Audio book – Ihya’ Ulum al-din in Urdu translation

(Taken from http://www.archive.org/details/IhyaUloomUdDeen-RevivalOfKnowledgeOfPathToGodVol1ByImamGhazali )

Volume 1 (out of a total of 4 volumes) is available in its entirely now.

AUDIO BOOK of the Urdu translation of the masterpiece of knowledge and wisdom now available for the first time in world history.

Scholar, saint, gnostic, friend and intimate of God, Imam Abu Hamid Muhammad Al-Ghazali (1055-1111), also known as Imam Ghazali, wrote a masterpiece of spirituality aided by Divine inspiration called “Ihya Uloom ud Deen” or “Revival of the Knowledge of the Path to God” (originally written in Arabic) which has been, for the last 900 years, a beacon of light for humanity, a guide for the seekers of truth, and a roadmap for all spiritual travellers to guide their spiritual quests to reach the closeness and intimacy of Allah – a religious imperative commanded by Allah in Quran: “I have created the Jinns and humans only to worship Me” (51:56). Worshipping, is it’s the right to be worshipped, is not possible without knowing the One we are worshipping.  In this era of increasing conflicts and negativities that require universal healing, it is imperative to rediscover the treasures of this book to give a new life to humanity. This is the audio book of the complete Urdu translation of the first volume of “Ihya Uloom ud Deen” which is easy to understand by anyone with mediocre comprehension/listening skills in Urdu language. There are 4 volumes of this book with each volume containing 10 books. Thus “Ihya Uloom ud Deen” has a total of 40 books integrated into a unified whole.  Remaining 3 volumes are being converted into audio books and are being made available as they get completed.  Entire project is expected to be completed in December 2013.Volume 1 deals with acts of worship and the deep inner wisdom behind them, volume 2 deals with dealings with other human beings and societal responsibilities, volume 3 explains the evils of the soul and how to eradicate them, and volume 4 explains the adornments (beautiful inner qualities) of the soul and how to achieve them. This book is a compendium of wisdom that can transform an individual into one who is filled with positive energy and enlightenment after one has overcome the low and base qualities. The end result is the achievement of one’s purpose of life, unlocking of the mysteries of the universe, unveiling of the truth, springing forth of the fountains of wisdom in which one find answers to all questions of life, effulgence of lights in the deepest recesses of the soul, dawning of eternal happiness and bliss, eradication of all darknesses and negativities, arrival of soul at the doorsteps of the Divine Reality, and proximity and intimacy of God who is the final destination of every human being and is the ultimate goal of all seekers of truth.

It’s a great fortune of Urdu language that Urdu has at least 3 different complete and honest translations of this great book done in the last 150 years which is how old the literary history of Urdu is. The best of these available complete Urdu translations is being presented here is audio format. The entire Urdu translation used in this audio book can be found at Imam Ghazali wesbite at www.ghazali.org/urdu . This audio book production is an ongoing work which can take several years to complete but as audio books of various books (there are a total of 40 books as mentioned before) of “Ihya Uloom ud Deen” keep becoming available, they will keep getting added to this site until the entire book is done in audio format. So please keep checking the “Ihya Uloom ud Deen” audio book links on this site periodically to see what new audio books have become available. A complete translation in English has not been done yet but publisher Fons Vitae (www.fonsvitae.com) is working on one and may have it published sometime in the future. Many partial translations of varying qualities of various parts of “Ihya Uloom ud Deen” are available at Imam Ghazali wesbite at www.ghazali.org . The “completest” English translation of the 4 volumes of this book by Fazlul Karim (published by various South Asian publishers) is not a complete translation in English as half of this great book has been skipped in this translation besides this translation is lacking in command of English. Even with these glaring shortcomings, Fazlul Karim’s English translation is still the completest one available to this date and should be appreciated for that. It can be found at www.ghazali.org/books/ihya-v1.pdf , www.ghazali.org/books/ihya-v2.pdf , www.ghazali.org/books/ihya-v3.pdf , and www.ghazali.org/books/ihya-v4.pdf . So let’s begin our journey into the depths of this fathomless ocean without shores and witness the splendors and marvels that are embedded deep within. An anonymous poet said in Urdu:

Mazhar-e-noor-e-Khuda, razdar-e-Mustafa
Al-Ghazali behr-e-‘ilm-o-aagahei-e-baykaraN

(A manifestation of the Light of God, a privy to the secrets of Muhammad [Peace be upon him] [and his radiant reality]
Al-Ghazali is the fathomless ocean of knowledge and gnosis)

This is the first archive of this great masterpiece containing volume 1. The remaining 3 archives for the remaining 3 volumes are as follows:

Volume 2: Work in progress. Expected completion date: December 2013  www.archive.org/details/IhyaUloomUdDeen-RevivalOfKnowledgeOfPathToGodVol2ByImamGhazali
Volume 3: Work in progress. Expected completion date: August 2012 www.archive.org/details/IhyaUloomUdDeen-RevivalOfKnowledgeOfPathToGodVol3ByImamGhazali
Volume 4: Work in progress. Expected completion date: April 2013 www.archive.org/details/IhyaUloomUdDeen-RevivalOfKnowledgeOfPathToGodVol4ByImamGhazali

Audio files numbering will be as follows:
Volume 1 – 100 – 199 files
Volume 2 – 200 – 299 files
Volume 3 – 300 – 399 files
Volume 4 – 400 – 499 files