66o ISLAMIC MYSTICAL LITERATURE
Jesus in Christian traditions, particularly in the wisdom traditions and wis-
dom gospels discussed above, and so bear brief examination here.
Of particular interest are the sayings of Jesus found in Islamic literature.
The sayings of Jesus in the Qur'an, through relatively few in number, are read-
ily available in editions and translations of the Qur'an. Many more sayings of
Jesus are collected in other Islamic sources, and they merit close examination.^5
Many are wisdom sayings. Taken together, these Islamic sayings of Jesus pres-
ent a picture of Jesus that may be compared to that of Q and the Gospel of
Thomas, discussed at the beginning of this volume.
The Muslim who collected and edited many of these sayings of Jesus is Abu
Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali. Al-Ghazali was an eleventh- to twelfth-cen-
tury Muslim scholar, theologian, and mystic who wrote numerous books, the
greatest of which is Ihya 'ulum al-din (The revival of the religious sciences).^6
He composed this book following a period of turbulence in his life, when he
had retired from his professorial position in Baghdad and had begun a life of
meditation as a Sufi. This magnificent work, four volumes in length, is divided
into four major "quarters," which deal with issues of religious practice, social
customs, vices, and virtues, and contain ten books each, for a total of forty
books. In this massive work al-Ghazali discusses the provisions of the Shari'a
(Islamic law), and he addresses the reader on the devout life of a Muslim, in-
cluding the mystical life. Within the work al-Ghazali cites sayings of Jesus.
The following are a few of the sayings of Jesus quoted in al-Ghazali's Re-
vival of the Religious Sciences:
Jesus said, "Whoever knows and does and teaches will be called
great in the kingdom of heaven." (1.8)
Jesus said, "Do not offer wisdom to those who are not worthy of
it, or you might harm it, and do not withhold it from those who
are worthy of it, or you might harm them. Be like a gentle doctor
who puts the medicine in the diseased spot. Whoever offers wis-
dom to those who are not worthy of it is a fool, and whoever with-
holds it from those who are worthy of it is an evildoer. Wisdom- Collections of these sayings of Jesus have been published by Asin y Palacios, Logia etAgrapha
Domini Jesu; Dunkerley, Beyond the Gospels; Jeremias, Unknown Sayings of Jesus; Margoliouth,
"Christ in Islam"; Khalidi, The Muslim Jesus; Meyer, The Unknown Sayings of Jesus; Morrice,
Hidden Sayings of Jesus; Robson, Christ in Islam; and Ropes, "Agrapha." - On al-Ghazali see Meyer, "Did Jesus Drink from a Cup?" in Asgeirsson, De Troyer, and
Meyer, ed., From Quest to Q.