Page:Alchemyofhappiness en.djvu/94

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
86
Ghazzali's Alchemy of Happiness.

if there is any trace of the love of God remaining in their hearts, and when they are about to leave the world, they forget it and never more yearn towards it. In that case they also are saved from the tribulations of the grave. A picture of this class is found in the person who also has a house in each of two cities, and as long as he is living in the one, he has no longings for the other. But at last some necessity compels him to quit his first house, and to go and reside in the second. After a few days residence, the love he had for the first house dies away from his heart and it appears better to him not to return thither. This class suffer torment in the grave up to the point where they forget the world, but after familiarizing themselves with the mansions of the future vwrld, they are freed from their pain. Those, however, whose hearts were immersed in the pleasures and cares of the world, and whose hearts bore no trace of the love of God, or of thoughtfulness for the future world, and who preferred this world to the other, will never be delivered from torment.

There is not a person in the world who will admit that he does not love God, or but that will pretend that he does love God. But this pretention can be brought to a touchstone and standard and found out by experiment. Just •look at his actions and conduct, and see whether he will do a thing which has the holy approbation of God, or whether he will abstain from doing a thing which has not the divine approbation, notwithstanding the strong opposing inclinations of his soul, and thus show his reverence for the Holy Law. If he does thus oppose the desires of his soul, he is correct when he affirms, "I love God." But if he is following the inclinations of his soul, and is only saying with his tongue that he loves God, his declaration is a lie. When a person in this state of mind utters the confession, "There is no God but God," a voice from God addresses him saying, "You are a liar, for your actions