A Moslem seeker after God : $b showing Islam at its best in the life and teaching of al-Ghazali, mystic and theologian of the eleventh centuryZwemer, Samuel Marinus
Philosophy
A Moslem seeker after God : $b showing Islam at its best in the life and teaching of al-Ghazali, mystic and theologian of the eleventh century
Zwemer, Samuel Marinus
Ghazzali, 1058-1111
In his “Alchemy of Happiness” there is a beautiful chapter on “Know
Thyself.” The parable there used regarding man’s soul and the enemies
that lay siege against it reminds one very much of Bunyan’s “Holy War.”
The shortest of his works, as far as I am aware, is called _Al-Qawaʿid
Al-ʾAshara_ (The Ten Articles); this has been frequently reprinted. It
consists of ten principles of faith and conduct, and is scarcely longer
than an ordinary letter. Of a similar character is _Risalat-ut-Tair_
the parable of the birds. His most celebrated treatise on ethics and
conduct is entitled _Mizan ul ʿAmal_. It might be compared to the book
of Ecclesiastes or the first chapters of the book of Proverbs. In the
introduction Al-Ghazali shows the folly of those who neglect to secure
the happiness of their immortal souls as well as the peril of those who
despise faith in the world to come. The true way of happiness consists in
knowing the right and doing it. The soul is a unit and its various powers
are knit together and are interdependent. The path of the mystic unites
true faith with true practice. He also speaks of the possibility of
change of character through religious devotion and mentions the virtues
that are to be cultivated and the vices to be shunned on this pathway to
God and to true happiness.
To emphasize the importance of life with its brevity and the supreme
importance of eternity Al-Ghazali says: “Suppose we imagine that the
whole world is filled with dust and that a little bird should come and
snatch up one atom of dust every thousand years. We know that there
would be an end of its task, but nothing would have been taken away from
the everlasting character of that eternity which has no end.” Although
the moral teaching of this book is very noble, it is after all based
entirely on the principle of salvation by works. There is no hint of the
possibility of the transformation of character through regeneration of
the heart, nor is the way pointed to the victorious life by overcoming
temptation through a power that is not our own.
Of all his writings none is celebrated more justly than his greatest
work “The Revival of Religious Sciences” (_Ihya ʿulum id Din_). It is
a veritable encyclopædia of Moslem teaching and ethics and covers the
whole range of Moslem thought. Many editions of this work have been
printed and commentaries written on it, the most celebrated of which
is by Mohammed-uz-Zubeidi Al-Murtadha, in ten large volumes. The work
itself consists of four volumes of ten books each and has a total of
over one thousand closely printed pages. Although widely read in its
original form, popular demand has called forth several abbreviated
compendia of the work. One of them entitled “A Homily for Believers,” by
Mohammed Jamal-ud-Din of Damascus, is used as a text-book on Islam in the
Theological Seminary of the American Mission in Cairo.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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