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/178

 herefore swallowed the Traditions and the Koran apparently without any philosophic doubt. He believed that Mohammed was the greatest of all the prophets, and that, so he says, " God has established Mohammed's prophetic character by miracles, such as the splitting of the moon, and the praising of him by stones, the gushing out of water from between his fingers. One of the greatest miracles, proving his divine mission, is the Koran, for none of the Arabs were able to produce any thing like it. Another sign of his prophetic character is his being able to foretell things which are to come to pass, such as his victorious entry into Mecca, the defeat of the Greeks and their subsequent victories." (See the special chapter in the Ihya on this subject.)

He was a predestinarian in the fullest sense. In one place he writes: " When God Almighty let His hands pass over the back of Adam and gathered men into His two hands, He placed some of them in His right hand and the others in His left; then He opened both His hands before Adam, and Adam looked at them and saw them like imperceptible atoms. Then God said: "These are destined for Paradise and these are destined for hell-fire" He then asked them: Am I not your Lord? And they replied: Certainly, we testify that Thou art our Lord/ God then asked Adam and the angels to be witnesses to the act; after this God replaced them into the loins of Adam. They