Latest / Maggie, A Girl of the Streets / Confessions of al-Ghazali - Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazali

Transcript

Confessions of al-Ghazali - Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazali · Maggie, A Girl of the Streets

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Introduction to the Confessions of Al Rosali. This is a
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: The Confessions of al Razali by Abuhamed Mohammedebin Mohammed al Razsali,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: translated by Claudefield Introduction Abuhamed mohammedibn Muhammad al Razali was
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: born in the city of Thus in Horasan a d.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Ten fifty eight, one year after the great poet and
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: freethinker Abu al Allah died. He was the son of
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: a dealer in cotton thread Razal, whence his name. Losing
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: his father early in life, he was confided to the
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: care of a Sufi whose influence extended through his subsequent career.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: On finishing his studies, he was appointed professor of theology
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: at Bardad. Here he achieved much splendid success that all
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: the Imams became his zealous partisans. So great indeed was
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: his renown, so ardent the admiration he inspired that the
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Muhammadan sometimes said if all the books of Islam were destroyed,
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: it would be but a slight loss. Provided Al Razzali's
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: work on the revivification of the Sciences of religion were preserved.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: The following short treatise gives the history of the mind
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: of this remarkable man in his pursuit of truth. It
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: might not inaptly bear the title Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: In its intellectual subtlety, it bears a certain resemblance to
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Newman's grammar of assent, and in its almost puritanical sense
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: of the terrors of the world to come, it is
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: akin to Bunyan's grace abounding. It is also interesting as
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: being one of the very few specimens of genuine Eastern autobiography.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: After describing the difficulty with which he escaped from an
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: almost pirhonic skepticism, not by systematic reasoning and accumulation of proofs,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: but by a flash of light which God sent into
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: my soul, he reviews the various sects whom he encountered
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: in his search for truth. One the scholastic theologians, who
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: profess to follow reason and speculation. Two the philosophers who
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: call themselves masters of logic and demonstration. Three the Sufis,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: who claim an immediate intuition and who perceive the real
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: manifestation of truth as common men perceive material phenomena. After
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: mastering the first two systems and still finding the great
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: problem unsolved, he was forced to pronounce philosophy incompetent and
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: to seek in some higher faculty than reason the solution
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: of his doubts. The intuition or ecstasy was of the
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: sufis was to him some sort of revelation. His search
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: for truth occupied several years, in the course of which
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: he renounced his professorship of theology at Bardad and went
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: into devotional retirement at Jerusalem and Damascus, and also performed
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: the pilgrimage to Macca. He returned for a short time
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: to Nishapur, the birthplace of Omerkham, his elder contemporary, whom,
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: as Professor Brown tells us in his History of Persian Literature,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: he met and disliked. He finally went back to TuS,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: his native place, where he died a d eleven eleven.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Professor D. B. MacDonald, in an article on Razali in
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: the Journal of the American Oriental Society, quotes the following
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: account of his death, as related by his brother Ahmed.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: On Monday at dawn, my brother performed the ablution in prade.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Then he said, bring me my grave clothes, and he
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: took them and kissed them, and laid them on his eyes,
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: and said, I here and obey the command to go
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: into the King. And he stretched out his feet and
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: went to meet him, and was taken to the good
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: will of God most High. The great service which al
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: Razali rendered to the Sufis was, as mister Winfield has
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: pointed out in the preface of his translation of the MASNVI,
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: to provide them with a metaphysical terminology which he had
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: derived from the writings of Platinus, the neo Platonist. He
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: also gave them a secure position in the Church of Islam.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: In his development of Muslim theology, Professor MacDonald calls Razali
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: the greatest, certainly the most sympathetic figure in the history
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: of Islam, and the only teacher of the after generations
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: ever put by a Muslim on a level with the
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: four great Imams. He further says of him, Islam has
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: never outgrown him, has never fully understood him. In the
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: renaissance of Islam which is now rising to view, his
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: time will come and the new life will proceed from
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: a renewed study of his works end of introduction, Chapter
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: one of the Confessions of al Razali by Abuhamed al Razali,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: translated by Claude Field eighteen sixty three to nineteen forty one.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Rassali's search
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: for truth in the name of the most Merciful God,
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: quoth the Imam Rosali. Glory be to God, whose praise
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: should precede every writing in every speech. May the blessings
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: of God rest on Muhammed, his prophet, and his apostle,
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: and on his family and companions by whose guidance error
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: is escaped. You have asked me, your brother in faith,
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: to expound the aim and the mysteries of religious sciences,
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: the boundaries and depths of theological doctrines. You wish to
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: know my experience while disentangling truth lost in the medley
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: of sects and divergencies of thought, and how I have
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: dared to climb from the low levels of traditional belief
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: to the topmost summit of assurance. You desire to learn
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: what I have borrowed, first of all scholastic theology, and
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: secondly from the method of the Thalamites, who, in seeking truth,
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: rest upon the authority of a leader, and why thirdly
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: I have been led to reject philosophic systems. And finally,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: what I have accepted of the truth of the doctrine
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: of the Sufis and the sum total of truth which
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: I have gathered in studying every variety of opinion. You
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: asked me why, after resigning at Baghda, the teaching post
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: which attracted a number of hearers, I have long afterwards
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: accepted a similar one at Nishapur. Convinced as I am
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: of the sincerity which prompts your inquiries, I proceed to
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: answer them, invoking the help and protection of God. Know then,
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: my brothers, may God direct you in the right way.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: That the diversity in beliefs and religions, and the variety
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: of doctrines and sects which divide men are like a
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: deep ocean strewn with shipwrecks, from which every few escapes
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: safe in sound. Each sect, it is true, believes itself
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: in possession of the truth and of salvation. Each party,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: as the Koran saith, rejoices in its own creed. But
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: as the chief of the Apostles, whose word is always truthful,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: has told us, my people will be divided into more
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: than seventy sects, of whom only one will be saved.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: This prediction, like all others of the prophet, must be fulfilled,
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: from the period of adolescence, that is to say, previous
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: to reaching my twentieth year, to the present time, when
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: I have passed my fiftieth. I I have ventured into
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: this vast ocean. I have fearlessly sounded its depths, and
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: like a resolute diver, I have penetrated its darkness and
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: dared its dangers and abysses. I have interrogated the beliefs
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: of each sect and scrutinized the mysteries of each doctrine,
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: in order to disentangle truth from error and orthodoxy from heresy.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: I have never met one who maintained the hidden meaning
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: of the Koran without investigating the nature of his belief,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: nor a partisan of its exterior sense without inquiring into
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: the results of his doctrine. There is no philosopher whose
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: system I have not fathomed, nor theologian in the intricacies
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: of whose doctrine I have not followed out. Sufism has
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: no secrets into which I have not penetrated. The devout
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: adorer of Deity has revealed to me the aim of
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: his austerities. The atheist has not been able to conceal
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: from me the real reason of his und belief. The
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: thirst for knowledge was innate in me from an earlier
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: It was like a second nature, implanted by God without
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: any will on my part. No sooner had I emerged
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: from boyhood than I had already broken the fetters of
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: tradition and freed myself from hereditary beliefs. Having noticed how
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: easily the children of Christians become Christians and the children
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: of Moslems embrace Islam, and remembering also the traditional saying
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: ascribe to the Prophet, every child has in him the
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: germ of Islam, then his parents make him jew, Christian
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: or Zoroastrian. I was moved by a keen desire to
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: learn what was this innate disposition in the child, the
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: nature of the accidental beliefs imposed on him by the
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: authority of his parents and his masters, and finally, the
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: unreasoned convictions which he derives from their instructions. Struck with
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: the contradicttions which I had encountered. In endeavoring to disentangle
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: the truth and falsehood of these opinions, I was led
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: to make the following reflection, the search after truth being
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: the aim which I proposed to myself. I ought, in
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: the first place, to ascertain what are the basis of certitude.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: In the next place, I recognize that certitude is the
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: clear and complete knowledge of things. Such knowledge as leaves
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: no room for doubt nor possibility of error and conjecture,
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: so that there remains no room in the mind for
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: error to find an entrance. In such a case, it
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: is necessary that the mind, fortified against all possibility of
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: going astray, should embrace such a strong conviction that, if,
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: for example, anyone possessing the power of changing a stone
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: into gold or a stick into a serpent, should seek
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: to shake the basis of this certitude, it would remain
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: firm and immovable. Pose for instance, a man should come
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: and say to me, who am firmly convinced that ten
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: is more than three? No, on the contrary, three is
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: more than ten, And to prove it, I change this
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: rod into a serpent, And supposing that he actually did so,
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: I should remain none the less convinced of the falsity
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: of his assertion, And although his miracle might arouse my astonishment,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: it would not instill any doubt into my belief. I
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: then understood that all forms of knowledge which do not
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: unite these conditions imperviousness to doubt, et cetera, do not
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: deserve any confidence, because they are not beyond the reach
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: of doubt. And what is not impregnable to doubt cannot
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: consist certitude. End of chapter one, Chapter two of the
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: Confessions of Alghazzali by abuhamedl Razali, translated by Claudefield eighteen
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: sixty three to nineteen forty one. This LibriVox recording is
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: in the public domain the subterfuges of the surface. I
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: then examined what knowledge I possessed and discovered that in
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: none of it, with the exception of sense perceptions and
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: necessary principles, did I enjoy that degree of certitude which
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: I have just described. I then sadly reflected as follows,
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: we cannot hope to find truth except in matters which
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: carry their evidence in themselves, that is to say, in
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: sense perceptions and necessary principles. We must therefore establish these
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: on a firm basis is my absolute confidence in sense
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: perceptions and on the infalluability of necessary principles. Analogous to
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: the confidence which I formerly possessed in matters believed on
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: the authority of others. Is it only analogous to the
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: reliance most people place on their organs of vision, or
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: is it rigorously true without admixture of illusion or doubt.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: I then set myself earnestly to examine the notions we
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: derive from the evidence of the senses and from sight,
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: in order to see if they could be called in question.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: The result of a careful examination was that my confidence
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: in them was shaken. Our sight, for instance, perhaps the
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: best practice of our senses, observes a shadow, and, finding
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: it apparently stationary, pronounces it devoid a movement. Observation and experience, however,
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: show subsequently that a shadow moves, not suddenly, it is true,
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: but gradually and imperceptibly, so that it is never really motionless. Again,
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: the eye sees a star and believes it as large
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: as a piece of gold, but mathematical calculations prove on
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: the contrary that it is larger than the earth. These notions,
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: and all others which the senses declare true, are subsequently
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: contradicted and convicted of falsity in an irrefragable manner by
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: the verdict of reason, Then I reflected in myself, since
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: I cannot trust to the evidence of my senses, I
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: must rely only on intellectual notions based on fundamental principles,
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: such as the following axioms. Ten is more than three.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: Affirmation and negation cannot coexist together. A thing cannot both
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: be created and also existent from eternity, living and annihilated simultaneously,
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: at once necessary and impossible. To this, the notions I
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: derived from my senses made the following objections. Who can
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: guarantee you that you can trust to the evidence of
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: reason more than to that of the senses? You believed
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: in our testimony till it was contradicted by the verdict
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: of reason, Otherwise you would have continued to believe it
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: to this day. Well, perhaps there is above reason another judge, who,
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: if he appeared, would convict reason of falsehood, just as
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: reason has confuted us. And if such a third arbiter
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: is not yet apparent, it does not follow that he
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: does not exist. To this argument, I remained some time
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: without reply. A reflection drawn from the phenomena of sleep
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: deepened my doubt. Do you not see? I reflected that
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: while asleep you assume your dreams to be indisputably real.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: Once awake, you recognize them for what they are, baseless chimeras.
