Al-Ghazzali on repentance m. S. Stern distributed By apt books, inc

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(dkhira).

We speak now while being in this life of the next. Because, we speak in this life, it being the sensible world, but our purpose is the explana­tion of the hereafter, which is the world beyond the senses, and it is inconceivable to describe the transcendent world within the sensible world except by adducing parables. That is why it is said: AND THOSE PARA­BLES, WE COIN THEM FOR THE PEOPLE, BUT NONE UNDER­STANDS THEM SAVE THOSE WHO KNOW 3²⁷ This is because compared to the transcendental world ('alam al-malakut) the temporal world is like slumber. That is why the Prophet said: 'men are asleep, and when they die they awaken.'°

That which will occur in the waking state becomes clear to you during sleep only [through] parables which are in need of interpretation. Like­wise, that which will take place in the waking state of the hereafter cannot be explained in the sleep of this life except through a multitude of parables, by which I mean that which we know from the science of dream­interpretation. Of these [similitudes) three should suffice if you are sagacious.

A man came to Ibn Sirin³²s and said: 'In my dream I seemed to have a seal in my hand with which I sealed men's mouths and women's pudenda.' Ibn Sirin said: 'You are a muezzin who announces the prayers during Ramadan before the break of dawn.' 'Right you are,' replied the man.

Another man came to him and said: 'I saw myself pouring oil into olives.' Ibn _Sirin replied: 'If you have a female slave whom you bought, examine her case closely, for, indeed, she is your mother who was taken prisoner while you were an infant3²⁹ For the olives are the source of the oil, and now [in your dream] it is returned to the source.' The man, then, looked into the matter, and, in fact, the slave turned out to be his mother who had been taken captive while he was an infant.

Yet another said to Ibn Sirin: 'I was myself adorning the necks of swine

with pearls.'³³⁰ Ibn _Sirin said: 'You teach wisdom to the unworthy.' It

was as he said.

Dream-interpretation, from first to last, consists of parables that con­vey to you the way of coining parables. By a parable we mean the ren­dering of meaning in such a form that if one considers its meaning he, finds it true, yet, if he looks at its form he will find it false. Thus the muezzin, if he looked at the form of the seal and the imprinting of it bn the pudenda, would consider it false. Indeed, he did not seal with it at all. But, if he considered its meaning he found it true since from

it issued the spirit and sense of sealing, which is the stopping intended by sealing.

The prophets cannot address humans except by use of parables, for they are commissioned to speak to men according to man's level of under­standing. But men are³³n (as] in sleep, and nothing is revealed to a sleeper except through parable. When they die, then, they awake and realize that the parable is true.. That is why the Prophet said: 'The heart of the believer is between two of the Merciful's fingers.'° This is of the parables that only those that know can understand. As for the ignorant [one], his level [of ability] does not go beyond the literal sense of the parable, because of his ignorance of interpretation (tafsir) which is called allegorical interpretation ^(tail) _just ^as the interpretation of the 'para­bles' seen in sleep is called 'dream interpretation' (ta'6ir). Thus he affirms of God a hand and a finger - may God be exalted far above this view!³³² Similar to this is the saying of the Prophet: 'God created Adam in His image.'b [The ignorant men] understand image [as meaning] only color, form and shape. He attributes these to God ³³³ That is why some people stumbled in the matter of divine attributes, even re divine speech. They represent it as voice and letter etc. It would take too long to dis­cuss it.

There may occur the coining of parables concerning the hereafter, which parables the unbeliever, whose view rigidly sticks to the literal sense and what he considers contradictory in it he will reject. For example, the Prophet says: 'On the Day of Resurrection, Death in the form of a beautiful ram will be brought and killed.' The stupid heretic revolts, deems it a falsehood, and infers from it the falsity of the prophets. He says: '0 Almighty God, death is an accident and the ram is a body. How is an accident transformed into a body? Is this not [24] absurd?' But God keeps the knowledge of His secrets out of reach of those fools, as it is said: NONE UNDERSTANDS IT SAVE THOSE THAT KNOW ³³⁴ The wretch does not understand. A man said: 'I saw in my sleep that a ram was brought and it _was said that it was the plague which [ravaged] the village. Then, it was slaughtered.' The interpreter said: 'You are right. It is as you have seen it. It indicates that the plague will cease and never recur, for the slaughtered was the source of despera­tion.' Both are right: the interpreter in his explanation, the dreamer in his vision. The truth here' goes back to the fact that the angel³³⁵ in charge of dreams is the one who informs men during sleep of that which is [written] on the 'safely preserved_. tablet' (al-lawh al-maiafuz);³³⁶ he instructed the dreamer, by means of a parable which he coined for him,

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The prophets, also, when they address men in this life, which, com­pared to the hereafter, is as slumber, convey meanings to men's minds through similitudes, out of divine wisdom and kindness to men, facilitat­ing the comprehension of that which they would fail to grasp without parables. The statement, then, that death is brought in the form of a beau­tiful ram is a simile coined to convey to the mind that death brings on despair.

