Murāqaba
Definition
Muraqaba is the continuous, felt awareness of being in God's presence — the sustaining of God-consciousness not only in prayer and formal worship but in every moment of waking life. Al-Ghazali distinguishes between knowing that God witnesses all things (a theological fact nearly every Muslim accepts) and living from that awareness (a continuous spiritual practice almost none have mastered). The person of muraqaba does not merely know God is watching — they feel it with sufficient vividness that it shapes their thoughts before they arise, their words before they are spoken, their acts before they are performed. This is the most demanding practice in the Ihya, and the most transformative.
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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