AL-GHAZAL1's IDEA OF DEATH AND HIS CLASSIFICATION,
OF MEN IN THE WORLD.TO,COME.
Doç. Dr. Mehmet S. AYDIN
I. The Position ol Man During Dying and in His Grave
1. The Concluding Stage of Life (al.Kha~ima)
"A man dies according as he lives" is one of the statements which occurs in many places of al.Ghazali's famous work, Ihya' Ulum ad.Dini•
To this al.Ghazı1li sometimes adds the sentence that "man will be raised on the Day of Judgment according as hedied"2. Like any other beHeying man, al-Ghaziili believes that a good man does not fear dying, though he wishes to liye long in order to multiply his good deeds. Thinking ohout death and remembering it, however, bring many advantages and effcct man's purpuse. To be mindful of death brings abouta dislike of this world, which is the fountainhcad of all goods, and that.it leads to many ideas and reflectİons which eventually make a happy man3•
To be unmindful of it, on the other hand, is absolute ignorance and it is due to long indulgence of hope (tul al.amal)4.
* This artiele is largely based upon the material i used in my unpublished disser- tation entitIed "The Term Sa'a-da in the Seleeted Works of a1-Farabi and al-Ghazali"
1 Five vols. Cairo, 1387/1967, V. iv, 625. From now onwards the following abbreviations wiII be employed in footnotes:
Ih. thya.
Arb. K.a1-arbıi'in fi usUl ad-din, 2. ed. Cairo, 1344/192Ş.
Md. K. al-maksad a1-asna sharh asma Allah a1-husna, Cairo, no date.
N.B. A. Nader, An-nafs al-bashariyya (inda ıbn Sına, Beirut, 1968 ..
J.'Jawilhir al-Qur'an, 2. ed. Cairo, 1352/1933.
T.Tahilfut a1-falasifa, ed. S. Sunya, 2. ed. Cairo, no date.
Iq. K. al.iktisad f'i'I-i'tiqad, Cairo, 1320 H.
F.B. Fada'ih a1-batıniyya, ed. by A. Badawl, Cairo, 1969.
IS. Islamic Studies, (A Journal devoted to Islamie Studies) , 2 Ibid., 221 and 223.
3 Arb., 275-6.; iv., 208.
4 Arb., 277.
/
224 MEHMET S. AYDIN
Wc know very littlc about the reality of death. The people of insight give us general information on the eonditions of dying people, and mainıyon people's being divided into many classe!', but what will happen to individual cannot be determined.s
Al.Ghazali himsdf atlaehes a great deal of importanee' to the
"coneuluding stage" of man's life (al.klıatima). it seeıps that man will he able to know whether he is sa'ld or shaql during the agony of dcath (sakarat al.mawt). Whın aman dic8 while the love of this wold is still dominant in his beart, his eondition will be very periloııs, sinee "man dies according as he lives". To think thal man's ru/.ı will be snaehed away while he is in this stage inspins fear and terror. This is beeause man knows that the eondition of the heart does not change afteı death. The quality (şifa) of the heaıt is ehanged with the works of the physical organs. When these organs are nullified the work will he nullified too.
He knows equally well that there is no ehance of coming to this world again and of obtaining of what has aIready been missed. in such cireums.
tances his grief will greatly innease. Only the basic faith and love of God whieh are established in the he art and strengt hened with good artİoDs can erase from the heart this state into whieb it has fallen during dying. This is onlyone of the two degrees of 'Bad Ending' (su'.al-kha.
tima)6.
The otheı degree whieh is greateı than this eonsists in the eondition of the beart whieh is overtaken hy either dOJbt oı dı'nial during the agony of death. if the spirit is snatehed away wbilc the heart is in one of these eonditions, there eomes to Le a veil between man and God whieh leads to etema) separation and endlcss punishment.7 'Bad En.
ding' İs the heginning of a miserahle life which can be tempoıaıy (the first ease) or eternal (~he second casc).
When death approaehes and the forelock of the Angel of death heeomes visible to man, he often knows that what he .has believed thro.
ugh ignoranee is falsc. This is heeau~e the state of death is that of the temoving of a eurtain. Some mattcrs may he diselosed to man while he is in this state. The "innovator" (mubtadi'), foc example, will know the tml' nature of his ınnovation (bid'a) by whieh al.GhazaH means the belief of a man in the essenee of God, His attribules and His actions eontrary
5 LLJ, iv, 625; cr.also J, 31.
6 llJ, iv, 216.
7 Ibid., 215-6.
AL-GHAZALİ's IDEA OF DEATH 225
to what they really are. Wlıether he obtained his belief through his own speculation and refleetion oı through taqlld will not change this s!tuation.
The diselosure that he believed in some matters due to ignoranee wiU he a cause of his making void of the rest of what he believed or of his having doubt in it. Now if his ru!). is snatched away at thiil stage befoee he can stand firm and turn to the foundation of faith, he wil1 finish his life with ,Bad Ending' and his ru(ı willleave him when he is in the state of polytheism (shirk).8
Anotber thing that may caus{' shaqüwa during the departurc of ru!)., that is to say during the agony of death, is the weakness of faith in the foundation, and the' domination of the love of this world in tha heart. When the agony of deatlı comes, the love of God beeomes, even weakcr, sinee tlıe love of tlıis world is dominant in the lıeart and the pain of sepaıation from this world overtakes the heart. Man in this satatc hates death and God, sinec death is fıom Him. if the spirit is taken away while there is hatred, and not love, in the heart, the conduding act will he had again9.
