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AlGhazalisIhya-Book_of_Destructive_Matters_of_Life, page : 8
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
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