Editions of Iḥyāʾ

Printed Editions of Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-Dīn

For details on the Al-Ghazālī’s Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-Dīn including detailed list of contents and information on translations please see the Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-Dīn page. This page contains information on the printed Arabic editions. 

  1. First printed edition: Būlāq, 1269/1853: al-Juzʾ al-awwal (– al-juzʾ al-rābiʿ) min Kitāb iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn / taʾlīf Abī Ḥāmid Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. Muḥammad al-Ghazzālī. – [Cairo : s.n.], 1269 [1853] – 4 v. in 2 ; 33 cm. – See sample pdf
  2. First India printed edition by offset lithography from a handwritten original (ḥajrīya): Iḥyāʾ al-ʿulūm fī arabaʿ mujalladāt / li-ḥujat al-Islām Muḥammad al-Ghazzālī. [Lucknow] : Niwal Kishūr, 1863. – See sample pdf. bi Ihitimām Muḥammad  ʻAlī Mumtāz: 1280/1863; vol1 and vol2 in pdf facimile. Note that volume 2 is missing the last page.
  3. Printed on the margins of the  commentary (sharḥ) of al-Iḥyaʾ by Murtaḍā al-Zabīdī’s [d. 1791] Itḥaf al-sada al-muttaqīn bi sharḥ iḥyāʾ ʿulum al-dīn. Printed by al-Maṭbaʿa al-Maymuniya: Cairo,1894, in 10 large volumes. (download page)This work is still in print in facsimiles of this edition there is also a re-keyed DKI edition printed in Beirut, 2002 that is not to be trusted as the it introduced errors in the text. 
  4. Al-Ghazālī. Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-Dīn. the standard edition A facsimile. This is perhaps the best edition; it was published Muṣṭafa al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī wa-Awlādahu in 25 September 1939 (publication number: 290) was edited by a committee of scholars headed by the Azhari scholar Aḥmad Saʿad ʿAlī it was printed with the now standard addendum and marginal text of al-ʿIrāqī. Muḥammad Amīn ʿUmrān was the general editor and Rustom Muṣṭafa al-Ḥalabī was general manager of the press (4:539). All later publishers would follow suit with few modern exceptions. Inshallah plan to have pictures with a short report on this edition in a blog post on this site. 
  5. al-Ghazālī. Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-Dīn. Cairo: Lajnat Nashr al-Thaqāfa al-Islāmiyya, 1356–57 (1937–38). This is the edition that the Dār al-Shaʿab based their editon on. It has been recreated here with the pagination in red on the pdf files. Thanks is due to Prof. Frank Griffel for this information, his help in recreating this edition and providing the scans of the missing pages. Do note that this is a very readable edition that is used for scholarly pursuit: 
  6. Al-Ghazālī. Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-Dīn an edition printed in Cairo: Dār al-Shaʿab, n. d. (silsilat kitāb al-shaʿb): available in PDF facsimile at archive.org: cover–1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8–9–10–11–12–13–14–15–16.
  7. The standard edition a facsimile reprint of the Cairo 1939 edition by Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Kutub al-ʿArabiyya with an introduction by Dr. Badawī Ṭabāna in 1957; this was then known as the Ṭabāna edition. Note due to changing of front matter the page numbers differ from the 1939 edition. Online at archive.org and locally: vol1 –vol1-alternate – vol2  – vol3 – vol3-alternate – vol4  – (in PDF facsimile)
  8. Al-Ghazālī. Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-Dīn a complete edition printed in Beirut: Dār al-Qalam, n.d. by ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Sayyrawān in 5 volumes PDF facimile at archive.org 
  9. Al-Ghazālī. Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-Dīn. an edition in 5 volumes: Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn – taṣnīf al-Imām Abī Ḥāmid Muḥammad b. Muḥammad al-Ghazālī. Wa-bi-dhaylihi kitāb al-Mughnī ʿan ḥaml al-asfār fī al-asfār fī takhrīj mā fī al-Iḥyāʾ min al-akhbār. Miṣr : al-Maktabah al-Tijārīyah al-Kubrā, [195-?]: vol1 – vol2 –vol4  – vol5: contains Taʿrīf al-aḥyāʾ bi-faḍāʾil al-Iḥyāʾ by al-ʿAydarūs, al-Imlāʾ ʿan ishkālāt al-Iḥyāʾ by al-Ghazzāli, and ʿAwārif al-maʿārif by al-Suhrawardī. (in PDF facsimile)
