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
In this book also we are reminded of the statement that only “the pure in
heart” can see God, and it seems scarcely possible that what Al-Ghazali
here teaches is not based on a knowledge of the Gospel. He says: “He in
whose heart the love of God has prevailed over all else will derive more
joy from this vision than he in whose heart it has not so prevailed;
just as in the case of two men with equally powerful eyesight gazing
on a beautiful face, he who already loves the possessor of that face
will rejoice in beholding it more than he who does not. For perfect
happiness, mere knowledge is not enough unaccompanied by love, and the
love of God cannot take possession of a man’s heart till it is purified
from the love of the world, which purification can only be effected by
abstinence and austerity.” How close is this teaching to the words of
Christ, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God”! It is
the _vision of God_ which Al-Ghazali sought through all his religious
experiences as the highest good in this world and in the next. Yet with
all his efforts to explain the nature of the soul and of God, he still
finds himself before a blank wall. He covets the vision of God but cannot
shake himself free from the Moslem conception that God is unknowable and
that nothing in creation resembles the Creator. As Muhammed Iqbal says:
“To this day it is difficult to define with accuracy Al-Ghazali’s view
of the nature of God. In him, like Borger and Solger in Germany, Sufi
pantheism and the _Ashʾarite_ dogma of personality appear to harmonize
together, a reconciliation which makes it difficult to say whether he
was a Pantheist, or a Personal Pantheist of the type of Lotze. The soul,
according to Al-Ghazali, perceives things. But perception as an attribute
can exist only in a substance or essence which is absolutely free from
all the attributes of body. In his _Al-Madnun_, he explains why the
prophet declined to reveal the nature of the soul. There are, he says,
two kinds of men: ordinary men and thinkers. The former who look upon
materiality as a condition of existence, cannot conceive an immaterial
substance. The latter are led, by their logic, to a conception of the
soul which sweeps away all difference between God and the individual
soul. Al-Ghazali, therefore, realized the Pantheist drift of his own
inquiry and preferred silence as to the ultimate nature of the soul.”[89]
We have seen what Al-Ghazali teaches regarding the life and character of
Jesus and also of God’s relation to us through the love of those who seek
Him with all their hearts. Are these only Moslems, or is there a wider
love of God? Are _all_ souls in His keeping?