Al-Ghazali — Brief an Khwaja Imam Abbasi

The universe has flowed out from Him. It is a Divine emanation and there is also a cosmic process of "returning" back to the Eternal One. The only possible approach therefore, is the way of negation. The stage of obeying the commands of Allah comes next. The abandonment of forbidden things consists of three things. One, the heart should be purified of all inner impurities. Two, we should improve our conduct so that other men may be improved. Three, thankfulness for the blessings of comfort in the limbs and organs of the body is to use them in carrying out the commands of Allah and in restraining ourselves from forbidden things and also from evil and sinful acts. One should always weigh one's words and deeds. Wisdom means the intelligent weighing of both sides of a situation and the finding out of the right middle course between two extremes. It is, therefore, very important that we should subject ourselves to the verdict of a balance and discover whether our scale will rise or fall. When one's self comes across objects of pleasure, it naturally insists that they should be obtained for the time being and that they would be abandoned next time. The best course left open to us in this condition is that we should ask our self to abstain this time from gaining the objects and that it would be more advisable to obtain them next time. We should take our self no more seriously than it takes us. We have the right to restore to a sort of personal reprisal. In this way we return to the right quarter jest for jest, we play the trick that has been played on us. If we cannot practice this continuously, at least we can make ourselves as familiar with it as possible. It is the recollection of Allah, the thought of Allah, which in all places and circumstances make us see Him present. Let us commune respectfully and lovingly with Him and fill ourselves with the desire and affection of Him.