Al-Ghazali on the Remembrance of Death and the Afterlife

Al-Ghazali on the Remembrance of Death & the Afterlife is the first English translation of the last chapter of the Revival of the Religious Sciences. After expounding his Sufi philosophy of death and showing the importance of the contemplation of human mortality to the mystical way of self-purification, Ghazali takes his readers through the stages of the future life: the vision of the Angels of the Grave, the Resurrection, the Intercession of the Prophet, and finally, the torments of Hell, the delights of Paradise and – for the elect – the beatific vision of God’s Countenance.

In this new edition, the Islamic Texts Society has included 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 places each of the chapters in the context of the others.

T. J. Winter is Shaykh Zayed Lecturer in Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge.