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/136



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.

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).
 * That this method of seeking God is still a refuge for