Secrets of Fast

Bismillahiramanhiraheem
InshAllah I will get straigh to it. This is the Ramadan fasting blog. It is the secrets of fast by Imam Ghazzali.

Secrets of Fast

Know, 0 dear readers, that there are three classes of fast. (I) Fast of the general Muslims. It are to restrain oneself from eating and drinking and from sexual passion. This is the lowest kind of fast. (2) Fast of the few select Muslims. In this kind of fasting, besides the above things one refrains himself from sins of hand, feet, sight and other limbs of body. (3) Fast of the highest class. These people keep fast of mind. In other words, they don't think of anything else except God and the next world. They think only of the world with the intention of the next world as it is the seed ground for the future. A certain sage said: One sin is written for one whose efforts during the day are made only to prepare for breaking fast. This highest class of people is the Prophets and the near ones of God. This kind of fast is kept after sacrificing oneself and his thoughts fully to God. This is the meaning of the verse: Say God and then leave them sporting in their vain talks (6 : 91).
The fasting of select few pious men rests on six duties for gaining perfection. (1) To restrain eye sight from what is evil and from things which divert attention from God's remembrance. The Prophet said: Eye sight is a poisonous arrow out of the arrows of the devil. If a man gives it up, God gives him such a faith of which the taste is tasted by his mind. The Prophet said: Five things destroy fasting-falsehood, backbiting, slander, perjury and look with sexual passion. (2) To restrain the tongue from useless talk, false-speaking, backbiting, slander, abusive speech, obscenity, hypocrisy and enmity, to adopt silence and to keep the tongue busy with the remembrance of God and reciting the Quran. The sage Sufiyan Saori said: Backbiting spoils fast. Hazrat Mujahed said: Two things spoil fast, backbiting and falsehood. The Prophet said: Fast is like a shield. If a man keeps fast, let him not rebuke and dispute. If a man wants to assault or make quarrel, jet him say to him : I am fasting. There is in Hadis: Two women kept fast at the time of the Prophet. They were so much overstricken with hunger at the end of the day that their lives were about to end. They were sent to the Prophet so that he might order them to break fast. He sent a cup for them telling them that they should vomit in it what they ate. One of them vomited fresh blood and fresh flesh which filled up half of the cup. Another vomited similarly and filled up the cup. The Prophet then said: The two women fasted with !awful food but broke it with unlawful food. The two women back-bited the people and ate their flesh.
(3) To restrain the ear from hearing the evil talks because what is unlawful to utter is also unlawful to hear. For this reason, God placed the eater of unlawful food and the hearer of unlawful words on the same level. God says: The hearers of falsehood and eaters of unlawful food (5 : 46). God says: Why do not the God-fearing men and the worldly renunciated men prohibit talking sinful words and unlawful eating (5 : 68)? To remain silent at the time of backbiting is unlawful. God says: You are then like them (9 : 138). Thus said the Prophet: The backbiter and the hearer of backbiting are equal co-sharers in sin.
(4) To save hand, feet and other organs from sins from evil deeds and to save belly from doubtful things at the time of breaking fast. There is no meaning of fasting if it is kept with lawful food and broken with unlawful food. He is like a man who destroys a town for constructing a building. it is also injurious to eat lawful food in excess and not to eat it little. He who fasts and does evil deeds is like a patient who restrains himself from eating fruits for fear of disease but who swallows poison. A sin is like eating poison. He who drinks this poison is a fool. An unlawful thing is like poison and it destroys religion and a lawful thing is like a medicine. Its little does benefit and its much spoils. The Prophet said: There are many fasting men who do not gain by fasting except hunger and thirst. On being asked the reason, he said: He refrains from eating lawful food and breaks fast by eating human flesh by backbiting. That is unlawful.
(5) To eat even lawful food so much at the time of breaking fast that it fills up the belly. A belly filled up with too much lawful food is hated more than all other reservoirs. A fasting man eats in full at the time of breaking fast what he could not eat during day time. He prepares different kinds of foods. The object of fast is to keep belly vacant in order to control passion and to increase God-fear. if the belly remains full from morning to evening, sexual passion rises high and greed and temptation reign supreme.
(6) To keep the mind of a fasting man between fear and hope, because he does not know whether his fast will be accepted or not, whether he will be near God or not. This should be the case for every divine service. Once Hasan Basri was passing by a party of men who were playing and sporting. He said:' God this month of Ramadan for running in which the people will 14 running for good deeds and competing with one another. The object of fast is to anoint one with one of the divine attributes. That attribute is Samadiat meaning to be bereft of hunger and thirst and to follow the angels as far as possible, being free from passion.
The rank of a man is far more superior than that of a lower animal as he can control his passion by dint of his intellect, but his rank is lower than that of an angel as his passion is strong and he is tried by it. Angels are near God, This nearness keeps connection with attributes but not with space. The Prophet said: Fast is a trust. Let everyone of you keep that trust. When he read this verse: "God orders you to give trust to its rightful owners (4 : 61)", he placed his hands on his ears and eyes and said: Ear is a trust and eye is a trust. If it had not been a trust of fasting, the Prophet would not have said: I am fasting. In other words, I have kept my tongue as trust for saving it. How can I give it up for replying you? So it appears that for every affair there are secret and open matters.
It is now open to you to observe both secret and open matters or to observe either of them.

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Jarh wa Ta'dil

Bismillahiramanhiraheem

This post will be an original piece by yours truly, The Ghazzali Blogger! I have been meaning to write an article on this topic for a long time but always decided not to because I may get over passionate and offensive. Furthermore I told myself it was not my place to write about this topic. However the more I read the more I kept coming back to this. It did not matter if I read about hadith or fiqh or madhabs or a tafseer this topic just kept creeping back up and haunting me. So I finally decided to speak out and Alhamdulilah I believe Allah willed that I would put off this topic because he wanted me to read more and obtain more sources. InshAllah the Ramadan fasting post will also be posted up today or tomorrow.

Jarh wa ta’dil

"The people shall always be in a good state as long as they take their knowledge from their elders, their trusted ones, and their people of knowledge. When they start taking it from their boys and their reprobates, they shall be destroyed." - Abd Allah ibn Mas'ud
When people listen to a speech or read a book or observe any type of media retain different things. Someone might watch a movie and appreciate the stunts while others may appreciate the story telling or dialogue, the artists may appreciate the rendering and lighting of the movie, others may appreciate that the movie addressed many different philosophies of a certain part of life, while some people may appreciate the fact they can draw parallels from the movie to real life; I have met people who believed the last Lord Of The Rings movie was about the Palestine and Israel conflict. Furthermore something that may seem interesting to one person can be dull to someone else. Sometimes when listening to a speaker, we may misunderstand and our understanding of their talk may be the complete opposite of what they were saying. The same holds true when reading Islamic books or when listening to a Muslim scholar give a talk. Why people appreciate different things or are impacted differently or obtain a different message by the same speech or book maybe because of their values, upbringing, environment, their psyche and their experiences.

One time listening to a talk given by a graduate of the Islamic University of Medinah, I witnessed this first hand. The speaker talked about the history of Muslim communities in the United States and how active and how much we have grown since the 70’s. In my mind this talk was to encourage the up and coming generation to ride the momentum of the previous generation to make bigger and better marks on the world that the previous generations, when they first started off, could not have imagined. I believe we should be grateful for the tedious foundational work the previous generation did so that my generation has an easier time to do more extravagant work. However my colleague sitting right next to me understood the talk as the complete opposite. He believed that our parents came here for money and were not interested in Islam and if they were it was because of culture and not out of sincerity. Furthermore he claimed that our parents did not teach us anything about Islam and that it must be sour for them to see us (their children) not to go after materialistic goals but rather be religious.

To children with that type of attitude I ask; how many Masjids did we build? The hundreds of Masjids in New York City alone, did our generation build them or did our parent generation? The very conference we are attending to listen to the talk we cite as evidence that our parents are materialistic and not good Muslims, did we organize that conference? Did we even start the organization that held that conference or did our parent generation? If our parent generation did not care about Islam and came here for material wealth only then who laid the foundation that allows us to learn Islam in America from people who studied in places such as the Islamic University of Medinah? Furthermore when we claim our parents did not teach us anything about Islam then why did some of us keep our relationship with our girlfriend a secret when we were not practicing? Why did we hide our tattoo from our parents? Why did we hide our piercings from them? How did we learn about the word Muslim and Islam that allowed us to seek out guidance in the first place? And when we claim it must be sour for our parents to see we are religious are we sure it is not because that we do not have the manners that the scholars have told us to have and we talk to our parents as if they were the children and not us?
Point is our parents did teach us. They taught us we were Muslims and we followed a religion called Islam. Otherwise why else did we hide our wrong doings? Some of our parents do not observe all the practices of Islam and we may observe more of the practices. But it is the job of the parent to make their children better Muslim than they were. Our parents did not pray but told us we were Muslims and we followed Islam. We took what our parents taught us and then we pray and do the rest of the five pillars Alhamdulilah. Then InshAllah our children will take what the previous two generations did and become scholars and then their children will inshAllah be greater. The mere fact we are more religious than our parents proves that our parents did their duty when they raised us. So we should give due credit to them and until we can raise a child to be better than us, we should keep quiet because we have not succeeded like our parents have. The child is supposed to be better than his or her parent.
Humility and moderation should come with knowledge but instead arrogance and extremism is implanted into the Muslim youth. The arrogance has become so unbearable that not only do we attack our parents but start to call righteous scholars deviants and throw 1400 years of scholarship out the window. We fall into the false assumption that “stricter is better”. When we hear a scholar give a fatwa which is laxer than something we follow we do not hesitate one second to say that the scholar is ignorant; often forgetting that the scholar studied more years than we have been alive!

