Clearing the Soul for Paradise
(
Taslīk al-nafs ilā ḥaẓīrat al-quds
) is a concise but comprehensive
summa
of theology, which al-ʿAllāma al-Ḥillī composed for his son at a midpoint of his career. It addresses all fields of knowledge one needs for informed and grounded belief, from the instrument of logic, through general metaphysics and natural philosophy, to theology, religious ethics, and eschatology. Ḥillī approaches each topic as a focus of debate, marching forth the diverging positions of the full range of earlier theologians (
mutakallimūn
) and the Peripatetic philosophers. The book is thus designed to engage the inquisitive reader and provides an excellent tool for teaching the foundations of theology.