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
VII. On Despising Property and Greed.
VIII. On Despising the Love of Honour and Hypocrisy.
IX. On Despising Vanities.
“THINGS THAT DELIVER THE SOUL”
I. The Book of Repentance.
II. The Book of Patience and Thankfulness.
III. The Book of Fear.
IV. The Book of Poverty and Asceticism.
V. The Book of the Unity of God.
VI. The Book of Love.
VII. The Book of Good Intent and Sincerity.
VIII. The Book of Self-examination.
IX. The Book of Meditation.
X. The Book of the Remembrance of Death.
Especially the third and fourth parts of his great work show us
Al-Ghazali as a mystic and a preacher of righteousness. His ten books
on “Things that deliver the soul” furnish material from which it would
not be difficult to collect a beautiful anthology or a daily calendar of
spiritual thoughts. Such a rosary of pearls from Al-Ghazali’s works might
well be used for devotion by Christians as well as by Moslems.
[Illustration: A facsimile page of the Ihya (Vol. II, page 180, Cairo
Ed.). It gives a diagram of the prayer _kibla_ and the rules to be
observed in facing it correctly.]
Another most interesting book is that on the names of God, entitled
_Al-Maksad ul-Asna Sharh-Asmaʾ-Allah ul Husna_, “The Highest Aim: the
Explanation of the Beautiful Names of God.” The book is divided into
three parts of which the first deals philosophically with the meaning of
the word “name” and its distinction from the naming of the thing and the
thing named itself: also how it is possible for God to have many names
and yet to be one essence. The second part of the book is the longest
and treats of the ninety-nine names of God in order showing how they are
comprehended in the seven attributes and the one essence. The third part
is brief and shows that there are really more than ninety-nine names, but
that this was the number fixed upon for good reasons. And finally there
is a section telling how God may and may not be described.
Al-Ghazali teaches in this book _that the imitation of God’s attributes
is the highest happiness for the believer_. There are three degrees
in the knowledge of God, and in this respect he says: “The virtues of
the righteous are the faults of the Saints”; by which he means that
the nearer we approach to God the more perfect is our standard of
character. The three degrees of knowledge are (1) intellectual, (2) that
of admiration and attempted imitation, (3) that of actual acquirements
of God’s attributes such as the angels. Nearness to God is by rank and
degree, not in regard to position or place. He quotes with approval the
famous saying of Junaid: “No one knows God save God Himself Most High,
and therefore even to the best of His creatures He has only revealed His
names, in which He hides Himself.” He says that two statements are true
in regard to God and the believer. The true believer must say, “I know
nothing but God,” and “I know nothing of God.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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