A Moslem Seeker after God

A Moslem Seeker after God

A Moslem Seeker after God is Samuel Marinus Zwemer's biographical and critical study of Abu Hamid Mohammed Al-Ghazali, the eleventh-century Persian theologian and mystic whom Zwemer presents as the most influential figure in Islam after Mohammed himself. The work opens by situating Al-Ghazali within the turbulent political and religious world of his time: the decline of the Abbasside Caliphate, the rise of the Seljuk Turks under Togrul Bey, Alp Arslan, and Malek Shah, the statesmanship of the vizier Nizam Al-Mulk, and the devastations and eventual First Crusade that followed the Turkish capture of Jerusalem. Zwemer draws extended comparisons between this Islamic world and contemporary Christendom, noting parallels between Al-Ghazali and figures such as Anselm. Zwemer traces Al-Ghazali's birth at Tus in Khorasan (1058 A.D.) and his family background, including the education entrusted to him and his brother Ahmed after their father's death. He follows Al-Ghazali's early schooling at Tus and Jurjan, his encounter with robbers who taught him to memorize rather than merely transcribe his notes, and his advanced studies at Nishapur under the great teacher Imam al-Haramain al-Juwaini, alongside fellow students later said to include Omar Khayyam and Hasan-i Sabbah. The narrative describes Al-Ghazali's rise to fame under the patronage of Nizam Al-Mulk and his appointment to teach at the Nizamiyya College in Bagdad, where Zwemer details the splendor and customs of the court of the Caliph. The central turning point recounted is Al-Ghazali's spiritual crisis: his descent into philosophical scepticism, his dissatisfaction with scholastic theology, philosophy, and the teachings of the Ismaili Taʾlimites, and the psychosomatic illness that struck him at the height of his career, robbing him of speech. Drawing on Al-Ghazali's own "Confessions" (Al-Munqidh min ad-Dalal), Zwemer narrates his renunciation of wealth, position, and family in 1095 to become a wandering ascetic and Sufi seeker. The account then follows his years of wandering: retreat and meditation in the minaret of the Great Mosque of Damascus, visits to Jerusalem's sacred sites, a journey to Hebron to the tomb of Abraham, and his pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, interspersed with Zwemer's explanations of Sufi devotional practice, the mystical interpretation of pilgrimage rites, and the daily wirds (devotional exercises) Al-Ghazali is said to have practiced. Zwemer also treats Al-Ghazali's later return to teaching at Nishapur and Bagdad, his final withdrawal to Tus, and the traditional and legendary accounts of his death in 1111, including miraculous stories later attached to it by admirers. Substantial sections are devoted to Al-Ghazali's writings, above all his monumental Ihya ʿUlum id-Din (Revival of the Religious Sciences), whose four-part structure and contents Zwemer outlines in detail, along with shorter works such as the Kimiya as-Saʾada (Alchemy of Happiness), the Munqidh, Al-ʾAdab fi Din, and his treatise on the divine names. Zwemer reproduces Al-Ghazali's formal creed at length and discusses his theology, his teaching on faith versus works, his classification of believers, his predestinarian views, and his reputation for credulity, including his association with the magic square called Buduh. The book also surveys Al-Ghazali's influence on Jewish philosophy through Hebrew translations of his works, his opposition to the Aristotelian philosophers, and the controversy and book-burning his Ihya provoked among the jurists of Cordova. Zwemer devotes considerable attention to Al-Ghazali's ethical teaching, presenting it as a mixture of genuine moral elevation and, from a Christian standpoint, troubling casuistry—examining in turn his views on lying and its justifications, the upbringing and discipline of boys, the treatment and correction of wives, and the permissibility of music and dance as aids to religious ecstasy. Throughout, Zwemer situates Al-Ghazali's mysticism, his teaching on prayer and absorption in God, and his moral philosophy against a comparative Christian standard, while acknowledging the sincerity, learning, and enduring devotional power of his writings within Islam.

By Samuel Marinus Zwemer · First published 1920 · Genre: Religious Biography, Islamic History, Islamic Theology · 9 chapters · 75,107 words

First lines

"Between the civilizations of Christendom and Islam there is a gulf which no human genius, no concourse of events, can entirely bridge over. The most celebrated Orientals, whether in war or policy, in literature or learning, are little more than names for Europeans. " -_"The Assemblies of Al-Hariri," by Thomas Chenery._

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Islamic theology · Sufism · Islamic mysticism · Islamic philosophy · Islamic ethics · Spiritual autobiography · Religious reform · Asceticism · Medieval Persia · Eleventh-century history · Seljuk Empire · Islamic jurisprudence

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More by Samuel Marinus Zwemer