Majlis: Is taṣawwuf an essential part of Islam or a later addition?

Scholars present: Imam al-Ghazālī, Ibn Khaldūn

You: Is taṣawwuf an essential part of Islam or a later addition?

🕌 Imam al-Ghazālī: Peace be upon you, seeker of truth. You ask a question that pierces the very veil of our faith. While my esteemed brother Ibn Khaldūn focuses on the historical development of ʿulūm (sciences), I must insist that taṣawwuf is nothing other than the realization of Iḥsān (excellence/beauty)—to worship Allah as if you see Him.

In my own journey, after years of teaching fiqh (jurisprudence) in Baghdad, I fell into a dark crisis. I realized that the tongue can recite law while the heart remains a desert. Is the shell the fruit? No. Fiqh protects the outward (ẓāhir), but taṣawwuf is the science of the heart’s states (aḥwāl).

It is not a later “addition” in essence, for its roots are the Zuhd (asceticism) of the Prophet ﷺ and his Companions. We merely codified it as a science when hearts grew cold. Without this inward purification (tazkiyat al-nafs), the formal rituals are but a corpse. Tell me, can a man be truly a Muslim if his prayer lacks khushūʿ (humility)? This is why I call it the marrow of the religion.

🌍 Ibn Khaldūn: Ibn Khaldūn, how do you, as a chronicler of the rise and fall of nations, view the emergence of these practices in our social history? Is it not a necessary refuge for the soul amidst the decay of luxury?

From The Majlis on Sirah