Al-Ghazali on the Condemnation of Pride and Self-admiration Kitab dhamm al-kibr wa'l-ujb

The Condemnation of Pride and Self-Admiration is the first translation into a European language of chapter twenty-nine of The Revival of the Religious Sciences, a monumental work of classical Islam written by the greatest theologian-mystic of Islam Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (d. 1111). Perhaps the most important chapter in the whole of the Revival, The Condemnation of Pride and Self-Admiration delves into the fundamental spiritual ailments and major impediments of the soul, namely pride and self-admiration. Ghazali offers readers an in-depth analysis of how and why pride and self-admiration are so harmful to a person's soul, and oulines methods of recognizing and subsequently healing these diseases of the heart. The key ingredient in this cure, Ghazali explains, is the cultivation of humility, which results from an increasing awareness of one's lowliness and essential nothingness before God. An indepth and very lucid analysis of the major vices and virtues central to all religions.

Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (1058-1111) is the most famous theologian-mystic of Islam and the equivalent of Thomas Aquinas in Christianity and Maimonides in Judaism. His contribution to the formation of Islamic thought and mysticism is incalculable. Mohammed Rustom is Associate Professor of Islamic Studies at Carleton University.