Imam al-Ghazali's understanding of human ontology and behavior

This study aims to scrutinize Imam Muhammad Al-Ghazali's (d. 1111) understanding of human ontology within a psycho-spiritual system as well as his explanation about the formation of human behavior. It also analyzes the spiritual formation of a human being with presenting certain spiritual constituents which are the reason-intellect ('aql), heart (qalb), spirit (ruh) and self (nafs). The heart, which is the subtle tenuous substance and the essence of the human beings according to Ghazali, is under the influence of both the interactions among these spiritual elements and the external factors like angels, demons and other human beings. Depending on the interactions and influences, this study investigates how and for what reason the psychological state of human beings changes based on the levels of the self (maratibu'l nafs). In light of this, it, then, presents the ideas of Ghazali about how behaviors of human beings are produced and about the motives behind the behaviors. For Ghazali, all the behaviors stem from the heart, so the state of the heart is the essential determinant in behaving in a certain way.