Books Reviews: Kimyat As-Saadah

The Alchemy of Happiness

by Hujjatu-l-Islam Imam Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, rahimah-Ullah

The book was originally written by Imam Ghazali in Persian. It is a compendium of some chapters of his main work "Ihya' `Ulum al-Din". If one consults the corresponding chapters in the Ihya', one would find that many of the arguments presented here also discussed there in details. Our Majlis corrected some mistranslations which were detected. Source: Ghazali, Kimya' al-Sa`ada = The Alchemy of Happiness. Translated by Claud Field. Lahore, Sh. Muhammad Ashraf, 1954.

INTRODUCTION

Know, O beloved, that man was not created in jest or at random, but marvellously made and for some great end. Although he is not from everlasting, yet he lives for ever; and though his body is mean and earthly, yet his spirit is lofty and divine. When in the crucible of abstinence he is purged from carnal passions he attains to the highest, and in place of being a slave to lust and anger becomes endued with angelic qualities. Attaining that state, he finds his heaven in the contemplation of Eternal Beauty, and no longer in fleshly delights.

The spiritual alchemy which operates this change in him, like that which transmutes base metals into gold, is not easily discovered, nor to be found in the house of every old woman.

It is to explain that alchemy and its methods of operation that the author has undertaken this work, which he has entitled, The Alchemy of Happiness. Now the treasuries of Allah, in which this alchemy is to be sought, are the hearts of the prophets, and he who seeks it elsewhere will be disappointed and bankrupt on the day of judgement when he hears the word, "We have lifted the veil from off thee, and thy sight to-day is keen."

Allah has sent on earth a hundred and twenty-four thousand prophets* to teach men the prescription of this alchemy, and how to purify their hearts from baser qualities in the crucible of abstinence. This alchemy may be briefly described as turning away from the world to Allah, and its constituents are four:

1. The knowledge of self.

2. The knowledge of Allah.

3. The knowledge of this world as it really is.

4. The knowledge of the next world as it really is.

We shall now proceed to expound these four constituents in order.