any one on earth like thee?’ He replied: ‘Yes. For whosoever is girded
with the remembrance of God and is silent because of this and who looks
only for the favour of God, he is like me.’” (Vol. IV, p. 305.)
“Said Jesus, ‘Beware of the evil look, for when it is in the heart it
produces lust and evil desire.’” (Vol. IV, p. 74; cf. Matt. 5: 28.)
“Said Jesus (on him be peace), ‘Whosoever multiplies lies his beauty
departs from him: and whosoever increases care his body becomes ill; and
whosoever has a bad character punishes himself.’” (Vol. III, p. 85.)
“Said Jesus: ‘The greatest sin with God is that his servant should say,
“God Knows,” concerning something which he knows is untrue, or that he
tell lies concerning what he has seen in his dreams.’” (Vol. III, p. 98.)
“Said Jesus (on him be peace) to his disciples: ‘How would you act if
you saw one of your brothers sleeping and the wind had taken off his
garment?’ They said: ‘We would cover him.’ Said Jesus: ‘No, but you would
expose him.’ They said: ‘God forbid! Who would do such a thing!’ He
replied: ‘When one of you hears a word against his brother he exaggerates
it and spreads the report to others!’” (Vol. II, p. 142.)
“It is related that Jesus (upon him be peace) said, ‘O company of
disciples, ye are free of transgression, but we the company of apostles
are free of infidelity.’” (Vol. IV, p. 124.)
“Said Jesus (on him be peace), ‘With difficulty will the rich man enter
paradise.’” (Vol. IV, p. 140; cf. Christ’s saying, Matt. 19: 23.)
“Said Jesus (on him be peace), ‘Truly I do not love a fixed dwelling
place and I dislike the pleasure of the world.’” (Vol. IV, p. 140.)
“Said Jesus (on him be peace), ‘Do not look upon the property of the
people of this world for its glory is as nothing in the light of your
faith.’” (Vol. IV, p. 144.)
“It was said to Jesus: ‘If you will allow us we will build a house and
worship God in it.’ He replied: ‘Go and build a house upon the sea.’ They
said: ‘How can we build upon such a foundation?’ He replied: ‘How can
your worship exist together with your love of the world?’” (Vol. IV, p.
158.)
“It is related that Jesus said: ‘Four things do not come to us except
with difficulty. Silence, which is the first principle of worship,
humility, the abundant remembrance of God and poverty in all things.’”
(Vol. IV, p. 159.)
“Said Jesus (on him be peace), ‘Verily I say unto you, whosoever seeketh
heaven let him eat barley-bread and sleep on the dunghill with the dogs.
This is enough for me.’” (Vol. IV, p. 164.)
“Jesus was accustomed to say, ‘O children of Israel, let the water of the
brook suffice you and the vegetable of the field and the barley loaf;
and beware of the white loaf for it will keep you from worship.’” (Vol.
IV, p. 164.)
“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.
All this and what he says in his “Alchemy of Happiness” about the love of
God leaves no doubt in my mind that he had read the New Testament. It is
a sort of Moslem Version of St. John’s Epistles and St. John’s Gospel.
The great Mystic gives seven signs of love to God. The first is not to be
afraid of death. The second is to prefer the love of God to any worldly
object. The third sign of a man’s love to God is that the remembrance
of God is always fresh in his heart. He never ceases to meditate upon
God. Every man thinks and calls to mind an object in proportion to his
love to it. The fourth is love and respect for the Koran. The fifth,
secret prayer. The sixth, to find the worship of God delightful. And the
seventh sign of love to God is, “That a man loves the sincere friends
and obedient servants of God, and regards them all as his friends. He
regards all the enemies of God as his enemies and abhors them. And God
thus speaks in his eternal word: ‘His companions are terrible towards
the infidels, and tender towards each other.’ A Sheikh was once asked,
‘Who are the friends of the exalted and blessed God?’ He replied: ‘The
friends of God are those who are more compassionate to the friends of God
themselves, than a father or a mother to their children.’”[88] (Compare
Psalm 103.)
