Sister Virginia Gray Henry is the Director of Fons Vitae books, a non-profit academic publishing house which focuses on translating the great classical texts of Islamic Spirituality. She co-founded the Ghazali Children's Project with Sheikh Hamza Yusuf more than a decade ago. 

Ghazali Children's Project: https://ghazalichildren.org/

Ghazali books: https://ghazalichildren.org/books/

Fons Vitae Publishing https://fonsvitae.com/

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The Ghazali Children’s Project seeks to educate children spiritually & transform their characters by showing the inner spiritually transformative meaning behind the outer aspects of Islam. The Project aims to help support entire communities of Muslim parents, teachers, and children in realizing how to live by and embody the noble Prophetic character through self-observation and correction.

The Fons Vitae Ghazali Children’s Series provides authentic quality Tarbiyah guidance for children of all ages at a time when their values are being formed. Imam al-Ghazali’s systematic approach for developing virtuous character is distilled and simplified and provided in an educational package which includes beautifully produced children’s books, and original texts for parents and teachers. These materials offer a creative, enjoyable and spiritual supplement or alternative to standard Islamic Studies curricula with a strong focus on the purification of the heart.

The aim of the Ghazali Children’s Project is to support children:

• in their ability to recognize and maintain their innate human dignity.

• in realizing nobility of character through imitation of the Prophetic qualities realized by understanding, loving, and practicing the inner dimensions of all outward acts – to stop simply just “going through the motions”.

• in becoming aware of their True Selves and in identifying with this pure aspect of their being rather than with the lower, false, egoic and separative nature which is centered on itself [al-nafs alammara].

• in becoming self-observant and self-correcting.

• in living life with humility and in service.

Chapters:

00:00:00 - Introduction to Aisha Gray Henry

00:05:06 - The Trust of God and Our Purpose

00:10:07 - The Harm of Gossiping and Backbiting

00:15:00 - Recognizing Authentic Spirituality and the Similarity between Jesus and Muhammad

00:19:35 - The Book of Knowledge for Children

00:24:04 - The Polishing of the Heart

00:28:30 - The Miracles of Speech and the Heart

00:33:16 - Stories within Stories

00:38:25 - Sharing Knowledge with Islamic Educators

00:42:57 - The Parallel Between Music and Creativity