  10. Al-Ghazālī. Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-Dīn. Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifa, 1982 edition in 4 volumes: vol1  – alternate vol1 – vol2 – vol3 – vol4 (in PDF facsimile).
  11. Al-Ghazālī. Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-Dīn. Beirut: Dār al-khaīr 1997 edition in 7 volumes (bound in 6). At the end of volume 6:202 it states that they completed printing of this book on Sunday 26 of Shawwāl 1357/ 18 December 1938! followed by: al-Imlāʾ ʿan ishkālāt al-Iḥyāʾ by al-Ghazzāli, Taʿrīf al-aḥyāʾ bi-faḍāʾil al-Iḥyāʾ by al-ʿAydarūs and has al-ʿIraqī’s al-Mughnī ʿan ḥaml al-asfār fī al-asfār fī takhrīj mā fī al-Iḥyāʾ min al-akhbār on the margins. This edition has an extensive index (Volume al-fahāris [7]) by Riyaḍ Muṣṭafā al-ʿAbdullāh that covers the following: (1) Qurʾān, (2) Ḥadīth, (3) sayings (ḥikam wa muʾthurāt), (4) personalities, (5) religions, sects, creeds, (6) cities and places, and (7) poetry.
  12. Al-Ghazālī. Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-Dīn. Beirut: Dār Ṣadir, 2000 which is a reprint of the Aleppo: Dār al-Waʿī edition in 5 volumes edited by ʿAbd al-Muʿṭī Amīn Qalʿjī. This edition has an index of the ḥadith at the end of volume 5 which also has al-Imlāʾ ʿan ishkālāt al-Iḥyāʾ by al-Ghazāli, Taʿrīf al-aḥyāʾ bi-faḍāʾil al-Iḥyāʾ by al-ʿAydarūs, al-Suyūṭī, Tashyad al-ʾarkān fī laysa fī al-imkan ʾabdaʿ mimā kān (Fortifying the foundations of [the statement] “the best of all possible worlds” ) and has al-ʿIraqī’s al-Mughnī ʿan ḥaml al-asfār fī al-asfār fī takhrīj mā fī al-Iḥyāʾ min al-akhbār on the margins with additional work by the editor which is pretty much standard practice at this point. 
  13. Al-Ghazālī. Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-Dīn. Cairo: Dār al-Āfāq al-ʿArbiyya 2004, edited with additional ḥadīth verification over al-ʿIraqī’s al-Mughnī by Muḥammad M. Tāmir in 5 volumes: volume 1 not available vol2 –vol3 – vol4 –vol5  (in PDF facsimile)
  14. Al-Ghazālī. Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-Dīn. Damascus 2006 edition:Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn: wa bi hamishahu takhrīj al-Ḥāfiẓ al-ʿIrāqī maʿ takimilatahu. This edition is in 4 volumes of text continuous pagination and fifth volume of 5 indices, Qurʾān, ḥadīth, athār by text and another by named source, and finally a subject. This is the first instance of a subject index of the Iḥyāʾ in Arabic. The ḥadīth verification is reviewed and amended by Muāammad Wahbī Sulaymān and Usmā ʿAmūra Dār al-fikr of Damascus dba dar al-fikr al-muʿaṣir in Beirut. Inshallah plan to have pictures with a short report on this edition in a blog post on this site. 
  15. Al-Ghazālī. Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-Dīn. Damascus 2010 edition: Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn: wa-maʿahu kitāb al-Mughnī ʿan ḥaml al-asfār fī al-asfār lil-Ḥāfiẓ al-ʿIrāqī, Takhrījāt al-imām al-Zubaydī fī Itḥāf al-sādah al-muttaqīn, Takhrījāt al-imām Ibn al-Subkī fī Ṭabaqāt al-Shāfiʻīyah al-kubrá, wa-yalīhi al-Imlāʾ ʿalā mushkil al-Iḥyāʾ  / Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazzālī ; taḥqīq wa-takhrīj ʿAlī Muḥammad Muṣṭafā, Saʿīd al-Maḥāsinī ; qaddama la-hu al-Shaykh Asʿad Ṣāghirjī. (Damascus: Dār al-Fayḥāʾ and Dār al-Manhal Nāshirūn, 2010). This is perhaps one of the best modern printed edition that is superior to the minhāj edition mentioned below that uses the text of the iḥyāʾ that was printed on the margins of itḥāf as its basis and a few choice manuscripts. It does have an index but not as extensive as the dār al-khaīr 1997 edition by Riyaḍ Muṣṭafā al-ʿAbdullāh. 
  16. Al-Ghazālī. Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-Dīn. Jedda: Dār al-Minhaj, 2011. In 10 volumes at archive.org and at the following: vol1 – vol2 – vol3 – vol4. This is a very nice and fancy edition. Its a showcase piece of Arabic Book Printing. Even though the publisher has an ījāza for the text I found issues with the text. The publisher claims to use manuscripts but the actual text never mentions any of the manuscript variants and this is not a good sign. The bibliography of the texts cited is very good. It has very good sourcing of texts that were used by al-Ghazālī.