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 6 books in the library
The classical approach.
These passages are drawn from 6 books by Imam al-Ghazali and Ibn Battuta — 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 →
· Provenance →
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"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."
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"It is said that its sign is to leave the world as it is, not saying, I shall build a place for religious retreat, or I shall construct a mosque."
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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"Also, intending marriage for the establishment of the sunnah, lowering the gaze, seeking offspring, and other benefits that have been mentioned, and not merely for passion and pleasure, so that his deed becomes worldly."
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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"For example, it is explained that just as a house becomes chaotic with two owners and a city with two rulers falls into disarray, the world is governed by one God."
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"As for those who do not deny but struggle to understand, the approach of the seekers is to examine the perspective through which they perceive the unseen world."
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"Thus, those who believe by observing a serpent may disbelieve when seeing a calf, as both belong to the world of testimony, where contradictions abound."
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"This aligns with their observations of the tangible world, planting the belief in monotheism in their heart in a way that suits their intellect."
14th century · Tangier, Morocco
The Riḥlah — a 30-year, 75,000-mile journey across three continents, and the most important travel account of the pre-modern world.
More on Ibn Battuta →
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"Its harbor is one of the greatest in the world and its ruler is an unbeliever known as the Samudri, an aged sheikh who shaves his beard, as some of the Greeks do."
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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"It would be better for your eyes to perish in this world than for you to enter the fire with vision only for it to be consumed by its flames."
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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"By God, we embraced its blooming with our youth and cherished our lives only for the world not to cease stripping it away from us"
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