Al-Ghazali The Book of Contemplation (Ihya Ulumuddin Series No. 39)
Author: Imām Al-Ghazali
Translator: Muhammad Isa Waley
Publisher: Fons Vitae Publishing
Year of Publication: 2021
Print Length: 176 pages
Genre: Islamic Studies / Quranic Studies; Theology, Ethics and Philosophy; Science, Reflection & Self-Development; Qur’anic Reflection, Supplication & Prayers; Non-Fiction / Religious Studies
Topic: Allah ﷻ, Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, Islam, Qur’an, Human Nature & Character, Human Psyche, Islamic Psyche, Mindfulness, Ethics & Morality, Spirituality
The Book of Contemplation is the thirty-ninth of the forty Books of The Revival of the Religious Sciences (Ihya’ ‘ulum al-din) and the very last to appear in English translation. Abu Hamid al-Ghazali’s purpose in this Book is to explain the nature and importance of contemplation, or reflection, as an act that enriches the thinking person with increased knowledge of, and wonder at, the Creator and His creation.
In Part 1, he defines and introduces the subject, explaining its importance with reference to the Qur’an, Hadiths, and sayings of wise and pious Muslims. In Part 2, he expounds his own highly original views as to the nature and fruits of contemplation. Part 3 offers detailed guidance on the most appropriate and beneficial subjects for reflection, some relating to human traits and actions and others to Divine Attributes and Actions. In Part 4, he explores in detail aspects of God’s creation, which, when viewed with an observant eye and considered with a worshipful heart, are full of wonders and offer an inexhaustible scope for reflection—from the artistry of the spider and bee to the unimaginable vastness of the heavens, which themselves are dwarfed by what lies beyond them.
Table of Contents
Preface by Hamza Yusuf
Translator’s Introduction
THE BOOK OF CONTEMPLATION
1. Preface
2. The merit of contemplation
3. An exposition of the true nature and fruits of contemplation
4. Means and subjects for contemplation
Conclusion
Bibliography
Indices:
Index of Qur’ānic Verses
Index of Hadiths and Purported Hadiths
Index of Names and Places
Index of Works
Index of Concepts, Terms, and Objects
About the Translator
Imām Abu Hamid al-Ghazali is a 11th century Muslim scholar. He was one of the most prominent and influential philosophers, theologians, jurists, and mystics of Sunni 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). He was active at a time when Sunni theology had just passed through its consolidation and entered a period of intense challenges from Shiite Ismâ’îlite theology and the Arabic tradition of Aristotelian philosophy (falsafa). Al-Ghazâlî understood the importance of falsafa and developed a complex response that rejected and condemned some of its teachings, while it also allowed him to accept and apply others. His great work, Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn or Ihya Ulumuddin (“The Revival of the Religious Sciences”), made Sufism (Islamic mysticism) an acceptable part of orthodox Islam.
Source: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/al-ghazali/
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Muhammad Isa Waley is a British editor, translator and researcher specialising in the literature of Muslim spirituality in Arabic, Persian and Turkish, and also in Islamic manuscript studies. He has an MA in Oriental Studies from the University of Cambridge and a PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London. He has worked for 45 years as Curator for Persian and Turkish collection, initially at the British Museum and then at the British Library, London. His main research specializations are (i) the classical verse and prose literature of Islamic spirituality in Persian, Arabic, and Turkish; and (ii) the palaeography, codicology, illumination and cataloguing of Islamic manuscripts. He has written, contributed to, or translated a number of publications in these fields. The subject of his Ph.D. thesis was the poetry of Jalal al-Din Rumi.
Source: https://themaydan.com/bio/muhammad-isa-waley/
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