Part 7

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]

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]

In what spirit he fulfilled the rites we know from one of his spiritual teachers whose text-book on the subject Al-Ghazali had mastered. “A man who had just returned from the pilgrimage came to Junayd. Junayd said: ‘From the hour when you first journeyed from your home have you also been journeying away from all sins?’ He said ‘No.’ ‘Then,’ said Junayd, ‘you have made no journey. At every stage where you halted for the night did you traverse a station on the way to God?’ ‘No,’ he replied. ‘Then,’ said Junayd, ‘you have not trodden the road, stage by stage. When you put on the pilgrim’s garb at the proper place, did you discard the qualities of human nature as you cast off your clothes?’ ‘No.’ ‘Then you have not put on the pilgrim’s garb. When you stood on ʾArafat, did you stand one moment in contemplation of God?’ ‘No.’ ‘Then you have not stood at ʾArafat. When you went to Muzdalifa and achieved your desire, did you renounce all sensual desires?’ ‘No.’ ‘Then you have not gone to Muzdalifa. When you circumambulated the Kaʾaba, did you behold the immaterial beauty of God in the abode of purification?’ ‘No.’ ‘Then you have not circumambulated the Kaʾaba. When you ran between Safa and Marwa, did you attain to purity (_safa_) and virtue (_muruwwat_)?’ ‘No.’ ‘Then you have not run. When you came to Mina, did all your wishes (_muna_) cease?’ ‘No.’ ‘Then you have not yet visited Mina. When you reached the slaughter place and offered sacrifices, did you sacrifice the objects of worldly desire?’ ‘No.’ ‘Then you have not sacrificed. When you threw the pebbles, did you throw away whatever sensual thoughts were accompanying you?’ ‘No.’ ‘Then you have not yet thrown the pebbles, and you have not yet performed the pilgrimage.’”

Such was the mystical interpretation of the rites at Mecca taught by the Sufis to their disciples.

Mecca, when Al-Ghazali made the pilgrimage, was under the rule of the Sherif Abu Hashim (A. D. 1063-1094). Half a century earlier the Karmathians, perhaps the most fanatic of all Moslem sects, had besieged Mecca, captured the city, murdered the pilgrims by thousands, and carried away the famous black stone to Bahrein on the Persian Gulf.[46] By taking away this sacred treasure they hoped to put an end to the pilgrimage, but were disappointed. In A. D. 950 the stone was returned for a heavy ransom.[47] It was because of the constant disputes between the Caliphs of Bagdad and Egypt that the defense of the holy cities was finally given into the hand of the Sherifs.

Abu Hashim was a time-server, and cared more for bribes than for religion, according to the testimony of Arabian chroniclers. In A. D. 1070 he changed the name of the Fatimide Sultans for that of the Abbassides at Friday prayers, and received much bounty. In 1075 he sold the same privilege to the Fatimides, and in 1076 to the Caliphs of Bagdad. This conduct so enraged the Sultan of Bagdad that in 1091 he sent bands of Turkomans against Mecca.

Chronicles of the holy city during this period show that the pilgrimage was accompanied by grave dangers because of Bedouin robbers as well as disturbances in Mecca itself. Sometimes these uprisings were directed by Abu Hashim himself, as was the case in A. D. 1094.[48]

Just about the time of Al-Ghazali’s visit, the various buildings at Mecca and the _Beit Allah_ itself, had been repaired and beautified. The four _maqams_ or places of prayer for the orthodox sects as they now stand were built in A. H. 1074. The place of the Shafiʿ sect to which Al-Ghazali belonged, is directly over the well of Zem Zem, to which it serves as an upper chamber. The building, erected in 1072, is in use to-day. The great pulpit of white marble was sent to Mecca in A. H. 969 by the Sultan of Egypt. It is still in use. Perchance Al-Ghazali ascended these very stairs and addressed the pilgrims. In A. D. 1030 a violent torrent swept over Mecca, and nearly ruined the Kaʾaba. The repairs were not finished until 1040.[49]

With his religious pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina it seems that Al-Ghazali’s life of strict retirement ended, except for his visit to Alexandria and beyond. Apparently he proposed to make a journey to Spain and the great Sultan of the West, Yusuf bin Tashfin, on whose behalf he had given _Fatwas_ or religious decisions, but the news of the Sultan’s death put an end to his plans, according to some authorities. Others say that at this time he was summoned to teach again at Nishapur.

