LECTURE
AT SOUT
Paper
presented to The
at
Southampton University 6th February 2002
(Copyright © 2002 – 2006 P.A.W. Greenland)
‘The Spirituality of al-Ghazali (1058-1111
CE): the Inner Reality of the Five Pillars of Islam’
Thank you for inviting me to present
my paper. Although I have taught two
courses – one on ‘Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL)’ in the Czech
Republic and the other for the combined Church Mission Society (CMS)/Faith to
Faith course ‘Cross & Crescent: a study for Christians on Islam’, this is
the first time I have delivered a paper exclusively for my peers.
May I first make clear a simple
point on the spelling of Ghazali? Some scholars spell Ghazali
with a double ‘z’ whilst others, including myself, just use one z. Also I only use the ‘al’ in the lower case
before Ghazali at the beginning of my writing or in
headings. Other people may write either
‘el/El’ or ‘Al’ upper case.
Most of you will have heard about Ghazali because, by his continued influence both within
Islam itself and the teaching of religion and philosophy, he was an
intellectual giant. My friends at King
Alfred’s College left me in no doubt about this fact during the process of
registering the MA dissertation. But in
spite of Ghazali’s brilliance some of academe’s finest scholars have written
about him, including Edwin Calvery, Kenneth Cragg, R.J. McCarthy, Annemarie Schimmel, Margaret Smith, William Montgomery Watt and T.J.
Winter. And I felt too that I had
something to contribute. Like all ‘greats’ Ghazali is able to
transcend the written word and almost leap out of the pages of his many texts. Principally my input into the debate on his
life and work was that I do not consider him a mystic; however one may
interpret this word. I shall elaborate
on this later. Also I was deeply moved
by his honesty in two texts when he admitted that he had failed or could not
write about what he knew existed in relation to man and God. Finally, Ghazali
did not depart from his sincere belief in the fundamentals of orthodox
Islam. Or, more simply put, that Muslims
know that they have only one lifestyle choice, that of adhering to the sacred
Islamic law – the Sharia’ and living the life proscribed for
them in the Qur’an, especially adhering to the five pillars of their faith.
To place Ghazali’s life and principal facts in
context I have produced this simple guide:
· Full name – Abu Hamid ibn
Muhammad al-Ghazali.
He was a Sunni Muslim and Sunnism includes
nearly 80% of today’s Islamic community.
· Ghazali has subsequently become known to scholars as Hujjat al-Islam (The Proof of Islam) – a name
principally coined by W.M. Watt in 1953 in his Introduction to The Faith and Practice of Al-Ghazali, which additionally includes Ghazali’s
spiritual autobiography Deliverance from
Error (al-Munqidh
min ad-Dalal).
Watt and others now have reservations about whether or not Ghazali can be single-handedly credited with Islam’s
renewal in the 11th century.
· Born 1058 CE in Tus, N.E.
·
1077 – The start of Ghazali’s undergraduate
education in the prestigious college (madrassa) of Nisapur and later of Gurgan on the southern shore of the
· 1085/1086 – Because of Ghazili’s
outstanding achievements at the madrassas he quickly
came to the notice of Nizam al-Mulk
(Vizier of the Seljug Sultan). The Seljug dynasty
was approaching its height and wished for an academic institute in
· 1091/1092 to Ghazali
being appointed professor of theology (aged 34 years) at the
· 1095/1096 – A crisis which was to affect Ghazali’s
life and influence on religion and philosophy.
Thousands of students had been attracted to his lectures so he was quite
rich by the standards of the time. Ghazali was also married with two children. But he started a period of self-examination
or grave scepticism for the true faith (yaqin). Also he felt that by experimental understanding (dhawq)
· that faith cannot be obtained by just the Neoplatonic Rationalism or Reason which he had been
advancing to his students. But instead by Sufi fana’ or passing
away or even incorporation with the divine being. Lesser Sufis had been executed for heresy for
making these claims but undoubtedly because of Ghazali’s stature he was able to
get away with such statements. During
this time he also wrote in Deliverance
from Error that there is a form of human apprehension higher than rational
apprehension, namely that of the prophet when God reveals truths to him. So after making arrangements for the care of
his family he gave away his wealth and
· for two years lived the life of a wandering Sufi
ascetic in
· In 1098/1099 Ghazali
returned to
· 1111 – Ghazali died 1.
