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The peculiar cast of his mind explains his
isolation to which I have referred. Take his own
words : " The real work of the soul in this life is
to cut itself oif from false appearances so that it
may realise its existence in the eternal. The
effort to achieve this is usually accompanied by
gradually increasing asceticism, which may carry
renunciation to the length of abandonment of the
world; but this is an extreme to be avoided by a
Muslim. Some religions favour it, but Islam
forbids it."
In justification of his attitude of aloofness a
plea may also be advanced in the words of Rudolf
Eucken's Philosophy of Life (translated by W. R.
Boyce Gibson, pp. 18, 108 and 109) :
" The negative movement, as Eucken under-
stands it, implies no distrust of the good that is
in the world, no ascetic aloofness from the world's
progress. It implies rather a renunciation of
any and every mode of social and personal life
that hinders us from assisting in the betterment
of what is spiritually genuine in the construction
of society. It implies that we have given up the
idea of abetting, by our passive acquiescence,
a form of life which we inwardly feel to be vain
and hollow. It implies the simple truth that
if we wish to regenerate the world and the flesh,
we must first renounce the devil." And Eucken
adds, "And what is needed above all is a cour-
ageous spiritual fellowship in the great task of
shaping a true social culture, of creating a realm
in which spiritual ideals are powers that