The link between ethical teachings and economic reasoning is often difficult to find in modern economic science. The reasons lie in both internal and external forces that have influenced the development of economics as a field, a science, and a human endeavor. Virtue economics, in that it places human moral value in rational reasoning on the path to achieve happiness, is fundamental to human well-being like any other human endeavor— it leads to the realization of personal goals and the fulfillment of social obligations. Al-Ghazālī's economic epistemology teaches us that economic endeavors are, in essence, about moral self-preservation, realized by both knowledge and action. While the conventional market economy encourages impersonal economic gains and selfish behavior by maximizing profits, the market from al-Ghazālī's point of view not only coordinates people's interests but also aims to protect the social welfare of the community by creating production forces directed as human needs. This does not imply that the conventional economic models are immoral, but rather that the market economy produces amoral behavioral patterns, and hence delinks ethics from economics on the individual level. This leads us to the following inquiries: what constitutes economic thought, and what is the very nature of human value in this context?

In this work, I aimed to examine al-Ghazālī's legal, ṣūfī, and ethical views through his economic and moral philosophies. This book has focused primarily on his ethical contributions to the field of economic thought in Islamic tradition, al-Ghazālī's understanding of Sharī‘a and fiqh, and his stance on governmental authority in relation to economic conduct. The book's aim is hence threefold. First, it highlights al-Ghazālī's theoretical contributions to economic thought as indispensable to the understanding of the overall development of economic tradition in Islam. Second, it contends that the impartment of (Islamic) ethical teaching extracted from Sharī‘a and al-Ghazālī's economic subjectivity and rooted in his theory of happiness constitute the core of his approach to economic behavior. This latter point has been chronically absent from discussions in modern economic science including contemporary Islamic economics. Third, this book positions al-Ghazālī's economic philosophy in the context of modern economic thought and offers a comparative analysis.