life. Not only were there the hardships of travel and its loneliness, but
the asceticism of the beggar and the wayfarer. “And to such a pass did we
come,” says Hariri, “through assailing fortune and prostrating need,—that
we were shod with soreness, and fed on choking, and filled our bellies
with ache, and wrapped our entrails upon hunger, and anointed our eyes
with watching, and made pits our home, and deemed thorns a smooth bed,
and came to forget our saddles, and thought destroying death to be sweet
and the ordained day to be tardy.”
We may believe that so keen an observer as Al-Ghazali carried his
“_Baedeker_” with him on his travels. He was doubtless acquainted with
the chief geographical works of that period, some of which contained maps
and even illustrations. The most important work was that by Abu ʾAbdallah
al-Maqdisi, who spent a great part of his life travelling all over the
Moslem empire, with the possible exception of India and Spain. His book
was entitled: “The Best Classification for the Knowledge of Climates.” It
was written in A. D. 985. Another work of a contemporary of Al-Ghazali,
Abu ʾUbaid al-Bakri of Cordova, was a general geography of all the roads
and provinces of the Moslem world.
Although we have no details of Al-Ghazali’s wanderings we can at least
follow him on his journeys and learn something of the places he visited
and their condition in his day. The course of his travels seems to have
been from Bagdad to Damascus, a journey of nearly five hundred miles,
from Damascus to Jerusalem and Hebron, thence on to the birthplace of the
Prophet at Mecca and his tomb at Medina and back over a thousand miles
more of caravan travel.
All through this period of Al-Ghazali’s life Damascus was experiencing
the storm and stress of war. Shortly before his time the city was taken
by the Karmatians and much of it was destroyed by fire. There were
frequent changes of governors, uprisings and riots. In 1068 the great
Mosque was set on fire. In 1076 the Seljuk generals seized the city,
built anew the citadel and other buildings, among them a famous hospital.
This was about fifteen years before Al-Ghazali’s arrival there from
Bagdad.
The great Ummayad Mosque of Damascus was said to be the grandest of all
Mohammedan buildings. There was praying space for 20,000 men; and it is
said to have taken the whole revenue of Syria for forty-seven years, not
counting eighteen shiploads of gold and silver from Cyprus to complete
the building. “When the wondrous work was finished, the Caliph would
not look at the accounts brought to him on eighteen laden mules, but
ordered that they should be burned and thus addressed the crowd: ‘Men of
Damascus, you possess four glories above other people; you are proud of
your water, your air, your fruits, your baths; your mosque shall be your
fifth glory.’”
Like other famous places of Moslem worship, this mosque was once the
site of a Christian church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, to whom
there is still an imposing shrine. For some years the building was shared
between Christians and Mohammedans, but in A. D. 708 the Christians were
driven out. To this day one of the three minarets is called by the name
of _ʾIsa_ (Jesus), and above a gate, long since closed, is the Greek
inscription, “THY KINGDOM, O CHRIST, IS AN EVERLASTING KINGDOM, AND THY
DOMINION ENDURETH THROUGHOUT ALL GENERATIONS.”
Al-Ghazali spent many hours for many years under the shadow of this
great building, and it was in the minaret of Jesus that he had long
meditations. The minaret of Jesus, according to H. Saladin,[37] was built
in the eleventh century, shortly before the time of Al-Ghazali’s visit.
Did he ever find or understand the inscription on the gate and meditate
on that Prophet whose kingdom has no end and no frontier?
IV
Wanderings, Later Years, and Death
“Then came the immediate breaking up of the Seljukian Empire
into a number of independent principalities. Syria, Palestine,
and all Asia Minor, were partitioned among a dozen different
Turkish Emirs. Khorasan and Irak became the scene of a fierce
civil war, extending over several years, between two sons of
Malek Shah, Barkiaroc and Muhammed. Drought was added to the
horrors of war; the people perished by thousands of famine; the
incessant marching and counter-marching of the hostile armies
destroyed the remnant of food which had survived the want of
rain. To crown all, from the borders of Christendom a fresh
scourge was beheld preparing for Islam. The hosts of the Red
Cross passed the Bosphorus, and fought their way knee-deep in
blood to the walls of Jerusalem. The capture of the Holy City
struck like the point of a poisoned dagger to the heart of
every true Moslem.”
