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/259



AL-GHAZALI AS A MYSTIC 239

which Thomas bestowed in his name. This story reappears in the doctrine of Abu Talib that when a poor man takes charity from the wealthy, he is thereby building him a house in Paradise." =

Not only in Qut-ul-Qulub, the famous book of Abu Talib, but in all Al-Ghazali’s works we have numerous quotations and references to the Gospels apocryphal or genuine, as we shall see later.

Al-Ghazali prescribed forms for morning and evening prayer which do not differ greatly from the prayers recommended in Christian manuals of de votion. His teaching on prayer is an effort to spiritualize the ceremony, and in this he follows the teaching of the older Sufis. Absorption in God during prayer was their ideal. To avoid distrac tion men were advised to pray towards a blank wall, lest any architectural ornament might dis tract their attention. Others boasted that they could attain to absorption under any circumstances. " There were saints who when they started their salat told their womenfolk that they might chatter as much as they liked and even beat drums; they were too much absorbed in prayer to hear, how ever loud the noise. When one of them was say ing his salat in the Mosque of Basrah a column fell, bringing down with it an erection of four storeys; he continued praying, and when after he had finished the people congratulated him on his escape, he asked, what from? Great names were 1 " Development of Mohammedanism," pp. 143-144.