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: Who can assure you, then, of the reliability of notions which,
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: when awake you derive from the senses and from reason.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: In relation to your present state, they may be real.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: But it is possible also that you may enter upon
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: another state of being which will bear the same relation
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: to your present state as this does to your condition.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: When asleep. In that new sphere, you will recognize that
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: the conclusions of reason are only chimeras. This possible condition
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: is perhaps that which the Soufis call ecstasy hull, that
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: is to say, according to them, a state in which,
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: absorbed in themselves and in the suspension of sense perceptions,
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: they have visions beyond the reach of intellect. Perhaps also
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: death is that state. According to the saying of the
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: Prince of Prophets, men are asleep. When they die, they wake.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: Our present life in relation to the future is perhaps
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: only a dream, and man, once dead will see in
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: direct opposition to those now before his eyes. He will
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: then understand that the word of the Koran to day
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: we have removed the veil from thine eyes and thy
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: sight is keen. Such thoughts as these threatened to shake
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: my reason, and I sought to find an escape from them.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: But how in order to disentangle the knot of this difficulty,
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: a proof was necessary. Now a proof must be based
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: on primary assumptions, and it was precisely these of which
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: I was in doubt. This unhappy state lasted about two months,
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: during which I was not, it is true, explicitly or
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: by profession, but morally and essentially a thorough going skeptic.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: God at least dying to heal me of this mental malady.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: My mind recovered sanity and equilibrium. The primary assumptions of
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: reason recovered with me all their stringency and force. I
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: owed my delay not to a concoctation of proofs and arguments,
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: but to the light which God caused to penetrate my heart,
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: the light which illuminates the threshold of all knowledge. To
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: suppose that certitude can only be based upon formal arguments
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: is to limit the boundless mercy of God. Some one
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: asked the prophet the explanation of this passage in the
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: Divine Book, God opens to Islam the heart of whom
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: he chooses to direct, that is spoken, replied the prophet
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: of the light which God sheds in the heart, and
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: how can man recognize that light? He was asked by
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: his detachment from this world of illusion and by a
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: secret drawing towards the internal world. The prophet replied. On
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: another occasion, he said, God has created his creatures in darkness,
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: and then has shed upon them his light. It is
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: by the help of this light that the search for
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: truth must be carried on, as by his mercy. This
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: light descends from time to time among men, we must
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: ceaselessly be on the watch for it. This is also
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: corroborated by another saying of the apostle. God sends upon
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: you at certain times breathings of His grace be prepared
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: for them. My object in this account is to make
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: others understand with what earnestness we should search for truth,
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: since it leads to results we never dreamt of. Primary
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: assumptions have not got to be sought for, since they
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: are always present to our minds. If we engage in
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: such a search, we only find them persistently elude our grasp.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: But those who push their investigation beyond ordinary limits are
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: safe from the suspicion of negligence in pursuing what is
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: within their reach. End of chapter.
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: Two, Chapter three of the Confessions of al Ghazali. This
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: LibriVox dot org. Recording by Tom Davis Beeal. The Confessions
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: of ah Gazali by Abu Ahmed Mohammad ibn Mohammad al Ghazali,
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: translated by Claude Field, Chapter three, The different kinds of
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: seekers after Truth. When God, in the abundance of his mercy,
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: had healed me of this malady, I ascertained that those
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: who are engaged in the search for truth may be
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: divided into three groups. One scholastic theologians, who profess to
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: follow theory and speculation. Two the philosophers, who profess to
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: rely upon formal logic. Three the Sufis, who call themselves
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: the elect of God and possessors of intuition and knowledge
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: of the truth by means of ecstasy. The truth, I
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: said to myself must be found among these three classes
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: of men who devote themselves to the search for it.
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: If it escapes them, one must give up all hope
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: of attaining it. Having once surrendered blind belief, it is
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: impossible to return to it, for the essence of such
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: belief is to be unconscious of itself. As soon as
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: this unconsciousness ceases, it is shattered like a glass whose
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: fragments cannot be again reunited, except by being cast again
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: into the furnace and refashioned. Determined to follow these paths
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: and to search out these systems to the bottom, I
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: proceeded with my investment negations in the following order scholastic theology,
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: philosophical systems, and finally Sufism. End of chapter three, Chapter
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: four of the Confessions of ah Gazali. This is a
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: Recording by Tom Davis Beel The Confessions of al Ghazali
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: by Abu Hamed Muhammad ibn Muhammad al Ghazali, translated by
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: Claude Field. Chapter four, the aim of scholastic theology and
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: its results commencing with theological signcience. I carefully studied and
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: meditated upon it. I read the writings of the authorities
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: in this department, and myself composed several treatises. I recognized
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: that this science, while sufficing in its own requirements, could
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: not assist me in arriving at the desired goal. In short,
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: its object is to preserve the purity of Orthodox beliefs
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: from all heretical innovation. God, by means of his apostle,
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: has revealed to his creatures a belief which is true
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: as regards their temporal and eternal interests. The chief articles
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: of it are laid down in the Koran and in
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: the traditions. Subsequently, Satan suggested to innovators principles contrary to
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: those of Orthodoxy. They listened greedily to his suggestions, and
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: the purity of the faith was menaced. God then raised
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: up a school of theologians and inspired them with the
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: desire to defend Orthodoxes by means of a system of
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: proofs adapted to unveil the devices of the heretics and
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: to foil the attacks which they made on the doctrines
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: established by tradition. Such is the origin of Scholastic theology.
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: Many of its adepts, worthy of their high calling, valiantly
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: defended the Orthodox faith by proving the reality of prophecy
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: and the falsity of heretical innovations. But in order to
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: do so, they had to rely upon a certain number
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: of premises which they accepted in common with their adversaries,
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: and which authority and universal consent, or simply the Koran
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: and the traditions, obliged them to accept. Their principal effort
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: was to expose the self contradictions of their opponents, and
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: to confute them by means of the premises which they
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: had professed to accept. Now, a method of argumentation like
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: this has little value for one who only admits self
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: evident truths. Scholastic theology could not consequently satisfy me nor
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: heal the malady from which I suffered. It is true
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: that in its later development, theology was not content merely
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: to defend dogma. It betook itself to the study of
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: first principles of substances, accidents, and the laws which govern them.
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: But through want of a thoroughly scientific basis, it could
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: not advance far in its researches, nor succeed in dispelling
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: entirely the overhanging obscurity which springs from diversities of belief.
