On Self-Knowledge

Reflections from Imam Al Ghazali’s book – “Revival of Islamic Sciences’

Self-knowledge begins with the awareness/ recognition of one’s innate attributes: beastial, angelic, irrational & lustful to name a few.

Al-Ghazali writes that knowledge can either be innate or acquired. He divides acquired #knowledge into phenomenal (material world) and #spiritual (related to #God and #soul), and divides acquired knowledge into imitation, logical reasoning, contemplation and intuition. He also argues that there are 4 elements in human nature: the #sage (intellect & reason), the pig (lust & gluttony), the dog (anger), and the #devil (brutality). He says that the latter 3 elements are in conflict with the former element and that “different people have such powers in different proportions.”

In the Alchemy of #Happiness, Al Ghazali begins by writing that: “He who knows himself is truly happy.”

Self-knowledge consists in realizing that we have a #heart or #spirit which is absolutely perfect, but which has been covered with dust by the accumulation of passions derived from the #body and its #animal #nature. The essence of oneself is likened to a perfect mirror which if polished would reveal one’s true #divine nature. The key to this polishing is the elimination of selfish desires and the adoption of a contrary desire to do what is right in all aspects of one’s life. As he writes, “the aim of moral discipline is to purify the heart from the rust of passion and resentment till, like a clear mirror, it reflects the light of God.”

God, Most High, says: “He is the One Who has made perfectly everything He has created: He began the creation of human being with clay, and made his progeny from a quintessence of the nature of a fluid despised: but He fashioned him in due proportion, and breathed into him something of His spirit…”

-[Quran 32:7-9]