Āfāt al-Mukhalata
Definition
Afat al-mukhalata are the specific spiritual harms that social mixing tends to produce: backbiting (which social conversation almost inevitably slides toward), riya (the desire to be seen and approved), time-wasting (the hours consumed in pointless social exchange), exposure to the sins of others that gradually normalise those sins for the observer, and the constant stimulation of competitive desires for status, wealth, and recognition. Al-Ghazali catalogues these harms not to condemn social life but to make the reader realistic about its spiritual costs — costs that can be managed by the strong but that overwhelm the unprepared.
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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