A Moslem Seeker after God/Wanderings, Later Years and Death
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."
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.[1]
"From Damascus," says Al-Ghazali, "I proceeded to Jerusalem, and every day secluded myself in the Sanctuary of the Rock. After that I
"3
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 (Abra ham), 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, com posing several works of which the Ihya is said to
be one. Then after visiting Jerusalem and per
haps 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 Jeru salem. " 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 hea ven; 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 Al mighty 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 ascen sion! 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 com mand of God call together the souls from all parts, those of believers from Paradise and the unbe lievers 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." *
A modern traveller describes other Moslem superstitions connected with this Mosque. " The little arcades at the top of the steps of the plat form 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
Quoted in Klein’s "Islam," page 87, from the Ihya,
IV: 220.
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; Chris tians 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 situa tion 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 be ginning 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, how ever, 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 mid night. In addition to observing all the above men tioned prayers, those who would reach a high de gree of perfection are recommended by Al-Ghazali, in accordance with his own practices at this period, to engage in certain additional devotional exer cises 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 con stant intercourse with Him. This is the object of the devotional services called wird in which the be liever 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 re cites the appointed petitions, cleans his teeth with the miswak, performs the Wudhu, then prays two Sunna raka’s of dawn. 1 After this he repeats a petition and goes to the mosque with collected thoughts. He enters the mosque solemnly and re spectfully with the right foot first, saying the ap pointed petitions on entering and leaving. He enters the first rank of worshippers if there be room, and prays the two raka’s of dawn, if he has not done so already at home; then two raka’s 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
For the significance of these terms consult Hughes " Dictionary of Islam."
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 be
tween sunrise and an advanced forenoon hour; the
worshipper says a prayer of two raka s, and when
the sun has risen the length of a lance above the
horizon two more raka s. 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 repeat
ing 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 devo
tional exercises as before mentioned. Between
the time when the sun has become somewhat high
and the noon prayer, four raka’s 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 raka s, in which certain
portions of the Koran are recited, then four long
raka s, 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 Isha
to the time when people retire to sleep. This con
sists of three things: (1) the obligatory Isha
prayer; ten raka s, viz., four before it and six after
it; (2) performing a prayer of thirteen raka s, the
last of which is the witr prayer. In this about
three hundred verses of the Koran are to be re
cited. (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 merito
rious. 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 raka s. 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 devo
tional exercises, described in the Ihya, it was con
sidered meritorious to add four additional good
actions: fasting, almsgiving, visiting the sick, at
tending funerals; and finally all this punctilious re
membrance of God through prayer was supple
mented 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 re
duce 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 abid
ing 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. 1
An interesting story is told of his life at Jeru salem in these words: " There came together the Imams Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali and Ismail Al Kakimi and Ibrahim Ash-Shibaki and Abu-1-Hasan Al-Basri, and a large number of foreign elders, in the Cradle of Isa (upon him be peace!) in Jeru salem, 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.
- That this method of seeking God is still a refuge for
the most earnest and sincere among Moslems is clear from such books as "The Autobiography of Imad-ud-Din the Indian Convert " (C. M. $., London).
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-1-Hasan Al-Basri constrained himself to an ecstasy which affected those that were present, and eyes wept and garments were rent and Mo hammed Al-Kazarimi died in the midst of the as sembly 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. 1
It was natural for one of Al-Ghazali’s tempera ment 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 con tinually 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 pil grims. " Benjamin of Tudela relates: At Hebron there is a large place of worship called " St. Abra
1 Gardner finds evidence that the book mentioned was not written there. ham/* 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. " 1
The mosque of Hebron, over the tomb of Abra ham, 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. 8
"The Jewish Encyclopaedia," article "Machpelah." 2 A recent traveller says: "There is a hole in the wall which is supposed to communicate with the cave below. Jews write letters to Abraham and place them in this hole, to tell him how badly they are being treated by the Moslems. But the Moslem boys are said to know that the hole has no great depth, and to collect these letters and burn them
before Abraham has seen them." 
The dome of the rock, Jerusalem, as seen from the Lutheran Church.
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 Abra ham made his home.
After Al-Ghazali’s visit to Hebron he probably made his pilgrimage to Mecca. Whether the jour ney 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 jour ney. Al-Ghazali himself advises this in his direc tions for the correct performance of the rites of pilgrimage. 1
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.
"Cf. his "Ihya" and also his "Al-Wajiz."
