Repentance

Repentance: Being a Translation of Kitab at-Tawbah ofAl-Ghazzali’s Ihya Ulum al-Din (Revival of Religious Sciences)

Author: Al-Ghazali

Translator: M. S. Stern

Publisher: Dar Al Wahi Publication

ISBN: 9789671153994

Pages: 220 pages

Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali(450–505/1058-1111) is justlydescribed as “Hujjatul Islam”. He was born in the Iranian town of Tus, studiedIslamic law and theology at the Seljuq College in Nishapur, and became adistinguished professor at the famous Nizamiyya University in Baghdad.

Despite his glittering success, he was inwardlydissatisfied, so he abandoned his creer for the life of hardship, abstinenceand devotion to worship. During ten years of wandering, he experienced aspiritual transformation, in which the Truth came to him at last, as somethingreceived rather than acquired.

Blessed with an inner certainty, he the applied hisoutstanding faculties and vast learning to the task of revitalizing the wholeIslamic tradition. Through his direct personal contacts, and through his manywritings, he showed how every element in that tradition could and should beturned to its purpose.

This is the translation of the thirty first book ofAl-Ghazali’s The Revival of the Religious Science, vis., Kitab at-Tawba inwhich he defines what constitutes true ‘Repetance’, its relation to religiousfaith, and the method for achieving it.