Al- Ghazali: Faith in Divine Unity and Trust in Divine Providence

Description

In an axial volume from his celebrated compendium, the "Ihya ulum al din," al-Ghazali shares his startling and original exploration of the meaning of trust in Divine Providence and recommends specific spiritual skills to help the seeker develop a state whereby he or she may rightly respond to events as they happen. This judicious use of stories is intended to imitate the Sufi practice of the master/disciple relationship, where the novice is helped to discern correct action. Translated by David Burrell Fons Vitae, paperback, Price $18.95 It is fair to say that the "Book of Faith in Divine Unity and Trust in Divine Providence " plays an axial role in Ghazalis celebrated compendium, the Ihya Ulum al-din. What is at issue is not Divine Unity itself, but the implications for the community arising from the idea that everything comes from God and that "there is no agent but God." How can we trust in Divine Providence? Ghazali states that "all that exists in creation--sustenance given or withheld, life or death, riches or poverty, and everything else that can be named" is solely initiated and originated by God Most High. "If the gates of mystical insight were opened to you, this would be clear to you with a clarity more perfect than ordinary vision." But those gates are not opened to most of us, so the test of our understanding of divine unity will not come by direct insight into the ways of God, but through a life of trust in which concerted practice will bring each of us personally to the threshold of the only understanding possible to us. What sort of a practice is trust in divine providence? It entails aligning oneself with things as they really are: in Ghazalis terms, with the truth that there is no agent but God Most High-- a reminder that everything in the universe is created by that same God and so reflects something of Gods majesty and beauty. Yet the very thing that escapes our understanding is the secret connection of each creature with its creator. This requires