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Ghazzali's Alchemy of Happiness. 



For we have before said that nothing belonging to the 

 future world can be understood in the present world, or 

 be rightly conceived of by our minds. The doctors of the 

 law however (upon whom may God show mercy!), for the 

 sake of warning and admonition in the world, and so far 

 as the mind can appreciate it, have spoken in parables and 

 illustrations, and they have in various ways compared the 

 ignominy and remorse of the future world to the shame 

 and misery existing in the present world, notwithstanding 

 the misery in this world is but for a moment or a few days, 

 while the other is everlasting. 



We come now, beloved, to the third fire, the fire of 

 separation from the divine beauty, and of despair of attain- 

 ing everlasting felicity. The cause of this fire, is that con- 

 duct and stupidity which led the individual, while in the 

 world, not to acquire a knowledge of God, to neglect puri- 

 fying the mirror of his heart from the consuming cares of 

 the world and from the rust of sensual pleasures, and to 

 omit those austerities and exertions by which his blamable 

 inclinations and dispositions might be changed to laudable 

 ones. The individual did not act in accordance with the 

 tradition which says, " Acquire a character resembling the 

 character of God," and by means of which he might have 

 been worthy of the vision of the beauty of the Lord, and 

 of being received at the king's court. The heart which is 

 full of the love of the world, and of the rust of worldly 

 cares and transgressions, will see nothing in the future 

 world, must be shut out from all kinds of felicity and will 

 rise blind at the resurrection. Our refuge is in God ! 



An illustration of this fire of reprobation and banish- 

 ment may be found in this world, by supposing that a 

 company travelling by night should come into a valley 

 that was very stony, and as they went on their way, they 

 should hear a voice calling out, " Take good heed and 

 carry away with you an abundance of these stones ; you 



