Abū Hāmid Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazālī (1058 - 19 December 1111) (Farsi ابو حامد محمد بن محمد الغزالى, also sometimes spelled al-Ghazzali, Latinized Algazelus or Algazel), was born and died in Tus, in the Khorasan province of Persia (modern day Iran). He was a Muslim theologian, jurist, philosopher, cosmologist, physician, psychologist and mystic of Persian origin, and remains one of the most celebrated scholars in the history of Sufi Islamic thought.
Al-Ghazzali's[1] view that scientific investigation and religious belief could not co-exist, and that religion must supersede, dominated the Muslim world in an alternate where the Great Black Deaths killed 80% of the population of Europe. This partially explained why that particular alternate never developed the Scientific and the Industrial Revolutions, and was still in the Middle Ages in 2096.[2]
Al-Ghazali's teaching that scientific inquiry was agreeable to Allah was generally believed to be one of the main reasons why Islam brought modernity to the world, while ChristianEurope struggled to emerge from the Middle Ages.
Although the doctrine that Muhammad was the Seal of the Prophets ensured that no one who lived in a later century could claim prophet status, Al-Ghazali came close to it in the minds of many.
Conversely, the Italian philosopher Thomas Aquinas taught that scientific investigation and religious belief could not co-exist, and that religion must supersede. This was a large factor in Europe's retardation.
