fromВ THE REVIVAL OF THE RELIGIOUS SCIENCES See also Jane Idleman Smith and Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad, The Islamic Understanding of Death and Resurrection, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1981, pp. 65-67, 128-129 quotation in biographical note, p. Winter, Cambridge, UK: The Islamic Texts Society, 1989, pp. Kitab dhikr al-mawt wa-ma baвЂ™dahu, Book XL of The Revival of the Religious Sciences, IhyaвЂ™ вЂUlum al-Din.В tr. Book 40 from Ai-Ghazali, The Remembrance of Death and the Afterlife. It portrays a man already in Heaven weeping, because he can only be slain for GodвЂ™s sake once, but wishes he could be martyred many more times than this.ДЄl-Ghazali, The Revival of the Religious Sciences.В Book 26 from Al-Ghazali, Al-GhazaliвЂ™s IhyaвЂ™ulum al-Din (Revitalization of the Sciences of Religion), abridged by Abd el Salam Haroun, rev. Book 40 also describes вЂњthe most perfect of delightsвЂќ that is the reward of martyrdom in the afterlife martyrs are rewarded with entrance to the Garden immediately after death.

The second selection, from Book 40 of the Revival, вЂњThe Remembrance of Death,вЂќ describes the Angel of Death asking Muhammad if he may enter MuhammadвЂ™s house and thus take him the Angel gives Muhammad the choice of whether to die now.Muhammad replies that he is ready to go, that is, that he is willing to die. The first selection here, a short passage from Book 26 of the Revival of the Religious Sciences, affirms IslamвЂ™s rejection of suicide and describes two forms of suicide or para-suicidal activity that are unacceptable: suicide motivated by a desire to avoid suffering and to reach heaven, and the delayed or вЂњslow suicideвЂќ that results from extreme asceticism and self-mortification. In The Precious Pearl, a reworking of Book 40, al-Ghazali describes the four categories of persons who will be questioned in the grave by interrogating angels and affected by personifications of their good and bad deeds: the most learned and pious, the ulama, who are allowed into the Garden after questioning those who did good works but were not fully spiritually advanced are made to gaze upon Hell before being released into the Garden those who have succumbed to temptations at death, waywardness, or doubt are punished through the intermediate time they spend in grave and finally the profligates, those unable to answer even the first of the angelsвЂ™ questions, вЂњWho is your Lord?вЂќ-their punishment in the grave is the most severe. The latter shows a distrust of scholastic theology and intellectualism. He traveled to Damascus on the pretext of making a pilgrimage, then to Jerusalem, finally making the hajj or Pilgrimage in 1096 as he pursued the Sufi path of self-purification and a quest for direct knowledge of God.ДЄl-GhazaliвЂ™s extensive writings include The Just Mean in Belief, written before his wanderings, and The Revival of the Religious Sciences, written during them. If you do not prepare now for the Afterlife, then when shall you do so?вЂќДЄl-Ghazali embarked on a two-year period of wandering, teaching, and writing.

All the knowledge and works that are yours today are but eye service and deceit. The desires of this world pulled at me and entreated me to remain, while the voice of faith cried out вЂњGo! Go! Only a little of your life remains, yet before you there lies a lengthy voyage. One day I would determine to leave Baghdad and these circumstances, and the next day change my mind. Al-Ghazali taught at in Baghdad between 10, but, allegedly suffering from a nervous illness that made it physically impossible for him to lecture (вЂњGod put a lock unto my tongue,вЂќ he wrote in his autobiography), he gave up his teaching position in order to live a life of mystical asceticism. A native of Khorasan, of Persian origin, the Muslim theologian, sufi mystic, and philosopher Abu-Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali is one of the great figures of Islamic religious thought, as well as a critical figure in the debates over the preservation of classical Greek and Roman thought during the Dark Ages in the Christian West.

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