{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_24314/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_24314","id":"gutenberg_24314","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24314","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Biographies","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Muslim saints","Mysticism -- Islam","Sufism"],"text":"Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Turgut Dincer and\nthe Online Distributed Proofreading Team at\nhttp://www.pgdp.net (This file was made using scans of\npublic domain works from the University of Michigan Digital\nLibraries.)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n                MYSTICS AND SAINTS\n                    OF ISLAM\n\n                       BY\n\n                   CLAUD FIELD\n\n\n\n                     LONDON:\n               FRANCIS GRIFFITHS,\n           34 MAIDEN LANE, STRAND, W.C.\n                      1910.\n\n\n\n                    CONTENTS.\n\n\n\nCHAP.                                         PAGE\n\n   I. PANTHEISTIC SUFISM                         1\n\n  II. HASAN BASRI                               18\n\n III. RABIA, THE WOMAN SUFI                     28\n\n  IV. IBRAHIM BEN ADHAM                         36\n\n   V. FUDHAYL BEN AYAZ                          46\n\n  VI. BAYAZID BASTAMI                           52\n\n VII. ZU'N NUN OF EGYPT                         60\n\nVIII. MANSUR HALLAJ                             68\n\n  IX. HABIB AJAMI                               79\n\n   X. AVICENNA (IBN SINA)                       86\n\n  XI. AL GHAZZALI                              106\n\n XII. FARIDUDDIN ATTAR                         123\n\nXIII. SUHRAWARDY                               141\n\n XIV. JALALUDDIN RUMI                          148\n\n  XV. SHARANI, THE EGYPTIAN                    164\n\n XVI. MULLAH SHAH                              174\n\nAPPENDIX  I. MOHAMMEDAN CONVERSIONS            192\n\n    \"    II. EXPOSITION OF SUFISM              196\n\n    \"   III. CHRISTIAN ELEMENTS IN\n                MOHAMMEDAN LITERATURE          202\n\n    \"    IV. CHRIST IN MOHAMMEDAN TRADITION    208\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\n\nIt is a custom in some quarters to represent Mohammadan mysticism as\nmerely a late importation into Islam, and an altogether alien element in\nit. But however much later Islamic mysticism may have derived from\nChristian, Neo-platonic, and Buddhist sources, there is little doubt\nthat the roots of mysticism are to be found in the Koran itself. The\nfollowing verse is an instance: \"God is the Light of the heavens and the\nearth. His light is like a niche in which is a lamp, the lamp encased in\nglass--the glass as it were a glistening star. From a blessed tree is it\nlighted, the olive neither of the East nor of the West, whose oil would\nwell nigh shine out even though fire touched it not! It is light upon\nlight!\" (_Koran Sura_ 24).\n\nIndeed it seems strange to accord the title of \"a practical mystic\" to\nCromwell and to deny it to Mohammad, whose proclivity for religious\nmeditation was so strong that the Arabs used to say \"Muhammad is in love\nwith his Maker,\"[1] and whose sense of the \"terror of the Lord\" was so\nintense that it turned his hair prematurely white. Many of the reported\nsayings of the Early Companions of Muhammad show that they shared this\nterror. \"Verily, you shall see hell, you shall see it with the eye of\ncertainty\" says the Koran, and they thought it very probable. Thus Ali\nexclaimed \"Alas for the shortness of the provision and the terrors of\nthe way!\" Abu'l Darda said \"If ye knew what ye shall see after death, ye\nwould not eat nor drink, and I wish that I were a tree that is lopped\nand then devoured.\"[2]\n\nThis \"fear of the Lord\" led naturally to an almost fierce asceticism.\nAbu Bekr and Ali both founded communities of ascetics,[3] and during the\nfirst and second centuries of Islam there were many orthodox mystics.\nProfessor Nicholson in the work just quoted, rightly says \"I do not\nthink that we need look beyond Islam for the origin of the Sufi\ndoctrines.... The early Sufis are still on orthodox ground, their\nrelation to Islam is not unlike that of the mediaeval Spanish mystics to\nthe Roman Catholic Church.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe following sketches are for the most part translations of papers by\ncontinental scholars such as Alfred Von Kremer, Pavet de Courteille, and\nA.F. Mehren. The essays on Ghazzali and Jalaluddin Rumi are, however,\nfounded on original study of those writers. The translator hopes a\nwholesome tonic may be found in some of these Moslem mystics at a time\nwhen many \"Christian\" pulpits and presses seem anxious to dilute\nChristianity \"into a presumptuous and effeminate love which never knew\nfear.\"[4]\n\nHe desires to thank the Editors of the _Expository Times_, _Church\nMissionary Review_, _Irish Church Quarterly_, and _London Quarterly\nReview_ for permission to include papers which have appeared in those\njournals.\n\n  C.F.\n\n\n   [1] Ghazzali, Munqidh.\n\n   [2] Nicholson. Literary History of the Arabs (p. 225).\n\n   [3] Tholuck. Sufismus.\n\n   [4] Sir John Seeley.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nPANTHEISTIC SUFISM[5]\n\nI.--THE IMPORT OF ISLAMIC MYSTICISM\n\n\nThe moral law proclaimed by Moses three thousand years ago agrees with\nthat which governs men to-day, irrespective of their various stages of\nculture; the moral precepts of a Buddha and Confucius agree with those\nof the Gospel, and the sins for which, according to the Book of the Dead\nof the ancient Egyptians, men will answer to the judges of the other\nworld are sins still after four thousand years. If the nature of the\nunknown First Cause is ever to be grasped at all, it can only be in the\nlight of those unchanging moral principles which every man carries in\nhis own breast. The idea of God is therefore not an affair of the\nunderstanding, but of the feeling and conscience. Mysticism has always\nso taken it, and has therefore always had a strong attraction for the\nexcitable and emotional portion of mankind whom it has comforted in\ntrial and affliction. Every religion is accordingly rather intended for\nthe emotions than for the understanding, and therefore they all contain\nmystical tendencies. The mysticism of Islam and Christendom have many\npoints of contact, and by mysticism perhaps will be first bridged the\nwide gulf which separates Islam from Christendom, and thereby from\nmodern civilisation. Just in proportion as the various religions express\nthe ideals of goodness and truth they approximate to one another as\nmanifestations of the unchanging moral principle. Inasmuch as they\nsurmised this, the Motazilites (or free-thinkers in Islam), at a time\nwhen Europe lay in the profoundest intellectual and moral bewilderment,\nfought for one of those ideas which, although they are quickly submerged\nagain in the stormy current of the times, continue to work in silence\nand finally emerge victorious. On that day when the Moslem no longer\nbeholds in God simply omnipotence, but also righteousness, he will\nsimultaneously re-enter the circle of the great civilised nations among\nwhom he once before, though only for a short time, had won the first\nplace.\n\nIt is not perhaps too fanciful to hail, as an omen of the triumph of\nmoral mysticism over the dogmatic rigidity of Islam, the fact that the\npresent Sultan Muhammad V. was girded with the sword of Osman by the\nhead of the Mevlevi dervishes, a sect founded by the great mystic\nteacher Jalaluddin Rumi of Iconium. Forty-three years ago a Persian\nOrientalist Mirza Kasim Beg wrote in the _Journal Asiatique_:--\n\n  \"_L'unique voie qui dans l'Islam puisse conduire a la reforme\n    c'est la doctrine du mysticisme._\"\n\n\nII.