Page 20 - Chapter
Two: "Ghazali (d. 1111) one of the greatest of the Sufi teachers, gave a
nutshell description of Sufism’s role in the very title of his magnum opus. Ihya’
ulum ad-din - "Giving Life to the Sciences of the Religion.’
By "sciences"
Ghazali means the various branches of learning that had proliferated in Islam after the
Prophet."
Commentary:
Within the few short sentences of the foregoing quote, the author of Sufism - A
Short Introduction commits a number of mistakes. First of all, as pointed out in a
previous Commentary, "religion" is not an appropriate translation
of "din".
Before he stepped onto
the Sufi Path, al-Ghazali (may Allah sanctify his soul) was a religious teacher who had an
enormous following and considerable influence in government circles. Once he, finally,
stepped onto the Sufi Path, he gave all of this up - including the religious or
theological part, because he came to understand there is a tremendous difference between
that which he - prior to his becoming initiated by a Sufi shaykh and traveling on the Path
- had been teaching in the form of a religion which was being called Islam but was, in
truth, very different from the ‘din’ taught by the Qur’an and the Prophet
Muhammad (peace be upon him). If this were not so, al-Ghazali (may Allah sanctify his
spirit) never would have changed his mode of life from what it had been prior to becoming
a Sufi, nor would he have experienced the many difficulties he did in trying to make the
break from his former life and step onto the Sufi Path, nor would he have felt compelled
to write Ihya’ ulum ad-din.
The author of Sufism
- A Short Introduction has translated the rest of the title of the aforementioned,
multi-volume work as "Giving Life to the Sciences". In truth, a better rendering
of what the latter intended is: ‘The Revival of the Sciences of
Deen", for he wanted to reintroduce the Muslim community to the real teachings of the
Qur’an and the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) ... sciences that once had been
known and practiced but which, in the time of Hazrat al-Ghazali (may Allah sanctify his
soul), were disappearing from the consciousness and understanding of an increasing number
of people in the Muslim community.
One doesn’t have to
give life to that which is sound and flourishing. One needs to give life to that which is
in danger of withering and dying - one needs to revive that which is in need of
resuscitation.
Finally, the author of
the quote on which the present Commentary is focusing, maintains that:
"By "sciences" Ghazali means the various branches of learning that had
proliferated in Islam after the Prophet."
Actually, what the author
claims to be the case is not so. Al-Ghazali (may Allah sanctify his soul) did not consider
"sciences" to mean "the various branches of learning that had proliferated
in Islam after the Prophet". The sciences he had in mind were those which were known
to the Prophet and taught in the Qur’an, for there was absolutely nothing of value
that proliferated in the Muslim community after the Prophet which could be anything but a
reflection of what was taught by either the Qur’an or Muhammad (peace be upon him).
At one point in his
monumental work, al-Ghazali (may Allah sanctify his soul) distinguishes between the
science of revelation and the science of practical Deen and indicates that his writing
will only deal with the latter since the former cannot be contained within a written work.
Moreover, the sciences of practical Deen leave off where the science of revelation begins.
Interestingly enough,
al-Ghazali (may Allah sanctify his soul) had a younger brother who was deeply immersed in
the science of revelation - a science that concerns the highest, deepest, richest, most
subtle kinds of knowledge and understanding of which human beings are capable. As great a
Sufi as the author of Ihya’ ulum ad-din was and is, there are those who
know even more than he did, and his brother was said to be one of these, although Allah
knows best concerning such matters.
In any event, neither the
science of revelation, nor the sciences of practical Deen, are disciplines which developed
and proliferated after the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Indeed, as the title Ihya’
ulum ad-din indicates, it was, instead, ignorance of the spiritual life which had
proliferated, and al-Ghazali (may Allah sanctify his soul) was merely trying to re-direct
the attention of Muslims back to the life and teachings of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be
upon him) and the Qur’an, and not to that which transpired after the Prophet passed
away from the physical world.
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