The Pillars gathers Books 3 to 7 of al-Ghazālī’s Revival of the Religious Sciences.

Every Muslim knows the five pillars. Al-Ghazālī asks what each one is for. Purification, prayer, zakāt, fasting and pilgrimage are given twice: first the outward form, exact enough for a jurist; then the inward form — presence, intention, the heart the act was addressed to — without which, he says, the movements are a body without a soul.

Wash, and learn what you were washing. Pray, and learn where you were while your body prayed. Give, fast, go to the House — and find out what each one was quietly doing to you.

This English is taken from the classical Arabic of the Iḥyāʾ, not rebuilt from an older translation. Each book ends with a key point, a note on practice, and questions for reflection.

Five acts. You already do them. This is what they were for.