والإنكار من بين طبقات المنكرين الغافلين فلقد حل عن لساني عقدة الصمت وطوقني عهدة الكلام وقلادة النطق ما أنت مثابر عليه من العمى عن جلية الحق مع اللجاج في نصرة الباطل وتحسين الجهل والتشغيب على من آثر النزوع قليلا عن مراسم الخلق ومال ميلا يسيرا عن ملازمة الرسم إلى العمل بمقتضى العلم طمعا في نيل ما تعبده الله تعالى به من تزكية النفس وإصلاح القلب وتداركا لبعض ما فرط من إضاعة العمر يائسا عن تمام حاجتك في الحيرة وانحيازا عن غمار من قال فيهم صاحب الشرع صلوات الله عليه وسلامه أشد الناس عذابا يوم القيامة عالم لم ينفعه الله سبحانه بعلمه 1
(…and the rejection, from the ranks of the heedless deniers.) What you persist in has untied the knot of silence from my tongue, and has hung around my neck the duty to speak, like a necklace of speech. You persist in blindness to the plain truth, with stubbornness in supporting falsehood, making ignorance look good, and stirring up trouble against anyone who chooses to step a little away from people's customs, and turns slightly away from clinging to empty formality toward acting on what knowledge requires. He does this hoping to reach what Allah has asked him to worship Him by: purifying the self (tazkiyat al-nafs) and setting the heart right (iṣlāḥ al-qalb). He wants to make up for some of the life he has wasted [yāʾisan ʿan tamām ḥājatika fī al-ḥayra: see Open questions], and to separate himself from the crowd of those about whom the bringer of the Sacred Law ﷺ said: "The people most severely punished on the Day of Resurrection will be a scholar whom Allah, glorified is He, did not benefit through his knowledge."1 (Our translation of Ghazali's wording.)
ولعمري إنه لا سبب لإصرارك على التكبر إلا الداء الذي عم الجم الغفير بل شمل الجماهير من القصور عن ملاحظة ذروة هذا الأمر والجهل بأن الأمر إد والخطب جد والآخرة مقبلة والدنيا مدبرة والأجل قريب والسفر بعيد والزاد طفيف والخطر عظيم والطريق سد وما سوى الخالص لوجه الله من العلم والعمل عند الناقد البصير رد وسلوك طريق الآخرة مع كثرة الغوائل من غير دليل ولا رفيق متعب ومكد
By my life, there is no cause for your insistence on arrogance except the disease that has spread through the great multitude, and has indeed overtaken the masses: failing to see the summit of this matter, and not knowing that the matter is grave and the affair serious. The Hereafter is coming toward us and this world is turning its back. The appointed time is near, the journey is long, the provision is thin, the danger is great, and the road is blocked. Whatever knowledge or action is not purely for the sake of Allah is rejected by the discerning assayer who sees clearly. And travelling the road to the Hereafter, with its many hidden dangers, without a guide or a companion, is exhausting and wearing.
فأدلة الطريق هم العلماء الذين هم ورثة الأنبياء وقد شغر منهم الزمان ولم يبق إلا المترسمون وقد استحوذ على أكثرهم الشيطان واستغواهم الطغيان وأصبح كل واحد بعاجل حظه مشغوفا فصار يرى المعروف منكرا والمنكر معروفا حتى ظل علم الدين مندرسا ومنار الهدى في أقطار الأرض منطمسا
The guides on this road are the scholars, who are the heirs of the prophets. But this age has become empty of them, and only people who keep up the outward form (al-mutarassimūn) remain. Satan has taken hold of most of them, and rebellion has led them astray. Each one has become infatuated with his immediate share, so that he sees the good as bad and the bad as good. So the knowledge of the religion has been worn away, and the lighthouse of guidance has been blotted out across the regions of the earth.
