"Consider this analogy: There was a man beneath a tree. He wished to correct his thoughts, but the sparrows disturbed him with their chirping. He would chase them with a stick and then resume his train of thoughts, but the sparrows would come back and he would have to scare them away with the stick once again. Eventually someone told him: 'This is like being a slave at a wheel, going round and round forever. If you want to escape the vicious circle, you should fell the tree.' So it is with the tree of base desires. Thoughts are attracted to its ramifying twigs and branches, just like the sparrows to real trees. Flies are attracted by filth and chasing them becomes a fulltime occupation, for they just keep coming back. Random thoughts are like flies."
Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, Inner Dimensions of Islamic Worship
I understand al-Ghazali's analogy although I don't think I agree with him, although I suspect we're just talking about mattes of degree here. In Islam we do not have anything like monasticism; we're expected to be out in the world. As we've discussed we don't have a sabbath, and we don't have days where we stay home and can't interface with the world around us. Even if it's Friday - and, for that matter, even if we're fasting during Ramadan - we're expected to be in the world. Even if we're getting our five prayers a day in we are actively engaged in the world in between. The world is a gift from God, and this is why I made the point about this being a matter of degree. Clearly al-Ghazali is talking about the need for us to not put too much time and especially emphasis into our fascination with the outer world. How many of us complain about some aspect of the world distracting us from prayer or some other part of our faith when we are mostly in control of that world, or at least in control of our perception of that world. As Epictetus reminds us: it's not the event but our perception of the event.
The other thing about this statement from al-Ghazali is that it sounds like something you would find in the Hindu Upanishads or from a Buddhist sutra. There is a very metaphysical side to Islam which folks on the outside never recognize.
Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, Inner Dimensions of Islamic Worship
I understand al-Ghazali's analogy although I don't think I agree with him, although I suspect we're just talking about mattes of degree here. In Islam we do not have anything like monasticism; we're expected to be out in the world. As we've discussed we don't have a sabbath, and we don't have days where we stay home and can't interface with the world around us. Even if it's Friday - and, for that matter, even if we're fasting during Ramadan - we're expected to be in the world. Even if we're getting our five prayers a day in we are actively engaged in the world in between. The world is a gift from God, and this is why I made the point about this being a matter of degree. Clearly al-Ghazali is talking about the need for us to not put too much time and especially emphasis into our fascination with the outer world. How many of us complain about some aspect of the world distracting us from prayer or some other part of our faith when we are mostly in control of that world, or at least in control of our perception of that world. As Epictetus reminds us: it's not the event but our perception of the event.
The other thing about this statement from al-Ghazali is that it sounds like something you would find in the Hindu Upanishads or from a Buddhist sutra. There is a very metaphysical side to Islam which folks on the outside never recognize.
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