I initially became attracted to
al-Ghazali after reading Keith Ward’s book Images of Eternity in which Ward
presented a thesis of whether or not there is a universal concept of God and if
all faiths share a vision of the same supreme reality. Ward argued that Islam, through the Qur’an,
and in common with Vedic Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism and Christianity all
depend on the teachings of Individuals who have received divine revelations
which are recorded in written form 2. Ghazali would certainly have thought the same. The revelations are subsequently refined by
strict believers into what Mary Pat Fisher has called ‘hard’ religious beliefs
or irreconcilable differences of either practice or doctrine 3. But Fisher like Ward also felt there are
‘soft’ beliefs where people can set aside sectarian differences and share a
common spirituality through mystical experience 4. In this acetate we can
see the relationship between ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ beliefs. But as I have already said Ghazali did not accept any religious doctrine other than
the ‘hard’ beliefs of orthodox Islam and would not have accepted Fisher’s
thesis. Rather Ghazali’s genius
lay in his usage of the tools of the mystical experience – called in Arabic Tasawwuf – to
find a spirituality exclusively founded within the
Qur’an and the Sunna.
Or put another way, to find within Islamic Revelation itself the inner
dimension of the faith that lives within Muslims and exists apart from Neoplatonic Rationalism and Reason because Islam, meaning
‘submission to God’, is directly given to man by God through His revelations to
Muhammad.
In Images of Eternity Ward chose, for his thesis applying within
Islam, Ghazali’s esoteric text The Niche
for Lights (Mishkat
al-Anwar) in which Ghazali
starts with Sura
(Chapter) 24 and Aya
(verse) 35, the verse from which it gets
its name in the Qur’an of ‘Light’.
Together with the preceding aya the two read:
We have
sent down to you revelations showing you the right path. We have given you an account of those who
have gone before you, and an admonition to righteous
men. God is the light of the heavens and
the earth. His light may be compared to a
niche that enshrines a lamp, the lamp within a crystal of star-like
brilliance. It is lit from a blessed
olive tree neither eastern nor western.
Its very oil would almost shine forth, though no fire touched it. Light upon light; God guides to His light
whom He will 5.
Notice
the clarity of the Light verses: ‘We have sent down to you revelations….We have
given an account….God is the light of the heavens and the earth….God guides to
his light whom He will’. No human
intervention is involved in keeping the light burning and it is for all to see:
‘It is lit from a blessed olive tree neither eastern nor western’. God is the harbinger of light which may also
be interpreted as intellectual light and exists everywhere and for all time, so
has no need for the geographical boundaries of east and west.
The Niche for Lights is though not one of Ghazali’s
finest books. Possibly an original
version did not survive because at the end of the copies now to hand Ghazali virtually admits defeat:
May not my
suggestion be, then, that you ask forgiveness for me
for anything wherein my pen has erred, or my foot has slipped? For ‘tis a hazardous thing to plunge into the
fathomless sea of the divine mysteries…. 6
But by the time Ghazali wrote Ihya he had mastered any doubts or uncertainties he had had
over defining Islam’s inner realities. Ghazali brought to the fore of his teaching the benefits of
understanding Islam’s outer (zahir) and inner (batin) realities
from his life as a wandering Sufi.
Writing on intimacy with God Ghazali is very
clear about its meaning:
So
if intimacy with the invocation of God takes places, man is severed from
anything else but the invocation of God and from what is other than Him….
(After death) nothing remains but the invocation of God…. No obstacle
remains….it is as if he were alone with his beloved (and how glorious is his
bliss!) 7.
Nowhere
could Ghazali be more forthright about Muslims’ acts
and intentions (Niyya or Riyan), or their lifestyle
choice, than at the cutting edge of Islamic praise and worship. ‘Worship in
Islam, denoted by the Arabic word “Ibadah” is a much wider concept than in other religions 8’
and because of this Ghazali thoroughly examined in Ihya, and in the
greatest detail, the five principal ways or pillars (Arkan), of Muslim devotion. He also emphasised the paramount importance
for adherence to the Shari’a,
because only by the Holy Law’s strict observance can a Muslim claim to be in
harmony with the divine will of God.