--EARLIER PHASES\n\nThe period during which the asceticism practised by the earlier Sufis\npassed into the dreamy pantheism which characterises the later Sufism\nis the end of the third century after Muhammad. This introduced a new\nelement into Islam which for centuries exercised a powerful influence on\nnational culture, and is still partially operative at present. The\nconception of God and of the relation of the finite and human with the\ninfinite and divine from this time onward formed the chief subject of\ninquiry and meditation.\n\nThe man who was destined to be the first to give those ideas, which had\nhitherto been foreign to Arabian Sufism, definite expression was a poor\nworkman, a cotton-carder, bearing the name of Hellaj. He was an Arabised\nPersian, born in Persia, but educated in Irak, where he enjoyed the\nprivilege of being instructed by Junaid. The story of his life as handed\ndown by Shiah or Sunni writers has been much exaggerated. It is clear,\nhowever, that he had a great number of disciples who revered him as\ntheir spiritual guide and ascribed to him almost supernatural powers.\nHis ever-growing popularity much scandalised the orthodox mullahs, who\nmoved the authorities to proceed against him, and were successful in\nprocuring his execution 922 A.D. Before his death he was subjected to\nterrible tortures, which he bore with wonderful composure.\n\nThe reason of his condemnation was declared to be that he regarded\nhimself as an incarnation of the Godhead. His disciples honoured him as\na saint after his death. They ascribed to him the famous saying, \"I am\nthe Truth\" (_i.e._ God), which they took in a pantheistic sense. He is\nsaid to have taught the doctrine of the incarnation of the Godhead in a\nman and to have uttered the exclamation:\n\n   Praise to the Most High Who has revealed His humanity and\n   concealed the overpowering splendour of His Deity. Whoso purifies\n   himself by abstinence and purges himself from every trace of\n   fleshiness, unto him the Spirit of God enters, as it entered into\n   Jesus. When he has attained to this degree of perfection,\n   whatever he wills, happens, and whatever he does is done by God.\n\nHis letters to his disciples are said to have commenced with the\nformula, \"From the Lord of Lords to His slaves.\" His disciples wrote to\nhim:\n\n   O Spirit of the Spirit! O highest Aim of the holy: We bear\n   witness that Thou hast incarnated Thyself in the form of Hosain\n   the cotton-carder (Hellaj). We flee for protection to Thee and\n   hope in Thy mercy, O Knower of secrets.\n\nThe genuineness of these fragments has much to support it, but is not\nentirely beyond doubt. This much, however, is clear, that the disciples\nof Hellaj after his death regarded him as a divine being. Ibn Hazm, a\ntrustworthy author who wrote only 150 years after the execution of\nHellaj, says so expressly. Ghazzali, who wrote about fifty years later\nstill, does not mention this, but shelters Hellaj from the charge of\nblasphemy by construing his exclamation \"I am the Truth\" in a\npantheistic sense, and excuses it by ascribing it to an excess of love\nto God and to mystic ecstacy. In another place he says:\n\n   The first veil between God and His servant is His servant's\n   soul. But the hidden depth of the human heart is divine and\n   illuminated by light from above; for in it is mirrored the\n   eternal Truth completely, so that it encloses the universe in\n   itself. Now when a man turns his gaze on his own divinely\n   illumined heart he is dazzled by the blaze of its beauty, and the\n   expression \"I am God!\" easily escapes him. If from this stage he\n   does not advance further in knowledge, he often falls into error\n   and is ruined. It is as though he had allowed himself to be\n   misled by a little spark from the light-ocean of Godhead instead\n   of pressing forward to get more light. The ground of this\n   self-deception is that he in whom the Supernatural is mirrored\n   confuses himself with it. So the colour of a picture seen in a\n   mirror is sometimes confounded with the mirror itself.\n\nHellaj was no more than the representative of an old idea, Indian in\norigin, which he combined with Sufism, thereby giving an entirely new\ndirection to Islamic thought, which was important, as leading to an\nentirely new development of the conception of God. Even previous to\nHellaj, the doctrine of incarnation had emerged in Islam. The Caliph Ali\nwas reported to have been such, and was accordingly venerated by the\nShiahs. The sect of the Khattabiyah worshipped the Imam Jafar Sadik as\nGod. Another sect believed that the Divine Spirit had descended upon\nAbdallah Ibn Amr.\n\nIn Khorassan the opinion was widely spread that Abu Muslim, the great\ngeneral who overturned the dynasty of the Ommeyads and set up that of\nthe Abbasides, was an incarnation of the spirit of God. In the same\nprovince under Al Mansur, the second Abbaside Caliph, a religious leader\nnamed Ostasys professes to be an emanation of the Godhead. He collected\nthousands of followers, and the movement was not suppressed without much\nfighting. Under the Caliph Mahdi a self-styled Avatar named Ata arose,\nwho on account of a golden mask which he continually wore was called\n_Mokanna_, or \"the veiled prophet.\" He also had a numerous following,\nand held the Caliph's armies in check for several years, till in 779\nA.D., being closely invested in his castle, he, with his whole harem and\nservants, put an end to themselves.\n\nTowards the end of the second century after Muhammad, Babek in Persia\ntaught the transmigration of souls and communism. His followers, named\nKhoramiyyah, long successfully resisted the Caliph's troops. He claimed\nthat the soul of an ancient law-giver named \"Bod\" had passed into him,\nwhich meant perhaps that he wished to pass for a \"Buddha.\"\n\nIt is well known that Shiite teachers were especially active in Persia.\nIn the apotheosis of Ali, as well as in the cases of Abu Muslim, we find\nan assertion of the ideas peculiar to the Persians in pre-Islamic times.\nThe infusion or indwelling of the Godhead in man as with the Hindu\nAvatars was also popular, and widely spread in Persia. In Bagdad, from\nthe time of the early Abbasides, the Persians had exercised great\ninfluence. Shiahs were able to profess their views freely under the\ntolerant or rather religiously indifferent Caliph Mamoun. Bagdad early\nharboured within its walls a number of communities imbued with Shiah\ndoctrine, and the Persian conception of God silently, but widely\nprevailed.\n\nHellaj, educated in the orthodox Sunni school of Junaid, which, through\nits laying stress on the idea of love to God, possessed rather a mystic\nthan dogmatic character, allowed himself to be carried away by his\npassionate temperament into not only preaching, but practically applying\nto himself the above-mentioned doctrines, which though known to many,\nhad been discreetly veiled in reserve. When once the populace have been\nprepared for a new idea, the mere expression of it is sufficient to act\nas a spark on tinder. The fatal word was spoken by Hellaj; the\nauthorities did their duty, seized the daring innovator and put him to\ndeath in the cruel fashion of the time. But the word once spoken had\nbeen borne on the winds in all directions, and the execution of Hellaj\ngave a powerful impulse to the spread of his doctrine. There are periods\nin the lives of some nations when the longing for a martyr's crown\nbecomes epidemic. A few years after the execution of Hellaj, a man of\nthe people, Ibn Aby Azkyr, from the same village, Shalmaghan, where\nHellaj had spent his youth, gave himself out as an incarnation of the\nGodhead. He was put to death with several of his followers under the\nreign of the Caliph Radhi, 933 A.D. A century after Hellaj an Egyptian,\nIsmail Darazy, from whom the Druses derive their name, proclaimed the\nFatimite Caliph Hakim to be an incarnation.