The Book of the Healing of Souls

The work here translated is the epistle entitled Kitab al-Akhlaq wa-l-Siyar fi Mudawat al-Nufus — literally, The Book of Morals and Conduct in the Healing of Souls — one of Ibn Hazm’s most renowned writings. This concise ethical treatise declares as its aim the treatment of the soul’s afflictions and its purification from corruption, through the articulation of an ideal code of conduct grounded in a set of positive values and virtues — chief among them justice, intelligence, courage, and generosity. The cultivation of these virtues leads to a life of moral integrity and to true success, both in this world and in the Hereafter. Drawing upon the author’s long and often arduous personal experience — marked by both the heights of eminence and the collapse of his Andalusi homeland — the work calls upon its readers to adhere to a higher moral order, defined by the precepts of the religious Law and sound reason, as a means of navigating the trials and tribulations of this earthly life. Its contents include topics such as the treatment of souls, the repose of the mind, knowledge, morals and conduct, brotherhood, friendship and advice, love and its kinds, physical beauty and its kinds, practical morality, the treatment of corrupt characters, peculiarities of the soul, a man's desire for knowledge, and participation in sessions of study.