—_“Islam under the Khalifs of Baghdad,”
by Robert Durie Osborn._
IV
WANDERINGS, LATER YEARS, AND DEATH
The chronology of Al-Ghazali’s life was a puzzle even to those who wrote
only a century after his death. There seems great uncertainty not only as
to the time of his various journeyings but as to their order, and there
is dispute even regarding the places he visited. We know that the date
of his conversion was A. H. 488 (A. D. 1095), when he was thirty-eight
years old, and that shortly after this he went into exile. In A. H.
498 (A. D. 1104) he is said to have returned to active life, and to
have spent two years in retirement in Syria. The other dates are quite
uncertain. Following the best authorities at our disposal, especially his
own “Confessions,” we continue the story where we left off in the last
chapter.[38]
“From Damascus,” says Al-Ghazali, “I proceeded to Jerusalem, and every
day secluded myself in the Sanctuary of the Rock. After that I felt
a desire to accomplish the Pilgrimage, and to receive a full effusion
of grace by visiting Mecca, Medina, and the Tomb of the Prophet. After
visiting the shrine of the Friend of God (Abraham), I went to the Hejaz.
Finally, the longings of my heart and the prayers of my children brought
me back to my country, although I was so firmly resolved at first never
to revisit it. At any rate, I meant, if I did return, to live there
solitary and in religious meditation; but events, family care, and
vicissitudes of life changed my resolutions and troubled my meditative
calm. However irregular the intervals which I could give to devotional
ecstasy, my confidence in it did not diminish; and the more I was
diverted by hindrances, the more steadfastly I returned to it. Ten years
passed in this manner.”
According to this account his pilgrimage to Jerusalem and Hebron, to
Medina and Mecca, was part of one itinerary; it also is the natural
route of travel from Bagdad to the birthplace of Islam. The statement
made by some authorities that he first remained ten years at Damascus is
therefore probably inaccurate. If we are to believe al-Isnawi, the course
of events was as follows: He set out in the year A. D. 1095 for the
Hejaz. On his return from the pilgrimage, he journeyed to Damascus, and
made his abode there for some years in the minaret of the Grand Mosque,
composing several works of which the _Ihya_ is said to be one. Then
after visiting Jerusalem and perhaps Cairo and Alexandria, he returned to
his home at Tus.
According to one Arabic authority, when Al-Ghazali left Damascus in
his wanderings, he was accompanied by a disciple, a certain Abu Tahir
Ibrahim, who had been a pupil also at Nishapur under the great Imam; he
returned afterwards to Jurjan, his native place, and died a martyr in
A. H. 513. Other pupils of his at Damascus are also mentioned, but the
authorities do not agree.
Among many shrines at Jerusalem, Al-Ghazali visited the Mosque of Omar,
and the Dome of the Rock. In Sura xvii. 1, Mohammed is represented as
having taken his flight from Mecca to Jerusalem.—“Celebrated be the
praises of Him who by night took his servant from the _Masjidu ’l-Haram_
(the Sacred Mosque) to the _Masjidu ’l-Aqsa_ (the Remote Mosque), the
precinct of which we have blessed.”
As-Suyuti says Jerusalem is specially honoured by Moslems as being the
scene of the repentance of David and Solomon. “The place where God sent
His angel to Solomon, announced glad tidings to Zacharias and John,
showed David a plan of the Temple, and put all the beasts of the earth
and fowls of the air in subjection to him. It was at Jerusalem that
the prophets sacrificed; that Jesus was born and spoke in His cradle;
and it was from Jerusalem that Jesus ascended to heaven; and it will
be there that He will again descend. Gog and Magog shall subdue every
place on the earth but Jerusalem, and it will be there that God Almighty
will destroy them. It is in the holy land of Jerusalem that Adam and
Abraham, and Isaac and Mary are buried. And in the last days there will
be a general flight to Jerusalem, when the Ark and the Shechinah will be
again restored to the Temple. There will all mankind be gathered at the
Resurrection for judgment, and God will enter, surrounded by His angels,
into the Holy Temple, when He comes to judge the earth.”
