Lecture
Types of Religiosity and Fasting from Ghazali's Perspective; Abdolkarim Soroush
This lecture presents Abdolkarim Soroush's account of three types of religiosity and fasting in the thought of Ghazali. The discussion takes fasting beyond the level of outward practice and examines it in connection with the degrees of faith, ethics, and religious conduct.
About this video
In this lecture, Abdolkarim Soroush addresses the issue of religiosity and fasting by drawing on Ghazali's perspective. The central theme is the distinction between different forms of religiosity; from outward, ritualistic religiosity to ethical, esoteric, and conscious religiosity.
In the Islamic tradition, Ghazali does not view fasting merely as abstaining from eating and drinking, but understands it as a path for disciplining the self, safeguarding morality, and purifying the human being inwardly. Within this framework, fasting itself has degrees, and its value depends on the quality of presence of heart, intention, vigilance, and the human being's relationship with God and others.
The significance of this lecture lies in the fact that it takes the concept of fasting beyond the purely jurisprudential level and transforms it into a question about the quality of religiosity: to what extent does our religiosity lead to ethics, self-awareness, compassion, and inner transformation?
