Al-Ghazali Quotes

matter with you, Commander of the Believers?’ To this he would reply: ‘The time has come for a trust which God offered to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, but they refused to carry it; they were wary of it, but I have taken it on.

I (Imam Ghazzali - RA) say that if privacy and seclusion had been lawful in those days, then they have become obligatory during our times.

فإذا لم تقتل النّفس بصدق المجاهدة فلن يحيا قلبك بأنوار المعرفة.

Some may say that the resources of the world are necessary for men to pass their lives in this world. How can they abstain from using these necessaries of life? It may be noted carefully that whatever has been said about Zuhd (abstinence) pertains to the possession and use of useless and superfluous things of life. The practice of Zuhd has been advised about things which are not indispensable for life in this world. None can advise against using things which are necessary to maintain health so necessary for keeping body and soul together and for devotion and worship in the path of Exalted Allah.

Whoever abstracts and isolates the outward from the whole is a Materialist, and whoever abstracts. the inward is a Spiritualist, while he who joins the two together is catholic, perfect.

أيّها الولد، اجعل الهمّة في الرّوح، و الهزيمة في النفس، و الموت في البدن،

And how can someone be described as flawless [or protector] who is not freed from his lower self

If you believe in the future life and, instead of preparing for it, sell it in order to buy this world, then that is folly! You do not normally sell two things for one; how can you give up an endless life for a limited number of days.

Indeed, the drunken man while in that condition does not know the definition of drunkenness nor the scientific account of it; he has not the very least scientific knowledge of it. The sober man, on the other hand, knows the definition of drunkenness and its basis, yet he is not drunk in the very least. Again the doctor, when he is himself ill, knows the definition and causes of health and the remedies which restore it, and yet is lacking in health. Similarly there is a difference between knowing the true nature and causes and conditions of the ascetic life and actually leading such a life and forsaking the world.

The proximity between the counterfeit and the good coin does not make the good coin counterfeit nor the counterfeit good. In the same way the proximity between truth and falsehood does not make truth falsehood nor falsehood truth.

The lowest degree of education is to distinguish oneself from the ignorant ordinary man. The educated man does not loathe honey even if he finds it in the surgeon's cupping-glass; he realizes that the cupping glass does not essentially alter the honey. The natural aversion from it in such a case rests on popular ignorance, arising from the fact that the cupping-glass is made only for impure blood. Men imagine that the blood is impure because it is in the cupping-glass, and are not aware that the impurity is due to a property.

Do not know the truth by the men, but know the truth, and then you will know who are truthful.

A grievous crime indeed against religion has been committed by the man who imagines that Islam is defended by the denial of the mathematical sciences.

[K]nowledge that is not Infallible is not certain knowledge.

From my early youth, since I attained the age of puberty before I was twenty, until the present time when I am over fifty, I have ever recklessly launched out into the midst of these ocean depths, I have ever bravely embarked on this open sea, throwing aside all craven caution; I have poked into every dark recess, I have made an assault on every problem, I have plunged into every abyss, I have scrutinized the creed of every sect, I have tried to lay bare the inmost doctrines of every community. All this have I done that I might 68 distinguish between true and false, between sound tradition and heretical innovation. Whenever I meet one of the Bātiniyyah, I like to study his creed; whenever I meet one of the Zāhiriyyah, I want to know the essentials of his belief. If it is a philosopher, I try to become acquainted with the essence of his philosophy; if a scholastic theologian I busy myself in examining his theological reasoning; if a Sufi, I yearn to fathom the secret of his mysticism; if an ascetic (muta'abbīd) , I investigate the basis of his ascetic practices; if one of the Zānadiqah or Mu'ațțilah, I look beneath the surface to discover the reasons for his bold adoption of such a creed.