Desires make slaves out of kings and patience makes kings out of slaves.
Al-GhazaliRead
Never have I dealt with anything more difficult than my own soul, which sometimes helps me and sometimes opposes me.
Interpretation
The struggle with one's own thoughts and emotions can be the most challenging aspect of life.
In this quote, Al-Ghazali reflects on the complexity of the human soul, emphasizing that the greatest battles we face often occur within ourselves. This internal struggle can manifest as a source of support or as an obstacle, demonstrating the dual nature of self-awareness and personal growth.
In practice
During a philosophy class, you might quote Al-Ghazali to illustrate the importance of introspection.
Desires make slaves out of kings and patience makes kings out of slaves.
The happiness of the drop is to die in the river.
To completely trust in Allah is to be like a child who knows deeply that even if he does not call for the mother, the mother is totally aware of his condition and is looking after him.
Do not fix hopes on your health, and do not laugh away life. Remember how they walked and now all their joints lie separately, and the tongue with which they talked lightly is eaten away by the worms
A man of bad character punishes his own soul.
The mere physical man is like the ant crawling on the paper, who observes black lettering and attributes its production to the pen and nothing more.
A monk is a man who considers himself one with all men because he seems constantly to see himself in every man.
The human race in the course of time has taken the liberty of softening and softening Christianity until at last we have contrived to make it exactly the opposite of what it is in the New Testament.
In short, there are mysteries of science and of soul that will never be understood no matter how hard we measure, no matter how strongly we believe, no matter how deep our think tanks and how high our aspirations. But as anyone will tell you—for we all know this within our hearts—the impossible happens and grand cosmic mysteries are solved on a regular basis, although most of the time the solutions lead to even greater mysteries.
In a mouse we admire God's creation and craft work. The same may be said about flies.
Justice and mercy/ Are human dreams, they do not concern the birds nor the fish nor eternal God.
The lies we live will always be confessed in the stories that we tell.
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