Al-Ghazālī and the Ideal of Godlikeness

In the style of kulli hal, this book by Vasalou really explores in depth three works of Al Ghazali that are actually familiar to Muslims who have studied them for centuries. The difference is that Vasalou succeeded in revealing how the ethical foundation in Al Ghazali’s work can actually be a reference for humanity in practicing virtue for the common good. * Rosdiansyah, RMOL *

Sophia Vasalou studied Arabic and Islamic Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and obtained her doctorate from the University of Cambridge. She is currently Associate Professor of Philosophical Theology at the University of Birmingham. Her published works include Moral Agents and Their Deserts: The Character of Mu’tazilite Ethics (2008, winner of the Albert Hourani Book Award for Middle Eastern Studies in 2009), Schopenhauer and the Aesthetic Standpoint: Philosophy as a Practice of the Sublime (2013), Wonder: A Grammar (2015), Ibn Taymiyya’s Theological Ethics (2016), and Virtues of Greatness in the Arabic Tradition (2019).