Title: Spirit of the Soul

Publisher: Tawbah

Pages: 485

Rigid

Author: Imam Al-Ghazali, Imam Ibn Al-Jawzî, Ibn Al-Qudâmah

Allah ('azawajjal) says in the meaning of His Word: "He who was dead and whom We have brought back to life [by faith], giving him light by which he walks among people, is he like one who wanders in darkness without being able to come out? (Surat al-An'am, v.122).

He thus compared faith and Islam to the soul which gave life to the body, whoever is deprived of it is similar to the dead, even if he thinks he is alive.

Imam Al-Ghazali, may Allah have mercy on him, considered the condition of the Muslim community in his time and said: "As for the science of the path leading to the hereafter, on which the pious predecessors walked, and which Allah ('azawajjal) named in his Book: understanding (fiqh), wisdom, science, brilliance, light, guidance and righteousness, it is ignored and totally forgotten. This being a disastrous gash made to religion, and an obscure misfortune, I considered that I had to compose this important book in order to revive the sciences of religion, to unveil, to unveil the ways of past imams, and to expose the splendours of the useful sciences of the prophets and pious predecessors. This is what marked the start of his monumental work: Revivification of the sciences of religion.

Although his work has been controversial and criticized, scholars have not completely dismissed it, and many of them have endeavored to redact it. It is to this immense work that Imam Ibn Al-Jawzî and Ibn Qudâmah, one after the other, devoted themselves, in order to keep only the quintessence. If Al-Ghazali endeavored to show what is the soul of Islam and faith, Ibn Al-Jawzî and Ibn Qudâmah gave us access to the essence of the work: the spirit of the soul.