Ghazali’s insightful abridgement of his masterwork, ‘Revival of the Religious Sciences’, by Shaykh Salih Ahmad al-Shāmī
Muslim scholars have consistently focused on spirituality, particularly on the purification of the heart. This is not surprising given that the Quran and the Sunnah emphasize the importance of maintaining a pure spiritual heart. When the heart is in the right condition, it becomes the place where believers can attain Divine realizations and understand the higher aspects of existence. Rectifying the heart leads to both success in this world and in the afterlife. Achieving this goal involves learning from the Quran, the teachings of the Prophet, and the strategies suggested by knowledgeable scholars. Applying this knowledge means being open to understanding reality as intended by the Almighty.
Based on the abridgement, half of Imam al-Ghazali’s Ihyā’ ‘ulum al-din, “Revival of the Religious Sciences,” is covered over seven modules. The Ihyā is comprised of four sections.
The acts of worship, the norms of daily life, the qualities leading to perdition & the qualities leading to salvation.
Each section is composed of 10 books, each with chapters. The complete course covers sections iii and iv of Ihyā’, namely, the qualities leading to perdition and the qualities leading to salvation, over seven modules.
We will cover the following books from the third quarter of Ihyā, which focus on qualities leading to perdition: anger, malice, resentful envy, and Warning against the world. From the fourth quarter, the books concentrate on the qualities that inform salvation: we will cover unity and trust in Allah, as well as love, proximity, and His pleasure.
Module Text
al-Ghazali, Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad. lhya’ ‘ulum ai-din. Ten vols. Edited by lajnahtu Ilmiya Dar al-Minhaj Jeddah, Dar al-Minhaj (2011).
al-Ghazali, Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad. Lubāb al-lhya’. Edited by Mahmud Bayrutī, Dar al-Bayrūti (2021) Ahmad, Salih al-Shāmi. al-Muhadhab min lhya’ ‘ulum ai-din. 2 vols, Damascus, Dar al-Qalam (2018)h.
More info
To register for the Sacred Study Course or an individual module, you must first become a member. Once you’ve done that, email us at info@fountaininstitute.co.uk.
Condemnation of Anger. The Essence of Anger. Degrees of People with Regard to the Power of Anger. Moderating Anger through Spiritual Discipline.
Week 2
Causes for the Outburst of Anger. Curing Anger when it Erupts the knowledge of five facets. The Merit of Controlling one’s Anger. The Merit of Clemency. The Extent to which it is Permissible to Defend oneself by Speech
Week 3
The Meaning and Effect of Malice giving rise to eight behaviours. The Merit of Pardon and Beneficence. The Merit of Kindness.
Week 4
The Condemnation of Resentful Envy. The Essence, Ruling and Envy is of two types.The Seven Causes of Resentful Envy
Week 5
The Cause of Resentful Envy among Peers and Relatives. The Cure for the Disease of Resentful Envy. The Condemnation of the World. The Blameworthy World.
Week 6
The Reality of the World as it Actually is. Man’s Relationship with the World. How the Occupations of the World Engross People’s Resolutions. Thievery and Beggary. Groups that Missed the Real Purpose. The Saved Group.
Week 7
The Merit of Reliance upon Allah. The Essence of Tawhid. the Basis of Reliance. Reconciling Tawhid and the Sacred Law. The State of Reliance upon Allah.
Week 8
The Deeds of those who Rely upon Allah. Obtaining Something Beneficial. Exposure to the Causes of Saving. Undertaking Causes which Stop Harm. Endeavoring to Remove Harm. Showing and Concealing Illness.
Week 9
Legal Textual Evidence about the Love of the Servant for Allah, Exalted is He. The Essence and Causes of Love in four principles. Allah Alone is Deserving of Love. Knowledge of Allah, Exalted is He. The Pleasure of Sight and the Pleasure of Gnosis.
Week 10
The Causes Strengthening Love of Allah, Exalted is He. The Reason for the Failure of Perceptions to Know Allah, Exalted is He. Allah’s Love for the Servant, and its Meaning. Eight Signs of the Servant’s Love for Allah, Exalted is He.
Shaykh Thaqib Mahmood
Shaykh Thaqib Mahmood’s educational journey in the Islamic disciplines comprises a rich tapestry of experiences from the late 90s to 2007. He sought knowledge in many locations, benefiting from and receiving licenses in general and specific areas from scholars in Yemen, Syria, Morocco, Turkey, Mauritania, Makkah and Madinah.
The central place of studying abroad unfolded in Damascus, where Shaykh Thaqib Mahmood immersed himself in a traditional curriculum. He received one-on-one tutoring for particular subjects or was part of a small group of students. Over time, he studied various subjects to their advanced levels with various scholars. This led to a comprehensive study of the well-known and established scholarly works, showcasing the depth of arguments and positions representing the mainstream understandings of this Ummah.
Since his return to the UK in the last 17 years, Shaykh Thaqib Mahmood has been actively involved in teaching a broad spectrum of Islamic disciplines, from Sirah to Tafsir. In addition developing educational programmes at the various institutions he’s been serving. His significant contributions include a 9-year tenure as a Quranic Arabic tutor at the University of Oxford, where he designed and developed the Quranic Arabic programme, which was previously neglected, bringing it up to par with the other languages taught at the Faculty of Theology and Religion. He also played a crucial role in creating the first approved BSL (British Sign Language) Adhan, providing essential knowledge of the Arabic phrases that BSL can best capture. His academic achievements include a PGDip in teaching communicative Arabic and an MA in linguistics; he completed both postgraduate programmes at SOAS, which have further enriched his understanding and teaching of Islamic disciplines....Read More
The following are the names of some of the scholars he studied under, each of whom played a meaningful role during his time away studying.
