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 whichoccurs 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 raisedon the Day of Judgment according as hedied"2. Like any other beHeyingman, al-Ghaziili believes that a good man does not fear dying, thoughhe wishes to liye long in order to multiply his good deeds. Thinkingohout death and remembering it, however, bring many advantages andeffcct man's purpuse. To be mindful of death brings abouta dislikeof this world, which is the fountainhcad of all goods, and that.it leadsto many ideas and reflectİons which eventually make a happy man3•To be unmindful of it, on the other hand, is absolute ignorance and itis 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* This artiele is largely based upon the material i used in my unpublished disser-tation entitIed "The Term Sa'a-da in the Seleeted Works of a1-Farabi and al-Ghazali"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 abbreviationswiII 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.

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224 MEHMET S. AYDIN

Wc know very littlc about the reality of death. The people of insightgive us general information on the eonditions of dying people, andmainıyon people's being divided into many classe!', but what will happento 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 willhe 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 stilldominant in his beart, his eondition will be very periloııs, sinee "mandies according as he lives". To think thal man's ru/.ı will be snaehed awaywhile he is in this stage inspins fear and terror. This is beeause manknows that the eondition of the heart does not change afteı death. Thequality (şifa) of the heaıt is ehanged with the works of the physicalorgans. When these organs are nullified the work will he nullified too.He knows equally well that there is no ehance of coming to this worldagain and of obtaining of what has aIready been missed. in such cireums.tances his grief will greatly innease. Only the basic faith and love ofGod whieh are established in the he art and strengt hened with goodartİoDs can erase from the heart this state into whieb it has fallen duringdying. 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 eonditionof the beart whieh is overtaken hy either dOJbt oı dı'nial during theagony of death. if the spirit is snatehed away wbilc the heart is in oneof these eonditions, there eomes to Le a veil between man and Godwhieh leads to etema) separation and endlcss punishment.7 'Bad En.ding' İs the heginning of a miserahle life which can be tempoıaıy (thefirst ease) or eternal (~he second casc).

When death approaehes and the forelock of the Angel of deathheeomes 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 thetemoving of a eurtain. Some mattcrs may he diselosed to man while heis in this state. The "innovator" (mubtadi'), foc example, will know thetml' nature of his ınnovation (bid'a) by whieh al.GhazaH means the beliefof 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 ownspeculation and refleetion oı through taqlld will not change this s!tuation.The diselosure that he believed in some matters due to ignoranee wiUhe a cause of his making void of the rest of what he believed or of hishaving doubt in it. Now if his ru!). is snatched away at thiil stage befoeehe can stand firm and turn to the foundation of faith, he wil1 finish hislife with ,Bad Ending' and his ru(ı willleave him when he is in the stateof polytheism (shirk).8

Anotber thing that may caus{' shaqüwa during the departurc ofru!)., that is to say during the agony of death, is the weakness of faithin the foundation, and the' domination of the love of this world in thaheart. When the agony of deatlı comes, the love of God beeomes, evenweakcr, sinee tlıe love of tlıis world is dominant in the lıeart and thepain of sepaıation from this world overtakes the heart. Man in thissatatc hates death and God, sinec death is fıom Him. if the spiritis taken away while there is hatred, and not love, in the heart, theconduding act will he had again9.

As for thı~ one who dies as a lover of God, he wiII go towards Godlike a servant who yearns to meet his masterlO. This does not mean thatthey do not fear the' Bad Ending'. As a matter of faet 'ari/un and eventhe 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.ıwill he 1aken away probahly without much diffieuh). He may see theAngel of death in its most lıeautiful form, and he may evcn know whatsort of plaee he is given in Paradisel2. The wretehed people too willknow something ab out 'theİr pluees in HdL. 'Dying and secing theAngel of death wiII he a great punishment for themn. This is brieflythe position 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 fireOi one of the meadows of Paradise". Whoever denies this is an innovator

6 I~, iv, 217; ef. al.o 628,9 Ibid., 219.10 Ibid.i1 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

see J. 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 hasdeserved punishment seventy doors of Hell will be openedlS, altboughthe 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 seemstbat the interrogation of the angels Munkar and Naklr takes plaee firstand 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, allthe seııarate organs will he gathered together and ru(ı will he bıoughthack. From the time of death until-this return ru(ı wiII have' heen eitherİn 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, ifit wereshaqll8.

it is not very casy to determine what is reaIly meant hy this Tra-di tion about "ru(ı"s residence in the crops of the green birds"19. L. Gar-det sees a connection between this T;rad~tion and the 1heory of "eelestialbodies" (al-mawcid al-jismciniyya) which seems to have heen held hysome Muslim writers according to ıbn Sina20. We will come to thistheory and its relevance to our subject when wl.' deal with the so~lsof the "Weak" (bulh) la~er in this chapter.

