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What is Book 40 of the Iḥyāʾ?
The Book of the Remembrance of Death and the Afterlife is Book 40 of Imam al-Ghazālī's Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn, the tenth and last book of the fourth quarter, The Saving Virtues, and the conclusion of the whole work. Al-Ghazālī wrote the Iḥyāʾ in the 11th–12th century. After thirty-nine books on worship, daily life, the destructive vices and the saving virtues, he ends where every life ends. The question is direct: what happens when we die, and how should knowing it change the way we live now? His answer is that the remembrance of death is the strongest motive for a life lived in obedience to God.
The eight chapters move in order from this world to the next. Chapter 1 is on the virtue of remembering death, and Chapter 2 on long hopes and the virtue of shortening them. Chapter 3 describes the agonies of death and its hardship, Chapter 4 the passing of the Prophet ﷺ, and Chapter 5 the words of the dying among the caliphs and the righteous. Chapter 6 gathers the sayings of the knowers of Allah on funerals and graves. Chapter 7 turns to the reality of death and what the deceased encounters, and Chapter 8 to what is known of the dead through dreams.
The opening sets the tone. Al-Ghazālī praises God, who uses death to humble the mighty, break the backs of oppressors and limit the hopes of emperors, and he follows them from palaces to graves, from the brightness of cradles to the darkness of tombs, from luxurious beds to woeful resting places. Then he turns to the reader: can you sense any of them now, or hear even a whisper from them? Death, he says, is a deliverance for the pious and a promise of meeting, while for the wretched the grave is a prison until the Day of Judgment.
Is there an English audiobook of The Book of the Remembrance of Death and the Afterlife?
Yes. Joyful Muslims publishes the complete Book 40: The Book of the Remembrance of Death and the Afterlife as an English audiobook (about 7.5 hours), translated from the Arabic, with a word-synced bilingual transcript. It covers the remembrance of death, the trials of the grave, the Day of Judgment, and the realities of the afterlife.
Is it free to listen?
The whole library is open to everyone. Every member gets five hours of listening free each month; Joyful+ removes the time limit.
What does it cover?
Eight chapters: the virtue of remembering death, long hopes and shortening them, the agonies of death, the passing of the Prophet ﷺ, the words of the dying among caliphs and the righteous, sayings on funerals and graves, the reality of death and what the deceased encounters, and what is known of the dead through dreams. About 7.5 hours in all.
Last updated 2026-09-11
Inside the book.
Chapters
Word-synced with the narrator.
The first three minutes are transcribed here. In the app, the Living Manuscript scrolls through the entire book in rhythm with the audio — Arabic alongside English.
Living Manuscript
Listen to the full book in the app for the complete Living Manuscript.
The full, word-synced transcript in Arabic and English is in the app.
