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/309



" Verily God created man in his own likeness." Immediately afterwards, however, he goes on to say: "This is a somewhat dangerous topic to dwell upon, as it is beyond the understanding of common people, and even intelligent men have stumbled in treating of it, and come to believe in incarnation and union with God. Still the affinity which does exist between man and God disposes of the objection of those theologians mentioned above, who maintain that man cannot love a Being who is not of his own species. However great a distance between them, man can love God because of the affinity indicated in the saying, God created man in His own likeness/

Al-Ghazali would doubtless have accepted the statement in the Gospel, " No man hath seen God at any time," but he omits " the only Begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath de clared Him." In speaking of the vision of God he says, "All Moslems profess to believe that the Vision of God is the summit of human felicity be cause it is so stated in the Law; but with many this is a mere lip-profession which arouses no emotion in their hearts. This is quite natural, for how can a man long for a thing of which he has no knowl edge? We will endeavour to show briefly why the vision of God is the greatest happiness to which a man can attain.

" In the first place, every one of man’s faculties has its appropriate function which it delights to