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 Arafat, did you stand one moment
in contemplation of God? No. Then you
have not stood at Arafat. When you went to
Muzdalifa and achieved your desire, did you re
nounce all sensual desires? No. Then you
have not gone to Muzdalifa. When you circum
ambulated the Ka aba, did you behold the im
material beauty of God in the abode of purifica
tion? No. Then you have not circum
ambulated the Ka aba. 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 Mos lem 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. 1 By taking away this sacred treas ure they hoped to put an end to the pilgrimage, but were disappointed. In A. D. 950 the stone was re turned for a heavy ransom. 8 It was because of the constant disputes between the Caliphs of Bag dad 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 testi mony 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
1 M. J. De Goeje, " Memoire sur les Carmathes du Bahrain et Les Fatimides," (Leiden, 1886) pp. 104-114.
2 In the Ihya Al-Ghazali gives the prayer to be offered when kissing the Black Stone.
uprisings were directed by Abu Hashim himself, as
was the case in A. D. 1094. 1
Just about the time of Al-Ghazali’s visit, the various buildings at Mecca and the Beit Allah it self, 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 Shafi* sect to which Al-Ghazali be longed, is directly over the well of Zem Zem, to which it serves as an upper chamber. The build ing, 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 Ka aba. The repairs were not finished until 1040. 2
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.
1 " Mekka," Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, Vol. I, den Haag, 1888. 2 Burton’s " Pilgrimage," Vol. II, Appendix, pp. 32 3-324.
The details of his life during the mysterious ten years of his wanderings are most conflicting. Ac cording to Abd al-Ghafir, a personal friend of Al Ghazali, he went a second time to Mecca, after wards to Syria, and then wandered from shrine to shrine for nearly ten years. Next to " The Confes sions," the best authority on his life is undoubtedly this same Abd al-Ghafir. What he tells us of Al Ghazali’s life must have been gained from per sonal 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 Arba in and the Rasa il; besides labouring at his own spiritual advancement and growth through the religious ex ercises of the Sufis. Then he returned to his home and lived there a retired life for some time, ab sorbed in meditation, but gradually becoming more and more sought after as a teacher and guide to the spiritual life. At length Fakhr al-Mulk AH b. Nizam Al-Mulk Jamal Ash-Shuhada, who had pre viously 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 May r muna Nizamiyya Madrasa there."
1 Macdonald, " The Life of Al-Ghazzali," pp. 97-9&
We have reference to but no detail of Al-Gha
zali’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 admira tion 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, espe cially 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 be came later, but it was the seat of a splendid court,
with military pageantry, as well as a centre of re
ligious learning. Ibn Tuwair and others have
given us vivid pictures of the ceremonial proces
sions 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 char acters say:
" I?m 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 Mo hammed 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 in fidels Alexandria will succeed to its honours. 1
burton’s "Pilgrimage to Al-Medinah and Meccah," Vol.
I, p. 12.
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 be fore 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 alight ing-place; then cried to me my longings, Wei
come! 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 con templation. Strange to say, at this time of his life he seems to have found the greatest delight in go ing 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 monas tery 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 wan derings 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 contra diction and attack and slander, it made no impres sion on him, and he did not trouble himself to an
swer 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 in vestigation 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-thdbat ind-al-mamat) gives the follow ing 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-Sama ni 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 com
manded 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 AlIraq 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 peo
ple. 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 AlIraq
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 Abd
Allah Mohammed b. Ishaq Amghar, the Sharif.
138 A MOSLEM SEEKER AFTEK GOD
He came from the farthest Maghrib, from Ayn al-Qatr, and those who washed the corpse are his comrades Abu Shu ayb Ayyub b. Sa id and Abu Isa Wajih. And when they heard that they journeyed from AlIraq to Sanhaja of the farthest Maghrib, and when they had reached them and asked of them their prayers, they returned to Al Iraq 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.":
An equally remarkable story is told of the death of Al-Ghazali’s younger brother in the books of the Persian mystics. 3 The verses given might well ap ply to Al-Ghazali himself and his views of life and death. " Moghith related, on the authority of Kadiri tradition, how the famous AhmedAl 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 follow ing stanzas:
- Tell my friends, who behold me dead,
Weeping and mourning my loss a while,
1 Macdonald’s "Life of Al-Ghazzali," pp. 105, 107-10$ quoted from Murtadha.
2 Quoted in Hayat-ul-Hayawan.
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 l ongings.
