Al-Ghaza¯lı¯’s Philosophical
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heretical teachings, some of them regarded as apostasy from Islam. 162
Among the accusations were: (1) adhering to the Isma¯ ¶ı¯lite doctrine of slavishly learning from a teacher ( ta ¶lı¯m ) and (2) teaching two heterodox philosophical positions, namely that the world is pre-eternal and that God does not know individuals. 163
ı ¯ had condemned these two teachings as apostasy from Islam, pun- ishable by death. ¶Ayn al-Qud.a¯t admits that he used philosophical language that may lead to weak minds getting the impression that he believed in these two condemned doctrines. 164
Yet he maintains that these weak minds misun- derstand his words, that he never accepted these teachings, and that he, in fact, refutes them in his writings: Those of my words that they hold against me are all also in the books of al-Ghaza¯l ı ¯—the same expressions in the same meanings. For example our words regarding the Creator of the world, namely that He is the source of being ( yanbu ¯ ¶ al-wuju¯d ) and the origin of being ( mas.dar al-wuju¯d ), that He is the universe ( al-kull ) and that he is the real being ( al-wuju ¯d al-h.aqı¯qı¯ ) and that everything that is not He is with regard to its essence empty, fading, annihilating, and non-existent. And only that exists whose existence the Eternal Power ( al-qudra al-azaliyya ) sustains. These are well-known words that appear in many passages in the Revival of the Religious Sciences , in the Niche of Lights , and in the Deliverer from Error , and all these books were written by al-Ghaza¯l ı ¯.
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In the case of ¶Ayn al-Qud.a¯t al-Hamadha¯nı¯, the persecuting spirit that al-Ghaza¯l ı ¯ created by adding a legal judgment to his epistemological discussion in his Incoherence of the Philosophers came to haunt one of his own close followers. A careful study of ¶Ayn al-Qud.a¯t’s teaching on theology and Sufi sm is still a desideratum. In the 1970s, Toshihiko Izutsu and Hermann Landolt made valu- able contributions that still require further study. 166 ¶Ayn al-Qud.a¯t’s personal m os t in f lue n t i a l s t u de n t s a nd e a r l y f ol low er s 8 7 acquaintance with the brother Ah.mad and his philosophically inspired Sufi sm make him one of the most signifi cant early followers of al-Ghaza¯l ı ¯. The Anonymous Author of The Lion and the Diver (al-Asad wa-l-ghawwa¯s.) In 1978, Rid.wa¯n al-Sayyid edited an Arabic animal fable that is extant in at least four manuscripts. The colophon of one of those manuscripts notes that the source from which the copy was made ( al-umm al-mansu ¯kh minha¯ ) was com- pleted in Ramad.a¯n 530 / June 1136. 167 The novel tells the story of a wise and learned jackal who seeks to become a member of the lion-king’s court in order to counsel him and help him benefi t from his insight. In its overall composition as well as in the style of its dialogues and its shorter fables and parables, the novel owes much to Kalı¯la and Dimna ( Kalı¯la wa-Dimna ), a collection of animal fables that Ibn al-Muqaffa ¶ (d. c. 137/755) translated from Pahlevi into Arabic during the mid-second/eighth century. Most plot elements in The Lion and the Diver —with the notable exception of its ending—are taken from the tenth chapter, “The Lion and the Jackal” ( al-Asad wa-bn A¯wa¯ ) in Kalı¯la and Dimna (see fi gure 2.2). 168
literate who had studied the genre of Arabic animal fables well. Kalı¯la and Dimna is formally written as a fürstenspiegel , a book addressed to a prince, aiming to en- tertain the ruler while at the same time educating him and giving him council. The book is thus a guidebook in ethics, in politics, and in theology. These de- scriptors are also true for The Lion and the Diver . In addition to being a highly talented writer, its author was educated in medicine, and he knew some history of Sasanid Persia and the legends of the pre-Islamic Arabia ( ayya¯m al- ¶arab ). He was a Sunni Muslim with a highly rationalist mind-set. Most important, he was a Ghazalian, meaning that he expressed many of the motifs, maxims, and insights that appear prominently in the works of al-Ghaza¯l ı ¯. In fact, the wise jackal, known as “the diver” ( al-ghawwa¯s. ), has so much in common with al-Ghaza¯l ı ¯, in opinions and in biography, that the original readers may have per- ceived him as a literary personifi cation of the famous scholar. The Lion and the Diver may well be a roman à clef of al-Ghaza¯l ı ¯’s dealings with those in power. The novel’s scholar-jackal protagonist is a virtuous, highly refl ective, and immensely educated soldier in the lion’s army. Later in the novel, it is revealed that his goal in life is to earn the afterlife rather than succeed in this world. 169
