Ihya Ulum al-Din, Book 9: The Mysteries of Remembrance of Allah

The Mysteries of Remembrance of Allah is Book 9 of al-Ghazālī’s Revival of the Religious Sciences.

You say the words. This book asks whether you have ever been present for them. Al-Ghazālī first makes the case for remembrance and supplication — from the Qurʾān, the ḥadīth and the early Muslims — answering why ask when God already knows. Then he gives a working collection: the supplications the Prophet actually made, sourced and set to their occasions, for morning and evening, after every prayer, and for the moments of a life from waking to dying.

He treats the ten etiquettes of asking, seeking forgiveness, sending blessings on the Prophet, and the words that spare the reader from inventing their own. Book 8 put the speech of God in the mouth. Book 9 is the speech owed in return. The quarter turns on it.

This English is taken from the classical Arabic of the Iḥyāʾ, not rebuilt from an older translation. It can be read straight through, or studied beside the original.

Learn the words the Prophet used. Then say them as if you meant them.