Allah wants you to be rich: foundations of Muslim career development in al-Ghazālī's Iḥyā’ ‘Ulūm al-Dīn

Ssekamanya, Siraje Abdallah and Badzis, Mastura and Ismail, Khamsiah (2017) Allah wants you to be rich: foundations of Muslim career development in al-Ghazālī's Iḥyā’ ‘Ulūm al-Dīn. Al-Shajarah, 2017 (Special Issue). pp. 131-155. ISSN 1394-6870

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Abstract

While Muslims comprise about a quarter of the world population, they control far less than 25% of global wealth. With few exceptions, Muslim countries are among the poorest in the world. To make things worse, Muslim preachers tend to justify this status quo by teaching that Allah prefers Muslims to be poor. Al-Ghazali’s views are often invoked in justifying this assertion. This paper argues that Allah wants to see His servants wealthy and that al-Ghazali’s emphasis on poverty was an educational strategy. Otherwise, a careful reading of his magnum opus, Ihya’ ‘Ulum al-Din shows that not possessing material wealth is not the ideal situation of a Muslim. The ideal is to have one’s soul focused on being mindful of Allah and detached from material possessions, thereby giving them away without hesitation whenever need arises. We end by highlighting the implications of this understanding of al-Ghazali’s work on the career development of Muslims in school and beyond.

Item Type:	Article (Review)
Additional Information:	4236/62435
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Al-Ghazali's Ihya' 'Ulum al-Din; Islamisation of career counseling; Muslim career development; Poverty in Islam
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology > BF636 Applied psychology L Education > LB Theory and practice of education L Education > LC Special aspects of education
Kulliyyahs/Centres/Divisions/Institutes (Can select more than one option. Press CONTROL button):	Kulliyyah of Education > Department of Educational Psychology & Counseling
Depositing User:	Dr. Ssekamanya Siraje Abdallah
Date Deposited:	03 Mar 2018 12:43
Last Modified:	02 Apr 2018 12:06
URI:	http://irep.iium.edu.my/id/eprint/62435

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