Some religious and moral teachings of Al-Ghazzali : $b Being brief extracts from his Ihya-u-Ulum-id-din — John Shaqi
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
The wondering devotee
stood speechless for awhile, then turning to knowledge, began: “I am in
a difficulty. The dangers of the path which you have described unnerve
my heart, and I know not whether I have sufficient strength to face
them and to succeed in the end”. “There is a test for your strength”,
replied knowledge, “Open your eyes and fix your gaze on me. If you see
the pen which writes on the heart, you will in my opinion, be able to
proceed further on. For he who crosses the phenomenal world, knocks at
the door of the celestial world, then sights the pen which writes on
hearts”. The devotee did as he was advised, but failed to see that pen,
because his notion of pen was no other but of a pen of reed or wood.
Then knowledge drew his attention, saying: “There’s the rub. Do you not
know that the furniture of a palace indicates the status of its lord?
Nothing in the universe resembles God,[31] therefore his attributes are
also transcendental. He is neither body nor is in space. His hand is not
a bundle of flesh, bone, and blood. His pen is not of reed or wood. His
writing is not from ink prepared from vitriol and gall. But there are
many who ignorantly cling to an anthropomorphic view of Him, there are
few who cherish a transcendentally pure conception of Him, and believe
that He is not only above all material limitation but even above the
limitation of metaphor. You seem to be oscillating between these two
views, because on the one hand you think that God is immaterial, that His
words have neither sound nor shape; on the other hand you cannot rise to
the transcendental conception of His hand, pen and tablet. Do you think
that the meaning of the tradition “Verily God created Adam in His own
image”[32] is limited to the visible face of man? Certainly not: it is
the inward nature of man seen by the inward sight which can be called
the image of God. But listen: You are now at the sacred mount, where
the invisible voice from the burning bush speaks: “I am that I am;”[33]
“Verily I am thy Lord God, put off thy shoes”.[34] The devotee, who
listening with rapture, suddenly saw as it were a flash of lightning,
there appeared working the pen which writes on hearts-formless. “A
thousand blessings on thee, O knowledge, who hast saved me from falling
into the abysm of anthropomorphism (Tashbih). I thank thee from the
bottom of my heart. I tarried long, but now, adieu”.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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