Spiritual Journeys
Al-Ghazali - Path To Sufism: His Deliverance From Error

Al-Ghazali – Path To Sufism: His Deliverance From Error

R.J. McCarthy

This text has long been recognized as not only an Islamic classic, but also as a great spiritual autobiography of one of the world’s greatest religious thinkers. It is the narrative of how one dedicated seeker of true knowledge and salvation, having probed various systems of thought and differing paths of learning and enlightenment, discovered the peace of the inner life and discipline of mystical spirituality.

Imam Abu Hamid al-Ghazali is generally acclaimed as the most influential thinker of medieval Islam; his writings have been regarded as the greatest in spirituality and have been, for centuries, the most read work after the Qur’an in the Muslim world.

Richard McCarthy has used his considerable expertise in matters Islamic to translate Al Ghazali’s “story of his soul.” Entitled The Deliverance From Error[al-Munqidh min al-Dalal], this spiritual autobiography details his journey of discovering the primacy of the heart for authentic human understanding.

Categories: , Tag:
  • 978-1-887752-30-5
  • PDF, Paperback
  • 320

Product Description

Early on Ghazali questioned blind religious conformism. He records the “inherited beliefs lost their hold on [him] when [he] was quite young….For [he] saw that the children of Christians always grew up embracing Christianity, and the children of Jews always grew up adhering to Judaism, and the children of Muslims always grew up following the religion of Islam. [He] also heard the tradition related from the Apostle of God-God’s blessing and peace be upon him!-in which he said: ‘Every infant is born endowed with the fitra:[original disposition] then his parents make him Jew or Christian or Magian,'” Ghazali continues “Consequently I felt an inner urge to seek the true meaning of fitra, and the true meaning of the beliefs arising through slavish aping of parents and teachers.”  

 

Table of Contents:

PREFACE by David Burrell, C.S. C 9

INTRODUCTION by William A. Graham 15

DELIVERANCE FROM ERROR 17

The Avenues to Sophistry and Skepticism 21

The Categories of Those Who Seek the Truth 24

The Aim and Purport of the Science of Kalam 25

Philosophy 27

The Categories of the Philosophers and the Fact That

the Stigma of Unbelief Is Common to All of Them 29

The Divisions of the Philosophical Sciences 31

The Doctrine of TacHmism and Its Danger 42

Discussion of the Ways of the Sufis 51

The True Nature of Prophecy and the Need All Men Have for It 59

The Reason for Resuming Teaching After Having Given It Up 64

    A. Doctors of Hearts 64

    B. The Slackness of Faith 66

    C. My Return to Teaching 69

    D. Remedies for the Tepid 72

NOTES TO THE TRANSLATION 81

Reviews

"This is by far the most scholarly, thoughtful and sympathetic translation of al-Ghazali's classic autobiography."
-William C. Chittick Professor of Comparative Religious Studies SUNY, Stony Brook
"This text has long been recognized as not only an Islamic "classic," but also as one of the great "spiritual autobiographies" of the world's greatest religious thinkers. It is also the narrative of how one dedicated "seeker" after true knowledge and salvation, having probed various systems of thought and differing paths of learning and enlightenment, discovered the peace of the inner life and discipline of mystical spirituality--in Ghazali's case, the spirituality of the Sufis."
-William A. Graham Professor of the History of Religion and Islamic Studies Harvard University

Related Titles