Therefore know, O you who is keen on knowledge and set out to acquire it and shows a genuine desire and real thirst to obtain it, that if your intention for seeking knowledge is rivalry, boasting, surpassing your peers, drawing people’s attention to you, and amassing the vanities of this world, then you are in reality in the process of ruining your religion, destroying yourself and selling your Hereafter in exchange for this worldly life—your transaction would therefore be an utter loss, and your trading profitless. [In such a case] your teacher would also be helping you in disobeying Allah and is your partner in loss, just like the person who sells a sword to a highway robber.*

This quotation is from Imām al-Ghazālī’s Bidāyat al-Hidāyah (The Beginning of Guidance), a small work which captures the essence of Iḥyā’ ʿUlūm al-Dīn (The Revival of the Religious Sciences), to which there are many cross-references.

Scholarship is laden with spiritual traps because it can nourish and sustain egotism. It can also lead to negative competition, showing off, and self-aggrandisement. Imām al-Ghazāli also warns against scholarship which is solely sought as a ticket to gain material wealth and accumulate what he described as the wreckage of this world. Every new thing that is desired in the world of commodities carries the mark of finitude. Every new thing, whether natural or artificial, has an expiry date and is destined to wither away. In the words of Rābiʿah al-ʿAdawiyyah, ‘All that which is on the surface of dust is dust itself!’

Elsewhere, Imām al-Ghazālī says that if you were to find yourself on a sinking ship, you would carry with you only that which will save you! Carrying your weighty belongings, even if they were of gold in such a situation is definitely not wise. Likewise, it is your good deeds (and bad ones too!) that continue with you after death. Your good deeds are your boat to safety!

Though Imām al-Ghazālī is here warning the students of knowledge who aim at occupying public offices, such as becoming a judge or an imam, everyone can benefit from checking their intentions, whether one studies the exact sciences, the humanities or art. There may still be room for egotism or ill intention in seeking any kind of knowledge or position, even when it apparently complies with Islamic law.

One should not be casual about what one is doing or why one is doing it. The challenge is to be God-conscious, watch one’s heart carefully to detect the residues of ‘I’ and cleanse one’s heart of such impurities. This is why one seeks refuge in Allah against associating anything or anyone with Him. Muslims are very careful about idol worshiping when the idol is physical, but the same should be applied to metaphorical idols such as fame and wealth. This is why the Sufis talk about the state of annihilation (fanā’) whereby the heart is only aware of the Divine presence and nothing else.

* Muhammad Abul Quasem, Al-Ghazali on Islamic Guidance, 1979, p.18 (Modified).

2 Are You in the Wrong Business?

2. Al-Ghazālī, Bidāyat al-Hidāyah, p. 8.

* Muhammad Abul Quasem, Al-Ghazali on Islamic Guidance, 1979, p.18 (Modified).