Ghazzalfs Alchemy of Happiness. 



53 



the home of the faithful, where the angels are in the pre- 

 sence of God. If men refuse to recognize their own dig- 

 nity, if they neglect their duty and prefer the qualities of 

 devils and beasts of prey, they will also possess, in the future 

 world, the qualities of beasts of prey, and will be judged 

 with the devils. Our refuge is in God ! 



Know, thou seeker of divine mysteries ! that there is no 

 end to the wonderful operations of the heart. For, to 

 pursue the same subject, the dignity of the heart is of two 

 kinds ; one kind is by means of knowledge, and the other 

 through the exertion of divine power. Its dignity by 

 means of knowledge is also of two kinds. The first is 

 external knowledge, which every one understands : the 

 second kind is veiled and cannot be understood by all, and 

 is extremely precious. That which we have designated as 

 external, refers to that faculty of the heart by which the 

 sciences of geometry, medicine, astronomy, numbers, the 

 science of law and all the arts are understood ; and 

 although the heart is a thing which cannot be divided, 

 still the knowledge of all the world exists in it. All the 

 world indeed, in comparison with it, is as a grain compared 

 with the sun, or as a drop in the ocean. In a second, by 

 the power of thought, the soul passes from the abyss to the 

 highest heaven, and from the east to the west. Though 

 on the earth, it knows the latitude of the stars and their 

 distances. It knows the course, the size and the peculiari- 

 ties of the sun. It knows the nature and cause of the 

 clouds and the rain, the lightning and the thunder. It 

 ensnares the fish from the depths of the sea, and the bird 

 from the end of heaven. By knowledge it subdues the 

 elephant, the camel and the tiger. All these kinds of 

 knowledge, it acquires with its internal and external senses. 



The most wonderful thing of all is, that there is a 

 window in the heart from whence it surveys the world. 

 This is called the invisible world, the world of intelli- 



