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Warning against arrogance self-amazement & Caution against delusion

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.

Module Outline

WeekTopic
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10

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 October 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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