The Alchemy of Happiness
Kimiya-e-Sa’adat
By Imam Muhammad Al-Ghazali
Translated by Claud Field (d.1941)
First published in 1910
INTRODUCTION
KNOW, O beloved, that man was not created in jest or at random, but
marvellously made and for some great end. Although he is not from
everlasting, yet he lives for ever; and though his body is mean and
earthly, yet his spirit is lofty and divine. When in the crucible of
abstinence he is purged from carnal passions he attains to the highest,
and in place of being a slave to lust and anger becomes endued with
angelic qualities. Attaining that state, he finds his heaven in the
contemplation of Eternal Beauty, and no longer in fleshly delights.
The spiritual alchemy which operates this change in him, like that
which transmutes base metals into gold, is not easily discovered, nor to
be found in the house of every old woman. It is to explain that alchemy
and its methods of operation that the author has undertaken this work,
which he has entitled, The Alchemy of Happiness.
Now the treasuries of God, in which this alchemy is to be sought, are
the hearts of the prophets, and he who seeks it elsewhere will be
disappointed and bankrupt on the day of judgment when he hears the
word, “We have lifted the veil from off thee, and thy sight today is keen.”
God has sent on earth a hundred and twenty-four thousand prophets to
teach men the prescription of this alchemy, and how to purify their
hearts from baser qualities in the crucible of abstinence. This alchemy
may be briefly described as turning away from the world to God, and its
constituents are four:
- The knowledge of self.
- The knowledge of God.
- The knowledge of this world as it really is.
- The knowledge of the next world as it really is.
We shall now proceed to expound these four constituents in order.
CHAPTER I – THE KNOWLEDGE OF SELF
KNOWLEDGE of self is the key to the knowledge of God, according to
the saying: “He who knows himself knows God,” and, as it is written in
the Qur’an, “We will show them Our signs in the world and in themselves, that the truth may be manifest to them.”
Now nothing is nearer to thee than thyself, and if thou knowest not thyself how canst thou know anything else?
If thou sayest “I know myself,” meaning thy outward shape, body,
face, limbs, and so forth, such knowledge can never be a key to the
knowledge of God. Nor, if thy knowledge as to that which is within only
extends so far, that when thou art hungry thou eatest, and when thou art
angry thou attackest someone, wilt thou progress any further in this
path, for the beasts are thy partners in this. But real self-knowledge
consists in knowing the following things: What art thou in thyself, and
from whence hast thou come? Whither art thou going, and for what purpose
hast thou come to tarry here awhile, and in what does thy real
happiness and misery consist?
Some of thy attributes are those of animals, some of devils, and some
of angels, and thou hast to find out to which of these attributes are
accidental and which essential. Till thou knowest this, thou canst not
find out where thy real happiness lies. The occupation of animals is
eating, sleeping, and fighting; therefore, if thou art an animal, busy
thyself in these things. Devils are busy in stirring up mischief, and in
guile and deceit; if thou belongest to them, do their work. Angels
contemplate the beauty of God, and are entirely free from animal
qualities, if thou art of angelic nature, then strive towards thine
origin, that thou mayest know and contemplate the Most High, and be
delivered from the thraldom of lust and anger.
Thou shouldest also discover why thou hast been created with these
two animal instincts: whether that they should subdue and lead thee
captive, or whether that thou shouldest subdue them, and, in thy upward
progress, make of one thy steed and of the other thy weapon.
The first step to self-knowledge is to know that thou art composed of
an outward shape, called the body, and an inward entity called the
heart, or soul. By “heart” I do not mean the piece of flesh situated in
the left of our bodies, but that which uses all the other faculties as
its instruments and servants. In truth it does not belong to the visible
world, but to the invisible, and has come into this world as a
traveller visits a foreign country for the sake of merchandise, and will
presently return to its native land. It is the knowledge of this entity
and its attributes which is the key to the knowledge of God.
Some idea of the reality of the heart. or spirit, may be obtained by a
man closing his eyes and forgetting everything around except his
individuality. He will thus also obtain a glimpse of the unending nature
of that individuality. Too close inquiry, however, into the essence of
spirit is forbidden by the Law. In the Qur’an it is written: “They will question thee concerning the spirit. Say: ‘The Spirit comes by the command of my Lord’.”
Thus much is known of it that it is an indivisible essence belonging to
the world of decrees, and that it is not from everlasting, but created.
An exact philosophical knowledge of the spirit is not a necessary
preliminary to walking in the path of religion, but comes rather as the
result of self-discipline and perseverance in that path, as it is said
in the Qur’an: “Those who strive in Our way, verily We will guide them to the right paths.”
For the carrying on of this spiritual warfare by which the knowledge of
oneself and of God is to be obtained, the body may be figured as a
kingdom, the soul as its king, and the different senses and faculties as
constituting an army.
