A Moslem seeker after God : $b showing Islam at its best in the life and teaching of al-Ghazali, mystic and theologian of the eleventh century — Al-Ghazali — John Shaqi
A Moslem seeker after God : $b showing Islam at its best in the life and teaching of al-Ghazali, mystic and theologian of the eleventh century
Al-Ghazali · en
“Said Jesus (on him be peace), ‘My food is hunger; all my thoughts are
fear of God; my dress is wool; my warming-place in winter is the rays of
the sun; my candle is the moon; my steed is my legs; my food is fruit
that springs from the ground; I go to bed and have nothing and arise
without anything; and yet there is no one richer than I am.’” (Vol. IV,
p. 146.)
“Said Jesus (upon him be peace), ‘The world is a bridge; therefore cross
over it and do not build on it.’” (Vol. III, p. 149.)
“Said Jesus (on him be peace), ‘Whosoever seeks the world is like him who
drinks water from the salt sea. The more he drinks the more he thirsts.’”
(Vol. III, p. 149.) This occurs for the second time, but Al-Ghazali loves
to repeat his own sayings as well, often in the same book.
“It is related in the gospels that whosoever shall ask for forgiveness of
him who praises him, has driven away the devil.” (Vol. III, p. 127.)
The following quotations or references to the Gospel occur in some of his
shorter works. In the “Alchemy of Happiness,” there is this reference
to the Gospel: “Whosoever sows reaps, whosoever sets out arrives, and
whosoever seeks finds.” (Cf. Matt. 7: 7.) We have already quoted the
words from his epistle, “O Child”: “Verily I have seen in the Gospels,
etc.” In the same epistle he refers to the parable of Dives and Lazarus:
“When the people of hell will say to the people of the garden, ‘Give us a
little water from that which God has granted you to cool our tongues.’”
He quotes Jesus as saying: “I was not unable to raise the dead, but I was
unable to cure the folly of fools,” and quotes the Golden Rule in several
places without acknowledging its source as being the Gospel of Jesus.