'...a mistake of an opposite kind is made by shallow people who,
echoing some phrases which they have caught from Sufi teachers,
go about decrying all knowledge' - Al-Ghazzali (The Alchemy of Happiness)
The Alchemy of Happiness (Kimiya'e sa' adat), originally written in Persian by Imam Al-Ghazzali, is a book based on Sufism in Islam. Rather powerful usage of words, Al-Ghazzali is enlightening for the distressed spiritual soul looking for inspiration from a world beyond.
Having learnt Al-Ghazzali's quote (italicized above), to review 'The Alchemy of Happiness' would be a paradox. Such that the desire is to extract abstract, echoing partial knowledge...
Knowledge of Self - the highest faculty in him is reason; as regards, to his mere animal qualities, man is inferior to many animals, but reason makes him superior to them.
The Knowledge of this world - the world is like a table spread for successive relays of guests who come and go... the wise guest eats as much as is sufficient for him, smells the perfumes, thanks his host, and departs.
2 comments:
wise people say that its best not to talk about these things widely, due to the ease of misunderstanding stuff and spreading confusion. so thats an important point to make in the text.
i just adore the allegories though...
always inspired by the wise people; much to seek to develop.
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