The Concept of Personality by Imam Al-Ghazali

1. Al-Ghazali’s Concept of Happiness

The concept of happiness from the view of Imam Al-Ghazali is divided into type of happiness
which is happiness and perfect happiness. Happiness can be attained in this world and may be
attained in the next by faithful and mindful observance. Whilst, the perfect happiness only can
be attained to the fully realized soul in the hereafter. Thus, happiness was the key feature of
Al-Ghazali’s concept of personality.

Al-Ghazali mentioned that the more balanced the personality, the more happiness the
personality can experience as a result of its own condition and not of external contingencies.
We may can says that it was the result or the effect in the regard of the cause which refer to
the condition of the personality. We are happy or not is depends on our personality. Thus, the
pursuit of happiness in this sense is legitimate for Al-Ghazali.

In the Quran the division of happiness consist of two aspects. Therefore, Al-Ghazali follow the
concept of happiness that constitutes in the Quran which is a negative and positive aspects.
The pleasure of this world is the negative aspect of happiness. According to Al-Ghazali, this
world is just a market-place passed through by the worshipper or traveler on their way to the
next world. But sometimes the attainment of pleasure without guidance and limitation cause
people sometimes forget his objective in this world and become deceived by worldly desire or
love world (hubbud dunya).

The excessive desire or love of this world will make the soul remain disgrace after the death.
However, Al-Ghazali do not reject all the form of pleasure in this world because pleasure is
nature (fitrah) for all human being. The attainment of knowledge and good deed is considered
as pleasure and also the enjoyment of marriage, basic needs such as food, clothing and other
things are good as long as it helps man to attain to the next world. Thus, the true concept of
happiness for Al-Ghazali is the happiness of the world of hereafter (sa’adah al-ukhrawiyyah).

In this sense, Islam expressed the term of happiness as sa’adah which relates to the hereadter
and to the present world. This essential to realized that the contrary concept of happiness
(sa’adah) is shaqawah which means as a tragedy or misery in life. The happiness of the world
of hereafter is ultimate happiness and the true happiness which is everlasting the bliss or
pleasure that promised by God to those who in worldly life is followed the command of God
with willing submission and conscious of what commanded by God and what prohibited by
Him. According to Muhammad Syed Naquib Al-Attas in his book ‘Prolegomena Metaphysics
in Islam’, the relation of sa’adah and the hereafter is a close related and connected with its
relation to the present world, which it relates to the self (nafsiyyah); to the body (badaniyyah)
such as good health and security; and to things external to the self and body (kharijiyyah) such
as wealth or other cause that promote the well being of the self, body, the external things and
circumstances that related to them.

The deliverance of the soul is when one is dies. Both body and soul are constituted in man and
the death means all the bodily parts of man is incapacity to function. The part of man body is
the tools of spirit consist of science, the pains and the pleasure of happiness may not be
extinguished. Therefore, what Al-Ghazali are trying to tell us is man’s soul constitutes man’s
real and it alone is immortal.

In the world of hereafter, Al-Ghazali explain that man can achieve the highest level of
happiness when man reach the vision of God which is direct knowledge of Him. He describes
the vision of God as the greatest pleasure which make man forget the delights of Paradise.
Thus, to reach at this level, the fulfillment of the divine commandments is a necessary
requirement to deserve it.

This is consistent with the concept of optimism that the Prophet Muhammad ‫ ﷺ‬encourage
Muslim to hold. Human are imperfect and doing a sin, but man must always ask for the
forgiveness of Allah, for His mercy upon all that He has made. Believe in the attribution of
God which is merciful, and man have to be positive and optimistic, hope that God may be
merciful during in this present world and hereafter.

Therefore, to attain the true happiness one must have a correct knowledge of one’s self. Al-
Ghazali emphasize that knowledge of self is the key to the knowledge of God. "He who knows
himself knows God”. In this sense, Soul is the key for those who walk on the right path (siraat
al-mustaqim) and the place for the seat of goodness and badness.
The big question is here, how to attain this real happiness before reach the direct knowledge
of Him. The critical analysis here is we have to discuss about the free will of man because the
good personality which is the key features of happiness is measured through the action of man.
To get something we must do something first to be the cause of our action and decision because
that is depends on our choice. Thus, we need to choose and put our effort (ikhtiyar) but ikhtiyar
does not simply mean ‘choice’. The terminology of word khayr meaning ‘good’, when it is
bound with the meaning of ikhtiyar with the same root, so the determination of our choice
meant towards what is good.

The human nature tends to do good and it is fitrah. By doing good we feel happy and it cannot
be denied. So, a so-called ‘choice’ towards bad things is not a choice because it against the
nature of our personality and good character. Thus, the freedom is to act as our real and true
nature demands. The ‘choice’ for the worse is not a choice because it is based on ignorance
and desire of the animal soul. In this regard, according to Al-Ghazali, the most important aspect
that we must take into consideration are knowledge, action, purification of the soul, spiritual
development and ethics.

2. Al-Ghazali’s Spiritual Training

Spiritual is close related and connect with heart (Qalb). It is narrated by Abu Huraira, the
Prophet Muhammad ‫ ﷺ‬said, there is a piece of flesh in the body if it becomes good (reformed)
the whole body becomes good but if it gets spoilt the whole body gets spoilt and that is the
heart. The heart supposed to seek knowledge and wisdom and be mindful of God. Hence, when
man’s heart which has been created to be mindful of God and to love God, but is supposed by
something dearer to him than God, means that man put others entity more priority than God, it
is sick. Al-Ghazali says that is the disease of heart and hard to cure.

To discover the fault of heart and soul, Al-Ghazali list several ways and it constitute the
practice of self-examination (muhasabah). The ways by which man may discover the faults of
his heart or soul is as follows: -

i. One may ask advice of a true shaykh who can see the hidden weakness of his soul.
ii. Through a religious friend who can observe and comments on his faults.
iii. Consult with one who can know the weaknesses through his enemies. For Al-Ghazali,
man should accept and derive the benefit from the criticism of his enemies rather that
from his friend because friend may not reveal our true faults.
iv. One can notice his fault by observing those of others.

Throughout these ways, it is the highest degree of self-discipline. However, those who want
to give a criticism or comment on one’s soul, the ability of doing with the intuition and
metaphysics is needed because to know something beyond our mind and physical we must
have clean heart.

In this regard, for us to develop a good character, we must educate our self and soul to be
mindful that God create us naturally with a good soul that can happiness by doing a good
thing. The consistency of our character and goodness can be achieve by always asking the
advice from the right person with the right intention.

CONCLUSION
Self-discipline is essential to train and develop a good personality since we know how to
balance our desire to what essential, complement and embellishment for us and fulfill the
command of God. To have a good character, there are four interrelated faculties which
must be in balance and correct proposition to each other.

The faculties is the rational faculty which is the ability to distinguish and discriminates or
it refer to the wisdom; the irascible faculty which is refer to courage and it moves within
the boundaries of wisdom, if a man does not have a wisdom the courage must tend to evil;
the appetitive faculty which is temperance and according to Al-Ghazali it incline towards
vice; and the last is faculty that equilibrium between these three which brings the other
three faculties under the command of the wisdom intellect and shari’ah of the religion and
lawgiver. Thus, in developing a good personality, the good character is wisdom, courage,
temperance and justice.

To be conclude, to attain the true happiness, the relationship of man to God is the most
essential and significant because it will determine the human behavior relationship with
everything in this universe. The quality of human personality is depending on the
relationship man to God that bring to the true happiness in the hereafter