Here Al-Ghazali would see the sacred footprint of Mohammed made in the
rock on his journey to heaven; the praying places of Abraham and Elijah
would be pointed out to him; the round hole where the rock let Mohammed
through when he ascended to heaven; the holy place in the roof of the
cavern where it arose to allow him to stand erect and to pray; the tongue
with which it spoke; and the marks of the Angel Gabriel’s finger where
it had to be held down from following him in his ascension! The place is
also pointed out by Moslems to-day where Solomon tormented the demons,
and also near the eastern wall where the throne stood whereon he sat when
dead, the corpse leaning on his staff to cheat the demons until the worms
had gnawed it through and the body fell forward. All this is found in
Moslem Tradition, and must have stirred the credulity or the scepticism
of Al-Ghazali. He himself tells us in one of his books that on the last
day Israfil, who, with Gabriel and Michael, has been restored to life,
“standing on the rock of the temple of Jerusalem, will at the command
of God call together the souls from all parts, those of believers from
Paradise and the unbelievers from hell, and throw them into his trumpet.
There they will be ranged in little holes, like bees in a hive, and will,
on his giving the last sound, be thrust out and fly like bees, filling
the whole space between earth and heaven. Then they will repair to their
respective bodies. The earth will then be an immense plain without hills
or villages, and the dead, after they have risen, will sit down each one
on his tomb, anxiously waiting for what is to come.”[39]
A modern traveller describes other Moslem superstitions connected
with this Mosque. “The little arcades at the top of the steps of the
platform are called ‘Balances,’ because the scales of judgment are to be
suspended there on the Great Day. The Dome of the Chain owes its name
to the circumstance that there a golden chain hung at David’s place of
judgment, which had to be grasped by witnesses and dropped a link when a
lie was told. A place in the outer wall is shown from which a wire will
be suspended on the Day of Judgment, whose other end will be made fast
to the Mount of Olives. Christ will sit on the wall and Mohammed on the
mount. Over this wire must all men find their way, but only the good will
cross, the wicked falling into the valley beneath. In the Al-Aqsa Mosque
a couple of pillars stand very near each other, so worn that they are
perceptibly thinned. The space between them bulges, and a piece of spiked
iron work is now inserted between them. These are another test for the
final award—he who could squeeze himself between them, and he alone, had
found the true ‘narrow way to heaven.’”
We have descriptions of Jerusalem by a Moslem who wrote at the end of the
tenth, and by another of the middle of the eleventh century. The latter
estimated the population at twenty thousand, and fancied that as many
more Moslem pilgrims came to the city in the month of their pilgrimage;
Christians and Jews then visited the city as they do to-day. Both these
writers praise the place for its cleanliness, which they attribute to its
geographical position and natural drainage. Yet the history of Jerusalem
throughout this century is little more than the record of damage and
repair to Christian and Moslem sanctuaries. In A. D. 1010 the Church
of the Holy Sepulchre was destroyed by the mad Sultan Hakim. This was
followed by other humiliations of the pilgrims and persecutions, until
Peter the Hermit arose in protest and the Crusades began.
We have no information as to how Al-Ghazali spent his days during
this visit at Jerusalem. It was a time of war and tumult throughout
Syria, on the eve of the Crusades. One can imagine with what interest
Al-Ghazali studied the whole situation and how this ardent champion
of the Moslem faith was stirred by the coming events whose shadows
were already resting on the Holy Land at the time of his visit there.
We do know that he lived the life of a mystic, and devoted himself to
prayer and fasting. Prayer occupies a large place in the life of every
conscientious Moslem. Not only are there the five ritual prayers, but the
night prayer which, according to Al-Ghazali himself, must be performed
between midnight and the beginning of dawn. It has been calculated that a
Moslem conscientiously performing his devotions recites the same form of
prayer at least seventy-five times a day. In addition to these prayers,
however, there are prayers called _witr_ to be performed after the night
prayer; _dhuha_, the prayer used in the forenoon; and the prayer of night
vigils, which take place between the last evening prayer and midnight. In
addition to observing all the above mentioned prayers, those who would
reach a high degree of perfection are recommended by Al-Ghazali, in
accordance with his own practices at this period, to engage in certain
additional devotional exercises called _wird_. We may best note the
character of this mystical devotion, in which he spent whole days and
nights, by quoting in substance from the _Ihya_ as follows:
“From many verses of the Koran it appears that the only way of becoming
united with God is constant intercourse with Him. This is the object of
the devotional services called _wird_ in which the believer can engage
at all times of the day as well as the night. The _wirds_ to be observed
during the day are seven: First _wird_. The Moslem on rising early
mentions the name of God, and praises Him, reciting certain petitions;
while dressing, he recites the appointed petitions, cleans his teeth
with the _miswak_, performs the _Wudhu_, then prays two Sunna _rakaʾs_
of dawn.[40] After this he repeats a petition and goes to the mosque
with collected thoughts. He enters the mosque solemnly and respectfully
with the right foot first, saying the appointed petitions on entering
and leaving. He enters the first rank of worshippers if there be room,
and prays the two _rakaʾs_ of dawn, if he has not done so already at
home; then two _rakaʾs_ of ‘Saluting the Mosque,’ and sits down repeating
petitions and praises, awaiting the assembling of the congregation.
