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/80

 d, do we

arise from sleep, and by Thee do we reach the even tide. In Thee do we live and die and to Thee do we return/ And when you put on your garments, remember that God desires you to cover your nakedness with them and to show forth God’s beauty to those around you."

In another place in the same little volume he again inculcates early rising by saying: " Know that the night and the day consist of twenty-four hours. Let therefore your sleep during the night and day be not more than eight hours; for it will suffice you to think after you have lived sixty years that you have lost twenty years of it solely in sleep."

He probably began to read even before the age of seven, for we find that his studies at Tus, and afterwards at Jurjan, apparently included not only religious science but also a thorough knowledge of Persian and Arabic. Of his religious studies we will speak later. He himself tells us that the philosophical sciences taught included " mathe matics, logic, physics, metaphysics, politics, and moral philosophy." And although he does not speak in his Confessions of his earliest studies, what he says in regard to mathematics throws a flood of light on his youthful scepticism. He says, " Mathematics comprises the knowledge of calcula tion, geometry, and cosmography: it has no con nection with the religious sciences, and proves noth ing for or against religion; it rests on a foundation