Episode 13

The Straight Path: A Sociological Perspective

After exploring the sociological theories of the Right and Left, we turn now to the Islamic scholarly and spiritual tradition to see how our own scholars have observee and theorized society.

In this episode, we briefly mention the main concepts of the theories of both Imam Raghib al-Asfahani (d.1108 CE) and Ibn Khaldoun (1332-1406 C.E), before embarking on a fairly detailed explanation of Imam al-Ghazali's Book 26 of the Ihya 'Ulum al-Din.

Book 26 is called Dhamm al-Dunya, The Condemnation of Worldy Life. In it, he outlines the physical needs of the human, the skills and trades that developed to make the tools and implements required to process natural resources into fulfilling human needs, and the states of the heart that a human must seek to endow him/herself with in order to live in this world, without losing sight of the real purpose of life - the worship of Allah Ta'ala and the ultimate meeting with Him that awaits in the next life.

Next Episode All Episodes Previous Episode

About the Podcast

Show artwork for Left or Right? The Straight Path Please
Left or Right? The Straight Path Please
An overview, analysis and critique of contemporary left and right wing ideologies from the perspective of the Qur’anic Straight Path metaphor and the Islamic scholarly and spiritual tradition. For women listeners only.

Listen for free

About your host

Profile picture for MISK Women

MISK Women

Umm Abdullah is the developer of MISK Women at the Muslim Institute for Sacred Knowledge and is a student of the Islamic Scholarly and Spiritual Tradition. She presents podcasts, Zoom classes and courses focusing on developing English-speaking Muslim womens' textual competence through the engagement of sacred texts and contextual competence through analysis and critique of the modern world from an Islamic perspective.