Raghba fid-Dunya
Definition
Raghba fid-dunya — desire for the world — is the opposite of zuhd and one of the primary spiritual diseases al-Ghazali diagnoses in this book. It is not the desire to earn a lawful living or to use worldly means for righteous ends; it is the consuming orientation of the heart toward the accumulation, enjoyment, and preservation of worldly things as ends in themselves. Al-Ghazali considers this desire one of the roots of nearly every major spiritual illness: it generates envy, pride, deception, oppression, and the abandonment of religious duties. The person whose heart is dominated by raghba fid-dunya has, in a sense, chosen their god — and it is not Allah.
As understood in the classical tradition of Imam al-Ghazali and the scholars of his school.
How the scholars use Raghba fid-Dunya.
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"It is said that sitting with the knower calls you from six states to six others: from doubt to certainty, from ostentation to sincerity, from heedlessness to remembrance, from desire for the world to desire for the Hereafter, from arrogance to humility, and from ill intentions to sincerity. §§U0007§§ Chapter: The Degrees of Knowledge The First Degree: Knowledge of Attributes and Qualities Chapter: The author of "The Stations" explains that knowledge is divided into three degrees, and people fall into three groups regarding it."
— Ibn al-Qayyim, Volume Three
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"perception of your faults, increases your recognition of the worship of your Lord, decreases your desire for the world, increases your yearning for the hereafter, opens your insight into the perils of your deeds so that you guard against them, and informs you of the ploys of Satan and his delusion, and how he deceives wicked scholars, exposing them to the wrath and displeasure of Allah Almighty."
— Imam al-Ghazali, The Beginning of Guidance
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"they are among the dissatisfied and follow the path of the ungrateful. The twenty-fourth point is that acceptance removes the afflictions of greed and excessive desire for the world, which are the root of every sin, the origin of every calamity, and the foundation of every misfortune. Being content with one's Lord in all situations eliminates the source of these afflictions."
— Ibn al-Qayyim, Volume Two
Appears in
1 book in the library
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Every book above uses Raghba fid-Dunya the way the classical scholars meant it. Listen with the full Study Kit in the app.