Al-Ḥārith ibn Asad al-Muḥāsibī (d. 243 AH / 857 CE) was one of the earliest and most rigorous systematizers of Islamic spiritual psychology. His name, al-Muḥāsibī, means "he who holds himself to account" — a name he earned through his practice of muḥāsaba, the relentless inner examination of one's intentions and states before God. Al-Riʿāya li-Ḥuqūq Allāh ("Observance of the Rights of God") is his major work: a comprehensive treatise on the diseases of the soul — ostentation (riyāʾ), self-admiration (ʿujb), pride (kibr), heedlessness (ghurra), and envy (ḥasad) — and the disciplines required to overcome them. Written in ninth-century Baghdad, it laid the foundations for the entire later tradition of Sufi ethics and influenced figures from al-Ghazālī onward.
This translation was produced by an AI model and has not been verified or corrected by a human editor. It may contain errors in reading, terminology, and argument structure. It is intended solely as a study aid to be used alongside the original Arabic text, not as a standalone translation.
An English rendering of al-Muḥāsibī’s al-Riʿāya li-ḥuqūq Allāh, produced with Claude Opus 4.6 and reviewed with Gemini 3 Pro, translated from the ʿAṭā’ edition (4th printing).
Faithful to the source — meaning over style. Quranic quotations are annotated with [surah:ayat] references. Key Arabic terms are preserved in their latinized form with English glosses on first occurrence.