Al-Ghazali on Vigilance and Self-examination: Book XXXVIII of the Revival of the Religious Sciences (The Islamic Texts Society's al-Ghazali Series)

I thought I had a good grasp in English reading however, it was too hard for me to read.Please don’t let me put you off, I’m used to reading stories etc that flow in a sequence so it was hard for me to keep my focus.Having said that, I will still read this as I have been told it is a good read to educate oneself in spirituality.

‘The guides of the way are those who possess knowledge (‘ulama’) who are heirs of the prophets. This age is devoid of them and those who remain are impersonators; most have been overpowered by the devil and been led astray by iniquity. Each one is engrossed with his earthly gain; he sees what is right as objectionable and what is objectionable right….’ This is from Ghazali’s - (1058 -1111) introduction to his masterly ‘The revival of the Religious Sciences’. Aquinas’s (1225-1274) ‘Summa’ is on a comparative scale, and shares with Ghazali’s ‘Ihya’ the wish to clarify, for example: the Ihya acknowledges contemporary material which is equally both spiritual and practical, ‘seeking to simplify what appears complicated, it organizes what is scattered and systematizes what is disparate, summarises and affirms, and deletes what is repeated and corroborates what is sound, and clarifies ambiguous matters,’ and an important one for Ghazali was the teachings of the Sufis which were often seen – and still are, as contentious if not heretical. Stylistically they are quite different, although written for equivalent audiences, with Aquinas being scholastically formal, and Ghazali referring as much to oral traditions as to scripture in the form of the Qur’an. In the Mathnawi of Rumi (1207-1273) – who theologically followed Ghazali, we find the same use of oral traditions. The ‘Qur’an in Persian’ as it is sometimes referred to, does contain the traditional references to the Prophet Mohammed, the Companions, and the Qur’an, but also many stories with which the audience would have been familiar.This is Book 38, the section entitled ‘the quarter of the saving virtues.’ Compared to other Books in this ‘quarter’ Book 38 has only 6 chapters, compared with 17 for Book 32, and 19 for Book 36. The ‘self examination’ referred to is in fact the regulative scrutiny of the soul by the intellect, because that is how the soul will be scrutinized on the Day of Judgement, so the vigilance part refers to the vigilance of the Intellect. In Plato, we find that it is reason that regulates the soul, and like Ghazali, Plato argues that if the soul is allowed to roam unrestrained, it will create all sorts of problems for itself, and in both Plato’s and Ghazali’s perspective’s, will bring upon itself severe judgments with their corresponding punishments. Of course, there are limits to how far one can make comparisons, and Islam, for example had adopted Aristotle’s hylomorphic concept that a person was a soul and a body, whereas the pre-Aristotelian Plato, like his contemporaries, saw soul and body as separate. But both are emphatic about the importance of reason in relation to action, save that the soul would become ruled by appetite and desire. The last chapter is a collection of apposite anecdotes, but ‘story’ has a similar teaching function to a dictum: ‘There is no good in ephemeral good. On the contrary an ephemeral evil is better than an ephemeral good, because once the ephemeral evil ceases an enduring joy comes with the interruption – the evil having ended, Whereas the ephemeral good, once interrupted, becomes continual regret once the good ends.’ (p. 6) The tongue, it is said is loose by nature and yet it was created for praising God, and guiding others. A loose tongue is a trouble-maker, may be like a trolling tongue on Twitter or Facebook, so how may the tongue be disciplined? And that is just the physical tongue, what about the tongue in the head, or even the tongue in the heart? ‘Shibli entered upon Abu al-Husayn al-Nuri, who was in retreat. He found him tranquil and good company. Nothing about him seemed to move. He asked him, ‘How did you acquire such vigilance and repose?’ ‘From a cat we used to own. Whenever it wanted to hunt, it stood poised upon a rock without a hair moving.’ (p. 19)The vigilance of the Intellect clearly has two aspects of action; the first is in the present, where intention apart (see Book 37 of the Ihya), some inner faculty gives assent to an action – or conversely, does not give assent, as opposed to a natural reflex action. We normally refer to this faculty as discrimination. So while Socrates might say will this potential action be of benefit to my soul and the souls of others? Ghazali might say, will it be of benefit to God? The second aspect uses memory, and will always therefore be retrospective. If history is to enable us to learn from the past, then both the ‘good and bad’ that lies in our past, is something we can learn from. Ghazali is very clear about the dangers of introspection (chapter 6) A word that Ghazali uses frequently, is striving, because vigilance is an aspect of striving. The Arabic word is jihad, but the principle that often seems totally forgotten in our modern day connotations with the word, is what it originally meant; it was all about getting one’s own house in order before one even started looking at another’s.Nothing, it is said, is hidden from God. Socrates says that an unexamined life is not worth living; the whole of this book endorses that viewpoint. Book 39 of the Ihya is just on Reflection, and has not, to my knowledge, is available in a sound English translation. Excellent, and totally relevant today.

This whole series is great. Must have for every household. Very accessible English translation for those who are not fortunate enough to understand Arabic. I wouldnt pay more than £10 for this book.

Love these books!

Great practice in a hectic time

Ghazali was such a genius !

Highly recommended.

Very good

I love it. I bought it on black friday I think.I am so glad I did.Just started reading it. Finished chapter one.It was amazing.

Very powerful chapter of Ihya, amazing reminder for mankind. Simple and powerful, easy to read and invites to ponder upon.

If one is serious about reforming ones self, this is one of the great books to make clear how to so.