What is clear is that before man evcntuaııy enters Paradise or Hellhe has to go through man)' stages aıı of which are parts of a happy ormis'erable eternal life after death. Sa'ld does not become sa'ld after, asit were, the officia! deelaration which seems to take placc after the Scale(mlzan). When man's good decds weigh the heavier an angel wiIl dedarethat "so and 80 ~as heen hlessed with sa' ada after whicq tl.ere is no. shaqawa" and the people wiıl hear what the angel SBYS. The deelarationof shaqawa will be made in the case of the shaql to021.The sa'ld wilI hetreated as sa'ld from the agony ofdeath onwards and the slıaql wiıı meetwhat they deserve. Every stage which takes place hefore Helifire is akind 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 gravecxists; 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 doubleone: separation from what he loves and 1he meeting of the thilJgs thateause pai~. AI-GhazaH says that the pailJ which is caust'd by separationfrom 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'nishmentwill be in the grave. Accoıding to al-Ghazali the number of the snakesand seorpions will be multiplied in the grave of, for example, a rieh manwho 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. Firstlythe aeLeptanee of their existence and the pain which is caused by theirhiting. Secondly the aeeeptanee of thepain without trying to provewhether wl' can see or imagine the snake, since this will not change thefact that pain is there. This situation resembles the case of a man whosees a snake and feel~ the pain caused by its biting in his dream. Neitherhe 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 eauscpain. it is it~ poison which gives pain. In faet it is not cven the poisonper 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 isnot possible, howeveı';to define that sort of punishment as pain withoutrelating it to the eause which habitually produces that pain. The im-portant thing is th\" effeet and not the eause, since the latter is desiredfor 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 duringdying; 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 causca pain which ıesembles the pain whieh is produced by the snake26• Somepeoplc 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 arepossihle and a belieyer should believe so.

With the last point al-GhazaH gives the snakes and seorpinos anontologieal statm:. it appears that this idra has led As-SuhrawardIto think of the existenee of a new realm between the spiritual and thephysieal27. The last alternatiYe that al-Ghaziin mentiom was held byal-FiiraM and ıbn Sinii though al-Fariibi Mes not say anything aboutthe pun ishment of the grave and other escha~ological maUera. He simplyhelieves that it is evils that cause puin and Icad man to shaqiiwa. In theanalysis of the third alternatiye al.Ghaziill might have borrowed samematerials from aloFarabi and ıbn Sina28•

To go in detail into t.he aecounts of sa'ıd aıid shaqı and t.o give allthe colourful eschatologieal deseriptions of these two classes are neitherposailıle nor indeed relevant here. Although al.GhaziiH believes everyword he aa~ş, his primary object in his deseription of these eschatologiealseenca 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 heyour time of joy and happiness. Your face wiII Le iIIuminated like themoon on the day of Badr, and people will look at you and envy yourgoodness and beauty. The angels will walk around you and announcethat there wiH he no shaqiiwa for y01l af ter that moment. After thisal -Ghaziili turns to the ease of slıaql which is evcn more descriptive29.These deseriptions lıave had an enormous influenee on the life of eommonfolk and on that of the lcarned alike throughout Islamic history, andin 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 ofJudgement, al.GhazalI eoneentrates on two major classes of people,namely sa'ıd and shaqi. The maUer, however, is more complicated thanthis. In orde1' to undel'stand the real nature of the otherworIdly sa' adaand shaqawa, a close examination of aıı classes iıı the world to come isnecessary, sinCt different clases of people conaspond to varyinf, degrcesof 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 quahyof 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"idedinto diffcrent classes and theil' degrees and ranks in sa'öda andshaqa10a vary so mueh that they cannot come lındcr any definite class ification as they differ in sa'iida and shaqöwa in this world. The otheı worlddoes not eertainly differ in this respett wl' say that people in the woıldto eome are neecssarily dividedinto four classes: The perished or thedoomed (Mlikun), ıhe punished (mu'adhdhahun), the saved (niijln) andthe rewarded (fa'izun)"3o. Al.GhaziilI ilImtrates this division with theexample 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 inthis newly coııquered land varies. He kiııs 50me of them (hüli/cun) andtortures some others (muüdlıdlıabun). He frees some and let~ them go(niijln) and he rewards some others (fii'izun). All of these classes varywithin themselves. Not eveıyhody deseryes the same punishmentor reward3!. /

