In 2018, Henry was invited to deliver 16 teacher training programs in four South African cities as part of a country-wide al-Ghazali Festival. The Ghazali Project is currently being piloted in approximately 500 schools around the world, ranging from schools, Sunday school-type programs, and homeschool groups.
#Al ghazali project full
The elegantly illustrated children’s books are accompanied by a full translation of the original works, a teacher’s manual, and a workbook to help children, parents, and teachers learn from the material. Photo courtesy of the Ghazali Children’s Project. Using metaphors employed by Ghazali, the project guides children and families towards a deeper understanding of Islamic practices like prayer, worship, charity, fasting, and pilgrimage.Ĭover illustration of The Book of Knowledge for Children. They also provide children with tools to address failings like selfishness, backbiting, arguing, laziness, envy, bragging, hypocrisy, greed, wasting time, and pride.
Their aim is to help children build habits of humility, patience, altruism, gentleness, forbearance, honesty, gratitude, and a respect for other faiths. So far, the project has adapted the first seven books of The Revival of the Religious Sciences for young people. Henry, who wrote the children’s stories, says, “Having to take this very profound metaphysics, theology and spirituality and sit there - I would sometimes sit two days with one idea and think, how can I say that?” Reaching Children Worldwide The process of distilling Ghazali’s teachings to their essence, in a way that would be approachable for even the youngest learners, was challenging but ultimately transformative. Henry helped gather a renowned team of advisors, scholars, educators and translators to ensure that the children’s books would be true to Ghazali’s thought as well as effective in providing guidance to young people at a time when their values are being formed. He then added, ‘You know what we ought to do - Fons Vitae ought to bring Ghazali out for children.’”
Gray Henry, the director of Fons Vitae, a publisher of world religious books specializing in Islamic scholarly works in translation, recalls talking about Ghazali with Hamza Yusef, a renowned American Islamic scholar and the co-founder of Zaytuna College in Berkeley, California: “He happened to call me up one day and complained about the religious education his children were getting at an Islamic school.
After commissioning translations of these volumes from the Arabic into English scholarly translations-which can still be difficult to understand even for trained students of religion–Fons Vitae then adapted them for families and educators. The Ghazali Children’s Project’s goal is to make the key teachings of The Revival of the Religious Sciences available to an entirely new audience. His writings deeply influenced the development of Islamic as well as Christian philosophy, and the quality of his teachings led him to be given the honorific, “The Proof of Islam.” Over the centuries, Ghazali’s 40-volume magnum opus The Revival of the Religious Sciences has been regarded in the Muslim world as the greatest compendium of Islamic spirituality and ethical behavior for everyday life it systematically lays down practical teachings and explains how the outer aspects of Islam can, through their inner meanings, change every situation into one that strengthens character. Born in the 11th century, Ghazali taught at Baghdad’s famed Al-Nizamiyya university. Photo courtesy of the Ghazali Children’s Project.Īll of these lessons come from the Ghazali Children’s Project, an innovative set of books, curricular guides, and online resources that teach character virtue development through the thinking of Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, one of classical Islam’s most renowned philosophers, jurists, and mystics.