Al-Ghazali on Disciplining the Soul and on Breaking the Two Desires: Books XXII and XXIII of the Revival of the Religious Sciences

by Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali, T. J. Winter (Translator)

Overview

The spiritual life in Islam begins with riyadat al-nafs, the inner warfare against the ego. Distracted and polluted by worldliness, the lower self has a tendency to drag the human creature down into arrogance and vice. Only by a powerful effort of will can the sincere worshipper achieve the purity of soul which enables him to attain God's proximity.

The Revival of the Religious Sciences details the sophisticated spiritual techniques adopted by classical Islam. In the first step, On Disciplining the Soul, which cites copious anecdotes from the Islamic scriptures and biographies of the saints, Ghazali explains how to acquire good character traits, and goes on to describe how the sickness of the heart may be cured.

Breaking the Two Desires, he focusses on the question of gluttony and sexual desire, concluding, in the words of the Prophet, that 'the best of all matters is the middle way'.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781911141358
Publisher:	Islamic Texts Society
Publication date:	08/01/2017
Series:	Ghazali series
Edition description:	Second edition
Pages:	380
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (d. 505/1111), theologian, logician, jurist and mystic, was born and died in Tus in Central Asia, but spent much of his life lecturing at Baghdad or leading the life of a wandering dervish. His most celebrated work, Revival of the Religious Sciences, has exercised a profound influence on Muslim intellectual history by exploring the mystical significance of the practices and beliefs of Islamic orthodoxy, earning him the title of Hujjat al Islam, the ‘Proof of Islam’.

Read an Excerpt

To proceed. Goodness of character was the attribute of the Master of the Messengers, and was ever the most righteous action of the Truthful Saints [siddiqun]; in truth, it constitutes half the Faith, and is the fruit of the austerities of the pious and the self-discipline of the people of constant worship. Bad character is a mortal poison and a sure path to perdition and humiliating disgrace, open vices and foul practices which set a distance between man and the proximity of the Lord of the World, and induce him to follow the path of Satan the accursed, which matters are the gates opening into God's stoked-up fire, which rises over men's hearts, just as fait characteristics form gates opening from the heart into the delights of Heaven's gardens, and the presence of the Most Compassionate. Foul characteristics are the very sickness of hearts and the diseases of souls, constituting an illness which deprives man of everlasting life, which thing stands no comparison with an illness which causes the loss of the corporeal life alone. For however carefully the physicians may establish the canons by which the body is cured, the ailments with which they deal lead only to the loss of this transient life: it is therefore a matter of greater priority to lay down the canons by which the illness of hearts are treated, such as conduce to the loss of the life eternal. To learn this form of medicine is incumbent upon all men of sense, since there is not a single heart is free of diseases which, were they to be neglected, would redouble in strength, leading to disorders still more frequent and powerful. A bondsman thus needs to meditate in such a way as to learn the origins and causes of these sicknesses, and then to roll up his sleeves to treat them and set them aright. It is this treatment which God (Exalted is He!) indicates when He says, Successful is he that purifies it, and this neglect to which He refers when He says, Thwarted is he that stunts it.
   In this Book we shall indicate a number of sicknesses of the heart, and provide a general discourse on how these are to be treated, without giving details of cures for specific ailments, since these will be set forth in the remaining Books of this Quarter. Our present purpose is to review in an overall fashion how the traits of characteer may be refined, and to provide a preparatory method for this. In the course of this discussion we shall make use of the symbol of the treatment of the body, in order to render the matter more easily understood. This shall be made clear through an Exposition of the Merit which is in having Good Character, which shallbe followed by an Exposition of the True Nature of Good Character, an Exposition of the Susceptibility of the Traits of Character to Change through Discipline, an Exposition of the Means by which Good Character may be Acquired, an Exposition Detailing the Method used in Refining the Character and Disciplining the Soul, an Exposition of the Symptons by which a Disease of the Heart may be Recognised, an Expostion of the Way by which a Man may Discover the Faults in his Soul, an Exposition of Textual Evidence Showing that the Sole Way to cure the Heart is by Renouncing one's Desires, an Exposition of the Signs of Good Character, an Exposition of the Way in which Young Children should be Disciplined, and an Exposition of the Requiremenrts of Aspirancy and the Preliminaries to [Spiritual] Struggle. These constitute eleven Sections, which, God willing, shall gather together the objectives of this book.

Table of Contents

Al-Ghazali's Introduction to the Revival of the Religious Sciences

Preface

Abbreviations

Introduction

Notes to Introduction

The Book of Disciplining the Soul, Refining the Character, and Curing the Sickness of the Heart

  Prologue

  An Exposition of the Merit which is in having Good Character, and a Condemnation of Bad Character

  An Exposition of the True Nature of Good and Bad Character

  An Exposition of the Susceptibility of the Traits of Character to Change through Discipline

  A General Exposition of the Means by which Good Character may be Acquired

  An Exposition Detailing the Method Used in Refining the Character

  An Exposition of the Symptoms by which the Diseases of the Heart may be Recognised, and the Signs which Indicate a Return to Health

  An Exposition of the Way in which a Man may Discover the Faults in his Soul

  An Exposition of Evidence Handed Down from Men of Spiritual Insight and Provided in the Law to the Effect that the Way to Cure the Diseases of the Heart is by Renouncing one's Desires, and that the Stuff of such Diseases is Following Desires

  An Exposition of the Signs of Good Character

  An Exposition of the Way in which Young Children should be Disciplined, and the Manner of their Upbringing and the Improvements of their Characters

  An Exposition of the Requirements of Aspirancy, the Preliminaries to Spiritual Struggle, and the Progressive Induction of the Aspirant in Treading the Path of Discipline

The Book of Breaking the Two Desires

  An Exposition of the Merit of Hunger and a Condemnation of Satiety

  An Exposition of the Benefits of Hunger, and the Evils of Satiety

  An Exposition of the Method by which Discipline of Used to Break the Greed of the Stomach

  An Exposition of the Variance in the Rule and Merit of Hunger in Accordance with the Circumstances of Men

  An Exposition of the Ostentation which may Proceed from the Renunciation of Desirable Foods and from Eating Frugally

  A Discourse on Sexual Desire

  An Exposition of the Aspirant's Obligations Regarding the Renunciation or Contraction of Marriage

  An Exposition of the Merit of him who Counters the Desire of the Sex and the Eye

Notes

Appendix I: Persons cited in text

Appendix II: Translations of the Revival into European languages

Appendix III: The Wonders of the Heart

Bibliography

Index to Qur'anic Quotations

General Index

Editorial Reviews

…the series as a whole, [is] a significant contribution to our understanding of this key figure in Islamic intellectual thought.

BRISMES Bulletin - Oliver Leaman