SELECTIONS FROM THE REVITALISATION OF THE SCIENCES OF RELIGION Al-Ghazali’s Ihya’ Ulum al-Din The Ethics of Travel Chapter One Concerning the Ethics for the Journey from Outset to the Return and the Intention of Traveling and Its Benefits Part One The Benefit of Travel and its Excellence and Intention Know that travel is a kind of movement and association in, which there are advantages and disadvantages. The benefits, which are an incentive to travel are derived either from fleeing from something or seeking something. The traveler may be traveling because there is some disturbance in the place he lives, and if the disturbance had not occurred he would not have traveled, or he might have a purpose for, which he travels, or he may be seeking something somewhere. Taking flight from a matter, which is harmful to him in his worldly affairs: such as the plague, a local epidemic, or fear of adversity, or cost of living. It is either collective or individual as in the case of one who has the intention to escape from some harm in his own town. As for the religious benefits, such as when someone has been tried with influence and wealth and many causes, which hindered him from devoting himself to Allah alone, he would prefer travel and laziness and to distance himself from wealth and influence, or as in the one who has been forced into invention, or has been appointed to a position, which is unlawful for him, so he seeks to take flight from it. What is required from traveling is either worldly things such as wealth and influence, or religious. The religious is either knowledge or work. Knowledge is either religious science or human science or the science of the earth and its wonders, as the journey of Thul Karnain in his tour around the earth. Work is either worship or a visit, worship is pilgrimage, Umrah and Jihad. The visit is also of devotion, such as the intention to visit a place like Makkah or Jerusalem, and ports like Alexandria, as staying there is a kind of devotion, or it may be the intention is to visit the righteous people and the scholars and they are either dead, so you visit their graves, or alive, and you will be blessed by seeing them. You would benefit from seeing their circumstances in strengthening your desire to take them as your example. These are the benefits of travel, and we gain from it that travel is divided into blameworthy, praiseworthy, and the permissible. The praiseworthy is divided into the unlawful such as the pilgrimage and the quest for knowledge, which is an obligation upon every Muslim, the commendable such as visiting scholars and observing them. From all these the intention of travel is clear, as the meaning of the intention is the incentive, which causes you to travel and the setting out to answer the invitation. Let him have the Hereafter as his intention in all his travels, and that is evident in the obligatory and the commendable, but it is impossible in the disliked and forbidden. As for the permissible, it depends upon the intention. As long as his intention in seeking wealth is to suffice himself from asking, and to keep the dignity of his family and to spend in charity according to what can be afforded, this permissible will become, with this intention of the Hereafter, work. But if he traveled to make pilgrimage but his incentive was for show, that would be out of being acts of the Hereafter, this is because of what the Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, said: “Surely the deed is according to the intention.” Part Two Concerning the Ethics of the Traveler from his Setting Out to his Return The traveler should pay his debts before leaving, and make arrangements for those he is obliged to support, and return all trusts to their owners, if he has any, and he should not take with him any provisions except what is lawful and good. And he should take extra provisions with him to give to his traveling companions. Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with them) said: “From the generosity of a man is the goodness of his provisions when he travels.” When traveling it is necessary to speak kindly to the people and to offer food and to behave in a good mannered way on the journey. He should choose a companion so that he does not travel alone. A companion who would help him in the religion, so if he forgets, he reminds him, and help him if he remembers. As the Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, said: “A man is on the religion of his friend.” And the Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, has forbidden any person from traveling alone. He should go to bid farewell to friends and family, to offer the prayer of the Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, upon his departure. Someone said: “I accompanied Abd Allah ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with them) from Makkah to Madinah, and when I wanted to leave him, he saw me off and said: ‘I heard the Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, saying: ‘Luqman said most surely when Allah, the Almighty is entrusted He keeps it. And I am entrusting Allah, the Almighty with your religion, your sincerity and the seal of your deeds’.” The traveler should perform the prayer of asking Allah to choose for him before his travel, according to what we have described in the book of prayer. At the time of his departure he should perform the prayer for traveling. When he reaches the door of his house he should say: “In the name of Allah, I put my trust in Allah, there is no power nor intercession except with Allah, my Lord I seek refuge in you that I mislead or misled or that I humiliate someone or that I be humiliated, or oppress or be oppressed, or to be ignorant or have things kept from me.” And when he walks he must say: “O Allah by You I travel, and upon You I relay, there is no power or intercession except with You and towards You I set myself. O Allah You are my trust and You are my hope, keep me away from worry, there is no god except You, O Allah endue me with piety, and forgive me my sins, and turn me towards good wherever I go.” He should leave the house early. Jabir said: “The Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, departed on Thursday when he was going to Tabuk and said: ‘O Allah bless my nation in their earliness’.” The traveler should take with him six things. Ayesha, may Allah be pleased with her, said: “When he traveled the Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, used to take six things with him: a mirror, a bottle, a scissors, a siwak (toothbrush) kohl, and a comb. Concerning the Ethics of Returning from Travel The Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, used, on his return from campaign or pilgrimage or Umrah, to praise Allah upon every hillock of the earth three times and say: “There is no god except Allah alone, no partner to Him, to Hi is the dominion and all thanks, and He has power over all things, we are returning repentant, worshiping, prostrating, to our Lord we are most grateful. Allah has fulfilled His promise and given victory to His servant and alone ahs defeated the allies.” And when he arrives back in his town, he should say: “O Allah make for us in it a stay and a good provision.” And he should send in advance to his family someone to give them glad tidings of his arrival, so that he does not enter upon them suddenly, and might see them while they are unprepared. He should not arrive at his house at night, as the Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, has forbidden that. He used, on his return, to enter the Mosque first and pray two units of prayer and then enter the house, and when he entered said: “We repent and return to our Lord. Our Lord no sin should take us suddenly.” Chapter Two Concerning what the Traveler Should Learn what is Permissible During Travel, the Direction of the Qiblah and the Time of Prayer Know that the traveler needs at the outset his journey to provide for his worldly life and for his end. As to the provision for this worldly life: it is food and drink and what he will need for his expenses. But if he leaves without provision, there is no blame on him in this, if his travel was in the company of others, or if his journey is through villages, which are at a near distance to each other. But if he travels through the desert alone or with others who have no food or drink, if he was one of those who can tolerate hunger a week or tens days, if he can manage to live by eating grass he may do that. But if he cannot bear hunger nor tolerate eating grass, his departure without food is a sin as he would be throwing himself into destruction. As to the provision of the Hereafter, it is the knowledge, which he needs in his purity, fasting, prayer, and worship, so he must equip himself with it. This would alleviate the burden of travel as he needs to know about shortening the prayer, gathering in prayer, and breaking the fast. To enable him to learn about matters he did not need to know about before traveling, such as the direction of the Qiblah and the time of prayers.