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/210



science; and Simon Duran cites in his Keshet a pas sage from the Mozene ha-Iyyunim, which he calls Mozene ha-Hokmah":

The translations of his works into Hebrew were made as early as the thirteenth century. Not less than eleven Hebrew commentaries are known on the Maqasid. " Johanan Alemanno recommends Ghazali’s hermeneutic methods, and compares the order and graduation of lights in Ghazali’s theory with those of the theory of the cabalists."

In regard to science, Al-Ghazali’s views were naturally those of his contemporaries. His world was built on the Ptolemaic system. There are four elements only. Existence has three modes: the world of sense, the world of God’s eternal de cree, and the world of ideals or of God’s power. In dreams and visions we are in contact with the two other worlds. Al-Ghazali avoids the difficul ties of concrete Moslem teaching by this method. There may be things which are real and actual and yet do not belong to the world of sense. 2

Doctor Macdonald admirably summarizes his influence on Islam as four-fold. " First of all he led men back from mere scholastic dogma to a liv ing contact with the Koran and the Traditions as the true source of Islam. He might be called a Biblical theologian in our modern use of the word, understanding by Bible always the Moslem bible,

"Jewish Encyclopaedia," article "Ghazali."
 * Macdonald.