Iman Books

Born in eastern Iran, Abu Hamid al-Ghazali was known as Islam's most gifted scholar. He taught law in Baghdad, but in 1095 resigned and for 12 years wandered the desert as a Sufi mystic. Al-Ghazali is considered the most influential Islamic philosopher of the medieval period, known for reviving mysticism and critiquing rationalism within orthodox Islam. In 1106 he returned to teaching, the most renowned Islamic theologian of his time. His most famous books are Tuhafat al-Falasifa (The Incoherence of the Philosophers) and Ihya al-'Ulum al-Islamia (The Revival of the Religious Sciences).

Translated by W. Montgomery Watt

"Deliverance from Error is the spiritual autobiography of Imam Ghazali, and The Beginning of Guidance, his other work included in this volume, complements his spiritual autobiography and sets out his ideal of how the religious man should order his life from hour to hour and day to day."

Translated by: D. BURRELL & N. DAHER
In this work, here presented in a complete English edition for the first time, the problem of knowing God is confronted in an original and stimulating way. Taking up the Prophet’s teaching that ‘Ninety-nine Beautiful Names’ are truly predicated of God, the author explores the meaning and resonance of each of these divine names, and reveals the functions they perform both in the cosmos and in the soul of the spiritual adept. Although some of the book is rigorously analytical, the author never fails to attract the reader with his profound mystical and ethical insights, which, conveyed in his sincere and straightforward idiom, have made of this book one of the perennial classics of Muslim thought, popular among Muslims to this day.

David Burrell is Theodore M. Hesburgh Professor of Philosophy and Theology at the University of Notre Dame, USA. Nazih Daher is Chairman of the Department of Asian and African Languages at the Foreign Service Institute of the United States Department of State.

Al-Ghazzali (Author), Claud Field (Translator)

The book was originally written by Imam Ghazali in the Persian language. It is a compendium of some chapters of his main work 'Ihya' `Ulum al-Din'. If one consults the corresponding chapters in the Ihya', one would find that many of the arguments presented here also discussed there in details. 'Knowledge of a part is better than ignorance of the whole.' (Abu'l-Feda) 'he spiritual alchemy which operates this change in him, like that which transmutes base metals into gold, is not easily discovered, nor to be found in the house of every old woman. It is to explain that alchemy and its methods of operation that the author has undertaken this work, which he has entitled, The Alchemy of Happiness. Now the treasuries of God, in which this alchemy is to be sought, are the hearts of the prophets, and he who seeks it elsewhere will be disappointed and bankrupt on the day of judgement when he hears the word, 'We have lifted the veil from off thee, and thy sight to-day is keen.' ( From the Introduction by Imam Ghazali) CONTENTS PREFACE INTRODUCTION I. THE KNOWLEDGE OF SELF II. THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD III. THE KNOWLEDGE OF THIS WORLD IV. THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE NEXT WORLD V. CONCERNING MUSIC AND DANCING AS AIDS TO THE RELIGIOUS LIFE · 73 VI. CONCERNING SELF-EXAMINATION AND THE RECOLLECTION OF GOD VII. MARRIAGE AS A HELP OR HINDRANCE TO THE RELIGIOUS LIFE VIII. THE LOVE OF GOD