Character - Al Jumuah Magazine

The Mother of All Spiritual Maladies | Abu Hamid al-Ghazali

THE FOLLOWING ARE some remarks inspired by my perusal of an insightful passage by the towering Muslim theologian and jurist Abû Ḥâmid Al-Ghazâli, may Allah shower His soul with mercy. The passage has opened my eyes to a truth I have long…

Translation from Ibn Al-Jawzi’s Sayd Al-Khatir (Quarry of the Mind) | Taking the Side of Allah

THE RATIONAL MAN is careful to uphold the positions of Allah even when it angers people. For he who takes the side of another at the price of the rights of the Creator, Allah turns the heart of the one he sought…

Translation from Ibn Al-Qayyim’s Madarij Al-Salikin (Steps of the Seekers) | The Station of Faqr (Mendicancy) | Part 2

Mendicancy and the Moment MENDICANCY (FAQR) HAS effects, signs, causes, and implications that the people of the path (the seekers after closeness to God) frequently mention. One said: “The mendicant is one whose ambition does not transcend his present step,” that is, he…

Translation from Ibn Al-Qayyim’s Madarij Al-Salikin (Steps of the Seekers) | The Station of Faqr (Mendicancy) | Part 1

AMONG THE STATIONS of iyyâka naʿbudu wa iyyâka nastaʿîn, “You alone we worship and your help alone we seek” [Sûrat Al-Fâti ḥah, 1:5] is the station of mendicancy (al-faqr, translated henceforth as mendicancy, poverty, or destitution). To the people of the path,…

Translation from Ibn Al-Jawzi’s Sayd Al-Khatir (Quarry of the Mind) | From the Stories of Life

The Wages of Youth I STUDIED THE conditions of people who attain glory or wealth. That’s just when the downfall of most comes. Behold the youthful among them: How excessive grows their sinful behavior; how neglectful they are of their chance for…

Translation from Ibn Al-Jawzi’s Sayd Al-Khatir (Quarry of the Mind) | The Struggle Against Desirous Whim

I HAVE SEEN that the inclination of the ‘self’ toward what it desires tends to grow in intensity, until it leans forward to so great an extent that it pulls with it the heart, the rationality, and the mind of a person,…

The Inward Requirements of Fasting | Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali

PRAISE BE TO Allah who has thwarted the hopes of Satan and frustrated his designs by making fasting a bulwark and a shield for his righteous servants; who taught them that the way of Satan to their hearts lies in secret lust;…

Translation from Ibn Al-Jawzi’s Sayd Al-Khatir (Quarry of the Mind) | The Veil of Life

A THOUGHT OCCURRED to me in a religious gathering—when the sitting became pleasurable, and the hearts were present, and the eyes were flowing, and the heads were bowed, and the souls felt remorse for their negligence, and the resolution to fix their…

Translation from Ibn Al-Jawzi’s Sayd Al-Khatir (Quarry of the Mind) | Judging with Deliberation

THE MOST IDIOTIC of people is the one who acts according to the present situation and neither envisions change nor anticipates possible scenarios. Take, for example, one who is deluded by political power. He acts according to his desires relying on his…

Translation from Ibn Al-Qayyim’s Madarij Al-Salikin (Steps of the Seekers) | The Station of the Sought (Al-Murâd) | Part 3

EDITOR’S NOTE: THE Station of the Sought is one of the advanced states of the heart for worshippers who are seriously striving for nearness to Allah, according to Ibn Al-Qayyim. It has three tiered levels, ascending from lower to higher: (1) Allah…