At the beginning, he is presented as well aware of the potential dangers of ap- proaching the lion’s court. In a dialogue with his best friend, the two remind each other that scholarship and political power do not go well with each other. The scholar may easily offend the ruler with all-too-candid advice. He may be- come the victim of the ruler’s anger or of his whims. Rulers tend to surround themselves with courtiers who satisfy their vanity rather than those who give honest and sometimes tactless counsel. When a violent water buffalo threat- ens the jackal’s community, however, his sense of duty makes him overcome his reservations, and he decides that he must approach the king and give him 8 8 a l - gh a z a ¯ l 1
¯ ’ s ph ilosoph ic a l t h e olo g y fi gure 2.2 The lion and the jackal. Miniature from a manuscript of Kalı¯la and Dimna, dated 755/1354 (Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, MS Pococke 400, fol. 138b). wise counsel. In order to avoid the well-known hazards, he aims to become a loyal member of the court, to please the king and win his confi dence, and only then will he give honest council. This strategy is successful, until the other courtiers become jealous of the jackal’s success and start to plot against him. They employ underhand tactics to cast suspicion on the jackal’s sincerity. The king throws the jackal in jail and has him surveyed by his agents, who tell him fi gure 2.3 The king and the philosopher, the king wearing a Seljuq crown and sitting on a Seljuq throne (cf. fi gs. 1.1, 1.2, and 1.5). Miniature from a manuscript of Kalı¯la and Dimna, dated 755/1354 (Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, MS Pococke 400, fol. 136b). 9 0 a l - gh a z a ¯ l 1
¯ ’ s ph ilosoph ic a l t h e olo g y that the jackal is innocent. The lion learns about the tricks played on the jackal by his enemies and rehabilitates him. The jackal, however, rejects the king’s invitation to become his close advisor. He leaves the king with a “testament” ( was.iyya ) and chooses to withdraw himself to one of the “houses of worship” ( buyu ¯t al- ¶iba¯da ) in the mountains. The jackal purifi es himself from his harmful experience by admonishing his soul and preaching to it in an inner dialogue. 170
ishing its desires in one of his letters. 171
The novel ends with this sentence: “the lion used to visit the jackal from time to time until fate ( al-dahr ) parted them.” An attentive reader of al-Ghaza¯l ı ¯ fi nds numerous explicit hints to his bi- ography. During his introduction, the king asks the jackal why he is called “the diver”; the answer is: “Because I dive deep for the subtle meanings and because I bring out the hidden secrets of the sciences.” 172
One of al-Ghaza¯l ı ¯’s favorite met- aphors for the dangers of scholarship was that of a deep sea. While the trained scholar plunges into the deep sea of scholarship and swims through it, others, who lack a suffi cient education, are drawn to these depths but often drown. 173
The metaphor appears so frequently in al-Ghaza¯l ı ¯’s books that Ibn T.ufayl al- most mockingly alludes to it in the introduction to his H . ayy ibn Yaqz.a¯n . 174
If the well-trained scholar can swim in the sea of knowledge, then the most ac- complished scholar is a diver who picks up secrets from the dark depths of that sea like a pearl diver ( ghawwa¯s. ) collecting precious pearls. In one of his letters to the “king of Khorasan,” Sanjar, al-Ghaza¯l ı ¯ depicted himself as having spent forty years of his life “diving into the sea of religious sciences.” 175
The collection of al-Ghaza¯lı¯’s letters was compiled at some time during the sixth/twelfth century. Al-Ghaza¯lı¯’s letter to Sanjar was likely written before the composition of The Lion and the Diver , in fact the two may have been published at roughly the same time. The relationship between the scholar-jackal and the lion-king develops very much along the lines of an idealized and even exagger- ated picture that a follower of al-Ghaza¯lı¯ might have painted of the relationship between him and members of the Seljuq dynasty. Throughout the novel, the virtues of the jackal are unquestioned, and his temporary downfall is solely the result of other people’s jealousy. That mirrors al-Ghaza¯lı¯’s own perception as to why some people have accused him at Sanjar’s court. In his written response to these accusations and in his Decisive Criterion , al-Ghaza¯lı¯ quotes an anonymous one-liner that he may have picked up from al-Qushayrı¯’s Epistle ( al-Risa¯la ). 176
The quoted poem is meant to explain why al-Ghaza¯lı¯’s work triggered so much enmity: while truly virtuous scholars are impressed by his scholarship and often convinced by the force of his arguments, some are jealous of al-Ghaza¯lı¯’s natural gifts. These jealous colleagues are blind to his achievements, and their enmity cannot be resolved. The quoted poem goes: One can overcome all kinds of hostility, except for that which is due to jealousy. 177
