The Censure of Wealth and Miserliness Book 27 of Ihya' 'ulum al-din, The Revival of the Religious Sciences

“ The Censure of Wealth and Miserliness” is Book 27 of the “ Revival of the Religious Sciences” , which is al-Ghazali's magisterial compendium consisting of 40 volumes on 40 different aspects of Islamic belief, practice, ethics, and worldview. Al-Ghazali writes that wealth is the principal pillar of this world, and the more wealth we have, the more engaged we become with the world. In this volume, “ The Censure of Wealth and Miserliness” , al-Ghazali explains the connection between one's inner relationship to wealth and one's outward actions and lifestyle. He roots his treatment of the subject in the Quranic passages, hadith, and traditional accounts which relate to wealth and the love of it. He covers such topics as the proper uses of wealth according to the obligations of both the law and social graces; the vices of miserliness, greed, covetousness, and avarice, as well as the virtues of generosity, openhandedness, and altruism.

Nancy Roberts has translated works in the areas of modern Arabic literature, currents events, Islamic law, Islamic thought and history, and Muslim-Christian relations. For her English translation of The Man from Bashmour, by Salwa Bakr, Nancy won the 2008 Saif Ghobash-Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation. For Fons Vitae, she translated both the encyclopedic "Islamic Jurisprudence According to the Four Sunni Schools", and the classic Sufi text of Ibn Ata'Allah al Iskandari, "Subtle Blessings".

Author’ s Introduction Chapter 1: An Elucidation of the Censure of Wealth and the Abhorrent Nature of Love for It Chapter 2: An Elucidation of the Praise of Wealth, and of its Praise Combined with Its Censure Chapter 3: An Elucidation Detailing the Harms of Wealth and its Benefits Chapter 4: An Elucidation of the Censure of Covetousness and Greed, and Elucidation of the Praise for Satisfaction and Placing No Hope in What Others Possess Chapter 5: An Elucidation of the Remedy for Covetousness and Greed, and of the Medicine by Which One Attains the Attribute of Satisfaction Chapter 6: An Elucidation of the Virtue of Generosity Chapter 7: Tales of the Generous Chapter 8: An Elucidation of the Censure of Miserliness Chapter 9: Tales of the Miserly Chapter 10: An Elucidation of Altruism and its Virtue Chapter 11: An Elucidation of the Definition of Generosity and of Miserliness and the True Nature of Each Chapter 12: An Elucidation of the Remedy for Miserliness Chapter 13: An Elucidation of the Rules to be Kept in Relation to One’ s Wealth Chapter 14: An Elucidation of the Censure of Affluence and the Praise of Poverty Bibliography Indices About the Translator