VI
His Writings
“I saw the Prophet in a dream, and he was contending with Moses and Jesus regarding the superiority of excellence of the Imam Al-Ghazali, and saying to them, ‘Have you had in your sects such a learned and righteous man?’ alluding to Al-Ghazali, and they both replied, ‘No.’ The Shaikh, the Imam, one acquainted with God, the Master, the support of religious law and truth, Abu’l-ʾAbbas al-Mursi said, when mention was made of Al-Ghazali, ‘Testimony has been already borne to his great and extreme veracity, and it is sufficient for you (to know) that it was he regarding whom the Prophet contended with Moses and Jesus, and to whose great and extreme veracity the most truthful have borne testimony.’”
—Ad-Damiri’s Hayat al-Hayawan.
“Verily I saw in the Gospel of Jesus (on him be peace) that he said: From the moment the dead is placed on the bier until he rests on the edge of the open grave God Most High asks of him forty questions.”
—Al-Ghazali in Risalat Ayyuha ’l-walad (sec. 5).
VI
HIS WRITINGS
More by far is known of Al-Ghazali from his writings than from the records of his life. The meagre facts of the biographers and even the spelling of his name, as we have seen, are disputed. His pen, however, left so large a legacy that many of his works are still found only in rare manuscripts, and have never been published. Moslem writers mention ninety-nine works, and Brockelmann in his “History of Arabic Literature” catalogues sixty-nine which are still in existence. They include systems of theology, eschatology, works on philosophy, lectures on mysticism, on ethics, and on canon law.
Many have assigned to Al-Ghazali the highest position among all Moslem writers. Ismael Ibn Mohammed Al Hadrami says: “Mohammed the son of Abdullah was the Prince of all the Prophets; Mohammed the son of Idris Al-Shafiʾ was the Prince of Imams; but Mohammed the son of Mohammed, the son of Mohammed Al-Ghazali, was the Prince of Writers.”