TWO TREATISES MUTUAL REMINDING AND GOOD MANNERS pdf

Two Treatises Mutual Reminding And Good Manners by Imam Abdallah Ibn Alawi Al Haddad

TWO TREATISES MUTUAL REMINDING AND GOOD MANNERS

The first of the two concise books contained in this volume is known as The Treatise of Mutual Reminding among Loving Brothers, People of Goodness, and Religion.

It was the Imam’s first work, dictated in 1069 when he was twenty-five years of age.

In it, he examines mutual reminding and the exchange of good counsel, and he identifies its chief elements as taqwa (an active con¬ consciousness and fear of God)’ and detachment from worldly things.

He defines taqwa according to the criteria of Imam al-Ghazali and delineates both its active aspect of doing good and its passive aspect of avoiding evil. He then discusses the four things that impair it (ignorance, weakness of faith, long hopes, and illicit and dubious sustenance).

He goes on next to discuss two of the major obstacles on the path of obedience, namely, conceit and ostentation, both of which seriously assail one’s sincerity.

Finally, he speaks of how the love of this world severs one from God, quoting numerous Quranic verses.

 Prophetic traditions, and sayings of the virtuous predecessors among the early and venerable Muslim generations.