Al-Ghazali on Poverty and Abstinence

Taking as his example the Prophet’s love for the poor, Abu Hamid al-Ghazali explains that poverty is not simply an accidental state of destitution that might befall anyone but rather an inner acceptance of the Will of God and a form of abstinence for His sake. Thus, the life of poverty described by al-Ghazali refers to what every devoted follower of the Prophet is meant to adopt. The Islamic Texts Society has included the translation of Abu Hamid al-Ghazali’s own Introduction to the Revival of the Religious Sciences which gives the reasons that caused him to write the work, the structure of the whole of the Revival, and places each of the chapters in the context of the others.

Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (d. 1111) is the most famous theologian-mystic of Islam. His work Revival of the Religious Sciences (Ihya Ulum al-Din) is, after the Quran, the most read book in the Muslim world. Anthony Shaker holds a PhD in Islamic Studies from McGill University.