What is sincerity (ikhlāṣ) in Islam?
Ikhlāṣ is the inner weight behind every action. The scholars treated it as the difference between a deed that ascends and a deed that rots. Here's how they described it — in their own words.
1 passages from 1 book in the library
The classical approach.
These passages are drawn from 1 book 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.
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"If one is occupied with an obligatory act or making up a missed prayer, it fulfills the greeting and achieves the virtue because the intent is to not leave the entrance without an act of worship specific to the mosque."
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