This is the last part of Ghazali’s chapter on love. He already mentioned that the senses are our gateway to pleasure and we love everything that is pleasurable to our senses. However there is something else we love, but that is not experienced through our senses and that is the love of Allah, which we experience in our heart. Allah stated in the Qurah that He did not create man and Jinn except to worship Him, liyabudun. Mujahid (the student of Ibn Abbas) said that to worship means to KNOW Allah (liyarifun)......

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Why do we love the Prophet (peace be upon him)? Ghazali likes to link every topic to its roots to examine it. How do we develop love? Ghazali already mentioned that we find everything pleasurable to us beloved, while we find everything painful repulsive and abhorrent. Primarily we experience love through our senses and these cause us to respond positively every time our senses are pleased – be it by fragrance, or taste or touch or sight. These are all external stimuli but we also have in addition we have the internal......

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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 (Revival of the Sciences of the Religion), and his life’s works and thoughts. In the last ten principles of the forty, he looks at good traits that we should adopt and nurture within ourselves. The first is tawbah (repentance); the second is khawf (fear) and the third is zuhd (asceticism), the fourth quality is sabr (patience). The fifth quality is......

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