SELECTIONS FROM THE REVITALISATION OF THE SCIENCES OF RELIGION Al-Ghazali’s Ihya’ Ulum al-Din Destructive Matters of Life The Wonders of the Heart All Praise be to Allah, who has disposed all matters through His arrangement of them, who has equitably composed His creation and given it excellent form, who has adorned the aspect of man by granting him good stature and proportion, safeguarding him from increase and decline in his aspect and measurements; Who has assigned the improvement of character to the effort and labor of His worshipers, urging them to it by inspiring in them fear and tradition. For the elect among them has He made this improvement easy by His providence and facilitation, blessing them with the easing of the difficulties and hardships, which lie therein. Peace and prayers be upon Muhammad - may Allah praise and venerate him - , His worshipper and Messenger, loved one and chosen one, who was His bearer of glad tidings and His warner. An Exposition on the Meaning of Soul (nafs), Spirit (ruh), Heart (qalb) and Intellect (aql) There are two senses in, which of these terms are used: Soul (nafs) The principle, which unites the irascible and appetitive faculties, the soul, which constantly enjoins evil (al-nafs al-ammara bi’l-su). This is the normal Sufi usage of the term. Man’s soul and essence (dhat), referred to as ammara bi’l-su, law’wama, or mutma’inna, depending on its state in relation to Allah. Spirit (ruh) A subtle body originating in the cavity of the physical heart, which spreads, through the body via the arteries, just as light from a lantern fills a room. The subtle thing, which knows and perceives, referred to by Allah in the verse: “They (the Jews) question you about the spirit. Say, 'The spirit is from the command of my Lord…” (Ch 71:86) Heart (qalb) The pine shaped piece of flesh in the body, which contains a cavity filled with blood, which is the locus of the spirit. In the Ihya, however, the word is employed in its physical sense: a spiritual, Divine subtlety (latifa) connected to the physical heart, which is the reality of man, which perceives, knows and intuits. Intelligence (aql) Knowledge. The second definition of ‘heart’ above. The above can be reduced to five principles; the corporal heart, the corporal spirit, the ‘soul, which constantly enjoins evil,’ knowledge, and the subtle thing, which perceives and knows (qalb ii). This fifth principle incorporates the others. An Exposition on the Soldiers of the Heart The heart has two types of soldiers. One type is visible, comprising the bodily members, which follow the instructions of the heart. The other is invisible, comprising ideas and perceptions. The ‘soldiers’ can also be divided according to three other categories: (i) irada (the will), which instigates, such as appetitive (shahawa) and anger (ghadab); (ii) qudra (power), which includes sinews and muscles, which are the actual means by, which the members are made to move: (iii) al-ilm wa’l-idrak (knowledge and perception, which provide information acquired through the five external senses of hearing, sight, smell, taste and touch, and also the five internal senses located in the brain, which are imagination (takhayyul), the sensus communis (hiss mushtarak) (which coordinates information received through the various faculties), thought (tafakhar), remembrance (tadhakkur), and memory (hifz). An Exposition on some Examples of the Heart and its Internal Soldiers The armies of the appetite and irascible faculties may be submissive to the spirit, thereby assisting it towards salvation, or rebellious, thus driving it to perdition. To discipline and make use of these armies it must call on other soldiers, which are knowledge, wisdom and thought. Example One. The spirit in the body is like a king in a city. The members and capacities are like craftsmen and laborers. The intellect is like a sincere, wise minister, while anger is like a chief of police, who controls the appetite, which in turn is a base slave who brings food and supplies to the city. Although the slave presents himself as a sincere adviser, he constantly opposes the minister: he is in reality a saboteur. The city prospers when, thanks to the efforts of the chief of police, the slave is rehabilitated, and is forced to submit to the minister. Example Two. The body is like a city and the percipient intellect is like a king; the exterior and interior senses are the king’s soldiers, while the members are his subjects. The ‘soul, which constantly enjoins evil’ is the enemy, determined to overmaster the kind and subvert the population. The consequent warfare is ‘the greater jihad.’ Example Three. The intellect is like a horseman on a hunt. His appetite is like a horse, and his anger, his dog. If he is skilled, his horse well trained (a symbol for mastery of the desire for food and sex), and his dog disciplined, he will be successful in the chase. An Exposition on the Special Property of Man’s Heart Man is distinguished from the animals in that he not only possesses desire, anger and senses-perception, but also the Divine gift of the intellect: knowledge, and the will to act upon it in a way, which contradicts the appetite. In youth, reason is only a potential in the primordial disposition (fitra), which is realized upon the learning of first principles, and then through experience. Acquisition of the highest knowledge – of Allah –, which is of innumerable degrees, comes about either through learning, or directly through Divine inspiration (ilham). Man can prepare his heart for this inspiration by purifying it. An Exposition on the Overall Attributes of the Heart, and Examples of it Four qualities exist in every heart: predatory (sabu’iya), animal (bahimiya), satanic (shaytaniya) and Divine (rabbaniya). The first of these is the faculty of anger, the second is appetite for food, sex and so on, the third is the faculty, which justifies the turning of the capacity of discernment to evil ends, while the fourth, being in part a Divine mystery, must use its intelligence and insight to uncover the wiles of the satanic quality, and to submit the appetite to the irascible faculty. When man achieves this, an equilibrium, or justice, results. The implications of this for ethics are spelt out: the predatory quality engenders such vices as wastefulness, boasting, pride, and lust for oppression; the animal quality produces hypocrisy, slander, greed, and shamelessness; the satanic quality, having successfully encouraged the soul to obey the first two, produces guile, deceit, fraud and so on. But should the Divine element triumph, and subdue all of these, then the virtues will appear. When man controls his predatory quality and sets it within its proper limits, he acquires such virtues as courage, generosity, self-control, patience, forgiveness and dignity. When the animal faculty is controlled, virtues such as chastity, contentment, modesty and helpfulness ensue. The heart is a mirror, which may be polished by struggling against the appetites, and working to acquire good character traits, and holding to actions such as the remembrance of Allah, ‘until the true nature of that matter, which is sought in religion is revealed in it.’ Bad influences, by contrast, are like smoke, which clouds over the heart’s mirror until it is entirely veiled from Allah, which is the ‘heart’s rust’ mentioned in the Koran. An Exposition on the Heart’s Similitude, particularly in Relation to Knowledge The heart, as the seat of knowledge, is like a mirror, which reflects the specific nature of things. Intelligibles are forms reflected in it, while the intelligence is its actual reflection in the mirror. Although man’s heart alone is capable of knowing all realities, various obstacles may impede this: (i) The mirror may be unfinished due to youth; (ii) It may be veiled by sins; (iii) Worldly distractions may turn it away from Allah; (iv) It may be tarnished by the imitative acceptance (taqlid) of dogma; (v) Ignorance. There are three levels of knowledge: (i) the faith of the ordinary people (awamm), which is to be gained through imitative acceptance from people believed to be truthful; (ii) the faith of the theologians (mutakallimun), which contains an element of proof; (iii) the faith of the saints (siddiqun), who, through ‘witnessing’ (mushahada), experience Allah at first hand, and those whose knowledge is hence beyond doubt. These three levels can be compared to hearing that a man is in a house, then hearing his voice and hence deducing his presence, and finally, seeing him face to face. An Exposition on the State of the Heart in relation to the Divisions of Intellectual, Religious, Worldly and Otherworldly Knowledge The knowledge, which may be reflected in the heart are two categories; intellectual and religious. The former are subdivided into necessary and acquired knowledge, while religious knowledge, being that, which is learnt through prophets, and without, which the heart cannot be perfected, is sub-divided into (i) knowledge received on authority (taqlid), and (ii) that granted directly by Allah to the Prophets and awlia (those close to Allah). The intellectual sciences are like foods, while the religious sciences are like medicines. Although some have claimed that the two are incompatible, and have hence renounced religion, they are in fact in harmony. Apparent discrepancies between them are to be attributed to insufficient knowledge, for both are