Abu Hamid Muhammad Ghazali: Were it conceivable
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Photo: Ibrahim Njoya, benevolent king of Cameroon; 1860-1933.
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"Were it conceivable that a person see only the sun and its light spreading over the horizon, it would be right for him to say: I see only the sun, for the light radiating from it is part of the whole and not extrinsic to it. So everything in existence is a light from the lights of the eternal power, and a trace from its traces. And as the sun is the source of light radiating to every illuminated thing, so in a similar fashion the meaning which words fall short of expressing-though it was necessarily expressed as 'the eternal power'-is the source of existence radiating to every existing thing."
(Abu Hamid Muhammad Ghazali)
(Abu Hamid Muhammad Ghazali)
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Source and Recommended Reading:
'Al-Ghazali on the Ninety-Nine Beautiful Names of God: Al-Maqsad Al-Asna Fi Sharh Asma' Allah Al-Husna'
By Abu Hamid Muhammad Ghazali (Author), David B. Burrell (Translator), Nazih Daher (Translator)
Purchase Book:
Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk
Description:
In this work, here presented in a complete English edition for the first time, the problem of knowing God is confronted in an original and stimulating way. Taking up the Prophet's teaching that 'Ninety-nine Beautiful Names' are truly predicated of God, the author explores the meaning and resonance of each of these divine names, and reveals the functions they perform both in the cosmos and in the soul of the spiritual adept. Although some of the book is rigorously analytical, the author never fails to attract the reader with his profound mystical and ethical insights, which, conveyed in his sincere and straightforward idiom, have made of this book one of the perennial classics of Muslim thought, popular among Muslims to this day.
'Al-Ghazali on the Ninety-Nine Beautiful Names of God: Al-Maqsad Al-Asna Fi Sharh Asma' Allah Al-Husna'
By Abu Hamid Muhammad Ghazali (Author), David B. Burrell (Translator), Nazih Daher (Translator)
Purchase Book:
Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk
Description:
In this work, here presented in a complete English edition for the first time, the problem of knowing God is confronted in an original and stimulating way. Taking up the Prophet's teaching that 'Ninety-nine Beautiful Names' are truly predicated of God, the author explores the meaning and resonance of each of these divine names, and reveals the functions they perform both in the cosmos and in the soul of the spiritual adept. Although some of the book is rigorously analytical, the author never fails to attract the reader with his profound mystical and ethical insights, which, conveyed in his sincere and straightforward idiom, have made of this book one of the perennial classics of Muslim thought, popular among Muslims to this day.
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