Muhammad al-Ghazali

Shaykh Muhammad al-Ghazali, a contemporary Islamic writer, who wrote "Islam and Socialist Methods." The preface to the edition says he wrote it in 1947 as a sequel to his earlier book "Islam and Economic Conditions" ^{1 2}.

This entry does not record his dates of birth or death, because the book in hand does not give them. The entry awaits two independent sources before they are added.

The Sheikh relates that Sheikh al-Ghazali said, a month before his death, that seventy-one years earlier he had asked his father the very same question (needs_source) ³.

He recounts that after forty-two years in the call to God al-Ghazali remembered his simple father, who knew little of religion, telling him to cling to the heavens with both hands (needs_source) ⁴.

He says that the Sheikh's father was a grocer, and then begins to tell his story ⁵.

He says the grocer sold bread, soap, oil and sugar, and that he travelled from a village in Beheira governorate to Alexandria in the 1920s, some ninety years earlier (needs_source) ⁶.

He relates that every Friday he would close his shop in the village and take the train to buy the week's goods and then return, and that thieves once followed him (needs_source) ⁷.

He says that when he got down at the Alexandria station he put his hand in his pocket and did not find his wallet (needs_source) ⁸.

He notes that there were no telephones or means of communication in that time ⁹. He relates that the man looked up to the sky and prayed, saying that the week's goods would not be bought and that was no matter, but asking how he would get back to Beheira (needs_source) ⁹.

He says the thief opened the wallet, found the identity card in it, and threw it away (needs_source) ¹⁰.

He says that ten pounds folded in a secret pocket were not found by the thief, who threw the wallet away in haste (needs_source) ¹¹.