The heart is predisposed to being influenced by similes and to estab­lishing their meanings. The Koran, therefore, characterized extreme power when it stated: BE, AND IT IS.³³⁷ The Prophet expressed the alacrity of transformation when he said: `the heart of the believer is between two of the Merciful's fingers.' We have already indicated the sense of that in the Book of the Foundations of the Articles of Faith, which is in the quarter of Acts of Worship ³³⁸ Let us now return to the matter at hand.

The point is that the indication of the distribution of degrees and attain­ments for good and evil works is impossible except by striking similes. Let us, then, understand our simile as to its meaning, not its form. Just as men differ in [the attainment] of happiness or misery in this life, so are they divided in the hereafter into classes and differ in an innumer­able variety of greater or lesser happiness or misery. The hereafter is not at all different in this respect. For the ruler of [both] the temporal and the transcendental worlds is one; no associate has He. His order, which originates from His eternal will, is constant, unchangeable.

While we are unable to enumerate the individual levels, nevertheless, we can compute the [broader] categories. In the hereafter, men are divided, clearly, into four categories: the damned; the chastised; the redeemed; and the blessed 3³⁹ An analogy in this world is the follow­ing. A king captures a region. He kills some of the [natives]; they are destroyed. He chastises some for awhile but does not kill them; they are chastised. He frees some; they are redeemed. He confers honours on some; they are successful. If the king is just he will divide them strictly on their merits. He will slay only those who deny the king's right, resist­ing him politically. He chastises only those who fell short in his service while acknowledging his dominion and lofty rank. He would free only those who, following recognition of his power, have not failed to the extent of deserving chastisement, nor have rendered service to the extent of deserving reward. He honours only those who have spent their lives

to serve and support him.

It is proper that honours granted should vary in rank in accordance

with the degrees of service; that the destruction of the damned should

be, either by beheading or infliction of an exemplary punishment, in

accordance with their degree of opposition; that the severity, duration

and type of punishment for the chastised should be in accordance with

the degree of their failing. Each of these categories is sub-divided into

innumerable groups..

It is thus to be understood that, in the hereafter too, men are variously disposed. One will be destroyed, another chastised for awhile, one redeemed to reside in the abode of security, and another blessed. Moreover, the blessed are divided into those residing in the gardens of Eden, the gardens of sheltering retreat, or the gardens of Paradise3⁴p Among the chastised, also, there are those punished for a while, those tormented for one thousand to seven thousand years. These latter are the last to leave hellfire, as it has been reported ii, a tradition.° The damned, who despaired of God's mercy, are also of different categories. All these variations correspond to the differences in their obedient and rebellious acts. Let us, now, mention the mode of distribution.

[25] The first level is that of the damned, by which term we refer to those who despair of God's mercy. Do not be heedless of the meaning of our simile in which the one slain was he who despaired of the king's pleasure and deference. This level is only for heretics; disdainers; those devoted solely to temporal existence; those who deny God, His apostles and scriptures. Yet, ultimate happiness lies in nearness to God and gazing at His countenance. Such is attained only through that perception which finds its expression in faith [in God] and acceptance [of His prophets]. The heretics are those who deny; the disbelievers are those who despair of God's eternal mercy. It is they who disbelieve the Lord of the Universe and His appointed prophets. But upon that day they shall be veiled from their Lord most certainly.³⁴¹ Yet whenever someone is veiled from his beloved, a bar is set between him and that which he desires, he certainly is seared as by hellfire by the fire of separation3⁴²

The gnostics therefore say: Our fear is not of hellfire, nor is our yearning for the maidens of paradise. Nay, what we seek is only the Encounter, and what we flee from - is the Veil. Also: One who worships God seek­ing compensation is ignoble. He worships God as if out of the quest for paradise or for fear of hellfire. The gnostic, however, serves Him for His own sake, and seeks naught save God Himself. He desires neither houri nor paradisiac fruit, and fears not hellfire. For the overwhelming fire

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The hottest fire of Hell is cooler than,

One should not ignore this [phenomenon] of the hereafter as there exists a visible parallel in the temporal world. It has been observed than a man possessed by the ecstasy of love runs over fire and on the roots of reeds that injure his feet yet he feels it not due to the intensity of that which fills his heart. You can see, in combat, how fury overwhelms a man, so that he remains unaware of injuries sustained: The rage is a fire fill­ing his heart. The Prophet has said: `Rage is a portion of hellfire.'°

The burning of the heart is more potent that the burning of the body. As you can see, the stronger nullifies sensitivity to the lesser. Death by fire and sword is merely due to the separation of two components con­nected in a union feasible in bodies. But that which separates the heart from its beloved, to whom it is joined in a union more perfect than that [found] in bodies, is far more painful. [This is obvious] if you are a man of heart and insight. Nor it is unlikely that one who has no heart will not grasp the intensity of this pain and will regard it lightly in compari­son to the pain of the body.

