Islam considers marriage as the most intimate communion between man and woman. The mystery of sex finds it fulfilment when intimate spiritual harmony is combined with the physical link. Marriage and family laws are, therefore, an important part of Islamic law for the fulfilment of its ultimate objective of building a harmonious and peaceful human society. In his inimitable style, Imam al-Ghazali, may Allah be pleased with him, discusses this subject in this small book, and shows how Islam, despite differences in rules and marriage, sets out inviolable principles so that marriage is not distorted by godless understandings now threatening to dehumanise many a society of both the East and West. The Islamic code of marriage and family is second to none in importance in helping to lead a life of goodness and purity.

The importance of this treatise lies in the fact that it is the earliest systematic presentation of the theory of Sufi experience, written by a practicing Sufi. Beginning with the idea of Sidq or truthfulness, the author develops his theme to include “stations” of fear, hope, trust, love, shame, longing, intimacy, all of which the mystic must pass on his path to God. Throughout the discourse the author constantly refers, typically as a mystic, to higher degrees of the various stations which cannot be described in written language. In a style which foreshadows the practice of later writers, the author begins with Qur’anic sanctions, and follows these by references to the Sunnah and the lives of the saints.

A translation from the Persian of the first eight paragraphs of Know your self, the first topic of the prolegomena of al-Ghazzali's Alchemy of happiness, with extensive commentary and explicative passages selected from the rest of the work.