The Marvels of the Heart - Al-Ghazali
CLICK ON THE BOOK COVER TO DOWNLOAD IT
Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali was one of Sunni Islam's most prominent philosophers, theologians, jurists and mystics. His approach to resolving apparent contradictions between reason and revelation was accepted by almost all later Muslim theologians. He had a significant influence on medieval Latin thought through the works of Averroes and also influenced Jewish and Christian scholars. Many Jewish scholars in the Middle Ages knew Arabic, and some of Al-Ghazali's books were translated into Hebrew. Among the Jewish theologians influenced by him, the best known is Maimonides. Among Christians, Al-Ghazali's influence on Saint Thomas Aquinas is well known.
Ihya′ 'Ulum al-Din - The Renaissance of Religious Sciences - is considered the greatest work of Islamic spirituality, and is perhaps the most widely read work in the Muslim world after the Qur'an. It is divided into four parts, each containing ten chapters.
The first part deals with the knowledge and requirements of faith - ritual purity, prayer, charity, fasting, pilgrimage, recitation of the Qur'an, and so on; the second part focuses on people and society - manners relating to food, marriage, sustenance and friendship; the third and fourth parts are dedicated to the inner life of the soul and discuss first the vices that people must overcome in themselves and then the virtues they must strive to achieve.
This is the first translation into Portuguese of the book, “The Marvels of the Heart”, which is the twenty-first book of this masterpiece, or the first book of the third part, and is considered one of the main volumes of The Renaissance of Religious Sciences.
In “The Marvels of the Heart”, Imam Al-Ghazali uses a series of traditional stories from Sufi teachings to illustrate the theme of the heart as a mirror. It is a classic manual on the “science of the heart”, in which the “heart” is more than a piece of flesh; it is the seat of the soul, and holds the key to the intimate relationship that exists between soul and body. The light of the divine sun can only shine in the heart when the seeker remembers the Prophet Muhammad's (saws) teaching that “everything has a polish, and the polish of the hearts is the remembrance of God”. Bad character traits, acquired through a poor upbringing, are like “a smoke that clouds the mirror of the heart”; this is the “rust of the heart” mentioned in the Qur'an. But he who has polished his heart is made luminous by the light of God, bringing that light to others.
Ihya′ 'Ulum al-Din - The Renaissance of Religious Sciences - is considered the greatest work of Islamic spirituality, and is perhaps the most widely read work in the Muslim world after the Qur'an. It is divided into four parts, each containing ten chapters.
The first part deals with the knowledge and requirements of faith - ritual purity, prayer, charity, fasting, pilgrimage, recitation of the Qur'an, and so on; the second part focuses on people and society - manners relating to food, marriage, sustenance and friendship; the third and fourth parts are dedicated to the inner life of the soul and discuss first the vices that people must overcome in themselves and then the virtues they must strive to achieve.
This is the first translation into Portuguese of the book, “The Marvels of the Heart”, which is the twenty-first book of this masterpiece, or the first book of the third part, and is considered one of the main volumes of The Renaissance of Religious Sciences.
In “The Marvels of the Heart”, Imam Al-Ghazali uses a series of traditional stories from Sufi teachings to illustrate the theme of the heart as a mirror. It is a classic manual on the “science of the heart”, in which the “heart” is more than a piece of flesh; it is the seat of the soul, and holds the key to the intimate relationship that exists between soul and body. The light of the divine sun can only shine in the heart when the seeker remembers the Prophet Muhammad's (saws) teaching that “everything has a polish, and the polish of the hearts is the remembrance of God”. Bad character traits, acquired through a poor upbringing, are like “a smoke that clouds the mirror of the heart”; this is the “rust of the heart” mentioned in the Qur'an. But he who has polished his heart is made luminous by the light of God, bringing that light to others.