Reason may be called the vizier, or prime minister, passion the
revenue-collector, and anger the police-officer. Under the guise of
collecting revenue, passion is continually prone to plunder on its own
account, while resentment is always inclined to harshness and extreme
severity. Both of these the revenue-collector and the police-officer,
have to be kept in due subordination to the king, but not killed or
excelled, as they have their own proper functions to fulfil. But if
passion and resentment master reason, the ruin of the soul infallibly
ensues.
A soul which allows its lower faculties to dominate the higher is as
one who should hand over an angel to the power of a dog or a believer to
the tyranny of an unbeliever. The cultivation of demonic, animal or
angelic qualities results in the production of corresponding characters,
which in the Day of Judgment will be manifested in visible shapes, the
sensual appearing as swine, the ferocious as dogs and wolves, and the
pure as angels.
The aim of moral discipline is to purify the heart from the rust of
passion and resentment, till, like a clear mirror, it reflects the light
of God. Someone may here object, “But if man has been created with
animal and demonic qualities as well as angelic, how are we to know that
the latter constitute his real essence, while the former are merely
accidental and transitory?” To this I answer that the essence of each
creature is to be sought in that which is highest in it and peculiar to
it. Thus the horse and the ass (donkey) are both burden-bearing animals,
but the superiority of the horse to the ass consists in its being
adapted for use in battle. If it fails in this, it becomes degraded to
the rank of burden-bearing animals.
Similarly with man: the highest faculty in him is reason, which fits
him for the contemplation of God. If this predominates in him, when he
dies, he leaves behind him all tendencies to passion and resentment, and
becomes capable of association with angels. As regards his mere animal
qualities, man is inferior to many animals, but reason makes him
superior to them, as it is written in the Qur’an: “To man We have subjected all things in the earth.”
But if his lower tendencies have triumphed, after death he will ever be
looking towards the earth and longing for earthly delights.
Now the rational soul in man abounds in marvels, both of knowledge
and power. By means of it he masters arts and sciences, can pass in a
flash from earth to heaven and back again, can map out the skies and
measure the distances between the stars. By it also he can draw the fish
from the sea and the birds from the air, and can subdue to his service
animals like the elephant, the camel, and the horse. His five senses are
like five doors opening on the external world; but, more wonderful than
this, his heart has a window which opens on the unseen world of
spirits.
In the state of sleep, when the avenues of the senses are closed,
this window is opened and man receives impressions from the unseen world
and sometimes fore-shadowings of the future. His heart is then like a
mirror which reflects what is pictured in the Tablet of Fate (Al Lawh Al Mahfuz).
But, even in sleep, thoughts of worldly things dull this mirror, so
that the impression it receives are not clear. After death, however,
such thoughts vanish and things are seen in their naked reality, and the
saying in the Qur’an is fulfilled: “We have stripped the veil from off thee and thy sight today is keen.”
This opening of a window in the heart towards the unseen also takes
place in conditions approaching those of prophetic inspiration, when
intuitions spring up in the mind unconveyed through any sense-channel.
The more a man purifies himself from fleshly lusts and concentrates his
mind on God, the more conscious will he be of such intuitions. Those who
are not conscious of them have no right to deny their reality. Nor are
such intuitions confined only to those of prophetic rank. Just as iron,
by sufficient polishing can be made into a mirror, so any mind by due
discipline can be rendered receptive of such impressions.
It was at this truth the Prophet hinted when he said, “Every child is
born with a natural predisposition towards Islam; then his parents make
a Jew, or a Christian, or a Zoroastrian of him.” Every human being has
in the depths of his consciousness heard the question “Am I not your Lord?” and answered “Yes”
to it. But some hearts are like mirrors so befouled with rust and dirt
that they give no clear reflections, while those of the prophets and
saints, though they are men “of like passions with us” are extremely
sensitive to all Divine impressions.
Nor is it only by reason of knowledge acquired and intuitive that the
soul of man holds the first rank among created things, but also by
reason of power. Just as angels preside over the elements, so does the
soul rule the members of the body. Those souls which attain a special
degree of power not only rule their own body but those of others also.
If they wish a sick man to recover he recovers, or a person in health to
fall ill he becomes ill, or if they desire the presence of a person he
comes to them (by Allah’s Will). According as the effects produced by
these powerful souls are good or bad they are termed miracles or
sorceries.
These souls differ from common folk in three ways:
(1) What others only see in dreams they see in their waking moments.
(2) While others’ wills only affect their own bodies, these, by will-power, can move bodies extraneous to themselves.
(3) The knowledge which others acquire by laborious learning comes to them by intuition.
These three, of course, are not the only marks which differentiate
them from common people, but the only ones that come within our
cognisance. Just as no one knows the real nature of God but God Himself,
so no one knows the real nature of a prophet but a prophet. Nor is this
to be wondered at, as in everyday matters we see that it is impossible
to explain the charm of poetry to one whose ear is insusceptible of
cadence and rhythm, or the glories of colour to one who is stone-blind.