As for thı~ one who dies as a lover of God, he wiII go towards God like a servant who yearns to me et his masterlO. This does not mean that they do not fear the' Bad Ending'. As a matter of faet 'ari/un and even the prophets have always lıecn pcrplexcd hy and feared the agony of (Ieatiı and t.he 'BDd Eıı.ding', sinee they know what tlıese are all aboutıı.
The olıedİent man realizes during dying that he is sa'ld. His rul.ı will he 1aken away probahly without much diffieuh). He may see the Angel of death in its most lıeautiful form, and he may evcn know what sort of plaee he is given in Paradisel2. The wretehed people too will know something ab out 'theİr pluees in HdL. 'Dying and secing the Angel of death wiII he a great punishment for themn. This is briefly the po sition of sa'ld and shaql £luıing dying14•
2. The grave as a plaee of sa'üda or shaqawa
As the Tradition states, "the grave;s f'itlıer a pit of the pits of fire
Oione of the meadows of Paradise". Whoever denies this is an innovator
6 I~, iv, 217; ef. al.o 628, 9 Ibid., 219.
10 Ibid.
i 1 Ibid., 576 and 574.
12 Cf. Ibid., 572 ff, 13 Ibid.
14 For more information about the eondition. of sa(id and shaqi during dying in general seeJ.Maedonald, "The Twilight of the Dcad", IS, 4, (1965), pp. 55-102.
226 MEHMET S. AYDIN
who İs veiledfrom the light of God. To the grave of the person who has deserved punishment seventy doors of Hell will be openedlS, altbough the ignorant man looks into the gıave and says that he sees nothing.
Such ignorane-e is due to the love of this world in his heartl6. it seems tbat the interrogation of the angels Munkar and Naklr takes plaee first and then hegins the punishment which may vary. Shaql tastes all dif- ferent kinds of punishment unless God shows His mereyl?
it must not he supposed that dust eonsumes the plae!:' of faith, i.c. ru(ı. Dnti! the Book reaehcs its term dust wi1l consumc all the or- gans and disperses them hut not ru(ı.When the tcrm is completed, all the seııarate organs will he gathered together and ru(ı will he bıought hack. From the time of death until-this return ru(ı wiII have' heen either İn the crops of the grecn birds which are suspcnded hencath the Thrüne ('arslı), if ru(ı were sa'ld, or in a state which is eontrary to this one, if it wereshaqll8.
it is not very casy to determine what is reaIly meant hy this Tra- di tion about "ru(ı"sresidence in the crops of the green birds"19. L. Gar- det sees a connection between this T;rad~tion and the 1heory of "eelestial bodies" (al-mawcid al-jismciniyya) which seems to have heen held hy some Muslim writers according to ıbn Sina20. We will come to this theory and its relevance to our subject when wl.' deal with the so~ls of the "Weak" (bulh) la~er in this chapter.
What is clear is that before man evcntuaııy enters Paradise or Hell he has to go through man)' stages aıı of which are parts of a happy or mis'erable eternal life af ter death. Sa'ld does not become sa'ld after, as it were, the officia! deelaration which seems to take placc af ter the Scale (mlzan). When man's good decds weigh the heavier an angel wiIl dedare that "so and 80 ~as heen hlessed with sa' ada af ter whicq tl.ere is no . shaqawa" and the people wiıl hear what the angel SBYS. The deelaration
of shaqawa will be made in the case of the shaql to021. The sa'ld wilI he treated as sa'ld from the agony ofdeath onwards and the slıaql wiıı meet what they deserve. Every stage which takes place hefore Helifire is a kind of punishment for the shaql.
15 II}, iv, 216; of. Md, 59.
16 Arb, 286.
17 II}, iv, 216-7.
18 Ibid., 217.
19 Cf. Gardet, La pens.e religieuse d'Aı'icenne, Paris, 1951, IOIff.
20 N.B., 100. •
21 II}, iv, 646. For this formal deelaration see also pp. 635, 636, 638.
AL-GHAZALt'S IDEA OF DEATH 227
AI-GhazaıI finds it useful to repeat almost all the colourful dese:- ripitions of the punishment of grave tLen in vogue in Islamie eschat- ological literature22• Al.GhaziilI believes that punishment in the grave cxists; we cannot see it because OUi eyes are not made to !:leewhat be- longs to the world of malakut23• The pain of a shaqi in his grave is a double one: separation from what he loves and 1he meeting of the thilJgs that eause pai~. AI-GhazaH says that the pailJ which is caust'd by separation from what one loves will be greater than the biting of snakes and seor- pions24• The more one loves this world the greater one's pu'nishment will be in the grave. Accoıding to al-Ghazali the number of the snakes and seorpions will be multiplied in the grave of, for example, a rieh man who loved this world more than he did God.
