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/267



AL-GHAZALI AS A MYSTIC 245

tomed to speak sharply to my wife, and I said, O, Apostle of God, I am afraid lest my tongue should cause me to enter the fire, and then the Prophet of God (upon whom be peace) said, Where art thou in asking for forgiveness compared with me, for I ask forgiveness of God every day one hundred times/ And Ayesha said (may God give her His favour), concerning the Prophet, He said to me, " If you have committed a sin ask forgiveness of God and repent to Him, for true repentance for a sin is turning away from it and asking forgiveness." And the Apostle of God (upon whom be peace) was accustomed to say when he asked for forgive ness: O God, forgive my sin and my ignorance and my excess in what I have done, and what Thou knowest better than I do. O God, forgive me my trifling and my earnestness, my mistakes and my wrong intentions and all that I have done. O God, forgive me that which I have committed in the past and that which I will commit in the future, and what I have hidden and what I have revealed and what Thou knowest better than I do, Thou who art the first and the last and Thou art the Almighty/ " * How different all this is from the present day superficial teaching about the sinlessness of Mo hammed which is current in popular Islam.

Since Al-Ghazali tells this about Mohammed and his need for forgiveness, he naturally deals with repentance in no superficial fashion but as one who

1 " Ihya," chapter on Repentance.