A Moslem Seeker after God/intro

by J. Rendel Harris

AL-GHAZALI was a rare combination of scholar and saint, of the orthodox Moslem and the aberrant Sufi. This work is a real contribution to the history of religion, and will have a peculiar value which attaches to Sufism at the present time. On the one hand we have the anthropologists engaged in the task (and for the most part successfully engaged) of tracing all religions to a common root, or roots, in the constitution and the fears of primitive man; on the other hand we have the mystics, of whom the Sufi is a leading representative, who are occupied in demonstrating experimentally that all religions which start at the bottom find their way to the top. William Penn said something in the same direction when he affirmed that all good men were of the same religion, and that they would know one another when the livery was off. But what did he mean by taking the livery off? The abstinence from rites, ceremonies and the like is a negative process which certainly would not satisfy the genuine Sufi. He would say with St. Paul, " Not that we would be unclothed, but rather clothed upon, that mortality may be swallowed up of life." That is real mystic language, and suggests that we shall know one another, not so much by being denuded of tradition and superstition (however desirable the process may be in some points of view), as by putting on the robe of light and sitting down in the heavenly places with Jesus Christ, and with any one else whom He calls into His companionship.

Al-Ghazali tells us in his Confessions that he found the true way of life in Sufism, that is, in Pantheism, yet he remained an orthodox Moslem, that is, a Transcendentalist. At the present time, when the effects of a war of unheard and unequalled severity are still perplexing men, the Transcendent and the Immanent views of God are alike hard put to it. Sufism is on its back, Transcendentalism can scarcely keep its feet. It is a poor time of day for seeing God in all, almost as ill a time for believing Him to be over all. Where speculation fails, or limps along with lame feet or with broken wing, there must be some other way of taking us to God Himself, beyond reason and safer than imagination. Al-Ghazali found it, when he abandoned his lecture-room and went into the wilderness. While he still continued to recite the formulas, which affirm the Unity of God and the authority of His Apostle, he found his way into the Sufi inner sanctuary, where one understands that

"he who lies,

Folded in favour on the Sultan s breast,

Needs not a letter nor a messenger."

The book tells us something about this side of his experience in the Quest of Life, and when the story is finished we are reminded not to seek the Living among the dead, but to believe that the same Lord is rich unto all that call upon Him in truth.

J. R. H.

Friends Settlement,

Woodbrooke, England.