Quotation
Last reviewed:
“Knowledge of the self is the key to knowledge of God.”
Al-Ghazālī · Islamic philosophy · Medieval · early 12th century; Field's English 1910
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is a pedagogical order. To know God, start by knowing the self, because the self is the nearer text. A competing reading hears a modern inwardness, a journey that never leaves psychology, which the chapter does not offer. The self is studied because it is a sign, dependent and limited, and the knowledge aimed at is not a personality profile. The sentence is the theme of chapter 1 of the Alchemy of Happiness, a Persian book written for a wider audience than the Incoherence. Field's English is the translation tradition used here. Deliverance from Error, already in this library, asks for a certainty so strict that the senses fail it. This sentence is a different project, a path of self-knowledge. It should not be confused with the causality discussion either. Three books, three claims.
Did Al-Ghazālī really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. The governing claim of the first chapter of the Alchemy of Happiness, in the English associated with Claud Field's translation. The Persian book develops the claim at length. This short English is a translation of that claim, not a hadith, and not the opening of Deliverance from Error.
Where it comes from
The Alchemy of Happiness, chapter 1, in the translation tradition of Claud Field
Approximate date: early 12th century; Field's English 1910.
How to use it
A mindfulness app that uses the sentence as a caption for a mood diary has kept the self and dropped God, who is the point of the key. The chapter is religious. It can be read by someone who does not share the aim, but not honestly as a technique for productivity. If the sentence is quoted, the aim belongs in the quotation.
A mindset reading
A key is not the room. He thinks self-knowledge opens a further knowledge, and that stopping at the self misses the reason for the inquiry. The habit is to ask what the self-knowledge is for, in the book, before borrowing the phrase.
Understand the philosophy
The Alchemy of Happiness, chapter 1, states this order of knowing. The key term is the self as a key, not as the final object. Field's English is a translation of a Persian work. The Incoherence discussion of causality and the Deliverance standard of certainty are the other cards. A fifth detached proverb was not taken from the Revival, where the arguments are too long to be a sentence.
- self
- knowledge
- meaning
FAQ
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is a pedagogical order. To know God, start by knowing the self, because the self is the nearer text. A competing reading hears a modern inwardness, a journey that never leaves psychology, which the chapter does not offer. The self is studied because it is a sign, dependent and limited, and the knowledge aimed at is not a personality profile. The sentence is the theme of chapter 1 of the Alchemy of Happiness, a Persian book written for a wider audience than the Incoherence. Field's English is the translation tradition used here. Deliverance from Error, already in this library, asks for a certainty so strict that the senses fail it. This sentence is a different project, a path of self-knowledge. It should not be confused with the causality discussion either. Three books, three claims.
Did Al-Ghazālī really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. The governing claim of the first chapter of the Alchemy of Happiness, in the English associated with Claud Field's translation. The Persian book develops the claim at length. This short English is a translation of that claim, not a hadith, and not the opening of Deliverance from Error.
Which work is it in?
The Alchemy of Happiness, chapter 1, in the translation tradition of Claud Field Approximate date: early 12th century; Field's English 1910.