If a youth were given the choice between the pain of doing without ball and mallet and the pain of missing the rank of a ruler, he would, by no means, be sensitive to the preclusion from power. Nor would he reckon that as painful. He would exclaim: '[Running] with the mallet on the playing field is dearer to me than occupying a thousand royal thrones.

Likewise, one, who is dominated by gluttony, if given the choice between pastry³⁴⁵ and sweets and a good action by which he would triumph over his enemies and delight his friends, surely would choose the pastry and sweets, as a result of the loss of that stimulus (ma'na) by which glory becomes desirable, and the presence of the faculty by which food becomes delightful. This applies to one who has been domi­nated by bestial and predatory traits, one in whom the angelic qualities have not appeared, those traits which tally with the delight exclusively in proximity to the Lord, and are grieved only by remoteness and con­cealment [from Him]. Just as taste resides only in the tongue and hear

ing only in the ears, so this quality is only of the heart. And, just as one who is bereft of hearing and sight cannot appreciate the delight of melody nor the beauty of form and colour, so a man who has no heart cannot have this [spiritual] sensation. Not every man has a heart. Or else the Divine Word: SURELY IN THAT THERE IS A REMINDER TO HIM WHO POSSESSES A HEART,³⁴⁶ would not be true. In this verse God qualified one unmindful of the Koran as one who is bereft of the heart.

I do not mean, by the term 'heart', that which is encased by the ribs. Nay, I mean the conscience which is of the world of dominion. ⁴⁷ That flesh[, of the same name,] which is of the world of creation, is its throne, the chest [cavity] its seat and the other limbs are its [26] sphere and its realm. Both creation and dominion are the Lord's. Yet, that conscience about which God said: SAY, THE SPIRIT IS OF THE COMMAND OF MY LORD,³⁴s is the commander and king. For between the world of creation and that of dominion there is a certain relation,³⁴⁹ the world of dominion commanding the world of creation. It is that spiritual substance³⁵o which, if it is sound, brings soundness to the rest of the body. One who perceives it, knows himself and one who knows himself knows his Lord. Then man can have the first inkling of the spiritual wisdom implied in the Prophet's statement that 'God created Adam in His image.'

God views with compassion those who attribute to Him the literal mean­ing of His expression and those who stray in the method of [allegorical] interpretation. If His compassion for the former is greater than for the latter, it is because compassion comes in accordance with the measure of the error, their error being greater even though they share in the com­mon misfortune of being deprived of the truth. For the truth is the bounty of God. He gives to whom He will, and God is of bounty abounding ist It is His wisdom for which He singles out whom He will352 . . . AND WHOSO IS GIVEN THE WISDOM, HAS BEEN GIVEN MUCH

GOOD 353

Let us return to the matter 'at hand. We went to all that length and dwelt extensively on a matter which is higher than the study of practical religion which we pursue in this book. It has become evident, then, that the degree of destruction is visited only on the ignorant deniers. As the evidence of this from God's book and the Tradition (sunna) of His Apostle is too extensive, we have not cited it.

The second level is that of the chastised. On it are those who are endowed with the basic faith but have failed in corresponding fidelity.

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The sense of the verse: THOSE WHO HAVE SAID 'OUR LORD IS GOD', THEN HAVE GONE STRAIGHT... ³⁵⁵ is: The straight path, following of which is the only means to full monotheism, is, like the bridge (sirat)³⁵⁶ in the description of the hereafter, thinner than a hair and sharper than [the blade] of a sword. No man can escape devia­tion from it, even in an easy matter, as he is yet not free of following his whim, even if it be in a trifling. That detracts from the fullness of monotheism according to the [degree] of deviation from the straight path. Such certainly necessitates a defect in the degree of proximity to God. With each [such] defect, two fires attend: the fire of separation result­ing from that elusive fullness of faith, and the fire of hell as the Koran has described it.

Everyone who deviates from the straight path is punished twice in two respects. The severity or leniency, however, and the varying duration of that punishment is decided by two factors: the intensity of his faith and the degree of his pursuit of whim. Since man, in most cases, is not devoid of failing in.. one of the two respects, God said: NOT ONE OF YOU THERE IS, BUT HE SHALL GO DOWN TO IT: THAT FOR THY LORD IS A THING DECREED, DETERMINED. THEN WE SHALL DELIVER THOSE THAT WERE GODFEARING: AND THE EVIL DOERS WE SHALL LEAVE THERE, HOBBLING ON THEIR KNEES ³⁵⁷ The pious of old said, therefore: 'Our fear is caused by our being sure that we are destined for the fire, and we have doubts about [our] salvation.' When al-Hasan³⁵⁸ reported the above-mentioned tra­dition of the one who leaves hellfire after a thousand years crying, '0 Compassionate One! 0 Benefactor!',° Hasan exclaimed: 'If only I could be that man.'

