Alhassanain(p) Network for Heritage and Islamic Thought

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THE ALCHEMY OF HAPPINESS

BY AL GHAZZALI

CLAUD FIELD, translator [b. 1863, d. 1941]

[1909]

www.alhassanain.org/english

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This versionis published on behalf of www.alhassanain.org/english

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

EDITORIAL NOTE 5

PREFACE 6

INTRODUCTION 10

CHAPTER I: THE KNOWLEDGE OF SELF 11

CHAPTER II: THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD 16

CHAPTER III: THE KNOWLEDGE OF THIS WORLD 21

CHAPTER IV: THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE NEXT WORLD 24

CHAPTER V: CONCERNING MUSIC AND DANCING AS AIDS TO THE RELIGIOUS LIFE 30

CHAPTER VI: CONCERNING SELF-EXAMINATION AND THE RECOLLECTION OF GOD 35

CHAPTER VII: MARRIAGE AS A HELP OR HINDRANCE TO THE RELIGIOUS LIFE 40

Regarding the Observances of Marriage 42

CHAPTER VIII: THE LOVE OF GOD 45

The Vision of God 47

The Signs of the Love of God 49

NOTES 52

EDITORIAL NOTE

THE object of the Editors of this series is a very definite one. They desire above all things that, in their humble way, these books shall be the ambassadors of good-will and understanding between East and West--the old world of Thought and the new of Action. In thisendeavour , and in their own sphere, they are but followers of the highest example in the land. They are confident that a deeper knowledge of the great ideals and lofty philosophy of Oriental thought may help to a revival of that true spirit ofCharity which neither despises nor fears the nations of another creed andcolour . Finally, in thanking press and public for the very cordial reception given to the “Wisdom of the East” Series, they wish to, state that no painshave been spared to secure the best specialists for the treatment of the various subjects at hand.

L. CRANMER-BYNG

S. A. KAPADIA

NORTHBROOK SOCIETY,

185 PICCADILLY, W.

PREFACE

RENAN, whose easy-going mind was the exact antithesis to the intense earnestness ofGhazzali , calls him “the most original mind among Arabian philosophers.” [1] Notwithstanding this, his fame as a philosopher has been greatly overshadowed by Avicenna, his predecessor, and Averroes, his successor and opponent. It is a significant fact that theEncyclopædia Britannica devotes five columns to each of the others and only a column and a half toGhazzali . Yet it is doubtful whether it is as a philosopher thatbe would have wished to be chiefly remembered.Several of his works, it is true, are polemics against the philosophers, especially hisTehafot -al-falasifa , or “Destruction of the philosophers,” and, as SolomonMunk says in hisMelanges dephilosophie Juive etArabe ,Ghazzali dealt “a fatal blow” to Arabian philosophy in the East, from which it never recovered, though it revived for a while in Spain .and culminated in Averroes. Philosopher andsceptic as he was by nature,Ghazzali's chief work was that of a theologian, moralist, and mystic, though his mysticism was strongly balanced by common sense. He had, as he tells.us in his Confessions, experienced “conversion”; God had arrested him “on the edge of the fire,” and thenceforth what Browning says of the French poet, ReneGentilhomme , was true of him:

Human praises scare

Rather than soothe ears all a-tingle yet

Withtones few hear and live, and none forget.

In the samework he tells us that one of his besetting weaknesses had been the craving for applause, and in hisIhya-ul-ulum (“Revival of the Religious Sciences”) he devotes a long chapter to the dangers involved in a love of notoriety and the cure for it.

After hisconversion he retired into religious. seclusion for eleven years at Damascus (a corner of the mosque there still bears his name--”TheGhazzali Corner”) and Jerusalem, where he gave himself up to intense and prolonged meditation.But he was too noble a character to concentrate himself entirely on his own soul and its eternal prospects. The requests of his children--and other family affairs of which we have no exact information--caused him to return home. Besides this, the continued progress of theIsmailians (connected with the famous Assassins), the spread of irreligiousdoctrines and the increasing.religious indifference of the masses not only filledGhazzali and his Sufi friends with profound grief, but determined them to stem the, evil with the whole force of their philosophy, theardour of vital conviction, and the authority of noble example.

