SUFISM / SPIRITUALITY

A Collection of Speeches by Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani, taken from Discourses on Islamic Way Of Life.

This books consists of the following speeches:

* An Easy Way To Establish a Relationship With Allah
* What is Deen (Religion)?
* The Demands of Kalimah Tayyibah And The Company Of The Men Of Allah
* The Importance Of Traditional Prayers
* (The Philosophy and Reality Of) Bismillah
* Details of Invocational Prayers During The Day

A Collection of Speeches by Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani taken from Discourses on Islamic Way Of Life.

This collection consists of the following lectures:

* Purify Your Hearts
* The Need For Mujahadah (struggle)
* The Struggle With The Innderself
* Diseases Of The Heart
* Mind Your Own Business
* How To Live Before One Dies?
* What Is Purification?
* The Reality of Tasawwuf
* Cure For Worries
* Repentance - An Antidote of Sins
* Fear of Allah FIghts off Sins in Man

The Beginning of Guidance, a translation of Ghazali's Bidaya al-hidaya complements his spiritual autobiography and sets out his ideal of how the religious man should order his life from hour to hour and day to day.

Abu Hamid ibn Muhammad Ibn Muhammad al-Tusi al-Shafi'i al-Ghazali was born in 450/41 AH/1058 C.E. in Tus in Khorasan, (a region of modern day Iran). His father died while he was still very young but he had the opportunity of getting education in the prevalent curriculum at Nishapur and Baghdad. Soon he acquired a high standard of scholarship in religion and philosophy and was honoured by his appointment as a Professor at the Nizamiyah University of Baghdad, which was recognised as one of the most reputed institutions of learning in the golden era of Muslim history. After a few years, however, he gave up his academic pursuits and worldly interests and became a wandering ascetic. This was a process (period) of personal mystical transformation. Later, he resumed his teaching duties, but again left these. An era of solitary life, devoted to contemplation and writing then ensued, which led to the author- ship of a number of everlasting books. He died in 505 AH/1111 C.E. at Tus.

Al-Ghazali's major contribution lies in religion, philosophy and Sufism. A number of Muslim philosophers had been following and developing several viewpoints of Greek philosophy, including the Neoplatonic philosophy, and had lead to conflict with several Islamic teachings. On the other hand, the movement of sufism was assuming such excessive proportions as to avoid observance of obligatory prayers and duties of Islam. Based on his unquestionable scholarship and personal mystical experience, Ghazali sought to rectify these trends, both in philosophy and sufism.

He was a prolific writer. His books include Tahafut al-Falasifa (The Incoherence of the Philosophers), Ihya Ulum al-Din (The Rivival of the Religious Sciences), "The Beginning of Guidance and his Autobiography", "Deliverance from Error". Some of his works were translated into Latin in the Middle Ages, where he was known as Algazel and via the translation of a truncated work, the Maqasid al-Falasifa [The objectives of the Philosophers.]

Al-Ghazali's influence was deep and everlasting. He is one of the greatest theologians of Islam and his influence penetrated Europe, influenced Jewish and Christian Scholasticism, and several of his arguments seem to have been adopted by Thomas Aquinas in order to similarly reestablish the authority of orthodox Christian religion in the West.


# Cover: Paperback
# Author: Imam Ghazali / Trans. Professor Mashhad Al-Allaf
# Pages: 192

Al-Wasiyya - The Advise Of The Esteemed Scholar Muwaffaq ad-Din Ibn Qudama al-Maqdisi

This book is a distillation of the wisdom gained after years of study of sacred texts from the Islamic tradition. The author, Muwaffaq ad-Din al-Maqdisi, is one of the foremost scholars in the Hanbali school, and this concise and inspiring work sums up the realities of this world and the next, gathered in kernels of advice to his fellow believers.

Biography of Imam Ibn Qudama

Ibn Qudama is Abdullah ibn Muhammad ibn Qudama, Abu Muhammad Muwaffaq al-Din al-Jama'ili al-Maqdisi, born in Jama'il, Palestine, in 541/1146. A Hanbali scholar and Imam, he was educated in Damascus, and was the author of the nine-volume Al-Mughni [The enricher] in Hanbali jurisprudence as well as other works in fundamentals of Sacred Law, tenets of faith, geneology, biography, and Qur’anic exegesis. He travelled to Baghdad in 561 AH and lived there four years before returning to Damascus, where he died in 620/1223.  

Translated by Aisha Bewley.


# Cover: Paperback
# Author: Muwaffaq ad-Din Ibn Qudama al-Maqdisi
# Publisher: Turath Publishing
# Pages: 72