Some traditions indicate that the last to leave hellfire will do so after seven thousand years, and that the duration differs between an instant and seven thousand years, so that some pass over hellfire like a fleeting bolt of lightning, without any sojourn. Between the instant and the seven thousand years there are varying degrees of duration: a day; a week; a month; and so forth. Also, [the traditions indicate] a diversity in the

intensity with the maximum limitless, and the minimum an accounting. [This is just] as [in the case] of the king who sometimes punishes, by rebuke, those who have fallen short in their works, then grants pardon; sometimes by flogging and at other times he inflicts a different sort punishment. A third difference beyond duration and intensity, pertains to chastisement; that being variety of type. For one is punished with mere confiscation of his property; another by loss of his property and the slay­ing of his children, and seizure of his women, chastisement of his kins­folk, flogging, amputation of tongue, hand, [27] nose, ear and so forth. Such variations exist also in the chastisement of the hereafter. These are indicated in the trenchant propositions of the law [of Islam].

These are in accordance with the strength or weakness of faith and the greater or lesser quantity of good and evil deeds ³⁵⁹ The intensity of chastisement is according to the intensity and frequency of the evil deeds; while its quantity is linked to the quantity of evil. The variety of type is related to the variety of deeds. This has been disclosed to those who possess hearts, through Koran passages, illumined by faith. This is the meaning of the verse: THY LORD WRONGS NOT HIS SER­VANTS ^36° And again: TODAY EACH SOUL SHALL BE RECOM­PENSED FOR THAT IT HAS EARNED ³⁶¹ Also:... AND THAT MAN HAS NAUGHT SAVE AS HE HAS LABOURED3⁶² And: ... WHOSO HAS DONE AN ATOM'S WEIGHT OF GOOD SHALL SEE IT. AND WHOSO HAS DONE AN ATOM'S WEIGHT OF EVIL SHALL SEE IT;³⁶³ and other such passages in the Scripture and Tra­dition as to reward and punishment being recompense for man's acts, all this injustice without iniquity. The trend is toward pardon and mercy inasmuch as our Prophet quoted God as saying: 'My mercy outweighs My wrath.'° God said: AND IF IT BE A GOOD DEED HE WILL DOUBLE IT, AND GIVE FROM HIMSELF A MIGHTY WAGE.³⁶⁴ Thus these general points, therefore, pertaining to the relation of greater and lesser ranks to good and evil works are known through the decisive statements of revelation and the illumination of gnosis. As for the par­ticulars, they can be known only as [probable] opinion relying on the literal sense of the traditions and the type of intuition drawing upon the lights of contemplative scrutiny.

We assert, then, that anyone who absorbed the principle of faith, avoids all major sins and fulfills all religious obligations - namely, the five pillars, - with only sporadic minor transgressions, his punishment will, it seems; be merely a reprimand. When he is brought to account, his good works outweigh his evil ones, inasmuch as traditions have it that

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The same applies to the classes of faith. For faith is of two types: imita­tive, as is the faith of the masses who believe that they are told and per­sist therein; and the revelatory faith which is achieved through the enlarging of the breast by divine illumination until all reality is exposed as it is. It then becomes clear that everything originates and ends in God for naught is real save God, His attributes and works. It is the people of this class that are the near-stationed ones who abide in the Supreme Paradise. They enjoy the utmost degree of proximity to the heavenly host. They too, however, are of various categories. Some are more advanced, others less, the disparity dependent upon the differences in their knowledge of God. The gnostics' degrees of gnosis are innumer­able inasmuch as fully fathoming God's glorious essence is impossible. The sea of gnosis has no coast and no bottom and, therefore, men plunge into it according to their strength and according to what they have been granted by God throughout the ages. The stations on the road to God are endless, and innumerable are the levels of those who travel God's path.

One who believes by imitation is if the Companions of the Right Hand but on a level lower than the near-stationed. The Companions of the Right Hand are further subdivided. The level of the highest among them approaches the lowest level of the near-stationed. This is the position of one who avoided all major sins and performed all religious obliga­tions - namely, the five pillars, i.e., the verbal utterance of the profes­sion of faith, prayer, alms, fast and pilgrimage. One who perpetrated one or more major sins or neglected some of Islam's pillars, if he truly repents before his time came due, joins those who sinned not. For he who repents is as one who has never sinned. A washed garment is as one which was never soiled.

If he died before repenting, it is a perilous matter, for he may die while persisting [in sin] and this may be the cause of wavering in his faith, and he may be assigned to a bad end. This is especially so when his

faith was of a conformist kind. For imitation, even if resolute, is apt

to disintegrate at the least doubt or distortion. [28] The insightful gnostic

is less likely to be afraid for a bad end. Both of them, if they died in

faith, would be chastised except that God may forgo any chastisement

beyond rebuke at the accounting.

The duration of the punishment is commensurate with the duration

of persistence in sin; its intensity with the ignominy of the major sins;

the variety of type with the variety of evil works. At the termination

of the period of punishment the tradition-bound dolts will abide in the levels of the Companions of the Right Hand while the gnostics of insight will abide in the highest heights.