Then the arrogance becomes even more! We start to act like we are scholars; we sit and preach without having paid our learning dues at the feet of the Ulema because we cannot wait for others to sit at our own feet. We start to take fatwas from websites and quote them to seem like we have authority and if someone comes with another fatwa we say that the hadiths our dissenter used were weak and fabricated; not only do we believe ourselves to be faqihs but also muhaddiths! We start to rank hadiths and anything we do not think are strict enough we call it fabricated. Not realizing “that as long as the proof of forgery is un-established beyond reasonable doubt and short of compelling assumption regarding a weak report, it becomes a lie to cry forgery and bar people from the benefit of belief in it. This holds true even if the chain of transmission falls short of the rank of “sound” (sahih). God fearing precaution toward the Prophet (pbuh) goes both ways: not only with respect to steering clear from attributing to him what he never said or did, but also with respect to steering clear from belying what he might have said or done.” We start to give our opinions on everything and anything as if we are experts on all Islamic knowledge when two of the greatest scholars, Hujjat al-Islam Imam al-Ghazzaali and Imam Ibn Qudama in their respective books al-Mustasfa and Rawdat al-Nazir said that an Alim may be an Imam in a particular science and an uneducated common person in another. In the end we believe ourselves to be absolute mujtahids like the four great Imams, saying such things as “Abu Hanifa did not have that evidence” implying that we know more than the Mujtahid Imam of the Tabieen.

Then when we are called out on the fact that we are acting as if we are absolute mujtahids we counter by saying, “we are only students of knowledge and only teaching what the righteous Ulema who are on the Quran and Sunnah have said.” (As if the four Mujtahids were not on the Quran and Sunnah and as if people who sacrificed their time and livelihood to learn Islam and spread it to the west and east are not on the Quran and Sunnah) How do we claim to be “students of knowledge” when we never sat at the feet of the Ulema and drank from their knowledge? Are we really teaching what the Ulema have taught or are we only regurgitating what we read on the internet or in some book? When Ishaq ibn Rahuyah sat in Iraq with the likes of Ahmad ibn Hanbal and Yahya ibn Ma’in he would rehearse many transmissions and evidences just like his fellow companions but when he asked what was the intent or explanation or fiqh, all remained mute except for Ahmad ibn Hanbal. They understood anyone can quote and recite hadiths and evidences but only a few can determine and understand what they mean; do we understand what we read? Have any of the Ulema told us to be of ill manners towards non-Muslims let alone our parents who we believe to be deviants just because they do not have a beard like we do? Did the Ulema give us the right to call any scholar who we think is lax in his rulings a deviant?
Real knowledge is a light, not what is memorized and quoted by individuals to look smart in front of his peers. Al-Shafi says, “Knowledge is what benefits. Knowledge is not what one has memorized.” How does knowledge benefit us? Al-Dhahabi says “Knowledge (al- ‘ilm) is not the profusion of narration, but a light which Allah casts into the heart. Its condition is followership (ittiba’ and the flight away from egotism (hawa) and innovation”
Which brings us to the narration that I began with: “Sa'id ibn Wahb narrated that Abd Allah ibn Mas'ud said "The people shall always be in a good state as long as they take their knowledge from their elders, their trusted ones, and their people of knowledge. When they start taking it from their boys and their reprobates, they shall be destroyed." Notice who are the first people Abd Allah ibn Mas’ud (rA) mention; it is the same people that we accuse of only caring about money and do not want us to practice Islam but rather pursue materialistic goals. Either we want to admit it or not our elders are the first people we learned Islam from. Even if your family does not observe all of Islam and in the past you were not religious and now you are you still learned about Islam from them. The second people mentioned are our trusted ones not the most educated. An example of this is when Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal (rA), a absolute mujtahid whose school still exists today, and Ihya ibn Mayen could not agree on a certain matter they would go to Maruf Karkhi, a man who was not their equal in the sciences of practical religion. They said to Maruf Karkhi:“The Prophet (pbuh) said, “What will you do when you will not find a matter in the Quran or Sunnah? He said: “Ask the pious men among you and consult them in this matter.” We (Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal and Ihya ibn Mayen) have come to you for this. The last people who we should take knowledge from are the people of knowledge or the scholars. If someone sacrificed blood, sweat and tears for years and years to learn Islam at any of the prestigious learning centers he should be considered a scholar, specially one who could have lived a materialistic life but chose to study Islam. Then after all that sacrifice he or she came to us, regardless of where we are, to give the knowledge to us. There is this new ideology going around that claims that “there are no scholars in the west”. Someone does not forget what they have learned if they sit on a plane and travel to the west or the east, knowledge stays with you no matter where one is! The first people who we should not follow according to Abd Allah ibn Mas’ud (rA) are the boys. And the truth is we are all still boys who are barely into our mid-twenties and think we are more intelligent than anyone else. We throw hissy fits when someone does not agree with us as if Islam was not a way of life but a philosophy. We treat discussions of fiqh as if it was a prelaw college class where instead of saying something is unconstitutional (which students say when they do not agree with a law when in truth the law is constitutional) we say it is not the sunnah (when it does fall under the sunnah) and just like a prelaw class where three quarter of the people do not know what constitutional means, we do not know what sunnah means.

The truth is we need to be active and stop sitting and talking about those who are active. We are too lazy to do anything so we pick out faults of those who actually help the community. We feel good about picking out faults in people who actual do something and act like we are practicing Jarh wa ta’dil when in reality we are only back biting. We are back biting not only our parents, the people who are either the door to Jannah or have it under their feet, but also people who are fulfilling our Fard-i-Kafiyah. We need to stop attacking our parents and our teachers by quoting obscure sources and do something useful with our time. If we really want to be scholars then we should know of al-Hasan al-Basri’s report that the Prophet (pbuh) said, “The energy of the Ulema is care and help while the energy of fools is to quote” and the statement of the Abbasi Caliph ‘Abd Allah ibn al-Mu’tazz: “The learning of the hypocrite consists in his discourse while the learning of the Believer consists in his deed.”



1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LumwYGp729w A Great talk given by Nouman Ali Khan
entitled Contradicting Community advising Muslim youth and new Muslims on how to deal
with their Families. This talk is very closely related to this article which is also about religious
youngsters and their parents. At 36:00 he makes a point that some speakers will have
different impact on different people. Some speakers are purely entertaining but impact
non-practicing Muslims to pray while the educated practicing Muslim did not learn anything
because he wanted more academics such as more hadith quotations. Similarly an Academic
talk will have less impact on non-practicing Muslims.
2. G.F. Haddad, Sunna Notes Volume 1 Hadith History & Principles, Aqsa publications UK, pg.
53
3. Ibid., 45
4. Narrated from al-Khallal by al-Bayhaqi in Manaqib al-Shafi’i
5. Siyar A’lam al Nubala’
6. Narrated by Abu Ubayd and Ya’qub ibn Shayba as cited by Ibn Hajar in the Fath, Ibn
al-Mubarak in al-Zuhd, Ma’mar ibn Rashid with a sound chain in his Jami, al-Tabarani in
al-Kabir and al-Awsat through narrators that were declared trusthworthy according to
al-Haythami, al-Khatib chainless in al-Faqih wal-Mutafaqqih, Ibn Abd al-Barr in Jami’
Bayan al-‘ilm and Abu Khaythama in al- ‘Ilm.
7. Imam Ghazzali Ihya Ulum-Id-din (trans:Al-Haj Maulana Fazlul Karim) pg.37
8. Narrated mursal from al-Hasan by Ibn ‘Asakir and al-Khatib, al-Jami’ li Akhlaq al-Rawi
(1983 ed. 1:88) cf. al-Jami’ al Saghir and Kanz.
9. Narrated by al-Khatib in Iqtida’ al-Ilm al-‘Amal pg.38

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Subtle Points of Zakat Part 3

