ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates the biography of Muhammad al-Ghazali to provide a context to better understand his thought. Muhammad al-Ghazali was born in 1917 in the village of Nakhla al-a'nab, Beheira, amid ongoing tumultuous events affecting Egypt. Problems plaguing Egyptian society were addressed in an intellectual framework inspired by the comprehensive nature of Islam, similar to the Muslim Brotherhood's own conception, and according to the ethos of social justice. However, in a collection of essays that were published in a single work, Min huna nalam, al-Ghazali defended the comprehensiveness of Islam and frankly agreed with some of the positions of his fellow Azhari although he disagreed profoundly on their causes. Al-Ghazali's perusal publically endorses the key argument, urging Muslims to recognise the legitimate rights of women to take part in the public life of the Muslim community. Success at the ballot box in elections demonstrated and allowed democratic participation on the part of Brotherhood by an otherwise authoritarian regime.