\n\nHow great was the influence exercised in general by those ideas for\nwhich Hellaj died a martyr's death we learn most clearly from the pages\nof Ghazzali, who wrote not quite two hundred years later. He says:\n\n   The speculations of the Sufis may be divided into two classes: to\n   the first category belong all the phrases about love to God and\n   union with Him, which according to them compensate for all\n   outward works. Many of them allege that they have attained to\n   complete oneness with God; that for them the veil has been\n   lifted; that they have not only seen the Most High with their\n   eyes, but have spoken with Him, and go so far as to say \"The Most\n   High spoke thus and thus.\" They wish to imitate Hellaj, who was\n   crucified for using such expressions, and justify themselves by\n   quoting his saying, \"I am the Truth.\" They also refer to Abu\n   Yazid Bistamy, who is reported to have exclaimed, \"Praise be to\n   me!,\" instead of \"Praise be to God!\" This kind of speculation is\n   extremely dangerous for the common people, and it is notorious\n   that a number of craftsmen have left their occupation to make\n   similar assertions. Such speeches are highly popular, as they\n   hold out to men the prospect of laying aside active work with the\n   idea of purging the soul through mystical ecstasies and\n   transports. The common people are not slow to claim similar\n   rights for themselves and to catch up wild and whirling\n   expressions. As regards the second class of Sufi speculation, it\n   consists in the use of unintelligible phrases which by their\n   outward apparent meaning and boldness attract attention, but\n   which on closer inspection prove to be devoid of any real sense.\n\nThese words of the greatest thinker among the Muhammadans at that time\nafford us a deep insight into the remarkable character of the period.\nFrom them we gather with certainty that the division of Sufism into two\nclasses, one orthodox and outwardly conforming to Islam, and the other\nfree-thinking and pantheistic, was already an accomplished fact before\nGhazzali's time. We recognise also that the latter kind of Sufism was\nvery popular among the lowest classes of the people and even among the\nagricultural population. The fundamental characteristic of mysticism,\nthe striving after the knowledge of God by way of ecstatic intuition,\nhad already come into open conflict with the fundamental principles of\nIslam. \"Mystical love to God\" was the catchword which brought people to\nplunge into ecstatic reverie, and by complete immersion in contemplation\nto lose their personality, and by this self-annihilation to be absorbed\nin God. The simple ascetic character of the ancient Arabian Sufism was\ncontinually counteracted by the element of passive contemplation which\nwas entirely foreign to the Arab mind. The terms \"ascetic\" and \"Sufi,\"\nwhich were formerly almost synonymous, henceforward cease to be so, and\noften conceal a fundamental variance with each other. We shall not go\nvery far wrong if we connect the crisis of this intellectual development\nwith the appearance of Hellaj, so that the close of the third and\ncommencement of the fourth century after Muhammad marks the point of\ntime when this philosophico-religious schism was completed. In Persia\nthe theosophy of Hellaj and his supporters found a receptive soil and\nflourished vigorously; on that soil were reared the finest flowers of\nPersian poetry. From the Persians this tendency passed over to the\nTurks, and the poetry of both nations contains strongly-marked\ntheosophical elements.\n\n\nIII.--THE LOVE OF GOD AND ECSTASY\n\nAlready in the second century of Islam great stress was laid upon the\ncultivation of love to God, an outstanding example of which is the\nfemale Sufi Rabia. With it was connected a gradually elaborated doctrine\nof ecstatic states and visions which were believed to lead by the way of\nintuition and divine illumination to the spiritual contemplation of God.\nWe have already endeavoured to describe the religious enthusiasm which\ntook possession of the Moslems in the first and second century after\nMuhammad and have partly traced the causes which led to this phenomenon.\n\nEcstasy is an invariable concomitant of religious enthusiasm. In the\nendeavour to break through the narrow bounds which confine the human\nspirit pious and credulous natures are only too easily led astray. The\ninstruments which man has at his command when he wishes to investigate\nthe supernatural do not suffice to procure him an even approximately\ncorrect image of the object which he would fain observe. While the\noptician with the aid of mathematics can reduce errors arising from the\nconvexity of his magnifying lens to an infinitesimally small amount, the\ntheologian has never found a device, and never will find one, to obviate\nthe errors which arise from the fact that his intellectual insight has\nto be exercised through the medium of material senses, which obscure the\nclearness of his observation. And yet it is precisely this ceaseless\nstriving, this irresistible impulse after something higher, this\nunquenchable thirst for the fountain-head of knowledge, which\nconstitutes the highest and noblest side of humanity, and is the most\nindubitable pledge of its spiritual future. The net result of these\nstrivings has been an endless series of self-delusions, and yet humanity\ntakes on a grander aspect in them than in all its other manifold efforts\nand successes. The history of this spiritual wrestling, this hopeless\nand yet never relaxed struggle against the impossible, forms the noblest\naspect of the history of mankind.\n\nThe phenomena produced by Islam in this respect do not fundamentally\ndiffer from those produced by Christianity and Buddhism. Sufism exhibits\na more remarkable development of these phenomena, simply because it grew\nup in an environment which favoured their more luxuriant growth.\n\nThe Koran, which Muhammad came, as he said to preach, was regarded as\nthe very word of God, and must therefore have produced an overpowering\nimpression on the minds of the faithful. Of this numerous instances are\nreported. Abd al Wahid ibn Zaid heard one day a Koran-reader recite the\nfollowing verse (Sura 45: 28):--\"This is Our book, which announces to\nyou the truth; for We have caused to be recorded all that ye have done.\nThose who believe and do good works shall their Lord admit to His\nfavour; verily this is the most manifest recompense.\" On hearing this\nAbd al Wahid broke into loud weeping and fainted. Miswar ibn Machramah\nwas not even able to hear any verse of the Koran read, being so\npowerfully affected thereby as to become senseless. Of Jobair ibn Motim\nit is reported that he said: \"I heard the Prophet recite the following\nverses of the Koran:--\n\n   1. I swear by Tur.\n   2. By a book which stands written on outspread parchment.\n   3. By the house to which pilgrimage is made.\n   4. By the lofty dome of heaven.\n   5. And by the swelling ocean.\n   6. That the judgment of thy Lord is at hand.\n\nThen it appeared to me,\" said Jobair, \"as if my heart would burst in\ntwain.\" The pious Cadi Ijad adduces as a special proof of the\ninspiration of the Koran the deep impression of fear and terror which\nits recital produced on the minds of the hearers.\n\nMuhammad ibn Mansur relates that once passing a house at midnight he\nheard the voice of a man praying to God loudly and fervently, lamenting\nhis sins with deep contrition. Muhammad ibn Mansur could not resist the\ntemptation; he put his mouth to the keyhole and uttered the verse which\nthreatens the unbelievers with hell-fire. He heard a heavy fall within\nthe house, and all was still. As he went down the same street the next\nmorning he saw a corpse being carried out of the same house, followed by\nan old woman. He inquired of her whose body it was, and she answered:\n\"Last night my son heard a verse of the Koran recited, and it broke his\nheart.\" We are far from believing all these stories, but they show what\na view was held in the earliest times regarding the effect produced by\nthe Koran on the minds of those who heard it.