He quotes the following prayer of Jesus (Vol. I, p. 222): “Jesus was accustomed to say to God, ‘O God, I have arisen from my sleep, and am not able to ward off that which I hate and am not able to possess the benefit of that which I desire and the matter rests in hands other than mine. And I have pledged myself to my work and there is no man so poor as I am. O God, let not mine enemies rejoice over me and let not my friends deal ill with me, and let not my afflictions come to me in the matter of my religion. And do not allow the world to occupy my care and do not allow the unmerciful to overcome me, O Thou Eternal!’”
“It is related concerning Jesus (on him be peace) that God spoke to him saying: ‘Though you serve me with the worship of the people of heaven and earth and do not have love towards God in your heart but hatred toward Him it will not enrich you at all.’” (Vol. II, p. 210.) “God Most High said to Jesus (on him be peace), ‘Verily when I look upon the secret thoughts of my servant and do not find in them love either for this world or the world to come I fill him with my own love and I put him in my safe-keeping.’” (Vol. IV, p. 258.) In the “Alchemy of Happiness” we already found allusion to this subject: “Jesus (upon him be peace) saw the world in the form of an ugly old hag. He asked her how many husbands she had possessed; she replied that they were countless. He asked whether they had died or been divorced; she said that she had slain them all. ‘I marvel,’ he said, ‘at the fools who see what you have done to others, and still desire you.’” “Jesus (on him be peace) said, ‘The lover of the world is like a man drinking sea-water; the more he drinks, the more thirsty he gets, till at last he perishes with thirst unquenched.’”
Al-Ghazali, however, never seems to have drawn the conclusion from the life of Christ which a careful study of the Gospel would have made possible. Namely, that a true renunciation of the world is only possible in the service of others and not by withdrawing from men. Mohammedan mysticism has always resulted in two evils, as Major Durie Osborn points out: “It has dug a deep gulf between those who can know God and those who must wander in darkness, feeding upon the husks of rites and ceremonies. It has affirmed with emphasis, that only by a complete renunciation of the world is it possible to attain the true end of man’s existence. Thus all the best and truest natures—the men who might have put a soul in the decaying Church of Islam—have been cut off from their proper task to wander about in deserts and solitary places, or expend their lives in idle and profitless passivity disguised under the title of ‘spiritual contemplation.’ (zikr) But this has only been part of the evil. The logical result of Pantheism is the destruction of the moral law. If God be all in all, and man’s apparent individuality a delusion of the perceptive faculty, there exists no will which can act, no conscience which can reprove and applaud.... Thousands of reckless and profligate spirits have entered the orders of the dervishes to enjoy the license thereby obtained. Their affectation of piety is simply a cloak for the practice of sensuality; their emancipation from the ritual of Islam involves a liberation also from its moral restraints. And thus a movement, animated at its outset by a high and lofty purpose, has degenerated into a fruitful source of ill. The stream which ought to have expanded into a fertilizing river, has become a vast swamp, exhaling vapours charged with disease and death.”
Regarding the teaching of Jesus we find the following passages in the Ihya. I have indicated the parallel passages in the New Testament where possible. Some of them are taken from the Gospel according to Matthew, especially from the Sermon on the Mount. These are given first and then the apocryphal sayings, for it is difficult to follow any logical order.
“Said Jesus: ‘If a man come to you when he is fasting let him anoint his head and wipe his lips that men may not say he is fasting; and if he gives alms with his right hand let not his left hand know; and if he prays let him put a curtain over his door, for verily God divines his trouble even as He does our daily food.’” (Vol. III, p. 203.)[87]
“Said Jesus (upon him be peace), ‘Whosoever shall do and teach shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.’” (Vol. I, p. 6; cf. Matt. 5: 19.)
“Said Jesus, ‘Do not hang pearls on the necks of swine; for wisdom is better than pearls.’” (Vol. I, p. 43; cf. Matt. 7: 6.) “Said Jesus, ‘How long will ye describe the right road to those who are going astray and ye yourselves remain with those who are perplexed?’” (Vol. I, p. 44; cf. Matt. 23: 13.)
“Said Jesus, ‘The teachers of evil are like a big stone which has fallen on the mouth of a well so that the water cannot reach the sown fields.’” (Vol. I, p. 45; cf. Matt. 23: 13.)
“Said Jesus, ‘How can that man belong to the people of wisdom who from the beginning of his life until the end looks only after the things of the world?’” (Vol. I, p. 46; cf. Matt. 6: 33.)