Page:A Moslem seeker after God - showing Islam at its best in the life and teaching of al-Ghazali, mystic and theologian of the eleventh century (IA moslemseekeraft00zwem).pdf/127



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