Al-Ghazali on Responses Proper to Listening to Music and the Experience of Ecstasy: Book XVIII of the Revival of the Religious Sciences

Author: Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali
Publisher: Islamic Texts Society's Al-Gha
ISBN: 9781911141075
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 190

Book Description
Responses Proper to Listening to Music and the Experience of Ecstasy is the eighteen chapter of the Revival of the Religious Sciences (Ihya' 'ulum al-din), a monumental work of classical Islam written by the renowned theologian-mystic Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (d. 1111). This chapter of the Revival deals with the controversial topic of music. In the Islamic legal tradition, there is disagreement as to whether or not performing and listening to music is lawful, even more, whether music might be used as a path to ecstasy. Basing himself on the Qur'an, hadith, the first generations of Muslims and the mystical tradition, Ghazali presents the arguments both for and against listening to music. Ghazali's own position is that music in itself is permissible, though under certain circumstances it can be unlawful or undesirable. Ghazali emphasises awareness of the omnipresence of God in creation and the importance of using the mind, hearing and sight to bring one closer to God. In Responses Proper to Listening to Music and the Experience of Ecstasy he gives lyrical expression to his love of poetry and music, and their legitimate place not only in human celebrations, but in divine worship and as aids on the path to gnosis and ecstasy. All such responses he sees exemplified in the life of the Prophet with his family. This volume also includes a translation of Imam Ghazali's own Introduction to the Revival of the Religious Sciences, which gives the reasons that caused him to write the work, the structure of the whole of the Revival and which places each of the chapters in the context of the others.

Al-Ghazzali on Listening to Music

Author: Ghazzālī
Publisher: Kazi Publications
ISBN: 9781567446906
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
General Description: Al-Ghazzali discusses the difficult issues involved in listening to music and attaining ecstasy through topics like what is unlawful and what is lawful, where listening to music is unlawful, the effects of music and its rules of conduct and the rules of conduct of the whirling dance.

Music Lessons

Author: Mian Ahmed Shaheer Afaqi
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : God (Islam)
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
This dissertation seeks to illuminate Abu Ḥamid al-Ghazali's conception of the relationship between music and emotion through an analysis of the Kitab adab al-samaʿ wa'l-wajd ("The Chapter on The Etiquette of Listening and [Cultivating] Ecstasy"), from his book, the Iḥyaʼ ʿulum al-din (The Revival of the Religious Sciences). The project demonstrates that al-Ghazali envisaged a direct relationship between the sense of hearing and the cultivation of powerful emotions. More specifically, he believed that both vocal and instrumental music can play an important role for stimulating emotions and paving the way for the mystical state of wajd or ecstasy. This project reveals that al-Ghazali understood ecstasy as both an emotional and intellectual state and considered the sense of hearing as a crucial means of attaining this state. Furthermore, this dissertation shows that for al-Ghazali, listening to vocal and instrumental music is not only relevant for emotional progress in mysticism, but also conducive for cultivating emotions in other dimensions of worldly life, from the erotic to the recreational. Hence, this project analyzes both the mystical and the worldly roles of music in al-Ghazali's thought to deepen knowledge of the relationship between music and emotion in medieval Islam.

Al-Ghazālī on Conduct in Travel

Author: Ghazzālī
Publisher: Islamic Texts Society's al-Ghazali Series
ISBN: 9781903682456
Category : Religious life
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
In this translation of the 17th book of the Revival of the Religious Sciences, Ghazali explains the different outer and inner reasons for travel. Outer reasons include the pilgrimage, the search for knowledge, and the flight from danger; while inner reasons include the acquisition of virtue and the disciplining of the soul. He then follows this with a practical chapter on the use of religious concessions while traveling and concludes with a final chapter on how the traveler is to establish the proper direction and times for prayer.