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: I do not, however, deny that it has had a
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: more satisfactory result for others. On the contrary, I admit
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: that it has, but it is by introducing the principle
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: of authority in matters which are not self evident. Moreover,
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: my object is to explain my own mental attitude, and
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: not to dispute with those who have found healing for themselves.
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: Remedies vary according to the nature of the disease. Those
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: which benefit some may injure others. Philosophy, how far it
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: is open to censure or not, on what points its
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: adherents may be considered believers or unbelievers, orthodox or heretical.
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: What they have borrowed from the true doctrine to render
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: their chimerical theories acceptable? Why the minds of men swerve
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: from the truth? What criteria are available herewith to separate
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: the pure gold from the alloy in their systems? I
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: proceeded from the philosophy of scholastic theology to that of philosophy.
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: It was plain to me that in order to discover
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: where the professors of any branch of knowledge have aired,
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: one must make a profound study of that science must
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: equal may surpass those who know most of it, so
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: as to pen trait into secrets of it unknown to them.
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: Only by this method can they be completely answered. And
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: of this method I can find no trace in the
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: theologians of Islam. In theological writings devoted to the refutation
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: of philosophy, I have only found a tangled mass of phrases,
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: full of contradictions and mistakes, and incapable of the deceiving.
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: I will not say a critical mind, but even the
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: common crowd convinced that to dream of refuting a doctrine
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: before having thoroughly comprehended it was like shooting at an
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: object in the dark. I devoted myself zealously to the
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: study of philosophy, but in books only, and without the
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: aid of a teacher. I gave up to this work
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: all the leisure remaining from teaching and from composing works
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: on law. There were then attending my lectures three hundred
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: of the students of Baghdad. With the help of God,
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: these studies, carried on in secret speak, put me in
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: a condition to thoroughly comprehend philosophical systems within a space
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: of two years. I then spent about a year in
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: meditating on these systems. After having thoroughly understood them. I
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: turned them over and over in my mind till they
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: were thoroughly clear of all obscurity. In this manner I
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: acquired a complete knowledge of all their subterfuges and subtleties,
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: of what was truth and what was illusion in them.
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: I now proceed to give a resume of these doctrines.
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: I ascertained that they were divided into different varieties, and
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: that their adherents might be ranged under diverse heads. All,
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: in spite of their diversity, are marked with the stamp
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: of infidelity and irreligion. Although there is a considerable difference
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: between the ancient and modern between the first and last
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: of these philosophers, according as they have missed or approximated
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: to the truth in a greater or less degree. End
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: of Chapter four, Chapter five of the Confessions of al Gazali.
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Tom Davis Beeal. The
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: Confessions of al Gazali by Abu Hamed Muhammad ibn Muhammad
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: al Ghazali, translated by Claude Field. Chapter five concerning the
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: philosophical sects, and the stigma of infidelity which attaches to them.
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: All the philosophical systems, in spite of their number and variety,
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: may be reduced to three one the materialists, two the naturalists,
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: three the theists. One the materialists. They reject an intelligent and
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: omnipotent creator and disposer of the universe. In their view,
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: the world exists from all eternity and had no author.
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: The animal comes from semen, and semen from the animal,
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: so it is always been and will always be. Those
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: who maintain this doctrine are atheists, two the naturalists. These
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: devote themselves to the study of nature and of the
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: marvelous phenomena of the animal and vegetable world. Having carefully
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: analyzed animal organs with the help of anatomy, struck with
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: the wonders of God's work, and with the wisdom therein revealed,
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: they are forced to admit the existence of a wise
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: creator who knows the end and purpose of everything. And
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: certainly no one can study anatomy and the wonderful mechanism
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: of living things without being obliged to confess the profound
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: wisdom of Him who has framed the bodies of animals,
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: and especially of man. But carried away by their natural researches,
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: they believed that the existence of a being absolutely depended
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: upon the proper equilibrium of its organism. According to them,
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: as the latter perishes and is destroyed, so is the
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: thinking faculty which is bound up with it. And as
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: they assert that the restoration of the thing once destroyed
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: to existence is unthinkable, they deny the immortality of the soul. Consequently,
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: they deny heaven, hell, resurrection, and judgment, acknowledging neither a
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: recompense for good deeds nor a punishment for evil ones,
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: they fling off all authority and plunge into sensual pleasures
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: with the avidity of brutes. These also ought to be
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: called atheists, for the true faiate depends not only on
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: the acknowledgment of God, but of his apostle and of
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: the day of judgment. And although they acknowledge God and
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: his attributes, they deny a judgment to come. Three next come.
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: The theists among them should be reckoned. Socrates, who was
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: the teacher of Plato as Plato was of Aristotle, This
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: latter drew up for his disciples the rules of logic,
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: organized the sciences, elucidated what was formally obscure and expounded
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: what had not been understood. This school refuted the systems
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: of the two others, i e. The materialists and naturalists,
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: but in exposing their mistaken and perverse beliefs, they made
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: use of arguments which they should not. God suffices to
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: protect the faithful in war Quran thirty three twenty five.
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: Aristotle also contended with success against the theories of Plato, Socrates,
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: and the theists who had preceded him, and separated himself entirely
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: from them. But he could not eliminate from his doctrine
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: the strains of infidelity and heresy which disfigure the teaching
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: of his predecessors. We should therefore consider them all as unbelievers,
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: as well as the so called Mussulman philosophers such as
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: ibincina A, Visenna, and Farabi, who have adopted their systems.
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: Let Us, however, acknowledge that among Mussulman philosophers none have
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: better interpreted the doctrine of Aristotle than the latter. What
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: others have handed down as his teaching is full of error, confusion,
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: and obscurity, adapted to disconcert the reader. The unintelligible, can
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: neither be accepted or rejected. The philosophy of Aristotle, all
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: serious knowledge of which we owe to the translation of
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: these two learned men, may be divided into three portions.
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: Contains matter justly chargeable with impiety, the second is tainted
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: with heresy, and the third we are obliged to reject absolutely.
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: We proceed to details end of chapter five Chapter six
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: of the Confessions of al Gazali. This is a LibriVox recording.
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: by Tom Davis Beial The Confessions of al Ghazali by
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: Abu Hahmed Muhammad ibn Muhammad al Gazali, translated by Claude Field.
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: Chapter six Divisions of the philosophic sciences. These sciences, in
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: relation to the aim we have set before us, may
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: be divided into six sections. One mathematics, two logic, three physics,
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: four metaphysics, five politics, six moral philosophy. Mathematics comprises the
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: knowledge of calculation, geometry, and cosmography. It has no connection
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: to the religious sciences and proves nothing four or against religion,
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: it rests on a foundation of proofs which, once known
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: and understood, cannot be refuted. Mathematics tend, however, to produce
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: two bad results. The first is this, whoever studies this
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: science admires the subtlety and clearness of its proofs. His
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: confidence in philosophy increases, and he thinks that all its
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: departments are capable of the same clearness and solidity of
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: proof as mathematics. But when he hears people speak of
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: the unbelief and impiety of mathematicians, of their professed disregard
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: for the divine law, which is notorious, it is true that,
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: out of regard for authority, he echoes these accusations. But
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: he says to himself at the same time that if
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: there was truth in religion, it would not have escaped
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: those who have displayed so much keenness of intellect in
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: the study of mathematics. Next, when he becomes aware of
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: the unbelief and rejection of religion on the part of
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: these learned men, he concludes that to reject religion is reasonable.
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: How many of such men gone astray? I have met
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: whose sole argument was that just mentioned, And supposing one
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: puts to them, the following objection, It does not follow
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: that a man who excels in one branch of knowledge
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: excels in all others, nor that he should be equally
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: versed in jurisprudence, theology, and medicine. It is possible to
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: be entirely ignorant of metaphysics and yet be an excellent grammarian.
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: There are past masters and every science who are entirely
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: ignorant of other branches of knowledge. The arguments of the
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: ancient philosophers are rigidly demonstrative in mathematics and only conjectural
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: in religious questions. In order to ascertain this, one must
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: proceed to a thorough examination of the matter. Supposing, I say,
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: one makes the above objection to these apes of unbelief,
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: they find it distasteful, falling the prey to their passions,
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: to a basotted vanity, and to the wish to pass
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: for learned men. They persist in maintaining the pre eminence
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: of mathematicians in all branches of knowledge. This is a
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: serious evil, and for this reason those who study mathematics
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: should be checked from going too far in their researches,
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: so far removed as it may be, from the things
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: of religion. This study, serving as it does as an
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: introduction to the philosophic systems, casts over religion its malign influence.
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: It is rarely that a man devotes himself to it
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: without robbing himself of his faith and casting off the
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: restraints of religion. The second evil comes from the sincere
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: but ignorant Mussulman, who thinks the best way to defend
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: religion is by rejecting all the exact sciences, accusing their
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: professors of being astray. He rejects their theories of the
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: eclipses of the sun and moon and condemns them in
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: the name of religion. These accusations are carried far and wide.
