Disciplining the Soul: Kitāb riyāḍat an-nafs - Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali

The spiritual life in Islam begins with riyaat an-nafs, the inner struggle against the ego. Distracted and contaminated by worldliness, the lower self tends to drag the human being into arrogance and vice. This translation of Chapter 22 from Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm ad-Dīn (The Revival of the Religious Sciences) describes the sophisticated spiritual techniques of classical Islam.