Imam Ghazālī’s Tomb At The Outskirts Of Tus

Imam Al Ghazali’s (q) Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm Al-Dīn

The Revival of the Religious Sciences (Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn) is widely regarded as the greatest work of Muslim spirituality, and is perhaps the most read work in the Muslim world, after the Qurʾān.

The Revival of the Religious Sciences is divided into four parts, each containing ten chapters. Part one deals with knowledge and the requirements of faith—ritual purity, prayer, charity, fasting, pilgrimage, recitation of the Qurʾān, and so forth; part two concentrates on people and society—the manners related to eating, marriage, earning a living, and friendship; parts three and four are dedicated to the inner life of the soul and discuss first the vices that people must overcome in themselves and then the virtues that they must strive to achieve. Below we list the contents of the book, English translations, and links to printed editions in the original Arabic.

Imam al-Ghazālī, also spelled al-Ghazzālī, in full Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ṭūsī al-Ghazālī, (born 1058, Ṭūs, Iran—died December 18, 1111, Ṭūs), Muslim theologian and mystic whose great work, Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīnIḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn (“The Revival of the Religious Sciences”), made Sufism (Islamic mysticism) an acceptable part of orthodox Islam.

Al-Ghazālī was born at Ṭūs (near Mashhad in eastern Iran) and was educated there, then in Jorjān, and finally at Nishapur (Neyshābūr), where his teacher was al-Juwaynī, who earned the title of imām al-ḥaramayn (the imam of the two sacred cities of Mecca and Medina). After the latter’s death in 1085, al-Ghazālī was invited to go to the court of Niẓām al-Mulk, the powerful vizier of the Seljuq sultans. The vizier was so impressed by al-Ghazālī’s scholarship that in 1091 he appointed him chief professor in the Niẓāmiyyah college in Baghdad. While lecturing to more than 300 students, al-Ghazālī was also mastering and criticizing the Neoplatonist philosophies of al-Fārābī and Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā). He passed through a spiritual crisis that rendered him physically incapable of lecturing for a time. In November 1095 he abandoned his career and left Baghdad on the pretext of going on pilgrimage to Mecca. Making arrangements for his family, he disposed of his wealth and adopted the life of a poor Sufi, or mystic. After some time in Damascus and Jerusalem, with a visit to Mecca in November 1096, al-Ghazālī settled in Ṭūs, where Sufi disciples joined him in a virtually monastic communal life. In 1106 he was persuaded to return to teaching at the Niẓāmiyyah college at Nishapur. A consideration in this decision was that a “renewer” (mujaddid) of the life of Islam was expected at the beginning of each century, and his friends argued that he was the “renewer” for the century beginning in September 1106. He continued lecturing in Nishapur at least until 1110, when he returned to Ṭūs, where he died the following year.

More than 400 works are ascribed to al-Ghazālī, but he probably did not write nearly so many. Frequently the same work is found with different titles in different manuscripts, but many of the numerous manuscripts have not yet been carefully examined. Several works have also been falsely ascribed to him, and others are of doubtful authenticity. At least 50 genuine works are extant.

Al-Ghazālī’s greatest work is Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn. In 40 “books” he explained the doctrines and practices of Islam and showed how these can be made the basis of a profound devotional life, leading to the higher stages of Sufism, or mysticism. The relation of mystical experience to other forms of cognition is discussed in Mishkāt al-anwār (The Niche for Lights). Al-Ghazālī’s abandonment of his career and adoption of a mystical, monastic life is defended in the autobiographical work al-Munqidh min al-ḍalāl (The Deliverer from Error).

His philosophical studies began with treatises on logic and culminated in the Tahāfut al-falāsifah (The Inconsistency—or Incoherence—of the Philosophers), in which he defended Islam against such philosophers as Avicenna who sought to demonstrate certain speculative views contrary to accepted Islamic teaching. (See Islamic philosophy for more on these philosophers.) In preparation for this major treatise, he published an objective account of Maqāṣid al-falāsifah (The Aims of the Philosophers; i.e., their teachings). This book was influential in Europe and was one of the first to be translated from Arabic to Latin (12th century).