ı ¯’s biogra- phy. During his early life, the jackal educates himself. His education is driven
m os t in f lue n t i a l s t u de n t s a nd e a r l y f ol low er s 9 1 by a universal curiosity and an independent mind. He says that he did not benefi t from teachers. A similar picture is painted in al-Ghaza¯l ı ¯’s autobio- graphy in which teachers are not given any credit. Where the jackal grew up, his “love of wisdom” ( h.ubb al-h.ikma )—a literary translation of the Greek philosophía —was discouraged. When the jackal enters the king’s court, he says about his education: O King, I grew up among people who regard the pursuit of knowl- edge as a mistake and love of wisdom as a blemish ( ¶ayb ). Therefore, I fi rst concealed everything of this kind that I had within myself because I was ashamed, and I tricked the others until this became a habit, and the habit became a natural impulse ( gharı¯za ) that I fol- lowed. (. . .) I took it upon myself to think and I often refrained from speak- ing. I never quarreled with others and searched knowledge for my own sake so that I spend my life as a prisoner of books and as a com- panion of thoughts. The tongue needs incitement in order to become fl uent, and exercise in order to make it agile and sharp. 178
Initially, the wise jackal endeavors to be of service to the king, and he becomes a member of his court. The two have intelligent conversations in which the jackal reminds him that the wise man acts decisively and shows no neglect or fatalism, although he also knows that God predetermines all events. This allows him, for instance, to benefi t from astrological predictions. 179 Appear- ing prominently in the thirty-second as well as the thirty-fi fth books of the Revival, the maxim of accepting predetermination yet not falling into fatalism is just one of many Ghazalian motifs that appears throughout the anonymous novel.
180 The king is reminded of his duty to maintain order ( niz.a¯m ) and jus- tice in the world and to defend the sunna of the Prophet and the sharı¯ ¶a of Islam. In fact, the order in the empire depends directly on the power of its ruler, who is the guardian of the sunna . 181
The king’s reign over his realm re- sembles the reign of the human’s soul over his limbs. 182 Like al-Ghaza¯l ı ¯, the
jackal-scholar in the book is strongly opposed to emulating higher authorities ( taqlı¯d ). Truth ( al-h.aqq ) is known by itself and not by the authority of those who testify to it. 183
Other Ghazalian notions include the ideas that people— including kings—should be addressed according to their intellectual capaci- ties 184
and that there is no good in this world that is not also accompanied by some harm. 185 Yet, the whole world has been designed “with utmost wisdom and good craftsmanship” ( ¶ ala¯ gha¯yat al-h.ikma wa-h.usn al-s.ina¯ ¶a ), and careful attention has been paid to even the tiniest of its details. 186
idea that knowledge by itself is useless when it does not lead to right action. 187
People who are particularly knowledgeable do not act virtuously simply as a consequence of their knowledge. Only the correct kind of knowledge leads to inner virtue, which in turn leads to right action. Such virtue is gained through the training of the soul. At the end of the novel, when the jackal takes his leave,
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¯ ’ s ph ilosoph ic a l t h e olo g y the lion asks him why he cannot discipline his soul and also remain an advisor at his court. The jackal’s answer makes productive use of the novel’s technique to illustrates Ghazalian principles with parables and fables: Then the lion asked the jackal: What prevents you from worshipping God where you are [right now]? The jackal answered: In order for the animal soul, dear King, to gather itself and be trained it must be separated from the things it loves. I have been damaged by the exposure to things that are natu- rally deemed nice and pleasant. I fear that this situation will become a habit to me and prevent me from removing these things once they have been fi rmly installed [in my life]. Then, it would happen to me what happened to the owner of the stallion. The king asked: What happened to him? The jackal: The story goes that a courageous man had a foal that grew up in his possession. The animal was of utmost grace and beauty, had straight limbs and a strong body. The old man was infatu- ated with it and it occupied all his concerns. He ceaselessly indulged it and provided an abundance of fodder. The man was too old to train the animal himself, yet he was also too anxious to have someone else ride it, train it, and break it in. So the animal was not trained by anyone. Its character traits became spoiled and its temperament bad. Next to the young stallion stood a mare, whose scent aroused his passion. The stallion’s owner had great diffi culty any time he wanted to ride it. The days went by and as the old man became more and more frail, the coat became stronger and stronger. The time came that he needed to ride on the stallion and engage in an attack against his enemies. But any time the horse was not bound—at its feet, for instance—it did not obey its owner’s instructions. Once the old man mounted the stallion, it broke with him through the lines of the enemy to reach a mare it had scented. The enemies struck down the horse and killed the old man. This is similar to a man and his soul. A man is like the owner of the horse. Had he trained it regularly, he would have had a tame riding animal that would have gotten him wherever he wanted to go. But if he doesn’t break it in and teach it good manners, it acquires these repulsive habits—and maybe it will gain the upper hand over its rider and destroy him together with itself. 188
and Treating the Diseases of the Heart,” al-Ghaza¯l ı ¯ writes that “an allegory for desire ( shahwa ) is the horse which one rides during a chase. It is sometimes well-disciplined and well-behaved and sometimes it is defi ant.” 189 Desire is a character trait ( khulq ) that needs to be trained like any other. Earlier genera- tions of scholars that had worked on Muslim ethics, al-Ghaza¯l ı ¯ complains, had hardly ever dealt with the human character, but were merely concerned with m os t in f lue n t i a l s t u de n t s a nd e a r l y f ol low er s 9 3 its fruits, the human actions. 190 Muslim jurists are mostly concerned with the bare compliance to the rules of Shari’a and thus cannot give council on matters of good character. They are mere “scholars of this world” ( ¶ulama¯ 7 al-dunya¯ ) who cannot guide Muslims on the best way to gain the afterlife. 191
The substance of the human ( gawhar-i a¯damı¯ ), al-Ghaza¯l ı ¯ says in his Persian Alchemy of Happi- ness ( Kı¯mya¯-yi sa ¶a¯dat ), is initially defi cient and ignoble ( na¯qis. wa-khası¯s ); only strict efforts and patient treatment can lead the soul from its defi cient state to its perfection. The human soul’s temperament becomes imbalanced through the infl uence of other people and needs to undergo disciplining ( riya¯d.a ) and training ( tarbiya ) in order to keep the character traits ( akhla¯q ) at equilibrium. 192
Al-Ghaza¯l ı ¯ rejected the notion that one should try to give up potentially harm- ful affections such as anger or sexual desire. These character traits are part of human nature, he teaches, and they cannot be given up. Rather, disciplining the soul allows control over these potentially harmful traits through one’s ra- tionality ( ¶aql ). Al-Ghaza¯l ı ¯ compares the human pursuit of redemption in the afterlife with the hunter’s pursuit of game. Sexual desire and anger are not always negative. Anger, for instance, is a positive character trait in the war against infi dels. Sexual desire and anger are to the human rational faculty what the horse and the dog are to the hunter. The hunter trains his horse and dog in order to benefi t from their service. In the hunt for the afterlife’s reward, anger and sexual desire are just as useful to the human, yet rationality must train them and control them like the hunter trains and controls his horse and dog.
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None of these notions and ideas, which I identify as “Ghazalian,” is par- ticularly unique to al-Ghaza¯l ı ¯ and could not also have been picked up from other Muslim rationalist literature of this or earlier times. Many of the theo- logical motifs and the moral teachings in The Lion and the Diver , such as the imperative to develop one’s inner virtuous character rather than to focus on the fulfi llment of Shari’a’s prescriptions, come from philosophical and from Sufi literature. These philosophical and mystical motifs became more wide- spread during the sixth/twelfth century, particularly in mainstream religious literature, in which earlier obedience to the rules of Shari’a had dominated the debate on morality. Al-Ghaza¯l ı ¯’s work played a signifi cant part in this develop- ment. The accumulation of teachings in this novel that appear prominently in al-Ghaza¯l ı ¯’s work is signifi cant. Most diffi cult to determine is, however, whether the author has been directly inspired by elements in al-Ghaza¯l ı ¯’s bi- ography. The novel is clearly modeled after the story of the lion and the jackal in Kalı¯la and Dimna ; in that book, the jackal stays with the lion-king and again becomes his trusted advisor after his suffering from the ruses of the courtiers and subsequent rehabilitation. By staying at court, the jackal fulfi lls the wishes of the king. In the Lion and the Diver, the rift between the scholar-jackal and Download 4.03 Mb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: 
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