In his autobiography referred to aboveGhazzali tells us that, after emerging from a state ofPyrrhonic scepticism , he had finally arrived at the conclusion that the mystics were on the right path and true “Arifin ,” orKnowers of God.[2] But in saying this he meant those Sufis whose mysticism did not carry them into, extravagant utterances like that of MansurHallaj , who was crucified at Bagdad (A.D. 922) for exclaiming “I am the Truth, or God.” In hisIhya-ul-ulum Ghazzali says: “The matter went so far that certain persons boasted of a union with the Deity, and chat in His unveiled presence theybeheld Him, and enjoyed familiar converse with Him, saying, “Thus it was spoken unto us and thus we speak.”Bayazid Bistami (ob. A. D. 875)is reported to have exclaimed, “Glory be to me!” This style of discourse exerts a very pernicious influence on the common people. Some husbandmen indeed, letting their farms run to waste, set up similar pretensions for themselves; for human nature is pleasedwith maxims like these, which permit one to neglect usefullabour with the idea of acquiring .spiritual purity through the attainment of certain mysterious degrees and qualities. This notion is productive of great injury, so that the death of one of these foolish babblers would be a, greater benefit to the cause of true religion than the saving alive of ten of them.”

For himselfGhazzali was a practical mystic. His aim was to make men better by leading them from a merely notional acquiescence in the stereotyped creed of Islam to a real knowledge of God. The first four chapters of The Alchemy of Happiness are a commentary on the famous verse in theHadis (traditional sayings of, Muhammad), “He who knows himself knows God.” He is especially scornful of theparrotlike repetition of orthodox phrases. Thus alluding to the almost hourly use byMuhammadans of the phrase, “I take refuge in God” (Na`udhib`illah !),Ghazzali says, in theIhya-ul-ulum : “Satan laughs at such pious ejaculations. Those who utter them are like a man who .should meet a lion in a desert, while there is a fort at no great distance, and, when he sees the evil beast, should stand exclaiming, 'I take refuge in that fortress,' without moving a step towards it. What will such an ejaculation profit him? In the same way the mere exclamation, 'I take refuge in God,' will not protect thee from the terrors of His judgment unless thou really take refuge in Him.” It is related of some unknown Sufi that when, asked for a definition of religious sincerity he drew a red-hot piece of iron out of a blacksmith's forge, and said, “Behold it!” This “red-hot” sincerity is certainly characteristic ofGhazzali , and there is no wonder that he did not admire his contemporary, Omar Khayyam.

The little picture of the lion and the fort in the above passage is a small instance of another conspicuous trait inGhazzali's mind--his turn for allegory. Emerson says, “Whoever thinks, intently will find an image more or less luminous rise in his mind.” InGhazzali's writings many such images arise, some grotesque and some beautiful. His allegory of the soul as a fortress beleaguered by the “armies of Satan” is a striking anticipation of the Holy War of Bunyan. The greatest of all the Sufi poets,Jalaluddin Rumi , born a century afterGhazzali's death (A.D. 1207), has paid him the compliment of incorporating several of theseallegories which occur in theIhya into his ownMasnavi . Such is the famous one of the Chinese and Greek artists, which runs as follows:

“Once upon a time the Chinese having challenged the Greeks to a trial of skill in painting, the Sultan summoned them both into edifices built for the purpose directly facing each other, and commanded them to show proof of their art. The painters of the two nations immediately applied themselves with diligence to their work. The Chinese sought and obtained of the king every day a great quantity ofcolours , but the Greeks not the least particle. Both worked in profound silence, untilthe with a clangor of cymbals and of trumpets, announced the end of theirlabours . Immediately the king, with his courtiers, hastened to their temple, and there stood amazed at the wonderfulsplendour of the Chinese painting and the exquisite beauty of thecolours .But meanwhile the Greeks, who had not sought to adorn the walls with paints, butlaboured rather to erase everycolour , drew aside the veil which concealed their work. Then, wonderful to tell, the manifold variety of the Chinesecolours was seen still more delicately and beautifully reflected from the walls of the Grecian temple, as it stood illuminated by the rays of the midday sun.”