Al-Ghazālī on the Manners Relating to Eating

Author: Ghazzālī
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Dinners and dining
Languages : en
Pages : 100

Book Description
The eleventh chapter of The Revival of the Religious Sciences begins the section dealing with man and society. In this volume concentrating on the manners relating to eating, Ghazali first discusses what a person must uphold when eating by himself: that the food is lawful, that both the person and the surroundings should be clean, that one must be content with what is available, and how the person should conduct himself while eating and after eating. Ghazali then proceeds to discuss eating in company and says that to all the above should be added the necessity of courtesy, conversation and the proper presentation of food. Finally, Ghazali expounds the virtues of hospitality and generosity and the conduct of the host as well as that of the guest. Other topics that are discussed are: abstention from food, fasting and general health.

Music and Trance

Author: Gilbert Rouget
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226730069
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 419

Book Description
Ritual trance has always been closely associated with music—but why, and how? Gilbert Rouget offers and extended analysis of music and trance, concluding that no universal law can explain the relations between music and trance; they vary greatly and depend on the system of meaning of their cultural context. Rouget rigorously examines a worldwide corpus of data from ethnographic literature, but he also draws on the Bible, his own fieldwork in West Africa, and the writings of Plato, Ghazzali, and Rousseau. To organize this immense store of information, he develops a typology of trance based on symbolism and external manifestations. He outlines the fundamental distinctions between trance and ecstasy, shamanism and spirit possession, and communal and emotional trance. Music is analyzed in terms of performers, practices, instruments, and associations with dance. Each kind of trance draws strength from music in different ways at different points in a ritual, Rouget concludes. In possession trance, music induces the adept to identify himself with his deity and allows him to express this identification through dance. Forcefully rejecting pseudo-science and reductionism, Rouget demystifies the so-called theory of the neurophysiological effects of drumming on trance. He concludes that music's physiological and emotional effects are inseparable from patterns of collective representations and behavior, and that music and trance are linked in as many ways as there are cultural structures.

The Faith and Practice of Al-Ghazali

Author: Montgomery. W. Watt
Publisher:
ISBN: 9788171513710
Category : Islam
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description

Al-Ghazālī on the Lawful & the Unlawful

Author: Ghazzālī
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781903682241
Category : Islam
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Al-Ghazali's Book of the Lawful and the Unlawful is the fourteenth chapter of The Revival of the Religious Sciences, which is widely considered as the greatest work of Islamic spirituality. Written by one of the most famous of theologian-mystics of all time, The Book of the Lawful and the Unlawful is unlike other Islamic works concerned with legal issues. Here, Abu Hamid al-Ghazali aims to teach his readers firstly the theory of what is lawful and what is unlawful and how to deal with dubious or ambiguous issues, and secondly how to apply the knowledge they have gained to their everyday lives. The main support for this application, especially in matters that are unclear, is caution or prudence (wara) and Ghazali explains the degrees of prudence necessary beginning with the prudence of the upright and ending with the prudence of the saintly. Thus the sincere practice of what is lawful and desisting from what is unlawful become integrated into one's spiritual life. As in his other works, Ghazali bases himself on the Qur'an and narrations from the Prophet Muhammad, followed by examples from the Companions, the Successor generations and the pious Predecessors.

Genre in Archaic and Classical Greek Poetry

Author: Margaret Foster
Publisher: Mnemosyne, Supplements
ISBN: 9789004411425
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 408

Book Description
Genre in Archaic and Classical Greek Poetryforegrounds innovative approaches to the question of genre, what it means, and how to think about it for ancient Greek poetry and performance. Embracing multiple definitions of genre and lyric, the volume pushes beyond current dominant trends within the field of Classics to engage with a variety of other disciplines, theories, and models. Eleven papers by leading scholars of ancient Greek culture cover a wide range of media, from Sappho's songs to elegiac inscriptions to classical tragedy. Collectively, they develop a more holistic understanding of the concept of lyric genre, its relevance to the study of ancient texts, and its relation to subsequent ideas about lyric.

What is “Islamic” Art?

Author: Wendy M. K. Shaw
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108474659
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 387

Book Description
An alternate approach to Islamic art emphasizing literary over historical contexts and reception over production in visual arts and music.