\n\nThe ecstatic bent of mind of the ascetics of Islam and the later Sufis\narose from these beginnings. Then, as now, self-originated phases of\nfeeling were attributed to outer causes; from the remotest times men\nhave sought without them the Divinity which they carried within.\n\nThe wider spread and greater permanence of ecstatic phenomena among the\nMoslems than elsewhere was due to the concurrence of various conditions,\nchief among which was the peculiar temperament of the Arab. Capable of\nthe fiercest momentary excitement, he quickly subsided into a state of\ncomplete apathy which is pain-proof. I[6] have a lively recollection of\nthe cases mentioned by my late friend Dr. Bilharz, who spoke of the\nastonishing anaesthesia which the patients in the medical school of Kasr\nal 'ain in Cairo, where he was professor, exhibited under the most\npainful operations. They uttered hardly a sound when operated upon in\nthe most sensitive nerve-centres. The negro, notoriously excitable as he\nis, and therefore still more exposed to complete prostration of the\norgans of feeling, exhibits this apathy in a yet more marked degree than\nthe Arab and Egyptian. Many examples of this are found in old Arabic\nauthors--_e.g._, in the narratives of the martyrdoms of Hatyt, of Hellaj\nand of a young Mameluke crucified in 1247 A.D. Of the last Suyuti has\npreserved a psychologically detailed description.\n\nAlthough Christian martyrology is rich in such instances of unshakable\nfortitude under the most painful tortures, yet in Islam the ecstatic\ntemper has attained a higher significance and been more constantly\nexhibited. A chief reason of this was the religious fanaticism, which\nwas incomparably stronger and more widely diffused in Islam than in\nmediaeval Christendom. The minds of the Moslems were kept in perpetual\ntension by severe religious exercises, the effect of which was\nintensified by fasts and pilgrimages. The peculiar manner of life in the\ndesert, the birthplace of Islam, also contributed to this; the scanty\ndiet, the loneliness of the desert, and in the towns the want of civic\nlife, the poverty of ideas among the Arabs, all helped to produce the\nsame result. Finally, deception, hypocrisy, and superstition, as, alas,\nso often is the case in religious matters, played a great part. Whoever\ndid not feel ecstatically moved at the recitation of the Koran pretended\nto be so, and often thereby, perhaps unconsciously, exercised a great\neffect on others. Men began by pretending to feel religious enthusiasm\nand ended by believing that they really felt it. Ghazzali mentions in\nthe Ihya ul-ulum that the prophet commanded that whoever did not feel\nmoved to tears at the recitation of the Koran should pretend to weep\nand to be deeply moved; for, adds Ghazzali sagely, in these matters one\nbegins by forcing oneself to do what afterwards comes spontaneously.\nMoreover, the fact that religious excitement was looked upon as the mark\nof a fervent mind and devout intensity, vastly increased the number of\nthose who claimed mystic illumination.\n\nWhen verses of the Koran through frequent repetition lost their power to\nawaken ecstasy, single lines of fragments of poems sufficed to produce\nit. Once the mystic Taury found himself in the midst of a company who\nwere discussing some scientific question. All took part in it with the\nexception of Taury, who suddenly rose and recited:--\n\n   Many cooing doves mourn in the mid-day heat,\n   Sadly under the roof of foliage overhead,\n   Remembering old companions and days gone by;\n   Their lament awakens my sorrow also,\n   My mourning rouses them, and often theirs disturbs my sleep;\n   I do not understand their cooing, and they do not understand\n     my weeping:\n   But through, my sorrow of heart I know them, and through\n     their heart-sorrow they know me.\n\nHardly had those present heard these verses than they all fell into a\nstate of ecstatic contemplation.\n\nIbrahim ben Adham, the celebrated Sufi, once heard the following\nverses:--\n\n   Everything is forgiven thee, except estrangement from Us:\n   We pardon thee all the past, and only that remains which has\n     escaped Our eyes (_i.e._, nothing).\n\nThey immediately caused him to fall into a trance which lasted\ntwenty-four hours. Ghazzali, who himself borrowed much from the Sufis,\nand was a diligent student of their doctrine, seeks to explain these\nstrange phenomena on psychological grounds. He divides the ecstatic\nconditions which the hearing of poetical recitations produces into four\nclasses. The first, which is the lowest, is that of the simple sensuous\ndelight in melody. The second class is that of pleasure in the melody\nand of understanding the words in their apparent sense. The third class\nconsists of those who apply the meaning of the words to the relations\nbetween man and God. To this class belongs the would-be initiate into\nSufism; he has necessarily a goal marked out for him to aim at, and this\ngoal is the knowledge of God, meeting Him and union with Him by the way\nof secret contemplation, and the removal of the veil which conceals Him.\nIn order to compass this aim the Sufi has a special path to follow; he\nmust perform various ascetic practices and overcome certain spiritual\nobstacles in doing so. Now when, during the recitation of poetry, the\nSufi hears mention made of blame or praise, of acceptance or refusal, of\nunion with the Beloved or separation from Him, of lament over a departed\njoy or longing for a look, as often occurs in Arabic poetry, one or the\nother of these accords with his spiritual state and acts upon him, like\na spark on tinder, to set his heart aflame. Longing and love overpower\nhim and unfold to him manifold vistas of spiritual experience.\n\nThe fourth and highest class is that of the fully initiated who have\npassed through the stages above-mentioned, and whose minds are closed to\neverything except God. Such an one is wholly denuded of self, so that he\nno longer knows his own experiences and practices, and, as though with\nsenses sealed, sinks into the ocean of the contemplation of God. This\ncondition the Sufis characterise as self-annihilation (Fana).\n\nBut he who is bereft of self-consciousness is none the less aware of\nwhat is without him; it is as if his consciousness were withdrawn from\neverything but the one object of contemplation, _i.e._, God. While he\nwho is completely absorbed in the contemplation of the object seen is as\nlittle capable of theorising regarding the act of contemplation as\nregarding the eye, the instrument of sight, or the heart, the seat of\njoyful emotion. Just in the same way a drunken man is not conscious of\nhis intoxication, so he who is drowned in joy knows nothing of joy\nitself, but only knows what causes it. Such a condition of mind may\noccur with regard to created things as well as with regard to the\nCreator Himself, only in the latter case it is like a flash of\nlightning, without permanence. Could such a condition of the soul last\nlonger, it would be beyond the power of human nature to endure and would\nend in overwhelming it. So it is related of Taury that once in a meeting\nhe heard this verse recited:--\n\n   In my love to Thee I attained to a height where to tread\n     causes the senses to reel.\n\nHe immediately fell into an ecstatic condition and ran into a field\nwhere the newly-cut stubble cut his feet like knives. Here he ran about\nall night till the morning, and a few days afterwards died.