Al-Ghazali — Carta a Khwaja Imam Abbasi

Someone asked the Prophet, praise and peace be upon him: "Tell me about Islam so that I may have no need to ask others about it." He replied: "Say, I believe in Allah, after which firmly obey the commands and abandon things which are forbidden." To believe in Allah means that Allah and the spiritual world are ever present realities in the routine of our daily life. Islam teaches us that in order to devote exclusive attention to fulfilling our duties to Allah and to our fellow beings, we must abandon all vain desires and commit and commend ourselves as well as all things to Allah. It is then that we have reached the state of freedom, because we have lost the fear of pain or hell and the hope of reward or paradise, and are living in pure submission to Allah. We reduce our cognitive faculties to zero, to absolute inaction and in this sacred silence contemplate upon Divine things, by union, not in ourselves but by going out of ourselves entirely and becoming wholly of Allah. The universe has flowed out from Him. It is a Divine emanation and there is also a cosmic process of "returning" back to the Eternal One. The only possible approach therefore, is the way of negation. The stage of obeying the commands of Allah comes next. The abandonment of forbidden things consists of three things. One, the heart should be purified of all inner impurities. Two, we should improve our conduct so that other men may be improved. Three, thankfulness for the blessings of comfort in the limbs and organs of the body is to use them in carrying out the commands of Allah and in restraining ourselves from forbidden things and also from evil and sinful acts. One should always weigh one's words and deeds. Wisdom means the intelligent weighing of both sides of a situation and the finding out of the right middle course between two extremes.…