There seems a great difference between Al-Ghazali as dogmatic theologian,
always compelled to agree with the Koran, and Al-Ghazali as the Mystic,
when he begins to speculate and lift the veil. We are constantly reminded
of the words of Anselm in his great work on the existence of God: “I do
not attempt, O Lord, to penetrate Thy depths, for I by no means think
my intellect equal to them; but I long to understand in some degree
Thy truth, which my heart believes and loves, _for I do not seek to
understand that I may believe, but I believe that I may understand_.”
Whenever Al-Ghazali speaks of God’s nearness to us and of the soul’s
desire for human fellowship with the creator, he comes very close to the
Christian idea of the Incarnation, and yet always stops short of it.
In his “Alchemy of Happiness,” for example, he mentions as the fourth
cause of love to God the affinity that exists between man and his Maker,
referring to the saying of the Prophet: “Verily God created man in
his own likeness.” Immediately afterwards, however, he goes on to say:
“This is a somewhat dangerous topic to dwell upon, as it is beyond the
understanding of common people, and even intelligent men have stumbled
in treating of it, and come to _believe in incarnation_ and union with
God. Still the affinity which does exist between man and God disposes of
the objection of those theologians mentioned above, who maintain that
man cannot love a Being who is not of his own species. However great a
distance between them, man can love God because of the affinity indicated
in the saying, ‘God created man in His own likeness.’”
Al-Ghazali would doubtless have accepted the statement in the Gospel, “No
man hath seen God at any time,” but he omits “the only Begotten Son who
is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.” In speaking of the
vision of God he says, “All Moslems profess to believe that the Vision of
God is the summit of human felicity because it is so stated in the Law;
but with many this is a mere lip-profession which arouses no emotion in
their hearts. This is quite natural, for how can a man long for a thing
of which he has no knowledge? We will endeavour to show briefly why the
vision of God is the greatest happiness to which a man can attain.
“In the first place, every one of man’s faculties has its appropriate
function which it delights to fulfill. This holds good of them all,
from the lowest bodily appetite to the highest form of intellectual
apprehension. But even a comparatively low form of mental exertion
affords greater pleasure than the satisfaction of bodily appetites. Thus
if a man happens to be absorbed in a game of chess, he will not come to
his meal though repeatedly summoned. And the greater the subject-matter
of our knowledge, the greater is our delight in it; for instance, we
would take more pleasure in knowing the secrets of a king than the
secrets of a vizier. Seeing then that God is the highest possible object
of knowledge, the knowledge of Him must afford more delight than any
other. He who knows God, even in this world, dwells, as it were, in a
paradise, ‘the breadth of which is as the breadth of the heavens and the
earth,’ a paradise the fruits of which no envy can prevent him plucking,
and the extent of which is not narrowed by the multitude of those who
occupy it.” (See 1 John 4: 7-21.)
“But the delight of knowledge still falls short of the delight of vision,
just as our pleasure in thinking of those we love is much less than the
pleasure afforded by the actual sight of them. Our imprisonment in bodies
of clay and water and entanglement in the things of sense constitute a
veil which hides the vision of God from us, although it does not prevent
our attaining to some knowledge of Him. For this reason God said to Moses
on Mount Sinai, ‘Thou shalt not see Me.’”
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?
