"Manners to be Observed by Teachers and Students," is a volume of the book "The Revival of Religious Learning" written by Abū Ḥāmid Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazālī, better known as al-Ghazālī. On his argument, al-Ghazālī uses a focal point on eighteen duties that in accordance with God, students and teachers should apply to school in order to improve education, ten for the students and eight for the teachers. However, al-Ghazālī does not appear to use any logical nor scientific proof or evidence to support his argument, but his ethos (persuasion through the audience's perception of the speaker). I agree with almost all of al-Ghazālī's beliefs, but there are also some hypotheses that he states that a considerable part of the people will be against or just take them as ambiguous, all of this for the matter that he does not use other concrete facts to strongly support his point of view than his persuasion. Moreover, the passage opens a door for readers to look at situations build upon their own perspective; unfortunately, the real connotation of its ideals can vary or being altered depending on the reader personal experiences.
Considering al-Ghazālī's beliefs, I believe it is easier to reach a better understanding of these passages by comparing them to other writers. In this case, when al-Ghazālī says: "The seventh duty of a student is that he should not take up a new branch of learning till he has learnt fully the previous branch of learning, because it is requisite for the acquisition of knowledge" (al-Ghazālī 27) There is not a more suitable way to assimilate this fragment such as offering a comparison to Mrs. Mary Sherry's proposal, which states that students should be flunked if they does not acquire the necessary knowledge in order to succeed. (Sherry) This fragment made me remember of a personal experience at my first semester in college, ENGL 1301 with a professor which I prefer not to mention his name.