\n\nIn this highest condition of ecstasy the soul is to be compared to a\nclear mirror, which, itself colourless, reflects the colours of the\nobject seen in it. Or to a crystal, whose colour is that of the object\non which it stands or of the fluid which it contains. Itself colourless,\nit has the property of transmitting colours. This exposition of Sufistic\necstasy by Ghazzali shows that in his time, far from being on the wane,\nsuch phenomena were on the increase. For when a man of such\ncomprehensive mind, such a deep thinker, so well versed in the knowledge\nof men and especially of his fellow-Moslems, speaks so plainly and\nwithout doubt upon the matter and seeks to explain it psychologically,\nthis idea must have already taken deep root and spread widely. Ghazzali\nis consequently to be regarded as a decided adherent of Sufism and as\napproving of the enthusiastic tendencies accompanying it. He narrates in\nhis autobiography[7] how he left his family in Bagdad and went to\nDamascus, where for two whole years he studied Sufism. Afterwards he\nmade the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina. In his lonely musings things\nwere revealed to him, which, he said, could not be described, and he\narrived at last at the firm conviction that the Sufis were on the way of\nGod and that their teaching was the best. It must be admitted that by\nSufism Ghazzali meant that kind of it which held fast to the general\nprinciples of Islam and was in accord, even though only externally, with\nthe orthodox party. These Sufis adhered to the Koran and the traditions,\nbut interpreted them allegorically. Mysticism must always be propped up\nby a positive religion, as it has no support in itself.\n\n   [5] From Von Kremer.\n\n   [6] Von Kremer.\n\n   [7] \"The Confessions of Al Ghazzali\" (Wisdom of the East\n   series).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nHASAN BASRI[8]\n(D 728 AD)\n\n\nHasan Basri was born in Arabia at Medina, where his mother had been\nbrought as a captive and sold to Omm Salma, one of the wives of the\nProphet. Arrived at man's estate, and having received his liberty, he\nretired to Basra on the Persian gulf, a stronghold of the ascetic sect.\nHere he lived undisturbed, though his open disavowal of the reigning\nfamily of Ommeyah exposed him to some danger. The following incident,\nillustrating his independence of character is narrated by Ibn Khalliqan.\nWhen Omar ibn Hubaira was appointed to the government of Irak in the\nreign of the Caliph Abd-al Malik (A.D. 721) he called for Hasan Basri,\nMuhammad Ibn Sirin and as Shabi to whom he said, \"Abd al Malik has\nreceived my promise that I will hear and obey him; and he has now\nappointed me to what you see, and I receive from him written orders.\nMust I obey him in whatever orders he takes upon himself to give?\" To\nthis Ibn Sirin and as Shabi gave a cautious reply, but Hasan Basri,\nbeing asked his opinion, made this answer: \"O Ibn Hubaira! God outweighs\nAbd al Malik, and Abd al Malik cannot outweigh God; God can defend thee\nfrom Abd al Malik, and Abd al Malik cannot defend thee from God. He\nwill soon send an angel to take thee from thy throne, and send thee from\nthe width of thy palace into the narrowness of the tomb. Then thy deeds\nalone can save thee.\" Ibn Hubaira then rewarded them, but bestowed a\ndouble reward on Hasan Basri, upon which as Shabi said to Ibn Sirin, \"We\ngave him a poor answer, and he gave us a poor reward.\"\n\nHasan Basri's adoption of the ascetic life was brought about in the\nfollowing way. When a young man he was a lapidary, and had gone to Roum\n(Asia Minor) to practise his craft. He there lived on friendly terms\nwith the vizier of that country. One day the vizier said to him, \"We are\ngoing out of the city to a certain place; will you come with us?\" Hasan\nBasri assented, and went. \"We came,\" he said afterwards, \"to a plain\nwhere there was a vast tent the ropes of which were of silk and its\nstakes of gold. I saw a large number of soldiers marching round it; they\nrepeated some words which I could not hear, and then retired. Then came\nabout four hundred mullahs and learned men, who did the same. These were\nfollowed by a similar number of old men. Then about four or five hundred\nbeautiful maidens, each holding in her hand a dish containing rubies,\npearls, turquoises, and other precious stones. They went in procession\nround the tent in the same way. Finally the sultan and the vizier went\ninto the tent and came out again.\n\n\"As for me, I remained transfixed with astonishment. 'What does all this\nmean?' I asked the vizier. 'The King,' he said, 'had an extremely\nbeautiful child of a happy disposition, who fell ill and died. His tomb\nis within this tent, and they visit it once a year. First come the\nsoldiers, who circle round the tent and say, 'O son of the sultan, if we\ncould have ransomed thy life by the strokes of our swords, we would have\ndone it, even had it cost us our own; but God willed otherwise, and we\ncannot change his decree.' Having so said, they go away. Then the\nmullahs and learned men, coming in their turn, say, 'O son of the\nsultan, if we could have ransomed thee by knowledge or by eloquence, we\nwould have done so; but all the knowledge and eloquence in the world\ncannot arrest the decrees of Allah.' Then they depart. After them come\nthe old men, who cry, 'If we could have saved thee by groanings and\nprayers, we would have done so; but our intercession is useless.'\nFinally come the young maidens, who say, 'O son of the sultan, if we\ncould have ransomed thee at the price of beauty and wealth, we would\nhave done it; but the steps of fate turn aside for neither.' After them\nthe sultan and the vizier enter the tent. The sultan says, 'O my son, I\nhave done all that I could do. I have brought all these soldiers, these\nmullahs, these learned men, these old men, these beautiful maidens\nbearing treasures, and yet I cannot bring thee back. It depends not on\nme, but on Him before Whom all power is powerless. May the mercy of the\nLord be multiplied upon thee for another year.' Having thus spoken, they\nreturn by the way they came.'\"\n\nHasan Basri, having heard this, felt stirred to the depths of his heart.\nLeaving Roum, he retired to Basra, where he took an oath that he would\nnot smile again till he knew what his eternal destiny would be. He\npractised the severest asceticism, and many came to hear him preach.\n\nHasan Basri had a disciple who was in the habit of casting himself on\nthe ground and uttering groans when he heard the Koran recited. \"If thou\nart able to restrain these groans,\" said he, \"they will prove like a\ndestructive fire to thee; but if they are really beyond thy power to\ncontrol, I declare that I am six stages behind thee in the way of piety.\nSuch groanings,\" he added, \"are generally the work of Satan.\"\n\nOne day Hasan Basri was preaching when Hejaj ben Yusuf, the bloodthirsty\nand formidable governor of Irak, accompanied by a great number of his\nretinue with drawn swords, entered the mosque. A person of distinction\nin the audience said, \"We must watch to-day whether Hasan will be\nembarrassed by the presence of Hejaj.\" When the latter had taken his\nplace, Hasan Basri, without paying the least attention to him, so far\nfrom shortening his discourse, prolonged it. When it was finished, the\nperson who was watching him exclaimed, \"Bravo, Hasan!\" When he came down\nfrom the pulpit, Hejaj came forward, and, taking him by the hand, said,\naddressing the people, \"If you wish to see him whom the Lord has\ndistinguished among you, come and look on Hasan Basri.\"\n\nHasan had in his heart such a fear of the Lord that, like a man seated\nnear an executioner, he was always in a state of apprehension. Seeing\none day a man who wept, he asked him what was the matter. \"To-day,\"\nanswered the man, \"I heard a preacher say that there were a great many\namong the Moslems who, by reason of their sins would remain several\nyears in hell, and then be taken out.\" \"May God grant,\" cried Hasan,\n\"that I be one of those who come out of hell at last; may I be even as\nthat man, who, as the prophet of God said, will come out eighty-four\nyears after all the rest.\"\n\nOne night he was overheard weeping and groaning in his house. \"Why these\ntears and laments?