Maarij al-Quds fi Madarij Marifat al-Nafs
- Author died
- 505 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Āfāq al-Jadīdah
Maarij al-Quds fi Madarij Marifat al-Nafs (The Ladders of Holiness in the Stages of Knowledge of the Soul) is a psychological and philosophical treatise on the human soul and epistemology attributed to Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (450–505 AH / 1058–1111 CE) . The book also appears in bibliographical sources under slight title variations, including Maarij al-Quds ila Madarij al-Nafs and Maarij al-Quds fi Ahwal al-Nafs .
Subject and Structure
The work approaches the inquiry into the human soul through the methods of philosophical psychology and spiritual contemplation . In the introduction, the author states that grasping these subtle realities requires natural sharpness of intellect, prolonged contemplation, withdrawal from mundane distractions (al-khalwah wa-faragh al-bal), and the fulfillment of acts of obedience to attain complete knowledge .
The structure of the work encompasses several core thematic chapters:
- Proving the existence of the soul (ithbat al-nafs) .
- Demonstrating that the soul is an immaterial substance (jawhar) lacking physical magnitude or quantitative measurement .
- Classifying animal faculties into motive (muharrikah) and perceptive (mudrikah) powers .
- Outlining the specific faculties of the human soul, distinguishing between the theoretical intellect (al-aql al-nazari) and the practical intellect (al-aql al-amali) .
- The degrees of the intellect, examining the material intellect (al-aql al-hayulani) and the sacred/holy intellect (al-aql al-qudsi) .
- Scriptural illustrations of the degrees of intellect derived from divine revelation .
- The harmony and mutual necessity of reason and revelation (tazahur al-aql wa-l-shar) .
- The reality of perception and its ascending ranks of abstraction (maratibuhu fi al-tajrid) .
- The soul's functional dependence on and eventual independence from the physical body .
Key Themes and Terminology
The text opens with a linguistic and conceptual analysis of four interrelated terms: soul (nafs), heart (qalb), spirit (ruh), and intellect (aql) . The soul (nafs) is defined in two primary ways: first, as the comprehensive locus of blameworthy animal drives that oppose rational faculties—the target of spiritual struggle (jihad al-nafs) in Sufism; and second, as the true reality and essence of the human being, described as a celestial substance (jawhar) belonging to the realm of the unseen and divine command (alam al-malakut wa-l-amr) and receptive to intelligibles . Its spiritual descriptions vary by state: when settled in divine remembrance and knowledge, it is the tranquil soul (al-nafs al-mutma'innah); when struggling with animal impulses, it is the reproachful soul (al-nafs al-lawwamah) .
The treatise also discusses the characteristics of prophethood, categorizing them into three faculties: the power of imagination (quwwat al-takhayyul), the power of the intellect (quwwat al-aql), and psychic or spiritual strength (quwwat al-nafs) . In its exegesis of the Verse of Light اللَّهُ نُورُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ مَثَلُ نُورِهِ كَمِشْكَاةٍ فِيهَا مِصْبَاحٌ , the niche (al-mishkat) is likened to the material intellect receptive to the illumination of intelligibles emanating from the Active Intellect (al-aql al-fa''al) .
Manuscripts and Editions
Manuscripts of Maarij al-Quds survive in several collections, including the Koprulu Library (MS 726 and MS 853/1), Ragip Pasha (MS 1451 and MS 1461/1), the Zahiriyya Library in Damascus (MS 4672), Veliyuddin Efendi (MS 1814), and Ayatollah Najafi (MS 4057) . A manuscript preserved in Baghdad within a composite volume (majmua) containing other treatises by al-Ghazali was described in the Iraqi journal Lughat al-Arab .
The work has been published in Cairo by Maktabat al-Jundi (alongside al-Ghazali's Qanun al-Ta'wil) and in Beirut by Dar al-Afaq al-Jadida (1975 and 1982) and Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya (1409 AH / 1988–1989 CE) .
Answer updated