The five pillars are:
1. Shahada or
profession of the faith: ‘There is no god but God and Muhammad is the Messenger
of God’.
2. Salat or Salah – prayer,
normally five times a day.
3. Zakat or Zahah –
obligatory alms tax, but which has become confused in the West with charitable
almsgiving, of 2.5 % from disposable income which may be either in cash or
kind.
4. Sawm – abstaining
from food, drink and sexual intercourse between sunrise and sunset during the
Month of Ramadan – the ninth month of
the Islamic calendar.
5. Hajj – pilgrimage to
Further, Ghazali’s
insistence on the strict observance of Arkan and an appreciation of both the inner and outer self
during devotions was undoubtedly aroused by two of Islam’s Ninety-Nine
Beautiful Names of God.
‘The Outer (al-Zahir)’ and
‘The Inner (al-Batin
[and the]) need for a greater understanding of the inner dimensions of Islamic
worship is acutely felt, not only by a host of potential Muslims but also by
many who have lived their lives as members of the Islamic community 7A.
Ghazali felt that through an inner (or in the Arabic zahir) regard and
observance of each of the five devotional Pillars a Muslim could ascend to an
inner (batin)
knowledge of himself and God. Ghazali’s
view of the Pillars inner meanings also related to the Sufi belief in the
upward ascent and esoteric path to a union with Ultimate Reality (Tariqa). And to achieve Tariqa some Sufis constantly
repeat the Ninety-Nine names of God and count a rosary of ninety nine beads, or
thirty three thrice. One of Ghazali’s
books is entitled by the name The
Ninety-Nine Beautiful Names of God in which he goes to the limits of human
reason to explain both esoteric and logical reasons for all the names. But Ghazali’s conception of Sufism was not
simply that it was the cultivation of ecstatic states.
Ghazali believed instead that the holistic knowledge of
oneself, which comes from both outer and inner knowledge, was a preparation for
the life to come starting with the Last Judgement because Islam is
fundamentally as eschatological faith.
In Ihya
Ghazali explains Muslim worship as incorporating the
totality of a believer’s life and experiences.
The Christian belief, in most of its traditions, for an earthly
forgiveness of sins does not apply within Islam because Muslims believe that
peoples’ deeds, both good and bad, are carried throughout their lives for a
final judgement after death. Also in a
simplistic way, by understanding our self, we can begin to understand the
nature of God. For example in the first
Pillar Shahada,
by the very openness of declaring the nature of God, the worshipper links the
outer with the inner needs. We can see this in the chart produced
by Colin Chapman in his book Cross &
Crescent 9 which was written for Christians to understand Islam:
On the outer
ring, which we can take to be the outer self, a person includes with four of
the publicly performed Pillars, customs and products of everyday life. But as we get nearer to the centre the rings
become less identifiable with the self. First, through Institutions including the Islamic State or
Community (The Ummah). Then through Symbols and
Language, including the supreme importance of Arabic as the unifying language
of Islam. Loyalties and values
include Revelation which in turn also introduces the sacred Qur’an. And in the centre, what Chapman calls ‘Basic
Realities’, there are God, Nature, Time and Humanity. This is surely the inner self as it relates to
God, Nature, Time and Humanity. Muhtar Holland, who translated part of Ihya, explained that this
relationship is like:
(The)
stunning spectacle of row upon row of worshippers bowing and prostrating
themselves in perfect unison.... (who as) general seekers of Truth, can never be satisfied
with outer forms alone (because) Muhammad ... declared ‘Actions are valued
according to intentions 9A’.
Ghazali advised Muslims not to forget to purify the inner
self with repentance and remorse. His
reason, again eschatological based, was that worshippers must remember that
past sins should not be repeated. Ghazali especially exhorts Muslims to follow the example of
The Prophet who when standing to face towards the Qibla (or Ka'ba [the Holy Stone in
When a man stands up to pray,
directing his desire, his face and his heart towards God, he will come out of
that Prayer as on the day his mother gave him birth 10.
