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The_Savior_from_Spiritual_Error, page : 110
property of prophecy you can understand by analogy as the dream-state. If
the prophet possessed a faculty to which you had nothing comparable and
which you did not understand, how could you believe in it? Believing
presumes understanding. That comparable experience comes to a man in
the early stages of the mystic way. Thereby he attains a kind of immediate
experience, extending as far as that to which he has attained, and by
analogy to a kind of belief or assent into that which he has not attained.
Thus, this single property is a sufficient basis for one‟s faith in the principle
8[10] This is a little obscure; al-Ghazali appears to regard certain miraculous signs as belonging
to
the spheres of medicine and astronomy; perhaps he was thinking of this when he spoke of events
occurring once
of prophecy.
If you come to doubt whether a specific person is a prophet or not,
certainty can only be reached by acquaintance with his conduct, either by
the prophet possessed a faculty to which you had nothing comparable and
which you did not understand, how could you believe in it? Believing
presumes understanding. That comparable experience comes to a man in
the early stages of the mystic way. Thereby he attains a kind of immediate
experience, extending as far as that to which he has attained, and by
analogy to a kind of belief or assent into that which he has not attained.
Thus, this single property is a sufficient basis for one‟s faith in the principle
8[10] This is a little obscure; al-Ghazali appears to regard certain miraculous signs as belonging
to
the spheres of medicine and astronomy; perhaps he was thinking of this when he spoke of events
occurring once
of prophecy.
If you come to doubt whether a specific person is a prophet or not,
certainty can only be reached by acquaintance with his conduct, either by