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Imam Abu Hamid alGhazali rahimahullah is seen as one of the most influential scholars in Islamic history. A man who reached lofty status as the head professor of the prestigious college of alMadrasat alNizamiyyah and advisor to the elite Seljuk Sultans in the bedrock of Muslim civilization in 6th century AH Baghdad, Iraq. He was a well known Persian jurist and theologian that felt the benign consequence of grandeur and status as well as the detached reality of philosophical, legal, and theological debate that many were engaged in his time. It led him to leave it all. Imam alGhazali rahimahullah embarked on a 10 year journey of searching for the intricacies of disciplining the soul. He sought what was not to be learned by the pen, but by deep reflection, discipline, and to experience gnosis through practice. He undertook a path of existential discovery guided by the spiritual direction of the Quran and Prophetic example. He spent his moments of thought writing during his spiritual journey in the most sacred of lands which began with seclusion in the beauty of the Levant in Damascus. This journey also led him to spend three years in the holy land, Jerusalem, and live in the confines of alMasjid alAqsa. He then set out to pilgrimage and staying in the two holy sanctuaries, Makkah and Madinah, in alMasjid alHaram and the Prophet's Mosque, to then return to Damascus and then back home. In these ten years Imam alGhazali confined himself to deeply reflect the very nature of the soul, and its refinement which were of the greatest objectives of Islamic guidance. Whether it was in the minutia of philosophy, the mechanics of law, or seeking status of grandeur, he felt that this essential objective of refinement became lost for many in pursuit of faith. He sought to remedy this within his own self-discovery. He penned his work, Ihya Ulum al Din, The Revival of the Religious Sciences as a guide to revive the spirit, objectives, & purpose behind the sacred sciences. Marked as one of the key revivalists of the 6th century, Imam alGhazali's works spoke to the souls of generations searching for the revival of Islam. Described as one of the main influencers in the lives of the likes of Salah alDin alAyyubi, as well as the average seeker, Imam alGhazali had an approach so piercing that it spoke to the soul of everyone who read his works. He lived his writing and developed it under careful dictation based on his own experiences with the soul and ego. This work, Ayyuha alWalad - "O My Son!", was a letter written toward the end of his life as a response to the questions of a dedicated student who sought a final advice before going forward on his own journey. This letter sought a brief and holistic instruction that the student wanted to keep with him and reflect over often. In reality, this precious letter summarizes the life experiences of Imam alGhazali in all of his works, especially his magnum opus, Ihya Ulum Al Din; as he refers to it often even within the letter. It can even be said that this letter is a beautiful summary of the Ihya by the author. Imam alGhazali speaks from heart to heart, and this rendition of an accessible translation hopes to relate to the reader the powerful message that he wishes to convey. It is through the works of great revivalists like Imam alGhazali that show true islamic revival begins with the soul. It is through reading his works that we may ourselves embark on our own existential journey of refining our souls, & it is through such refinement that revival can then take place. "Even if you studied knowledge for a hundred years and collected a thousand books, you will never be prepared to earn the mercy of God except through action." - Al Ghazali (rahimahullah).

Abd Al Ghani Al-Maqdisi rested by the river bank with some of his students when a priest approached them seeking to know more about the life of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Abd Al Ghani discussed the prophetic biography in a thematic fashion, touching the lineage of the Prophet Muhammad, his birth, his family, his character, his physical description, his habits, belongings, where he lived, his upbringing, what led to him being chosen as the final prophet, his message, his life in Makkah, the hardships he went through, his dealings with people, his guidance, his expulsion and forced migration to Madinah, and his passing. He even discussed how his normative actions were preserved and he finished by describing his companions.

The biography of the Prophet Muhammad remains as the most meticulously documented biography of any man who ever walked the face of the Earth. Muslims do not see his life as a departure from the line of Biblical prophets. Muslims hold that God revealed a single faith, charging all His prophets to teach it to mankind. Their teachings are unified in a single faith, although different laws were given to meet the needs of their particular time and place. This faith predated even the Abrahamic tradition that unites the three. It is a faith that - in the belief of Muslims - began when the father of all humanity, Adam, received it from God. Many will be surprised to know the great reverence which Muslims show all these prophets. Muslims take it as a binding requirement of faith to believe in all of these prophets as well as the revelation that was given to them. Muslims believe that the need for subsequent revelation was due to alteration of the earlier messages and even their scriptures. Humanity was therefore in need of a final unchanging, unalterable revelation. God sent this final message, the Quran, to the final prophet, Prophet Muhammad, as a preparation for the final day.

It was this message that the priest recognized in the discourse of Abd Al Ghani Al Maqdisi, and which left him in surprise. He felt a sense of familiarity to the prophet detailed by this Muslim scholar and it was after their discussion that he accepted the Prophet Muhammad as the final messenger in the long line of prophets sent to mankind. This event led Imam Abd Al Ghani to write down the contents of his discourse with the priest as a treatise entitled A Short Biography of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and His Ten Companions, shortened in this work to "Muhammad (s) and His Companions" - a thematic biography of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and his closest companions.

The Objectives of Worship is a work that discusses the spirit of the customs of worship Muslims believe to be divinely ordained by God. Throughout Islamic history Muslim scholars wrote on the objectives of worship to highlight that the law is never separate from its purpose and spirit. The role of scholarship always has been to derive the will of the lawmaker in the directions revealed in the Quran as well as its application in the practical example of the Prophet Muhammad (s). This process of discovery has always been to maintain harmony between the metaphysical objectives and the mechanics of the letter of the law. The great Andalusian scholar Al-Shatibi (r) goes so far as to say, "The objectives (Al Maqasid) are the soul of deeds... and if a body doesn't benefit from a soul, then similarly a soul doesn't benefit from the (actions) of a body." Thus, scholars have declared that law (fiqh) without objectives is a law with no soul, and a jurist with no objectives is a jurist with no soul; if we were to even claim he is to be considered a jurist in the first place. It is in this spirit, that the great jurist, the Sultan of Scholars (Sultan al-'Ulama) Al-'Izz b. 'Abd Al-Salam - wrote a critical series of short works that discusses the main objectives of the pillars of worship. These series of books have been collected into one work and entitled, The Objectives of Worship. The work highlights that understanding the objectives of the law is one of the most critical topics to comprehend for both Muslims and non-Muslims alike.