Bismillahirahmaniraheem

In the Words of Imam Ghazzali

(5) Fifth Subtle Point
It is not to destroy charity by rebuke and giving trouble a charity. God says: Don't make your charity void by 'Mann' that giving trouble. There are differences of opinion for the meaning Mann. Some say that its meaning is to remind charity to receiver and that `Aza' means to disclose it. Sufiyan was as What is Mann? He replied: To remind it repeatedly and to di about it. Some say that its meaning is to take boast for giving charity and `Aza' means to drive him away and to rebuke by words. The Prophet said: God does not accept the charity of one who does 'Mann' Ghazzali explains it thus. Mann has got root and branches and it is expressed in tongue and limbs. The root of 'Mann' is to think oneself as the benefactor of one who receives charity. Rather the receiver should consider that he has shown kindness to the giver by accepting his charity, because he purifies the giver and gives him release from Hell fire. The charity of the i ver is to request the receiver. The Prophet said: Charity falls on Ole hand of God before it falls in the hand of a beggar. Now it appears that the giver places his charity first to God and then the beggar receives it from God. 'Mann' comes in when the giver understands that he has done some benefit to the receiver of charity. So the meaning of 'Mann' is to discuss about charity, so disclose it and to hope to get from the receiver gratefulness, prayer, service, honour and to wish that he should be followed in his actions. These are the secret meanings of 'Mann'.
'Aza' means to rebuke, to use harsh word and to humiliate the receiver of charity. Its secret meaning is unwillingness to withdraw hand from wealth, to think to give charity as troublesome. Secondly, it means that the giver thinks himself Superior to the receiver and thinks him inferior for his wants. I I unwillingness to give charity is sign of foolishness, because who IN more foolish than one who is reluctant to spend one dirham in lieu of one thousand dirhams in the next world? It appears from Ibis that the object of charity and expense is to get the pleasure of God and to get merits in the next world. The pious men among die rich will go to Paradise five hundred years after the pious poor men. For this reason, the Prophet said: By the Lord of the Kaba, they are undone. Abu Zarr asked: Who are undone? He .aid: 'Those who have got much wealth.' Then how can the poor he held in contempt?
God keeps the rich only for the poor, because the poor earn their livelihood by their industry, increase their provisions and preserve them with difficulties. The rich give charity according to the to the requirements of the poor and guard the excess wealth. So think the rich are servants for the livelihood of the poor. These are clip conditions of charity and Zakat. This is like God-fear in prayer.
The following Hadis establishes it. The Prophet said: There is prayer for a man except what he understands therefrom. He sai God does not accept the charity of one who gives trouble to t receiver. God says: Don't make your charity void by mentioning and by giving trouble.

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Subtle Points of Zakat Part 2

Bismillahirahmaniraheem
This will have points 2-4 inshAllah

In the Words of Imam Ghazzali

(2) Second Subtle Point
It is to look to the times and the rules of payment of Zakat. The religious men pay Zakat before it becomes compulsory. They transcend the limit of time. There is chance of falling into sin if Zakat is paid late and not in time. Willingness to do good deed comes from angels and it should be considered a cause of fortune. The heart of a believer is within the two fingers of the Merciful Mid there is no delay in its change. The devil enjoins doing evil deeds and shows fear of poverty. Zakat should be paid in the month of Muharram, the first month of Hijra and one of the pure months or it should be paid in the month of Ramadan as the Prophet (SAW) paid most of his charities in this month and there is the excellence of the Blessed Night in this month and in the month of pilgrimage. The last ten days of Ramadan month and the first ten days of the month of Dhul- Hijj are days of excellence.
(3) Third Subtle Point
Is to pay Zakat in secret. It removes show and greed for fame. The Prophet (SAW) said, "The best charity is in secret charity of a poor man to a man in want." A certain learned man said, "There are three matters in the secret wealth of good works, one of them is secret charity." The Prophet (SAW) said, "If a man acts secretly, God writes it secretly as secrecy is not maintained if it is disclosed." There is a well-known Hadith about show in open charity. The Prophet (SAW) said, "God will give shade to seven persons on the day when there will be no shade except the shade of God, one who gives charity in such a manner that his left hand does not know what his right hand has given in charity." There is in another Hadith that secret charity appeases the wrath of God, it says, "And if you give charity sincerely, it is also better for you. In secret charity, one can be safe from the danger of show". The Prophet (SAW) said, "If a man wants fame by incurring the pleasure of men, or rebukes after charity, or disclose his charity and thereby seeks name and fame, and or gives charity among the people for show, God will not accept his charity. A secret charity is free from the above faults." Many learned men said that the giver should not even know the person who tak charity. Some of them handed it over to the blind.
(4) Fourth Subtle Point
It is good to give charity openly in a place where the people are encouraged to give charity by seeing it. God (SWT) said, "Spend what I have given you secretly and openly." Care should be taken in open charity about show, rebuke after charity and not to break the secrets of a poor man as most of the beggars do not wish that anybody should see them as beggars.

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Subtle points of Zakat part 1

Bismillahirahmaniraheem
InshAllah the next couple of posts will be from the Ihya Ulum id din and will be on Zakat. The chapter on Zakat is very large so I will just share the "Subtle points" section of Zakat. The first subtle point seems to be the longest or at least is divided into the most parts.

In the Words of Imam Ghazzali

Some Subtle Rules of Zakat
There are some subtle points for a payer of Zakat and for one who travels in the path of the next world.
1st Subtle point: The Meaning and Object of Zakat
Zakat is the purification of properties. There are three reasons for its being a pillar of Islam.
The first cause: is to appreciate the two words of Kalema Shahadat, to take Tauhid firmly and to witness the unity of God. Promise reaches perfection when a unitarian has got no object of love except One, as love does not admit a partner. There is little benefit in uttering Kalima Shahadat by tongue only and the trial is in giving up of other objects of love except God. To the people, wealth and properties are objects of love as they are the instruments of earthly pleasures and getting love from others. Those who claim the love of God are tried and their objects of love are snatched away from them. For this reason God says: God purchased from the believers their lives and properties in exchange of paradise for them. This was said with regard to Jihad. Sacrifice of properties is easier than sacrifice a life which has been also mentioned here to gain the love of God From this angle of view, men can be divided in to three classes.
(1) The first class of men recognise Tauhid as true, fulfil their promise and spend their properties in the way of God. They do not hoard wealth. They do not deny that Zakat is not compulsory or them. Rather they say: For us, it is compulsory to spend all out properties. For this reason, Hazrat Abu Bakr brought all properties to the Prophet when he called for charities in the way of God. Hazrat Umar brought half of his property. The Prophet said to Hazrat Umar: What have you left for your family? He said: Hall of my wealth. He asked Hazrat Abu Bakr: What have you left for your family? He said: God and His Prophet. The Prophet said: The difference between you is in your replies.
(2) The second class of men are lower in rank. They spend their wealth at the time of necessity. The object in hoarding is not to enjoy pleasure but to spend in proportion to necessity and to spend their excess wealth in good deeds. They don't reduce the amount of Zakat. Many Tabeyins like Nakhyi, Shubi, Ata and others held that there are additional duties on wealth besides Zakat. The sage Shubi was asked: Is there any additional duty on wealth besides Zakat? He said: Yes, did you not hear the verse of God: Being prompted by divine love they spend wealth for their near relatives, orphans, the poor and the travellers. This is supported by the following verse: They spend out of what I have provided them with. God says: Spend out of what I have provided you. This means that whenever you will find a man in want, it is the duty of the rich to remove his want. This is an additional charity besides Zakat. The correct opinion according to theology is that whenever expense is necessary, to spend is Farde Kefayah as it is not legal to cause harm to the Muslims.
(3) The third class are those persons who rest contented by payment of only Zakat. They do not pay more or less. This is the lowest rank and the general people adopt this course as they are naturally miser, attached to riches and their love for the next world is weak. God says: If they beg of you and press for it, you become miser. There is a wide gulf of difference between those who (3) The third class are those persons who rest contented by payment of only Zakat. They do not pay more or less. This is the lowest rank and the general people adopt this course as they are naturally miser, attached to riches and their love for the next world is weak. God says: If they beg of you and press for it, you become miser. There is a wide gulf of difference between those who sacrifice their lives and properties for God and those who are defamed for miserliness.
The second cause is to be pure from miserliness as it is one of the causes of destruction. The Prophet said: There are three destructive guilts-to obey miserliness, to follow low desires and self-conceit. God says: Those who are saved from miserliness have got salvation. In this way, Zakat is the cause of purification of properties.
The third cause is to express gratefulness for the gifts of God as God's gifts on His servants are unbounded. The gratefulness for the gifts of body by doing divine services and the gratefulness for the gifts of wealth by expense of wealth are expressed. How unfortunate is he who sees no means of livelihood of a poor man and still does not give him charity in spite of his begging and who rather expresses gratefulness that God saved him from wants.

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Is YOUR prayer being accepted?! Something scary comes this way!!

Bismillahirahmaniraheem
First of all I am sorry I have no updated in a month. I had final papers, final exams, computer problems and family stuff (well not really family stuff but I added it in there anyways). So in this post we go back to this blog's roots, Imam Ghazzali. Last we left Imam Ghazzali he was talking about the five pillars. I had posted what he said about declaration of faith and what he interjected inbetween the 1st pillar and 2nd pillar, wudu. This post will discuss the second pillar Salat. If you are friends with me on facebook you probably already read this but it is still good to reread once in awhile.