It is related: 'The last to leave hellfire will be given such as this whole world (dunyd) tenfold.'° Do not imagine that the intent is the calcula­tion of the physical area, as one parasang compares to two parasangs or as ten compares to twenty. This would be ignorance of the way para­bles are coined. Rather, it is like the saying: 'One took from him a camel and gave him ten like it.' Or, 'the camel was worth ten dinars but some­one gave him a hundred.'

If one understands the simile only in terms of weight surely, then, the hundred dinars, if placed on one balance of a scale, would not register a relation of one to ten with the camel on the other balance. Nay, it is a comparison of the meanings of bodies and spirits not of their individual existences. The camel is not wanted for its weight, length, breadth or area, but for its monetary worth. Its spirit is its monetary worth, and its body is its flesh and blood. One hundred dinars are equal to it tenfold on the spiritual balances, not on the bodily balances. This can be seen as true by anyone who knows the concept of monetary worth of gold and silver.

If one gave him, however, a jewel whose weight was a mithgiil and whole value was a hundred dinars, and said: 'I gave him the like of ten of it,' he would be correct. Only jewelers, however, would grasp his veracity. For the jeweler's spirit does not comprehend by mere eyesight but by a different sense beyond the eye. Therefore, a youth, especially a villager or bedouin, would deny the statement saying: 'This jewel is but a stone weighing a mithg5l'; the camel weighs a million mithgi ls; hence the man lied when he said, 'I gave him tenfold thereof.' In truth, however, it is the youth who is wrong but there is no way to prove it to him, until he be left to mature and become refined, or until he attain in his heart the illumination with which he may grasp the inner worth of gems and other valuables. Then only would the truth be revealed

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to him.

Just as one may pity the jeweler when he attempts to enlighten the bedouin and villager concerning the parable, so the gnostic may be pitied when he attempts to enlighten the dullwitted. It is for this reason that the Prophet, God bless him said: `Have mercy on three: a learned man among the ignorant; the rich man who became poor and the mighty man who was humbled .b

For this reason the prophets are pitied from among the people. Their tribulations, because of the people's lack of understanding, are a trial and test for them from God. Such tribulation is assigned them, by eter­nal pre-ordained decree. This is the meaning of the Prophet's words: 'Tribulation is assigned the prophets, then the saints, and then others rank by rank.'

Do not surmise that the tribulation is like that of Job, an affliction of the body. Indeed, Noah's trial was also great. He suffered from people who the more he called them to turn to God, the more just fled. There­fore, when God's Apostle was troubled by the speech of some he said: 'God had compassion on my brother Moses. Indeed, he was troubled by more than this, yet he endured.'d

Thus, the prophets are not free [29] of being afflicted by the unbelievers. Nor are the saints and the learned free of being afflicted by the ignorant. Therefore, the saints are seldom free of [various] types of harm and tribulation: by expulsion from the land, or their being denounced before the authorities, or by accusation of their unbelief and heresy. It is inevitable that the men of gnosis be viewed as unbelievers by the ignorant just as that he who substitutes a small gem for the large camel should be viewed, by the ignorant, as a squanderer and loser.

When you are aware of these points, trust the Prophet's statement: 'The last to leave hellfire will be given the likes of this world tenfold.' Beware lest you limit your belief to that which is perceived through the sense alone, and become a two-legged ass. For the ass shares with you the five senses; you, however, differ from the ass in a divine conscience which has been offered to the heavens, the earth and the mountains, but

they refused to carry [the trust] and were afraid of it 3⁶⁷ Yet, under­standing of that which is beyond the sensible world occurs only within the scope of that conscience which distinguishes you from the ass and the other animals. He who overlooks that, disregards and neglects it, and is content with the bestial level, does not transcend the [level] of sensual perceptions, is the one who destroys himself by wrecking his soul, forgetting it by ignoring it. BE NOT AS THOSE WHO FORGOT GOD, AND SO HE CAUSED THEM TO FORGET THEIR SOULS.³⁶⁸ Anyone who knows no more than is grasped through the five senses has forgotten God, inasmuch as His being cannot be encom­passed, in this world, through the senses. But anyone who has forgotten God, is certainly made to forget his own soul, and is lowered to the animal level, and abandons the ascent to the higher horizon ³⁶⁹ He betrays the trust which God placed with him and bestowed upon him, is ungrateful of His blessings and is risking His rancor, nay his state is worse than that of the beast. For, the beast is redeemed by death.