Muslims in prayer during
the second pillar (Salat
or Salah)
must turn both external face and inner heart to God, and Ghazali
commented that the example of The Prophet and traditions ‘help to prove that
the fundamental elements in ritual Prayer are humility and conscious awareness
10A’. To Ghazali
merely going through the motions of Salah is meaningless for the heart. It has no value because God knows that solely
an outer recitation of prayers is nothing because for all Muslims ‘intention’ (riya or riyan) is
essential. Rather Ghazali
teaches that by a strict regard for zahir and batin ‘we pray for (God’s) gracious help and guidance 11’.
Ghazali additionally
advanced inner reasons for each of the postures during ritual prayer, which
are: standing, bowing, prostration, and salutation. They all bring about a greater realisation
and awareness of God with unique characteristics. For example, he wrote of bowing that it
elaborates an inner submission to God because:
(You) renew your submissiveness and humility, striving to
refine your inner feelings through a fresh awareness of your own impotence and
insignificance before the mind and grandeur of your Lord 12.
In an explanation for
prostration during salah
part of Ghazali’s answer also contains a meaning familiar to both Jews and
Christians by it is similarity to Ecclesiastes 3.20, ‘all are from dust, and
all turn to dust again 13’. Prostration
for Muslims in its outward physical act is the lowest form of submission. But Ghazali felt
that as an inner dimension of prayer it was the highest position that a person
can be in before God because:
(You)
are bringing the most precious part of your body, namely your face, down to
meet the most lowly of all things: the dust of the
earth.... You are restoring the branch to its root, for of dust you were
created and to dust you shall return 14.
Ghazali argued that
the fourth posture of salutation, which is derived from the Arabic word salaam, meaning farewell, represents an
inner thanks to God for allowing a person to worship Him. He wrote, ‘(feel) a sense of gratitude to
God...for having enabled you to complete this act of worship’. Again Ghazali in
trying to give a batin reason is expressing his eschatological
view of devotions, because the worshipper ‘may not live (long enough) to see
another (act of worship) like it ’ and could instead
be facing the Last Judgement.
Ghazali gave in Ihya other
explanations with Christian associations.
My chosen example is from one Ghazali’s guidance for the observation of
the Pillar of Almsgiving (Zakat or Zakah) which, in the Islamic understanding, earn the
worshipper a place in
Not
to make offering from the best one has is to be guilty of bad manners, since it
means that one is keeping the best for oneself, for one’s servant, or for one’s
family, and so preferring others over God.... To treat a guest in this fashion,
offering him the worst food in the house would be sure to annoy him 15.
This
bears a similarity to The Fourth Gospel which Ghazali
had also studied in detail and afterwards wrote a refutation; John 2.1-11
describing the wedding at
Ghazali wrote more in Ihya about almsgiving and its
inner benefits than on any other way of Arkan. He felt
that in this pillar the inner meaning of zakat needed a great degree of
clarification. Further zakat is not just
spontaneous philanthropy but a tithe. It
can also be used to spread Islam and from Ghazali’s Sufi period when he had
first given away everything he owed, and made himself instead
dependent on charitable giving, he was well qualified to comment on the inner
and outer uses of almsgiving.
In minutely going through many of Islam’s
basic tenets Ghazali was able to show the place of zakat in
worship. These include: the elimination
of miserliness which is one of the faith’s deadly sins, paying zakat at the
proper time, thinking little of what is given otherwise the giver inwardly
invites into the heart sanctimonious pride, and the need to give secretly to
save the giver from a charge of hypocrisy, although open giving on rare
occasions sets a good example for others to emulate.
Because other faiths emphasise the paramount
importance of hospitality Ghazali, in his discussion
of the inner meaning of zakat,
took almsgiving to its central place within all spiritualities, which is a full
and unrestricted giving of all human resources and abilities to Ultimate
Reality.
