the European Crusaders and other forces were dismantling the Pax Islamica in which the older schools had flourished.” — Richard C. Martin, Emory University

“This is a brilliant, original, and often quite profound study of one of the most important of medieval Islamic thinkers. Ebrahim Moosa has sought to enter the world-view of an especially elusive and ambiguous thinker, whom even his contemporaries found overly slippery, and he has done so with audacity, empathy, and great perspicacity.” — Eric Ormsby, McGill University