Al-Ghazali on Disciplining the Soul and on Breaking the Two Desires

In this work Ghazali explains how to acquire good character traits, and how the sickness of the heart may be cured. He then discusses gluttony and sexual desire, concluding, in the words of the Prophet, that 'the best of all matters is the middle way'.

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"Al-Ghazali on Disciplining the Soul" is a translation of the twenty-third book of the "Revival of the Religious Sciences" (Ihya Ulum al-Din), which is widely regarded as the greatest work of Muslim spirituality. In "Al-Ghazali on Disciplining the Soul", Abu Hamid al-Ghazali illustrates how the spiritual life in Islam begins with `riyadat al-nafs', the inner warfare against the ego. The two chapters translated here detail the sophisticated spiritual techniques adopted by classical Islam in disciplining the soul. In Chapter One, "Disciplining the Soul", Ghazali focuses on how the sickness of the heart may be cured and how good character traits can be acquired. In Chapter Two, "Breaking the Two Desires", he discusses the question of gluttony and sexual desire-being the greatest of mortal vices-concluding, in the words of the Prophet, that "the best of all matters is the middle way". The translator, T. J. Winter, has added an introduction and notes which explore Ghazali's ability to make use of Greek as well as Islamic ethics.---In this new edition, the Islamic Texts Society has included the translation of Abu Hamid al-Ghazali's own Introduction to the "Revival of the Religious Sciences" which gives the reasons that caused him to write the work, the structure of the whole of the "Revival" and places each of the chapters in the context of the others.