In respe~t of the aeeeptance of the existen(;e of the snakes and seor- pions and the pain they cause, al-Ghaziili mentions three stages. Firstly the aeLeptanee of their existence and the pain which is caused by their hiting. Secondly the aeeeptanee of thepain without trying to prove whether wl' can see or imagine the snake, since this will not change the fact that pain is there. This situation resembles the case of a man who sees a snake and feel~ the pain caused by its biting in his dream. Neither he nO! wc can see it inthe physical sense, but pain and snakc are there.
And thirdly the acceptancc of the faet that a snake itself does not eausc pain. it is it~ poison which gives pain. In faet it is not cven the poison per se but its effcct on man that causes pain. if it were possible to pro.
duce such an effecı without poison, the suffering would be tbere. it is not possible, howeveı';to define that sort of punishment as pain without relating it to the eause which habitually produces that pain. The im- portant thing is th\" effeet and not the eause, since the latter is desired for the former and not for its own sake25•
From this al-Ghaziili advanees to the idea that the destrueti"c 'quali- ties (aş-~ifiit al-muhlikiit) turn out to he the pain giyers in the soul during dying; their pain is like the pa in which is caused by the biting of a snake, although there exists no snakc. In other words, it is evil deeds tbat causc a pain which ıesembles the pain whieh is produced by the snake26• Some peoplc aecept the first and reject the other two and some accept the last
22 Cf. Ibid., 618£f.
23 Ibid., 621.
24 Ibid., 623.
25 Ibid., 622.
26 Ibid.
2~8 MEHMET S. AYDIN
and reject 1he others. AI-GhaziiiI is of tlır opinion that all of these are possihle and a belieyer should believe so.
With the last point al-GhazaH gives the snakes and seorpinos an ontologieal statm:. it appears that this idra has led As-SuhrawardI to think of the existenee of a new realm between the spiritual and the physieal27. The last alternatiYe that al-Ghaziin mentiom was held by al-FiiraM and ıbn Sinii though al-Fariibi Mes not say anything about the pun ishment of the grave and other escha~ological maUera. He simply helieves that it is evils that cause puin and Icad man to shaqiiwa. In the analysis of the third alternatiye al.Ghaziill might have borrowed same materials from aloFarabi and ıbn Sina28•
To go in detail into t.he aecounts of sa'ıd aıid shaqı and t.o give all the colourful eschatologieal deseriptions of these two classes are neither posailıle nor indeed relevant here. Although al.GhaziiH believes every word he aa~ş, his primary object in his deseription of these eschatologieal seenca is the improvement of the life of Muslims here. Think of the mo.
menl, says aı-GhazaH, when you will be declar(~d as sa'Ud. This wiII he your time of joy and happiness. Your face wiII Le iIIuminated like the moon on the day of Badr, and people will look at you and envy your goodness and beauty. The angels will walk around you and announce that there wiH he no shaqiiwa for y01l af ter that moment. After this al -Ghaziili turns to the ease of slıaql which is evcn more descriptive29.
These deseriptions lıave had an enormous influenee on the life of eommon folk and on that of the lcarned alike throughout Islamic history, and in aH these the Qıır'iin is the sourse of inspiration.
In. his analysis of the 'Endiııg' (klıatrrı), the agony of death, inter- rogation, the punislımımt of the graye and what happens on the Day of Judgement, al.GhazalI eoneentrates on two major classes of people, namely sa'ıd and shaqi. The maUer, however, is more complicated than this. In orde1' to undel'stand the real nature of the otherworIdly sa' ada and shaqawa, a close examination of aıı classes iıı the world to come is necessary, sinCt different clases of people conaspond to varyinf, degrces of sa'üda and shaqiiwa.
II. The Classification .lf People in the World to Come.
AI-Ghaziili, like al.Fariibi and Ibn Sına, hclieves that the quahy of life in the world to come depfnds on the quality of life on ea1'th.- "Wc
27 F. Rahman, "Drcam, imagination and (iilam al-miıhal", IS., :~(1964), 164.
28 Cf. 1(., iv, 622-3;
29 li" iv, 650.
AL-GHAZA-Lİ'S IDEA OF DEATH 229
say", writes al-GhaziilI, "that people iıı the wold to come are di"ided into diffcrent classes and theil' degrees and ranks in sa'öda and shaqa10a vary so mueh that they cannot come lındcr any definite class i fication as they differ in sa'iida and shaqöwa in this world. The otheı world does not eertainly differ in this respett wl' say that people in the woıld to eome are neecssarily dividedinto four classes: The perished or the doomed (Mlikun), ıhe punished (mu'adhdhahun), the saved (niijln) and the rewarded (fa'izun)"3o. Al.GhaziilI ilImtrates this division with the example of the eonquest of a king: when the king hringE a eount1'Y un- dcr his domination his treatment of the different classes of pe0l'le in this newly coııquered land varies. He kiııs 50me of them (hüli/cun) and tortures some others (muüdlıdlıabun). He frees some and let~ them go (niijln) and he rewards some others (fii'izun). All of these classes vary within themselves. Not eveıyhody deseryes the same punishment
or reward3!. /
In th€ same manner tlıe four classes in the world to come vary within themselves. Some of the fii'izun, for imtanee, will dwell in the garden of 'adn, some in the garden of 11Ia'1Oöand some in the garden of firda1Os.
