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/272



hearts beat at hearing some eloquent religious dis course, which they quickly forget and turn again to frivolity. That is no real fear at all. He who fears a thing flees from it, and he who hopes for a thing strives for it, and the only fear that will save thee is that fear that forbids sinning against God and instils obedience to Him. Beware of the shallow fear of women and fools, who, when they hear of the terrors of the Lord, say lightly, * We take refuge in God/ and at the same time continue in the very sins which will destroy them. Satan laughs at such pious ejaculations. They are like a man who should meet a lion in a desert, while there is a fortress at no great distance away, and when he sees the ravenous beast, should stand exclaim ing, I take refuge in God/ God will not protect thee from the terrors of His judgment unless thou really take refuge in Him."

Included with his fear of God there was always a fear of death which can best be described as mediaeval or early Moslem. Towards the close of his life he composed a short work on eschatology called " The Precious Pearl." It is no less lurid in its terrible pictures of death and the judgment than some of his older works. In it he says: "When you watch a dead man and see that the saliva has run from his mouth, that his lips are contracted, his face black, the whites of his eyes showing, know that he is damned, and that the fact of his damnation in the other world has just