Imam Ghazali: Free Urdu Audio Book of “Revival of the Knowledge of the Path to God” احياء العلؤم الدين
مظهرِنورِخدا رازدارِ مصطفي
الغزالي بحرِعلم ؤ آكَهيء بيكران
The entire Urdu translation of Imam Ghazali’s (complete name: Hujjatul Islam Imam Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali – 1055-1111 A.D.) encyclopedia of essential religious knowledge encompassing all necessary areas called “Ahya Uloom-ud-Deen” (احياء العلؤم الدين) or “Revival of the Knowledge of the Path to God” or “Revival of Religious Sciences” in now available in Urdu Audio book for the first time in world history on online internet library http://www.archive.org/ . Imam Ghazali is one of world’s greatest scholars and Islam’s reviver of the fifth century after Hijrah whose impeccable credentials as a great reviver exist to this day and time. The entire book is now available in MP3 files that can be burned in a total of 9 CDs (2 CDs each for volumes 1-3 and 3 CDs for volume 4) with a total recording time of 225+ hours including all 4 volumes encompassing about 3000 pages in small print. Imam Nawawi (complete name: Imam Yahya bin Sharfudddin An-Nawawi of hadith collection “Riyad us Saliheen” fame), the famous jurist, Hadith scholar and saint said about “Ahya Uloom ud-Deen” that if all books of Islam are destroyed except for this book, Islam will still survive through this book. Urdu translation of this great book was done by Mawlana Nadeem ul-Wajidi who is a religious scholar and an expert of Urdu and Arabic languages. Mawlana Nadeem ul-Wajidi’s Urdu translation flows with tremendous ease, clarity, simplicity, and beauty from a purely linguistic aesthetic viewpoint. This book encompasses all areas such as Quran, Hadith, jurisprudence, spirituality, tafsir (quranic explanation), morality, ethics, philosophy, wisdom/hikmah, tazkiyah (purification of the soul), suluk (spiritual struggle to achieve Divine gnosis), inner and external meanings of the religious texts, everyday guidance for living our daily lives, etc. References to all verses from Quran have been provided alongwith source references of all Prophetic traditions (Hadith) through the work of renowed scholar Hafiz Iraqi. Based on all this, there is no exaggeration in asserting that one does oneself a tremendous favor by studying this book, a jewel of human endeavor taken from the pinnacle of human achievement, as it opens up new avenues of knowledge, wisdom, spiritual awakening, never-ending bliss, and deep-rooted understanding of a great tradition that originated with the first man on earth that will remain relevant, influential, and impactful till the last man on earth.
The Urdu language audio files of the 4 volumes of “Ahya Uloom-ud-Deen” or “Revival of the Knowledge of the Path to God”, dedicated to the public domain through worldwide internet library http://www.archive.org/ , can be listened to and/or downloaded from these four links:
Volume 1: www.archive.org/details/IhyaUloomUdDeen-RevivalOfKnowledgeOfPathToGodVol1ByImamGhazali
Volume 2: www.archive.org/details/IhyaUloomUdDeen-RevivalOfKnowledgeOfPathToGodVol2ByImamGhazali
Volume 3: www.archive.org/details/IhyaUloomUdDeen-RevivalOfKnowledgeOfPathToGodVol3ByImamGhazali
Volume 4: www.archive.org/details/IhyaUloomUdDeen-RevivalOfKnowledgeOfPathToGodVol4ByImamGhazali
Audio files numbering is as follows: Volume 1: 100 – 199 Volume 2: 200 – 299 Volume 3: 300 – 399 Volume 4: 400 – 499
FREE OFFER:
The entire audio book in 9 CDs can be mailed to you for free upon request. Please email me your request with an expression of interest in listening to this audio book alongwith your mailing address if interested in this offer. The entire audio book will be mailed to you irrespective of where in the world you live in.
InshaAllah this audio book will benefit anyone with even mediocre listening skills in Urdu language. These audio books are in MP3 format that allows the best and the maximum possible utilization of audio CDs converting a 1-hour audio CD into a 25-hour audio CD!! These audio files can be downloaded and burned on CDs to be listened to while you commute, exercise, lie on bed, or study with utmost earnestness. With patient perseverence, anyone with mediocre understanding or listening skills in Urdu or Hindi can benefit from these timeless treasures of wisdom elucidated in the most effective manner. Audio books can benefit a wide array of peoples such as those who are visually challenged, those who can not read Urdu or read anything at all but understand spoken Urdu, speakers of Hindi who cannot read Urdu, those who do not have time to read books but can still utilize commute and exercise time, those who find reading cumbersome or challenging for their own unique reasons, etc. Limitations and roadblocks like these are eliminated through audio books although reading books remains the most superior option. InshaAllah this will be of benefit to anyone to wants to benefit from such treasures and becomes a successful person in all dimensions of human existence earning eternal happiness and success.
