Ghazali lived in 5th century Hijri and his book, Kitaab Al-Arba’in Fi Usul ad-Din, ‘The Forty Principles of the Religion,’ which he wrote before his death, is a summary of Ihya Ulumuddin, and his life’s works and thoughts. We are looking at the last ten principles (good traits) out of the forty. The first is tawbah. One of the main issues is that persisting in a sin breaks tawbah. Ghazali, known for being the spiritual master, teaches how to diagnose and cure it. He mentioned the rarity of doctors who can cure you (meaning the spiritual masters and knowledgeable people who have good character and are the wirath al anbiya (the heirs of the Prophet peace be on him) who can support you and help you to be cured. Be aware of consequences He talks about how to recognise that it is a disease, and that you need to seek a cure, even if you don’t see the immediate effect, as there are consequences for sins. Therefore you need to be aware of the consequences and repent for any sins you commit. You need to see that Allah Almighty warned us about the punishment for sins, which is why we need to come back to Allah and seek His forgiveness. Control desire The reason behind sins is whims and desires, so we need to put a cap on them and control them. Stop procrastinating Then we need to end our tendency for procrastination and seek tawbah. We must not postpone and postpone repentance in order to get achieve real tawbah. Do not have false hope that you will be forgiven Do not think that because Allah Almighty is merciful that He will excuse your sins. Do not fool yourself to justify your sins. This is shaytan’s cunning plan. It is … Continue reading Ghazali on Tawbah (part 3)