This parable, of course, illustrates thefavourite Sufi tenet that the heart must he kept pure and calm as an unspotted mirror. Similarly, theepologue of the elephant in the dark (vide chap. II.) has been borrowed byJalaluddin Rumi fromGhazzali .

Another characteristic ofGhazzali which appeals to the, modern mind is the way in which he expounds the religious argument from probability much as Bishop Butler and Browning do (vide the end of Chapter IV. in the present book).Ghazzali might have said, withBlougram :

Withme faith means perpetual unbelief

Kept quiet like the snake 'neath Michael's foot,

Who stands calm just because he feels itwrithe.

This combination of ecstatic assurance andscepticism is one of those antinomies of the humanmind which annoy the rationalist and rejoice the mystic.Those in whom they coexist, likeGhazzali in the eleventh century and Cardinal Newman in the nineteenth, are a perpetual problem to understand and therefore perennially interesting:

He may believe, and yet, and yet,

How can he?

Another point in whichGhazzali anticipates Bishop Butler is his representation of punishment as the natural working out of consequences, and not an arbitrary infliction imposedab extra. He tries torationalise the luridthreatenings of the Koran.

In his ownday Ghazzali was accused of having one doctrine for the multitude and one for himself and his intimate friends. Professor D. B. Macdonald, of Hartford, after going thoroughly into the matter, says, “If the charge of a secret doctrine is to be proved againstGhazzali it must be on other and better evidence than that which is now before us.”

At any rate,Ghazzali has been accepted as an orthodox authority by theMuhammadans , among whom his title isHujjat -el-Islam “The Proof of Islam,” and it has been said, “If all the books of Islam were destroyed it would be, but a slight loss if only theIhya ofGhazzali were preserved.” The great modern reformer of Islam in India, the late SirSyud Ahmed, has had some portions of this enormous work printed separatelyfor the purpose of familiarising the young Moslems at Aligarh withGhazzali .

TheIhya was written in Arabic, andGhazzali himself wrote an abridgment of it in Persian for popularuse which he entitledKimiya'e Saadat (“The Alchemy of Happiness”). This little book contains eight sections of that abridgment.

Theologians are the best judges of theologians, and in conclusion we may quote Dr. AugustTholuck's opinion ofGhazzali : “This man, if ever any have deserved the name, was truly a 'divine,' and he may be justly placed on a level with Origen, so remarkable was he for learning and ingenuity, and gifted with such a rare faculty for the skilful and worthy exposition of doctrine. All that is good, noble, and sublime that his great soul had compassed he bestowed uponMuhammadanism , and he adorned the doctrines of the Koran with so much piety and learning that, in the form given them by him, they seem, inmy opinion, worthy the assent of Christians. Whatsoever wasmost excellent in the philosophy of Aristotle or in the Sufi mysticism he discreetly adapted to theMuhammadan theology; from every school he sought the means of shedding light andhonour upon religion; while his sincere piety and lofty conscientiousness imparted to all his writings a sacred majesty. He was the first ofMuhammadan divines.”

INTRODUCTION

KNOW, O beloved, that man was not created in jest or at random, butmarvellously made and for some great end. Although he is not from everlasting, yet he livesfor ever ; and though his body is mean and earthly, yet his spirit is lofty and divine. When in the crucible of abstinence heis purged from carnal passions he attains to the highest, and in place of being a slave to lust and anger becomes endued with angelic qualities. Attaining that state, he finds his heaven in the contemplation of Eternal Beauty, and no longer in fleshly delights. The spiritual alchemy which operates this change in him, like that which transmutes base metals into gold, is not easily discovered, nor to be found in the house of every old woman. It is to explain that alchemy and its methods of operation that the author has undertaken this work, which he has entitled, The Alchemy of Happiness. Now the treasuries of God, in which this alchemy is to be sought, are the hearts of the prophets, and he, who seeks itelsewhere will be disappointed and bankrupt on the day of judgment, when he hears the words, “We have lifted the veil from off thee, and thy sight to-day is keen.”

God has sent on earth a hundred and twenty-four thousandprophets[ 3] to teach men the prescription of this alchemy, and how to purify their hearts from baser qualities in the crucible of abstinence. This alchemymay be briefly described as turning away from the world to God, and its constituents are four:

1. The knowledge of self.

2. The knowledge of God.

3. The knowledge of this world as it really is.

4. The knowledge of the next world as it really is.

We shall now proceed to expound these four constituents in order.