What were Al-Ghazali’s ideas regarding the salvation of those not in the
fold of Islam? We have two striking passages in this connection which
seem to contradict each other. They were probably written at different
periods of his life. The first passage which is remarkable indeed for
his day and his place in Islam occurs on page 22 of his book _Faisul
Al-Tafriqa Bain al Islam wa ’l Zandiqa_ and reads as follows: “I here
state that most Christians of the Greeks and of the Turks in our day will
be included in the mercy of God. Namely, those who are on the confines of
the empire and to whom the call to embrace Islam has not come. For they
consist of three classes: One class has never heard the name of Mohammed
(upon whom be prayers and peace) and they are excusable. Another class
have heard of his name and title and the miracles which were wrought
by him; they who live as neighbours among Moslems; these are the true
infidels and sceptics. And the other class are between these two; they
have heard of the name of Mohammed (upon him be prayers and peace),
but have not heard of his title and character. On the contrary they
have heard from their youth up that he is a liar and deceiver called
Mohammed, who pretended to have the gift of prophecy: in the same way as
our children have heard of a false prophet in Khorasan called Al-Mukaffa
who pretended to be a prophet. And these last, in my opinion, belong
to the first class as to their hope for the future.” This account is
the more remarkable because in this very chapter he says that God told
Adam, according to Tradition, “that out of a thousand of his descendants
nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine go to hell and one only will be saved.”
On the last page of the _Ihya_, however, Al-Ghazali expresses the
opinion that on the day of judgment not a single Mohammedan, whatever
be his character, will enter the fire! He then quotes a tradition
which says that for every Moslem designed to go to hell God will at
the last day substitute a Jew or a Christian, evidently approving
this substitution-doctrine as satisfactory to God’s mercy towards
all who confess Mohammed and to His decree that hell shall be filled
with its quota of unbelievers. (See Surah 50: 29.) The last page of
the _Ihya_, alas, again shows the Moslem spirit of intolerance which
prevails even to-day. Men do not remember the more liberal judgment in
his other treatise. Al-Ghazali’s attitude towards Christianity and his
quotations from the Gospel narrative did much to leaven Persian thought
and gave Jesus of Nazareth a large place in later mysticism especially
in the foremost mystical poet, the immortal author of the _Masnavi_,
Jallal-ud-Din Ar-Rumi. He draws the great Lesson from the life of Christ
which Al-Ghazali only hints at in his quotations; namely that Jesus is
the Life-giver:
“Thyself reckon dead, and then thou shalt fly
Free, free, from the prison of earth to the sky!
Spring may come, but on granite will grow no green thing:
It was barren in winter, ’tis barren in spring;
And granite man’s heart is, till grace intervene.
And, crushing it, clothe the long barren with green,
When the fresh breath of Jesus shall touch the heart’s core,
It will live, it will breathe, it will blossom once more.”
The City of Mashad, close to the ruins of Tus, where Al-Ghazali was born
and where he died, has been truly described as the Mecca of the Persian
world. Its streets are crowded with a hundred thousand pilgrims every
year. The American Presbyterian Church has an important work there, and
the Bible Societies report thousands of copies of the Bible sold there.
“We have inundated the City of Mashad with the Word of God,” wrote the
late Mr. Esselstyn; “in the bazaars I have repeatedly been warned some
one will kill me if we do not stop selling the Scriptures and preaching.
But ‘Lo, I am with you always’ keeps ringing in my ears and we continue.
The Scriptures that have been sold in and around Mashad are sown seed and
in due time we shall reap if we faint not.”
To-day the black-browed Afghan, the Uzbek Tartar, the dervish,
travel-stained and footsore, nay the poorest lad of Khorasan can buy the
whole story of what Jesus did and taught. No Moslem is now dependent on
Al-Ghazali’s few quotations from the Gospel. A new day has dawned for
Persia and the Near East. Everywhere the New Testament is better known
than any of the ninety-nine works of Al-Ghazali, and we may also say,
without exaggeration, that the New Testament finds a larger circle of
readers. The mystics in Islam are near the Kingdom of God and for them
Al-Ghazali may be used as a schoolmaster to lead men to Christ. Did not
the author of the _Gulshan-i-Raz_ (the Garden of Mysteries) write: “Dost
thou know what Christianity is? I shall tell it thee. It digs up thine
own Ego, and carries thee to God. Thy soul is a monastery wherein dwells
oneness, thou art Jerusalem, where the Eternal is enthroned; the Holy
Spirit works this miracle, for know that God’s being rests in the Holy
Spirit as in His Own Spirit.” And such seekers after God to-day will
find those who will lead them to CHRIST. For, as Dr. J. Rendel Harris
expressed it: “All of us who love Christ are beginning to realize that we
live in the same street and are on the same telephone, some of us that we
are lodged next door to one another and can knock on the partitions, a
few that we are all under the same roof and all within arm’s length and
heart reach.”