In the words of Imam Ghazzali

Internal Conditions
Prayer should be observed with humility of mind. God says: Pray to remember Me. Presence of mind is opposed to absence of mind or heedlessness. If one is heedless throughout his prayer, how can he say prayer with the purpose of remembering God? ,God says: Don't be of the heedless. He says: Prayer is modesty and humility. There in there is injunctions, prohibitions and blocks. The Prophet said: If a man does not refrain from thoughts of obscene and evil things, it does not add to it but distance'. There are two kinds of prayer of a heedless man The Prophet said: There are many praying men who do not gain anything it their prayer except fatigue and efforts. The prayer of a heedless man has been spoken here. The Prophet said: Nothing is written for a praying man except what he understands in his prayer. Its speciality is that there are entreaties and seekings to God in prayer. Munajat with Inattention is not considered as Munajat. There are God's remembrance in prayer, Quran reading, bow, prostration, standing and sitting. God's remembrance means prayer and Munajat to Him. Without them, it ends in voice and tongue.
The object of fasting is to bring under control belly and sexual passion, or else it ends in depriving this - body from food and drink. Body is tried by the troubles of pilgrimage. Troubles are given to mind if Zakat is paid out of wealth and thus mind is tried. There is no doubt that the object of these religious act is to remember God. If that object is not attained, there is no use in prayer, as it is very easy to move the tongue with inattention. The object of word is to talk and it does not occur exempt in mind. It does not exist in mind without humility of spirit and presence of mind. If you recite in prayer: 'Show us the right path', and if you are inattentive at that time, it is only the movement of your tongue and nothing else. The object of Quran reading and God's remembrance is to praise and glorify God and to entreat Him and invoke Him with humility of spirit, but if his mind remains absent at that time and does not know that He is present with whom he is speaking, it must be understood that his tongue moves only owing to habit but he is far away from the object of prayer to enliven God's remembrance and with that to make firm the tie of faith.
Sufyan Saori said: The prayer of one who has got no God-fear becomes void. Hasan Basri said: The prayer which is not said with attention hastens towards punishment. The Prophet said: There are many praying men whose prayers are written to the extent of one- sixth or one-tenth. In other words, the portion of prayer which is said with attention is only written. The sage Abdul Wahed said: The portion of prayer which is said with humility of mind is accepted. This is the consensus of opinion of the sages. In short, earnestness of mind is the life of prayer.
Life of Prayer and its Internal Condition
There are many works signifying the life of prayer, humility of mind, understanding what is said, honour, hope and shame. (1) The meaning of humility or presence of mind is that the action and word must be the same in mind and there should be no other thought therein. When there is no other thing in mind which is concentrated only to one thing, there is earnestness or presence of mind. (2) When mind is not present in prayer, it does not remain idle and is concentrated to the thoughts of the worldly affairs with which it is immediately concerned. So there must be firm belief that prayer is a stepping stone to the next world which is everlasting. Presence of mind is gained only when it is realised and the world is considered as a merely temporary abode and insignificant.
(3) To understand the meaning of words uttered and to engage intellect to understand their meanings. The medicine of removing various thoughts that come in mind in prayers is to cut the root or to remove the reasons which cause different thoughts. He who loves a thing remembers that thing. For this reason, he who loves things other than God is not free from diverse thoughts in prayer.
(4) Honour of God is a condition of mind. It rises out of acquaintance of two things. The first thing is the knowledge of the glory of God. This is the root of faith, because the mind of one who does not firmly believe in His glory, is not given encouragement to honour Him. The second thing is to think oneself helpless and insignificant. From the knowledge of these two things, helplessness, modesty and fear of God arise and as a result honour for God arises in mind.
(5) Fear of God is a condition of mind which arises out of knowledge of God's power and His rewards and punishments. You must have knowledge that if God would have destroyed all past and present, nothing of His sovereignty would have reduced. .It is to he seen along with that whatever dangers and difficulties God gave to His Prophet and friends, these are different from those on kings, rulers and emperors. The more the knowledge about God, the more would be the fear of God.
(6) Hope in God arises out of firm faith in the following matters- knowledge of God's mercy and gifts, knowledge of His creation and remembrance of Paradise through prayer.
(7) Shame arises out of knowledge of neglect in divine service and inability to fight for God. Human mind becomes humble in proportion of certainty of faith.
For this reason Hazrat Ayesha said: The Prophet talked with us and we also talked with him but when the time of prayer came, he could not recognise us and we did not recognise him. It is narrated that God said to Moses: 0 Moses, when you want to remember Me, remember Me in such a way that your limbs tremble and that you hold Me dear at the time of remembrance and rest satisfied.
When you remember Me, keep your tongue behind your mind. When you stand before Me, stand before Me with fearful mind like the meanest slave and speak with Me with the tongue of a truthful man. God revealed to him: Tell your disobedient followers to remember Me. I took oath upon Myself that I shall remember one who remembers Me. When Abraham stood for prayer, voice of his heart was heard from a distance of two miles. An individual will be forgiven in the next world according to the qualities of his mind and not of his body. Nobody will get salvation except one who comes with a sound mind.

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Mysteries of Cleanliness

Bismillahirahmaniraheem

So it was suggested to me that I should also explain what Imam Ghazzali wrote because the readings are too hard for the common reader. The main reason I never wanted to explain the writings of Ghazzali was because I did not want to lead the readers views by my own views. But then while reviewing the past posting I realized that the excerpts are hard to understand. So I have come up with a middle ground. I will explain what the piece is about but will not give commentary on it.

This piece is on Cleanliness and the chapter (chapter or book 3) has to deal with Wudu. Basically like everything else Imam Ghazzali claims that this too has a esoteric and exoteric attributes. He puts this after the Shahada (or the chapter called Foundation of belief) but before Salah (and the rest of the five pillars). Reason for this is because Shahada or the foundation of belief makes you a Muslim so he talks about that first. He wants to talk about Salah before anyother pillar because Salah 5 times a day is the action you perform the most. However to perform Salah you must make wudu first hence he has placed this section between the first two pillars.

In the Words of Imam Ghazzali

The Holy Prophet said: Religion is founded on cleanliness. He said: Cleanliness is the key to prayer. God said: Therein arc men who love purity and God loves the pure (9:109). The Prophet said: Cleanliness is one-half of belief. God said: God desires to make you clean and to complete His favours on you (5 : 7).
Those who possess insight understand by these sayings that the most important thing is the purification of the heart. If the tradition `cleanliness is one-half of faith' is limited only to the external cleanliness of physical organs by water and not also to the purification of the heart which may entertain evil designs and thoughts, its meaning then will be distant and it is impossible.
Purity has got Four Stages
(1) The first stage is the purification of the external organs from excrements and fifths. (2) The second stage is the purification of the body organs from sins and faults. (3) The third stage is the purification of the heart from evil traits and evil vices. (4) The fourth stage is the purification of the inner self from everything except God. This is the stage of the Prophets and the saints. Every item of cleanliness is half of action, because the object of the actions is the glorification and greatness of God. In reality God's knowledge is not attained unless the heart is purified of all things other than God. For this reason, God said: Say 'God', then' leave them to play in the useless talks (6:91). There can be no two things in mind at the same time and God also has not created two minds in the same man. The object of the actions is to adorn the mind with praiseworthy qualities and religious firm faith. It is well known that the mind will not be adorned with those qualities till the blameworthy evils and false faith reign in it.
To purify the mind from these evils comprises half of its actions and the first half is pre-requisite for the second. In this sense, purity is said to be half of belief. So to purify the bodily limbs from the prohibited things is the first half and to strengthen it with religious acts is its second half. These are the stages of belief and every stage has got its rank. Nobody will attain a 'higher stage. unless he first goes through the lower one. He can not attain real purity of heart till he purifies it from the blameworthy vices and adorn it with the praiseworthy qualities. He can't purify the heart till he purifies his organs from prohibited things and makes it firm with religious acts. The more honourable is the object, the more difficult is the attainment of that object. The longer is the road that leads to it, the greater are the obstacles. Don't think that this can he attained with ease and without efforts. He who is blind to these stages of purity will not understand the above mentioned four stages. He will understand the lowest stage of cleanliness. It is like the outer husk of a crop or like skull in relation to brain. He understands that the outer cleanliness is the desired object and makes exaggeration in it and spends much time an wealth in advertising (Istinja) in cleanliness of cloth, body and • the use of water and thinks that the noble purity comprises these outward and external cleanliness. The early Muslims concentrated their entire attention and energies on the purification of their hearts and were lenient in their outward cleanliness. Even Hadrat Omar, being placed in a high position, made ablution with the water from a jar which belonged to a Christian woman. The companions were accustomed not to wash their hands after eating from the remains of fat and food but to wipe them out against the arches of their feet and regarded the use of soap as innovation. They used to say prayer kneeling and prostrating directly on the ground in the mosque and walk barefooted on the roads. They used to use pebbles after calls of nature.

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Proof of Belief (Fourth pillar of belief)

Bismillahirahmaniraheem
This is the last post on proof of belief. I hope you all enjoyed and learned from this series. And now know what was Imam Ghazzali's real aqeedah and make your own judgment on it. Also please be sure to read my previous post because it has been corrected. Thank you!

In The Words of Imam Ghazzali

Fourth pillar. It is to believe in the things accepted on authority and it is based on ten things. It is to believe in the truth of Resurrection, questions by Munkar and Nakir, punishment of grave, the Balance, the Bridge, Paradise, Hell, the true Imam, excellence of the companions in accordance with chronological order and qualifications of being an Imam.

