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Al-Ghazali on Responses Proper to Listening to Music and the Experience of Ecstasy: Book XVIII of Ihya Ulum al-Din
Al-Ghazali on Responses Proper to Listening to Music and the Experience of Ecstasy: Book XVIII of Ihya Ulum al-Din
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Translator
Anthony H. Johns
Description
About The Book
Responses Proper to Listening to Music and the Experience of Ecstasy is the eighteen chapter of the Revival of the Religious Sciences (Ihya’ ‘Ulum al-Din), a monumental work of classical Islam written by the renowned theologian-mystic Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (d. 1111). This chapter of the Revival deals with the controversial topic of music. In the Islamic legal tradition, there is disagreement as to whether or not performing and listening to music is lawful, even more, whether music might be used as a path to ecstasy.
Basing himself on the Qur’an, hadith, the first generations of Muslims and the mystical tradition, Ghazali presents the arguments both for and against listening to music. Ghazali’s own position is that music in itself is permissible, though under certain circumstances it can be unlawful or undesirable. Ghazali emphasises awareness of the omnipresence of God in creation and the importance of using the mind, hearing and sight to bring one closer to God. In Responses Proper to Listening to Music and the Experience of Ecstasy he gives lyrical expression to his love of poetry and music, and their legitimate place not only in human celebrations, but in divine worship and as aids on the path to gnosis and ecstasy. All such responses he sees exemplified in the life of the Prophet with his family.
This volume also includes a translation of Imam 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.
About the Contributor(s)
About the author
al-Ghazali: Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali (450-505 AH / 1058-1111 CE) was born in Tus, in the Khorasan region of Persia, and is remembered as one of Islam's most influential thinkers. Losing his father young, he studied at Nishapur and was appointed, while still in his thirties, to the prestigious Nizamiyya college in Baghdad. He was Shafiʿi in law and Ashʿari in creed, and his contemporaries honored him as Hujjat al-Islam, the Proof of Islam. At the height of his fame al-Ghazali passed through a profound spiritual crisis, recounted in his autobiography al-Munqidh min al-Dalal (Deliverance from Error). He abandoned his teaching post, traveled, and devoted years to the inward discipline of the Sufis before returning to instruction with a renewed purpose. His landmark work, Ihyaʾ ʿUlum al-Din (The Revival of the Religious Sciences), reconstructs the religious life across four parts, acts of worship, social custom, the vices that ruin the soul, and the virtues that save it. In philosophy he wrote Tahafut al-Falasifa (The Incoherence of the Philosophers), a careful critique of the Hellenistic thinkers of his age. Bridging law, theology, philosophy, and mysticism, al-Ghazali shaped the direction of Sunni thought for centuries, and his books remain widely read and translated. His many works are available here in English translation.
About the translator
Anthony H. Johns: Anthony H. Johns is Emeritus Professor at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, where he held a named chair in the Faculty of Asian Studies from 1963 to 1993, establishing himself as one of the foremost Western scholars of Islamic studies in the Asia-Pacific region. His research specializations include Sufism in the Malay world, Islamic history and institutions, and the foundational textual tradition of Islam. Over his distinguished career, Professor Johns has published extensively on the Qur'an and Qur'anic exegesis, contributing to scholarly understanding of classical Islamic hermeneutics. Following his tenure in the Faculty of Asian Studies, he continued his scholarly engagement as Visiting Fellow in the Department of Political and Social Change within the College of Asia and the Pacific at ANU. He serves as a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Qur'anic Studies. His translation of al-Ghazali's Kitab al-Sama' wa al-Wajd for the Islamic Texts Society's Ghazali series reflects his command of classical Arabic and his expertise in Islamic spirituality.
Specifications
EAN 13 / ISBN
9781911141075
Publisher
Islamic Texts Society
Author
al-Ghazali
Pages
190
Translator
Anthony H. Johns
Year Published
2019
Size
W-6.1 in | H-9.2 in | D-
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