The ones who are f'unİshed are also divided into those who are punishcd for a short period and those who are punished for from one thousand to seven thousand years32• Now let us take eeah of thcse four claEses sel'a1'atcly.
1) The Destroyed UıMikulı)
AI.Ghaziili uses quite a variety of words to deserihe thiE class:
the veiled (matıjubUlı), the hopeless (ayisun), the ignorant (jölıilun), the weak (qasirun), the disobedient, the deniers (jii {ıidun) to mcntion only a few. AI-Ghaziili defines hölikun as the people who deny God, Hib prophets and His lIessengers. Wc know that "the otherwordly sa'öda consists in closeness to God and gazing on His faee and so it ean.not be ııttained except through ma'rifa wlıich is interpreted as fııith and aeeeptenee .. Those who reject are the dislıdievers and those who deny the truth are the ones who deprive themsclves of the merey of God for ever". These pe0l'le are veilecl from God an~l forever thcre is hetwecn God and them a ve iL.They wili be burnt with the fire of separation wbieh is worse than the fire that burns physical ohjects33• These people are nol only ign.orant hut nuhdievers as welL.
30 IIJ., iv, 30.
3ıIbid., 30-1.
32 Ibid., 31.
230 MEHMET S. AYDIN
Halük, &ceording to al.GhaziiH, iE not a destruct ion in the ontolo- gical sense "It iı;,1he laek of pleasure and of the qualities of perfeetion "34.
Therefore the term can he use d for the state of those who lack aıı quali.
ties of perfeetion, as in the state of the unbdiever, or for those who lack some qualities of perfeetion as in the Lase of a sinful believer. In the first case haliik refers to a permanent condition, whereas in the second it refers to a temporary one. However, sinee wc have onlyone class of the people who are punished (mu'adhabiln) here in a division. the term hülikiln is used for people for whom tlıere is no 'hope of happiness. The same thing can be said about the term ,mal}jubiln or the veiled which is usuaJly used as an opposite of the term wiişililn35• Eternal shaqiiwa is only for this class of people.
It is unbelief wlıich hıings about eternal destruetion. it is a poison, th~ Prophet telh: us, and it leads to destruction,whereas hclief is a eure anu the eause of happiness (mus'id). In this respeet the teıms haliik and sa'üı1a are opposites36. In a general sense what leads to destru~tion is explained in the third volunie, i.e. rub' al-muhlikiit, of the Il}yü. .
,
AI-GhaziiH's class 'of muhlikun corresponds to the "imperfect and impure" dass of falusifa._ As a malter of faet he uses the term halik when he gi-vesthe faliisifa's definition of the imperfeet and impure charac- ter in Tahafurt al-falıısifa. "Halik is the one who lakes in moral character and in knowledge". The one who eombines these two perfections is 'ürif and sa'ld37• So here again the terms halik and sa'ld are opposites.
2) Those Who .Are Punished (Mu'adhdhabiln)
This class of people believe in God and Ilis Messengers but they lack the fulfilment of the requirements of this faith. They arc imperfect in respeet of the degrees of qurb and every iml'erfection is accompanied by two kiııds of fire: the fire of separation and the helI-fire as described by the Qur'iin. Anyone who deviates from the right path will be punisned hy hoth kinds of fire, though the degree of such punisbment varies in accordance with the strength oı weakness of faith as well as in aceordan- ce witb the involvement with desire38.
33 JI}, iv. 31. \ 34 [LJ,iii, 352.
35 J. 14.
36 [q, 87; cf. [LJ, iv. 388-9.
37 T, 272.
38 [lJ. iv, 33.
'AL-GHAZALİ's IDEA OF DEATH 231
There are many sorts of punİshment in the world to come, the lowest degree being the punishment which is caused by discussion over man's sins during Counting39• The one who has the basic faith, however, will eventually be freed from punishment, since, as the Prophet narra- ted, God said "My merey surpasses My anger"40.
The difference between this class and the people who are destroyed is obvİous. In the case of the unbeliever the non-existence of fa ith dar- kens the heart to the core. The heart of thebeliever, however weak his faith may be, is not so corrupted, though it is tarnished through the performımce of evil deeds. There is still a place for purification. For this reason it will be plunged into the fire, but when the purification is comp- leted it will become worthy of Paradise which is promised by the Law41.
In connection with the people who wil1 be subjected to tı'amient pain, there ,are two points which must be taken into consideration:
Gravc Ein (fisq) and Intercession (shafa'a).
a) Fa,siq
According tofalasifa, writes al-Gh~zaH "one who combines moral and intellectual greatness is the devout sage; and his reward will he absolut!' biiss. He who has intellectual, but not moral greatness is an ir- reIigious scholar; thepunishment awarded to him will Iast a long time.
But it will not be perpetual, for after all his soul had been perfec,ted by knowledge He who has virtne but not knowledge will yet bl' saved , and will experience no pain. But he will not atıain perfect bliss"42.
