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/152



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:

Weeping and mourning my loss a while,
 * Tell my friends, who behold me dead,

1 Macdonald’s "Life of Al-Ghazzali," pp. 105, 107-10$ quoted from Murtadha.

2 Quoted in Hayat-ul-Hayawan.