temporary sect of the Ishmaelites founded by Has
san Ibn as Sabbah. Theirs was the doctrine of
an Imam or infallible spiritual guide and the sect
found large following. But Al-Ghazali, so far
from being attracted by them, wrote several books
against them." No other path remained open for
the perplexed and sceptical seeker after God than
the way of the mystics. It was a return to the
early teaching he received at Tus and Nishapur and
to the atmosphere of his native land which was for
centuries steeped in mysticism. Of this period of
his life he was wont to say:
" When I wished to plunge into following the people and to drink of their drink, I looked at my soul and I saw how much it was curtained in, so I retired into solitude and busied myself with re ligious exercises for forty days, and there was doled to me of knowledge I had not had purer and finer than what I had known. Then I looked upon it, and lo, in it was a legal element. So I returned to solitude and busied myself with religious exer cises for forty days, and there was doled to me other knowledge, purer and finer than what had befallen me at first, and I rejoiced in it. Then I looked upon it, and lo, in it was a speculative ele ment. So I returned to solitude a third time for forty days, and there was doled to me other knowl edge that is known (i. e., not simply perceived, felt), and I did not attain to the people of the in 1 Macdonald, p. 90, and see Bibliography.