Here, as İn many parts of his account offalasifa, al-GhazalI's souree is not al-FarabI but ıbn Sina, who gi~es his four-fold classification of men in ma', ifat-an-nafs and innajat43• These four classes are: The people who are pcıfeet in knowledge and in action; the pe0l'le who lack both;
the people who have knowledge but laek good deeds; and lastly the peoplc who ,are perfect in aetion but not in knowledge44. In ma'rifar-an-nafs ıbn sına combines the third and the fourth classes and biring~ the num- her down to three. He also says that his division is hased on the divisİon . made by the Qur'an in Sura lvi, 7-11.
39 Ibid.
40 Ibid., 34.
41 Ibid., 389.
42 T, lı72-3; English trns., 234.
43 N.B., p. 94.
44 Ibid.
2:l2 MEHMET S. AYDIN
When wl' Iook at a!-Fiiriihı's account of fasiq, wc see that fiisiqfw constitutc aI-FiiriibI's class of shaqiiwa. Wc are not told that tbese people will one day join the people of sa'ııda. AI-GhaziiH seems to have missed this point. In the lJassage of Talıafut which has just heen quoted, his dcscripition of fiisiq, i.e. fiisiq Icarncd, does_not differ from the generaııy aceepted vicw, including his own, of fiisiq. in the Maqıışid al-Ghaziili says that according to faliisifa, when the souI gains knowıedge, the ra- tional part of thr soul gains perfeetion. if aman with this perfeetion foııows his' appetitc, he wiII find himself in a very painful eondition. Ün the one hand he will be drawn towards heavenIy and perfcet heings tbanks to the perfcction of the ratioIlal part of the soul and on the ot- her hand he will be drawn towards Iowest naturl' hecause his appctitc wiII not Icave himıs. This is indeed the opinion of aI-Fariibl whieh is aIso adoptcd by al-GhaziiH himself. The difficulty arist's wht'n wc foIIow aI-GhaziiH's argument a littIc furthc{. He says that again according to al-falıısifa this pain is not eternal. After this what iıI-GhaziiU ascrihes to falösifa seems to be in closc agreement with the generally held ort ho- dox vicw. Wc are told that the po sition offiisiq waı he worse than that of jöhil, according to falösifa. Supposing that a king is killI'd, writes al- Ghaziili, leaving two children behind. Üne of the children is an infant who knows ııothing ahout wealth, propert)' and such like, and the other is old enough to know all ahout these goods. it is quite obvious that the last knows what he has müsed and suffcrs intense1y, whereas the infant will not suffer. That is why the. Prophet says that those who do not act according to what they know, .in other words the learr:ıecl men who lack moral perfertion, wiII reeeive the most painful punishment46• In the Ta- hafut he takes up the same idea and hue again he says that according to falösifa "whoevcr has the theoretieal virtues but not the moıal ones is ealled a dissolutc learııed ('ölim. al-fiisiq)" whose punishment will not be for ever47•
it is quite elear from what wl' are told in the Alaqöşid and in Ta- hafut a/-falösifa that the term fösiq reminds us of fasiq in ıbn Sına and' not in al-Fiiriihi. The harsh treatment of fıisiq by al-Farabi does not ap- pe ar in either of these two works.
As for the treatment of fıisiq in al-GhaziiH's iJ.ıyii" arba'in and other works, he agrees entil'ely with the generally aceepted Sunnite point of
45 Maqaşid, p. 375.
46 Ibid., 375; cr. alBo II), iv. 10.
47 T, 273.
AL-GHAZALİ's IDEA OF DEATH 233
vicw. The term fisq is usuaııy linked with the term "disobedience"
('işyan)48; it leads to the abandonment of otherworldly aetions for the sake of this world49• Freulom from fisq leads to the lower degrce of piety (wara') and to moral justiee or equilibrium. After this stage it is possible to move t;owards the piety of the righteous (şaliMm), then to that of muttaqun and thcn to şiddıqunsO• Fisq is a de"iatiün from the right IJath or the Golden Mean. To definefisq in tenns of deviation from the Golden Mean is aecepted hy Ilm Miska~ayh as weıısı.
it appears that fiisiq not only performs evil actjons hut also takes pride in his ability to perform them, Fiisiq thinks that perfeetion consists in possessing wealth and having a siııful and immoral rdatioııship with women a;nd ladss2 - an idea of perfeetion whieh is also defended by the people of the "füsiq eities" of al.Filrahi. Talking of the improvement of the charaeter of different classes of IJeople, al.GhaziilI says that it is very diffieulı and raıe to improve the character of a person who' not only performs evil aetions but enjoys doing so. His case however is hetter than the ease of the sharır who, in addition to performing evil aetions and enjoying what he Jocs, misleads. other people as weııS3.
In al.Fiiriibi's ".eeount of füsiq these two qııalities are combined.
it is very strange indeed that al.GhaziiIisays veryelearly 1hat according to the Mu'tazilites fiisiq will et~rnaııy remain ouside the people of sa'iidaS4; but he seems to favour the idea that falüsife did not IH'lieve that fasiq wouW not joiıı the people of happiness. AI.Ghaziili accuses the Mu'tazilites of failure to uııderstand tb!' Qur'iinic verses on whieh they based their argument. Repeaı ing one of his favourite analogies, al.GhaziilI says that the east' of füsiq is like that of a man who losCi'>
his legs oı arms. Though he is IIOt a complete man, nevertlıe1ess he is still aman. 11 is true that ftisiq is not perfeet bdi(~ver, hut he has faith all tlıl' samess.