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: They reach the ears of the philosopher, who knows that
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: these theories rest on infallible proofs, far from losing confidence,
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: and then he believes, on the contrary, that Islam has
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: ignorance and the denial of scientific proofs for its basis,
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: and his devotion to fullilosophy increases with his hatred to religion.
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: It is therefore a great injury to religion to suppose
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: that the defense of Islam involves the condemnation of the
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: exact sciences. The religious law contains nothing which approves them
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: or condemns them, And in their turn they make no
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: attack on religion. The words of the prophet, the sun
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: and the moon are two signs of the power of God.
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: They are not eclipsed for the birth or death of anyone.
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: When you see these signs, take refuge in prayer and
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: invoke the name of God. These words, I say, do
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: not in any way condemn the astronomical calculations which define
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: the orbits of these two bodies, their conjunction and opposition
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: according to particular laws. But as for the so called tradition,
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: when God reveals himself in anything, he abases himself there too.
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: It is unauthentic and not found in any trustworthy collection
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: of the traditions. Such is the bearing and the possible
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: danger of mathematics two logic. This science, in the same manner,
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: contains nothing for or against religion. Its object is the
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: study of different kinds of proofs and syllogisms, the conditions
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: which should hold between the premises of a proposition, the
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: way to combine them, the rules of a good definition,
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: and the art of formulating it. For knowledge consists of
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: conceptions which spring from a definition, or of convictions which
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: arise from proofs. There is therefore nothing censurable in this science,
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: and it is laid under contribution by theologians as well
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: as by philosophers. The only difference is that the latter
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: use a particular set of technical formulae, and that they
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: push their divisions and subdivisions further. It may be asked,
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: what then, has this to do with the grave questions
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: of religion, and on what ground opposition should be offered
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: to the methods of logic. The objector, it will be said,
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: can only inspire the logician with an unfavorable opinion of
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: the intelligence and faith of his adversary, since the latter's
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: faith seems to be based upon such objections. But it
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: must be admitted logic is liable to abuse. Logicians demand
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: in reasoning certain conditions which lead to absolute certainty, but
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: when they touch on religious questions, they can no longer
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: postulate these conditions, and ought therefore to relax their habitual rigor.
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: It happens accordingly, that a student who is enamored of
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: the individual methods of logic, hearing his teachers accused of irreligion,
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: believes that this irreligion reposes on proofs as strong as
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: those of logic, and immediately without attempting the study of
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: metaphysics shares their mistake. This is a serious disadvantage arising
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: from the study of logic three physics. The object of
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: this science is the study of bodies which compose the universe,
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: the sky and the stars, and here below simple elements
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: such as air, earth, water, fire, and compound bodies, animals, plants,
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: and minerals, the reasons of their changes, developments, and intermixture.
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: By the nature of its researches. It is closely connected
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: with the study of medicine, the object of which is
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: the human body, its principle and secondary organs, and the
• 42:41
  Speaker 2: law which governs their changes. Religion, having no fault to
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: find with medical science, cannot justly do so with physical
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: except on some special matters, which we have mentioned in
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: the work entitled The Destruction of the Philosophers. Besides these
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: primary questions, there are there are some subordinate ones depending
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: on them, on which physical science is open to objection.
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: But all physical science rests, as we believe, on the
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: following principle. Nature is entirely subject to God, incapable of
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: acting by itself. It is an instrument in the hand
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: of the Creator. Sun, moon, stars and elements are subject
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: to God and can produce nothing of themselves. In a word,
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: nothing in nature can act spontaneously in apart from God.
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: Four metaphysics. This is the fruitful breeding ground of the
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: errors of philosophers. Here they can no longer satisfy the
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: laws of rigorous argumentations, such as logic demands, and this
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: is what explains the disputes which arise between them. In
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: the study of metaphysics. The system most closely akin to
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: the system of the Mohammedan doctors is that of Aristotle,
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: as expounded to us by Farrabi and Avicenna. The sum
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: total of their errors. The sum total of their errors
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: can be reduced to twenty propositions. Three of them are
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: irreligious and the other seventeen heretical. It was in order
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: to combat their system that we wrote the book Destruction
• 44:22
  Speaker 2: of the Philosophers. The three propositions in which they are
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: opposed to all the doctrines of Islam are the following one.
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: Bodies do not rise again. Spirits alone will be rewarded
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: or punished. Future punishments will be therefore spiritual and not physical.
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: They are right in admitting spiritual punishments for there will
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: be such. But they are wrong in rejecting physical punishments
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: and contradicting in this manner the assertions of the Divine Law. Two.
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: God takes cognizance of universals, not of specials. This is
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: manifestly irreligious. The Quran asserts truly, not an atom's weight
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: in heaven or Earth can escape his knowledge ten sixty
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: two three. They maintain that the universe exists from all
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: eternity and will never end. None of these propositions have
• 45:22
  Speaker 2: ever been admitted by Muslims. Besides this, they deny that
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: God has attributes, and maintain that He knows by his
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: essence only, and not by means of any attribute accessory
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: to his essence. In this point they approach the doctrine
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: of the mutisilites, doctrines which we are not obliged to
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: condemn as irreligious. On the contrary, in our work entitled
• 45:49
  Speaker 2: Criteria of the Differences which divide Islam from Atheism, we
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: have proved the wrongness of those who accuse of irreligion
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: everything which is opposed to their way of looking at things.
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: Section five Political science. The professors of this confine themselves
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: to drawing up the rules which regulate temporal matters and
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: the royal power. They have borrowed their theories on this
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: point from the books which God has revealed to his prophets,
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: and from the sentences of ancient sages gathered by tradition
• 46:26
  Speaker 2: six moral philosophy. The professors of this occupy themselves with
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: defining the attributes and qualities of the soul, grouping them
• 46:37
  Speaker 2: according to genus and species, and pointing out the way
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: to moderate and control them. They have borrowed this system
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: from the Sufis. These devout men, who are always engaged
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: in invoking the name of God, in combating concupiscence, and
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: following the way of God by renouncing the pleasures of
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: this world, have received, while in a state of ecstasy,
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: revelations regarding the qualities of the soul, its defects, and
• 47:05
  Speaker 2: its evil inclinations. These revelations they have published, and the
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: philosophers making use of them have introduced them into their
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: own systems in order to embellish and give currency to
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: their falsehoods. In the times of the philosophers, as at
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: every other period, there existed some of these fervent mystics.
• 47:26
  Speaker 2: God does not deprive this world of them for they
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: are its sustainers, and they draw down to it the
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: blessings of heaven. According to the tradition, it is by
• 47:36
  Speaker 2: them that you obtain rain. It is by them that
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: you receive your subsistence. Such were the companions of the
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: Cave who lived in ancient times, as related by the
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: Qur'an eighteen. Now, this mixture of moral and philosophic doctrine
• 47:55
  Speaker 2: with the words of the prophet and those of the
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: Sufis gives rise to two dangs, one for the upholder
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: of these doctrines, the other for their opponent. The danger
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: for their opponent is serious. A narrow minded man, finding
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: in their writings moral philosophy mixed with unsupported theories, believes
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: that he ought to entirely reject them and to condemn
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: those who profess them, having only heard them from their mouth.
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: He does not hesitate in his ignorance to declare them false,
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: because those who teach them are in error. It is
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: as if someone was to reject the profession of faith
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: made by Christians. There is only one God, and Jesus
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: is his prophet, simply because it proceeds from Christians, and
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: without inquiring whether it is the profession of this creed
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: or the denial of Muhammad's prophetic mission, which makes Christians infidels. Now,
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: if they are only infidels because of their rejection of
• 48:56
  Speaker 2: our prophet, we are not entitled to reject those of
• 48:59
  Speaker 2: their doctor doctrines which do not wear the stamp of infidelity.
