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/280



258 A MOSLEM 8EEKEE AFTEE GOD

Ghazali ever meet this challenge and in how far did he compare Mohammed with Christ? It is our purpose in this chapter to answer the question by collating all the important references in the Ihya and his other works and then to draw some con clusions both as to his sources and his opinions. The reader may judge for himself how far Al Ghazali is a schoolmaster to lead Moslems to Christ.

We search in vain among all his works for a sketch of the life of Christ or of His teaching, Al-Ghazali doubtless had read and was probably well acquainted with the only popular work known which gives a connected account of the life of Jesus Christ according to Moslem sources, namely, Kitab qusus al Anbiya by Ibn Ibrahim Ath Tha labi, a doctor of theology of the Shafi School, who died in A. H. 427 (A. D. 1036). The fabulous character of this mass of traditions has been shown in a translation of the section which deals with Jesus Christ. 1 Al-Ghazali does not give altogether the same stories as are given by Ath-Tha labi but gives a great number of other incidents and re ported sayings, many of which resemble those found in the Gospels and others which are wholly apocryphal.

The question again arises where did Al-Ghazali gain this knowledge of the Gospel? Did he have access to a Persian or Arabic translation; or was

Zwemer, "The Mo