A repost from 2005
And it has been related from Abu Hasan ad Darraj that he said: "I travelled from Baghdad to Yusuf ibn al Husayn ar Razi to visit him and salute him. And when I entered (the town of) as Rayy I kept asking about him, and everyone whom I asked about him said, "What will you with that unbeliever? And they straitened my breast until I determined to depart. Then I said within myself, 'I have travelled all this road and I will not make little of seeing him.' So I did not cease asking about him until I came upon him in a mosque; he was sitting in the mihrab with a man before him, and in his hand was a copy of the Quran and he was reading. And lo, he was an old man, comely and handsome of face and beard. Then I saluted him, and he turned to me and said, 'Whence have you come?' And I said, 'From Baghdad.' Then he said, 'And what brought you?' And I said, 'I have travelled to you to salute you.' And he said, 'If in one of those countries a man had said to you, "Abide with us until we but you a house or a slave girl," would that have withheld you from coming?' Then I said, 'Allah did not try me with anything of that kind, and if He had tried me I do not know how it would have been.' Thereupon he said to me, 'Are you able to repeat (recite) anything?', I said 'Yes,' and he said, 'Lets have it, then.' Then I began to recite:
I saw you acting constantly in opposition to me, and
were you prudent, you would have destroyed
what you were doing.
It is as though I perceived you, with "would that" as
your most excellent saying; you were saying,
"Oh, would that we were!" when "would that" does not avail.
Then Yusuf closed the copy of the Quran and ceased not weeping until his beard and clothes were wet, and I had compassion on him for his much weeping. thereupon he said, 'O my little son, do you blame the people of ar Rayy saying, "Yusuf is an unbeliever"? That I am. From the prayers of early dawn I have been reading in the Quran and there is not fallen from my eyes a drop, but the resurrection has come to me at these two lines.'
So then, although the hearts of men are inflamed with the love of God Most High, yet a new verse will rouse from them what the recital of the Quran does not rouse. That is because of the measure of the poetry and its being in accord with natural qualities; and it is because of its being in accord with natural qualities that human beings have the power of composing poetry. But the composing of the Quran lies outside of the paths and the track of speech, and, on account of that, it is a miracle which does not enter into the power of human beings because of its not being in accord with their nature. (Here the translator notes: A remarkable proof that a Sacred Book requires a human side to exercise its full influence.)
from Al Ghazali, On Music & Ecstasy. Pg 746-747.
And it has been related from Abu Hasan ad Darraj that he said: "I travelled from Baghdad to Yusuf ibn al Husayn ar Razi to visit him and salute him. And when I entered (the town of) as Rayy I kept asking about him, and everyone whom I asked about him said, "What will you with that unbeliever? And they straitened my breast until I determined to depart. Then I said within myself, 'I have travelled all this road and I will not make little of seeing him.' So I did not cease asking about him until I came upon him in a mosque; he was sitting in the mihrab with a man before him, and in his hand was a copy of the Quran and he was reading. And lo, he was an old man, comely and handsome of face and beard. Then I saluted him, and he turned to me and said, 'Whence have you come?' And I said, 'From Baghdad.' Then he said, 'And what brought you?' And I said, 'I have travelled to you to salute you.' And he said, 'If in one of those countries a man had said to you, "Abide with us until we but you a house or a slave girl," would that have withheld you from coming?' Then I said, 'Allah did not try me with anything of that kind, and if He had tried me I do not know how it would have been.' Thereupon he said to me, 'Are you able to repeat (recite) anything?', I said 'Yes,' and he said, 'Lets have it, then.' Then I began to recite:
I saw you acting constantly in opposition to me, and
were you prudent, you would have destroyed
what you were doing.
It is as though I perceived you, with "would that" as
your most excellent saying; you were saying,
"Oh, would that we were!" when "would that" does not avail.
Then Yusuf closed the copy of the Quran and ceased not weeping until his beard and clothes were wet, and I had compassion on him for his much weeping. thereupon he said, 'O my little son, do you blame the people of ar Rayy saying, "Yusuf is an unbeliever"? That I am. From the prayers of early dawn I have been reading in the Quran and there is not fallen from my eyes a drop, but the resurrection has come to me at these two lines.'
So then, although the hearts of men are inflamed with the love of God Most High, yet a new verse will rouse from them what the recital of the Quran does not rouse. That is because of the measure of the poetry and its being in accord with natural qualities; and it is because of its being in accord with natural qualities that human beings have the power of composing poetry. But the composing of the Quran lies outside of the paths and the track of speech, and, on account of that, it is a miracle which does not enter into the power of human beings because of its not being in accord with their nature. (Here the translator notes: A remarkable proof that a Sacred Book requires a human side to exercise its full influence.)
from Al Ghazali, On Music & Ecstasy. Pg 746-747.