al-Ghazzali Recitation of the Quran (Great Books of the Islamic World)

The works of al-Ghazzali speak to the Muslim world today including the work presented here that is a chapter of his Revival of the Religious Sciences Muslims want to know what religious scholars of the past have said about the Prophet's tradition referring to the prohibition of interpreting the Quran according to one's own personal opinion. Al-Ghazzali explains that the tradition so clearly in this work that the argument is over for anyone to whom the Quran asks: Will you not then be reasonable? Al-Ghazzali asks: Was this tradition to discourage independent understanding or to be something other than these? He says, It is clearly wrong to suppose that the intent and purpose was to limit our understanding of the Quran to only that which was heard and received from an authority. This is wrong for at least four reasons. Readers will be very surprised by the four reasons he gives.