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Diseases of Anger, Malice and Envy, & Warning against the world

Module Description

Defects of the Tongue, Hope & Fear, Impoverishment and Abstinence

This course is centred around Imam al-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 Outline

WeekTopic
Week 1Condemnation of Anger. The Essence of Anger. Degrees of People with Regard to the Power of Anger. Moderating Anger through Spiritual Discipline.
Week 2Causes 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 3The Meaning and Effect of Malice giving rise to eight behaviours. The Merit of Pardon and Beneficence. The Merit of Kindness.
Week 4The Condemnation of Resentful Envy. The Essence, Ruling and Envy is of two types.The Seven Causes of Resentful Envy
Week 5The 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 6The 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 7The 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 8The 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 9Legal 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 10The 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.

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)

(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

Module Instructor

The scholars are the inheritors of the prophets.” [Abu Dawud]

Shaykh Thaqib Mahmood

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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Course Material
The course is based on the text book below, 'Revival of the Religious Sciences'. Students are recommended to purchase this book, it can be bought from the location below at a slightly discounted price.  
https://thefountainbookshop.com/products/revival-of-the-religious-sciences

Imam Ghazali is Muhammad ibn Muhammad
ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad,
Abu Hamid Hujjat al-Islam al-Ghazali al-Tusi

 

 

 

Recommended Reading
The book below is recommended reading for this module.

Ibn ‘Atā, al-Sakandrī
trans. Jackson, S. (2012)  
Sufism for non-Sufis?
Oxford University Press. 

 

 

 

 

Class Notes:

Week 1 - Defects of the Tongue-Introduction- The tongues role in governing our spiritual and eternal success, and the merit of silence 2

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