The details of his life during the mysterious ten years of his wanderings are most conflicting. According to ʿAbd al-Ghafir, a personal friend of Al-Ghazali, he went a second time to Mecca, afterwards to Syria, and then wandered from shrine to shrine for nearly ten years. Next to “The Confessions,” the best authority on his life is undoubtedly this same ʿAbd al-Ghafir. What he tells us of Al-Ghazali’s life must have been gained from personal knowledge, or go back immediately to Al-Ghazali himself. “According to him, Al-Ghazali set out on pilgrimage to Mecca, then went to Syria, and remained there wandering from place to place and shrine to shrine nearly ten years. At this time he composed several of his works, the _Ihya_ and books abbreviated from it, such as the _Arbaʾin_ and the _Rasaʾil_; besides labouring at his own spiritual advancement and growth through the religious exercises of the Sufis. Then he returned to his home and lived there a retired life for some time, absorbed in meditation, but gradually becoming more and more sought after as a teacher and guide to the spiritual life. At length Fakhr al-Mulk ʾAli b. Nizam Al-Mulk Jamal Ash-Shuhada, who had previously been Wazir to Barqiyaruq, became Wazir to Sinjar the son of Malik Shah at Nishapur, and by him such pressure was put on Al-Ghazali that he finally consented to resume teaching in the Maymuna Nizamiyya Madrasa there.”[50]

We have reference to but no detail of Al-Ghazali’s visit to Cairo, the great centre of Moslem architecture and learning in the West, as Bagdad was in the East. Nor, strange to say, have I found reference in his works to this visit. It is possible that he was not received altogether with favour by the religious leaders of Al-Azhar at the time, but his reputation was already world-wide, and many of his pupils at Bagdad and Nishapur were from Egypt and North Africa.

At the time of Al-Ghazali’s visit, Cairo was still the great centre of Arab civilization, and had all the glory which the Fatimid dynasty had bestowed upon it. The splendid palaces of the Caliphs formed the central portion of the town. The three massive gates which still command admiration at the present day, Bab Al-Futuh, Bab Al-Nasr and Bab Az-Zuwaila, led into the city. In A. D. 1087 the walls were rebuilt, and these massive gateways constructed along with others which are no longer standing. In the vault of the archways of these gates, there used to be two chambers, and these were used by the Egyptian sovereigns and their friends to watch the various spectacles, especially the departure and return of the sacred carpet.

The intellectual and religious life of the city centred in the great mosque of Al-Azhar, which had been completed in A. D. 1012. Cairo was not yet the economic centre for all Egypt which it became later, but it was the seat of a splendid court, with military pageantry, as well as a centre of religious learning. Ibn Tuwair and others have given us vivid pictures of the ceremonial processions and festivals, the magazines, treasuries, stables, and royal household.

As for Alexandria, where we _know_ Al-Ghazali lived for some time before his return to Syria, it did not have a high reputation at that time for learning. It was rather a port of trade, from which men passed on to Misr (Cairo) or went by sea to Syria. Hamadhani makes one of his characters say:

“I am of the citizens of Alexandria, Of sound and pure stock among them, The age and the people thereof are stupid, Therefore I made my stupidity my steed!”

But in Moslem tradition, Alexandria has high honour. Moslems show the tomb of Daniel the prophet, also that of Alexander the Great whose story is told in the Koran. Alexandria also boasts two celebrated Walis or holy men. One is Mohammed al Busiri, the author of the poem called Al Burdah, universally celebrated; and the other Abu Abbas Al-Andalusi, at whose tomb prayer is never offered in vain. There is also a prophecy that when Mecca falls into the hands of the infidels Alexandria will succeed to its honours.[51]

From Alexandria Al-Ghazali went to Damascus and then to Nishapur and from there to Bagdad, or from Damascus direct to Bagdad, where he taught the _Ihya_ and preached. As-Subki tells us that the people crowded to hear him, and that notes of his sermons to the number of 183 were taken by one of those present, who read them to Al-Ghazali before they were circulated.

The following story is told of his life at this time: Once while teaching the _Ihya_ at Bagdad, he began to quote: “He has made beloved the homes of men, as abodes of desire which the heart has decreed; whenever they remember their homes these remind them of the pledges of youth there, and they long thither.” Then he wept, and those present wept with him. Thereafter some one saw him in the open country with a patched dervish-garment on, a water-vessel and an iron-shod staff in his hand,—all in strange contrast to the states in which he had seen him before, with three hundred pupils around him, including one hundred of the chief men of Bagdad. So he said, “O Imam, is not the teaching of science more fitting?” But Al-Ghazali looked at him with red eyes and said, “When the full moon of happiness rises in the firmament of will, the sun of setting departs in the East of union.” Then he recited, “I abandoned the love of Layla and my happiness was far, and I returned to the companionship of my first alighting-place; then cried to me my longings, ‘Welcome! these are the alighting-places of her whom thou lovest, draw up and alight.’”

Of his spiritual experiences during these ten years of retirement and wandering, and during the years that followed, when he taught others the way of the mystic, we will speak later.

We know that he left Bagdad, returned to Tus, his native place, and settled down to study and contemplation. Strange to say, at this time of his life he seems to have found the greatest delight in going back again to the study of Tradition, especially the collections of Al-Bokhari and of Muslim. All his biographers seem to agree in this. He had charge of a _madrasa_ and of the _khanka_ or monastery for Sufis. Every moment was filled with study and devotion until in the fifty-fifth year of his life (lunar calendar) the end came.

