Al-Ghazali, however, never seems to have drawn the conclusion from the life of Christ which a careful study of the Gospel would have made possible. Namely, that a true renunciation of the world is only possible in the _service of others_ and not by withdrawing from men. Mohammedan mysticism has always resulted in two evils, as Major Durie Osborn points out: “It has dug a deep gulf between those who can know God and those who must wander in darkness, feeding upon the husks of rites and ceremonies. It has affirmed with emphasis, that only by a complete renunciation of the world is it possible to attain the true end of man’s existence. Thus all the best and truest natures—the men who might have put a soul in the decaying Church of Islam—have been cut off from their proper task to wander about in deserts and solitary places, or expend their lives in idle and profitless passivity disguised under the title of ‘spiritual contemplation.’ (_zikr_) But this has only been part of the evil. The logical result of Pantheism is the destruction of the moral law. If God be all in all, and man’s apparent individuality a delusion of the perceptive faculty, there exists no will which can act, no conscience which can reprove and applaud.... Thousands of reckless and profligate spirits have entered the orders of the dervishes to enjoy the license thereby obtained. Their affectation of piety is simply a cloak for the practice of sensuality; their emancipation from the ritual of Islam involves a liberation also from its moral restraints. And _thus a movement, animated at its outset by a high and lofty purpose, has degenerated into a fruitful source of ill. The stream which ought to have expanded into a fertilizing river, has become a vast swamp, exhaling vapours charged with disease and death._” Regarding the _teaching_ of Jesus we find the following passages in the _Ihya_. I have indicated the parallel passages in the New Testament where possible. Some of them are taken from the Gospel according to Matthew, especially from the Sermon on the Mount. These are given first and then the apocryphal sayings, for it is difficult to follow any logical order. “Said Jesus: ‘If a man come to you when he is fasting let him anoint his head and wipe his lips that men may not say he is fasting; and if he gives alms with his right hand let not his left hand know; and if he prays let him put a curtain over his door, for verily God divines his trouble even as He does our daily food.’” (Vol. III, p. 203.)[87] “Said Jesus (upon him be peace), ‘Whosoever shall do and teach shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.’” (Vol. I, p. 6; cf. Matt. 5: 19.) “Said Jesus, ‘Do not hang pearls on the necks of swine; for wisdom is better than pearls.’” (Vol. I, p. 43; cf. Matt. 7: 6.) “Said Jesus, ‘How long will ye describe the right road to those who are going astray and ye yourselves remain with those who are perplexed?’” (Vol. I, p. 44; cf. Matt. 23: 13.)