I turn now to the pillars of Fasting and the
Pilgrimage to
Extra-special
Fasting means fasting of the heart from unworthy concerns and worldly thoughts,
in total disregard of God.... This kind
of Fast is broken by thinking of anything other than God...and the Hereafter;
it is broken by thinking of worldly matters, except for those conducive to
religious ends.... To this third degree belong the Prophets, the true saints
and the intimates of God. It does not
lend itself to detailed examination in words, as its true nature is better
revealed in action. It consists in
utmost dedication to God 17.
The Fifth Pillar – the Pilgrimage to
(It)
is...the worship of a lifetime, the seal of consummation, the completion of
surrender and the perfection of religion.
It was during the Pilgrimage that God...sent down his revelation, ‘today
I have perfected your religion for you, and completed My
grace upon you, and approved Islam as your religion – (Qur’an – al-Ma’idah) 5:3 18’.
Ghazali felt
that the Hajj was not solely the
physical pilgrimage to visit the House of God (Ka’ba), thought by Muslims to
have been built by Abraham and Ishmael four thousand years ago and to be the
most holy place on earth. Through his
wide knowledge of both Muslim theology and spirituality Ghazali
was able to demonstrate that there was a fuller discovery or pilgrimage to be
made. One into the inner dimension of
Islam, or as it is termed, ‘the Science of the Heart 19’. In other words for the few Muslims, as with
contemplatives in other religions, they cease to be ordinary people living in
the outer dimension but have discovered an inner reality of life.
By being able to
understand the depth and width of Islamic mysticism, together with his
knowledge of its orthodox practices, Ghazali created
a unique method of devotional teaching.
He was able to reason the cause for this change in people who had in
fact, loosely speaking, become mystics when he wrote:
‘The higher one ascends a
mountain, the farther one sees’. Thus, a
man who witnesses the awakening of his inner resources also witnesses within
himself, by a gift of direct awareness, the true meaning of religious truths
that he had earlier accepted on premises of faith. It is this process that is capable of
securing the spiritual development of man.
Spirituality has no other meaning and it has no other content apart from
this link that man has with this process of realising the truth of the revealed
Word of God 20.
Notes
1.
Parts of my brief biography are taken from K. Nakamura’s Introduction to his
translation of Invocations & Supplications : Book IX of The Revival of the Religious
Sciences (Ihya ulum al-din),
Islamic Texts Society,
2.
Images of Eternity, Keith Ward, OneWorld,
3.
Religion in the Twenty-first Century,
Mary Pat Fisher, Routledge,
4.
Fisher – ibid – p.105
5.
The Koran: with parallel Arabic text,
N.J. Dawood, Trans. and Notes, Penguin,
6.
The Niche for Lights (Mishkat al-Anwar),
W.H. Gairdner, Trans. and Notes, The Sufi Trust,
London (in Four Sufi Classics, Octagon London, 1977), p.159 6A Inner
Dimensions of Islamic Worship, Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali
(1058-1111 CE), Muhtar Holland, Trans. and Notes, The
Islamic Foundation, Leicester, 1992, p.16.
7.
Nakamura – ibid p.24. 7A
8.
The Muslim Guide, Yusuf
Mustafa and Muhammad Manazir Ahsan,
The Islamic Foundation,
9.
Cross & Crescent, Colin Chapman,
Inter-Varsity Press,
10. and 10A Inner Dimensions - ibid -
p.52
11. Inner Dimensions – ibid – p.52
12. Inner Dimensions – ibid – p.47
13. Holy Bible (NRSV),
Thomas Nelson Inc.,
14. Inner Dimensions – ibid – p.47
15. Inner Dimensions – ibid – p.67
16. Inner Dimensions – ibid – pp.76-77
17. Inner Dimensions – ibid – pp.75-76
18. Inner Dimensions – ibid – p.83
19. A Popular Dictionary of Islam, Ian R. Netton,
Curzon,
20. Islamic Spirituality 1: Foundations, Nasr
Brohi and Hossein Seyyed, SCM,
The
Winchester Al-Ghazali Web Site was originally published as ‘Peter Greenland’s
Al-Ghazali Web Site’
on BT Internet in 1999