Mustafa Abu-Sway was born in 1958 in Amman, Jordan, and began his academic formation at Bethlehem University before pursuing graduate study at Boston College, where his doctoral research examined the development of al-Ghazali's theory of knowledge across the full span of his writings. That early project has remained the center of gravity in a career that has since moved between continents and disciplines. He has held teaching posts at the International Islamic University Malaysia, served as Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence at the Wilkes Honors College of Florida Atlantic University, and taught as a visiting professor of Islamic Studies at Bard College in New York.

Since returning to the region in which much of the intellectual history he studies unfolded, Abu-Sway has been based at Al-Quds University in Jerusalem, where he holds the rank of Associate Professor of Philosophy and Islamic Studies and directs the university's Islamic Research Center. In recognition of his standing as a specialist on al-Ghazali, he was appointed the first holder of the Integral Chair for the Study of al-Ghazali's Work, a position jointly maintained by al-Masjid al-Aqsa and Al-Quds University. He also serves as a Senior Fellow of the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought in Amman, an institution engaged in classical and contemporary Islamic scholarship, and his contributions to public religious discourse have led to his repeated inclusion among the five hundred most influential Muslims in the world.

Abu-Sway's scholarship sits at the intersection of Islamic philosophy, theology, and intellectual history, with a sustained interest in how medieval Muslim thinkers defined the boundaries and sources of reliable knowledge. His work draws on primary Arabic texts rather than secondary literature wherever possible, a methodological commitment reflected throughout this study's approach to al-Ghazali's corpus. He has lectured widely across the Middle East, Europe, North America, and Southeast Asia on Islamic theology, comparative religion, and the history of Islamic ideas, and he is regarded as one of the foremost living authorities on the intellectual biography of al-Ghazali.