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/164

 is that every one, even the most perfect believer, will enter hell-fire, for no one is free from committing some sins, for which he must enter fire; only infidels, however, will remain in it forever."

"He who confesses with the tongue saying: 'There is no God but God, and Mohammed is His apostle' but does not believe it in his heart is an infidel in the sight of God, and will be cast into eternal hell-fire. In this world, however, he is to be considered and treated as a believer and a Moslem, for man cannot penetrate into the secrets of the heart, and the confession of the mouth must be taken to be the interpreter of the thoughts of the heart. In order, however, to make a man a Moslem in this world, before the law, in the sight of the Qadi, confession is necessary."

Not only does he classify believers in this careful way, but he also discusses the question, in the first book of his Ihya, whether Islam is the same thing as iman (faith) or not, and if these two are not the same thing, can they exist separately or must they necessarily be combined? " Some say that Islam and Iman are synonymous terms and that consequently every believer is a Moslem and every Moslem a believer." This is the opinion held by the orthodox school. Others say that they are distinct things but joined together. Al-Ghazali answers this difficult question in this way: Iman (Faith), from the linguistic point of view, means belief, intellectual conviction and assent; Islam