The austerity and privations of his long wanderings doubtless wore down his strength. One who had risen to so high a position of authority on religious matters also had to pay the price of leadership in controversy with opponents, and of their envy, and their slander, as we are told by al-Ghafir. This may have been, Macdonald thinks, one of the causes for his removal from Nishapur to Tus. A friend remarks in regard to his attitude towards those who opposed his teaching and envied his influence: “However much he met of contradiction and attack and slander, it made no impression on him, and he did not trouble himself to answer his assailants. I visited him many times, and it was no bare conjecture of mine that he, in spite of what I saw in him in time past of maliciousness and roughness towards people, and how he looked upon them contemptuously through his being led astray by what God had granted him of ease in word and thought and expression, and through the seeking of rank and position, had come to be the very opposite and was purified from these stains. And I used to think that he was wrapping himself in the garment of pretense, but I realized after investigation that the thing was the opposite of what I had thought, and that the man had recovered after being mad.”

Al-Ghazali died on Monday, the fourteenth of Jumada II, A. H. 505 (Dec. 18th, 1111). His brother Ahmad (quoted by Murtadha from Ibn Jawzi’s _Kitab ath-thabat ʾind al-mamat_) gives the following account of his death: “On Monday, at dawn, my brother performed the ablution and prayed. Then he said, ‘Bring me my grave-clothes,’ and he took them and kissed them and laid them on his eyes and said, ‘I hear and obey to go in to the King.’ And he stretched out his feet towards Mecca, and was taken to the good will of God Most High. He was buried at, or outside of, Tabran, the citadel of Tus, and Ibn As-Samaʾni visited his grave there.”

Later biographers were not satisfied with the bare facts of his decease. Murtadha gives a far more interesting story. “When death drew near to the Imam Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali, he commanded his servant, an excellent and religious man, to dig his grave in the middle of his house, and to summon the people of the neighbouring villages to attend his funeral; that they should not touch him, but that a company of three men unknown in the region of Al-ʾIraq would come out of the desert, that two of them would wash him, and the third would undertake the prayer over him without the advice or command of any one. Then, when he died, the servant did according to all that he had commanded, and required the presence of the people. And when the people gathered to attend the funeral, they saw three men who had come out of the desert. Two of them began to wash the corpse, while the third vanished and did not appear. But when they had washed him and arranged him in the grave-clothes, and carried his bier and laid it on the edge of the grave, the third appeared wrapped in his robe with a black border on both sides, turbaned with wool, and he prayed for him and the people prayed with him. Then he gave the benediction and departed and hid from the people. And some of the excellent of the people of Al-ʾIraq who were present at the funeral had noticed him carefully, but did not know him until some of them heard a _Hatif_ in the night saying to them, ‘The man who led the people in prayer is Abu ʾAbd Allah Mohammed b. Ishaq Amghar, the Sharif. He came from the farthest Maghrib, from ʾAyn al-Qatr, and those who washed the corpse are his comrades Abu Shuʾayb Ayyub b. Saʾid and Abu ʾIsa Wajih.’ And when they heard that they journeyed from Al-ʾIraq to Sanhaja of the farthest Maghrib, and when they had reached them and asked of them their prayers, they returned to Al-ʾIraq and related it to the Sufis and published their miracle (_karama_). Then a company of them, when they heard that, went to visit them and found them to be those whom they noticed carefully, and they asked of them their prayers. And this is a strange story.”[52]

An equally remarkable story is told of the death of Al-Ghazali’s younger brother in the books of the Persian mystics.[53] The verses given might well apply to Al-Ghazali himself and his views of life and death. “Moghith related, on the authority of Kadiri tradition, how the famous Ahmed-Al-Ghazali, native of Tus in Persia, said one day to his disciples, ‘Go and bring me new and white garments.’ They went; and on returning with the objects required, found their master dead; by his side was a paper on which were written the following stanzas:

“‘Tell my friends, who behold me dead, Weeping and mourning my loss a while, Think not this corpse before you myself: That corpse is mine, but it is not I. I am an undying life, and this is not my body, Many years my house and my garment of change; I am the bird, and this body was my cage, I have wing’d my flight elsewhere, and left it for a token. I am the pearl, and this my shell, Broken open and abandon’d to worthlessness; I am the treasure, and this was a spell Thrown over me, till the treasure was released in truth. Thanks be to God, who has delivered me, And has assign’d me a lasting abode in the highest. There am I now the day conversing with the happy, And beholding face to face unveiled Deity; Contemplating the Mirror wherein I see and read Past and present, and whatever remains to be. Food and drink too are mine, yet both are one; Mystery known to him who is worthy to know. It is not “wine sweet of taste” that I drink; No, nor “water,” but the pure milk of a mother. Understand my meaning aright, for the secret Is signified by words of symbol and figure,— I have journey’d on, and left you behind; How could I make an abode of your halting-stage? Ruin then my house and break my cage in pieces, And let the shell go perish with kindred illusions; Tear my garment, the veil once thrown over me; Then bury all these, and leave them alike for I go. Deem not death death, for it is in truth Life of lives, the goal of all our longings. Think lovingly of a God whose Name is love, Who joys in rewarding, and come on secure of fear. Whence I am, I behold you undying spirits like myself, And see that our lot is one, and you as I.’”