In th€ same manner tlıe four classes in the world to come vary withinthemselves. Some of the fii'izun, for imtanee, will dwell in the gardenof '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 punishcdfor a short period and those who are punished for from one thousandto seven thousand years32• Now let us take eeah of thcse four claEsessel'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 mcntiononly a few. AI-Ghaziili defines hölikun as the people who deny God,Hib prophets and His lIessengers. Wc know that "the otherwordly sa'ödaconsists in closeness to God and gazing on His faee and so it ean.not beııttained except through ma'rifa wlıich is interpreted as fııith andaeeeptenee .. Those who reject are the dislıdievers and those who denythe truth are the ones who deprive themsclves of the merey of God forever". These pe0l'le are veilecl from God an~l forever thcre is hetwecnGod and them a veiL.They wili be burnt with the fire of separation wbiehis worse than the fire that burns physical ohjects33• These people arenol only ign.orant hut nuhdievers as welL.

30 IIJ., iv, 30.3ı Ibid., 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 used for the state of those who lack aıı quali.ties of perfeetion, as in the state of the unbdiever, or for those who lacksome qualities of perfeetion as in the Lase of a sinful believer. In thefirst case haliik refers to a permanent condition, whereas in the secondit refers to a temporary one. However, sinee wc have onlyone class ofthe people who are punished (mu'adhabiln) here in a division. the termhülikiln is used for people for whom tlıere is no 'hope of happiness. Thesame thing can be said about the term ,mal}jubiln or the veiled which isusuaJly used as an opposite of the term wiişililn35• Eternal shaqiiwais 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 eureanu the eause of happiness (mus'id). In this respeet the teıms haliik andsa'üı1a are opposites36. In a general sense what leads to destru~tion isexplained in the third volunie, i.e. rub' al-muhlikiit, of the Il}yü. .,

AI-GhaziiH's class 'of muhlikun corresponds to the "imperfect andimpure" dass of falusifa._ As a malter of faet he uses the term halikwhen 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 characterand 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 lackthe fulfilment of the requirements of this faith. They arc imperfect inrespeet of the degrees of qurb and every iml'erfection is accompanied bytwo kiııds of fire: the fire of separation and the helI-fire as described bythe Qur'iin. Anyone who deviates from the right path will be punisnedhy hoth kinds of fire, though the degree of such punisbment varies inaccordance 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, thelowest degree being the punishment which is caused by discussion overman'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 destroyedis 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 hisfaith may be, is not so corrupted, though it is tarnished through theperformımce of evil deeds. There is still a place for purification. For thisreason 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'amientpain, there ,are two points which must be taken into consideration:Gravc Ein (fisq) and Intercession (shafa'a).

a) Fa,siq

According to falasifa, writes al-Gh~zaH "one who combines moraland intellectual greatness is the devout sage; and his reward will heabsolut!' 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,tedby 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 of falasifa, al-GhazalI's soureeis not al-FarabI but ıbn Sina, who gi~es his four-fold classification ofmen in ma', ifat-an-nafs and in najat43• These four classes are: The peoplewho 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 peoplcwho ,are perfect in aetion but not in knowledge44. In ma'rifar-an-nafsıbn 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 fiisiqfwconstitutc aI-FiiriibI's class of shaqiiwa. Wc are not told that tbese peoplewill one day join the people of sa'ııda. AI-GhaziiH seems to have missedthis point. In the lJassage of Talıafut which has just heen quoted, hisdcscripition of fiisiq, i.e. fiisiq Icarncd, does_not differ from the generaııyaceepted vicw, including his own, of fiisiq. in the Maqıışid al-Ghaziilisays that according to faliisifa, when the souI gains knowıedge, the ra-tional part of thr soul gains perfeetion. if aman with this perfeetionfoııows his' appetitc, he wiII find himself in a very painful eondition. Ünthe one hand he will be drawn towards heavenIy and perfcet heingstbanks 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 appctitcwiII not Icave himıs. This is indeed the opinion of aI-Fariibl whieh is aIsoadoptcd by al-GhaziiH himself. The difficulty arist's wht'n wc foIIowaI-GhaziiH's argument a littIc furthc{. He says that again according toal-falıısifa this pain is not eternal. After this what iıI-GhaziiU ascrihesto falösifa seems to be in closc agreement with the generally held ort ho-dox vicw. Wc are told that the position offiisiq waı he worse than thatof jöhil, according to falösifa. Supposing that a king is killI'd, writes al-Ghaziili, leaving two children behind. Üne of the children is an infantwho knows ııothing ahout wealth, propert)' and such like, and the otheris old enough to know all ahout these goods. it is quite obvious that thelast knows what he has müsed and suffcrs intense1y, whereas the infantwill not suffer. That is why the. Prophet says that those who do not actaccording to what they know, .in other words the learr:ıeclmen who lackmoral perfertion, wiII reeeive the most painful punishment46• In the Ta-hafut he takes up the same idea and hue again he says that accordingto falösifa "whoevcr has the theoretieal virtues but not the moıal onesis ealled a dissolutc learııed ('ölim. al-fiisiq)" whose punishment willnot 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 otherworks, 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 thesake 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 possibleto move t;owards the piety of the righteous (şaliMm), then to that ofmuttaqun and thcn to şiddıqunsO• Fisq is a de"iatiün from the right IJathor the Golden Mean. To definefisq in tenns of deviation from the GoldenMean is aecepted hy Ilm Miska~ayh as weıısı.

it appears that fiisiq not only performs evil actjons hut also takespride in his ability to perform them, Fiisiq thinks that perfeetion consistsin possessing wealth and having a siııful and immoral rdatioııship withwomen a;nd ladss2 - an idea of perfeetion whieh is also defended by thepeople of the "füsiq eities" of al.Filrahi. Talking of the improvement ofthe charaeter of different classes of IJeople, al.GhaziilI says that it is verydiffieulı and raıe to improve the character of a person who' not onlyperforms evil aetions but enjoys doing so. His case however is hetter thanthe ease of the sharır who, in addition to performing evil aetions andenjoying 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 accordingto the Mu'tazilites fiisiq will et~rnaııy remain ouside the people ofsa'iidaS4; but he seems to favour the idea that falüsife did not IH'lievethat fasiq wouW not joiıı the people of happiness. AI.Ghaziili accusesthe Mu'tazilites of failure to uııderstand tb!' Qur'iinic verses on whiehthey 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 isstill aman. 11 is true that ftisiq is not perfeet bdi(~ver, hut he hasfaith all tlıl' samess.

Al.GhaziiIi never failE 10 agree with tht Mu'la"ilites that there isa 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 personnot only from tht point of view of otherwoıldly sa'iida but from the pointof view of the soeio.politi<:alstabi1ity of the IsIC'miccommunity. The Bati.nites wcre very successful, foı example, among those who were fallen intofisqS7. Dnlike the Mu'tazilites, however, he aserted that one day fiisiqwill be forgiven and aeeepted into the eommunity of the happy. it isto this the Prophet ıeferred when he said that whoever possesses an,atom .of faith in his hearı-, and whoever eonfesses the Unity of God willeventuaııy enter Paradise.