intricate, and few indeed are the men who have mastered both. An Exposition on the Difference between Inspiration and Learning, and between the Sufi Method of Unveiling the Truth and that of the Philosophers and Theologians There is knowledge, which appears in the heart only under certain conditions, either through inspiration (for the awlia - those close to Allah - and prophets), or inductive reasoning (for the scholars). The five obstacles mentioned in Exposition Six form a veil between the heart and the Well Preserved Tablet (al-lawh al-mahfuz), which is where Allah has inscribed everything, which He has decreed from Creation until the Judgment. This veil may be removed by hand, or by a wind, which causes the heart to behold something of what the Tablet contains. Often this happens during sleep, but it may happen when the seeker is awake, either as a transient ‘shaft of lighting’, or – but this is exceedingly rare – as a permanent condition. For this reason the Sufis have not been concerned only with book learning, but have instead sought to reach this state where the veil is lifted, by means of self-discipline, the wiping away of vile attributes, the severing of all ties, and earnestly directing themselves to Allah. As this goal draws near, the seeker should isolate himself for a while, far from all distractions, and recall (dhikr) Allah within himself. If his determination is sincere, collected and strong, gleams of Truth may appear in his heart, and these may then be followed by others of different kinds, coming at increasingly short intervals. The variety of such stations is beyond reckoning, but all are granted after a process of self purification and diligent polishing of the heart. The philosophers and theologians (al-nuzzar) do not deny this way, but they consider it extremely difficult to pursue, since it is rigorous and slow, and may, if pursued to excess, be harmful to the body. Similarly, if the spiritual voyager is not well versed in scholarly learning he may be veiled by a false imagining, which he will never be able to shake of. An Exposition on the Difference between the two Positions shown by a Tangible Example The heart is like a pool filled either from rivers or from underground springs. The first represent knowledge derived by means of deduction from the evidence of the world, while the second is the inner, spiritual knowledge. One side of a portico was once decorated by Byzantine craftsmen, while the other was decorated by craftsmen from China. Between the two sides a veil was suspended. The Byzantines painted and carved their side, while the Chinese merely polished their side so that it became a mirror. When the veil was removed, the mirror reflected the work of the Byzantines with added brilliance. The Byzantines, then, resemble the scholars, while the Chinese are like the Sufis. An Exposition on Religious Texts testifying to the Correctness of the Sufis’ Method in Acquiring Knowledge, not by Learning or from the Customary Method To experience only a small amount of inspiration is to know the validity of this method. But for those who have not attained this, there are numerous proof texts. For instance, the Koran has spoken of “Is he whose chest Allah has expanded to Islam, so that he walks upon a light from his Lord (as those whose heart is sealed)?” (Ch. 39 verse 22) And the Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, used to supplicate: “O Lord! Give me light in my heart!” Further, the reality of the Sufi method is proved by the experience of dreams in, which future events are revealed. An Exposition on satan’s Mastery of the Heart through Insinuations (waswasa); the Meaning of Insinuation, and the Cause of its Subdual. It has been seen that the heart is affected by information brought by the five senses, and by internal faculties such as imagination, appetite, anger, and character traits. The most important influence, however, comes from those random thoughts, promptings and ideas, which are projected by the devil into the mind, and distract or confuse it; these are termed khawatir. To ward these off, man should engage in remembrance (dhikr) of Allah, and continue with the process of self-discipline and inner purification. An Exposition detailing satan’s Entrances into the Heart The heart is like a castle, and a man must guard its entrances against the enemy, who is the devil. The main entrances are: (i) irascibility and desire; (ii) envy and greed; (iii) Eating one’s fill, for this increases the other desires, causes illness, and reduces one’s receptivity to wisdom and desire for worship; (iv) Love of self adornment, whether in clothes, furnishings or residence; (v) Coveting what others own and control, and hence flattering