The struggle is, therefore, between the flesh and the spirit. Like St. Paul, Al-Ghazali must have experienced that which he describes: “The good that I would I do not, and the evil that I would not, that I do.” He is conscious of the inner struggle between the higher and the lower natures in man. Again and again he contrasts the body and the soul as to their eternal value in their struggle for supremacy. Both are of God, His gift to us; both show His wisdom and His power; but there is no comparison when we try to estimate their real values.
“The body, so to speak, is simply the riding animal of the soul, and perishes while the soul endures. The soul should take care of the body, just as a pilgrim on his way to Mecca takes care of his camel; but if the pilgrim spends his whole time in feeding and adorning his camel, the caravan will leave him behind, and he will perish in the desert.”[70]
The four leading virtues—the mothers of all other good qualities—Al-Ghazali says are “Wisdom, temperance, bravery, and moderation (or the golden mean of conduct).”[71] This classification he has borrowed from Plato with so much else on the theory of conduct. He explains all these virtues in terms of the Koran and illustrates them from the lives of Mohammed and the early saints of Islam as well as the later mystics.
He is at his best when he speaks of vices and their opposite virtues. No one can read his chapter against pride and boasting without seeing that he gives us again a page from his own experience. He begins by quoting the saying of the Prophet, “No one shall enter paradise in whose heart there is the weight of a grain of mustard seed of pride.” And another saying, “Said God Most High, ‘Pride is my mantle and majesty is my cloak, and whosoever takes away one of them from me I will cast him into hell, and I care not.’” Another saying attributed to Mohammed is evidently taken from the Gospel, “Whoso humbleth himself before God, God will exalt him, and whosoever is proud God will bring him low.” His definition of humility is beautiful: “True humility is to be subject to the truth and to be corrected by it even though thou shouldst hear it from a mere boy on the street.” In this connection he quotes also a saying of Jesus: “Said the Messiah (upon Him be peace), ‘Blessed is he to whom God has taught His book. He shall never die in his pride.’”
Pride is shown in different ways. Al-Ghazali enumerates pride of knowledge, of worship, of race and blood, of beauty and dress, of wealth, of bodily strength, of leadership. He quotes Mohammed as an example of humility, and also Abi Saeed el Khudri, who said, “Oh, my son, eat unto God and drink unto God and dress unto God. But whatsoever thou doest of all of these and there enters into them pride or hypocrisy it is disobedience. Whatever you do in your house do it yourself as did the Apostle of God, for he used to milk the goats and patch his sandals and sew his cloak and eat with the servants and buy in the bazaar, nor did his pride forbid him carrying his own packages home; and he was friendly to the rich and to the poor and he gave greetings himself first to every one whom he met, etc.”
It is noteworthy that when he rises to the highest ethical teaching he bases his remarks on the sayings (mostly apocryphal) of Christ, which we collate in our final chapter. Al-Ghazali tried hard but failed to find in Mohammed the ideals of his own heart. This is the tragedy of Islam.
VIII
Al-Ghazali as a Mystic
“Mysticism is religion, and supplies a refuge for men of religious minds who find it no longer possible for them to rest on ‘external authority’—as George Tyrrell both expounded and illustrated for us. Once turn away from revelation and little choice remains to you but the choice between Mysticism and Rationalism. There is not so much choice between these things, it is true, as enthusiasts on either side are apt to imagine. The difference between them is very much a matter of temperament, or perhaps we may even say of temperature. The Mystic blows hot, the Rationalist cold. Warm up a Rationalist and you inevitably get a Mystic; chill down a Mystic and you find yourself with a Rationalist on your hands. The history of thought illustrates repeatedly the easy passage from one to the other. Each centers himself in himself, and the human self is not so big that it makes any large difference where within yourself you take your center. Nevertheless just because Mysticism blows hot, its ‘eccentricity’ is the more attractive to men of lively religious feeling.”