About The Book

Bidayat al-Hidaya is Imam al-Ghazali's practical beginner's manual on the daily disciplines of worship and the cultivation of character. Composed before the Ihya as a kind of seed-text for it, the work covers the practical disciplines that the wayfarer needs from the moment he wakes: the manners of rising, of wudu, of salat, of the daily Quran portion, of dealing with people throughout the day, of work, of eating, of sleep — and the inner disciplines that accompany them: avoiding the sins of the heart (envy, pride, ostentation), cultivating sincerity, dealing patiently with affliction.

Where the Ihya unfolds these themes across four large volumes, Bidayat al-Hidaya remains the most accessible single-volume introduction to al-Ghazali's spiritual programme, and is universally read in Sunni-Sufi circles as the first practical text on the path.

About The Author

Imam al-Ghazali (450-505 AH / 1058-1111 CE), Hujjat al-Islam, is among the most influential thinkers in the history of Islam. Born in Tus in Khurasan, he taught at the Nizamiyya college in Baghdad before withdrawing into a long spiritual retreat from which he emerged with the Ihya. Bidayat al-Hidaya was composed in the same closing phase of his life.

عن الكتاب

"بداية الهداية" للإمام الغزالي دليلٌ عَمَلي للمبتدئ في عبادات اليوم وآداب النفس. كَتَبَه قبل "الإحياء" كأنّما هو بَذْره الأوّل. يتناول الكتابُ الآداب العملية التي يحتاجها السالك من ساعة استيقاظه: آداب القيام، والوضوء، والصلاة، والورد القرآني، والمعاشرة، والكسب، والأكل، والمنام؛ وآداب الباطن المُصاحبة لها: تجنُّب الحسد والكِبْر والرياء، وتحقيق الإخلاص، والصبر على البلاء.

عن المؤلف

الإمام أبو حامد الغزالي (٤٥٠-٥٠٥ هـ)، حجّة الإسلام. درّس بالنظاميّة ببغداد، ثم اعتزل في رياضة روحية طويلة. صنَّف "بداية الهداية" في المرحلة نفسها التي صنَّف فيها "إحياء علوم الدين".