\" he was asked. \"I weep,\" he answered, \"thinking that\nperhaps to-day I have set my foot in an unlawful place, or allowed an\nevil word to escape my lips which will cause me to be chased from before\nthe throne of the most high. 'Away!' it will be said to me; 'thou hast\nno access here, thy works of piety are not accepted.' And what answer\nshall I make? Behold the reason of my fear.\" One of his sayings was, \"I\nnever saw a certainty of which there is no doubt bear a greater\nresemblance to a doubtful thing of which there is no certainty than\ndeath does.\"\n\nHasan Basri had a neighbour named Shamaun, who was an infidel and a\nfire-worshipper. He fell ill, and his last hour approached. Some one\nsaid to Hasan, \"Shamaun is your neighbour, and his last hour is come;\nwhy don't you go to see him?\" Hasan having come to see him, saw that by\nreason of his assiduous fire-worship, his hair and beard were quite\nblackened by smoke. Hoping that he would become a Moslem, he said to\nhim, \"Come, Shamaun, fear the punishment which the Lord prepares for\nthee who hast passed thy life of seventy years in infidelity and\nfire-worship.\" \"As for me,\" answered Shamaun, \"I see on the part of you\nMoslems three characteristics which I cannot explain, and which hinder\nme from becoming a Moslem:--(1) You never cease repeating that the world\nis perishable and impure, and yet day and night, without interval or\nrepose, you heap up its treasures; (2) You say that death is certain and\ninevitable, and yet you put the thought of it aside, and practise none\nof the works which should fit you for another world; (3) You assert your\nbelief that in that world it will be possible to contemplate the face of\nthe Most High, and yet you commit acts which He abhors.\" \"Thou speakest\nlike one of the initiated,\" said Hasan, \"but although the faithful\ncommit sins, none the less they confess the unity and the existence of\nthe Most High, whilst thou hast spent thy life in worshipping the fire.\nAt the day of judgment, if they cast us both into hell, the fire will\ncarry thee away at once, but if the grace of the Lord is accorded to me,\nit will not be able to scorch one of my eyebrows; this shows that it is\nonly a creature. And, moreover, you have worshipped it for seventy\nyears, and I have never worshipped it.\"\n\nThese words made such an impression on Shamaun that he made a profession\nof the faith of Islam, dying soon afterwards. On the night of his death,\nHasan in a dream saw Shamaun wearing a crown of gold, clothed in raiment\nof resplendent beauty, and walking in Paradise. \"My God,\" he cried when\nhe awoke, \"Thou hast had mercy on him who spent seventy years in\ninfidelity; is it strange that Thou shouldest show mercy to the\nfaithful?\"\n\nHasan was a man of such humility of mind that he considered everyone\nwhom he saw his superior. One day when he was walking along the bank of\nthe river Tigris he saw a negro seated near a woman; before them was a\njar and a cup. Each of them in turn poured from the jar into the cup and\ndrank. Seeing this man, Hasan, according to his wont, said to himself,\n\"There is a man better than myself.\" At the same time he secretly\nthought, \"As regards the observance of the ceremonial law, it is\npossible that he is not superior to me, for he is sitting near a woman\nof doubtful character and drinking wine.\" While he was thus reflecting,\nthere appeared on the river a boat heavily laden, and containing seven\npersons. Just as it was approaching the shore, it foundered. The negro,\ncasting himself into the water, drew out six persons in succession;\nthen, going to Hasan, he said to him, \"Rise, if thou art better than I.\nI have saved six, for my part; thou save one, for thine.\" Then he added,\n\"O true believers, this jar contains water, and this woman is my mother.\nI have wished to tempt Hasan.\" Then, addressing the latter, he said,\n\"See, thou hast looked with the outer eye only, and hast not been\ncapable of looking with the inner eye.\" At these words, Hasan, falling\nat his feet, kissed his hand, and understood that he was one of the\nLord's chosen servants. \"Sir,\" he said, \"as thou hast drawn these\ndrowning men from the water so save me from the abyss of self-worship.\"\nThe negro replied, \"Go, thou art saved.\" From that time Hasan considered\nno one smaller than himself, but everyone his superior.\n\nOn one occasion, Hasan Basri said, \"I have been startled by the sayings\nof four persons, (1) a drunkard, (2) a debauchee, (3) a child, (4) a\nwoman.\" \"How was that?\" he was asked. \"One day,\" he said, \"I saw a\ndrunkard staggering in the midst of the mire. I said to him, 'Try and\nwalk so as not to stumble.' 'O Hasan,' the drunkard replied, 'in spite\nof all your efforts, do _you_ walk firmly in the way of God? Tell me,\nyes or no. If I fall in the mire no great harm is done, I can get rid of\nit by washing; but if you fall into the pit of self-conceit, you will\nnever emerge clean and your eternal welfare will be entirely ruined.'\nThese words pierced me to the heart. (2) Again, as I passed once close\nto a man of infamous character, I drew my robes close about me lest they\nshould touch him. 'O Hasan,' he said, 'why draw thy robes away from\ncontact with me. Only the Most High knows what will be the end of each.'\n(3) Another time I saw a child coming towards me holding a lighted torch\nin his hand. 'Where have you brought this light from?' I asked him. He\nimmediately blew it out, and said to me, 'O Hasan, tell me where it is\ngone, and I will tell you whence I fetched it.' (4) One day a beautiful\nwoman, with her face unveiled, came to me. She had just been quarrelling\nwith her husband, and no sooner had she met me than she began reporting\nhis words. 'O woman,' I said, 'first cover thy face and then speak.' 'O\nHasan,' she answered, 'In my excitement I lost reason, and I did not\neven know that my face was uncovered. If you had not told me I should\nhave gone thus into the bazaar. But you who with so great zeal cultivate\nthe friendship of the Most High, ought you not to curb your eye, so as\nnot to see whether my face was uncovered or not?' Her words sank deeply\ninto my heart.\"\n\nOne day Hasan said to his friends, \"You are like the companions of the\nprophet, on whom be peace.\" They felt immensely gratified at this, but\nhe added, \"I mean your faces and beards are like theirs, but nothing\nelse in you. If you had seen them, such was their absorption in divine\nthings, you would have thought them mad. Had they seen you, they would\nnot have regarded one of you as a real Moslem. They, in the practice of\nthe faith, were like horsemen mounted on swift steeds, or like the wind,\nor like the bird which cleaves the air; while we progress like men\nmounted on donkeys with sores on their backs.\"\n\nAn Arab visiting Hasan Basri asked him for a definition of patience.\nHasan answered, \"There are two kinds of patience; one kind consists in\nbearing afflictions and calamities bravely and in abstaining from what\nthe Lord has forbidden, the other kind consists in never lending an ear\nto the suggestions of Satan.\" \"As for me,\" said the Arab, \"I have never\nseen anyone more retiring from the world and more patient than thyself.\"\n\"Alas,\" answered Hasan, \"my renouncement of the world and my patience\ncount as nothing.\" \"Why dost thou say so?\" exclaimed the Arab. \"Because,\nif I practise renouncement it is only from dread of hell-fire, and if I\nkeep patient it is only because I hope to enter Paradise. Now that man\nalone deserves to be taken into account who, without self-regarding\nmotives practises patience for the sake of the Most High, and whose\nrenouncement of the world has not Paradise for its object, but only the\ndesire to please God. Such a way of acting is a manifest sign of\nsincerity of heart.\"\n\nAsked on another occasion what his spiritual state was like, Hasan\nreplied, \"My state is like that of a man shipwrecked in the sea, who is\nclinging to a solitary plank.