• 49:04
  Speaker 2: In a word, truth does not cease to be true
• 49:06
  Speaker 2: because it is found among them. Such, however, is the
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: tendency of weak minds. They judge the truth according to
• 49:13
  Speaker 2: its professors, instead of judging its professors by the standard
• 49:17
  Speaker 2: of the truth. But a liberal spirit will take as
• 49:21
  Speaker 2: its guide this maxim of the Prince of Believers, Ali,
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: the son of Abu Talib. Do not seek for the
• 49:31
  Speaker 2: truth by means of men. Find first the truth, and
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: then you will recognize those who follow it. This is
• 49:40
  Speaker 2: the procedure followed by a wise man. Once in the
• 49:43
  Speaker 2: possession of the truth, he examines the basis of various
• 49:46
  Speaker 2: doctrines which come before him, and when he has found
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: them true, he accepts them without troubling himself whether the
• 49:54
  Speaker 2: person who teaches them is sincere or a deceiver. Much Rather,
• 49:59
  Speaker 2: remembering how gold is buried in the bowels of the earth,
• 50:02
  Speaker 2: he endeavors to disengage the truth from the mass of
• 50:05
  Speaker 2: errors in which it is engulfed. The skilled coin assayer
• 50:10
  Speaker 2: plunges without hesitation his hand into the purse of the
• 50:13
  Speaker 2: coiner of false money, and relying on expertise, separates good
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: coins from bad. It is the ignorant, rustic, and not
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: the experienced assayer, who will ask why we should have
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: anything to do with a false coiner. The unskilled swimmer
• 50:29
  Speaker 2: must be kept away from the seashore, not the expert
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: in diving. The child, not the charmer, must be forbidden
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: to handle serpents. As a matter of fact, men have
• 50:42
  Speaker 2: such a good opinion of themselves, of their mental superiority
• 50:46
  Speaker 2: and intellectual depth. They believe themselves so skilled in discerning
• 50:50
  Speaker 2: the true from the false, the path of safety from
• 50:53
  Speaker 2: those of error, that they should be forbidden as much
• 50:56
  Speaker 2: as possible the perusal of philosophic writings. For though they
• 51:01
  Speaker 2: sometimes escape the danger just pointed out, they cannot avoid
• 51:05
  Speaker 2: that which we are about to indicate. Some of the
• 51:08
  Speaker 2: maxims found in my works regarding the mysteries of religion
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: have met with objectors of an inferior rank in science,
• 51:16
  Speaker 2: whose intellectual penetration is insufficient to fathom such depths. They
• 51:22
  Speaker 2: assert that these maxims are borrowed from the ancient philosophers,
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: whereas the truth is that they are the fruit of
• 51:29
  Speaker 2: my own meditations. But, as the proverb says, sandal follows
• 51:34
  Speaker 2: the impress of sandal, some of them are found in
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: our books of religious law, but the greater part are
• 51:41
  Speaker 2: derived from the writings of the Sufis. But even if
• 51:46
  Speaker 2: they were borrowed exclusively from the doctrines of the philosophers,
• 51:51
  Speaker 2: is it right to reject an opinion when it is
• 51:53
  Speaker 2: reasonable in itself, supported by solid proofs, and contradicting neither
• 51:59
  Speaker 2: the Koran nor the traditions. If we adopt this method
• 52:03
  Speaker 2: and reject every truth which has chanced to have been
• 52:06
  Speaker 2: proclaimed by an impostor, how many truths we should have
• 52:09
  Speaker 2: to reject, how many verses of the Qoran and traditions
• 52:14
  Speaker 2: of the prophets, and Sufi discourses and maxims of sages
• 52:18
  Speaker 2: we must close our ears to, because the author of
• 52:21
  Speaker 2: the Treatise of the Brothers of Purity has inserted them
• 52:25
  Speaker 2: in his writings in order to further his cause, and
• 52:28
  Speaker 2: in order to lead minds gradually astray in the paths
• 52:31
  Speaker 2: of error. The consequence of this procedure would be that
• 52:35
  Speaker 2: impostors would snatch truths out of our hands in order
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: to embellish their own works. The wise man, at least
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: should not make common cause with the bigot blinded by ignorance.
• 52:49
  Speaker 2: Honey does not become impure because it may happen to
• 52:52
  Speaker 2: have been placed in the glass which the surgeon uses
• 52:55
  Speaker 2: for cupping purposes. The impurity of blood is due not
• 52:59
  Speaker 2: to its contact with this glass, but to a peculiarity
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: inherent in its own nature. This peculiarity, not existing in honey,
• 53:09
  Speaker 2: cannot be communicated to it by its being placed in
• 53:12
  Speaker 2: the cupping glass. It is therefore wrong to regard it
• 53:16
  Speaker 2: as impure. Such is, however, the whimsical way of looking
• 53:21
  Speaker 2: at things, found in nearly all men. Every word proceeding
• 53:25
  Speaker 2: from an authority which they approve is accepted by them,
• 53:29
  Speaker 2: even were it false. Every word proceeding from one whom
• 53:33
  Speaker 2: they suspect is rejected, even were it true. In every case,
• 53:39
  Speaker 2: they judge of the truth according to its professors, and
• 53:42
  Speaker 2: not of men according to the truth which they profess.
• 53:46
  Speaker 2: A ultra of error. Such is the peril in which
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: philosophy involves its opponents. The second danger threatens those who
• 53:55
  Speaker 2: accept the opinions of the philosophers. When, for instance, we
• 54:00
  Speaker 2: read the treatises of the Brothers of Purity and other
• 54:03
  Speaker 2: works of the same kind, we find in them sentences
• 54:06
  Speaker 2: spoken by the prophet and quotations from the Sufis. We
• 54:10
  Speaker 2: approve these works, we give them our confidence, and we
• 54:14
  Speaker 2: finish by accepting the errors which they contain, because of
• 54:17
  Speaker 2: the good opinion of them with which they have inspired
• 54:20
  Speaker 2: us at the outset. Thus, by insensible degrees we are
• 54:26
  Speaker 2: led astray. In view of this danger, the reading of
• 54:29
  Speaker 2: philosophic writings so full of vain and delusive utopias should
• 54:34
  Speaker 2: be forbidden, just as the slippery banks of a river
• 54:37
  Speaker 2: are forbidden to one who knows not how to swim.
• 54:41
  Speaker 2: The perusal of these false teachings must be prevented, just
• 54:45
  Speaker 2: as one prevents children from touching serpents. A snake charmer
• 54:50
  Speaker 2: himself will abstain from touching snakes in the presence of
• 54:53
  Speaker 2: his young child because he knows that the child, believing
• 54:57
  Speaker 2: himself as clever as his father, will not fail to
• 55:00
  Speaker 2: imitate him, and, in order to lend more weight to
• 55:03
  Speaker 2: his prohibition, the charmer will not touch a serpent under
• 55:07
  Speaker 2: the eyes of his son. Such should be the conduct
• 55:11
  Speaker 2: of a learned man who is also wise. But the
• 55:15
  Speaker 2: snake charmer, after having taken the serpent and separated the
• 55:18
  Speaker 2: venom from the antidote, having put the latter on one side,
• 55:22
  Speaker 2: and destroyed the venom, ought not to withhold the antidote
• 55:26
  Speaker 2: from those who need it. In the same way, the
• 55:28
  Speaker 2: skilled coin a sayer, after having put his hand in
• 55:32
  Speaker 2: the bag of the false coiner, taken out the good
• 55:35
  Speaker 2: coins and thrown away the bad ones, ought not to
• 55:37
  Speaker 2: refuse the good to those who need and ask for it.
• 55:41
  Speaker 2: Such should be the conduct of the learned man. If
• 55:46
  Speaker 2: the patient feels a certain dislike of the antidote, because
• 55:48
  Speaker 2: he knows that it is taken from a snake, whose
• 55:51
  Speaker 2: body is the receptacle of poison, he should be disabused
• 55:55
  Speaker 2: of his fallacy. If a beggar hesitates to take a
• 55:59
  Speaker 2: peace of gold, which he knows comes from the purse
• 56:02
  Speaker 2: of a false coiner, he should be told that his
• 56:04
  Speaker 2: hesitation is a pure mistake, which should deprive him of
• 56:08
  Speaker 2: the advantage which he seeks. It should be proved to
• 56:12
  Speaker 2: him that the contact of the good coins with the
• 56:14
  Speaker 2: bad does not injure the former, and does not improve
• 56:18
  Speaker 2: the latter. In the same way, the contact of truth
• 56:22
  Speaker 2: with falsehood does not change truth into falsehood any more
• 56:26
  Speaker 2: than it changes falsehood into truth. Thus much then we
• 56:32
  Speaker 2: have to say regarding the inconveniences and dangers which spring
• 56:36
  Speaker 2: from the study of philosophy. End of chapter six, Chapter
• 56:47
  Speaker 2: seven of the Confessions of al Ghazali. This is a
• 56:52
  Speaker 2: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 56:57
  Speaker 2: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 57:03
  Speaker 2: Recording by Tom Davis Biel. The Confessions of al Ghazali
• 57:09
  Speaker 2: by Abu Ahmed Muhammad ibn Muhammad al Ghazali, translated by
• 57:15
  Speaker 2: Claude Field, Chapter seven Sufism. When I had finished my
• 57:22
  Speaker 2: examination of these doctrines, I applied myself to the study
• 57:25
  Speaker 2: of Sufism. I saw that in order to understand it thoroughly,
• 57:29
  Speaker 2: one must combine theory with practice. The aim which the
• 57:34
  Speaker 2: sufis set before them is as follows, to free the
• 57:38
  Speaker 2: soul from the tyrannical yoke of the passions, to deliver
• 57:42
  Speaker 2: it from its wrong inclinations and evil instincts. In order
• 57:46
  Speaker 2: that in the purified heart there should only remain room
• 57:49
  Speaker 2: for God and for the invocation of His holy name.
• 57:55
  Speaker 2: As it was more easy to learn their doctrine than
• 57:58
  Speaker 2: to practice it, I studied red first all of those
• 58:01
  Speaker 2: of their books which contain it, the Nourishment of Hearts
• 58:06
  Speaker 2: by Abu Taleb of Mecca, the works of Hareth el Muhasibi,
• 58:11
  Speaker 2: and the fragments which still remain of Junaid Shibli, Abu
• 58:16
  Speaker 2: Yazid Bustami and other leaders whose souls may God sanctify.
