What did al-Ghazali say about love of the world (dunya)?
Al-Ghazali called the love of the world 'the head of every sin.' His dissection of dunya — its deception, its fleeting pleasures, its relationship to the hereafter — is one of the most influential passages in Islamic spirituality.
10 passages from 9 books in the library
Al-Ghazali taught that love of the world (dunyā) is the key to every evil, while renunciation of the world is the key to every good — as he put it, God placed all evil in a house whose key is love of the world, and all good in a house whose key is turning away from it. He set the fleeting span of worldly life against the eternal hereafter, in which the worldly seems vanishingly small, and noted that every loss in this world is a diminishment of the world and an increase in the hereafter.
Drawn from the classical sources below — in the scholars' own words.
The classical approach.
These passages are drawn from 9 books by Imam al-Ghazali — part of the classical Sunni tradition that carries over a thousand years of reflection on the Qurʾān, the authentic Sunnah, and the consensus of the early community. Nothing below is a paraphrase. The words are the scholars' own, translated from the original Arabic manuscripts.
11th–12th century · Ṭūs, Khurāsān
Reviving the inner life of Islam through the Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn — one of the most influential works ever written in any religious tradition.
More on Imam al-Ghazali →
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"and the world of creation, with the world of the command ruling over the world of creation."
11th–12th century · Ṭūs, Khurāsān
Reviving the inner life of Islam through the Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn — one of the most influential works ever written in any religious tradition.
More on Imam al-Ghazali →
· Provenance →
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"to the tangible world. The tangible world and the realm of dominion imitate the world"
11th–12th century · Ṭūs, Khurāsān
Reviving the inner life of Islam through the Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn — one of the most influential works ever written in any religious tradition.
More on Imam al-Ghazali →
· Provenance →
-
"God placed all evil in a house and made its key the love of the world, and He placed all good in a house and made its key the renunciation of the world."
11th–12th century · Ṭūs, Khurāsān
Reviving the inner life of Islam through the Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn — one of the most influential works ever written in any religious tradition.
More on Imam al-Ghazali →
· Provenance →
-
"A person in this world, surrounded by an indulgent one inviting him to his world, and a desire-driven"
11th–12th century · Ṭūs, Khurāsān
Reviving the inner life of Islam through the Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn — one of the most influential works ever written in any religious tradition.
More on Imam al-Ghazali →
· Provenance →
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"Every poverty and harm in the world is a diminishment of the world and an increase in the hereafter."
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"Your denial of the unseen world is like the denial of the Sama'ania for the metaphysical world."
11th–12th century · Ṭūs, Khurāsān
Reviving the inner life of Islam through the Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn — one of the most influential works ever written in any religious tradition.
More on Imam al-Ghazali →
· Provenance →
-
"because it contradicts the norms of this world. If you had not witnessed the wonders of the world,"
11th–12th century · Ṭūs, Khurāsān
Reviving the inner life of Islam through the Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn — one of the most influential works ever written in any religious tradition.
More on Imam al-Ghazali →
· Provenance →
-
"for Allah grants worldly gain through religion, but does not give religion through worldly means."
11th–12th century · Ṭūs, Khurāsān
Reviving the inner life of Islam through the Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn — one of the most influential works ever written in any religious tradition.
More on Imam al-Ghazali →
· Provenance →
-
"pleasures of this world. Anyone who does not follow this path becomes familiar with the world and"
11th–12th century · Ṭūs, Khurāsān
Reviving the inner life of Islam through the Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn — one of the most influential works ever written in any religious tradition.
More on Imam al-Ghazali →
· Provenance →
-
"When comparing the brief span of worldly life to the eternal hereafter, the worldly life seems"
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