But man has a trust which shall, certainly, be returned to its consignor. He is the source and end of the consignment. The trust is like the radi­ant sun, yet, it falls into this evanescent mold and sets in it. At the destruction of this mold this sun will rise from its setting place and return to its creator, either in eclipsing darkness or with brilliant radiance. The brilliant and radiant are not barred from the divine Presence. The darkened also returns to the Presence for God is the source and end of all; only that [the darkened soul] turns its head from the highest heights to the lowest depths. The Koran, therefore, states: IF THOU COULDST SEE THE GUILTY HANDING THEIR HEADS BEFORE THEIR LORDj³¹⁰ It is clear, then, that they are, before their Lord, in confu­sion; their faces turned back and their heads lowered. Such is the divine rule for all to whom He has denied success and whom He has not guided on His path. We seek refuge in God from error and from descent to the station of the ignorant. Such is the fate of him who leaves hellfire and is given ten times or more the like of this world. But only a [true] monotheist will leave hellfire. By monotheism I do not refer to the verbal profession: 'there is no god but God'. The tongue is of the temporal world and avails only in the temporal world. [Such verbal profession] removes the sword from man's neck and repels thothands of plunderers from his wealth. [But] security of limb and property [extends only] the duration of life. But as limb and property do not remain, verbalization avails not. On the contrary, sincerity in monotheism avails, and its per­fection is that man sees all things as being only of God. Its sign is that

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he does not become vexed at any creature in what befalls him, inasmuch as he sees not the means but the Prime Cause, as will be shown in the Book on the Reliance on God 3⁷¹

For the most part, what leads monotheists into hellfire is injustices toward men, for the account of men is that which will not be neglected. As for the remainder of evil deeds, they may be quickly pardoned and atoned. As a tradition has it: Man [30] is brought before God. The man has good deeds [to his credit] the likes of mountains; if they be admitted he is of the people of Paradise. Then the examiners of interpersonal injustices rise: he may have abused someone's dignity, misappropriated someone's property, assaulted someone. These deeds are subtracted³⁷² from his good deeds until none remain. Then the angels declare: '0 Lord, this man's good deeds are gone and many claims against him remain.'. God proclaims: 'Heap their grievances upon his account, and make out his ticket to hellfire.' Just as he is destroyed by the evil done to another, by way of retribution, so the wronged one is saved by the good deed of the evil-doer who committed the injustice against him. For, it is trans­ferred to him in exchange for the wrong he suffered at the other's hand.

It has been related of Ibn al-Jala'³⁷³ that one of his brethren slandered him, then, requested his forgiveness. He said: `I cannot. My ledger has no good in it which is better than this. How, then, can I erase it.' He and others said: `My brethren's transgressions are of my good deeds with which I intend to adorn my ledger.'

It is this we desired to mention of the variation of man's degrees of happiness and misery in the hereafter.

All this is judgement of external causes, like the decision of the doctor about the patient, that he will certainly die and no treatment will avail, or, about another patient, that his malady is slight and his cure easy. Indeed, that notion is correct in most instances. Yet, sometimes, unbe­

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knownst to the physician, the soul's soundness may return to man close to death. Sometimes, however, the end comes unexpectedly to one who suffers from a light malady. These are God's mysteries, concealed in the living and in the obscurity of causes determined with a certain measure of the Prime Cause, for it is not given to human power to fathom them.

Indeed, we rely on piety, which is in the heart and it [i.e., the heart] is too obscure to be grasped by its possessor, the more so by another. It has already, however, been revealed to those possessed of hearts that forgiveness comes to man only through a secret reason which accounts for it. Wrath also comes only because of a hidden cause which draws man away from God. If not for that, pardon and wrath would not be recompense for acts and qualities. Were it not recompense it would be unjust, and, if it were unjust, the verses: THY LORD WRONGS NOT HIS SERVANTS;³⁷⁴ and, SURELY GOD SHALL NOT WRONG SO MUCH AS THE WEIGHT OF A MOTE,³⁷⁵ would not be correct. Yet all of this is true.

... AND THAT A MAN SHALL HAVE TO HIS ACCOUNT ONLY AS HE HAS LABOURED, AND THAT HIS LABOURING SHALL SURELY BE SEEN 3⁷⁶ EVERY SOUL SHALL BE PLEDGED FOR WHAT IT HAS EARNED ³⁷⁷ WHEN THEY SWERVED, GOD CAUSED THEIR HEARTS TO SWERVE 3⁷⁸ And, when they change what is in themselves, God changes that which is in them. This fulfills the verse, GOD CHANGES NOT WHAT IS IN A PEOPLE, UNTIL THEY CHANGE WHAT IS IN THEMSELVES.³⁷⁹ All this has been revealed to possessors of heart in a manner clearer than visible evidence, inasmuch as eyesight can err, as when, at times, it perceives a distant object as near and a large one as small. But the evidence of the heart cannot err. The point, however, is the opening of the eyesight of the heart and not to imagine falsity in the heart after this development. This is alluded to in the verse, THE HEART LIES NOT OF WHAT HE SAW3⁸⁰

The third level is that of the redeemed. By redemption I mean secur­ity only, without felicity or bliss. They are people who have neither

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rendered service to be rewarded, not have they failed [so as] to deserve punishment. It seems that this is the state of the insane, the young of the unbelievers, the feeble-minded and those to whom the call to God has not reached due to geographical isolation. They live in ignorance without perception. Their portion is neither knowledge nor unbelief, neither obedience nor rebellion. There is no means that can bring them close to God nor any offence which can turn them away from God. They are not of the people of paradise nor of the people of hellfire. Rather, they are stationed midway between the two. The revelation terms this A 'rdf (the crest) 3⁸¹ The existence of some people in this stagea is known with certainty from Koran verses, traditions and the lights [31] of vari­ous considerations. Essentially, the judgement,³⁸² for example, that the youth are in this category, is presumed and not known with certainty. Learning about it truly belongs to the sphere of prophecy, and it is unlikely that [men in] the grade of the saints and the scholars would rise to it.