and deceiving them; (vi) Haste, which according to the Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, ‘comes from satan’; (vii) Money, property, and all other kinds of wealth in excess of one’s needs, for wealth creates its own concerns, which will distract the heart; (viii) Avarice and fear of poverty, which will destroy the heart’s serene conviction that Allah will provide; (ix) Fanatical attachments to schools of thought and sects (ahwa), hatred of rival doctrines, and delight in criticizing them; (x) Studying advanced theological doctrines from which one is not prepared, and hence falling into false beliefs about Allah ; (xi) Harboring a low opinion of other Muslims, which leads to self-satisfaction and backbiting. The heart must be purified of all these evil traits before dhikr can be effective; otherwise the dhikr will itself be a form of khawatir with no real influence. Even when these traits are removed, it is necessary to cure oneself of ghafla (heedlessness and distraction). If one does not, one will be like a patient who derives little benefit from a medicine because he takes it when his stomach is full of food. There are many devils, each with his own name, who cast khawatir into the hearts on specific occasions; ritual ablution, the canonical prayer, visiting the marketplace, dealing with one’s family and so on. When they appear, they take the form of base animals such as dogs, frogs and pigs. An Exposition on the Heart’s Insinuations, Concerns, Whisperings and Intentions for, which Man is taken to Task, and those is, which man is Forgiven The Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, said: “The People of my nation are forgiven the discourse of their souls, in so far as they do not mention it or act upon it.” There are four stages between thought and action: (i) an involuntary suggestion; (ii) the inclination of the nature; (iii) reasoned judgment; (iv) determination. The first two involve no moral responsibility, while the second two are to be judged according to the underlying intention. An Exposition on Whether it is Conceivable that Insinuations should Cease Entirely during the Remembrance of Allah , or not The Sufis have given five possible answers to this: (i) Insinuation does not cease entirely; (ii) It still exists, but has not effect on the heart, since the heart is distracted from it by the dhikr, (iii) Its whisperings are heard, but weakly and from afar; (iv) dhikr and waswasa follow each other in quick succession, so that the distinction between them is blurred; (v) The two exist simultaneously in the heart, which has an ability to focus on two activities at once; this is the view of al-Muhasibi. The correct view, however, is that all of these can occur, depending on circumstance. These are three types of insinuation. (i) The devil may use an argument, which seems to contain some truth, for instance: ‘Enjoy yourself now; there is surely time for righteousness in future years’; or ‘You pray so much; you must surely be beloved by Allah ’; (ii) He may incite a passion in the soul, which one may or may not know to be sinful; (iii) He may make suggestions, which are not sinful, but merely distract the heart, such as reminding him of worldly affairs during the canonical prayer. This is the hardest type to remove; and it was thus that the Prophet said: “Whoever prays two units of prayer without his nafs speaking to him of any worldly affair, shall have all his former sins forgiven.” An Exposition on the Speed with which the Heart Changes, and a Categorization of Hearts on the basis of Change and Stability The heart, being a battleground of angelic and satanic impulses, is like a target struck from all directions, and hence moves and changes rapidly. Allah has said: “We will turn away their hearts and eyes…. “ (Ch. 6 verse 110) There are three kinds of hearts in this respect. (i) The pious heart, which self-discipline has purified of evil character traits, and, which thus receives good suggestions from the higher world. Safe from the insinuations of satan, it is the heart referred to in Allah ’s word: “… Is it not with the remembrance of Allah that hearts are satisfied?” (Ch. 13 verse 28). (ii) The sinful heart filed with passion and evil character traits. Here the devil suggestions are actually supported by the intellect, which has been habituated to following its whims. This may extend to all aspects of the soul, or only express itself in specific weaknesses, such as anger or greed. (iii) Most men, however, have the third kind, where the devil’s whisperings, supported by the nafs, are countered by the voice of faith and the intellect. Victory will be decided by the relative predominance of character traits in the heart.