IHYA ULUMUDDIN (4 VOLS) HB

Through the unbounded grace of the Almighty God and blessings of the greatest Apostle of God, the English version of the Book of Worship of the world-renowned Ihyaul Ulum (Revival of Religious Learnings) of Imam Ghazali, the greatest thinker of die world of Islam, the Proof of Islam, the famous Sufi, has now been published in full. This book Ihya is a sea of knowledge full of reason and arguments, full of Quranic verses, traditions of the Holy Prophet and of the companions and the famous saints of early ages. Each subject is supported by the Quran, traditions and sayings of the learned sages and wise men and established by reason and arguments.
As the great Imam belonged originally to the Shafer Sunni sect, some of the religious doctrines will be found in line with that sect, but nevertheless its importance is very great. In his advanced age, Imam Ghazali was not a blind follower of sects but followed his independent thinking and as such indirectly created a sect of his own. As the world is advancing with ever new ideas and scientific discoveries, so also this work is full of novelty and great ideas and scientific discoveries. The Imam revived truly the religious sciences and gave them an impetus never given by his predecessors in such a manner. He saved Islam from the currents and cross currents of devilish thoughts and pagan ideas that imperceptibly entered into Islam and clearly showed their fallacies and misconceptions. For this reason, he was given the title of Hujjatul Islam or the Proof of Islam. His thoughts prevailed upon those savants who came after him. Had not the Almighty blessed him with the necklace of reason and intellect, the true belief of Islam would have been carried away by the strong current of irreligious and misguided thoughts.
Truly there are many weak traditions in this book, but at the same time it should be remembered that the Author Name(s)s of six authentic traditional books specially Bukhari and Muslim selected some few thousand traditions and most of them were not proved to have been founded by trustworthy narrators from the Holy Prophet down to the narrator or did not meet with all the rules laid down for an authentic tradition. For want of proof, many guilty persons are acquitted. For that, it cannot be said that all acquitted persons are innocent. So in this perspective the traditions in the Ihya should be regarded. Had Imam Ghazzali not found them trustworthy, he would not have incorporated them in his book. There is no complete English translation of Ihya at present Ashraf Publications of Lahore published some chapters of the first book of Ihya. The present translation is an attempt to bring out a complete translation of Ihya in English in four books. The first book deals with worship and divine service, the second book with worldly usages, the third book with destructive evils and the fourth book with constructive virtues. Ihya in original is a book in Arabic comprising four parts and its abridged addition in -Persian was termed by the Author Name(s) himself as ‘Kimiyae Sa’adat’ or the Touchstone of fortune. Unnecessary arguments of different sects prevalent nearly one thousand years ago, some matters not heeded at the present time and some sayings of some sages of less reputation have been omitted in the present English version. The book has been, however translated into Bengali in full by the Author Name(s) himself without omission.