Imām al-Ghazzālī ق and the Good Pleasure of Allah ﷻ

Mawlana Sultan al-Awliya Shaykh ‘Abd Allah Fa’iz al-Daghistani ق said of this matter that when the Proof of Islam Imām al-Ghazzālī died, the awliyā were looking at his spiritual presence as it was ascending in the sky from the same station the Messenger — upon him the blessings and peace of Allah— had ascended from, and they were asking themselves: “Perhaps Imam al-Ghazzālī reached this rank because of his prayer, or his night vigil prayer, or his fasting, or the books he wrote, or his spiritual directives, or his simple living,” etc. But confirmation from Allah Almighty did not come to any of them, until the Divine call came that, “My servant Imām Ghazzālī obtained this rank because of a simple, partial deed, namely that he was writing an epistle in a hurry on the night of the noble Mawlid (birth of the Prophet—upon him blessings and peace of Allah), when a fly alighted on the edge of the paper and started to drink from the ink so Imām Ghazzālī stopped writing and did not kill it or shoo it away, as a mark of respect for the Prophet — upon him the blessings and peace of Allah — and his birth, noting to himself that this fly had been created for his sake. And by reason of this simple deed I have given him this station so that he would climb up to the station of the fardāniyyīn (solitary ones).”¹

Translated from the Arabic by Shaykh Gibril Fouad Haddad ﵀