Jāh
Definition
Jah is the desire for worldly status, influence, and prestige — the craving to be important, respected, and deferred to in one's community. Al-Ghazali presents jah as one of the most powerful and most socially normalised forms of worldly attachment: while the love of wealth is at least somewhat socially condemned, the desire for status is actively cultivated and rewarded by most societies, including religious ones. The person whose primary motivation is jah will compromise their principles whenever those principles threaten their status, and will perform whatever actions most effectively signal their importance — including, and especially, religious actions.
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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