Poverty in al-Ghazali's Ihyā' 'Ulūm al-Dīn

مرکز و کتابخانه مطالعات اسلامی به زبان های اروپایی

منو

" Poverty in al-Ghazali's Ihyā' 'Ulūm al-Dīn "
Brooks L. Barber Valkenberg, Wilhelmus

Document Type	:	Latin Dissertation
Language of Document	:	English
Record Number	:	803820
Doc. No	:	TL48624
Call number	:	‭1762731075;‮ ‬10009808‬
Main Entry	:	Listernick, Joan Isabel
Title & Author	:	Poverty in al-Ghazali's Ihyā' 'Ulūm al-Dīn\ Brooks L. BarberValkenberg, Wilhelmus
College	:	The Catholic University of America
Date	:	2016
Degree	:	Ph.D.
field of study	:	Religion and Culture
student score	:	2016
Page No	:	342
Note	:	Committee members: Benson, Joshua; Heck, Paul
Note	:	Place of publication: United States, Ann Arbor; ISBN=978-1-339-46210-3
Abstract	:	This dissertation researches the meaning and function of poverty (<i> faqr</i>) in the thought of the Muslim theologian al-Ghazali (d. 1111), whose <i>Ihyā</i>’ includes an entire book of material devoted to the subject. Here, we find poverty used as a foundational stage of spiritual development in the trajectory of al-Ghazali’s mystical ethics, so that a Muslim who becomes materially poor begins a journey along a path that leads to God and thus overcoming the poverty of existence inherent to all of creation. Although Jesus appears in this text as an important exemplar for both poverty and the related renunciation (<i>zuhd</i>) in al-Ghazali’s work, the author chooses another figure to represent the highest manifestation of poverty in this life: the Prophet Muhammad’s wife ‘A’isha. Her detachment from the wealth of the world demonstrates her attainment to the level of ‘one without need’ (<i>mustaghnī</i>), a designation that aligns her, and any other who reaches it, with the divine attribute of Needlessness (<i>al-Ghani_</i>), and thus with God.
Subject	:	Theology; Islamic Studies; Comparative
Descriptor	:	Philosophy, religion and theology;Social sciences;Al-ghazali;Bonaventure;Faqr;Poverty;Theology;Zuhd
Added Entry	:	Valkenberg, Wilhelmus
Added Entry	:	Religion and CultureThe Catholic University of America