Some religious and moral teachings of Al-Ghazzali : $b Being brief extracts from his Ihya-u-Ulum-id-dinGhazzali
Islamic
Some religious and moral teachings of Al-Ghazzali : $b Being brief extracts from his Ihya-u-Ulum-id-din
Ghazzali
Islamic ethics -- Early works to 1800
V. The Nature of Love, and Man’s highest Happiness 116
VI. The Unity of God 138
VII. The Love of God and its Signs 145
VIII. Riza or Joyous Submission to His Will 164
INTRODUCTION
The Comparative Study of Religions, interesting as a form of intellectual
research, has for many a further value in the influence it may exert upon
the widening and the deepening of the religious life. The practical value
may become more and more acknowledged, if, as signs suggest, the reality
of the religious experience is more keenly felt and mankind recognise
the place of religious goods in the highest type of life. Though it is
certainly premature to say that there is much serious acknowledgement and
recognition of these values amongst the peoples of the world, there are
reasons to think that tendencies of thought and feeling in this direction
are increasing in power. One of the best means of aiding the Comparative
Study of Religions and promoting these tendencies is by the publication
of important books connected with the religions, representing the views
of leading thinkers and saints.
If we turn to Islam, we find that some Western writers describe it as in
a condition of progressive decay, while others would have us believe that
its onward march is a menace. It is well to be able to avoid the obvious
purpose which lies behind both contentions. Nevertheless, to the present
writer it appears true to say that there is much stagnation in Islam (In
which religion is there not?), and that its spirit is often lost and
its real teachings neglected owing to the general use of Arabic in the
recitation of the Quran by persons entirely ignorant of that language,
and also to the prevalent mechanical conception of the character of the
Quran as a form of divine revelation. We believe that the Comparative
Study of Religions will help to turn the attention of Muslims away
from these to the emphasising of the essential spirit of Islam. This
should be central and normative in the rising movements of reform and
rejuvenescence. In this connection, as bringing out this spirit, it is
especially appropriate, both for the students of the religions and for
those directly interested in the spiritual revival in Islam, to publish
in an easily accessible form some of the religious and moral teachings of
Ghazzali. A Western scholar has written of him that he is “the greatest,
certainly the most sympathetic figure in the history of Islam ... the
only teacher of the after generations ever put by Muslims on a level
with the four great Imams.”[1] And he goes on to remark further; “In the
renaissance of Islam which is now rising to view, his time will come and
the new life will proceed from a renewed study of his works.”[2] But
Dieterici says of him: “As a despairing sceptic he springs suicidally
into the all-God (_i.e._ all-pervading deity of the Pantheists) to kill
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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