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  • Spiritual_Roadmap_by_Ghazali, page : 95

eternal life.

After that I examined my motive in my work of teaching, and realized that it was not a pure desire
for the
things of Allah, but that the impulse moving me was the desire for an influential
position and public
recognition. I saw for certain that I was on the brink of a crumbling bank of sand and in imminent
danger of
hell-fire unless I set about to mend my ways.

I reflected on this continuously for a time, while the choice still remained open to me. One day I
would
form the resolution to quit Baghdad and get rid of these adverse circumstances; the
next day I would
abandon my resolution. I put one foot forward and drew the other back. If in the morning I had a
genuine
longing to seek eternal life, by the evening the attack of a whole host of desires had reduced it
to impotence.
Worldly desires were striving to keep me by their chains just where I was, while the voice of faith