Dhikr al-Mawt
Definition
Dhikr al-mawt — the deliberate, regular remembrance of death — is one of al-Ghazali's most practically recommended spiritual practices, and he places it at the climax of the Ihya for maximum impact. The practice is not a morbid fixation on mortality but a precision tool for restoring clarity: when one genuinely holds the reality of death in mind, the trivial becomes trivial and the important becomes important with sudden, bracing clarity. The Prophet ﷺ commanded: 'Remember often the destroyer of pleasures (hadim al-ladhdhat).' Al-Ghazali shows that this remembrance, far from producing paralysis, produces the urgency, generosity, and prioritization that characterizes the lives of those who have understood what time is for.
As understood in the classical tradition of Imam al-Ghazali and the scholars of his school.
Appears in
2 books in the library
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