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  • SpiritualRoadmapbyGhazali, page : 43

patching or by assembling of fragments. The glass must be melted once again in
the furnace for a new start, and out of it another fresh vessel formed‟.

I now hastened to follow out these four ways and investigate what these
groups had achieved, commencing with the science of theology and then taking
the way of philosophy, the `authoritative instruction‟ of the Batiniyah, and the way
of mysticism, in that order.

I. The Science of Theology: its Aims and Achievements.

I started then, with the science of Theology (`ilm al-kalam), and obtained a
thorough grasp of it. I read the books sound theologians and I myself wrote some
books on the subject. But I found it was a science which, though achieving its

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own aim, did not achieve mine. Its aim was merely to preserve the traditions and
defend them against the deviations of heretics.