Imam Ghazali on Money

In this paper, I explore Imam Ghazali’s concept of money and then extend those concepts to explain his ideas regarding ‘Riba’ (interest). In this paper I examine those aspects of Imam Ghazali’s ideas which were overlooked by previous studies. This paper argues that Imam Ghazali views a particular purpose of money, which involves the medium of exchange and a just unit of account while he criticizes the store of value function of money. I also examine the multiple symbols that Imam Ghazali uses to make the point, for example, money as a just ruler, or a mirror that reflects light but has no light of its own. This enables us to further elucidate the crux of Imam Ghazali’s argument which is that money loses its essential nature when store of wealth function become predominant. I also examine the text of the most important passages related to money in Imam Ghazali’s work to support the main arguments in the paper.