“That each, who seems a separate whole, Should move his rounds and fusing all The skirts of self again, should fall Remerging in the general soul, Is faith as vague as all unsweet.” (_In Memoriam_ XLVII.) Ghazzali’s vivid description is neither vague nor unsweet. To him _Fana_ is “a prayer of rapture”. “In that state man is effaced from self, so that he is conscious neither of his body nor of outward things, nor of inward feelings. He is rapt from all these, journeying first to his Lord and then in his Lord, and if the thought that he is effaced from self occurs to him, that is a defect. The highest state is to be effaced from effacement”. E. Whinfield: _Masnavi_, Introduction p. xxxvii. [73] _Ihya_ IV. 5. [74] Usually _Fana_ is translated as “annihilation,” but Al Ghazzali here means what is implied in the statement: “To live, move, and have our being in Him”. [75] “And thou shalt one day, if found worthy, so defined See thy God face to face, as thou dost now.” Byron _Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage_. CLV. [76] _Quran_ XXIX. 65-66. [77] _Quran_ XVIII. 109. Compare Jalal-ud-Din Rumi:— Air, earth, water, and fire are God’s servants. To us they seem lifeless, but to God living. In God’s presence fire ever waits to do its service, Like a submissive lover with no will of its own. When you strike steel on flint fire leaps forth; But ’tis by God’s command it thus steps forth. Strike not together the flint and steel of wrong, For the pair will generate more, like man and woman. The flint and steel are themselves causes, yet Look higher for the First Cause, O righteous man! For that Cause precedes this second cause. How can a cause exist of itself without precedent cause? That Cause makes this cause operative, And again helpless and inoperative. That Cause, which is a guiding light to the prophets, That, I say, is higher than these second causes, Man’s minds recognise these second causes, But only prophets perceive the action of the First Cause. E. Whinfield: _Masnavi_, 2nd ed. 1898. p. 16. [78] _Ihya_ IV. 6. [79] _Quran_ V. 54. [80] _Quran_ II. 165. [81] Bukhari and Muslim. [82] _Quran_ IX. 24. [83] Tirmizi. [84] Abu Naim. [85] Tirmizi. [86] _Quran_ II. 222. Repentance is the first step towards God. Comp. _St. Matthew_ III. 2. [87] _Quran_ III. 30. Keeping God’s commandments revealed through his holy prophets constitutes love of Him. Comp. _St. John._ XV. 10 “If ye keep my commandments ye shall abide in my love; even as I keep my Father’s commandments and abide in his love”. [88] A Sufi of great renown: died at Baghdad in 840 A.D. [89] _Quran_ II. 94-95. [90] Hadisi Qudsi is that kind of tradition in which God is himself reported to speak. [91] Comp: