Ihya Ulumuddin - Retelling 3

Being brief extracts from - Ihya-u-Ulum-id-din

Freely rendered into English by : SYED NAWAB ALI M. A., Professor of Persian, the College, Baroda.

Ihya ulumuddin  - retelling 3

THE RENOVATION OF THE SCIENCES OF RELIGION.

PART I.

• 1. On Knowledge. Articles of Faith.

• 2. On Purification.

• 3. Prayer and Its Meaning.

• 4. Zakat and Its Meaning.

• 5. Fasting and Its Meaning.

• 6. Pilgrimage and Its Meaning.

• 7. The Reading of the Quran.

• 8. Varieties of Orisons.

• 9. The Order of Praying, and Vigils.

PART II.

• 1. On Eating.

• 2. On Marriage.

• 3. On Business.

• 4. The Lawful and the Unlawful.

• 5. Social Relations and Etiquette.[25]

• 6. On Retirement.

• 7. On Travel.

• 8. On Music.

• 9. On Enforcing Good and Checking Evil.

• 10. Good Living: Description of the Prophet’s Mode of Living.

PART III.

• 1. Psychological Description of the Nature of Man.

• 2. On Virtues and the Purification of the Heart.

• 3. On Appetite and Passion.

• 4. On the Tongue: Its Goods and Evils.

• 5. On Anger: Enmity and Envy.

• 6. The Evils of the World.

• 7. Parsimony and the Evils of the Love of Wealth.

• 8. On the Evils of Reputation and Hypocrisy.

• 9. Pride and Vanity.

• 10. Self-deception.

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PART IV.

• 1. Repentance.

• 2. Patience and Thanksgiving.

• 3. Hope and Fear.

• 4. The Poor and the Hermit,

• 5. Unity of God, and Dependence on Him.

• 6. On Love, Ecstasy, and Joyous Submission to His will.

• 7. On Intention, Sincerity and Truth.

• 8. Meditation.

• 9. Contemplation and taking a Warning.

• 10. On Death and the After-Life.

Against the philosophers he argued for the belief in the reality of the divine attributes and against the view of the eternity of the world. He contended against the theory that there would be no physical punishments and rewards hereafter, maintaining, as he did, the doctrine of the resurrection of the body. He virtually denied that there is real causal connection in events as experienced by us: but only[27] sequence: in this he adumbrates the theory of Hume. For Ghazzali, God is the only efficient cause. From the scepticism to which his consideration of philosophy led him he turned to the acceptance of revelation, this as found in the mystic experience and in the words of saints and prophets, especially the Prophet Muhammed.

The knowledge of moral principles Ghazzali conceived as coming not through rational reflection but by immediate intuition of the divine character revealing itself. Moral truths come especially through moral and religious teachers, as the most fit persons for the transmission of these revelations. He possessed great skill in psychological analysis of moral conditions, and passages in illustration of this have been included here, treating of pride and vanity, friendship and sincerity. As almost all great practical moral and religious teachers, Ghazzali makes considerable use of apt stories, and of striking sayings[28] from the saints and prophets. He continually harks back to the time of the Prophet and his “Companions”.

Ghazzali’s abandonment of his academic position at Baghdad, his retirement to mosques and journeyings on pilgrimage, are sufficient evidence that he recognised that the truth of mysticism could not be tested by theoretical reflection but only by an attempt at practice. Only the experience itself could prove its own reality. He appears to have held that for the attainment of the condition of ecstasy the means of asceticism and meditation should be used. But it does not seem quite correct to suggest as does Carra de Vaux that Ghazzali did not recognise the fact of divine “grace”, though he did not use a corresponding term. The beatific vision of the mystic certainly depended in part, for Ghazzali, on God’s mercy in removing the veil. How far he himself was successful in attaining the bliss of the mystic vision it is impossible to tell: in this direction[29] he gained no such reputation as did several other Sufis. He taught that repentance, a moral conversion, is a necessary preliminary to the mystic life, and he fought against a common tendency of mystics towards antinomianism. Similarly he tried to avoid the danger of interpreting the union of the soul with God as its identification with God in a pantheistic view of the universe. Goldzieher says he differed from the Sufis generally in the rejection of their pantheistic aims and low estimate of religious ordinances.[10]

MORAL AND RELIGIOUS

TEACHINGS OF AL GHAZZALI

THE NATURE OF MAN[12]

Though man shares with the other animals external and internal senses, he is at the same time also endowed with two qualities peculiar to himself, knowledge and will. By knowledge is meant the power of generalisation, the conception of abstract ideas, and the possession of intellectual truths. By will is meant that strong desire to acquire an object which after due consideration of its consequences has been pronounced by reason to be good. It is quite different from animal desire, nay, it is often the very opposite of it.

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In the beginning children also lack these two qualities. They have passion, anger, and all the external and internal senses, but will finds its expression only later. Knowledge differs according to the capacity for it, according to the latent powers in a man. Hence there is a variety of stages amongst Prophets,[13] the Ulamas, the Sufis and the Philosophers. Further progress is possible even beyond these stages, for divine knowledge knows no bounds. The highest stage is reached by one to whom all truths and realities are revealed intuitively, who by virtue of his exalted position enjoys direct communion and close relation with the Most Holy. The real nature of this position is known only to him who enjoys it. We verify it by faith. A child has no[43] knowledge of the attainments of an adult; an adult is not aware of the acquisitions of a learned man. Similarly, a learned man is not cogniscant of the holy communion of the saints and the prophets, and of the favours bestowed on them. Although the divine blessings descend freely, those are fit recipients of them, whose hearts are pure and wholly devoted to Him. “Verily,” says the Hadis, “the desire of the virtuous is to hold communion with me, and I long to look at them”. “He who approaches me a span, I approach him an arm”.[14] The divine favours are not withheld, but hearts bedimmed by impurity fail to receive them. “Had it not been that the devils hover round the hearts of men, they would have seen the glories of the Kingdom of the Heaven”.[15]

The superiority of man consists thus in his being cogniscant of divine attributes[44] and actions. Therein lies his perfection; thus he may be worthy of admission to God’s presence.

The body serves as a vehicle for the soul, and the soul is the abode for knowledge which is its fundamental character as well as its ultimate object. The horse and the ass are both beasts of burden, but a superiority of the former is found in its being gracefully adapted for use in battle. If the horse fails in this it is degraded to the rank of mere burden bearing animals. Similarly with man. In certain qualities man resembles a horse and an ass, but his distinguishing trait is his participation in the nature of the angels, for he holds a middle position between the beast and the angel. Considering the mode of his nourishment and growth he is found to belong to the vegetable world. Considering his power of movement and impulses he is a denizen of the animal kingdom. The distinguishing quality of knowledge lifts him up to the celestial world. If he fails[45] to develop this quality and to translate it into action he is no better than a grunting pig, a snarling dog, a prowling wolf, or a crafty fox.

If he wishes for true happiness, let him look upon reason as a monarch sitting on the throne of his heart, imagination as its ambassador, memory as treasurer, speech as interpreter, the limbs as clerks, and the senses as spies in the realms of colour, sound, smell, etc. If all these properly discharge the duties allotted to them, if every faculty does that for which it was created—and such service is the real meaning of thanksgiving to God—the ultimate object of his sojourn in this transitory world is realised.

Man’s nature is made up of four elements, which produce in him four attributes, namely, the beastly; the brutal, the satanic, and the divine. In man there is something of the pig, the dog, the devil, and the saint. The pig is the appetite which is repulsive not for its form but for its lust[46] and its gluttony. The dog is passion which barks and bites, causing injury to others. The devil is the attribute which instigates these former two, embellishing them and bedimming the sight of reason which is the divine attribute. Divine reason, if properly attended to, would repel the evil by exposing its character. It would properly control appetite and the passions. But when a man fails to obey the dictates of reason, these three other attributes prevail over him and cause his ruin. Such types of men are many. What a pity it is that these who would find fault with those who worship stones do not see that on their part they worship the pig and the dog in themselves: Let them be ashamed of their deplorable condition and leave no stone unturned for the suppression of these evil attributes. The pig of appetite begets shamelessness, lust, slander, and such like; the dog of passion begets pride, vanity, ridicule, wrath and tyranny. These two, controlled by the satanic power[47] produce deceit, treachery, perfidy, meanness etc. but if divinity in man is uppermost the qualities of knowledge, wisdom, faith, and truth, etc. will be acquired.