Appendix
A. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abu Nasir Abd ul Wahab Taqi id Din as Subqi.—Tabaqat-ash-Shafaʾiya al
Kubra. Vol. IV, pp. 101-102.
Barbier de Meynard, M. C.—Traduction nouvelle du traite de Ghazzali
intitule le Préservatif de l’erreur et notices sur les extases (des
Soufis). (Journal Asiatique, Paris, 1877.)
Brockelmann, Carl—Geschichte der Arabischen Litteratur, Weimar, 1898, 2
vols.
Chenery, Thomas—The Assemblies of Al-Hariri, London, 1878, Trans.
Clark, Edson L.—The Arabs and the Turks, Boston, 1875.
DeBoer, T. J.—The History of Philosophy in Islam, London, 1903.
Dozy, (Trans. by Francis Griffin Stokes)—Spanish Islam, London, 1913.
De Vaun, Cara—Gazali (Les Grand Philos.—Felix Alcan), Paris, 1912.
Encyclopædia Britannica.
Field, Claud—The Alchemy of Happiness, by Ghazali (from Hindustani).
— The Confessions of Al-Ghazali, London, 1909, Trans.
— Mystics and Saints of Islam, London, 1910.
— Persian Literature, London (undated).
Fortescue, Adrian—The Lesser Eastern Churches, London, 1913.
Gairdner, W. H. T.—Al-Ghazali’s Mishkat-ul-Anwar and the Ghazali
Problem, Der Islam, Bd. V, Heft 2/3.
Gardner, W. R. W.—Al-Ghazali. In Islam Series, Christian Literature
Society for India, 1919.
Gautier, Lucien—Ad-Dourra al-fakhira: La perle precieuse de Ghazali.
Traite d’eschatologie musulmane, publie ... avec une traduction
francaise. Geneve, 1878.
Gosche, von R.—Über Ghazzali, Leben und Werke, Berlin, 1859.
Huart, Clement—A History of Arabic Literature, London, 1903.
Hurgronje, Dr. C. Snouck—Mekka, Haag, 1886.
Ibn Khallikan.
Jackson, A. V. Williams—“From Constantinople to the Home of Omar
Khayyam”: New York, Macmillan Company, 1911.
Jayakar, Lt. Col. A. S. G.—Ad-Damiri’s Hayat Al-Hayawan (under
_Al-Hammam_), Vol. I, London, 1906, Trans.
Jewish Encyclopædia, The.
Journal of The American Oriental Society, Vol. XX, pp. 71-132. New Haven,
Conn., 1898.
Lane-Poole, Stanley—Mediæval India under Mohammedan Rule, in the Story of
the National Series, London, 1903.
Mohammed Iqbal—The Development of Metaphysics in Persia, London, 1908.
Miguel Asin et Palacios—Al Gazel: Domatica, moral, Ascetica. (Zargoza.
Spain, 1901.)
— _Logia et Agrapha Domini Jesu_ apud Moslemicos Scriptores, etc.
(Latin and Arabic) Firmin-Didot and Co., Paris, 1917.
Le Strange, G.—Baghdad during the Abbasid Caliphate, Oxford, 1900.
Macdonald, D. B.—Aspects of Islam, New York, 1911.
— Emotional religion in Islam as affected by music and singing.
Being a translation of a book of the Ihya ʿUlum ad-Din of Al-Ghazzali
with analysis, annotation and appendices. (Royal Asiatic Society.
Journal. 1901.)
— Encyclopædia of Islam, Leyden—art., “Ghazali.”
— The Life of Al-Ghazali with special reference to his religious
experiences and opinions (Journal American Oriental Society).
