Chapter 1 Prayer - Salat
Excellent Merits of Prayer
1 Call to Prayer – Adhan
2 Five Set Prayers – Salat
3 Correct Performance – Ta’dil
4 Congregational Prayer – Jama‘a
5 Prostration – Sujud
6 Humble Adoration – Khushu’
7 The Mosque and Place of Prayer – Masjid
Internal Prerequisites: Actions of the Heart
Humility and Conscious Awareness
Internal States Conducive to Perfecting the Life in Prayer
Awareness – Understanding – Reverence – Awe –Hope – Shame
Medication Conducive to Inner Serenity
Inner States at Each Stage of Prayer
The Call to Prayer – Ritual Purity – Covering Private Parts –
Facing the Qibla – Standing Upright – Intention – Takbir – Opening
Invocations – Reciting the Quran – Bowing Down – Prostration –
Sitting and Testifying – End of Supplication – Salutation
Stories of the Humble
Chapter 2 Almsgiving – Zakat
1 Understand the Purpose and Significance
Testing the Degree of Love for God – Elimination of Miserliness –
Expression of Gratitude
2 Payment at Proper Time
3 Give in Secret
4 Give Openly
5 Avoid Taunting and Hurting
6 Adopt Humility
7 Give the Best and the Dearest
8 Seek the Worthy and Deserving
Chapter 3 Fasting – Sawm
Three Grades
Inward Requirements
See not what displeases God – Speak not... – Hear not... – Do
not... – Avoid Overeating – Look to God with Fear and Hope
Importance of Observing Inward Aspects
Chapter 4 Pilgrimage - Hajj
Its Excellences and Its Merit
The Pilgrimage
The Ka’ba and Makka the Ennobled
Residing in Makka
Madina the Radiant 3
Fine Points of Propriety; Internal Conduct
Purity of Intention and Means – Shunning Unlawful Taxes –
Moderation in Expenditure – Forsaking Evil Conduct – Going on Foot
– Modesty and Simplicity of Transport – Shabbiness in Dress and
Appearance – Kindness to Beasts of Burden – Sacrificing Animals –
Equanimity
Inner States at Various Stages of Hajj
Understanding – Yearning – Resolve – Severing Ties – Provisions –
Transport – Purchase of Ihram – Leaving Home – Crossing the Desert
– Putting on Ihram and Crying ‘Labbayk’ – Entering Makka – Seeing
the Ka’ba – Circumambulating the House (Tawaf) – Touching the Black
Stone – Standing at Multazam – Running between al-Safa and al-Marwa
(Sa’y) – Standing at ‘Arafat – Casting Pebbles (Ramy) – Sacrificing
Animals – Visiting Madina – Visiting God’s Messenger
Conclusions
Chapter 5 Night Vigil – Qiyam al-Layl
Quranic Verses – Traditions of the Prophet – Traditions of the
Companions and Their Followers
Chapter 6 Invoking Blessings upon God’s Messenger
Chapter 7 The Merit of Seeking Forgiveness – Istighfar
Kube Publishing Ltd.
AL-GHAZALI, Abu Hamid Muhammad (450/1058-505/1111), a towering
figure in Islam, was born at Tus, near Mashhad in Iran, in the
early Seljuq era and studied theology and law at Nishapur. His
formidable intellectual abilities soon won him honour and respect
at the court of the famous Seljuqi Prime Minister, Nizam al-Mulk,
and, while still in his early thirties, he became Professor at
Madrasa Nizamiyya in Baghdad and attained great prominence there.
But soon he abandoned his professorship for a decade of
contemplation and study. He returned for a while to lecture at the
Nizamiyya in Nishapur before his death. He wrote a large number of
works, which include Al-Munqidh min al-Dalal (a biographical
account), Tahafut al-Falasifa; but his magnum opus remains the
Ihya’ Ulum al-Din in four volumes, compiled during his period of
retirement and contemplation.
MUHTAR HOLLAND, the translator, was born in Durham in the
North-East of England in 1935. Whilst still a pupil at the Johnston
Grammar School there, he developed a strong interest in foreign
languages which led him to later study of Arabic and Turkish at
Balliol College, Oxford. Subsequently, during his National Service
in the Royal Navy, he also learned Russian. He went on to lecture
in Arabic, Turkish, and Near-Eastern History at the University of
Toronto, then in Islamic Law at the School of Oriental and African
Studies, University of London. He taught Classical Arabic and Greek
Philosophy at the Institute of Malay Language, Literature and
Culture, of the National University of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur.
For a time he was a Senior Research Fellow at the Islamic
Foundation, Leicester.
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