Al.GhaziiIi never failE 10 agree with tht Mu'la"ilites that there is a reIationship hetween evil Jeeds an~l the weakness of faiths6. Fisq is a
48 [Q, i, 343.
49 Arb, 205.
50 Ibid., 63-4.
51 Tahdhib a/.akhlak, Cniro, 1329 H .. 207.
52 IQ, iii, 437.
53 IQ, iv, 73.
54 Ibid., i, 160.
55 Ibid., 162.
~6 Ibid., iv, 10.
234 MEHMET S. AYDIN
conscioudy disopedient act whieh makes fiisiq a more dangerous person not only from tht point of view of otherwoıldly sa'iida but from the point of view of the soeio.politi<:alstabi1ity of the IsIC'miccommunity. The Bati.
nites wcre very successful, foı example, among those who were fallen into fisqS7. Dnlike the Mu'tazilites, however, he aserted that one day fiisiq
will be forgiven and aeeepted into the eommunity of the happy. it is to this the Prophet ıeferred when he said that whoever possesses an, atom .of faith in his hearı-, and whoever eonfesses the Unity of God will eventuaııy enter Paradise.
The idca that fiisiq ol shaqı will cventually hee~mc sa'ld cannot however be def{nded without aeeepting the idea th~t man, or to use al.GhaziilI's own term, the heart, will gain somenew qualities. To say that fire will cJean the hearl and make it worthy of the Divine Pressence is nothing more than sıaling this fact.
in the Book of Fear and Hope, al.GhazaH states that man dies according as he has livcd, and it is not possihle for the heart to gııin anot.
hcr quality after.death whieh opposes the quality which was dominant over him,sinee one can only bring changes in his hcart through the ac- tions of the oıgan,s. When the organs are nullified the actions are nul- lified too. In this case grief becomes great unless the roots of faith and the 10ve of God have becu firmly established in his he art for a.long period and strengthened with good deeds. This will crase from his heart this state in which it fell during death. Thus if the strength of his faith were up to the amount of a mithqiil, he would he taken out of the Fire. if it were less than this, then his staying in Fire would he longer, but if it were not mOle than a mithqiil of a seed, he would still come out of the Fire even if it were after a thous3nd yearsS8• i
it is here that the concept of 'intercession' (slıafii'a) comes in and has a faı.reaehing importanee esııecially whan sa'iida is vicwed frOiii'the standpoint of Divine Graee and Merey.
b) Interccı,sion. the transformation of shaql into sa'ld
In the Arba'ın al-GhaziiH repcats the idea that anyone who has an atom's weight of faith will come out of the Fire. Some people come out before they complete the punishment which they deserve because oftheİı sins. This happem through the intercession of the prophets, the martyıs, the learned and whoever is given such a roleS9•
57 F.R., 36.
58 II}, iv, 216; Arb, -21-2.
59 Arb, 21.
AL-GHAZALİ'S IDEA OF DEATH 235
Heıe we are not interested in the whole idea ofsOO/a'u. Our interest Iies in the fact that through Intercession it ispossible to put an cnd to the punishment of a shaql and make him sa'ld. The one who believes that the character of the heart does not and cannot change after death, cannot defend the doctrine of Interc6ssion. In a sy~tem like that of al- FariibI, for instance, Intercession cannot have a place1 unless an obvious inconsistency İs tolerated. Both al-FarabI and al-Ghaziill agree that af.
ter death man, or the Intellect, oı the -heart, cannot gain a character which is the opposite of the character whieh was dominant during dying.
Al-FiiriibI goes no further here, but al"GhaziilI brings divine intervention onto the şcene and, therefore, makeE sa'ada as a divine gift. In fact this is what the Muslims have always believed. The Divİne Grace may act directly without any intercessor and release man from Hell, or it may act through Prophets or martyrs thanks to the power of intercession giyen to the m bY' God60•
Jn Madnun bihi 'ala ghayr ahlihi, al.GhaziilI states that Interceş- sion is embodied in the light which shines from the Divine Presenee on to the substance of prophethood and from here it illuminates all other suhstances which have fortified their relation with the substance of prphethood through their love for, and their perseverence in, Sunna.
The proceeding of this light from the Divine Presl'nce resembles that of the light of the sun which reflecta from water and hen ce reflects on a special part of wall and not just on any part. if Unity (ıaU/Md) is dominant in the heart of the beHeyer, the light from the Divine Presl'nce may come directly, but if the heart finds its wayonly through following prophecy, then the light reflects on it through an intermediary, e.g.
the prophets. - ,
To he forgivcn by God. in the world to come does not essentially differ from His forgiving the sins of a believer in this world. Theıe may be many hidden reasons which hring about God's forgiveness and sal- vation and which we may not know. it must be accepted as a possibility that a disobedient pcrson can be forgiven despite his many apparent evil deeds, and an obedient one may face God's anger, despite his ap.
parent obedience. The people of insight inform us that a man is not forgiven except for a good reason, though this reason may not be known to us, and a man is not driven to face God's anger again except for an apparent or an unknown reason. if this were not so, there would be no
60, Cf, lh, I, p. 10 and iv, 653 £f.
