From Rationalism To Sufi-Mysticism

The source of religion is experience and has always been. Since the beginning of history, the birth of every great religion is closely related with the meeting of supernatural dimension and the Wholly Other, the founders of the major religions all have the mystic experience to communicate with the God. So, what significance does each individual’s personal experience for the development of humanity as a whole?Is the mystic experience of the different individual necessary for human universality? This is the question of sanctity and transcendence of religion, and is the question my paper want to discuss.This paper is based on al-Ghazali’s mysticism as the core, regards reason—faith as the logical clue of the whole text,carefully analysed al-Ghazali’s spiritual journey of seeking the truth:On the one hand, with his criticism of philosophy and speculative dogmatics, al-Ghazali reveals the limits of reason, and cleared the borderline between reason and faith. On the other hand, along with the deepening of the criticism and his experience, al-Ghazali’s turned to Sufi-mysticism road eventually.The first part of this paper states al-Ghazali’s life and works in detail, deepen the understanding of this spiritual master from the perspective of more subtle.The second part is coordinate with al-Ghazali’s thought development, mainly introduced his transformation from rationalism to skepticism to Sufi-mysticism, primarily discussed al-Ghazali’s mysticism. The last part, introduces al-Ghazali’s impact comprehensively, namely points out al-Ghazali’s mysticism have a broad and extensive influence on future generations.