Common Ground - Islam and Buddhism

c o m m o n g r o u n d between i s l a m a n d b u d d h i s m
(‘The Deliverer From Error’), he is even more explicit about the fact
that the surest path to the Truth is the mystical one:
I learnt with certainty that it is above all the mystics who
walk on the road of God; their life is the best life, their method,
the soundest method, their character the purest character;
indeed, were the intellect of the intellectuals and the
learning of the learned and the scholarship of the scholars,
who are versed in the profundities of revealed truth, brought
together in the attempt to improve the life and character of
the mystics, they would find no way of doing so; for to the
mystics, all movement and rest, whether external and internal,
brings illumination derived from the light of the lamp
of prophetic revelation. 2
The mystical or spiritual discipline of ma‘rifa, pertains to the domain
of ultimate principles, a domain which goes beyond the level
of dogmatic theology. It does not contradict the formal dogmas of
Islam, but rather constitutes their dimension of inner mystical depth
and transformative spiritual power, bringing ‘illumination from the
light of prophetic revelation’. As was stated above, Islamic spirituality
does nothing but bring to light the essential nature and deepest
meaning of the Islamic revelation. It does so not by contradicting
formal theological dogmas, and the faculty of reason proportioned
to them, but by plumbing the hidden depths of those dogmas, by
means of the spiritual faculty of the heart. As such, ma‘rifa calls out
for spiritual intuition and not simply rational cognition, whence the
stress by al-Ghazālī on ‘inner effort’. Such effort implies a range of
spiritual disciplines, centering on prayer, fasting and purification of
the heart and soul from all vices. From the perspectives opened up
by these disciplines, the crucial relationship between metaphysics
and ethics will be observed; and a perception of this inner nexus
between spirituality and morality in Islam can help us to perceive
commonalities and affinities with the Buddhist spiritual and ethical
tradition.
The aim here, then, is to engage in a dialogue which is focused
on spiritual affinities, while remaining keenly aware of fundamental
it demolishes but it does not build.’ Eric Ormsby, Ghazali—The Revival of Islam
(Oxford: Oneworld, 2008), p. 64.
2. Translated by W. Montgomery Watt, The Faith and Practice of Al-Ghazali
(London: George Allen & Unwin, 1953), p. 60. Translation modified.
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