Muslim Literatures
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Texts & Translations
In al-Ghazālī’s “Wonders of the Heart”—an important part of the famous Muslim thinker’s multi-volume magnum opus, The Resuscitation of the Religious Sciences—we read a litany of metaphorical descriptions of the heart. The heart, for Ghazālī, is a powerful locus of cognition, affect, and control. It is a "king" and its “armies” are the external sense-organs and limbs, as well as internal psychic complexes and appetites. The king-heart has to command these armies in order to make a safe “journey to God.” Why does Ghazālī rely so heavily on metaphor in his description of the heart? What does he make of these illustrative examples, and what do we?
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