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/207

, p. 72.

Al-Ghazali’s great work " The Revival of Re ligious Sciences," caused great scandal in Anda lusia. There the intolerance of the learned passed all bounds because of the narrowness of their views. Their theology was limited to minute knowledge of Canon Law. They had no place for the religion which Ghazali preached, which was personal and passionate, a religion of the heart. When he attacked contemporary theologians busy with questions of legality and the externals of re ligion, he touched these pharisees of the law at the quick and they not only squirmed but screamed loudly. According to Dozy, " the Kady of Cor dova, Ibn Hamdin, declared that any man who read Al-Ghazali’s book was an infidel ripe for damna tion, and he drew up a fatwa condemning all copies of the book to the flames. This fatwa, signed by the Fakihs of Cordova, was formally approved by AH. Al-Ghazali’s book was accordingly burnt in Cordova and all the other cities of the Empire, and possession of a copy was interdicted on pain of death and confiscation of property."

But this opinion was not shared by Moslems elsewhere. In his lifetime and especially after his death his works against philosophy and his great exposition of Islam found ever larger circles of readers and commentators.

He has been accused, and not without good rea son, both by Moslem writers and European critics, of carelessness and inaccuracy in his quotations