The fourth level is that of the blessed 3⁸⁴ They are the gnostics, as distinct from the mere tradition-bound. They are the successful, station near [God]. The tradition-bound, even if he attains, on the whole, _a sta­tion in Paradise, is of the Companions of the Right Hand but these are the near-stationed, and what they experience is beyond [the possibility of] explanation.. The extent of possible explanation is what is detailed in the Koran. There can be no explanation beyond God's. That which cannot be expressed in this world is summed up in the verse: NO SOUL KNOWS WHAT COMFORT IS LAID UP FOR THEM SECRETLY,³⁸⁵ and, further, in the tradition: 'I have prepared for my righteous servants that which no eye has seen, which no ear has heard, and which has not occurred to the human mind.'

The desire of the gnostics is that state which could not conceivably have occurred to the human mind in this world. As for the houri, palaces, fruit, milk, honey, wine, and jewelry of Paradise, the gnostics do not covet them. Moreover, if these were given to them, they would not be content. They seek only the rapture of gazing at God's countenance. This is the utmost of felicities and the ultimate delight. That is why, when Rabi'a al-'Adawiya³⁸⁶ was asked: `What do you long for in Paradise?', she answered, 'first the Neighbour and then the House.'³⁸⁷ For these

are people whose preoccupation with the love of the Master deflects them from taking interest in the house and its embellishment, indeed in any­thing other than He, even in themselves. They are like the lover who is blindly devoted to his Beloved, whose mind is riveted to gazing at His countenance and thinking of Him. He is in the state of immersion, he is neglectful of himself, not aware of what affects his body. This state is termed the obliteration of self. That means that he becomes immersed in another, and all his concerns become one concern, namely his Beloved. There remains no room in him for anything but his beloved until he pays no attention to either himself or others. This is the state through which, in the hereafter, one attains such delight as is as inconceivable [32] in this world, in anyone's mind, as it cannot be imagined that one deaf and blind would form the notion of colour and melody unless the bar was lifted from (the impairment of) his faculties of hearing and sight. At that point he might understand his condition and know, assuredly, that earlier it was impossible for him to have formed such notions. This life (dunyd) is a veil to realization, and with its removal the hidden is revealed. At that point, the flavour of the good life is perceived. SURELY THE LAST ABODE IS LIFE, DID THEY BUT KNOW.³⁸⁸

This should suffice in explication of the distribution of degrees [in the hereafter] according to good works.

May God, in His benevolence, grant success.

There are circumstances by which minor sins are magnified. Among them are persistence and assiduity. That is why they say: A sin persisted in cannot be minor, and a sin followed by the quest for forgiveness, can­not be major. A major sin can go by and, if it can be imagined that it is not followed by the like, then pardon for such is more likely than for a minor sin in which man persists. A model for this is drops of water falling, continuously, upon a stone until they wear it away. The same amount of water, poured onto the stone all at once, would not produce a like effect. That is why the Apostle of God said: `best are works that are continuous even if &w.'°

Matters are clarified through their opposites. If the useful work is the constant, even if it be minor, then the intermittent though numerous works are of little advantage in the illumination and purification of the heart. Likewise, a few evil deeds, if they persist, have great influence in cor­rupting the heart. Yet, it is hardly imaginable that man storms for the major sin suddenly without antecedents and accessories from the category

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Another [source of augmenting sin] is to consider sin minute. Indeed, whenever man himself deems the sin as major, it becomes, in God's view, minor, because the apprehension of its magnitude stems from the heart's aversion to it and loathing of it. This aversion to it restrains the intensity of its influence upon the heart. [Conversely,] considering a sin insignificant stems from habitude which makes^, for an intense influence on the heart. The heart must be illumined through acts of obedience, and its blackening through evil deeds must be avoided. It, therefore, will not be censured for what befalls it inadvertently. Indeed, the heart is not impressed by what occurs inadvertently. A tradition has it: `The believer considers his sin a mountain, suspended above him, and fears it may fall upon him; the hypocrite considers his sin a fly which passed by his nose, and is swatted away.'° Somebody has said that the sin which is not forgiven is man's saying: `Were all my sins such as this.'

The sin waxes great in the heart of the believer because of his aware­ness of God's majesty, and when he contemplates the greatness of Him against whom he rebelled, he sees a minor sin as major. God has revealed to one of His prophets: `Look not at the insignificance of the gift but, rather, at the greatness of the giver; look not at the smallness of the offense, look rather at the majesty of Him whom you confront with it.' In this sense a gnostic has said: `There is no minor sin; every offense is major.'

