Chapter Vi. Concerning Self Examinati : CHAPTER VI CONCERNING SELF-EXAMINATION AND THE RECOLLECTION OF GOD KNOW, O brother, that in the Koran God hath said, "We will set up a just balance on the day of resurrection, and no soul shall be wronged in anything." Whosoever has wrought a grain of good or ill shall then behold it. In the K...
Chapter Vii. Marriage As A Help Or Hindrance : CHAPTER VII MARRIAGE AS A HELP OR HINDRANCE TO THE RELIGIOUS LIFE MARRIAGE plays such a large part in human affairs that it must necessarily be taken into account in treating of the religious lifer and be regarded. in both its aspects of advantage and disadvantage. Seeing that God, as the K...
Chapter Iii. The Knowledge Of This World : CHAPTER III THE KNOWLEDGE OF THIS WORLD THIS world is a stage or market-place passed by pilgrims on their way to the next. It is here that they are to provide themselves with provisions for the way; or, to put it plainly, man acquires here, by the use of his bodily senses, some knowledge...
Chapter I. The Knowledge Of Self : CHAPTER I THE KNOWLEDGE OF SELF KNOWLEDGE of self is the key to the knowledge of God, according to the saying: "He who knows himself knows God," and, as it is Written in the Koran, "We will show them Our signs in the world and "in themselves", that the truth may be manifest to them." Now nothing is...
Chapter Iv. The Knowledge Of The Next World : CHAPTER IV THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE NEXT WORLD AS REGARDS the joys of heaven and the pains of hell which will follow this life, all believers in the Koran and the Traditions are sufficiently informed. But it often escapes them that there is also a spiritual heaven and hell, concerning the former...
Introduction : THE ALCHEMY OF HAPPINESS INTRODUCTION KNOW, O beloved, that man was not created in jest or at random, but marvellously made and for some great end. Although he is not from everlasting, yet he lives for ever; and though his body is mean and earthly, yet his spirit is lofty and divine. When...
Preface : PREFACE RENAN, whose easy-going mind was the exact antithesis to the intense earnestness of Ghazzali, calls him "the most original mind among Arabian philosophers." Notwithstanding this, his fame as a philosopher has been greatly overshadowed by Avicenna, his predecessor, and Averroes, his...
Editorial Note : EDITORIAL NOTE THE object of the Editors of this series is a very definite one. They desire above all things that, in their humble way, these books shall be the ambassadors of good-will and understanding between East and West--the old world of Thought and the new of Action. In this endeavour...
Chapter Ii. The Knowledge Of God : CHAPTER II THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD IT is a well-known saying of the Prophet that "He who knows himself, knows God"; that is, by contemplation of his own being and attributes man arrives at some knowledge of God. But since many who contemplate themselves do not find God, it follows that there must be...
Title Page : THE ALCHEMY OF HAPPINESS BY AL GHAZZALI TRANSLATED FROM THE HINDUSTANI BY CLAUD FIELD Knowledge Of A Part Is Better Than Ignorance Of The Whole" (Abu`l Feda) London, J. Murray [1909] {Scanned , November, 2001} {p. 3}
Chapter V. Concerning Music And Dancing : CHAPTER V CONCERNING MUSIC AND DANCING AS AIDS TO THE RELIGIOUS LIFE THE heart of man has been so constituted by the Almighty that, like a flint, it contains a hidden fire which is evoked by music and harmony, and renders man beside himself with ecstasy. These harmonies are echoes of that higher...
Chapter Viii. The Love Of God : CHAPTER VIII THE LOVE OF GOD THE love of God is the highest of all topics, and is the final aim to which we have been tending hitherto. We have spoken of spiritual dangers as they hinder the love of God in a man's heart, and we have spoken of various good qualities as being the necessary...