Bøger af Abu Hamid Muhammad Al-Ghazali

The Bane of Tongue (Kitab afat al-lisan) is Book 24 of the Imam al-Ghazali's magnum opus, I?ya? ?ulum al-din, The Revival of the Religious Sciences. Within the architecture of this monumental work, Afat al-lisan is the fourth book of the third quarter, The Ways to Perdition (Rub? al-muhlikat), in which al-Ghazali sums up in ten books (or chapters) all the human shortcomings and vices traditionally believed to lead a person into a state of loss in this world and the Next, and which in certain respects overlap with the Judeo-Christian notion of the seven deadly sins. In Book 24, al-Ghazali divides the banes (afat) or defects of the tongue, from the least to the most offensive, into twenty short chapters, each of which comprises a psychological/spiritual analysis of how and why the particular defect might exist in a person's soul, examples of how it manifests itself in behavior, and practical suggestions for eliminating it from one's personality. The misuse of the gift of speech and language is certainly not something new, as this work, composed nearly 950 years ago, amply shows, but in this age of internet-based communication, it has taken on a new and more destructive dimension.

Centuries after his death, al-Ghazali remains one of the most influential figures of the Islamic intellectual tradition. Although he is best known for his Incoherence of the Philosophers, Moderation in Belief is his most profound work of philosophical theology. In it, he offers what scholars consider to be the best defense of the Ash'arite school of Islamic theology that gained acceptance within orthodox Sunni theology in the twelfth century, though he also diverges from Ash'arism with his more rationalist approach to the Quran. Together with The Incoherence of the Philosophers, Moderation in Belief informs many subsequent theological debates, and its influence extends beyond the Islamic tradition, informing broader questions within Western philosophical and theological thought. The first complete English-language edition of Moderation in Belief, this new annotated translation by Aladdin M. Yaqub draws on the most esteemed critical editions of the Arabic texts and offers detailed commentary that analyzes and reconstructs the arguments found in the work's four treatises. Explanations of the historical and intellectual background of the texts also enable readers with a limited knowledge of classical Arabic to fully explore al-Ghazali and this foundational text for the first time. With the recent resurgence of interest in Islamic philosophy and the conflict between philosophy and religion, this new translation will be a welcome addition to the scholarship.

This work, written towards the end of Al-Ghazali's career as a philosopher, advances the idea that reason can serve as a connection between the devout and God. Exploring the boundary between philosophy and theology, it seeks to understand the role of reality in the perception of the spiritual.