The idca that fiisiq ol shaqı will cventually hee~mc sa'ld cannothowever be def{nded without aeeepting the idea th~t man, or to useal.GhaziilI's own term, the heart, will gain somenew qualities. To saythat fire will cJean the hearl and make it worthy of the Divine Pressenceis nothing more than sıaling this fact.

in the Book of Fear and Hope, al.GhazaH states that man diesaccording 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 dominantover 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 andthe 10ve of God have becu firmly established in his heart for a.long periodand strengthened with good deeds. This will crase from his heart thisstate in which it fell during death. Thus if the strength of his faith wereup to the amount of a mithqiil, he would he taken out of the Fire. if itwere less than this, then his staying in Fire would he longer, but if itwere not mOle than a mithqiil of a seed, he would still come out of theFire even if it were after a thous3nd yearsS8• i

it is here that the concept of 'intercession' (slıafii'a) comes in andhas a faı.reaehing importanee esııecially whan sa'iida is vicwed frOiii'thestandpoint 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 anatom's weight of faith will come out of the Fire. Some people come outbefore they complete the punishment which they deserve because oftheİısins. 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 of sOO/a'u. Our interestIies in the fact that through Intercession it ispossible to put an cnd tothe punishment of a shaql and make him sa'ld. The one who believesthat 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 obviousinconsistency İs tolerated. Both al-FarabI and al-Ghaziill agree that af.ter death man, or the Intellect, oı the -heart, cannot gain a characterwhich is the opposite of the character whieh was dominant during dying.Al-FiiriibI goes no further here, but al"GhaziilI brings divine interventiononto the şcene and, therefore, makeE sa' ada as a divine gift. In fact thisis what the Muslims have always believed. The Divİne Grace may actdirectly without any intercessor and release man from Hell, or it mayact through Prophets or martyrs thanks to the power of intercessiongiyen 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 onto the substance of prophethood and from here it illuminates all othersuhstances which have fortified their relation with the substance ofprphethood through their love for, and their perseverence in, Sunna.The proceeding of this light from the Divine Presl'nce resembles thatof the light of the sun which reflecta from water and hen ce reflects ona special part of wall and not just on any part. if Unity (ıaU/Md) isdominant in the heart of the beHeyer, the light from the Divine Presl'ncemay come directly, but if the heart finds its wayonly through followingprophecy, 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 essentiallydiffer from His forgiving the sins of a believer in this world. Theıe maybe many hidden reasons which hring about God's forgiveness and sal-vation and which we may not know. it must be accepted as a possibilitythat a disobedient pcrson can be forgiven despite his many apparentevil 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 notforgiven except for a good reason, though this reason may not be knownto us, and a man is not driven to face God's anger again except for anapparent 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 ideaof the Mu'taziIites. AI-ChaziilI accepts that everyone will get what hedeservC8but we cannot say that Cod doe8.iııjustiee if He forgivcs a sinner.In order to say this, wc l,ave to know everything ahout the sinner, whichis 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 fromslıaqüwa irrespeetive of one's degrees ofsa' iida. In this partieular dassifi-cation, however, by najal al.ChazaH means "just safety (salama) andnl,)t şa'ada or fawz"62. Those who are eaııed najln are the people whodeserve 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~eptthe right faith. This class of people have a very meagre intelleet (balalı)and no knowledge at alı. There is neither obedienee nor disobcdieneeon their part; and theyare neitheı' of the people of Paradise nor of thoseof Hcl!. Rather, they stay in a plaee between the two (al-nıanzila baynal-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 cleardistinetion between najti.t,fawz and sa'üda without making any refereneehowever to balah and a'rti.fM.

it seems that the class of nti.jln roughly eorresponds to al-FiiriibI'sclass 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 sectionof ilahiyat in the Najiit he divides these meagre souls into those that aremoraıJ.y wieked and those t!ıat are not. The formcr wiII be punished

61 11), iv, 38.o 62 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 AliPa,a, 2721/1) fol, 28b.

AL-GHAZALİ's IDEA OF DEATH 237

after death, beeause they willlose the body which ia the ouly means fortheir satisfaction. As for the latter, they will be met by the great mereyof God and have "some kind of ease (J(i(ıa)"6~ We are not given enoughinformation about the nature of this "ease", but it is not sa'ada, sincesa'ada in İbn SIna too is only for int~ııectually and moraUy perfectsoula. it is quite plausible to uggest that this "ease" is what al-GhazalImeans by the term a'raf or rather the eondition of life that takcs placein a'riif.