To believe the Hadis of the Prophet involving ten basic Principles.
(1) First basic principle. It is to believe in the Resurrection of the dead and the Day of judgment as in the traditions. It is a settled fact like the beginning of our creation. God said: People say: Who shall give life to hones when they are rotten? Say, He shall give life to them who gave them life at first (36: 73). The beginning of creation is the proof of its resurrection. God said: Your creation and your resurrection are like a single soul (31 : 27). Resurrection
is the second stage of men and is possible like the first stage of creation.
(2) Second basic principle. It is the question of Munkar and Nakir which has been mentioned in traditions and therefore to believe it is compulsory. The second life will be in such a place where he will be questioned. This is possible naturally, as the stillness of the dead man's corpse or its failure to hear the questions put to it will refute it, because a sleeping man is openly still and dead-like but his soul feels pain and pleasure at that time in dream. Its effect can be seen when he wakes up from sleep. The Prophet used to hear the words of Gabriel and see him but the man surrounding him did not hear his words or see him. As God
did not give them such power of sight and hearing, they did not see and hear.
(3) Third basic principle. It is to believe in the punishment of the grave as it has come in Shariat. God said: They will be exposed to Me morning and evening and on the Resurrection Day. The supporters of Pharaoh will be given severe punishment (40 : 49). This is possible and to believe it is compulsory. Animals have got
special organs to feel pains and pleasure even though they are eaten by ferocious animals.
(4) Fourth basic principle. It is to believe that the Balance is true. God said: I will set up just balance on the Judgment Day (21: 48). God said: Those whose balances will be heavy will get salvation, and those whose balance will be light will be losers (7 : 7).
(5) Fifth basic principle. It is to believe in the Bridge which is spread on the back of Hell, thinner than a hair and sharper than the edge of a sword. God said: Guide them to the bridge of Hell and tell them to wait there, as they will be questioned (27 : 23). It is possible, because He who makes the birds fly in the horizon can take the people to travel on the Bridge.
(6) Sixth basic principle. It is the belief that Paradise and Hell have been created by God. God said: Vie in haste for pardon to your Lord and a Paradise, vast as the heavens and the earth, is prepared for those who fear God- 3 : 127. This proves that Paradise and Hell are created.
(7) Seventh basic principle. It is to believe that the rightful Imams after the Prophet are Hazrat Abu Bakr, then Umar, then Osman, and then Ali and that the Prophet's attention was not upon any particular Imam. As to the struggle which took place between Muawiah and Ali, it was the result of differences of opinion to discover truth by Ijtehad. Hazrat Muawiah did not do it for leadership. Hazrat Ali considered that the mode of punishment of the murderers of Osman was to be belated as they got relations in the army. Hazrat Muawiah considered that their arrest was better as their influence might help further bloodshed.
(8) Eighth basic principle.. It is to believe the excellence of the companions in accordance with their chronological order in which they succeeded the Prophet and the real excellence is in the sight of God and that it did not come to anybody except to the Holy Prophet. Several verses to that effect in praise of the companions were revealed and there are a number of traditions
(9) Ninth basic principle. It is to believe that an Imam, in addition to his qualifications of his being a Muslim, mature and intelligent must have five other qualities (1) he must be a male, (2) he must be a God-fearing man, (3) he must be learned, (4) he must be competent, (5) he must belong to the tribe of Quraish as the prophet said: The leaders are from the Quraish. When these qualities are found in a man, he is fit to become an Imam or ruler provided majority of the people swear allegiance to him. Those who oppose the majority of the people are rebels and it is incumbent to bring them under control.
(10) Tenth basic principle. It is that if a man who is invested with the power of rule is found lacking in God-fear and learning and if there is fear of disturbance and trouble in case of his removal, then his rule will stand, because if he is removed, two conditions will arise. (1) Another man will be reinstated in his place or the post will remain vacant. In the first case, the harms which will be caused to the Muslims in general will be greater than the harms of one who has got no God-fear and learning in him. The qualities of leadership are for the greater good of the people.
These four pillars involving forty basic principles are the articles of belief. He who believes in these things follows Hale Suntan or the people of the ways of the prophet.

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Proof of Belief (Third pillar of belief)

Bismillahirahmaniraheem
Well we are more than half way done with this series of post. Hoped you all finding learning about Imam Ghazzali's Aqeedah by himself and not from others fun and interesting.

In The Words of Imam Ghazzali

(3) Third pillar. It is to have knowledge and faith in His works which are established over ten bases. They are that men's actions are created, willed and fixed by God, that He is kind to creatures free from imposing works beyond power of men, that He punishes men, does what He wills, that there is nothing obligatory on Him, that He sent apostles and that our Prophet was helped by miracles and that his prophethood will last till the Day of Resurrection.
God is ever-living based in 10 principles.
First basic principle. It is the knowledge that every event in the world is His action, creation and invention. There is no creator or it except He. He well regulated the creation and gave it its due power and motion. All the actions of His servant are His creations and keep connection with His power, confirming thereby His words -God is the creator of everything (9 : 102). God created you and what you make(37 : 96). Whatever is your conversation, hidden or open, He truly knows the innermost recess of your hearts. "What! does He not know when He has created, when He is the subtle, the cognizant?" He ordered men to take precaution in their actions, words, secret matters and thoughts as He knows the orientation of their actions and gave proof of His knowledge by creating creations. How will He not be the Creator of the actions of men when He has got full power without any decrease? His power is connected with the movements of men. All motions are h Millar and are connected with power of God. What then would prevent its connection in the case of some actions and would not prevent it in the case of other actions when all are similar? How could animals be independent of the Creator when the wonderful workmanship of spiders, bees and other animals amaze the wisest and intelligent minds? Who has got power of speciality in these creations except God? Then animals themselves do not know the benefits they produce. So they cannot be called the causes of workmanship. Now think that all creations bow down to One who is the Creator of the heavens and the earth.
(2) Second basic principle. It is that God being the Creator of I the power of men, does not prevent them from doing voluntary actions by way of acquisition, for God created power and the container of power, choice as well as the container of choice. ' Power is an attribute of a man though it is the creation of God and not acquired by man. Motion is also the creation of God and an attribute of man acquired on the strength of power, because the power with which he was created is his attribute, but motion is connected with the attribute of power and for this reason of connection, it has been named power of motion. The power of motion is not the result of compulsion on any man as he can move according to his will and knows the difference between compulsion and volition. How can this motion be his creation when he does not know the different parts of acquired actions and their numbers'' When these two matters are disproved, namely the matter that actions are the result of compulsion and the matter that they are the result of volition, there remains the middle position which is this that actions are voluntary in a fixed manner through power of God by invention and through the power of a man by acquisition. God has no necessity of keeping connection with the container of power in the matter of creation because the power of God is eternal and its connection with the world is eternal.
(3) Third basic principle. It is the knowledge that though the actions of man are his acquisitions, they are nevertheless nil outside the will of God. Neither a twinkling of an eye, nor a sudden rise of thought in mind in the visible and invisible world occurs except through His order, power and will. Good or evil, benefit or loss, belief or infidelity, knowledge or ignorance, success or failure, guidance or misguidance, sin or virtue, Shirk or Iman come from Him. There is none to reject His command, none to disobey his decree. He guides whom He wishes and misguides whom He wishes. There is none to question Him of what He does, but the people will be questioned (21 : 33). All say: What He wills occurs and what he does not will does not occur. God says: If God willed, He would have guided all men rightly (3 : 30). Had I wished, I would have given every soul its guidance (31 13). He who thinks that God does not will sins and evils as they are evils and that it is the devil who wills them is cursed. Tell me how a Muslim can deny the supreme rule of God. If the power of a village chief is curtailed, he will think it dishonourable. He will think it derogatory to his position if actions are conducted according to the wishes of his enemy in the village. The result will be that many will be out of his control. Now it is seen that evil deeds are predominant in men. If every sin is done against the will of God, God's helplessness is seen. When it is established that all actions of men are creations of God, it follows thatt the evil actions are also the result of His will.
Question may be asked how God commands to do what He does not wish and how He prohibits what He wishes. In reply we shall say that command is one thing and will is another thing. Thus if a master beats his slave, the ruler rebukes the
master for beating his slave. The master shows reason that his slave does not obey him. As a proof he orders his slave to arrange the bridle of his horse before the ruler though he knows that the slave will not obey it. If he does not order him, his objection before the ruler does not stand and if he wishes that his order should be obeyed it amounts to his murder. It is impossible.
(4) Fourth basic principle. It is that God is generous in inflicting trouble on men by His command. Neither creation, nor imposition of obligations is necessary for Him although the Mutazalites hold that they were necessary for the welfare of men. But this is impossible since He is the only being to enjoin and prohibit. How will it be limited by compulsion? The object of compulsion is of two things, such a work which if given up will cause harm in future as it is said that it is compulsory on men to obey God who will punish him in the hereafter by the fire of Hell; or it is to avoid such present harm which is injurious as it is said that to drink water for a thirsty man is compulsory so that he may not die. Secondly it is such a work the negation of which seems impossible. Thus it is said that the existence of a thing which is known is necessary because if it does not exist, it becomes an impossibility. If it occurs, knowledge becomes ignorance.
(5) Fifth basic principle. It is that God can inflict on man what is beyond his capacity. If it were not possible, it would have been impossible for , men to pray for removing it. The people prayed: 0 our Lord, lay not on us that for which we have no strength- 2: 246 This is against the belief of the Mutazalites.
(6) Sixth basic principle. It is that God is free to punish a man in spite of his virtues and to reward a man in spite of his sins. The Mutazalites hold the contrary view. God has got freedom of action among His servants and it is impossible that His servants will oppose His freedom. Tyranny means to dispossess a man from his possession but it is impossible in the case of God as He does not dispossess others in view of the fact that the kingdom of heaven and earth is His. It is proved by this. Slaughter of animals is infliction of pain on animals and men Various tortures inflicted on animals have not been preceded by any offence or crimes committed by the animals. If it is said that these animals would be raised up again and rewarded for this which is incumbent upon God, then we would say that every ant killed under feet and every bug crushed would be brought back to life. It would violate the dictates of reason and law as nothing is incumbent upon God.
(7) Seventh basic principle. It is that God does with regard to men what He wills and it is not incumbent on Him to do whatever is good for them. It has already been stated that nothing is compulsory on God but His dealings are not intelligible to men, because there is nobody to question Him what He does but men are subject to questions. The Mutazalites say that it is incumbent upon God to do whatever is salutary for men.
(8) Eighth basic principle. It is that to have knowledge of God and to obey His commands are compulsory on men, not on account of the reason as the Mutazalites say, but on account of Shariat. Shariat declared poisonous serpents beyond death, while reason in realising what Shariat foretells thinks it possible and urges that precautions should be taken against any possible punishment. But reason itself does not lead to that knowledge of harm. If a man warns by saying: A lion stands behind you, he should at once take to his heels without searching reason.
(9) Ninth basic principle. It is that sending Prophets to men is not impossible. Some say that there had been no use in sending them, because reason renders' it unnecessary. This is false, because reason does not support the actions which will lead to salvation in the hereafter just as it does not guide them to discuss the medicines which are useful for health. The necessity of Prophets for men is like that of the physicians for men. The integrity of the physicians is known by experience and the truthfulness of the Prophets is known by miracles.
(10) Tenth basic principle. It is that God sent Muhammed as the last Prophet and as an abrogator of all previous laws of the Jews, Christians and the Sabians and God helped him with open miracles and wonderful signs, such as splitting up the moon into two parts, the praise of the pebbles, causing the mute animals to speak, water flowing from his fingers etc. The open miracle with which he guided the Arabs is the ()Iran as the beauty of the language throughout the Quran is paralleled and the Arabs could not surpass it in spite of then eloquence and rhetoric. Though the Prophet was illiterate arcs did not learn how to read and write, yet God informed him in the Quran about the histories of the previous nations, the informations which he gave about the previous nations in the Quran being an illiterate person, the prophecies he made about the future events and the clue he gave to the unknown things are his miracles. For instance God says: You will enter the sacred mosque if God wills having your heads shaved and your hair short (48 : 27). The verse: The Romans have been vanquished in a land nearby but after their defeat they defeat them in a few years (30 : 1). The object of these verses is to prove the truth of the messenger of God by miracles.

