Al-Ghazālī's writings on economic thought are generally regarded as technical and highly structured yet, overall, his work on economic philosophy is closely associated with the place of the human in the universe and hence with ethical cosmology ground in concepts such as kasb, faqr, and zuhd. This chapter weaves through some of the technical aspects of his argument, starting with an analysis of al-Ghazālī's approach to Sharī‘a through the mechanism of maṣlaḥa and his understanding of fiqh as an ethical category. He views Sharī‘a as a moral system related to a particular conceptualization of economic thought, which he links to an ethics of happiness. Next, this chapter segues into a discussion of how al-Ghazālī's economic thought was part of the science of the hereafter, one imbued with a moral understanding of the universe. For him, exercising righteous economic engagements would lead to eternal happiness and divine truth, and would encompass both reason and knowledge, the outer (ẓāhir) and the inner (bāṭin), actions of the body (‘amal) and knowledge (‘ilm). The latter sections of this chapter— namely the third, fourth, and fifth sections— interrogate major postulates, divisions, and definitions of economic mechanisms such as just conduct, the division of labor and development of markets, and the role of wealth, respectively. Finally, this chapter concludes with an introduction to al-Ghazālī's take on governmental authority and the institution of ḥisba as a moral institution.

Al-Ghazālī believed ethics advocate a balanced approach to one's life— fluctuating between the here and the hereafter— in managing worldly affluences and aiming for spiritual uplift. In the context of ethical-economic literature, he presented the culmination of the kasb-zuhd amalgam. Ethical principles are attained not only by learning (rational discourse) but also by introspection and training of the heart (intuition) to be applied in everyday life. This approach hence resorts to both ṣūfī and philosophical traditions, and forms the gist of the science of the hereafter in Iḥyā’. In delineating economic propositions, al-Ghazālī's economic teachings refer to and build upon the science of the hereafter as a virtue ethics to attain eternal happiness. Since it is impossible to discern al-Ghazālī's economic thought from his ṣūfī, philosophical, or more jurisprudential writings, in the next section, I take a closer look at Sharī‘a as an ethical system and a moral law, as well as his stance toward it.