CHAPTERI : THE KNOWLEDGE OF SELF

KNOWLEDGE of self is the key to the knowledge of God, according to the saying: “He who knows himself knows God,”[ 4] and, as it is Written in the Koran, “We will show them Our signs in the world and in themselves, that the truth may be manifest to them.” Now nothing is nearer to thee thanthyself , and if thouknowest not thyself how canst thou know anything else? If thousayest “I know myself,” meaning thy outward shape, body, face, limbs, and so forth, such knowledge can never be a key to the knowledge of God. Nor, if thy knowledge as to that which is within only extends so far, that when thou art hungry thoueatest , and when thou art angry thouattackest some one, wilt thou progress any further in this path, for the beasts are thy partners in this?But real self-knowledge consists in knowing the following things: What art thou in thyself, and from whence hast thou come? Whither art thou going,and for what purpose hast thou come to tarry here awhile, and in what does thy real happiness and misery consist? Some of thy attributes are those of animals, some of devils, and some of angels, and thou hast to find out which of these attributes are accidental and which essential.Till thouknowest this, thou canst not find out where thy real happiness lies. The occupation of animals is eating, sleeping, and fighting; therefore, if thou art an animal, busy thyself in these things. Devils are busy in stirring up mischief, and in guile and deceit; if thoubelongest to them, do their work. Angels contemplate the beauty of God, and are entirely free from animal qualities; if thou art of angelic nature, then strive towardsthine origin, that thoumayest know and contemplate the Most High, and be delivered from thethraldom of lust and anger. Thoushouldest also discover why thou hast been created with these two animal instincts: whether that they should subdue and leadthee captive, or whether that thoushouldest subdue them, and, in thy upward progress, make of one thy steed and of the other thy weapon.

The first step to self-knowledge is to know that thou art composed of an outward shape, called the body, and an inward entity called the heart, or soul. By “heart” I do not mean the piece of flesh situated in the left of our bodies, but that which uses all the other faculties as its instruments and servants. Intruth it does not belong to the visible world, but to the invisible, and has come into this world as atraveller visits a foreign country for the sake of merchandise, and will presently return to its native land. It is the knowledge of this entity and itsattributes which is the key to the knowledge of God.

Some idea of the reality of the heart, or spirit, may be obtained by a man closing his eves and forgetting everything around except his individuality . He will thus also obtain a glimpse of the unending nature of that individuality.Too close inquiry, however, into the essence of spirit is forbidden by the Law . In theKoran it is written: “They will question thee concerning the spirit. Say: 'The Spirit comes by the command of my Lord.'“Thus much is known of it that it is an indivisible essence belonging to the world of decrees, and that it is not from everlasting, but created. An exact philosophical knowledge of the spirit is not a necessary preliminary to walking in the path of religion, but comes rather as the result of self-discipline and perseverance in that path, as it is said in the Koran: “Those who strive in Our way, verily We will guide them to the right paths.”

For the carrying on ofthis spiritual warfare by which the knowledge of oneself and of God is to be obtained, the body may be figured as a kingdom, the soul as its king, and the different senses and faculties as constituting an army. Reason may be called the vizier, or prime minister, passion the revenue-collector, and anger thepolice-officer . Under the guise of collecting revenue, passion is continually prone to plunder on its own account, while resentment is always inclined to harshness and extreme severity. Both of these, the revenue-collector and thepolice-officer , have to be kept in due subordination to the king, but not killed or expelled, as they have their own proper functions tofulfil .But if passion and resentment master reason, the ruin of the soul infallibly ensues. Asoul which allows its lower faculties to dominate the higher is as one who should hand over an angel to the power of a dog or aMussalman to the tyranny of an unbeliever. The cultivation of demonic, animal, or angelic qualities results in the production of corresponding characters, which in the Day of Judgmentwill be manifested in visible shapes, the sensual appearing as swine, the ferocious as dogs and wolves, and the pure as angels. The aim of moral discipline is to purify the heart from the rust of passion and resentment,till , like a clear mirror, it reflects the light of God.

