Al-Ghazali Letter to a Disciple

"Letter to a Disciple" (Ayyuha'l-Walad), written by the great theologian and mystic, Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, is a summary of the spiritual teachings of he who was regarded as Hujjat al-Islam, the `Proof of Islam'.---Written towards the end of his life, "Letter to a Disciple" was composed in response to the request by a disciple for Ghazali to write down in a few pages a summary of all his teachings. The main ideas running throughout the work are on acquiring knowledge which is of spiritual benefit, purifying the intention, and acting on the basis of the acquired knowledge. Referring extensively to the example of the Prophet and to that of the early Sufis, Ghazali gives us a work of great depth, beauty and simplicity. As Ghazali advices in "Letter to a Disciple": "Work for your terrestrial life in proportion to your location in it, and work for your afterlife in proportion to your eternity in it."---This new translation is presented here as a bilingual Arabic-English edition. The Arabic text is fully vocalized and the whole book is therefore suitable as a reader for students of Arabic.