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SpiritualRoadmapbyGhazali, page : 108
perish, so also there is in the heart, on the one hand, health and soundness, and
`only he who comes to Allah with a sound heart‟ (Koran 26, 89) is saved, and, on
the other hand, disease, which is eternal and other worldly destruction, as Allah
Most High says, `in their hearts is disease‟ (Koran 2, 9). I saw that to be ignorant
of Allah is destructive poison, and to disobey Him by following desire is the thing
which produces the disease, while to know Allah Most High is the life-giving
antidote and to obey Him by opposing desire is the healing medicine. I saw too,
that the only way to treat the heart, to end its disease and procure its health, is by
medicines, just as it is the only way of treating the body.
Moreover, medicines of the body are effective in producing health through
some property in them which the intellectuals do not apprehend with their
intellect, but in respect to which one must accept the statement of the doctors;
and these in turn are dependent on the prophets who by prophethood have
grasped the properties of things. Similarly I came of necessity to realize that in
the case of the medicines of formal worship, which have been fixed and
determined by the prophets, the manner of their effectiveness is not
apprehended by the intellectual explanations of the intellectuals; one must rather
`only he who comes to Allah with a sound heart‟ (Koran 26, 89) is saved, and, on
the other hand, disease, which is eternal and other worldly destruction, as Allah
Most High says, `in their hearts is disease‟ (Koran 2, 9). I saw that to be ignorant
of Allah is destructive poison, and to disobey Him by following desire is the thing
which produces the disease, while to know Allah Most High is the life-giving
antidote and to obey Him by opposing desire is the healing medicine. I saw too,
that the only way to treat the heart, to end its disease and procure its health, is by
medicines, just as it is the only way of treating the body.
Moreover, medicines of the body are effective in producing health through
some property in them which the intellectuals do not apprehend with their
intellect, but in respect to which one must accept the statement of the doctors;
and these in turn are dependent on the prophets who by prophethood have
grasped the properties of things. Similarly I came of necessity to realize that in
the case of the medicines of formal worship, which have been fixed and
determined by the prophets, the manner of their effectiveness is not
apprehended by the intellectual explanations of the intellectuals; one must rather