TheRevival of Islamic Thought

Title: The Revival of Islamic Thought
Author: Ayatullah Murtada Mutahhari
Project Supervisor: Translation Unit, Cultural Affairs Department, the Ahl al-Bayt (¡®a) World Assembly (ABWA)
Translator and typesetter: Mansoor Limba, PhD
Editor: Carol Eastman Ahmadi
Proofreader: Sayyid Baqir Husayni
Publisher: ABWA Publishing and Printing Center
First Printing: 2016
All rights reserved.


Table of Contents
FOREWORD—9
PREFACE—11
CHAPTER 1:
IQBAL AND THE REVIVAL
OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT
The absence of the Islamic spirit among Muslims—24
The logic of a railway train—30
Solidarity as a sign of life—32
CHAPTER 2:
PAST AND PRESENT MUSLIM THOUGHT
ON THE ROLE OF ACTION IN MAN’S FELICITY
Pathology—43
The roots of distortion of our way of thinking about Islam—44
Action – the bedrock of Islamic training and education—44
The role of the Umayyads in the emergence of this distortion—46
Why the idea of holding action in contempt came into being—46
What is faith [iman]?—47
The Shi‘ah and murji’iah—48
Two accounts—53
Twisted way of thinking—60
The issue of asylum and sanctuary—61
Two Prophetic traditions—62
CHAPTER 3:
DULL VIS-À-VIS VIBRANT THINKING
Physical and spiritual life—67
Fitrah or the essence of human life—68
Insight and ability—70
Life itself as not the same as its characteristics—71
Self-reliance—72
Reliance on Allah [tawakkul] as a vibrant and dynamic
concept—75
Distorted and twisted tawakkul—75
Asceticism [zuhd] in Islam—76
Negative asceticism—76
The issue of guardianship [wilayah] of a tyrant—79
Asceticism as a spiritual strength and not an economic weakness—79
Our ascetics–morally bankrupt as well as economically handicapped—81
Imam ‘Ali (‘a) and productive works—82
CHAPTER 4:
ISLAMIC THOUGHT ON ASCETICISM
AND ABANDONMENT OF THE WORLD
Asceticism and abandonment of the world—90
Is asceticism a natural disaffection?—91
Two types of asceticism unacceptable to Islam—92
Another misconception about asceticism—97
The real meaning of asceticism—102
Aims of Islamic asceticism—103
1. Self-sacrifice—103
2. Sympathy—105
CHAPTER 5:
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ASCETICISM
IN ISLAMIC THOUGHT
Story about Imam al-Sadiq (‘a) regarding sympathy—118
3. Freedom and liberty—119
Essential conditions of nature—119
Conditions within man’s freewill—120
Habit brings about attachment and attachment leads to captivity—120
Freemen always lead simple lives—121
The philosophy of modesty and simplicity in the life of
leaders—121
Pretensions–limitations, restrictions and captivity—122
Asceticism of Gandhi—125
4. Consistency with the demands of time—126
5. Loss of spiritual pleasures—129
The enlightened ascetic according to Abu ‘Ali ibn Sina (Avicenna)—132
INDEX—135