Two manuscript pages of al-Ghazali\u2019s relatively short essay \u201cAyyuha al-Walad,\u201d which, I\u2019m happy to say, was one of SEVERAL of his works that were published in dual-language editions by Brigham Young University\u2019s former Islamic Translation Series.
(Wikimedia Commons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I conceived, founded, and, until 2012 or 2013 (depending upon how you read the history), served as editor-in-chief of Brigham Young University\u2019s Middle Eastern Texts Initiative, which \u2014 until it was very recently handed over to Brill Publishing in the Netherlands \u2014 produced bilingual editions of books (mostly Islamic, but also sometimes Eastern Christian and Jewish) from the classical Islamic world. \u00a0The books were printed at Brigham Young University Press and distributed by the University of Chicago Press.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Anyway, one of the volumes features the best line that the project ever published.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Al-Ghaz\u0101l\u012b (d. AD 1111), who was one of the most significant figures in the history of Islamic thought, a legendarily brilliant philosophical theologian and legal thinker who spent most of his life in Iran and Iraq but also sojourned for a significant period in Jerusalem, was talking about extremely poor students, and, in that context, attributed the following remark to Jesus:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though I managed to raise the dead, I have never been able to cure an idiot!\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
(See al-Ghaz\u0101l\u012b, \u201cO Son!,\u201d trans. David C. Reisman, in Classical Foundations of Islamic Educational Thought<\/em>, ed. Bradley J. Cook [Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2010], 103.)<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now, I\u2019ll admit that my initial inclination, when I first saw it, was to say that this alleged statement couldn\u2019t possibly be authentic.\u00a0 And that\u2019s still probably correct.\u00a0 But al-Ghaz\u0101l\u012b was entirely serious, and he plainly regarded the statement as genuine.\u00a0 Furthermore, his citation of it takes us back fully a thousand years or more, halfway to the time of Jesus.\u00a0 So . . .<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I have to confess that I rather like the idea that the Savior might have said such a thing.\u00a0 It humanizes him a bit.\u00a0 Surely, with all those long walks from Nazareth to Capernaum, and from Capernaum to Jericho, and from Jericho to Jerusalem, and from Jerusalem back up to Capernaum or Nazareth, it can\u2019t all have been immortal sermons and solemn earnestness.\u00a0 (Can it?\u00a0 Maybe I\u2019m just not fit for heaven.)\u00a0 There must have been some small talk.\u00a0 And the image of Jesus, trudging along with the disciples down those dusty paths and confiding at the end of a tough day, \u201cYou know, Peter?\u00a0 I can raise the dead, but I just can\u2019t cure idiots\u201d is oddly appealing to me.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Still, alas, it\u2019s probably bogus.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Posted from St. George, Utah<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 I conceived, founded, and, until 2012 or 2013 (depending upon how you read the history), served as editor-in-chief of Brigham Young University\u2019s Middle Eastern Texts Initiative, which \u2014 until it was very recently handed over to Brill Publishing in the Netherlands \u2014 produced bilingual editions of books (mostly Islamic, but also sometimes Eastern […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>