Al-Ghazali’s Unspeakable Doctrine of the Soul: Unveiling the Esoteric Psychology and Eschatology of the Ih ya

This text marks a radical rethinking of the soul and the afterlife in the writings of al-Ghazali, particularly within his magnum opus, Reviving Religious Knowledge (Ihya’‘ulum al-din). Attending closely to variations of genre and discourse mode within his works, it attempts to resolve some of the major ambiguities that have vexed al-Ghazali’s readers for nearly nine hundred years. Beginning with his theory of multi-level, multi-genre writing and working through his theological, philosophical, and mystical positions on the soul’s true nature, the study culminates in an exploration of al-Ghazali’s mystical psycho-cosmology , where some startling conclusions are drawn regarding his most intimate thoughts on the secrets of the soul and the Hereafter.