DETAILS ABOUT THE AUTHOR, THE BOOK, AND THE URDU TRANSLATION:
Scholar, saint, gnostic, great reviver (Mujaddid) of the Deen, friend and intimate of God, Hujjatul Islam – the proof of the truth of Islam, Imam Abu Hamid Muhammad Al-Ghazali (1055-1111 A.D.), also known as Imam Ghazali, wrote a masterpiece of spirituality aided by Divine inspiration called “Ahya 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 God which is a religious imperative commanded by God in Quran: “I have created the Jinns and humans only to worship Me” (51:56). Worshipping, as it’s the right to be worshipped, is not possible without knowing the One to be worshipped. Thus Quran commands us all to employ all means possible to really know the One who is the only One with real Existence, who is the Creator, Fashioner, Cherisher and Lord of each and every thing that “exits” albeit through His Existence. 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 4 volumes of “Ahya Uloom ud Deen” which is easy to understand by anyone with mediocre comprehension/listening skills in Urdu language. There are a total of 4 volumes in this book with each volume containing 10 books. Thus “Ahya Uloom ud Deen” has a total of 40 books integrated into a unified whole.
It’s a great fortune of the Urdu language that there are 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 and complete Urdu translations is done by Mawlana Nadeen ul-Wajidi which is being presented here is audio format. The entire Urdu translation used in this audio book can be found in PDF file format at Imam Ghazali wesbite at www.ghazali.org/urdu . A complete translation in English of “Ahya Uloom-ud-Deen” or “Revival of the Knowledge of the Path to God” has not been done yet but publisher Fons Vitae (www.fonsvitae.com) is working on one and may have it published sometime in the near future. Many partial translations of varying qualities of various parts of “Ahya Uloom ud Deen” are available at Imam Ghazali wesbite at www.ghazali.org . The “completest” available English translation of the 4 volumes of this book originally published in 1971 was done by Fazlul Karim that still gets published by various South Asian publishers (from Pakistan and India). Fazlul Karim’s translation is not a complete translation in English as half of this great book has been skipped in his translation. Furthermore, this translation is lacking in command of English. Even with these glaring shortcomings, Fazlul Karim’s English translation is still the completest one available in English 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:
مظهرِنورِخدا رازدارِ مصطفي
الغزالي بحرِعلم ؤ آكَهيء بيكران
Mazhar-e-noor-e-Khuda, razdar-e-Mustafa
Al-Ghazali behr-e-‘ilm-o-aagahei-e-baykaraN
Translation: 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)
Volume 1 of “Ahya Uloom ud-Deen” or “Revival of the Knowledge of the Path to God” is about the rulings and inner wisdom behind all acts of worship. Volume 2 is about dealing effectively with all social responsibilities in the worldly life leading to success and fulfillment therein. Volume 3 is an indepth explanation of destructive evils that destroy an individual alongwith effective ways of defeating them. In this volume (from a total of 4 volumes of Ahya), Imam Ghazali has unleashed a wealth of knowledge and wisdom on topics such as the reality of the soul, the eternal life of the soul, the armies of the soul, the whispering of the lower self and Shaytan (Satan) to deceive a human being, the desires of the lower self, greed, anger, enmity, gluttony, Divine remembrance, achieving focus on God, recognizing and combating Shaytan’s persuations, recognizing one’s own faults and shortcomings, curing the spiritual diseases, achieving a beautiful character and an inner disposition to all that is good, spiritual struggle to overcome the forces of evil within, removing the veils between the slave and the Master (Allah), controlling the urge for carnal pleasures, harms of speech, back-biting, excessive and futile conversations, jealosy, hatred, combating low opinion of others, arrogance, pride, humility, forgiveness, forbearance, hypocrisy, enmity, rancour, preparing for the eternal life, love of wealth, desiring fame and prestige, miserliness, contentment, genorosity, desiring anonymity, showing off, self-righteouness and having a big head about oneself, delusions of various groups of people, and achieving cure of all inner ailments to name a few. All these topics are Fard ‘Ayn, i.e. personally obligatory on every adult Muslim to learn about and to work on thus forming a core aspect of the inner Shariah derieved directly from Quran and Sunnah. Volume 4 is about adornments of the soul or qualities that earn one real success in this life and the next leading to a state of eternal bless and felicity. These positive qualities such as like love, patience, gratitude, forgiveness, kindness, compassion, generosity, humility, sincerity to God and to all human beings, trust in God, developing an intimate relationship with God thus receiving Divine protection and guidance in all matters of life, acquired after destructive qualities explained in volume 3 are eradicated, beautify the inner soul and make it soar to new spiritual heights leading to the dawning of the truth and intimicy and proximity of God.
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 such as who am I, where I have come from and where I am heading to, 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.