Al-Ghazali on Poverty and Abstinence: Book XXXIV of the Revival of the Religious Sciences (Ihya’ ‘Ulum al-Din)

DescriptionAl-Ghazali on Poverty and Abstinence the thirty-fourth chapter of the Revival of the Religious Sciences (Ihya Ulum al-Din), which is widely regarded as the greatest work of Muslim spirituality. In Al-Ghazali Poverty and Abstinence, Abu Hamid al-Ghazali considers two themes dear to Islamic devotional literature: poverty and abstinence. Taking his example the Prophet’s love for the poor, Ghazali explains that poverty not simply an accidental state of destitution that might befall anyone but rather an inner acceptance of the Will of God and form of abstinence for His sake. Thus the life of poverty and abstinence described by Ghazali. Al-Ghazali on Poverty and Abstinence refers to what every devoted follower of the Prophet is meant to adopt whatever his or her outer state may be. This volume also includes translation of Imam Ghazali’s own Intro duction to the Revival of the Religious Sciences, which gives the reasons that caused him to write the work, the structure of the whole of the Revival and which places each of the chapters in the context of the others.Authors BiographyAbu Hamid Muhammad Al-Ghazali (1058-111), theologian, logician, jurist and mystic, was born and died in Tus in Central Asia, but spent much of his life lecturing at Baghdad or leading the life of a wandering dervish. His most celebrated work, Revival of the Religious Sciences, has exercised a profound influence on Muslim intellectual history by exploring the mystical significance of the practices and beliefs of Islamic orthodoxy, earning him the title of Hujjat-al-Islam, the Proof of Islam.Anthony F. Shaker holds a PhD in Islamic Studies from McGill University and is the author, among other works, of Thinking in the Language of Reality: Sadr al-Din Qunavi and the Philosophy of Reason. He writes on the philosophical and Sufi traditions of Islam, contemporary developments around the world, and is a professional consultant and researcher.