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Proof of Belief (Second pillar of belief)

Bismillahirahmaniraheem
This is the second pillar of belief. Now again I stress I neither support nor attack this position. I only wish show what Ghazzali believed in his own words and voice.

In The Words of Imam Ghazzali

Second pillar: It is to have knowledge of His attributes and to believe them. It is founded on ten bases-He is All-powerful, All-knowing, living for ever, willing, hearing, seeing, speaking, eternal in words, knowledge and will and free from changes of events.

God's Attributes based on Ten Principles (10 bases of the second pillar)
(1) First basic principle. It is that God is Almighty as He said: He is power over all things (15 : 120). He is truthful as the world is perfect with His designs and well regulated. He who sees a garment of silk of which the weaving and texture are fine and says that it has been made by a dead man or a man who has got no power, would be lacking in natural intellect and is utterly foolish.
(2) Second basic principle. It is that whatever exists is within His knowledge and under His control. Even an atom in heaven and earth is not outside His knowledge. He is truthful in all His promises and has got knowledge of everything. This is attested by the verse: Does He not know who has created? He is subtle, cognizant (77 : 14). Take this proof by your intellect that there is nothing like of what He created with wonderful design. This shows the deep knowledge of the Designer and wonderful intricacies. He is the end of praise and guidance as He described Himself
(3) Third basic principle. It is that God is Ever-living, because it has been established that He has got knowledge and power anti that He has got life. If it were conceived that a powerful and knowing designer is without life, then it is possible also to doubt the lives of animals in spite of their motions and rest. This is the height of foolishness.,
(4) Fourth basic principle. It is that every action happens according to the will of God. In other words every existing thing lives according to His will. He is the original Creator and repeats creations and whatever He wills, He does. When every action happens according to His will, the opposite thing also comes into being according to His will. So power leads His will to two different directions.
(5) Fifth basic principle. It is that God is hearing and seeing and it is impossible to evade His sight and hearing. He is the bridge of mind and lies secretly in thoughts and reflections. The thinnest sound of the creeping of a black ant on a solid stone in the deep darkest night does not evade His hearing. How will it not be when His sight and hearing are perfect beyond doubt and there is no decrease of this power? How can the power of the created become perfect in relation to the power of God? How can a designer become perfect in relation to the great Designer? How can a portion become equal to one whole?
(6) Sixth basic principle. It is that God speaks without words and sounds and letters. It does not resemble the speech of other beings. In reality His speech is speech of the mind. Just as speech of mind has got no sound or words, so His speech has got no sound or words. A poet says:
Speech is of the mind. Tongue is the vehicle of mind.
He who cannot conceive it is a fool. Pay no attention to one who does not understand that the eternal is that before which nothing existed. Thus in the word `Bismillah' the word 'B' precedes 'S' and consequently 'S' cannot be eternal. God has got a secret for leading some men astray as He says: There is no guide for one whom God misguides (13 : 33). Whosoever thinks it impossible the Prophet Moses heard God's words which had no sound or words, it becomes impossible for him to believe that he will see in the next world such a thing as has got no body though he understands that a thing can possibly be seen which has got no colour, body or size, even though he has not seen such a thing. Similarly conceive of hearing what is applicable to sight. If you understand that God has got knowledge of everything, understand it also that along with His being, He has got attribute of speech. Understand it also that all the words represent His speech. If it is possible to conceive of the existence of the seven heavens and Paradise and Hell all written in a small piece of paper and that Tardier of men is preserved in the minutes part of heart and seen with an eyeball without the things existing in the eye ball, it is also possible to conceive the speech of God as being read with tongue, preserved in mind, written on paper, but the essence of speech does not come down on these things, because if it comes down on paper on account of writing, then the essence of fire would come down on paper on account of its writing and would burn it.
(7) Seventh basic principle. It is that the words emanating from God are eternal along with His attributes, since it is impossible that He is subject to change. Rather it is necessary that His attributes should become eternal as His being is eternal. He is without change and without novelty. He exists with His attributes from eternity. What is not free from change is originated. Origination is an attribute of body as it is subject to change and the attribute of body is also subject to change. How can the Creator be sharer with it in the attribute of change? For this it can be said that He is eternal. His words are eternal but our words and sounds are new and originated.
(8) Eighth basic principle. It is that His knowledge is eternal. Whatever occurs in His creation is within His knowledge from eternity and not His new knowledge. Whenever any animal is born, His knowledge about it is not new but eternal and ancient. For instance, if I know that laid will come at sunrise, his arrival at sunrise and to welcome him would be owing to that foreknowledge and not for any new knowledge. The eternal knowledge of God should be understood in this way.
(9) Ninth basic principle. It is that His will is eternal. His will to make an event at the appointed time has ,got connection with His eternal knowledge, because if there is rise of a new will, it remains confined to the place of event. If His will rises in another object and not in His being, He cannot will just you cannot execute an action which is not in yourself. How can you do it when it depends on the will of another which again depends on the will of another and so on to infinity and there is no end to it. If it is possible for a will to come into being without another will, it would be possible for the world to come into being without a will.
(10) Tenth basic principle. It is that God is wise by His knowledge, living with His life, mighty with His power willing with Ills will, speaking with His words, seeing with His light and hearing. These attributes belong to His eternal attributes. If one says that He is wise without wisdom, his words will be like those of a man who says that he is wealthy without his wealth, learned without his learning and the object of learning. Learning, object of learning and the learned man are inseparable, as murder, murderer and one murdered are inseparable. As murder can not be conceived without the killer and one killed, a learned man cannot he conceived without learning and an object of learning.

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Proof of Belief (First pillar of belief)

Bismillahirahmaniraheem
The next series of posts will be entitled the proof of belief and give the four pillars of belief and their 10 bases. Today we deal with only the 1st pillar and its 10 bases. In the original text Imam Ghazzali 1st tells all the pillars and then gives us the 10 bases for each. However for the sake of organization I will give you one pillar at a time and all of its 10 bases. Furthermore as with our posts of volume one chapter one which dealt entirely about knowledge, volume one chapter two deal entirely on the topic of Aqeedah. And just as I said in my last post, I neither deny nor confirm if this is what I follow, nor will I support or attack Imam Ghazzali's work. I only wish to provide Imam Ghazzali's words so you may make a descision about him and not just listen to certain people who attack him without even refering to his texts and his words perverting your views on a great man.

