The Book of Belief (Parent & Teacher edition) - Al-Ghazali (Principles of the Creed)
Book II The Book of Belief - The Principles of the Creed. Translated by: Khalid Williams. An Introduction and Notes by James Pavlin
In the Principles of the Creed (Kitab Qawa'id al-'aqa'id), the second of the forty books of the Revival of the Religious Sciences (Ihya' 'ulum al-din), Abu 'amid al-Ghazali explains the fundamental beliefs of Islam, those that concern faith in God, His revelation, His messengers, and the hereafter. The scope of these beliefs includes the nature of God, Muhammad’s status as a prophet, the virtues of the Companions, the events related to the resurrection and judgment, and the nature of faith itself. This presentation of beliefs goes beyond a list of creedal statements; al-Ghazali cites the scriptural foundations in the Qur'an and hadith, refers to transmitted reports from the Companions and others from the righteous predecessors, and supports these beliefs with rational arguments.
In chapter 1, which presents a succinct summary of the essential aspects of the Muslim creed, the Arabic text appears on facing pages. Chapter 2 discusses how religious instruction should be imparted gradually, the stages and levels of conviction, the ruling on studying debate and theology, the outward and inward creed, and the difference between the two. Chapter 3, the “Jerusalem Epistle on the Principles of the Creed” (al-Risala al-qudsiyya fi qawa'id al-'aqa'id), is a detailed exposition consisting of four pillars: the recognition of the essence of God, the knowledge of the attributes of God, the knowledge of the acts of God, and belief based on transmitted reports about God from the Prophet. Chapter 4 examines faith and Islam, what connects and separates them, whether faith can increase and decrease, and whether the predecessors qualified their claims to faith (by saying “God willing”).
Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (d. 1111) was a leading scholar, jurist, and theologian of the golden age of Islam, and he remains its truest advocate in modern times. As a teacher of both inward and outward faith, he recorded these practical teachings in his forty-book compendium of Islamic knowledge.
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In the 40 volumes of his magnum opus, The Revival of the Religious Sciences, al-Ghazali explains the inner transformative meanings in every aspect of Islamic faith and practice. The Fons Vitae Ghazali Series begins with The Book of Knowledge and The Principles of the Creed, each accompanied by an illustrated version for children with accompanying workbooks.
One of the last students that Ghazali agreed to teach before his death was the Spanish Maliki jurist, Abu Bakr ibn al-‘Arabi, considered one of the greatest and most influential scholars of Islam. Of their meetings which began in Jerusalem in 1096CE, Ibn ‘Arabi relates:
He was completely inner-focused on the divine and had left the world behind him. When I entered into his presence, I said, “You are the lost thing I have been looking for all of my life. You are the imam who will guide me.” Our meeting was an epiphany of inward knowledge. I witnessed something from him that is ineffable. He was a man whom if you saw him, you saw a manifest spiritual state. If you knew him, you knew a vast ocean. Each time I questioned him, I was filled with inner joy at the response. I maintained visits at the retreat and placed myself upon his carpet. I benefitted from his seclusion and his spiritual activities.
It was as if he relinquished any other occupations to be with me in order for me to realize my goal...When that light arose upon me, dispelling what had previously enveloped me of darkness and gloom, I said, “This is what I have been seeking in truth! This, by the sacred trust of God, is the goal of every seeker, the destination of every wayfarer.”
He had disciplined his soul with Sufic exercises for around five years prior to our meeting. He was completely engaged in that and had taken solitary retreat as his companion and rejected every group.
— from the Series Introduction by Hamza Yusuf Hanson