Some one may here object, “But if man has been created with animal and demonic qualities as well as angelic, how are we to know that the latter constitute his real essence, while the former are merely accidental and transitory?” Tothis I answer that the essence of each creature is to be sought in that which is highest in it and peculiar to it.Thus the horse and the ass are both burden-bearing animals, but the superiority of the horse to the ass consists in its being adapted for use in battle. If it fails in this, itbecomes degraded to the rank of burden-bearing animals. Similarly with man: the highest faculty in him is reason, which fits him for the contemplation of God.If this. predominates in him, when he dies, he leaves behind him all tendencies to passion and resentment, and becomes capable of association with angels. As regards his mere animal qualities, man is inferior to many animals, but reason makes him superior to them, as it is written in the Koran: “To man We have subjected all things in the earth.”But if his lower tendencies have triumphed, after death he will ever be looking towards the earth and longing for earthly delights.

Now the rational soul in man abounds in, marvels,both of knowledge and power . By means ofit he masters arts and sciences, can pass in a flash from earth to heaven and back again, can map out the skies and measure the distances between the stars. Byit also he can draw the fish from the sea and the birds from the air, and can subdue to his service animals, like the elephant, the camel, and the horse. His five senses are like five doors opening on the external world; but, more wonderful than this, his heart has awindow which opens on the unseen world of spirits. In the state of sleep, when the avenues of the senses are closed, this windowis opened and man receives impressions from the unseen world and sometimesforeshadowings of the future. His heart is then like amirror which reflects what is pictured in the Tablet of Fate.But , even in sleep, thoughts of worldly things dull this mirror, so, that the impressions it receives are not clear. After death, however, such thoughts vanish and thingsare seen in their naked reality, and the saying in the Koran is fulfilled: “We have stripped the veil from off thee and thy sight today is keen.”

This opening of a window in the heart towards the unseen also takes place in conditions.approaching those of prophetic inspiration, when intuitions spring up in the mindunconveyed through any sense-channel. The more a man purifies himself from fleshly lusts and concentrates his mind on God, the more conscious will he be of such intuitions. Those who are not conscious of them have no right to deny their reality.

Nor are such intuitions confined only to those of prophetic rank. Just as iron, by sufficient polishing,can be made into a mirror, so any mind by due discipline can be rendered receptive of such impressions. It was at this truth the Prophet hinted when he said, “Every child is born with a predisposition towards Islam; then his parents make a Jew, or a, Christian, or a star-worshipper of him.” Every human beinghas in the depths of his consciousness heard the question “Am I not your Lord?” and answered “Yes” to it. But some hearts are like mirrors so befouled with rust and dirt that they give no clear reflections, while those of the prophets and saints, though they are men “of like passions with us,” are extremely sensitive to all divine impressions.

Nor is it onlyby reason of knowledge acquired and intuitive that the soul of man holds the first rank among created things, but also by reason of power. Just as angels preside over the elements, so does the soul rule the members of the body. Thosesouls which attain a special degree of power not only rule their own body but those of others also. If they wish a sick man to recover he recovers, or a person in health to fall ill he becomes ill, or if they will the presence of a person he comes to them. According as the effects produced by these powerful souls are good orbad they are termed miracles or sorceries. These souls differ from common folk in three ways: (1) what others only see in dreams they see in their waking moments. (2) While others' wills only affect their own bodies, these, bywill-power , can move bodies extraneous to themselves. (3) Theknowledge which others acquire by laborious learning comes to them by intuition.

These three, of course, are not the onlymarks which differentiate them from common people, but the only ones that come within ourcognisance . Just as no one knows the real nature of God but God Himself, so no one knows the real nature of a prophet but a prophet. Nor is this tobe wondered at, as in everyday matters we see that it is impossible to explain the charm of poetry to one whose ear is insusceptible of cadence and rhythm, or the glories ofcolour to one who is stone-blind. Besides mere incapacity, there are other hindrances to the attainment of spiritual truth. One of these is externally acquired knowledge. To use a figure, the heart may be represented as a well, and the five senses as fivestreams which are continually conveying water to it. In order to find out the real contents of the heart these streamsmust be stopped for a time, at any rate, and the refuse they have brought with them must be cleared out of the well. In other words, if we are to arrive at pure spiritual truth, we must put away, for the time, knowledge whichhas been acquired by, external processes and which too often hardens into dogmatic prejudice.

