A Moslem seeker after God

by Samuel Marinus Zwemer

The Minhaj shows that Al-Ghazali at the close of his life had adopted the vocabulary of the mystics even for popular teaching. The various chapters are called “stages” in the progress of the soul towards salvation and peace. The first stage is that of knowledge, then follows repentance, a list of the hindrances on the road to God, things that delay the soul in its onward progress, such as the world and its allurements, the flesh, the devil, the senses. Other hindrances are the cares of gaining a living, the perplexities and troubles of life, while the last stages in the road of the mystic are those of praise to God under all circumstances, and earnest endeavour to attain to the reality of the experience of His presence.

So difficult is the road which Al-Ghazali describes that he says: “Some seekers can only finish these stages in seventy years, some in twenty, some in ten. Others there are, however, whose souls are so enlightened, so free from the care and perplexity of the world, that they finish the journey and arrive at the goal in a year, a month, what do I say, in an hour; so that they awaken like the Companions of the Cave, and the change they see in themselves and those about them is to them as a dream.”

His teaching on prayer as given in the Ihya certainly rises very high above that of the ritualist who puts all his attention on the punctiliousness of outward observance. “Prayers are of three degrees, of which the first are those that are simply spoken with the lips. Prayers are of the second kind when with difficulty, and only by a most resolute effort, the soul is able to fix its thoughts on divine things without being disturbed by evil imaginations; they are of the third kind when one finds it difficult to turn away the mind from dwelling on divine things. But it is the very marrow of prayer when He who is invoked takes possession of the soul of the suppliant, and the soul of him who prays is absorbed into God, to whom he prays, and, his prayer ceasing, all consciousness of self has departed, and to such a degree that all thought whatsoever of the praying is felt as a veil between the soul and God. This state is called by the Sufis ‘absorption,’ for the reason that the man is so absorbed that he takes no thought of his body, or of anything that happens externally, or even of the movements of his own soul, but is first engaged in going towards his Lord, and finally is wholly in his Lord. If even the thought occurs that he is absorbed in the Absolute it is a blemish, for that absorption only is worthy of the name, though they will be called, as I well know, but foolish babbling by raw theologians, are yet by no means without significance. For consider: The condition of which I speak resembles that of a person who loves any other object, such as wealth, honour, or pleasure. We see such persons so carried away with their love, and others with their anger, that they do not hear one who speaks to them, nor see those passing before their eyes. Nay, so absorbed are they in their passion that they do not perceive their absorption; you necessarily turn it away from that which is the object of it.”

Elsewhere Al-Ghazali says: “The commencement of this life is the going to God; then follows the finding Him, when the absorption takes place. This at first is momentary, as the lightning swiftly glancing upon the eye, but afterwards, confirmed by use, it introduces the soul into a higher world, where, the most pure essential essence meeting it, fills the soul with the images of the spiritual world, while the majesty of Deity discovers itself.”

The evident sincerity and the moral earnestness of Al-Ghazali shown in his works and in the extracts which we have quoted, surely explains in a large degree why his influence has been so deep and permanent, far greater than that of the merely intellectual philosophers, such as Averroes. While he discouraged scholastic philosophy, he encouraged moral philosophy. The reader will remember how he carried a book of ethics with him on his journeys. After his death several famous ethical treatises were composed which derived much from him. Claud Field says “the most important of these is the ‘Akhlaq-i-Jalali,’ by Jalaluddin Asaʾad Aldawani, which has been ably translated into English by Mr. W. F. Thompson. The ‘Akhlaq-i-Jalali’ itself is largely a translation into Persian from the Arabic, the original of which appeared in the tenth century under the name of ‘Kitab-ut-Taharat.’ Two centuries after it was translated into Persian by Abu Nasr, and named ‘Akhlaq Nasiri,’ enriched with some important additions from Avicenna. In the fifteenth century it assumed a still further improved form under its present name, the ‘Akhlaq-i-Jalali.’”[60]

