ʿĀda
Definition
Ada — habit — is the mechanism through which character is both formed and reformed, and al-Ghazali's understanding of it is strikingly modern. Character is essentially organised habit: the person who habitually tells the truth gradually becomes an honest person, even without deliberate effort in each instance. This means that the formation of character is primarily a matter of choosing what to habituate oneself to — what actions to repeat, what environments to spend time in, what companions to keep. It also means that changing character requires changing habits: not willpower in individual instances but the sustained restructuring of what one does consistently, over time.
As understood in the classical tradition of Imam al-Ghazali and the scholars of his school.
Appears in
1 book in the library
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