Product Description

Book Description:

How to achieve happiness through faith. This book focuses on the Islamic faith.

Table of Contents:

Publisher's Preface; Editorial Note; Preface; Introduction; The Knowledge Of Self; The Knowledge Of God; The Knowledge Of This World; The Knowledge Of The Next World; Concerning Music And Dancing As Aids To The Religious Life; Concerning Self-examination And The Recollection Of God; Marriage As A Help Or Hindrance To The Religious Life; The Love Of God

About the Publisher:

Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, Esoteric and Mythology. www.forgottenbooks.org

Forgotten Books is about sharing information, not about making money. All books are priced at wholesale prices. We are also the only publisher we know of to print in large sans-serif font, which is proven to make the text easier to read and put less strain on your eyes.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30570 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 96 pages

About the Author
About the Author:

"Abu Hamed Mohammad ibn Mohammad al-Ghazzali (1058-1111), known as Algazel to the western medieval world, born and died in Tus, in the Khorasan province of Persia (modern day Iran). He was a Muslim theologian, jurist, philosopher, and mystic of Persian origin and remains one of the most celebrated scholars in the history of Sufi Islamic thought. Moreover, one of his major works, The Incoherence of the Philosophers, changed the course of Islamic thought, shifting it away from the influence of ancient Greek and Hellenistic philosophy, and towards cause-and-effect that were determined by Allah or intermediate" (Quote from wikipedia.org)

Customer Reviews

The True Alchemy.
A summarised vesion of Ihya-ul-Aloom (Revival of Religious Sciences) by Imam Al-Ghazali. The perfect book to start with if you want to explore yourself and then read Ihya to understand it better. Alchemy of Happiness takes you from the simple day-to-day acts like eating, drinking, meeting people, and listening music, to moderate ones like marriage, jobs/business to the more complex issues like love, meaning of life and death, spirit (with subtlenes), Maarifat (knowing God). And with a pace and authenticity that comes from an extensive knowledge, exploration, experimenting and belief.
A must read for every human being (not only muslims) if you want to see the strange side of universe and your existance. Tries to break the absoluteness of money, power hunger, Lust of sex (and even eating too much), proudness, hypocracy etc. This means that Imam Ghazali relates our every day acts to the rise and fall of our spiritual effectiveness and our spiritual place before God. Brilliant to say the least. A MUST READ even if you don't want to read a single book in your life. (I've started reading it for the third time since I've got it without a day's break).

Time for a new translation
Maybe it is time for a new translation of this book. Claud Field translated this from Hindustani, such a long time ago. The transliteration of Ghazali as Ghazzali shows that he does not understand the etymology of the name even.
Saadat could be translated as Ascendence instead of happiness and Alchemy of Ascendence could even be accurate.
I read some chapters in Persian and compared them to Field's translation the other day and what are quite weird and other-worldy passages worthy of Castaneda become mundane sermons in his rendition....

tte best compact ,useful,religious book
I liked this book very much.It is very different from other islamic books.Its planning,style etc.I think this book is a summary of topics which are very necessary in the life for everyone.