After having repeated the obligatory prayer of dawn, he remains sitting
in the mosque till sunrise, meditating and repeating certain petitions,
and praises a certain number of times, counting them by the rosary,
and reciting portions of the Koran. [We know that the rosary was in
general use from a reference to it in the “Assemblies” of al-Hariri, and
in Al-Ghazali’s “Alchemy of Happiness.”] The second _wird_ is between
sunrise and an advanced forenoon hour; the worshipper says a prayer of
two _rakaʾs_, and when the sun has risen the length of a lance above
the horizon two more _rakaʾs_. This is the time when the believer may
perform good works, such as visiting the sick, etc. When nothing of the
kind requires his attention, he spends his time in repeating petitions,
in _zikr_, meditation and reading the Koran. The third _wird_ is between
morning and the ascending of the sun; the believer, after taking care
of his worldly affairs, engages in the devotional exercises as before
mentioned. Between the time when the sun has become somewhat high and the
noon prayer, four _rakaʾs_ between the _Azan_ and the _Ikama_ are said
and portions of the Koran are recited; this is the fourth _wird_. The
fifth, sixth and seventh occur after this until vespers. Finally there
are the _wirds_ of the night which are five, divided and described as
follows:—First night _wird_: after sunset, when the prayer of sunset has
been performed, to the time when darkness has set in, the worshipper says
two _rakaʾs_, in which certain portions of the Koran are recited, then
four long _rakaʾs_, and as much of the Koran as time allows. This _wird_
may be performed at home; but it is preferable to do so in the mosque.
Second night _wird_: this is from the darkness of the last _ʿIsha_ to
the time when people retire to sleep. This consists of three things: (1)
the obligatory _ʿIsha_ prayer; ten _rakaʾs_, viz., four before it and
six after it; (2) performing a prayer of thirteen _rakaʾs_, the last of
which is the _witr_ prayer. In this about three hundred verses of the
Koran are to be recited. (3) The _witr_ prayer before going to sleep,
unless one is accustomed to rise in the night, when it may be performed
later on, which is more meritorious. Third night _wird_: this consists of
sleep, and sleep may well be considered a devotional act, if enjoyed in
the proper way. Fourth night _wird_: this is from the time when the first
half of the night is spent to when only one-sixth of it still remains. At
this time the believer ought to rise from sleep and perform the prayer of
_tahajjud_. This prayer is also called the _hujud_. Mohammed mostly made
it a prayer of thirteen _rakaʾs_. Fifth night _wird_: this begins with
the last sixth of the night, called the _Sahar_, the early morning before
dawn to the appearing of dawn.” To these devotional exercises, described
in the _Ihya_, it was considered meritorious to add four additional good
actions: fasting, almsgiving, visiting the sick, attending funerals;
and finally all this punctilious remembrance of God through prayer was
supplemented by what is called _dhikr_—the special method of worship used
by the Sufi saints.
Al-Ghazali describes the method and effects of this practice in a
passage which Macdonald has summarized as follows: “Let the worshipper
reduce his heart to a state in which the existence of anything and its
non-existence are the same to him. Then let him sit alone in some corner,
limiting his religious duties to what is absolutely necessary, and not
occupying himself either with reciting the Koran or considering its
meaning or with books of religious traditions or with anything of the
sort. And let him see to it that nothing save God most High enters his
mind. Then, as he sits in solitude, let him not cease saying continuously
with his tongue, ‘Allah, Allah,’ keeping his thought on it. At last he
will reach a state when the motion of his tongue will cease, and it will
seem as though the word flowed from it. Let him persevere in this until
all trace of motion is removed from his tongue, and he finds his heart
persevering in the thought. Let him still persevere until the form of the
word, its letters and shape, is removed from his heart, and there remains
the idea alone, as though clinging to his heart, inseparable from it. So
far, all is dependent on his will and choice; but to bring the mercy of
God does not stand in his will or choice. He has now laid himself bare
to the breathings of that mercy, and nothing remains but to wait what
God will open to him, as God has done after this manner to prophets and
saints. If he follows the above course, he may be sure that the light of
the Real will shine out in his heart. At first unstable, like a flash of
lightning, it turns and returns; though sometimes it hangs back. And if
it returns, sometimes it abides and sometimes it is momentary. And if it
abides, sometimes its abiding is long, and sometimes short.”
