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/193



devotion and mentions the virtues that are to be cultivated and the vices to be shunned on this path way to God and to true happiness.

To emphasize the importance of life with its brevity and the supreme importance of eternity Al-Ghazali says: " Suppose we imagine that the whole world is filled with dust and that a little bird should come and snatch up one atom of dust every thousand years. We know that there would be an end of its task, but nothing would have been taken away from the everlasting character of that eter nity which has no end." Although the moral teaching of this book is very noble, it is after all based entirely on the principle of salvation by works. There is no hint of the possibility of the transformation of character through regeneration of the heart, nor is the way pointed to the victori ous life by overcoming temptation through a power that is not our own.

Of all his writings none is celebrated more justly than his greatest work " The Revival of Religious Sciences " (Ihya ulum id Din). It is a veritable encyclopaedia of Moslem teaching and ethics and covers the whole range of Moslem thought. Many editions of this work have been printed and com mentaries written on it, the most celebrated of which is by Mohammed-uz-Zubeidi Al-Murtadha, in ten large volumes. The work itself consists of four volumes of ten books each and has a total of over one thousand closely printed pages. Although