Asbab
Definition
Asbab are the secondary causes — the means, tools, and channels — through which God's will ordinarily operates in the world. Food nourishes, medicine heals, effort produces results — but only because God has established these as His customary patterns. Al-Ghazali's teaching about asbab is subtle and important: one should use them, because to abandon them is a form of arrogance (testing God) and because the Prophet ﷺ himself used means. But one should never mistake them for independent powers, because to do so is to attribute to the creation a power that belongs to God alone. The zahid uses asbab while remaining inwardly attached to none of them.
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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