About The Book

This translation published for the first time with facing Arabic text also includes many notes and transliteration for the supplications contained within.

This Book can be considered as an Introduction to The Imam's Magnum Opus The Revival of the Religions Sciences (Ihya Ulum al-Din)and directs the reader to the larger work for what lies beyond that. This book may not seem to be suited to the hurried life of a modern city. Yet al-Ghazali’s seriousness and sense of urgency stand out vividly and communicate themselves. The book is interesting, too, in that, though al-Ghazali’s standpoint is almost modern in many ways.

It is divided in two Parts, namely acts of obedience and refraining from Sin. It comprise the fundamentals of Din, Important basic issues and excellent virtues. It is brief, yet concise.

One of the Scholars has said that the benefit on anything sacred can not be achieved unless one follows its Adab i.e Etiquettes, this book deals with many of the etiquettes of everyday life according to the Sunnah.

Imam Al-Ghazali's Bidaya al-hidaya complements his spiritual autobiography, He emphasises the importance of knowledge and using it correctly at all times . From acts of obedience to relationship between God and Man. Imam Al-Ghazali shares with us how a man should order his life from hour to hour and day to day.

About The Author

Imam Abu Hamid Muhammad Al-Ghazali was born in 450 AH (1058 A.D) in the Iranian town of Tus, studied Islamic law and theology at the Seljuq College in Nishapur, and became a distinguished professor at the famous Nizamiyya University in Baghdad.

Despite his glittering success, he was inwardly dissatisfied, so he abandoned his career for the life of hardship, abstinence and devotion to worship. During ten years of wandering, he experienced a spiritual transformation, in which the Truth came to him at last, as something received rather than acquired.

Blessed with an inner certainty, he then applied his outstanding faculties and vast learning to the task of revitalizing the whole Islamic tradition. Through his direct personal contacts, and through his many writings, he showed how every element in that tradition could and should be turned to its true purpose.

Imam al-Ghazzali was fondly referred to as the "Hujjat-ul-lslam", Proof of Islam, he is honoured as a scholar and a saint by learned men all over the world and is generally acclaimed as the most influential thinker of the Classical period of Islam.

He passed away in 505 AH (1111 A.D).

About The Translator

Dr. Mashhad Al-Allaf holds a doctoral degree in Modern Philosophy: Science & Metaphysics (1995). His bachelor’s and master’s degrees concentrated on the Philosophy of Science. He has taught at Washington University, St. Louis University, and Webster University and is the author of several works, including The Basic Ideas and Institutions of Islam (2008), Locke’s Philosophy of Science and Metaphysics (2007), and The Essential Ideas of Islamic Philosophy (2006).

He is the co-author of the forthcoming Islamic Philosophy of Science and Logic (University of Pittsburgh). His current research focuses on integrative studies and multiculturalism, as well as Engineering Ethics, Biomedical Ethics, Love and Romance in Islam, and Islamic Theory of Science.