Introduction by Dr. J. Rendel Harris
Preface
I. The Eleventh Century
"Between the civilizations of Christendom and Islam there is a gulf which no human genius, no concourse of events, can entirely bridge over. The most celebrated Orientals, whether in war or policy, in literature or learning, are little more than names for Europeans." "The Assemblies of Al-Hariri" by Thomas Chenery.
"With the time came the man. He was Al-Ghazali, the greatest, certainly the most sympathetic figure in the history of Islam, and the only teacher of the after generations ever put by a Muslim on a level with the four great Imams. The equal of Augustine in philosophical and theological importance. By his side the Aristotelian philosophers of Islam, Ibn Rushd and all the rest, seem beggarly compilers and scholiasts. Only Al-Farabi, and that in virtue of his mysticism, approaches him. In his own person he took up the life of his time on all its sides and with it all its problems. He lived through them all and drew his theology from his experience." "Muslim Theology, Jurisprudence and Constitutional Theory," by D. B. Macdonald.
THE great characters of history may be
compared to mountain peaks that rise
high above the plains and the lower foot
hills and are visible from great distances because
they dominate the landscape. In the historical
study of Islam four names stand out prominently. They are those of Mohammed himself; of Al Bokhari, the most celebrated collector of the Traditions; of Al-Ash ari, the great dogmatic theologian and the opponent of rationalism; and of Al-Ghazali, the reformer and mystic. The last named has left a larger imprint upon the history of Islam than any man save Mohammed himself. "If there had been a prophet after Mohammed," said As-Suyuti, " it would have been Al-Ghazali." It is in his life, and more especially in his writings, that I believe we can see Islam at its best. In trying to escape the dead weight of Tradition and the formalism of its requirements, Moslems are more and more finding relief in the way of the mystic. Of all those who have found a deeper spiritual meaning in the teachings of the Koran and even in the multitudinous and puerile detail of the Moslem ritual, none can equal Al-Ghazali. " He was," says Jamal-ud-Din, " the pivot of existence and the common pool of refreshing waters for all, the soul of the purest part of the people of the Faith, and the road for obtaining the satisfaction of the Merciful. . . . He became the unique one of his own day and for all time among the Moslem learned." "Al-Ghazali," said another writer, nearly contemporary, " is an imam by whose name breasts are dilated and souls revived, in whose literary productions the ink horn exults and the paper quivers with joy, and at the hearing of whose message voices are hushed and heads are bowed."
A celebrated saint, Ahmed As-Sayyed Al-Yamani Az-Zabidi, also a contemporary of Al-Ghazali, said, " When I was sitting one day, lo, I perceived the gates of heaven opened, and a company of blessed angels descended, having with them a green robe and a precious steed. They stood by a certain grave and brought forth its tenant and clothed him in the green robe and set him on the steed and ascended with him from heaven to heaven, till he passed the seven heavens and rent after them sixty veils, and I know not whither at last he reached. Then I asked about him, and was answered, This is the Imam Al-Ghazali! That was after his death; may God Most High have mercy on him! "
Another story is related of him as follows: "In our time there was a man in Egypt who disliked Al-Ghazali and abused him and slandered him. And he saw the Prophet (God bless him and give him peace!) in a dream; Abu Bakr and Omar (may God be well pleased with both of them!) were at his side, and Al-Ghazali was sitting before him, saying, O Apostle of God, this man speaks against me! Thereupon the Prophet said, Bring the whips! So the man was beaten on account of Al-Ghazali. Then the man arose from sleep, and the marks of the whips remained on his back, and he was wont to weep and tell the story."
And should this praise seem oriental and extravagant, we add the words of Professor Duncan B. Macdonald, who has made a more thorough study of Al-Ghazali’s life and writings than any other student of Islam: " What rigidity of grasp the hand of Islam would have exercised but for the influence of Al-Ghazali might be hard to tell; he saved it from scholastic decrepitude, opened before the orthodox Moslem the possibility of a life hid in God, was persecuted in his life as a heretic, and now ranks as the greatest doctor of the Moslem Church."