A third example is that of Ghazzali himself, who, in his work _The
Deliverance from Error_, has left one of the very few specimens of
Eastern religious autobiography, and one bearing a certain resemblance
to Newman's _Apologia_. He was professor of theology at the University
of Bagdad in the eleventh century. In his autobiography he says:
"Reflecting upon my situation, I found myself bound to this world by a
thousand ties; temptations assailed me on all sides. I then examined my
actions. The best were those relating to instruction and education; and
even there I saw myself given up to unimportant sciences, all useless in
another world. Reflecting on the aim of my teaching, I found it was not
pure in the sight of the Lord. I saw that all my efforts were directed
towards the acquisition of glory to myself." After this, as he was one
day about to lecture, his tongue refused utterance; he was dumb. He
looked upon this as a visitation from God, and was deeply afflicted at
it. He became seriously ill, and the physicians said his recovery was
hopeless unless he could shake off his depression. "Then," he continues,
"feeling my helplessness, I had recourse to God, as one who has no other
recourse in his distress. He compassionated me as He compassionates the
unhappy who invoke Him. My heart no longer made any resistance, but
willingly renounced the glories and the pleasures of this world."
We may close this short list with the name of the Sufi poet,
Ferid-eddin-Attar. He was a druggist by trade, and one day was startled
by one of the half-mad fakirs, who swarm in Oriental cities, pensively
gazing at him while his eyes slowly filled with tears. Ferid-eddin
angrily ordered him to go about his business. "Sir," replied the fakir,
"that is easily done; for my baggage is light. But would it not be wise
for you to commence preparations for your journey?" The words struck
home, Ferid-eddin abandoned his business, and devoted the rest of his
life to meditation and collecting the sayings of the wise.
These four cases, the highwayman, the prince, the theologian, the poet,
are sufficient to show that the Recognition (anagnorisis) and Revolution
(peripeteia), to use Aristotle's phrase, which turns life from a chaotic
dream into a well-ordered drama, of which God is the Protagonist, may
receive as signal though not as frequent illustration in the territory
of Islam as in that of Christianity. They also serve to illustrate
Professor W. James' thesis in his Gifford Lectures, that "conversion,"
whether Christian or extra-Christian, is a psychological fact, and not a
mere emotional illusion.
APPENDIX II
A MOHAMMEDAN EXPOSITION OF SUFISM
BY IBN KHALDOUN
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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