— Muslim Theology, Jurisprudence and Constitutional Theory. 1903.
— The Religious Attitude and Life in Islam, Chicago, 1909.
Murtadha—Introduction to the Celebrated Commentary of the _Ihya_ entitled
_Ithaf ul Saʾada_. Cairo Edition.
Nicholson, Reynold A.—Kashf Al-Mahjub, the oldest Persian Treatise on
Sufism by Al-Hujwiri, London, 1911.
— Literary History of the Arabs, New York, 1907.
Nöldeke, Theodore—Sketches from Eastern History, London, 1892.
Osborn, Robert Durie—Islam Under the Khalifs of Baghdad, London, 1878.
Saladin, H.—Manuel d’art Musulman, Paris, 1907, Vol. I.
Tyrwitt, W. S. S.—Cairo, Jerusalem and Damascus, London, 1907.
B. TRANSLATIONS OF AL-GHAZALI’S WORKS
_Hebrew._
Makasid al Falasifah—De’ot ha-Pilusufim—Isaac Albalag, 13th C.
— Kawwanot ha-Pilusufim—Judah Nathan, 14th C.
Tahafut al-Falasifah—Happalat ha-Pilusufim—Zerahiah ha-Levy, 1411.
Ma’amar bi-Teshubot She’elot Nish’al Mehem (Answers to Philanthropical
Questions)—H. Malter, Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1897; also called Kawwanot
ha-Kawwanot.
— Mozene ha-’Iyyunin—Jacob ben Makir (d. 1308).
Mizan al-ʿAmal—Mozen Zedek—Abraham Ibn Hazdai ben Samuel ha-Levy of
Barcelona, ed. J. Goldenthal, Leipsic, 1839.
Mishkat al-Anwar fi Riyad al-Azhar bi-Taufik al-Anhar—Maskit ha-Orot
be-Pardes ha-Nizzanim—Isaac ben Joseph Alfasi.
_Latin._
Maqasid Falasifa—Logica et Philosophia—Dom. Gundisalvi, Venetiæ, 1506.
_German._
Kitab aiyuha ’l walad—O Kind! Die berühmte ethische Abhandlung Ghazali’s
arab. u. deutsch, v. Hammer-Purgstall, Wien, 1838.
Kitab Tahafut al Falasifa—Die Widersprüche der Philosophie nach
Al-Ghazzali und ihr Ausgleich durch Ibn Rushd, Strassburg, 1894.
Antworten auf Fragen, die an ihn gerichtet wurden, hebr. u. arab. Text
mit deutschen übers. Erklarung und Glossen v. H. Malter, Frankfurt, 1896.
Ihya ʾulum id Din—German translation in course of preparation by H. Bauer.
_French._
Ad durra al fakhira fi kasf ʾulum al akhira—La Perle precieuse de
Ghazali, ed. par L. Gautier, Geneve, 1878.
Al munqidh min ad dhalal—ed. Schmolders, Essai sur les ecoles
philosophiques chez les Arabes, Paris, 1842. Translated by Barbier de
Meynard, 1877, in Journal Asiatique, vol. ix.
_English._
Kimiya as-saaʾda—The Alchemy of Happiness—H. A. Homes, Albany, N. Y.,
1873.
The Alchemy of Happiness—Claud Field, London, 1908.
The Confessions of Al-Ghazali—Claud Field, London, 1909.
_Turkish._
There are two manuscript translations of Al-Ghazali’s Nasaʾih-ul-Muluk in
Turkish. Also an Arabic version of the Persian original. (See Browne’s
Handlist of Cambridge University Library Arabic MSS. Nos. 1185 and 220.)
The Alchemy of Happiness is also widely known in a Turkish version from
which the earliest English version by Homes was made.
C. LIST OF AL-GHAZALI’S WORKS
In Arabic alphabetical order according to As-Subqi, Al-Murtadha (Vol. I,
pp. 41-83), and other sources.