6. Wool

Ghazali defines sufism as the desire for and practice towards attaining a "heart empty of all save G-d and adorned with the constant remembrance of G-d" (p. 51). The practices Ghazali uses to attain this are seclusion, solitude, and spiritual exercise and combat. The latter can be further broken down into the purification of the soul, the cultivation of virtues, and the cleansing of the heart (p. 55-6). Unfortunately, Ghazali does not elaborate on how exactly to cleanse the heart, but does cite a few books he read on sufi theology.

Ghazali describes sufis as "masters of states" (p. 52), explaining that mastery of various states enables a person to perceive various realms. The senses are all distinct states, and so, for example, the sense of hearing enables a man to perceive sounds and tones. However, hearing does not allow a man to understand what is and is not sensible, and so discernment is another state. Ghazali remarks that intellect is the highest state before prophecy, and while it is intellect that many men have attained, it is prophecy towards which the sufis aspire. Prophecy is what is used to understand acts of worship, such as why some services are longer than others (p. 66). Ghazali makes no claims of being a prophet or having attained any level of the state of prophecy, but recognizes its existence and its superior nature and understanding.

The sufi Way described by Ghazali leads to near-constant revelations and visions, of "angels and the spirits of prophets and hear voices coming from them and learn useful things from them" (p. 57). With this description, Ghazali seems to posit an intermediary stage between intellect and prophecy. He then puts forth further stages that cannot be described with words, and in which the practitioner attains a closeness to G-d, the end which Ghazali describes as "being completely lost in G-d" (p. 57).

These stages can only be attained through what Ghazali terms "fruitional experience" which differs from learned knowledge. He claims that the philosophers have only knowledge, which is theoretical, and that they have not actually experienced that which they claim to know. As such, without that experience, they cannot truly know it. Further, his direct complaint against the philosophers is that they do not cede that there are possibilities beyond their knowledge. Specifically, he questions, "Why, then, can there not be in the revealed ordinances certain properties of healing and purifying hearts, which are beyond the grasp of wisdom based on reason, nay more, that can be discerned only by the eye of prophecy?" (p. 75). Ghazali is offended that the philosophers do not even admit the possibility of higher states beyond "wisdom based on reason."

As to the relation of sufism to mysticism: a mystic is dictionary-defined as one who, through contemplation and self-surrender, seeks union or self-absorption into the deity or the absolute. Compared to Ghazali's definition of a sufi, one who seeks to be "completely lost in G-d," a sufi and a mystic are not terribly far apart. Ghazali mentions that there are some who would go so far as to say that sufis seek a "union" or "indwelling" with G-d, but as Ghazali points out, that is incompatible with Islamic theology of the deity, wherein G-d is unknowable and completely one; the idea of G-d consisting of a union between a man and G-d himself is completely at odds with Islamic theology and badly reminiscent of the Christian Trinity, which is soundly renounced throughout the Qur'an. However, a sufi does seek closeness to G-d, as close as one can get without heresy, and the practices Ghazali describes are indeed contemplation and self-surrender, per the definition of a mystic, and as such a sufi could constitute an Islamic mystic.