Besides mere incapacity, there are other hindrances to the attainment
of spiritual truth. One of these is externally acquired knowledge. To
use a figure, the heart may be represented as a well, and the five
senses as five streams which are continually conveying water to it. In
order to find out the real contents of the heart these streams must be
stopped for a time, at any rate, and the refuse they have brought with
them must be cleared out of the well. In other words, if we are to
arrive at pure spiritual truth, we must put away, for the time knowledge
which has been acquired by external processes and which too often
hardens into dogmatic prejudice.
A mistake of an opposite kind is made by shallow people who, echoing some phrases which they have caught from teachers of tasawwuf,
go about decrying all knowledge. This is as if a person who was not an
adept in alchemy were to go about saying, “Alchemy is better than gold,”
and were to refuse gold when it was offered to him. Alchemy is better
than gold, but real alchemists are very rare, and so are real Sufis. He
who has a mere smattering of Tasawwuf is not superior to a
learned man, any more than he who has tried a few experiments in alchemy
has ground for despising a rich man.
Anyone who will look into the matter will see that happiness is
necessarily linked with the knowledge of God. Each faculty of ours
delights in that for which it was created: lust delights in
accomplishing desire, anger in taking vengeance, the eye in seeing
beautiful objects, and the ear in hearing harmonious sounds. The highest
function of the soul of man is the perception of truth; in this
accordingly it finds its special delight. Even in trifling matters, such
as learning chess, this holds good, and the higher the subject matter
of the knowledge obtained the greater the delight. A man would be
pleased at being admitted into the confidence of a prime minister, but
how much more if the king makes an intimate of him and discloses state
secrets to him!
An astronomer who, by his knowledge, can map the stars and describe
their courses, derives more pleasure from his knowledge than the chess
player from his. Seeing, then, that nothing is higher than God, how
great must be the delight which springs from the true knowledge of Him!
A person in whom the desire for this knowledge has disappeared is
like one who has lost his appetite for healthy food, or who prefers
feeding on clay to eating bread. All bodily appetites perish at death
with the organs they use, but the soul dies not, and retains whatever
knowledge of God it possesses; nay increases it. An important part of
our knowledge of God arises from the study and contemplation of our own
bodies, which reveal to us the power, wisdom, and love of the Creator.
His power, in that from a mere drop He has built up the wonderful frame
of man; His wisdom is revealed in its intricacies and the mutual
adaptability of its parts; and His love is shown by His not only
supplying such organs as are absolutely necessary for existence, as the
liver, the heart, and the brain, but those which are not absolutely
necessary, as the hand, the foot, the tongue, and the eye. To these He
has added, as ornaments, the blackness of the hair, the redness of lips,
and the curve of the eyebrows.
Man has been truly termed a “microcosm,” or little world in himself
and the structure of his body should be studied not only by those who
wish to become doctors, but by those who wish to attain to a more
intimate knowledge of God, just as close study of the niceties and
shades of language in a great poem reveals to us more and more of the
genius of its author.
But, when all is said, the knowledge of the soul plays a more
important part in leading to the knowledge of God than the knowledge of
our body and the functions. The body may be compared to a steed and the
soul to its rider; the body was created for the soul, the soul for the
body. If a man knows not his own soul, which is the nearest thing to
him, what is the use of his claiming to know others? It is as if a
beggar who has not the wherewithal for a meal should claim to be able to
feed a town.
In this chapter we have attempted, in some degree, to expound the
greatness of man’s soul. He who neglects it and suffers its capacities
to rust or to degenerate must necessarily be the loser in this world and
the next. The true greatness of man lies in his capacity for eternal
progress, otherwise in this temporal sphere he is the weakest of all
things, being subject to hunger, thirst, heat, cold, and sorrow. Those
things he takes most delight in are often the most injurious to him, and
those things which benefit him are not to be obtained without toil and
trouble.
As to his intellect, a slight disarrangement of matter in his brain
is sufficient to destroy or madden him; as to his power, the sting of a
wasp is sufficient to rob him of ease and sleep; as to his temper, he is
upset by the loss of a sixpence; as to his beauty, he is little more
than nauseous matter covered with a fair skin. Without frequent washing
he becomes utterly repulsive and disgraceful.
In truth, man in this world is extremely weak and contemptible; it is
only in the next that he will be of value, if by means of the “alchemy
of happiness” he rises from the rank of beasts to that of angels.
Otherwise his condition will be worse than the brutes, which perish and
turn to dust. It is necessary for him, at the same time that he is
conscious of his superiority as the climax of created things, to learn
to know also his helplessness, as that too is one of the keys to the
knowledge of God.