236 MEHMET S. AYDIN
plaee for justiee61• in other words to transform a shaql into a sa'ld wit- hout any reason is not eompatible with divine justice. This was the idea of the Mu'taziIites. AI-ChaziilI accepts that everyone will get what he deservC8 but we cannot say that Coddoe8.iııjustiee if He forgivcs a sinner.
In order to say this, wc l,ave to know everything ahout the sinner, which is impossible. By the idea of "hidden reuwn" (as.sabab al-batin) al.Cha- ziiU tİres to overeome this difficulty.
, 3) Those who Are Saved (Najln)
Generally speaking, najüt is the name of the doctrine of salva- tion and in this ~ense it ean be applied to anyone who is saved from slıaqüwa irrespeetive of one's degrees ofsa' iida. In this partieular dassifi- cation, however, by najal al.ChazaH means "just safety (salama) and nl,)t şa'ada or fawz"62. Those who are eaııed najln are the people who deserve neither reward nor punishment, like the insane and the child- ren of the unbclievers and those who inha!>it the extremities of the in- habited world where they have not reeeived any in~itation to ae~ept the right faith. This class of people have a very meagre intelleet (balalı) and no knowledge at alı. There is neither obedienee nor disobcdienee on their part; and theyare neitheı' of the people of Paradise nor of those of Hcl!. Rather, they stay in a plaee between the two (al-nıanzila bayn al-nıanzilatayn) whieh is interpreted as a'raf by the Law63.
In the Arba'ln al-ChaziilI defines najüt in the same way, namely
"freedom from punishment" and there too he makes the same clear distinetion between najti.t,fawz and sa'üda without making any referenee however to balah and a'rti.fM.
it seems that the class of nti.jln roughly eorresponds to al-FiiriibI's class of the "ignorant people". Unlike al-Chaziili, al-FiiriibI does not' think that they will remain in a'rüf, but tbey will be destroyed. An im- mortal soul is either sa'l,l or shaql and there is no third possibility.
ıbn SIna, on the other hand, aeeepts that the souls of bulh are im- mortal, sinee the soul as an existent is immortal. In the second section of ilahiyat in the Najiit he divides these meagre souls into those that are moraıJ.y wieked and those t!ıat are not. The form cr wiII be punished
61 11), iv, 38.
o62 11), iv, 38.
63 1bUl., 38.
64 Arb. 2~-4. For Tüs!'s idea of ,the weak souls' cf. Risiilü qawii'id-al-,aqii'id (Şah id Ali Pa,a, 2721/1) fol, 28b.
AL-GHAZALİ's IDEA OF DEATH 237
after death, beeause they willlose the body which ia the ouly means for their satisfaction. As for the latter, they will be met by the great merey of God and have "some kind of ease (J(i(ıa)"6~ We are not given enough information about the nature of this "ease", but it is not sa'ada, since sa'ada in İbn SIna too is only for int~ııectually and moraUy perfect soula. it is quite plausible to uggest that this "ease" is what al-GhazalI means by the term a'raf or rather the eondition of life that takcs place in a'riif.
Wc have not eome across a d'vision of these weak souls int o good and bad in al-Ghazan. Nor does he say anything about whether there will be any improvement in the condition of these soula. ıbn SIna, on the other hand, seems to accept some kind of improvement66. He talks about the idea of the "eclestial bodies" or "something similar" which, he says, werc aecepted by "some ulamii". With the help of these "eeles- tial bodies" thcse souls wiUimagine what otherworldly pleasUle or pa in is. F. Rahman bclieves that according.tb ıbn Sına "some underdevclo- ped souls are also said to become good and bad damons after death, thanks to their power of imagination"67.
ıbn SIna likens the pleasure or pain which is perceived after death to the plcasure which is experienced in dreams. No one can say this experience is Leşspowerful than the sensual one. As amatter of fact, aftı r' death the imaginative experience can be stronger than our present sen- ı;ual experience, beeause 1here will no longer be the body and bodily
oeeupations68• .
OU1" mentioning of ıbn SIna's ideas here is not out of place, since
they had a considerable influenee on al-GhazaH. In al-Farabi we have intellectu<'I or spiritual otherworldly pain and pleasure. ıbn Sina accepts spirituaI and imaginative pain and pleasure., He does not deny the pos- sibility of sensuaI experience of pain and pleasure after death in the shifa', though he rejeets it in his rislila ad(ıawiyya fl-amr-al-ma'ad69•
And al-Ghaziili accepted the possibility of intellectual, imaginative and sensuaI expericnccs of otherworldly sa'lida and shaqawa. Wc will return to this very important rclationship a litde later on .•
65 N.B., p. no.
66 Cf. Cardet, La pensee religieuse d' Avicenne, p. 102.
67 "Dream, ima~ination and (ıiMm al-miıhiil", p. 169.
