Being the twenty-sixth book of The Revival of the Religious Sciences (Ihya' 'ulum al-din), The Book of the Censure of This World (Kitab Dhamm al-dunya) seeks to persuade its reader of the folly of worldly pleasures and possessions. To do so, al-Ghazali begins with a collection of Islamic primary-source texts that speak to the dangers of this world from a variety of angles. He then adds to this collection fourteen metaphors for this world...