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/257



AL-GHAZALI AS A MYSTIC 237

In the first he has the ordinary sensual herd in view, as well as the philosophers of sensualism; their veils are the veils of the bestial attributes, while those of the second are the ferocious ones (saba iya). The denotation of the latter class is quaintly given as Arabs, some Kurds and very numerous Fools. The third and fourth subdivi sions do not call for comment.

" Mounting from these regions of unmitigated darkness we come to (&), those veiled by light and darkness mixed. Ghazali’s idea of the dark veils in general may be gathered from a com parison of this and the previous section. In this section the dark veils are shown to be the false conceptions of deity, which the human mind is deluded into making by the gross and limited ele ments in its own constitution, namely (in ascend ing order) by the Senses, the Phantasy or Imagina tion and the Discursive Reason. The dark veils of the previous section were the unmitigated ego tism and materialism which employed these facul ties for self and the world alone, without a thought of deity. The light veils, accordingly, are the true but partial intuitions whereby man rises to the idea of deity, or to a something at least higher than himself. These intuitions are no more than partial, because they fix upon some one aspect or attribute of deity, majesty, beauty, and so forth, and be lieving it to be all in all proceed to deify all ma jestic, beautiful, etc., things. Thus they half re