In Yemen: Habib Umar b. Hafidh In Damascus: Shaykh Abdulah Siraj ud-Din, Shaykh Shukri al-Luhafī, Shaykh Ramadhan al-Buṭī, Shaykh Muhammad Darwish, Shaykh Abdul Wahaab, Shaykh Muhammad al Yaqoubi, Shaykh Adnan al Majd, Shaykh Maree al Rashid and Shaykh Khalil al Sabbagh, In Mauritania: Murabit al-Hajj, Murabit Ahmad Fāl and Murabit Hadamīn. In Turkey: Shaykh Mahmud Effendi, Shaykh Muhammed Ameen Siraj, Shaykh Ehsaan Hojah. In Makkah: Shaykh Khalid, Shaykh Abdul-Qadir al-Dhabwān, Shaykh Ahmad al-Ruqaymi, Shaykh Ahmad al-Kāf, and Shaykh ‘Abbas al-Maliki In Madinah: Shaykh Abdur Rahman And in the UK: Shaykh Siraj and Shaykh Muhammad Ba Shuayb.
May Allah preserve those who are alive and grant them the best in this world and the hereafter. And may Allah shower His mercy on those who have returned to their creator and, forgive their shortcomings, and raise their ranks. He continues his learning under both local and international scholars. Shaykh Thaqib has been part of the Fountain for over 25 years.
Module Details
All our Saturday classes are available both in person and online. As an institute, we strongly encourage students to attend in person, as the benefits of in-person learning far exceed those of online attendance. The Friday sessions are conducted online via Zoom.
Location
Bury Park Community Centre, 161, 161b Dunstable Rd, Luton LU1 1BW. Zoom: links will be provided via email
Date/Time
Starting – 4th January 2025 for 10 weeks Saturday – 11.30am to 12.30pm
Module Content
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Knowledge
Knowledge is understanding that every choice and view one forms is framed in the guidance presented in the Quran and the Prophetic way as understood by Ahle Sunnah wa al-Jama’ah.
Practice
Practice seeks to implement that knowledge in all aspects of our lives. Sincerely applying knowledge facilitates the soul to acquire virtuous characteristics and move beyond its vices and capricious element
Realisation
The soul becomes receptive to realisations concerning God’s oneness, majesty, beauty, and how creation is an ongoing sign of Divine favour. This witnessing is highlighted in the Prophetic statement,‘Excellence is to worship Allah as though you see Him. If you do not see Him, He sees you.
Imam Ghazali
(Imam) Ghazali is Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad, Abu Hamid Hujjat ai-Islam al-Ghazali al-Tusi
(Imam) Ghazali is Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad, Abu Hamid Hujjat ai-Islam al-Ghazali al-Tusi, the Shafi’i Imam, Proof of Islam, and Sufi adept born in Tabiran, near Tus Gust north of present-day Mashhad, Iran), in 450/1058. The Imam of his time, nicknamed Shafi’i the Second for his legal virtuosity, he was a brilliant intellectual who first studied jurisprudence at Tus and then travelled the Islamic world to Baghdad, Damascus, Jerusalem, Cairo, Alexandria, Mecca, and Medina, taking Sacred Knowledge from its masters, among them the Imam of the Two Sanctuaries Juwayni, with whom he studied until the Imam’s death, becoming at his hands a scholar in Shafi’i law, logic, tenets of faith, debate, and in the rationalistic doctrines of the philosophical schools of his time, which he was later called upon to refute. When Juwayni died, Ghazali debated the Imams and scholars of Baghdad in the presence of the vizier Nizam al-Mulk, who was so impressed that he appointed him to a teaching post at the Nizamiyya Academy in Baghdad, where word of his’ brilliance spread and scholars journeyed to hear him. ...Read More
His worldly success was something of a mixed blessing, and in mid-career, after considerable reflection, he was gripped by an intense fear for his soul and his fate in the afterlife, and he resigned from his post, travelling first to Jerusalem and then to Damascus to purify his heart by following the way of Sufism. In Damascus, he lived in seclusion for some ten years, engaged in spiritual struggle and the remembrance of Allah, at the end of which he emerged to produce his masterpiece lhya’ ‘ulum aI-din [Giving life to the religious sciences], a classic among the books of the Muslims about internalising god fearingness (taqwa) in one’s dealings with Allah, illuminating the soul through obedience to Him, and the levels of believers’ attainments therein. The work shows how deeply Ghazali personally realised what he wrote about, and his masterly treatment of hundreds of questions dealing with the inner life that no one had previously discussed or solved is a performance of sustained excellence that shows its author’s well-disciplined legal intellect and profound appreciation of human psychology. He also wrote nearly two hundred other works on the theory of government, Sacred Law, refutations of philosophers, tenets of faith, Sufism, Koranic exegesis, scholastic theology, and bases of Islamic jurisprudence. He died in Tabiran in 505/1111 (al-A ‘lam (y136), 7.22; lhya’ ‘ulum ai-din (y39), 1.330; al-Munqidh min al-dalal (y41), 46-50; al-Shita (y116), 2.602;N; and n).
(Keller, Nuh Ha Mim. Reliance of the Traveller: A Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law. Rev. ed. Beltsville, MD: Amman, 1996) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Ghazali