\"\n\nHe never laughed. At the moment of death he smiled once, and called out\n\"What sin? What sin?\" Someone saw him after his death in a dream, and\nasked him, \"O Hasan Basri, thou who never wert in the habit of smiling,\nwhy, when dying, didst thou say with a smile, 'What sin? What sin?'\"\nHasan answered, \"When I was dying I heard a voice which said, 'O Azrael,\nhold back his soul a little longer, it has still one sin,' and in my joy\nI exclaimed, 'What sin?'\"\n\nThe night of his death another of his friends had a dream, in which he\nsaw the gates of heaven open and heard a voice proclaim, \"Hasan Basri\nhas come to his Lord, Who is satisfied with him.\"\n\n   [8] These and the following eight sketches are taken from Attar's\n   \"Tazkirat-ul-Auliya.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nRABIA, THE WOMAN SUFI\n\n\nRabia, the daughter of Ismail, a woman celebrated for her holy life, and\na native of Basra, belonged to the tribe of Adi. Al Qushairi says in his\ntreatise on Sufism, \"She used to say when holding converse with God,\n'Consume with fire O God, a presumptuous heart which loveth Thee.' On\none of these occasions a voice spoke to her and said, 'That we shall not\ndo. Think not of us an ill thought.' Often in the silence of the night\nshe would go on the roof of her house and say, 'The lover is now with\nhis beloved, but I rejoice in being alone with Thee.'\"\n\nWhen Rabia grew up her father and mother died. At that time there was a\nfamine in Basra. She came into the possession of an evil man, who sold\nher as a slave. The master who bought her treated her hardly, and\nexacted all kinds of menial services from her. One day, when she was\nseeking to avoid the rude gaze of a stranger, she slipped on the path\nand fell, breaking her wrist. Lying there with her face to the ground,\nshe said \"Lord, I am far from my own, a captive and an orphan, and my\nwrist has just been broken, and yet none of these things grieve me. Only\nthis one thought causes me disquiet; it is that I know not if Thou art\nsatisfied with me.\" She then heard a voice, \"Vex not thyself, O Rabia,\nfor at the day of Resurrection We shall give thee such a rank that the\nangels nearest Us shall envy thee.\" Rabia went home with her heart at\npeace.\n\nOne night, Rabia's master being awake, heard the sound of her voice. He\nperceived Rabia with her head bent, saying, \"My Lord, Thou knowest that\nthe desire of my heart is to seek Thy approbation, and that its only\nwish is to obey Thy commands. If I had liberty of action, I would not\nremain a single instant without doing Thee service; but Thou hast\ndelivered me into the hands of a creature, and therefore I am hindered\nin the same.\" Her master said to himself that it was not possible any\nlonger to treat her as a slave, and as soon as daybreak appeared, he\nsaid to her, \"O Rabia, I make thee free. If thou desirest, remain here,\nand we shall be at thy service. If thou dost not wish to stay here,\ngo whithersoever it pleaseth thee.\"\n\nThen Rabia departed from them and devoted herself entirely to works of\npiety. One day when she was making the pilgrimage to the Kaaba[9] she\nhalted in the desert and exclaimed, \"My God, my heart is a prey to\nperplexity in the midst of this solitude. I am a stone, and so is the\nKaaba; what can it do for me? That which I need is to contemplate Thy\nface.\" At these words a voice came from the Most High, \"O Rabia, wilt\nthou bear alone that which the whole world cannot? When Moses desired to\nsee Our Face we showed It to a mountain, which dissolved into a thousand\nfragments.\"\n\nAbda, the servant maid of Rabia, relates as follows, \"Rabia used to pass\nthe whole night in prayer, and at morning dawn she took a light sleep\nin her oratory till daylight, and I have heard her say when she sprang\nin dread from her couch, 'O my soul, how long wilt thou sleep? Soon thou\nshalt sleep to rise no more, till the call shall summon thee on the day\nof resurrection.'\"\n\nHasan Basri once asked Rabia if she ever thought of marrying. She\nanswered, \"The marriage contract can be entered into by those who have\npossession of their free-will. As for me, I have no will to dispose of;\nI belong to the Lord, and I rest in the shadow of His commandments,\ncounting myself as nothing.\" \"But,\" said Hasan, \"how have you arrived at\nsuch a degree of piety?\" \"By annihilating myself completely.\"\n\nBeing asked on another occasion why she did not marry, she answered,\n\"There are three things which cause me anxiety.\" \"And what are they?\"\n\"One is to know whether at the moment of death I shall be able to take\nmy faith with me intact. The second is whether in the Day of\nResurrection the register of my actions will be placed in my right hand\nor not.[10] The third is to know, when some are led to Paradise and some\nto hell, in which direction I shall be led.\" \"But,\" they cried, \"none of\nus know any of these things.\" \"What!\" she answered, \"when I have such\nobjects to pre-occupy my mind, should I think of a husband?\"\n\nSomeone asked her one day, \"Whence comest thou?\" \"From the other world,\"\nwas her reply. \"And whither goest thou?\" \"Into the other world.\" \"And\nwhat doest thou in this world.\" \"I jest with it by eating its bread and\ndoing the works of the other world in it.\" \"O Rabia,\" said another to\nher, \"dost thou love the Lord?\" \"Truly,\" she replied, \"I love Him.\"\n\"And dost thou regard Satan as an enemy?\" \"I love the Lord so much,\" she\nanswered, \"that I do not trouble myself about the enmity of Satan.\"\n\nOne night she saw the Prophet (on whom be peace) in a dream. He saluted\nher and said, \"Rabia, lovest thou me?\" \"O Prophet of God,\" she replied,\n\"is there anyone who does not love thee? Yet the love of the Most High\nfills my heart to such a degree that there is no room for love or hatred\ntowards anyone else.\"\n\nOn one occasion she was asked, \"Dost thou see Him Whom thou servest?\"\n\"If I did not see Him,\" she said, \"I would not serve Him.\" She was\nfrequently found in tears, and, being asked the reason why, replied, \"I\nfear that at the last moment a Voice may cry, 'Rabia is not worthy to\nappear in Our court.'\" The following question was put to her, \"If one of\nHis servants truly repents, will the Lord accept it or not?\" \"As long as\nGod does not grant repentance,\" she replied, \"how can anyone repent? And\nif He does grant it, there is no doubt that he will accept it.\"\n\nOnce when Rabia had immured herself for a long while in her house\nwithout coming forth, her servant said to her, \"Lady, come forth out of\nthis house and contemplate the works of the Most High.\" \"Nay,\" said\nRabia, \"enter rather into thyself and contemplate His work in thyself.\"\nHaving kept a strict fast for seven days and nights in order to give\nherself to prayer, on the eighth night she seemed to hear her emaciated\nbody say, \"O Rabia, how long wilt thou torture me without mercy?\" Whilst\nshe was holding this soliloquy with herself, suddenly someone knocked\nat the door, and a man brought in some food in a bowl. Rabia took it and\nset it down; then while she went to light the lamp, a cat came and ate\nthe food. No sooner had Rabia returned and seen what had happened than\nshe said to herself, \"I will break my fast on water.\" As she went to\ndraw water her lamp went out. She then uttered a deep sigh, and said,\n\"Lord, why dost thou make me wretched?\" Whereupon she heard a voice\nsaying, \"O Rabia, if thou desirest it, I will give thee the whole world\nfor thine own; but I shall have to take away the love which thou hast\nfor Me from thy heart, for the love of Me and of the world cannot exist\ntogether.\" \"Hearing myself thus addressed,\" said Rabia, \"I entirely\nexpelled from my heart the love of earthly things, and resolutely turned\nmy gaze away from them. For thirty years I have not prayed without\nsaying to myself, 'This prayer, perhaps, is the last which I shall\npray,' and I have never been tired of saying, 'My God, let me be so\nabsorbed in Thy love that no other affection may find room in my\nheart.'