• 58:23
  Speaker 2: I acquired a thorough knowledge of their researches, and I
• 58:26
  Speaker 2: learned all that was possible to learn of their methods.
• 58:29
  Speaker 2: By study and oral teaching. It became clear to me
• 58:33
  Speaker 2: that the last stage could not be reached by mere instruction,
• 58:37
  Speaker 2: but only by transport ecstasy and the transformation of the
• 58:41
  Speaker 2: moral being. To define health and satiety, to penetrate their
• 58:48
  Speaker 2: causes and conditions, it is quite another thing from being
• 58:52
  Speaker 2: well and satisfied to define drunkenness. To know that it
• 58:56
  Speaker 2: is caused by vapors which rise from the stomach and
• 58:59
  Speaker 2: cloud the seat of intelligence is quite a different thing
• 59:03
  Speaker 2: to being drunk. The drunken man has no idea of
• 59:07
  Speaker 2: the nature of drunkenness just because he is drunk and
• 59:10
  Speaker 2: not in a condition to understand anything, while the doctor,
• 59:14
  Speaker 2: not being under the influence of drunkenness, knows its character
• 59:18
  Speaker 2: and laws, or if the doctor fall ill, he has
• 59:22
  Speaker 2: a theoretical knowledge of the health of which he is deprived.
• 59:27
  Speaker 2: In the same way, there is a considerable difference between
• 59:30
  Speaker 2: knowing renouncement comprehending its conditions and causes, and practicing renouncement
• 59:36
  Speaker 2: and detachment from the things of this world. I saw
• 59:40
  Speaker 2: that Sufism consists in experiences rather than in definitions, and
• 59:45
  Speaker 2: that what I was lacking belonged to the domain not
• 59:49
  Speaker 2: of instruction, but of ecstasy and initiation. The researches to
• 59:55
  Speaker 2: which I had devoted myself, the path which I had
• 59:58
  Speaker 2: traversed in studying religious and inas speculative branches of knowledge,
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 2: had given me a firm faith in three things, God, inspiration,
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 2: and the last judgment. These three fundamental articles of belief
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 2: were confirmed in me not merely by definite arguments, but
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 2: by a chain of causes, circumstances, and proofs which it
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 2: is impossible to recount. I saw that one can only
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 2: hope for salvation by devotion and the conquest of one's passions,
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 2: a procedure which supposes renouncement and detachment from this world
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 2: of falsehood in order to turn towards eternity and meditation
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 2: on God. Finally, I saw that the only condition of
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 2: success was to sacrifice honors and riches, and to sever
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 2: the ties and attachments of worldly life. Coming seriously to
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 2: consider my state, I found myself bound down on all
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 2: sides by these trammels. Examining my actions, the most fair
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 2: seeming of which were my lecturing and professorial occupations, I found,
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 2: to my surprise that I was engrossed in several studies
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 2: of little value and profitless. As regards my salvation, I
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 2: probed the motives of my teaching and found that, in
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 2: place of being sincerely consecrated to God, it was only
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 2: actuated by a vain desire of honor and reputation. I
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 2: perceived that I was on the edge of an abyss,
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 2: and that without immediate conversion I should be doomed to
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 2: eternal fire. In these reflections, I spent a long time
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 2: still a prey to uncertainty. One day I decided to
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 2: leave Baghdad and to give up everything. The next day,
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 2: I gave up my resolution. I advanced one step and
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 2: immediately relapsed. In the morning, I was sincerely resolved only
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 2: to occupy myself with the future life. In the evening,
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 2: a crowd of carnal thoughts assailed and dispersed my resolutions.
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 2: On the one side, the world kept me bound to
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 2: my post and the chains of covetousness. On the other side,
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 2: the voice of religion cried up to me, up up.
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 2: Thy life is nearing its end, and thou hast a
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 2: long journey to make all thy pretended knowledge is naught
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 2: but falsehood and fantasy. If thou dost not think now
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 2: of thy salvation when wilt thou think of it, If
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 2: thou dost not break thy chains today, when wilt thou
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 2: break them, then my resolve was strengthened. I wish to
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 2: give up all and flee. But the tempter, returning to
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 2: the attack, said, you are suffering from a transitory feeling.
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 2: Don't give way to it, for it will soon pass
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 2: if you obey it. If you give up this fine position,
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 2: this honorable post, exempt from trouble and rivalry, the seat
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 2: of authority, safe from attack, you will regret it. Later
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 2: on without being able to recover it. Thus I remained
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 2: torn asunder by the opposite forces of earthly passions and
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 2: religious aspirations for about six months from the month Rajab
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 2: of the year A d one thy ninety six. At
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 2: the close of them, my will yielded, and I gave
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 2: myself up to destiny. God caused an impediment to chain
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 2: my tongue and prevented me from lecturing vainly. I desired,
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 2: in the interest of my pupils to go on with
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 2: my teaching, but my mouth became dumb. The silence to
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 2: which I was condemned cast me into a violent despair.
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 2: My stomach became weak. I lost all appetite. I could
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 2: neither swallow a morsel of bread nor drink a drop
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 2: of water. The enfeeblement of my physical powers was such
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 2: that the doctor's despairing of saving me, said, the mischief
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 2: is in the heart and has communicated itself to the
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 2: whole organism. There is no hope unless the cause of
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 2: his grievous sadness be arrested. Finally, conscious of my weakness
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 2: and the prostration of my soul, I took refuge in
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 2: God as a man at the end of himself and
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 2: without resources. He who hears the wretched when they cry
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 2: Koran twenty seven sixty three, deigned to hear me. He
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 2: made easy to me the sacrifice of honors, wealth and family.
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 2: I gave out publicly that I intended to make the
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 2: pilgrimage to Mecca, while I secretly resolved to go to Syria,
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 2: not wishing that the Caliph may God magnify him, or
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 2: my friends should know my intention of settling in that country.
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 2: I made all kinds of clever excuses for leaving Baghdad
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 2: with the fixed intention of not returning thither. The Imams
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 2: of Iraq criticized me with one accord. Not one of
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 2: them could admit that this sacrifice had a religious motive,
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 2: because they considered my position as the highest attainable in
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 2: the religious community. Behold how far their knowledge goes Karan
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 2: fifty three thirty one. All kinds of explanations of my
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 2: conduct were forthcoming. Those who were outside the limits of
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 2: Arak attributed it to the fear with which the government
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 2: inspired me. Those who were on the spot saw how
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 2: the authorities wished to detain me. Their displeasure at my
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 2: resolution and my refusal of their request, said to themselves,
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 2: it is a calamity which one can only impute to
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 2: a fate which has befallen the faithful and learning. At last,
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 2: I left Baghdad, giving up all my fortune only as
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 2: lands and property in Iraq can afford an endowment for
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 2: pious purposes. I obtained a legal authorization to preserve as
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 2: much as was necessary for my support and that of
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 2: my children, For there is surely nothing more lawful in
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 2: the world than that a learned man should provide sufficient
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 2: to support his family. I then betook myself to Syria,
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 2: where I remained for two years, which I devoted to retirement, meditation,
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 2: and devout exercises. I only thought of self improvement and discipline,
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 2: and of purification of the heart by prayer. In going
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 2: through the forms of devotion which the Sufis had taught me.
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 2: I used to live a solitary life in the Mosque
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 2: of Damascus, and was in the habit of spending my
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 2: days on the minaret after closing the door behind me.
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 2: From thence I proceeded to Jerusalem and every day secluded
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 2: myself in the sanctuary of the Rock. After that, I
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 2: felt a desire to accomplish the pilgrimage and to receive
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 2: a full effusion of grace by visiting Mecca Medina and
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 2: the tomb of the Prophet. After visiting the shrine of
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 2: the Friend of God Abraham, I went to the Hedjaz. Finally,
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 2: the longings of my heart and the prayers of my
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 2: children brought me back to my country. Although I was
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 2: so firmly resolved at first never to revisit it at
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 2: any rate, I meant if I did return to live
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 2: there solitary and in religious meditation. But events, family cares,
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 2: and vicissitudes of life changed my resolutions and troubled my
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 2: meditative calm. However irregular the intervals which I could give
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 2: to devotional ecstasy, my confidence in it did not diminish,
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 2: and the more I was diverted by hindrances, the more
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 2: steadfastly I returned to it. Ten years passed in this manner.
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 2: During my successive periods of meditation, there were revealed to
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 2: me things impossible to recount. All that I shall say
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 2: for the edification of the reader is this. I learnt
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 2: from a sure source, that the Sufis are the true
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 2: pioneers on the path of God. That there is nothing
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 2: more beautiful than their life, nor more praiseworthy than their
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 2: rule of conduct, nor purer than their morality. The intelligence
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 2: of thinkers, the wisdom of philosophers, the knowledge of the
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 2: most learned doctors of the law, would in vain combine
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 2: their efforts in order to modify or improve their doctrine
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 2: and morals. It would be impossible. With the Sufis, repose
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 2: and movement exterior or interior are illumined with the light
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 2: which proceeds from the central radiance of inspiration. And what
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 2: other light could shine on the face of the earth.
