Salams, First: The film was made by a convert to Islam, Abdul Latif Salazar, with the collaboration of Shaykh Hamza Yusuf Hanson and Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad, among others. Secondly, it's related in the film that Al-Ghazali made arrangments with his brother and through financial means, that his family be looked after during his absence. He didn't truly abandon them, he just went into a sort of 'extended retreat from the World'. He did eventually return to them, before the end of his life and did try and pass on his accumulated knowledge and wisdom to his family, as well as his students. In fact, he wrote a short treatise titled 'My Dear, Beloved Son' to his own son, trying to provide some lasting spiritual guidance for him. Anywho... See ya on the flipside, Tempest Desh