That Al-Ghazali was a careful student of nature is evident in all his writings. Those portions of the Koran which deal with natural theology and the proof of God’s existence from the starry heavens, from the fertile ground, the animal creation, and the sea with its terrors, especially seem to appeal to him. One of his books is entitled Al Hikmat fi Makhlukat Allah (The Wisdom of God Shown in the Marvels of Creation). It is one of his shorter writings but full of beautiful passages on the glory of the starry heavens, the earth and the sea, and the four primal elements. One long chapter is devoted to embryology and the physical wonders of the human frame. Another is on birds, another on quadrupeds and on fishes. The conclusion of the whole treatise is the argument from design, for the goodness and greatness of the Creator as shown in His works. What he says in regard to the benefits to be obtained from gazing into the starry vault may be compared with David’s words in the eighth and the nineteenth Psalms. Says Al-Ghazali: “To look up into the vault of heaven drives away anxiety, removes the whisperings of Satan, takes away idle fear, reminds us of God, brings the heart to magnify Him, banishes evil thoughts, cures pessimism, comforts the passionate, delights the lover, and it is the best Kibla for those who call to God in prayer.”

Al-Ghazali was also a dogmatic theologian and controversialist. He wrote a commentary on the Koran in forty volumes, never printed; and a dozen books against various heretics, including one entitled: “The Best Reply to Those Who Have Tampered with the Gospel.” Al-Ghazali, who was himself cursed for alleged heresy, is memorable among the theologians of Islam in that by his breadth of sympathy he forbade the cursing of Yazid, the notorious slayer of Hussein, Mohammed’s grandson, and gave his opinion in these words: “It is forbidden to curse a Moslem: Yazid was a Moslem. It is not certain that he slew Al-Husain, and it is forbidden to think ill of a Moslem. We cannot be certain that he ordered his death; really we cannot be certain of the cause of the death of any great man, especially at such a distance of time. We have also to remember the party spirit and false statements in this particular case. Again, if he did kill him, he is not an unbeliever because of that; he is only disobedient to God. Again, he may have repented before he died. Further, to abstain from cursing is no crime. No one will be asked if he ever cursed Satan; if he has cursed him he may be asked, Why? The only accursed ones of whom we know are those who die infidels.”[61]

Among his books against the philosophers we must mention three which are closely related to one another. They are the Maqasid-ul-Falasifa, a statement of the true teachings of the philosophers and a presentation of their views of the world; the Tahafut ul Falasifa which overthrows their views and shows that they are untenable to those who would follow Islam with heart and mind; the Qawaʾid, which shows the truths that must be built up to take the place of the errors of the philosophers. In the first-named book, according to Macdonald, he “smites the philosophers hip and thigh, turns their own weapons against them and goes to the extreme of intellectual scepticism; seven hundred years before Hume he cuts the bond of causality with the edge of his dialectic and proclaims that we can know nothing of cause or effect, but simply that one thing follows another.”

Al-Ghazali’s great work “The Revival of Religious Sciences,” caused great scandal in Andalusia. There the intolerance of the learned passed all bounds because of the narrowness of their views. Their theology was limited to minute knowledge of Canon Law. They had no place for the religion which Ghazali preached, which was personal and passionate, a religion of the heart. When he attacked contemporary theologians busy with questions of legality and the externals of religion, he touched these pharisees of the law at the quick and they not only squirmed but screamed loudly. According to Dozy, “the Kady of Cordova, Ibn Hamdin, declared that any man who read Al-Ghazali’s book was an infidel ripe for damnation, and he drew up a fatwa condemning all copies of the book to the flames. This fatwa, signed by the Fakihs of Cordova, was formally approved by ʾAli. Al-Ghazali’s book was accordingly burnt in Cordova and all the other cities of the Empire, and possession of a copy was interdicted on pain of death and confiscation of property.”