Such is the teaching of Al-Ghazali in regard to the true life of devotion
and such we may believe was his own practice at Damascus and Jerusalem
during the years that followed his life of exile—the endless repetition
of God’s great names and “prayer without ceasing” in the Moslem sense.
One wonders what part of the day remained for the literary work and
teaching in which we know he was also engaged.[41]
An interesting story is told of his life at Jerusalem in these words:
“There came together the Imams Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali and Ismail Al-Kakimi
and Ibrahim Ash-Shibaki and Abu-l-Hasan Al-Basri, and a large number of
foreign elders, in the Cradle of ʾIsa (upon him be peace!) in Jerusalem,
and he (Al-Ghazali, apparently) recited these two lines:
“‘May I be thy ransom! were it not for love thou wouldst have
ransomed me, but by the magic of two eye-pupils thou hast
taken me captive.
I came to thee when my breast was straitened through love, and
if thou hadst known how was my longing, thou wouldst have
come to me.’
Then Abu-l-Hasan Al-Basri constrained himself to an ecstasy which
affected those that were present, and eyes wept and garments were rent
and Mohammed Al-Kazaruni died in the midst of the assembly in ecstasy.”
In Jerusalem he is said to have written his _Risalat Al-Qudsiya_; and the
date of his visit there must have been shortly before A. H. 492, for in
that year Jerusalem was captured by the Crusaders.[42]
It was natural for one of Al-Ghazali’s temperament to desire to pay
homage also at the tomb of Abraham, whom Moslems delight to call the
“Friend of God.” The religion of Islam is continually called the religion
of Abraham in the Koran. Tradition locates the so-called Machpelah
Cave in the eastern part of the present-day Hebron, on the edge of the
valley, and the mosque which now stands there is supposed to enclose the
grave. Hebron is about seventeen miles southwest of Jerusalem. Before
the twelfth century the Cave of Machpelah began to attract visitors
and pilgrims. “Benjamin of Tudela relates: ‘At Hebron there is a large
place of worship called “St. Abraham,” which was previously a Jewish
synagogue. The natives erected there six sepulchres, which they tell
foreigners are those of the Patriarchs and their wives, demanding money
as a condition of seeing them. If a Jew gives an additional fee to
the keeper of the cave, an iron door which dates from the time of our
forefathers opens, and the visitor descends with a lighted candle. He
crosses two empty caves, and in the third sees six tombs, on which the
names of the three Patriarchs and their wives are inscribed in Hebrew
characters. The cave is filled with barrels containing bones of people,
which are taken there as to a sacred place. At the end of the field of
the Machpelah stands Abraham’s house with a spring in front of it.’”[43]
The mosque of Hebron, over the tomb of Abraham, consists at present of a
quadrangular platform about seventy yards long by thirty-five wide. The
tomb which it covers is one of the sites which few Christian eyes have
seen. It is permitted to none but Moslems to approach nearer the entrance
than the seventh step of the staircase along the eastern wall.[44]
[Illustration: The dome of the rock, Jerusalem, as seen from the Lutheran
Church.]
Hebron is one of the oldest cities in the world and legends of all sorts
have gathered about the place. Even in Al-Ghazali’s day it was spoken of
as the place of Adam’s creation and death, the scene of Abel’s murder,
and the place where Abraham made his home.
After Al-Ghazali’s visit to Hebron he probably made his pilgrimage
to Mecca. Whether the journey was made by sea or by land, we do not
know. In any case it was full of peril at that period. Very possibly
Al-Ghazali took the long caravan journey, following the route of the
Damascus pilgrimage in our day. It was considered proper, however, to
visit Mecca first, and Medina on the return journey. Al-Ghazali himself
advises this in his directions for the correct performance of the rites
of pilgrimage.[45]