Sufism · 1058–1111
Abu Hamid al-Ghazali
Sunni Sufism · through al-Farmadi · The Revival of the Religious Sciences · The Alchemy of Happiness
The great theologian who left fame for the path of the heart and drew a map of the soul's purification – from dust into a mirror.
The essence of the teaching: Liberation comes through mastering the lower "I" by unsleeping self-watchfulness. The heart can reflect the divine light, but it gathers the dust of attachment – and so it must be polished.
Transmission
Al-Ghazali stood at the summit of scholarly fame when he understood that he knew everything about God – and did not know Him. He left his chair and went out as a wanderer for years. The heart, he said, is a mirror that can reflect the mysteries of God, but the dust of the world and the desires of the ego darken it; it asks for ceaseless polishing by remembrance and pure action. Patience makes kings out of slaves, and desire makes slaves out of kings. Evil must be cut at the very root, at the first thought, before it ripens into desire and deed. To find life, witness death; to gain yourself, lose yourself in the River.
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