AL-GHAZALI'S THOUGHTS ON AMAR MAKRUF NAHI MUNKAR (AMNM) AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT IN IHYA’ ‘ULUM AL-DIN

This article discusses al-Ghazali's thoughts on the method of amar makruf nahi munkar (AMNM) against the government. The purpose of this discussion is to understand the method employed by al-Ghazali to call rulers to goodness and prevent them from evil. This is because, a good government will enhance peacefulness and prosperity of the country as well as the community. To achieve this goal, the method of content analysis is conducted on the text of his essay which is Kitab al-Amr bi al-Ma’ruf wa al-Nahy ‘an al-Munkar which is also one of the topics in Kitab Ihya’ ‘Ulum al-Din. He proposed four approaches, namely al-ta’rif, al-wa’z, al-takhshin fi al-qawl and al-man’ bi al-qahr. The four methods are not directly stated by him. Thus, this paper describes the four methods and found that al-Ghazali viewed AMNM against the government is possible with all the methods mentioned except al-man’ bi al-qahr.