A Moslem seeker after God

by Samuel Marinus Zwemer

Martensen defines Christian ethics as “the science of morals conditioned by Christianity.” But the three fundamental concepts of Christian ethics are all of them challenged by the teaching of Islam. The Mohammedan idea of the Highest Good, of Virtue and of the Moral Law are not in accord with those of Christianity. This is evident both from the character of Mohammed himself and from his recorded sayings. Ideal virtue is to be found through imitation of Mohammed. And the moral law is practically abrogated because of loose views as to its real character, its teaching and finality. “The ethics of Islam bear the character of an outwardly and crudely conceived doctrine of righteousness; conscientiousness in the sphere of the social relations, faithfulness to conviction and to one’s word, and the bringing of an action into relation to God, are its bright points; but there is a lack of heart-depth, of a basing of the moral in love. The highest good is the very outwardly and very sensuously conceived happiness of the individual.”[66]

This statement needs no proof to those who know Islam from its original sources, the Koran and Tradition. Professor Margoliouth uses language which is strong but not unfair when he says in regard to the saints of the Moslem calendar—that is the companions and followers of Mohammed—“Those who recount the history of Islam have to lay aside all ordinary canons of morality, else the picture would have no lights; they could not write at all if they let themselves be shocked by perfidy or bloodthirstiness, by cruelty or lust, yet both the Koran and Tradition forbid the first three, and assign some limits to the fourth.” A stream cannot rise higher than its source; a tower cannot be broader than its foundation. The measure of the moral stature of Mohammed is the source and foundation of all moral ideals in Islam. His conduct is the standard of character. We need not be surprised, therefore, that the ethical standard is so low even in Al-Ghazali, although he ofttimes rises high above the Koran and the Prophet.

In nearly every one of his books on morals the Prophet of Arabia is held up as the highest ideal of character. In his “Precious Pearl,” however, there is a passage quoted from a tradition in which he pays this high tribute to Jesus Christ (page 24, Cairo Edition), “Go to Jesus, on Him be peace, for He is the truest of those who were sent as apostles, and who knew most of God, and the most ascetic in life of them all, and the most eloquent of all in wisdom, perchance He will intercede for you.” The quotation, however, refers to the day of resurrection when the various nations seek God’s favour and forgiveness.

When we consider the age in which Al-Ghazali lived and his Moslem education in ethics, Macdonald says,[67] “the position of Al-Ghazali is a simple one. All our laws and theories upon the subject, the analysis of the qualities of the mind, good and bad, the tracing of hidden defects to their causes, and the methods of combating these causes,—all these things [Al-Ghazali teaches] we owe to the saints of God to whom God Himself has revealed them. Of these there have been many at all times and in all countries,—God has never left Himself without a witness,—and without them and their labours and the light which God has vouchsafed to them we could never know ourselves. Here as everywhere, comes out clearly Al-Ghazali’s fundamental position that the ultimate source of all knowledge is revelation from God. It may be major revelation, through accredited prophets who come forward as teachers, divinely sent and supported by miracles and by the evident truth of their message appealing to the human heart; or it may be minor revelation—subsidiary and explanatory—through the vast body of saints of different grades to whom God has granted immediate knowledge of Himself. Where the saints leave off, the prophets begin; and, apart from such teaching, man, even in physical science, would be groping in the dark.”

But we must add to this clear statement of Al-Ghazali’s theory of ethics, lest it be wholly misunderstood, that the revelation referred to is the Koran and that “the saints” were the Moslem saints of the early Caliphate, and their followers.

Moslem doctors of jurisprudence, including Al-Ghazali, define sin as “a conscious act of a responsible being against known law.” Therefore sins of ignorance and of childhood are not reckoned as real sin. They divide sin into “great” and “little” sins. Some say there are seven great sins: idolatry, murder, false charge of adultery, wasting the substance of orphans, taking interest on money, desertion from Jihad and disobedience to parents. Others say there are seventeen, and include wine-drinking, witchcraft and perjury among them. The lack of all distinction between the ceremonial and the moral law is very evident in the traditional sayings of Mohammed, which are, of course, at the basis of ethics. Take one example: “The Prophet, upon him be prayers and peace, said, One dirhem of usury which a man takes knowing it to be so is more grievous than thirty-six fornications, and whosoever has done so is worthy of hell-fire.”

Orthodox Moslems divide sins into greater and lesser. Al-Ghazali quotes one who said, “There are no greater and lesser sins, but everything which is contrary to God’s will is a great sin,” but gives Koran passages contradicting this and then escapes the moral difficulty by showing that the smaller sins may become great if we continue in them: “like the dropping of water wearing away a stone”; and “when the servant of God reckons his sin great, God reckons it small, and when he reckons it small, then God reckons it great.”

He divides the sins which overcome the heart into four classes: egoistic, satanic, brutal and cruel. Under the first he puts pride, conceit, boasting, selfishness, etc.; envy, hatred, deceit, malice, corruption and unbelief, belong to the second; while greed, gluttony, lust, adultery, sodomy, theft, and the robbing of orphans are classed as brutal sins; and anger, passion, abuse, cursing, murder, robbery, etc., are cruel.

Yet in all of Al-Ghazali’s works on ethics and many of his smaller treatises are on this subject, there is no clear distinction made between the ritual and the moral law. In fact one word used for ethics in Arabic (ʾadab) refers to propriety of conduct, etiquette, politeness, and decency in outward behaviour, reverence in the presence of superiors, rather than to the keeping of the ten commandments or of the principles that are fundamental to noble character. This becomes very clear when we study the contents, for example, of one of his shorter books entitled Al-ʾAdab fi Din (Ethics in Religion).