Fikra

Fikra is the basic unit of tafakkur — a single movement of thought from one reality to another, following a thread of meaning or causality. Al-Ghazali describes contemplation as a chain of fikra: the heart begins with an observable reality (the sky, the body, a verse of Quran), moves through a sequence of reflective thoughts, and arrives at a conclusion — an insight, an awareness, a transformed perception — that could not have been arrived at without the journey. The fikra is the step; tafakkur is the walk. The quality of the spiritual life is shaped substantially by what one allows one's fikra to dwell on — and this is why the regulation of thought, not merely of action, is central to al-Ghazali's spiritual program.

As understood in the classical tradition of Imam al-Ghazali and the scholars of his school.