Wc have not eome across a d'vision of these weak souls int o goodand bad in al-Ghazan. Nor does he say anything about whether therewill be any improvement in the condition of these soula. ıbn SIna, onthe other hand, seems to accept some kind of improvement66. He talksabout 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 wiU imagine what otherworldly pleasUle or pa inis. 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 deathto the plcasure which is experienced in dreams. No one can say thisexperience 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 bodilyoeeupations68• .

OU1" mentioning of ıbn SIna's ideas here is not out of place, sincethey had a considerable influenee on al-GhazaH. In al-Farabi we haveintellectu<'I or spiritual otherworldly pain and pleasure. ıbn Sina acceptsspirituaI and imaginative pain and pleasure., He does not deny the pos-sibility of sensuaI experience of pain and pleasure after death in theshifa', though he rejeets it in his rislila ad(ıawiyya fl-amr-al-ma'ad69•

And al-Ghaziili accepted the possibility of intellectual, imaginative andsensuaI expericnccs of otherworldly sa'lida and shaqawa. Wc will returnto 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 andIhn sına had dealt heforehim. His aeeeptanee of the resurrection ofthe hody saved him from such ideas as thinking of some eelestiaI bodiesfor the souls whieh are not perfeet enough to experience spirituaI plea-sure. This does not mean, however, that aI.GhaziilI's idea of the "weaksouIs" 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 thematters of this world becaüse of their involvement with the mattersof the world to eome. This is why the Prophet has said that "most ofthe peopIe of Paradise are bulh"7o. The deseripiton of bulh in this sensecomes 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 hutdo 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, Hisattributes and His aetions to be other than what they aetual1y are eit-her through taqlld or speeulation is in a perilous condition, and aseetismand good deeds are not enough to repeI this peril. "Bulh, however, arefree 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 thebedouin and the negroes and other peopIe who have not indulged inresearch and speeulation ... That is why the Prophet has said, mo!!t 'ofthe people of Paradise are bulh' 71.

Now it is e1ear from this passage that bulh in this teehnieal sense isnothing hU,t another name for the people who aecept religious matterson authorty.

Seeondly a1.GhaziilI uses bulh in a non.teehnical sense. Here it impIieswealmess of intellectual power. The relation between the two meaningsof the "term is obvious. One does not hecome muqallid, if one is not intel.lectually weak. These two different meanings, however, mu st he keptapart, since the class of muqal/ldün and the class of people with "weakintellect" namely the ineane and so on, to whieh the first ıınd the secondmeaning 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 bulh İn the se(ond sense 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 otherhand, do not atta;n any sa'ada, hut just mete salvation (najat) fromshaqawa.

Despite this illuminating explanation ah out the dass of ndjIn,or the people of a'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 dividedinto three group s after the major interrogation (su' al): those who wiılattain eternal sa'ada, those who will atıain eiernal shaqawa and thosewhose goc.d deeds are mixed with their had deeds. Though the last groupwill he punished, they will eventuaUy enter Paradise72. Here there isno 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 thtyhave nothing to say or to answer.

Al-GhaialI'~ not mentioning the class of bulh or najln mayaıso hedue to the fact that the Qur'an itsclf says very liule ahout them. Wehave aiready pointed out the ohscurity of thr Qur'iinic term a'raf andthe difficulty of finding an intermediary place hetween Paraclise andHeU. AI-GbazalI is aware that hecause of this lack of information, it isnot 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 after death, and this class corresponds to the perfect andpure class of falasi/a. These people are called 'ari/un and notmuqallidün; theyare the "outsripl'e'rs": the people who arf' hroughtnear to God (as-sabiqün al-muqarrabün)74.

M uqallid is from the' People of Right' who have some kind of placein Paradise, muqarrabün on the other hand, aıtain a degree whose heightcan hardly he descrihed. The Qur'an refers to this fact when it sayathat "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 ofman has ever eonceived"75. What 'ari/ün desire cannot he attained in

72 11), iv, 646.73 Ibid., 39.74 Ibid., 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 arenot keen on them; they would not be contented even if they were givento them. "They desire nothing save the pleasul'e of gazing on God'sface; 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 classoffa'izun. We have aiready given enough information about the natureof the classes of arifun and muqallidun which constitute the only twoclasses of fa'izun.