Likewise, a Companion said to the `Followers': `Surely you do things which, while in your eyes they are finer than a hair, we, in the time of God's Apostle, would reckon as among the mortal sins.' Since the Companions' perception of God's majesty was more sterling, they con­sidered the minor sins, with regard to God's majesty, as major sins. For the same reason what is a minor sin in the case of an ignoramus, becomes a major sin in the case of a learned man. Matters which are disregarded in the case of a common person, are not so disregarded in the case of an enlightened one, for sin and offense grow in proportion to the per­ception of the transgressor.

Another cause of the minor sin turning great is delighting in the minor sin, taking pride in it, considering its realization as pleasure, and dis­

regard of its being the cause of misery. The more the sweetness of the minor sin overcomes a man, the more a minor sin becomes major, and its impact in blackening the heart is growing, so that there are even sin­ners who pride themselves on their sins and boast of them, because of the intensity of their joy at having yielded to them. [33] As if saying: 'Have you not seen how I rent his dignity?' A disputant says: `Have you now seen how I exposed him, how I brought out his shortcomings to the point of shame, how I scorned him and how I duped him?' A trader says: `Have you not seen how I sold him the spurious, how I deceived him, how I cheated him of his wealth and how I made a fool of him?' By deeds such as these are minor sins magnified. But sins are destruc­tive. When man is led to them, and Satan has succeeded in inducing him to act that way, then he should be in trouble and regret brought on by the triumph of the Enemy over him and his own remoteness from God.

If a sick person rejoices in the destruction of the vessel containing his medication, just to escape the discomfort pursuant to its consumption, he cannot be expected to be cured.

What also increases a minor sin is that man disdains God's protection of him, His forbearance, and the respite He granted. Man does not grasp that he is given respite out of detestation, so that the offense might increase. He thinks that his ability to sin is _a sign of God's concern for him. This is because of his feeling secure from God's devising, and his ignorance of the pitfalls of delusion about God. As it says, AND THEY SAY WITHIN THEMSELVES, `WHY DOES GOD NOT CHASTISE US FOR WHAT WE SAY?' SUFFICIENT FOR THEM SHALL BE GEHENNA, AT WHICH THEY SHALL BE ROASTED - A WRETCHED LOT.³⁸⁹ Another case: that he commit a sin and expose it by mentioning it after its commission or committing it in another's presence. Indeed, such is an offense against the protection God lowers upon him and an incitement of the craving for evil in him whom he told of his sin or whom he made witness his action. Two offenses join into his offense to harden it. If encouraging another person to commit that sin, inducing him and involving him, be added it goes into a fourth crime, and it becomes a monstrous affair.

It is recorded in a tradition: `All men are excused except the declarers. One of them passes the night in sin, and God conceals it, yet he arises and removes divine concealment, and speaks of his sin.'° This is because it is of God's attributes and favours that he reveals the good deed, conceals the unsightly and does not rip the protective veil. But exposure. [by man] is a repudiation of this grace.

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Somebody said: 'Do not sin, but if you cannot avoid sin, never awaken such a desire in another, for then you will have sinned twice.' That is why the Koran states: THE HYPOCRITES, THE MEN AND THE WOMEN, ARE AS ONE ANOTHER: THEY BID TO DISHONOUR AND FORBID HONOUR3⁹⁰ An early authority said: 'The gravest vio­lation of a man's reputation is to assist him in committing a sin, and then make him consider it slight.'

God has said: AND WE WRITE DOWN WHAT THEY HAVE FOR­WARDED AND WHAT THEY HAVE LEFT BEHIND 3⁹¹ What 'is left behind' refers to those acts which continue after the expiration of the deed and the doer.

Ibn 'Abbiis³⁹² said: 'Woe to the scholar from his followers; he slips but goes right yet people carry the error far away.' Somebody said: `The error of the learned doctor is like a shipwreck, it sinks and its passengers drown.'

In the 'Isra'iliyat³⁹³ [it occurs]: 'There was a scholar who misguided people into unlawful innovation, then was overtaken by repentance and acted toward correction over a lifetime. God then revealed to their prophet: "Say to him: 'If your sin were only in that which is between Me and thee, I would surely forgive it. However, what about those of My servants thou hast misled and hast plunged into hellfire?' " '

Thus it becomes clear that the position of learned doctors is grave. They have two obligations; first abandonment of sin and, secondly, con­cealment of it. Just as their responsibility for sins is compounded, so is their recompense for good deeds emulated by their following.

If the doctor abandons [the search for] affectation and the affection for the mundane world; is satisfied with little thereof, as well as with little food and apparel against the elements; and is followed in this by

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leading scholars and the rank and file, he will enjoy the likes of their reward. If, however, he leans toward imitating him, they will be able to attain success only in the service of rulers [34] and the gathering of scraps from unlawful wealth. For all this he will be responsible. Thus the behaviour of the scholars is compounded manyfold, be it in merit or demerit, in gain or less.