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/258



veal, half conceal, Allah, and so are literally veils of light." *

Does not this remind us of St. Paul’s words: " Now we see through (in) a glass darkly but then face to face, etc."? Did Al-Ghazali borrow from the Gospel here also?

It has been pointed out by Margoliouth and others that Mohammedan Sufism is largely based on Christian teaching. This is especially true in the case of Abu Talib, Al-Ghazali’s favourite writer on this subject. " Sometimes the matter is taken over bodily; thus the Parable of the Sower is told by the earliest Sufi writer. Abu Talib takes over the dialogue in the Gospel eschatology be tween the Saviour and those who are taunted with having seen Him hungry and refused Him food; only for the questioner he substitutes Allah, and for the least of these his Moslem brother. Not a few of the Beatitudes are taken over sometimes with the name of their author. Commonplaces which are found in Christian homiletic works re appear with little or no alteration in the Sufi ser mons. In the Acts of Thomas, the Apostle, when employed by a king to build a palace, spends the money in charity to the poor. Presently the king’s brother dies, and finds that a wonderful palace has been built for the king in Paradise with the Alms

111 Der Islam," Band V, Heft 2/3 article, "Al-Ghazali’s Mishkat Al-Anwar and the Ghazali Problem," by Canon W. H. T. Gairdner.