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SpiritualRoadmapbyGhazali, page : 39
no doubts about them? And is it not the case that when you wake up you know
that all you have imagined and believed is unfounded and ineffectual? Why then
are you confident that all your waking beliefs, whether from sense or intellect, are
genuine? They are true in your present state; but it is possible that you will come
to a state where your waking consciousness has the same relationship to
dreaming. Your waking consciousness would be like dreaming! When you have
entered this state, you will be sure that your intellect is just empty imagination. It
may be that this state is what the Sufis claim to be their special “state” of ecstasy
which occurs when they have withdrawn into themselves and are absent from
their senses. They witness situations which do not even deal with the intellect.
Perhaps that “state” is death; for the Messenger of Allah, may Allah venerate
and grant him peace, says: “People are dreaming; when they die, they become
awake”. So maybe the life of this world is a dream compared with the hereafter
and when a man dies, things become different to him than what he knows now,
when the words are said to him: “We have taken off your covering, and your sight
today is sharp” (Koran 50: 21).
When these thoughts occurred to me and penetrated my being, I sought
some way of treating my unhealthy condition; but it was not easy. Such ideas
that all you have imagined and believed is unfounded and ineffectual? Why then
are you confident that all your waking beliefs, whether from sense or intellect, are
genuine? They are true in your present state; but it is possible that you will come
to a state where your waking consciousness has the same relationship to
dreaming. Your waking consciousness would be like dreaming! When you have
entered this state, you will be sure that your intellect is just empty imagination. It
may be that this state is what the Sufis claim to be their special “state” of ecstasy
which occurs when they have withdrawn into themselves and are absent from
their senses. They witness situations which do not even deal with the intellect.
Perhaps that “state” is death; for the Messenger of Allah, may Allah venerate
and grant him peace, says: “People are dreaming; when they die, they become
awake”. So maybe the life of this world is a dream compared with the hereafter
and when a man dies, things become different to him than what he knows now,
when the words are said to him: “We have taken off your covering, and your sight
today is sharp” (Koran 50: 21).
When these thoughts occurred to me and penetrated my being, I sought
some way of treating my unhealthy condition; but it was not easy. Such ideas