A mistake of an opposite kind is made by shallow people who, echoing somephrases which they have caught from Sufi teachers, go about decrying all knowledge.This is as if a person who was not an adept in alchemy were to go about saying, “Alchemy is better than in gold,” and were to refuse gold when it was offered to him. Alchemy is better than gold, but real alchemists are very rare, and so are real Sufis. He who has a mere smattering of Sufism is not superior to a learned main, any more than he who has tried a few experiments in alchemy has ground for despising a rich man.

Any one who will look into the matter will see that happinessis necessarily linked with the knowledge of God. Each faculty of ours delights in that for which itwas created : lust delights in accomplishing desire, anger in taking vengeance, the eye in seeing beautiful objects, and the ear in hearing harmonious sounds. The highest function of the soul of man is the perception of truth; in this accordingly it finds its special delight. Even in trifling matters, such, as learning chess, this holdsgood , and the higher the subject-matter of the knowledge obtained the greater the delight. A man would be pleased atbeing admitted into the confidence of a prime minister, but how much more if the king makes an intimate of him and discloses state secrets to him!

Anastronomer who, by his knowledge, can map the stars and describe their courses, derives more pleasure from his knowledge than the chess-player from his. Seeing, then, that nothing is higher than God, how great must be thedelight which springs from the true knowledge of Him!

A person in whom the desire for this knowledge has disappeared is like one who has lost his appetite for healthy food, or who prefers feeding on clay to eating bread. All bodily appetites perish at death with the organs they use, but the soul dies not, and retains whatever knowledge of God it possesses; nay, increases it.

An important part of our knowledge of God arises from the study and contemplation of our own bodies, which reveal to us the power, wisdom, and love of the Creator.His power, in that from a mere drop He has built up the wonderful frame of man; His wisdom is revealed in its intricacies and the mutual adaptability of its parts; and His love is shown by His not only supplying such organs as are absolutely necessary for existence, as the liver, the heart, and the brain, but those which are not absolutely necessary, as the hand, the foot, the tongue, and the eye. To these He has added, as ornaments, the blackness of the hair, the redness of lips, and the curve of the eyebrows.

Man has been truly termed a “microcosm,” or little world in himself, and the structure of his body should be studied not only by those who wish to become doctors, but by those who wish to attain to a more intimate knowledge of God, just as close study of the niceties and shades of language in a great poem reveals to us more and more of the genius of its author.

But , when all is said, the knowledge of the soul plays a more important part in leading to the knowledge of God than the knowledge of our body and its functions. The bodymay be compared to a steed and the soul to its rider; the body was created for the soul, the soul for the body. If a man knows not his own soul, which is the nearest thing to him, what is the use of his claiming to know others? It is as if a beggar who has not the wherewithal for a meal should claim to be able to, feed a town.

In thischapter we have attempted, in some degree, to expound, the greatness of man's soul. He who neglects it and suffers its capacities to rust or to degenerate must necessarily be the loser in this world and the next. The true greatness; of man lies in his capacity for eternal progress, otherwise in this temporal sphere he is the weakest of all things, being subject to hunger, thirst, heat, cold, and sorrow. Those things he takes most delight in are often the most injurious to him, and thosethings which benefit him are not to be obtained without toil and trouble.As to his intellect, a slight disarrangement of matter in his brain is sufficient to destroy or madden him; as to his power, the sting of a wasp is sufficient to rob him of ease and sleep; as to his temper, he is upset by the loss of a sixpence; as to his beauty, he is little more than nauseous matter covered with a fair skin. Without frequentwashing he becomes utterly repulsive and disgraceful.

In truth, man in this world is extremely weak and contemptible; it is only in the next that he will be of value, if by means of the “alchemy of happiness” he rises from the rank of beasts to that of angels.Otherwise his condition will be worse than the brutes, which perish and turn to dust. It is necessary for him, at the same time that he is conscious of his superiority as the climax of created things, to learn to know also his helplessness, as that too is one of the keys to the knowledge of God.