Just buy the book....

Salaams all,

I could create page after page of quotes from Ghazali's book, but instead I will leave you with one last excerpt, and recommend that you buy this book (if you do not already own it) and read it promptly.

Munira

"What, then, shall be the lot of he who rejoiced in the world and nothing else when it comes to be taken from him and is delivered up to his enemies? And when to this torment is added his lamentation over the bliss of the Afterlife which has passed him by, and over the barrier which has come between him and God (Great and Glorious is He!)? For in truth, the love of anything other than God shall bar one from the meeting with Him and the joy which therein consists. [Such a man] is overwhelmed by the pain of losing all that he loved, and by his grief over the bliss of the Afterlife which has forever and eternally passed him by, as well as by the disgrace of rejection and of being veiled from God (Exalted is He!). It is this which constitutes the torment with which he is punished, for the fire of separation can only be followed by the fire of the Inferno, as God (Exalted is He!) has said, Nay, they are that day veiled from their Lord; then shall they be cast into the Blaze. (Q. LXXXIII:15-16)

But as for the man who did not find his consolation in this world, and who loved none save God, and yearned for the meeting with Him: he has escaped from the prison of this world and the vicissitudes of the desires which lie therein. He has come to his Beloved, as all barriers and distractions are cut away; bliss is his abundantly, never to pass away in all eternity. For the likes of this, then, let those who would work, work! (Q. XXXVII:61)

Our purpose is that a man may love a horse of his so dearly that were he to be offered the choice between losing it and being stung by a scorpion he would prefer to endure the latter, because the pain of losing the horse would be, for him, more dire than a scorpion sting. The very love of the horse would sting him were it to be taken away. He should, therefore, ready himself to be stung, for death shall take his horse from him, together with its saddle, his house, his land, his family, his loved ones and his friends, and shall confiscate his power and his influence; indeed it shall deprive him even of his hearing, sight and limbs, so that he shall despair of their ever returning to him. Now if he had loved nothing more than these things, then when they are taken from him he shall suffer a torment greater than that inflicted by scorpions and snakes. Just as his suffering would be grievous if they were to be confiscated from him while he lived, so shall it be upon his demise.

We have already made it clear that the essence which perceives pain and pleasure is immortal, and that the suffering it endures may be greater after the advent of death, for although in life one may amuse oneself with things which busy the senses, such as sitting with other people and making conversation, together with the anticipation of returning to such things or their like, there is no amusement after death; for every means by which one might find it stands blocked, and despair prevails."

Al-Ghazali, The Remembrance of Death and the Afterlife, Trans. T.J. Winter, pgs. 141-142.