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 2: In a word, what can one criticize in them? To
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 2: purge the heart of all that does not belong to
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 2: God is the first step in their cathartic method. The
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 2: drawing up of the heart by prayer is the keystone
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 2: of it, as the cry Allahu Akbar God is Great
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 2: is the keystone of prayer. And the last stage is
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 2: the being lost in God. I say the last stage
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 2: with reference to what may be reached by an effort
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 2: of will, But to tell the truth, it is only
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 2: the first stage in the life of contemplation, the vestibule
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 2: by which the initiated enter from the time that they
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 2: set out on this path, revelations commence for them. They
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 2: come to see in the walking state, angels and souls
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 2: of prophets. They hear their voices and wise counsels. By
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 2: means of this contemplation of heavy forms and images, they
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 2: rise by degrees to heights which human intelligence cannot reach,
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 2: which one cannot even indicate without falling into great and
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 2: inevitable errors. The degree of proximity to Deity which they
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 2: attain is regarded by some as intermixture of being hallol,
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 2: by others as identification ittihad, by others as intimate union wossle.
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 2: But all these expressions are wrong. As we have explained
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 2: in our o work entitled the Chief Aim, those who
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 2: have reached that stage should confine themselves to repeating the
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 2: verse what I experience, I shall try not to say,
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 2: call me happy, but ask me no more. In short,
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 2: he who does not arrive at the institution of these
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 2: truths by means of ecstasy knows only the name of inspiration.
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 2: The miracles wrought by the saints are in fact merely
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 2: the earliest forms of prophetic manifestation. Such was the state
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 2: of the Apostle of God, when before receiving his commission,
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 2: he retired to Mounthira to give himself up to such
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 2: intensity of prayer and meditation that the Arab said Muhammad
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 2: is become enamored of God. This state then can be
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 2: revealed to the initiated in ecstasy, and to him who
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 2: is incapable of ecstasy by obedience and ms attention, on
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 2: condition that he frequents the society of Sufi's till he arrives.
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 2: So to speak, at an imitative initiation. Such is the
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 2: faith which one can obtain by remaining among them, and
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 2: intercourse with them is never painful. But even when we
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 2: are deprived of the advantage of their society, we can
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 2: comprehend the possibility of the state revelation by means of ecstasy,
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 2: by a chain of manifest proofs. We have explained this
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 2: in the treatise entitled Marvels of the Heart, which forms
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 2: part of our work the Revival of the religious sciences.
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 2: The certitude derived from proofs is called knowledge. Passing into
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 2: the state we describe is called transport believing the experience
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 2: of others, and oral transmission is faith. Such are the
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 2: three degrees of knowledge. As it is written, the Lord
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 2: will raise to different ranks those among you who have
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 2: believed and those who have received knowledge from Him Koran
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 2: fifty eight twelve. But behind those who believe comes a
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 2: crowd of ignorant people who deny the reality of Sufism.
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 2: Here discourses on it with incredulous irony, and treat as
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 2: Charlatan's those who profess it. To this ignorant crowd. The
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 2: verse applies. There are those among them who come to
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 2: listen to THEE, and when they leave, THEE ask of
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 2: those who have received knowledge, what has he just said?
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 2: These are they whose hearts God has sealed up with blindness,
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 2: and who only follow their passions. Among the number of
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 2: convictions which I owe to the practice of the Sufi
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 2: rule is the knowledge of the true nature of inspiration.
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 2: This knowledge is of such great importance that I proceed
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 2: to expound it in detail. End of chapter seven, Chapter
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 2: eight of the Confessions of al Ghazali. This is the
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 2: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 2: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 2: Recording by Tom Davis Biel. The Confessions of al Ghazali
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 2: by Abuhamad Muhammad ibn. Muhammad al Ghazali, translated by Claude Field,
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 2: Chapter eight, The reality of inspiration its importance for the
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 2: human race. The substance of man at the moment of
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 2: its creation is a simple monad, devoid of knowledge of
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 2: the world's subject to the creator worlds whose infinite number
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 2: is only known to him, As the Koran says, only
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 2: thy Lord knoweth the number of his armies. Man arived
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 2: at this knowledge by the aid of his perceptions. Each
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 2: of his senses is given him that he may comprehend
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 2: the world of created things, and by the term world
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 2: we understand the different species of creatures. The first sense
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 2: revealed to man is touch, by means of which he
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 2: perceives a certain group of qualities heat, cold, moist dry.
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 2: The sense of touch does not perceive colors and forms,
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 2: which are for it as though they did not exist.
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 2: Next comes the sense of sight, which makes him acquainted
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 2: with colors and forms, that is to say, with that
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 2: which occupies the highest rank in the world of sensation.
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 2: The sense of hearing succeeds, and then the senses of
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 2: smell and taste. When the human being can elevate himself
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 2: above the world of sense, towards the age of seven,
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 2: he receives the faculty of discrimination. He enters then upon
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 2: a new phase of existence, and can experience, thanks to
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 2: this faculty, impressions superior to those of the senses, which
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 2: do not occur in the sphere of sensation. He then
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 2: passes to another phase and receives reason, by which he
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 2: discerns things necessary, possible, and impossible, in a word, all
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 2: the notions which he could not combine in the former
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 2: stages of his existence. But beyond reason and at a
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 2: higher level, a new faculty of vision is bestowed upon him,
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 2: by which he perceives invisible things, the secrets of the future,
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 2: and other concepts as inaccessible to reason, as the concepts
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 2: of reason are inaccessible to mere discrimination, and what is
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 2: perceived by discrimination to the senses. Just as the man
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 2: possessed only of discrimination rejects and denies the notions acquired
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 2: by reason, so do certain rationalists reject and deny the
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 2: notion of inspiration. It is a proof of their profound ignorance,
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 2: for instead of argument, they merely deny inspiration as a
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 2: sphere unknown and possessing no real existence. In the same way,
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 2: a man blind from birth who knows neither by experience
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 2: nor by information, what colours informs are, neither knows nor
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 2: understands them when one speaks of them to him for
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 2: the first time. God, wishing to render intelligible to men
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 2: the idea of inspiration, has given them a kind of
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 2: glimpse of it in sleep. In fact, man perceives while
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 2: asleep the things of the invisible world, either clearly manifest
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 2: or under the veil of allegory, to be subsequently lifted
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 2: by divination. If, however, one was to say to a
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 2: person who had never himself experienced these dreams, that in
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 2: a state of lethargy resembling death, and during the complete
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 2: suspension of light, hearing, and all the senses, a man
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 2: can see the things of the invisible world, this person
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 2: would exclaim and seek to prove the impossibility of these
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 2: visions by some such argument as the following. The sensitive
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 2: faculties are the causes of perception. Now, if one can
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 2: perceive certain things when one is in full possession of
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 2: these faculties, how much more is their perception impossible when
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 2: these faculties are suspended. The falsity of such an argument
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 2: is shown by evidence and experience. For in the same
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 2: way as reason constitutes a particular sense of existence in
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 2: which intellectual concepts are perceived which are hidden from the senses. Similarly,
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 2: inspiration is a special state in which the inner eye discovers,
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 2: revealed by a celestial light, mysteries out of the reach
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 2: of reason. The doubts which are raised regarding inspiration relate
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 2: one to its possibility, two to its real and actual existence,
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 2: three to its manifestation in this or that person. To
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 2: prove the possibility of inspiration is to prove that it
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 2: belongs to a category of branches of knowledge which cannot
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 2: be attained by reason. It is the same with medical
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 2: science and astronomy. He who studies them is obliged to
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 2: recognize that they are derived solely from the revelation and
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 2: special grace of God. Some astronomical phenomena only occur once
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 2: in a thousand years. How then, can we know them
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 2: by experience? We may say the same of inspiration, which
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 2: is one of the branches of intuitional knowledge. Further, the
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 2: perception of things which are beyond the attainment of reason
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 2: is only one of the features peculiar to inspiration, which
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 2: possesses a great number of others. The characteristic which we
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 2: have mentioned is only as it were a drop of
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 2: water in the ocean, And we have mentioned it because
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 2: people experience what is analogous to it in dreams and
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 2: in the sciences of medicine and astronomy. These branches of
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 2: knowledge belong to the domain of prophetic miracles, and reason
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 2: cannot attain to them. As to the other characteristics of inspiration,
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 2: they are only revealed to adepts in sufism and in
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 2: a state of ecstatic transport. The little that we know
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 2: of the nature of inspiration we owe to the kind
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 2: of likeness to it which we find in sleep. Without
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 2: that we should be incapable of comprehending it and consequently
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 2: of believing in it, For conviction results from comprehension. The
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 2: process of initiation into Sufism exhibits this likeness to inspiration
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 2: from the first. There is in it a kind of
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 2: ecstasy proportioned to the condition of the person initiated, and
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 2: a degree of certitude and conviction which cannot be attained
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 2: by reason. This single fact is sufficient to make us
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 2: believe in inspiration. We come now to deal with doubts
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 2: relative to the inspiration of a particular profit We shall
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 2: not arrive at certitude on this point except by ascertaining,
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 2: either by ocular evidence or by reliable tradition, the facts
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 2: relating to that profit. When we have ascertained the real
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 2: needs sure of inspiration and proceed to the serious study
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 2: of the Koran and the traditions, we shall then know
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 2: certainly that Mohammed is the greatest of prophets. After that,
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 2: we should fortify our conviction by verifying the truth of
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 2: his preaching and the salutary effect which it has upon
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 2: the soul. We should verify and experience the truth of
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 2: sentences such as the following. He who makes his conduct
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 2: accord with his knowledge receives from God more knowledge, or
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 2: this God delivers to the oppressor, him who favors injustice.