In The Words of Imam Ghazzali

Proof of Belief

Iman or belief is founded upon four pillars, each of which has got ten bases:

First pillar. It is the knowledge of essence of God and it is established upon ten bases. They are the knowledge and belief that God is existing, eternal, ancient, without form, without body, without length and breadth, without any special direction, occupying no space, object of vision in the next world and He is one without any partner.
The basic principles of faith for knowledge of God (10 bases of the 1st pillar).
The first basic principle is to have knowledge of the existence of God. The first light which illumines faith and the first thing to be followed is the Quran and there is no word better than the word of God. God says: Have I not made the earth a couch, mountains its tents? I have created you of two sex and ordained your sleep for rest, night as a mantle and day for gaining livelihood. I created above you seven solid heavens and placed therein a burning lamp and I sent down waters in abundance from clouds that I might bring forth by it corns and herbs and gardens thick with trees (78 : 6). God says: In the creation of the heaven and the earth and in the alternation of night and day and in the ships which pass through the sea with what is useful to man and in the rain which God sends down from heaven, giving life by it to the earth after its death and by scattering over all kinds of earth and in the change of the winds and in the clouds that are made to do service between heaven and earth, are signs for those who understand (2 : 159). God says: Don't you see how God created the seven heavens one over the other, placed therein the moon as a light and the sun as a torch and God caused you to spring forth from the earth like a plant. He will turn you back into it again and will bring you forth main (71 : 14). God said: Don't you see the germ of life? Is it you who created it or I? I have decreed death among you and I shall not be overcome to change your forms and create you what you know not (56 : 58).
It is clear that if he who has got a little intellect and ponders over these verses and looks to the wonderful creations of the heavens and the earth will realise that without a great Designer these workmanship are impossible. The human soul naturally testifies that God exists and that everything is governed by His Laws. For this reason God says: Is there any doubt about God, the Creator of heavens and earth ? (14 : 11) The Prophets were therefore sent by Him to call the people towards monotheism 'there is no deity but God.' They were not commanded to say: For us there is one God and for the world another God, because such a thing was inborn in their minds from the time of their birth. God said: If you ask them who has created the heavens and the earth they will reply 'God'. God said: Turn your face then towards the true faith, the natural religion whereon God created men 30 : 30. Therefore there are testimonies of the Quran and human nature which are sufficient proofs. All other proofs are unnecessary but still we shall prove by the proof of knowledge that God exists.

Proof of Knowledge

A new thing cannot come into existence without a cause. The world is an originated new thing and it did not come into existence without a cause. That a thing cannot come into existence without a cause is clear, for such a thing belongs to a certain definite time and it also comes to our intellect that it comes at a fixed time without precedence or subsequence, because of the urgency of its fixed time. The world is a new or originated thing. Its proof is found in the fact that it is not free from motion and rest which are the characteristics of every new material thing. Even motion and rest are two new originated things not free from changes. The world and whatever exists in it are originated things. There are three matters in this argument. Firstly, a body is not free from motion and rest. It requires no meditation. Secondly, motion and rest themselves are originated things. Its proof is that one comes after another. It is found in all bodies. What is static can move and what is moving can become static according to the dictates of intellect. If any of the above two things is predominant over the body, it becomes a new even. A new thing is originated because of its emergence, an old thing is distant because of its extinction. If the eternity of a thing is established, its extinction is impossible as we shall prove it by the subsistence of the creation. Thirdly, what is not free from changes is an originated or new thing or whatever is not independent of originated things is itself originated. Its proof is that if it were not so, the world before every new thing may change which has got no beginning and unless these new things come to nought, the turn for the present new things to come into being would never come. But it is impossible for a thing which has no end to come to nought.
Another reason is that if there is no end of the motion of heavenly bodies, three conditions would arise-their numbers would be either odd or even, or both odd and even, or neither odd nor even. The last two are impossible, as positive and negative are united therein, since the affirmation of one is the negation of another and negation of one is the affirmation of another. They cannot be even, as even number becomes odd by the addition of one. That which has no end cannot be even without change. They cannot be odd, because the number becomes even with the addition of one. How can it change into odd when its number has got no end? From this, it is concluded that the world is not free from changes and therefore it is an originated thing. When it is an originated thing, it requires a Creator to bring it into existence. The second basic principle is the knowledge that God is eternal. He has got no beginning and no end; He is the final of everything and before everything living or dead. Its proof is this. If lie were an originated thing and not eternal. He would have need of a Creator who would also have need of a Creator. Thus it would have continued without end. Whatever comes in succession ends in an ancient creator which is the first. For this reason, the Creator is the First and the Last, the Creator of the world and its Fashioner.
Third basic principle. It is that God is everlasting without end. lie is the first and the last, the open and the secret. When the attribute of eternity has been established his end becomes impossible. Its proof is this. If He had an end, He would have remained in two conditions, either he would come to nought by Himself or through an opposing annihilating agent. If it is possible lot a thing which is self-existing to come to nought, it is also possible for that thing to come into existence. The reason is that if a thing requires a cause to come to existence, it also requires a cause to come to nought. It is not possible that a thing comes to nought after meeting with an opposing agent. If that thing which comes to nought is eternal, how does the form of existence of a thing become? It is not also possible that an originated thing coming before an eternal thing loses its identity and existence. God is eternal as we have learnt it from previous discussions. How then did He exist in eternity with His opposites? If the opposite is an originated thing, its existence from eternity is impossible.
Fourth basic principle. It is that God is without form, not copying any space and free from space, motion and rest. Its proof is this. Every form occupies a space and moves and stays in it. Body has got motion and rest which are the character of originated things. What is not free from changes is an originated thing. If any form is limited by space and is eternal, it is understood the substance of the creation of the world is eternal. If a man Mays that God has got body and occupies space, he commits blonder for using such word and not for its meaning.
Fifth basic principle. It is that God is not composed of a body having different substances. When He does not occupy any space, He has got no body as every body is limited by space and composed of different substances. The substances of the body are not free from division, composition, motion, rest, form and quantity. These are the qualities of an originated thing. If it were possible to believe that the Creator of the world has got a body, then it would be possible to attribute divinity of the sun and the moon and other heavenly bodies. If a designer wishes to make a body without the substance of body, he will commit mistake.
Sixth basic principle. God has got no length and breadth as these are attributes of a body which is an originated thing. Its Creator existed from before it. So how will He enter in a body as He existed by Himself before all originated things and there was nobody along with Him. He is All-knowing, Almighty, Willing Creator. These attributes are impossible for a body. He exists by Himself without the substances of a body. He is not like any worldly thing, rather He is ever-living, everlasting and nothing is like Him. Where is the similarity of the Creator with the created, the Fashioner with the fashioned? Hence it is impossible that anything is like Him.
Seventh basic principle. It is that God is not confined within any direction as He created directions, either above or below, right or left, front or behind. He created two directions for man. one
rests on earth called the direction of feet and one above his head What rests above head is above and what rests below feet is below. To an ant, below the roof, the above portion is its lower side and the lower side is its upper side though they are contrary in out case. He created for man two hands one right hand and another left. Accordingly there is right hand direction and the left hand direction. Then there are front direction and back direction. When direction is an originated thing, how can He be governed by that? Along with the creation of men, directions have been created. There is nothing above God, because He has got no head and the word 'above' is connected with head. There is nothing below Him as the word 'below' is connected with feet and God has no feet. If He is above the world, there is a direction opposite to it and every opposite thing has got a body like it or similar to it. But God is free from it. He is unique, He is the Designer. Eighth basic principle. It is that God is seated upon His Throne, that is upon power. It is not inconsistent with the attribute of His grandeur and the symptoms of origination and annihilation. This is what is meant by the following verse of the Quran: Then He ascended to heaven and it was then but smoke-(4 1 : 10). It means His dominion and power as the poet said:

Bishr has gained power in Iraq,
Without sword and shedding blood.

The people of truth accepted this interpretation as the people of untruth were compelled to accept the interpretation of these words of God: He is with you wherever you are (57 : 4). This means that Ile encompasses everything. This is supported by the following Hadith: `The heart of a believer is within two fingers of the Merciful,' meaning within His power or might. It is also supported by the following Hadis: 'The Black Stone is the right hand of God In the earth,' meaning it is established on honour in the earth. If its meaning is taken literally, the result would be impossible. His taking rest on the Throne means this. If it is taken literally, it becomes possible to believe that He has got a body and the Throne is also a body limited by space. It is impossible.
Ninth basic principle. It is that although God is free from form, space and direction. He is an object to be seen in the hereafter as He said: On that day shall faces beam with looking towards their Lord (75 : 22). He is not visible in this world as God Maid: Vision does not comprehend Him, but He comprehends vision (6: 103), also because of the following verse: God addressed Muses saying: You cannot see Me (7 :109). I don't understand how the Mutazalites hold that God is visible in this world also though Moses could not see Him. Insight is a kind of Kashf and knowledge, and Kashf is more clear than knowledge. When God has got connection with knowledge and not with direction, He has sot connection also with insight without any direction. As God sees Ills creation though not in front, the creation also sees Him though not in front. As it is possible to know Him without modality or lot in, it is also possible to see Him likewise.
Tenth basic principle. It is that God is without any partner, single without any like. He is unique in ever new creations, innovations, and inventions. There is nothing like Him. The Quran says: Had there been any other God therein, they would have gone to ruin (21 : 22). If the first God willed something, the second would have been compelled to aid the first and thus he would have been subordinate to him. This means that he would have no supreme power. If the second is to oppose the first, he would be powerful and the first would be weak rather than an Almighty God.

