Al-Ghazali on Patience and Thankfulness: Book XXXII of the Revival of the Religious Sciences: 32 (The Islamic Texts Society's al-Ghazali Series)

Imam al-Ghazali was a phenomenon, his magnum opus Ihya Uloom al-Din (Revival of the Religious Sciences) has been for long appreciated by Muslim and non-Muslim scholars alike. This is a translation of an important chapter of the book talking about perseverance and gratitude to Allah.

Nice book

Truely enlightening and a fascinating read for anyone wanting to understand the characteristics that are at the foundations of Islam. Inspiratonal, intellegent and empowering.

Fantastic read. A must buy.

Amazing intracacies

‘The guides of the way are those who possess knowledge (‘ulama’) who are heirs of the prophets. This age is devoid of them and those who remain are impersonators; most have been overpowered by the devil and been led astray by iniquity. Each one is engrossed with his earthly gain; he sees what is right as objectionable and what is objectionable right….’ This is from Ghazali’s - (1058 -1111) introduction to his masterly ‘The revival of the Religious Sciences’, and while its scale and the esteem within which it is held, invites comparison with Aquinas’s (1225-1274) ‘Summa’ written around a century later, their expressed aims are different: Ghazali’s aim is to present a theological understanding through practice, while Aquinas’s aim was to present a detailed overview of Christian theological doctrine of his time; Ghazali it might be said had a heart bias, and Aquinas a head bias, although if you want to gain an appreciation of what European Christians believed and understood in practice, read Dante. This is chapter 32, the section entitled ‘the quarter of the saving virtues.’The section of Patience is about half of the length of the one on Thankfulness. In the West Patience is traditionally considered as an aspect of Temperance, and Temperance is an aspect of self-control. Support for any point of view or by way of illustration, can come from many sources, in much the same way that a contemporary Christian theologian would have quoted from the Bible, or from earlier teachers, but perhaps what strikes the reader about Ghazali is the range of sources he taps into. There is obviously the Qur’an, and the apochryphal tradition, but also earlier theologians and Sufis. While in the (Shafi’i) Sunni Tradition, we can find him citing Ali ‘Faith is built upon four pillars: certainty, patience (sabr), striving, and justice.’ Given that there is a whole Surah on Mary, it is not surprising to find Christ cited either: ‘Jesus said, you only come to understand what you love through patience with what you abhor.’ ‘Know that patience is of two kinds. One is physical, such as tolerating physical hardships and enduring them with constancy… This may be praiseworthy, if it is in harmony with the law. But patience that is fully praiseworthy is the second kind. It is inner patience and it applies to matters coveted by our nature or the demands of desire….’ (ch. 4) There is an interesting footnote on the quote from Matthew 5 38-41 (do not oppose evil with evil) that Ghazali accepted the authority of the Gospels, and did not accept the idea that Christians tampered with them that must have been going around at the time. One might have expected some reference to Job, but it may well be that while patience would be a teaching point of the story, another teaching point may well have been felt of greater significance, although ‘the patience of Job’ has become apocryphal.The section on patience: ‘It is made up of three sections. The first is on the merit of thankfulness, its reality, its divisions, and its rules. The second is on the nature of blessings and their specific and general divisions. The third is an exposition of what is best; patience or thankfulness.’ The first point that is made is that thankfulness is connected with memory, which means that gratitude, in whatever form, must always be retrospective. In Arberry’s translation of the Qur’an we read, ‘So remember Me, and I will remember you; and be thankful to me; and be you not, ungrateful towards Me.’ (XXII 50) The ‘ungrateful part’ obviously refers to our tendency to take things for granted.In chapter 2 (on Patience) it was said: ‘All of the stations of religion are classified according to three things: degrees of knowledge; states, and actions. The degrees of knowledge are the sources that give rise to the states; and the states bear fruit in the actions.’ Thankfulness, then, is based on degrees of knowledge. On one side the theology is very systematic, but it is woven through insight and experience. At the end of the book is an appendix of short biopics of all the people referred to – many of who are Sufis, a list of Qur’anic references, and a general index. It seems that these two virtues in particular, need to be recovered as values to be practiced; clearly of interest to Islamic scholars, but because the exposition is so clear, of interest to a wider readership, on both a knowledge, and possibly, a personally practical level.