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/ "
We are indebted to the Rev. Dwight M. Donald son of Mashad, Persia, for the interesting photo graphs of the ruins of Tus and of the supposed tomb of Al-Ghazali. The mosque is very old and probably dates from the time of Al-Ghazali. The grave shown in the picture, however, may not be the grave of Al-Ghazali the mystic but of another celebrated Ghazali. For we read in As-Subqi (Vol. Ill, p. 36) that there was one called Ahmed ibn Mohammed Abu Hamed Al-Ghazali, the older and earlier one. He says that people have thrown doubt upon his very existence, but that after care ful inquiry he has found mention of this man in several books, including the Kitab Al Ansab of Ibn As-Sam ani. He mentions the fact that this man also lived in Khorasan, was celebrated for his learning, wrote books on theological questions, and was buried at Tus, where his grave was well known; and because of this people called him the Old Ghazali, and used to come to his grave in or der to obtain answers to their prayers. He thinks that this Ghazali was either the uncle or the grand uncle of Al-Ghazali, whose biography we have written. Incidentally we may conclude from this statement of As-Subqi that the name of Al -Ghazali
was not given to him because his father was a spinner of wool! It must have been an old family name.
Mr. Donaldson gives this interesting informa tion: " The walls of the old city of Tus still stand. It is one farsakh around them, three and a third miles. There are many fragments of towers and in nine places there are remains of gates. The wall was originally five yards wide. In the largest cemetery the tombstone of Ahmad Ghazali may still be seen. This cemetery lies southwest from the city and while the bulk of it is now under culti vation, the more distant part that lies on the higher ground beyond the waterway has been kept a cemetery.
"The picture I have enclosed of Ghazali’s tomb is not as satisfactory as I would have liked. It shows that a large chip has been taken from one corner of the grave. The stone is about two yards long, one-third yard wide, and one-third yard high. There are positive indications of an effort having been made to cut off the portion on which the name of Ahmed Al-Ghazali appears. It is the part that is chipped in the picture. About at the point where the chipping appears to begin there is a straight line cut about one inch deep across the top of the stone.
" On the road that runs through the city from the southwest gate the old mosque is imposing even in its ruined condition. It stands eighteen yards high and the inner measurements show it to consist of
a square base, five yards high, then an octagonal structure eight yards high. (See illustration.)
" Outside the southwest gate an ancient bridge is still in use, as caravans from Mashad come through the old city of Tus. This bridge has eight arches, each four and one-half yards wide. The name of the stream is the Kashf Rud.
" The fortress itself is interesting; it is sur rounded by a moat and a wall, within which lies a large courtyard and the high approach to the fort it self. At present we could walk around the wall and approach the fort by a passage in the rear. In the courtyard they are now raising the best water melons we have eaten in Persia. Four gigantic corner fragments of the fort are now standing. In the midst of the debris of bricks within these old walls we found interesting fragments of pottery."
In another letter from Mashad, Persia, dated January 17, 1917, the Rev. Dwight M. Donaldson writes: " This week I made another trip to Tus, carefully examining again the tombstone of Ghazali. As I wrote you before, the stone has been badly worn and in addition to that has been mutilated. However, on the point of doubt as to whether the stone photographed was really the one marking Mohammed Al-Ghazali’s tomb, or the tomb of another Ahmad Al-Ghazali, I can now say that I believe it is the tomb of Abu Hamed ibn Mohammed ibn Mohammed ibn Mohammed Al Ghazali, for the reason that we can clearly read
WAKDEEINGS, LATEE YEAES, DEATH 143
on the corner of the top of the stone, the end which some one in times past attempted to cut off, the name <Ji and ^. And as one studies the stone he is almost willing to declare that the name is fully intelligible with the exception of the initial aleph. The whole top is badly worn in deed, but the word that my mirza first read as Ahmad is clearly not Ahmad, but what it is we cannot tell. The damage is too complete.
"You will notice that Ghazzali appears in the stone to have been spelled with a tashdeed and yet the mark we have considered a tashdeed is not the usual form (v instead of w)."
This investigation, therefore, would seem to settle two points: that we have at Tus the neglected and mutilated grave of the great mystic and theo logian, Al-Ghazali; and that on this grave the middle letter of the name is double. In view of the common usage, however, and in deference to the authorities of Moslems themselves, we have uniformly written Ghazali.
- ↑ Compare on the chronology the first chapters of Gardner's "Al-Ghazali," 1919 (Christian Lit. Soc. for India).