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The Belief in God (Aqeedah) by Imam Ghazzali

Bismillahirahmaniraheem
We have now finished Chapter 1 of Volume 1 of the Ihya Ulum-Id-Din which was entitled Knowledge. We now come to Chapter 2 of Volume 1 which is Foundation of Belief. Imam Ghazzali starts of this chapter talking about the belief in god and over here we see his Aqeedah. Now keep in mind this is Imam Ghazzali's Aqeedah and I will neither defend nor attack him for it. It is our choice to agree or disagree with his views on this subject. Furthermore for the sake of being unbiased in this blog I will not tell which school of Theology I follow. However I will say traditionally out of the 4 schools of Theology Mu'tazili, Ash'ari, Maturidi and Athari (better known as salafiyyah/Wahabiyyah today) three were considered to be under the sunnah, while one was considered off the sunnah. That one which was off the Sunnah was Mu'tazili. Now no one E-mail me arguing with me because I will nto argue who is right or wrong I just wish to show what Imam Ghazzali believed in his own words. Most of you only know what he believed in the words of Yasir Qadhi or some other Al-Maghrib instructor who dislike the Imam or in the words of Imam G.F. Haddad or someother supporter of Imam Ghazzali. I am here allowing the dead to speak for themselves. Furthermore if you take a second to look past the differences in aqeedah and see the applications of aqeedah (which can be applied to any school of theology) and excellence of belief (which can also be applied to any school of theology) you will inshAllah benefit from this post.

In the Words of Imam Ghazzali

Praise be to God, the Creator, the First, the Last, the Doer of whatever He wills, who guides His servants towards the true path, who makes Himself known to men that He exists by Himself without any partner, He is single without any associate, the Eternal without any before Him and without any beginning, the Everlasting without any end. He is the First, the Last, the External and the Internal, the All-knowing. The following beliefs about God are necessary

(1) To believe in His Transcendence. He is without body and form, free of restriction, limitation and resemblance, not divisible. Nothing is like Him and He is not like anything. He is not limited by measure, space and time. He is free from diligence, rest and change. Everything is in His grasp. He is above Arsh, above heaven and above everything. He is nevertheless below the deepest depth, yet He is near, very close to a thing, nearer to the jugular vein of a man. He is not in anything and nothing is in Him. Ile is beyond space and beyond time. His is now as He was before. He expresses Himself through His creatures and not by existence. He is free from change, increase or decrease.

(2) To believe in His power and existence. He is Ever-living, All-powerful, Almighty, the great Destroyer. He is free from faults and failures, slumber, sleep, disease, death. He is the Lord of the entire universe, angels and everything. The heavens are rolled in his hands. He is unique in creation and unrivalled in ever new creations. He fixed the provision and death of created beings and nothing can escape from His power. His power and might are above counting.

(3) To believe in His knowledge. His knowledge is without limit and He knows everything. Whatever happens between the deepest abyss of the earth to the highest heaven is within His knowledge. The smallest atom in the earth or in heaven is not outside His knowledge. He knows the creeping of an ant on a solid stone in intense dark night or in the movement of a mote in the air. Everything open and secret is within His knowledge. Every thought in mind, every contrivance of the devil and every thought good or bad is within His knowledge. His knowledge is eternal and unlimited without any increase or decrease and without any defect.

(4) To believe in His will. Nothing comes into being small or great, good or evil, benefiting or not benefiting, faith or infidelity, known or unknown, profit or loss, sin or virtue without His order, power and will. What He wills comes into being. What He does not will comes not into being. Not a glance of the eye, not a stray sudden thought in mind is outside His will. He does what He wills. There is none to rescind His command, there is no obstacle to it. There is no refuge of one who is disobedient to him. There is none to follow His command without His will. If mankind, jinn, angels and devil want to remove an atom from its proper place, they won't be able to do it without His will. His will lies naturally in His attributes which are unlimited. There is no precedence or subsequence of any event from its appointed time.

(5) To believe in His hearing and sight. He hears and sees. His hearing and sight are all pervading. Nothing however scanty can escape His hearing and nothing however subtle can go from His sight. Distance is no bar to His hearing and seeing, rather distance and nearness are all equal to Him. Darkness can not obstruct His sight. He sees without eye, catches without hands and creates without instrument. His attributes are not like those of the created beings, His being is not like that of the created.

(6) To believe in His words. God speaks without sound. It is eternal, ancient and self-existing unlike the talks of the created. His talk is without sound. It has got no connection with circulation of air. It does not take the help of words and language through the movement of lips. The Quran, the Bible, the Gospel and Psalms are His created books to His Prophets. The Quran is recited by tongue, written on papers and preserved in heart, nevertheless it is eternal existing with the eternity of God. Hazrat Moses heard His words without sound and language and the righteous will see Him in the hereafter without body and space.

(7) To believe in His actions. There is no creator of actions except He and nobody is outside His judgment. He created everything in its best of make and form and no other form is better than it. He is wise in His actions and just in His judgments. His justice is not comparable to that of men. Whatever exits in the world, men, jinn, angels, devils, heaven, earth, animals, plants, inanimate things comes out of nothing but by His power. He existed in eternity by Himself and there was nothing along with Him. Thereafter He originated creations not because of His necessity. He has got no fatigue or languor. Whatever He does is from a sense of justice, not of oppression or injustice. Obedience to Him is binding on all His creatures and He expressed it through His Prophets. He gave them miracles and conveyed His injunctions and prohibitions through them.

(8) To believe in other world. It is to attest to the prophethood of Muhammad. God sent the unlettered Quraishite Prophet Muhammad as an apostle to all the Arabs and non-Arabs, to the jinn and men and by his law he abrogated all other laws. He gave him superiority to all other Prophets and made him leader of mankind and did not make complete any faith with the words of Tauhid till it was followed by the attestation that Muhammad is His servant and apostle. He made compulsory to believe whatever he said about this world and the next world. He does not accept the faith of a man unless he believes in these articles of faith along with the following.

(a) To believe in Munkar and Nakir. They are two terrible angels. They will make the dead one sit up with his soul and body and ask him about his religion and his Prophet. This is the first examination after death. (b) To believe in the punishment of grave as true. (c) To believe in the Balance with two scales and a tongue the magnitude of which is like the stages of heaven and earth. Therewith the actions of men will be weighed. The weight would be like a mote or mustard seed to establish exact justice. (d) To believe in the Bridge. It is a bridge stretched over Hell, sharper than the edge of the sword and thinner than a hair. The feet of the unbelievers will slip and they will fall down into Hell. The feet of the believers will be firm upon it by the grace of God and so they will cross it to Paradise. (e) To believe in the Fountain. It is a fountain of the Prophet. The believers will take drink from it and enter Paradise after crossing the bridge. Whoever will drink therefrom once will never be thirsty. Its water will be whiter than milk and sweeter than honey. There will be so many pitchers around like so many stars in firmament. (f) To believe in the judgment. Some will render little account, some great and some will enter Paradise without account. They will be in the neighbourhood of God. Those who believe in Tauhid will come out of Hell after their due punishment in Hell. (g) To believe in the intercession of the Prophets, then the learned, then the martyrs, then the rest of the believers. They will have the right of intercession in proportion to their ranks to God. (h) To believe in the goodness of the companions, first of Abu Bakr, then of Umar, then of Osman and then of Ali. You will have good idea about them and praise them as God and His Apostle praised them.

Excellence of Belief

What has been said above about belief is applicable to a boy in his early years in order that he may commit them to memory. Its meaning will be gradually unfolded to him. The first duty of a boy is to commit them to memory, then to understand them and then to believe them and then to know them as certain and sure. It comes to his mind as a matter of course without proof. The root of faith of the ordinary people is Taqlid or blind belief in authority. True it is that the belief which is based on authority is not free from some weakness, but when it is certain and sure, it becomes perfect. To achieve this end, one should not resort to scholastic theology but to reading the Quran, Tafsir and Hadis and to understand their meaning, because in that case the light of divine service appears in him, and the advices of the pious, their company, their character and conduct, their God-fear and their asceticism spread effect in his mind. Instruction to the boy is like the sowing of seed in his heart. The above actions are like the serving of water and tending to seed. It grows, becomes strong and thrives to a tree and its root becomes strong and firm and its branches rise high. The boy should also be guarded against argumen tation and speculation as their harms are greater than their benefits. To make faith strong by argumentation is like striking a tree with an iron matter. To teach by proof is one thing and to see proof by eyes is another thing. If the boy wants to be included within the travellers of the hereafter with Taufiq or God's grace as his friend, the doors of guidance are opened up for him till he remains engaged in actions attached to Godfear and restrains himself from passions and lusts making efforts in discipline and self-mortification. Owing to these efforts, a light from God falls in his heart as God says: Whoso strives for Us, We shall guide them in our paths, for God is assuredly with those who do right- 29: 69. That is the most valuable jewel and the ultimate goal of the saints and favour ites of God. That is the secret matter which rested in the breast of Hazrat Abu Bakr and for which he was superior to all others. The expression of this secrecy has got different stages.

It will be open to one in proportion to one's efforts and striving and the more one makes his soul clean and pure. It is like the learning of the mysteries of medicines, jurisprudence and other sciences. They differ in proportion to the differences of intellect and knowledge. As there is no limit to these stages, there is also no limit to the degrees of secrets.

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