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/208



and references to other books. 1 One of the charges brought against him by his assailants is that he falsified Tradition. Macdonald’s judgment is very charitable when he says that " he quoted from memory too freely, because he was a man of too large a calibre to watch his quotations and they were loose to the end of his life."

As-Subqi in his Tabakat-ash-Shafa iya al Kubra devotes a special section to what is entitled "A List of all the Traditions given by Al-Ghazali in his Ihya which have no isnad f or pedigree, i. e., Tradi tions quoted by him as authoritative and yet which from the standpoint of Moslem criticism are on this account absolutely worthless. This section of the book referred to covers many pages and by actual count I found over six hundred Traditions each catalogued by reference to the chapter in which they occur. Now we have no reason to doubt that As-Subqi (d. 771 A. H.) was an ad mirer of Al-Ghazali and esteemed his teaching, yet what shall we say when in this collection of the lives of the saints so strong an indictment is made of Al-Ghazali’s inaccuracy by one of his own dis ciples?

When reading this collection of " true sayings " of the Prophet (which are after all often ascribed to him without any authority or foundation) one is shocked both at the credulity and the lack of love

1 Compare the two statements facing this chapter; also the Deferences to " The Gospel," in Ch