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Mishkât Al-Anwar ("The Niche For Lights")

al-Ghazzali

9781465576545
97 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
I AM so conscious that my general equipment was insufficient to warrant my having undertaken an introduction to this treatise (in addition to the translation), that my utmost hope is this,—that what I have written may be regarded by lenient Orientalists as something to elicit—provoke, if you will—the necessary supplementing and formative criticism; or as useful materials to be built into some more authoritative and better informed work: and that they may from this point of view be inclined to pardon what otherwise might seem an unwarrantable piece of rashness and indiscretion. A still greater presumption remains to be forgiven, but this time on the ground of the great human simplicities, when I venture to inscribe this work, in spite of everything, to the beloved memory of IGNAZ GOWZIHER—that golden-hearted man—who in 1911 introduced me to the Mishkât; and to join with his name that of DUNCAN BLACK MACDONALD who first introduced me to the Mishkât's author. Of these twain, the latter may perhaps forgive the lapses of a pupil because of the filial joy with which, I know well, he will see the two names joined together, howsoever or by whomsoever it was done. As for the former,… in Abraham's bosom all things are forgiven.