ولقد خيلوا إلى الخلق أن لا علم إلا فتوى حكومة تستعين به القضاة على فصل الخصام عند تهاوش الطغام أو جدل يتدرع به طالب المباهاة إلى الغلبة والإفحام أو سجع مزخرف يتوسل به الواعظ إلى استدراج العوام إذ لم يروا ما سوى هذه الثلاثة مصيدة للحرام وشبكة للحطام
They have made people imagine that there is no knowledge except three things: a legal ruling for government, which judges use to settle disputes when the rabble quarrel; debate, which the one who wants to show off wears like armour to defeat and silence others; and ornamented rhyming speech, which the preacher uses to lure the common people. For they saw nothing besides these three that could serve as a trap for the unlawful and a net for worldly scraps.
فأما علم طريق الآخرة وما درج عليه السلف الصالح مما سماه الله سبحانه في كتابه فقها وحكمة وعلما وضياء ونورا وهداية ورشدا فقد أصبح من بين الخلق مطويا وصار نسيا منسيا
As for the knowledge of the road to the Hereafter, the way the righteous early generations (al-salaf al-ṣāliḥ) walked, which Allah, glorified is He, called in His Book understanding (fiqh), wisdom (ḥikma), knowledge (ʿilm), radiance (ḍiyāʾ), light (nūr), guidance (hidāya) and right direction (rushd): it has been folded away from among people and has become utterly forgotten.
ولما كان هذا ثلما في الدين ملما وخطبا مدلهما رأيت الاشتغال بتحرير هذا الكتاب مهما إحياء لعلوم الدين وكشفا عن مناهج الأئمة المتقدمين وإيضاحا لمباهي العلوم النافعة عند النبيين والسلف الصالحين
Since this is a breach that has struck the religion, and a pitch-dark calamity, I saw it as urgent to devote myself to writing this book: to revive the sciences of the religion, to uncover the paths of the early imams, and to make clear the glories of the beneficial sciences as the prophets and the righteous early generations held them.
وقد أسسته على أربعة أرباع وهي ربع العبادات وربع العادات وربع المهلكات وربع المنجيات
I have built it on four quarters: the Quarter of Acts of Worship (ʿibādāt), the Quarter of Customs (ʿādāt), the Quarter of Things that Destroy (muhlikāt), and the Quarter of Things that Save (munjiyāt).
وصدرت الجملة بكتاب العلم لأنه غاية المهم لأكشف أولا عن العلم الذي تعبد الله على لسان رسوله صلى الله عليه وسلم الأعيان بطلبه إذ قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم طلب العلم فريضة على كل مسلم 2 وأميز فيه العلم النافع من الضار إذ قال صلى الله عليه وسلم نعوذ بالله من علم لا ينفع 3 وأحقق ميل أهل العصر عن شاكلة الصواب وانخداعهم بلامع السراب واقتناعهم من العلوم بالقشر عن اللباب
I have opened the whole work with the Book of Knowledge, because it is the most important of all. First, I want to show which knowledge Allah, through the tongue of His Messenger ﷺ, has made every single person worship Him by seeking, for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "Seeking knowledge is an obligation on every Muslim."2 In it I also separate beneficial knowledge from harmful, for he ﷺ said: "We seek refuge in Allah from knowledge that does not benefit."3 And I show how the people of this age have swerved from what is right, been deceived by the shimmer of a mirage, and contented themselves with the husk of the sciences instead of the kernel.
ويشتمل ربع العبادات على عشرة كتب كتاب العلم وكتاب قواعد العقائد وكتاب أسرار الطهارة وكتاب أسرار الصلاة وكتاب أسرار الزكاة وكتاب أسرار الصيام وكتاب أسرار الحج وكتاب آداب تلاوة القرآن وكتاب الأذكار والدعوات وكتاب ترتيب الأوراد في الأوقات
The Quarter of Acts of Worship contains ten books: the Book of Knowledge; the Book of the Foundations of Belief; the Book of the Inner Meanings (asrār) of Purification; of Prayer; of Zakah; of Fasting; of Hajj; the Book of the Etiquette of Reciting the Quran; the Book of Remembrance and Supplication; and the Book of Arranging the Litanies (awrād) through the Times of day and night.