Love and faith in al- Ghazali's view

When we hear or see the word “love�, automatically comes to mind the image of soft spring days and golden enchantment of romantic relationships, beautiful friendship among people, or all warmth found in a family's caring that surrounds us. The belief of love can bring a sense of goodness into our life. It is the ultimate and largest power of all. In Islamic point of view, love has a significant role in defining the relation between God and the whole universe in general and between God and mankind in particular. We can find the trace of His presence in the sweetness of love. In Islamic world, love plays such a very significant role toward the Muslim’s faith. Love and faith, the relationship between these two things is such a very strong relation. That is why, this thesis discuss about the relationship between love and faith, especially the Divine love brought by al- Ghaz�lī. This thesis aims to explain about al- Ghaz�lī’s concept of love and faith and to know the relation between both concepts and its impact toward human beings, especially those people who consider them selves “The Faithfull�. To get to those aims, kind of research that will be used here is a library research with a descriptive-analytic method and textual analytic approach. From the completion of this research, it can be concluded that love gives a very great impact toward human beings’ faith, and, it is the principle of faith, because faith only comes when a person voluntarily commits himself to accept articles of faith and does not refuse to follow them. In other words, the faith is there only when one loves the religious beliefs and not just when one comes to know them. Furthermore, when one loves God and Islam as his religion, he will always try to be a better person in God and will not do something bad toward others especially in the name of God or Islam. Because indeed, God is the Greatest Lover, and those who love God will love Him and everything He created. Finally, the completion of this research is expected to provide the real meaning of love and faith by which can effect to human beings’ action and life. And further, it also hoped to help people to have a better understanding toward Islam and its followers. And hopefully, can contribute for the growing of the literature on the issues related to the topic