Ilm al Akhlaq (Kitab ar Ruh wa Nafs)

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English Title: Knowledge of Character Traits or ‘The Book of the Soul and the Spirit’
Author: Imam Razi
Translated by: M>S>H> Ma’sumi
Publisher: Kitab Bhavan
Year: 1992
Pages: 334
Printed: India
ISBN: 81-7151-098-1
Binding: Hard Cover
Book Condition: New
Weight: 486 gr.
Description: In this work, the author analyzes the different types of pleasures as sensuous and intellectual, and explained their comparative relations with one another. He asserted that “a careful scrutiny of pleasure would reveal that it consists essentially in the elimination of pain.” He then gives the following example: “the hungrier a man is, the greater is his enjoyment of pleasure of eating.” He also argues that “the gratification of pleasure is proportionate to the need or desire of the animal” and that when “these needs are satisfied or desires fulfilled, the pleasure actually turns into revulsion,” as “excess of food or sex results not in more pleasure, but in pain.”He argued that the “excessive quest for bodily pleasure” amounts to “a repudiation of humanity” and that humans are not created in order to occupy themselves with the satisfaction of their bodily pleasures, “but rather to achieve intellectual apprehensions and contemplate the Divine Presence and gaze on the Divine Lights.”
According to al-Razi, human needs and desires are endless, and “their satisfaction is by definition impossible.” He argues that “the important matter of this world is not accomplished through constant improvement and fulfillment but rather through abandoning and avoiding them.” He then concludes that mental pleasure is more “noble and perfect than the sensual pleasure” and suggests that “the excellence and perfection” of a human is only realized by means of science, knowledge and “excellent manners,” rather than “eating, drinking, and mating.”

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Weight .480 kg