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.
How the scholars use ʿĀda.
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"He might not remain, and if he does, he may not be able to give up tomorrow what he cannot give up today. Is his current incapacity not due to the overpowering desire? This desire will not leave him tomorrow; rather, it will grow as it reinforces itself through habit. A desire strengthened by habit is not like one that is not. This is how procrastinators perish, because they assume a difference between similar things and do not recognize that days are alike in that the abandonment of desires in them is always difficult."
— Imam al-Ghazali, Book 31: The Book of Repentance
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"bragging among other effeminates just as bather-operators and broom-wielders boast like kings and scholars. All this is the result of habit and persistent adherence to a single pattern over an extended period and observing this among associates and acquaintances. If the soul by habit finds delight in falsehood and inclines toward it and disgraceful things, how could it not find delight in truth if it were returned to it for a while and committed to perseverance in it?"
— Imam al-Ghazali, Book 22: The Book of Disciplining the Soul
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"Whoever is accustomed to seeking forgiveness with his tongue, when he hears a lie from another, his tongue automatically recalls its habit and says, 'I seek forgiveness from God. And whoever is used to idle talk, his tongue jumps to say, 'How foolish you are, how repulsive your lie is. Whoever is accustomed to seeking refuge, when a hint of evil emerges from an evildoer, his tongue by habit says, 'We seek refuge with God."
— Imam al-Ghazali, Book 31: The Book of Repentance
Appears in
1 book in the library
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Every book above uses ʿĀda the way the classical scholars meant it. Listen with the full Study Kit in the app.