The Mysteries of the Prayer and Its Important Elements

In the Mysteries of the Prayer and Its Important Elements (Kitāb asrār al-ṣalāt wa-muhimātiha), book 4 of the forty books of the Revival of the Religious Sciences (Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn), Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī explains the inner and outer meanings of the prayer, a central practice for Muslims. This is one of five books that deal with the inner dimensions of Islamic worship; books 3, 5, 6, and 7 address purification, zakāt, fasting, and pilgrimage, respectively.

Originally from California, Abdurrahman Fitzgerald and his wife migrated to Morocco in the late 1970s. Since that time, he has been involved in education and the study of Arabic, Islam, and Sufism for the past thirty years. He co-translated Ibn al‑Qayyim on the Invocation of God (Islamic Text Society, 2000), worked on the editing and annotation of Denys Johnson-Davies’s translation of al-Ghāzali’s Kitāb ādab al‑akl (Islamic Texts Society, 2000), and also on Dr. Kenneth Honerkamp’s edition of al‑Rasāʾil al‑kubrā by Ibn ʿAbbād (Dār al-Machreq, 2005). Other works translated with Fouad Aresmouk include The Immense Ocean, a portion of Ibn ʿAjība’s Qurʾānic commentary; The Book of Ascension, Ibn ʿAjība’s spiritual glossary; and a portion of the work, Two Sufi Commentaries, all published by Fons Vitae. Abdurrahman holds degrees from the University of California and Shenandoah University, Virginia, and is the director of the Center for Language and Culture, Marrakesh.