Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazali al-Shafi'i, titled "the Proof of Islam", is the author of Ihya' 'Ulum al-Din 1. He was born in Tus in 450 AH (1058 CE); his father spun wool and sold it, and on his deathbed entrusted him and his brother Ahmad to a Sufi friend 2 3. He then travelled to Nishapur and stayed with Imam al-Haramayn, and was appointed to teach at the Nizamiyya of Baghdad in 484 AH 2 4. He then renounced the world and turned to worship and wandering: he left for the Hijaz in 488 AH and settled in Damascus for ten years, writing books there, the Ihya' reportedly among them 4. He then visited Jerusalem and Alexandria and returned to Tus, taught for a time at the Nizamiyya of Nishapur, then left it and returned home, and built nearby a lodge for Sufis and a school for students 4. He died on 14 Jumada al-Akhira 505 AH at al-Tabaran in the lands of Tus 5.
He says of himself that the thirst to grasp the realities of things was his habit from the start, until the bond of imitation fell away from him while he was still close to boyhood 6. Among his works listed by Ibn al-Imad are al-Mustasfa on legal theory, Tahafut al-Falasifa and al-Munqidh min al-Dalal 7. Hajji Khalifa relates from al-Nawawi that if the books of Islam were lost and the Ihya' remained, it would suffice for what was lost 1.
This narrative was written with AI help from the sources it cites, and has not yet been read by a human editor.