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 2: Or again, whosoever, when rising in the morning, has only
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 2: one anxiety to please God, God will preserve him from
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 2: all anxiety in this world and the next. When we
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 2: have verified these sayings in experience thousands of times, we
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 2: shall be in possession of a certitude on which doubt
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 2: can obtain no hold. Such is the path we must
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 2: traverse in order to realize the truth of inspiration. It
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 2: is not a question of finding out whether a rod
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 2: has been changed into a serpent, or whether the moon
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 2: has been split in two. If we regard miracles in isolation,
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 2: without their countless attendant circumstances, we shall be liable to
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 2: confound them with magic and falsehood, or to regard them
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 2: as a means of leading menestrae. As it is written,
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 2: God misleads and directs as he chooses Koran thirty five nine,
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 2: we shall find ourselves involved in all the difficulties which
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 2: the question of miracles raises. If, for instance, we believe
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 2: that eloquence of style is a proof of inspiration, it
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 2: is possible that an eloquent style composed with this object
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 2: may inspire us with a false belief in the inspiration
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 2: of him who wields it. The supernatural should be only
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 2: one of the constituents which go to form our belief,
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 2: without our placing too much reliance on this or that detail.
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 2: We should rather resemble a person who, learning a fact
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 2: from a group of people, cannot point to this or
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 2: that particular man as his informant, and who, not distinguishing
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 2: between them, cannot explain precisely how his conviction regarding the
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 2: fact has been formed. Such are the characteristics of scientific certitude.
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 2: As to the transport which permits men to see the
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 2: truth and so to speak to handle it, it is
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 2: only known to the sufis. What I have just said
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 2: regarding the true nature of inspiration is sufficient for the
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 2: aim which I have proposed to myself. I may return
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 2: to the subject later if necessary. I pass now to
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 2: the causes of the decay of faith, and show the
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 2: means of bringing back those who have aired, and of
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 2: preserving them from the dangers which threaten them To those
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 2: who doubt, because they are tinctured with the doctrine of
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 2: the ta Limitis. Treatis entitled The Just Balance affords a
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 2: sufficient guide. Therefore, it is unnecessary to return to the
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 2: subject here. As to the vein theories of the Ibahat,
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 2: I have grouped them in seven classes and explained them
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 2: in the work entitled Alchemy of Happiness. For those whose
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 2: faith has been undermined by philosophy so far that they
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 2: deny the reality of inspiration, we have proved the truth
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 2: and necessity of it, seeking our proofs in the hidden
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 2: properties of medicines and of the heavenly bodies. It is
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 2: for them that we have written this treatise. And the
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 2: reason for our seeking for proofs in the sciences of
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 2: medicine and of astronomy is because these sciences belong to
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 2: the domain of philosophy. All those branches of knowledge which
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 2: our opponents boast of astronomy, medicine, physics, and divination provide
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 2: us with arguments in favor of the Prophet. As to
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 2: those who professing a lip faith in the Prophet adulterate
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 2: religion with philosophy, they really deny inspiration, since in their view,
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 2: the Prophet is only a sage whom a superior Destiny
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 2: has appointed as a guide to men, and this view
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 2: belies the true nature of inspiration. To believe in the
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 2: Prophet is to admit that there is above intelligence a
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 2: sphere in which are revealed to the inner vision truths
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 2: beyond the grasp of intelligence, just as things seen are
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 2: not apprehended by the sense of hearing, nor things understood
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 2: by that of touch. If our opponent denies the existence
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 2: of such a higher region, we can prove to him
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 2: not only its possibility, but its actuality. If, on the contrary,
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 2: he admits its existence, he recognizes at the same time
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 2: that there are in that sphere things which reason cannot grasp, nay,
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 2: which reason rejects as false and absurd. Suppose, for instance,
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 2: that the in fact of dreams occurring in sleep were
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 2: not so common and notorious as it is. Our wise
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 2: men would not fail to repudiate the assertion that the
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 2: secrets of the invisible world can be revealed while the
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 2: senses are, so to speak, suspended. Again, if it were
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 2: to be said to one of them, is it possible
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 2: that there is in the world a thing as small
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 2: as a grain, which, being carried into a city, can
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 2: destroy it and afterwards destroy itself, so that nothing remains,
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 2: either of the city or of itself. Certainly, he would explain,
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 2: it is impossible and ridiculous. Such, however, is the effect
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 2: of fire, which would certainly be disputed by one who
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 2: had not witnessed it with his own eyes. Now, the
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 2: refusal to believe in the mysteries of the other life
• 1:25:50
  Speaker 2: is of the same kind as to the fourth cause
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 2: of the spread of unbelief, the decay of faith, owing
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 2: to the bad example set by life learned men. There
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 2: are three ways of checking it. One one can answer thus,
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 2: the learned man whom you accuse of disobeying the divine
• 1:26:10
  Speaker 2: law knows that he disobeys as you do. When you
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 2: drink wine, or extract usery, or allow yourself in evil speaking, lying,
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 2: and slander. You know your sin and yield to it,
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 2: not through ignorance, but because you are mastered by concupiscence.
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 2: The same is the case with the learned man. How
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 2: many believe in doctors who do not abstain from fruit
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 2: and cold water when strictly forbidden them by a doctor.
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 2: That does not prove that those things are not dangerous,
• 1:26:44
  Speaker 2: or that their faith in the doctor was not solidly established.
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 2: Similar errors on the part of learned men are to
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 2: be imputed solely to their weakness. Two. Or Again, one
• 1:26:56
  Speaker 2: may say to a simple and ignorant man, arned man
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 2: reckons upon his knowledge as a viaticum for the next life.
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 2: He believes that his knowledge will save him and plead
• 1:27:07
  Speaker 2: in his favor, and that his intellectual superiority will entitle
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 2: him to indulgence. Lastly, that if his knowledge increases his responsibility,
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 2: it may also entitle him to a higher degree of
• 1:27:21
  Speaker 2: consideration all that is possible, And even if the learned
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 2: man has neglected practice, he can at any rate produce
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 2: proofs of his knowledge. But you poor, witless one, If
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 2: like him you neglect practice, destitute as you are of knowledge,
• 1:27:40
  Speaker 2: you will perish without anything to plead in your favor.
• 1:27:44
  Speaker 2: Three or one may answer, and this reason is the
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 2: true one. The truly learned man only sins through carelessness,
• 1:27:53
  Speaker 2: and does not remain in a state of impenitence. For
• 1:27:58
  Speaker 2: real knowledge shows sins to be a deadly poison, and
• 1:28:01
  Speaker 2: the other world to be superior to this. Convinced of
• 1:28:05
  Speaker 2: this truth, man ought not to exchange the precious for
• 1:28:09
  Speaker 2: the vile. But the knowledge of which we speak is
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 2: not derived from sources accessible to human diligence, and that
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 2: is why progress in mere worldly knowledge renders the sinner
• 1:28:20
  Speaker 2: more hardened in his revolt against God. True knowledge, on
• 1:28:26
  Speaker 2: the contrary, inspires in him who is initiate in it,
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 2: more fear and more reverence, and raises a barrier of
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 2: deference between him and sin. He may slip and stumble,
• 1:28:38
  Speaker 2: it is true, as it is inevitable with one encompassed
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 2: by human infirmity, but these slips and stumbles will not
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 2: weaken his faith. The true Muslim succumbs occasionally to temptation,
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 2: but he repents and will not persevere obstinately in the
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 2: path of error. I pray God the omnipotent, to place
• 1:29:00
  Speaker 2: us in the ranks of his chosen, among the number
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 2: of those whom he directs in the path of safety,
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 2: in whom he inspires fervor, lest they forget him, whom
• 1:29:11
  Speaker 2: he cleanses from all defilement, that nothing may remain in
• 1:29:15
  Speaker 2: them except himself. Yeay, of those whom He indwells completely,
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 2: that they may adore none beside him. End of Chapter
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 2: eight recording by Tom Davis Beale. End of the Confessions
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 2: of al Ghazali by Abuhamed Muhammad ibn Muhammad al Guzali,
• 1:29:44
  Speaker 2: translated by Claude Field.