Most of his activity was in the field of jurisprudence and theology. Toward the end of his life he completed a work on general legal principles, al-Mustaṣfā (Choice Part, or Essentials). His compendium of standard theological doctrine (translated into Spanish), al-Iqtiṣād fī al-iʿtiqād (The Just Mean in Belief ), was probably written before he became a mystic, but there is nothing in the authentic writings to show that he rejected these doctrines, even though he came to hold that theology—the rational, systematic presentation of religious truths—was inferior to mystical experience. From a similar standpoint he wrote a polemical work against the militant sect of the Assassins (Nizārī Ismāʿīliyyah), and he also wrote (if it is authentic) a criticism of Christianity, as well as a book of Counsel for Kings (Naṣīḥat al-mulūk).

Al-Ghazālī’s abandonment of a brilliant career as a professor in order to lead a kind of monastic life won him many followers and critics among his contemporaries. Western scholars have been so attracted by his account of his spiritual development that they have paid him far more attention than they have other equally important Muslim thinkers. (Source Encyclopedia Britannica)

Language: Arabic

كتاب إحياء علوم الدين
حجة الإسلام

الإمام أبي حامد الغزالي

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم وبه نستعين

وهو أبو حامد محمد بن محمد بن محمد الغزالي الطوسي

تغمده الله برحمته

ومعه تخريج الحافظ العراقي رحمه الله

المغني عن حمل الأسفار في الأسفار في تخريج ما في الإحياء من الأخبار

الحمد لله الذي تتم به الصالحات، والصلاة والسلام على رسول الله المبعوث رحمة للعالمين، وآله الطيبين وصحبه الكرام. أما بعد فهذه أوج مؤلفات حجة الإسلام أبي حامد الغزالي، كتاب إحياء علوم الدين نقدمه لأول مرة على شبكة الإنترنت. وهو صدقة جارية لوجهه تعالى. والكتاب غني عن التعريف، وجدير بالذكر أن كتاب إحياء علوم الدين يحتوي على الآتي:

المقدمة نسخة على ملف ورد فيها شرح المؤلف خطة الكتاب وسبب التأليف

الربع الأول : ربع العبادات

الربع الثاني : ربع العادات

كتاب آداب الأكل وهو الكتاب الأول من ربع العادات
(نسخه مدققة) – كتاب آداب النكاح وهو الكتاب الثاني من ربع العادات (مدقق)
كتاب آداب الكسب والمعاش وهو الكتاب الثالث من ربع العادات
كتاب الحلال والحرام وهو الكتاب الرابع من ربع العادات
كتاب أداب الألفة والأخوة والصحبة والمعاشرة مع أصناف الخلق وهو الكتاب الخامس من ربع العادات
كتاب آداب العزلة وهو الكتاب السادس من ربع العادات
كتاب آداب السفر وهو الكتاب السابع من ربع العادات
كتاب آداب السماع والوجد وهو الكتاب الثامن من ربع العادات
كتاب الأمر بالمعروف والنهي عن المنكر وهو الكتاب التاسع من ربع العادات
كتاب آداب المعيشة وأخلاق النبوة وهو الكتاب العاشر من ربع العادات

الربع الثالث : ربع المهلكات

الربع الرابع : ربع المنجيات

Imam Al Ghazali’s (q) Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm Al-Dīn

The Revival of the Religious Sciences (Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn) is widely regarded as the greatest work of Muslim spirituality, and is perhaps the most read work in the Muslim world, after the Qurʾān.

Language: Arabic

كتاب إحياء علوم الدين
حجة الإسلام

الإمام أبي حامد الغزالي

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Imam Al Ghazali’s (q) Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm Al-Dīn

The Revival of the Religious Sciences (Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn) is widely regarded as the greatest work of Muslim spirituality, and is perhaps the most read work in the Muslim world, after the Qurʾān.

Language: Arabic

كتاب إحياء علوم الدين حجة الإسلام

الإمام أبي حامد الغزالي

Find us on Facebook

Or Contact us via email

كتاب إحياء علوم الدين
حجة الإسلام