Ghazali's Minhaj al-Abidin - Understanding the Hurdles on the Path to Allah and How to Overcome Them

Course Overview

This is a Level Three course in the Islamic Studies Curriculum. This course is based on the text Minhaj al-Abideen (The Best Way for the Worshippers) by Imam Ghazali.

Widely considered to be Imam Ghazali's last book, Minhaj al-Abidin summarizes his teachings in an accessible manner, charting the pitfalls and obstacles to be overcome in order to draw closer to Allah Most High. Shaykh Yahya Rhodus explains in detail the different hurdles that a worshipper faces on the path to Paradise. He gives practical advice on overcoming the hurdles of knowledge, repentance, and impediments.

With this course, students will gain clarity on the spiritual path at a more advanced level. To successfully complete this course, students should first take courses on Islamic Spirituality in Level One and Level Two.

About the Text

Widely considered to be Imam al-Ghazali's last book, Minhaj al-Abidin summarizes his teachings in an accessible manner, charting the pitfalls and obstacles to be overcome in order to draw closer to Allah Most High. He dictated these words to a group of elect students and carefully advised them to resist hindrances such as fear and impairments such as conceit, in order to find salvation by sincerely turning to Allah Most High. This book is one of the important works that help the spiritual development of the believer.

About the Author

This work was written by the greatest scholar of his time and arguably the most famous scholar of the Islamic tradition, Imam Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazali. Imam Ghazali is unanimously regarded as the renewer (mujaddid) of Islam of his century, first for his intellectual defense of traditional Islamic beliefs against Avicennan philosophy, and then for his powerful spiritual reinvigoration of the Islamic sciences through his magnum opus, the 40-part lhya’ ‘Ulum aI-Din (Revival of the Religious Sciences).

Imam Ghazali was born in the year 450 AH (1058 CE) in Tabiran, near Tus (just north of present-day Mashhad, Iran). He first studied Islamic law at Tus and then travelled across the Islamic world taking Sacred Knowledge from its masters. One of his main teachers was Imam al-Haramayn al-Juwayni, at whose hands he became a scholar in Shafi'i law, logic, tenets of faith, debate, and the rationalistic doctrines of the philosophical schools of his time (which he was later called upon to refute). After Imam Juwayni’s death, Imam Ghazali was appointed to a teaching post at the Nizamiyya Academy in Baghdad, where word of his brilliance spread, and scholars journeyed to hear him.

In mid-career, after considerable reflection, he was gripped by an intense fear for his soul and his fate in the Afterlife and resigned from his post, travelling first to Jerusalem and then Damascus to engage in spiritual struggle. In Damascus, he lived in seclusion for ten years, at the end of which he emerged to produce his masterpiece Revival of the Religious Sciences. He died in Tabiran in 505 AH (1111 CE).

Learning Outcomes

At the end of this course, students will be able to:

Define the hurdle of knowledge and explain how to overcome it.
Define the hurdle of repentance and explain its pitfalls.
List the four main impediments in the hurdle of impediments.
Explain how to overcome the hurdle of the world and all it contains.
Understand the hurdle of your fellow creatures.
Differentiate between the hurdle of the lower self (nafs) and the hurdle of the devil (Shaytaan).
Identify the means to overcome the hurdles on the path to Allah Most High.

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