68 N.B., 110-1.
69 Cf. S. Duuya'. introduction to hi. edition of Tahılfuı al-jaÜisifa. pp. 16-20. Cf. also II}, iv, 621£f.
238 , MEHMET S. AYDIN
AI.GhazalI did not have the diffieulties with whieh aI.FiirahI and Ihn sına had dealt heforehim. His aeeeptanee of the resurrection of the hody saved him from such ideas as thinking of some eelestiaI bodies for the souls whieh are not perfeet enough to experience spirituaI plea- sure. This does not mean, however, that aI.GhaziilI's idea of the "weak souIs" is not compIieated.
It appears that al-GhaziilI uscs the Arabic term bulh in two diffe- rent senses. Firstly it is used for the peopIe who are not mindfuI of the matters of this world becaüse of their involvement with the matters of the world to eome. This is why the Prophet has said that "most of the peopIe of Paradise are bulh"7o.The deseripiton of bulh in this sense comes very near to aI.GhaziilI's description of the '~PeopIe. of, Right"
- a term whieh is used as a name of the people who enter Paradise hut do not attain the highest degree which is reser~ed for muqarrabUn. TaI.
king abolİt the danger of investigation into the matters which are es.
sentiaI for salyation, al.Ghaziili says ~hat whoever beIieves God, His attributes and His aetions to be other than what they aetual1y are eit- her through taqlld or speeulation is in a perilous condition, and aseetism and good deeds are not enough to repeI this peril. "Bulh, however, are free from this peril. i mean those people who helieve in God, His Mes.
sengers and the Last Day with a firmly estahlishod bclief such as the bedouin and the negroes and other peopIe who have not indulged in research and speeulation ... That is why the Prophet has said, mo!!t 'of the people of Paradise are bulh' 71.
Now it is e1ear from this passage that bulhin this teehnieal sen se is nothing hU,t another name for the people who aecept religious matters
on authorty.
Seeondly a1.GhaziilI usesbulhin a non.teehnical sense. Here it impIies wealmess of intellectual power. The relation between the two meanings of the "term is obvious. One does not hecome muqallid, if one is not intel.
lectually weak. These two different meanings, however, mu st he kept apart, since the class ofmuqal/ldün and the class of people with "weak intellect" namely the ineane and so on, to whieh the first ıınd the second meaning of the term bulh refers reEpectively, are two separate classes.
So are their degrees in the world to come: muqallidün will he in Paradise, whereas bulhİn the se(ond sen se willbe in a'riif The foırner have their
70 11),m,23; cf. also iv, 35 and. , 49.
71 11), iv, 217-8.
AL-GHAZALİ's IDEA OF DEATH 739
sharc in sa'ada, though not in its highest degtee, the latter, on the other hand, do not atta;n any sa'ada, hut just mete salvation (najat) from shaqawa.
Despite this illuminating explanation ah out the dass of ndjIn, or the people ofa'raf, al-GhaziilI usually ignore!! thi!! class when he men- tions his general classification of men in the worldto come in many ot- her places of his works. He says, for instance, that people will he divided into three group s after the major interrogation (su' al): those who wiıl attain eternal sa'ada, those who will atıain eiernal shaqawa and those whose goc.d deeds are mixed with their had deeds. Though the last group will he punished, they will eventuaUy enter Paradise72. Here there is no mcntion of the class of bulh. This may he due to the faet that thesf:
people will not even he hrougbt to the scem' ofInteırogation, eince thty have nothing to say or to answer.
Al-GhaialI'~ not mentioning the class of bulh or najln mayaıso he due to the fact that the Qur'an itsclf says very liule ahout them. We have aiready pointed out the ohscurity of thr Qur'iinic term a'raf and the difficulty of finding an intermediary place hetween Paraclise and HeU. AI-GbazalI is aware that hecause of this lack of information, it is not easy to talk about this rank, namely the rank of mere salvation73.
4) Thoee Who Are Saved and Rewarded (Fa'izün)
Those people comtiıute the highest rank in al-GhazalI's classifica- tion of men af ter death, and this class corresponds to the perfect and pure class of falasi/a. These people are called 'ari/un and not muqallidün; theyare the "outsripl'e'rs": the people who arf' hrought near to God (as-sabiqün al-muqarrabün)74.
M uqallid is from the' People of Right' who have some kind of place in Paradise, muqarrabün on the other hand, aıtain a degree whose height can hardly he descrihed. The Qur'an refers to this fact when it saya that "no soul knows what comfort is laid up for them secretly, as recom- pense for that they were doing". (XXXII, 17). Of this degree the Prop- het has said that "no eye has seen, no e;ır has heard and no heart of man has ever eonceived"75. What 'ari/ün desire cannot he attained in
72 11), iv, 646.
73 Ibid., 39.
74Ibid., 39; of. The Qur'iin, LVI, 10-35.
75 11), iv, 39. For the verse and t,he Tradition which al-GhazAU cites when he criticises the philosophers' concept of saCiida see T, 275-6.
240 MEHMET S. AYDIN
this world. As for hur, castles, fruits, milk,honey and so on, 'arifun are not keen on them; they would not be contented even if they were given to them. "They desire nothing save the pleasul'e of gazing on God's face; this is the end of all kinds of happiness and the end of all pleasu' res".
Here there is no need to go into a detaiIed description of the class offa'izun. We have aiready given enough information about the nature of the classes of arifun and muqallidun which constitute the only two classes of fa'izun.