\"\n\nOne day some men of learning and piety came to her and said, \"The Most\nHigh has crowned His chosen saints with the gift of performing miracles,\nbut such privileges have never been granted to a woman. How didst thou\nattain to such a high degree?\" \"What you say is true,\" she answered,\n\"but, on the other hand, women have never been so infatuated with\nthemselves as men, nor have they ever claimed divinity.\"\n\nHasan Basri relates, \"One day when I had been to Rabia who had fallen\nsick, to ask after her, I saw seated at her gate a merchant who wept.\n'Why are you weeping?' I asked him. 'I have just brought for Rabia,' he\nanswered, 'this purse of gold, and I am troubled in mind, not knowing\nwhether she will accept it or not. Go in Hasan, and ask whether she\nwill.' Then I went in, and no sooner had I reported to her the words of\nthis merchant than she said to me, 'Thou knowest well, O Hasan, that the\nMost High gives daily bread even to those who do not worship Him; how\nthen will He not give it to those whose hearts are aglow with love to\nHim? Besides, ever since I have known God, I have turned my eyes away\nfrom all except Him. How can I accept anyone's money when I know not\nwhether it has been gained by lawful or unlawful means? Present then my\nexcuses to this merchant, and let him go.'\"\n\nAnother merchant visiting Rabia found her house in ill repair. He\npresented her with a new house. Rabia had no sooner entered it than,\nseeing paintings on the wall, she became absorbed in contemplating them.\nRecovering herself, she quitted the house, and refused to re-enter it,\nsaying, \"I fear lest my heart may become attached to this house to such\na degree that I neglect preparation for the other world.\"\n\nOne day Abdul Wahid and Sofian Tsavri went to see Rabia in her illness.\nThey were so touched by the sight of her weakness that for some moments\nthey could not speak a word. At last Sofian said, \"O Rabia, pray that\nthe Lord may lighten thy sufferings.\" \"O Sofian,\" she answered, \"who has\nsent me these sufferings?\" \"The Most High,\" he said. \"Very well,\" she\nreplied, \"if it is his will that this trial come upon me, how can I,\nignoring His will, ask Him to remove it?\" \"Rabia,\" said Sofian, \"I am\nnot capable of talking to thee about thy own affairs; talk to me about\nmine.\" \"Well,\" answered Rabia, \"if thou hadst not an inclination to this\nlow world, thou wouldst be a man without fault.\" \"Then,\" relates Sofian,\n\"I cried with tears, 'My God, canst Thou be satisfied with me?'\" \"O\nSofian,\" said Rabia, \"dost thou not blush at saying to the Lord, 'Canst\nThou be satisfied with me?' without having done a single thing to please\nhim?\"\n\nMalik Dinar recounts the following: \"I went to see Rabia, and found her\ndrinking water out of a broken pitcher. She was lying stretched on an\nold mat, with a brick for her pillow. I was pierced to the heart at the\nsight, and said, \"O Rabia, I have rich friends; if you will let me, I\nwill go and ask them for something for you.\" \"You have spoken ill,\nMalik,\" she replied; \"it is the Lord who, to them as to me, gives daily\nbread. He Who provides for the needs of the rich, shall He not provide\nfor the necessities of the poor? If He wills that it should be thus with\nus, we shall gladly submit to His will.'\"\n\nOn one occasion when Malik Dinar, Hasan Basri and Shaqiq were with her,\nthe conversation turned on sincerity of heart towards God. Hasan Basri\nsaid, \"He has not sincere love to God who does not bear with constancy\nthe afflictions which the Lord sends him.\" \"That remark savours of\nself-conceit,\" said Rabia. Shaqiq observed, \"He is not sincere who does\nnot render thanks for afflictions.\" \"There is a higher degree of\nsincerity than that,\" said Rabia. Malik Dinar suggested, \"He is not\nsincere who does not find delight in the afflictions which the Lord\nsends.\" \"That is not the purest sincerity,\" she remarked. Then they\nasked her to define sincerity. She said, \"He is not sincere who does not\nforget the pain of affliction through his absorption in God.\"\n\nOne of the learned theologians of Basra, once visiting Rabia, began to\nenlarge upon the defects of the world. \"You must be very fond of the\nworld,\" said Rabia, \"for if you were not, you would not talk so much\nabout it. He who really intends to buy something keeps on discussing it.\nIf you were really disentangled from it, what would you care about its\nmerits or its faults?\"\n\nOther sayings of Rabia were these, \"My God, if on the day of judgment\nThou sendest me to hell, I shall reveal a secret which will make hell\nfly far from me.\" \"O Lord, give all Thou destinest for me of the goods\nof this world to Thy enemies, and all that Thou reservest for me in\nParadise to Thy friends, for it is Thou only Whom I seek.\" \"My God, if\nit is from fear of hell that I serve Thee, condemn me to burn in hell;\nand if it is for the hope of Paradise, forbid me entrance there; but if\nit is for Thy sake only, deny me not the sight of Thy face.\"\n\nRabia died A.D. 752, and was buried near Jerusalem. Her tomb was a\ncentre of pilgrimage during the Middle Ages.\n\n   [9] The sacred shrine at Mecca.\n\n   [10] A sign the person is acquitted.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nIBRAHIM BEN ADHAM PRINCE OF BALKH\n(D 875)\n\n\nIbrahim Ben Adham was originally Prince of the city of Balkh, and had\ncontrol of the riches of many provinces. One night when he was in bed he\nheard a sound of footsteps on the roof of his palace. \"Who are you on\nthe roof?\" he cried out. An answer came, \"I have lost a camel, and I am\nlooking for it on this roof.\" \"Well,\" he said, \"you must be a fool for\nyour pains, to look for a camel on a roof.\" \"And thou, witless man,\"\nreturned the voice, \"is it while seated on a throne of gold that thou\nexpectest to find the Most High? That is far madder than to seek a camel\non a roof.\" At these words, fear seized the heart of Ibrahim, who spent\nthe rest of the night in prayer, till the early dawn. The next morning\nhe took his seat upon his throne, round which were ranged all the\ngrandees of his kingdom and his guards, according to their rank, in the\nusual manner. All of a sudden Ibrahim perceived in the midst of the\ncrowd a majestic figure, who advanced towards him unseen by the rest.\nWhen he had come near, Ibrahim asked him, \"Who art thou, and what hast\nthou come to seek here?\" \"I am a stranger,\" he answered, \"and I wish to\nstay at this inn.\" \"But this is not an inn,\" answered Ibrahim, \"it is my\nown house.\" \"To whom did it belong before thee?\" inquired the stranger.\n\"To my father.\" \"And before thy father, to whom did it belong?\" \"To my\ngrandfather.\" \"And where are thy ancestors now?\" \"They are dead.\" \"Well\nthen, is this house anything but an hotel, where the coming guest\nsucceeds to the departing one?\" So saying, the stranger began to\nwithdraw. Ibrahim rose, ran toward him, and said, \"I adjure thee to\nstop, in the name of the Most High.\" The stranger paused. \"Who art\nthou,\" cried Ibrahim, \"who hast lit this fire in my soul?\" \"I am Khizr,\nO Ibrahim. It is time for thee to awake.\" So saying, he disappeared.\nIbrahim, pierced with sorrow, awoke from his trance, and felt a keen\ndisdain for all earthly grandeur.\n\nThe next morning, being mounted and going to the chase, he heard a voice\nwhich said, \"O Ibrahim, thou wast not created for this.\" He looked round\nhim on all sides, but could see no one, and went on again. Presently\nagain the voice was heard, proceeding, as it were, from his saddle, \"O\nIbrahim, thou wast not created for this.\" Struck to the heart, Ibrahim\nexclaimed, \"It is the Lord who commands; His servant will obey.\" He\nthereupon dismounted, exchanged clothes with a shepherd whom he\ndiscovered close by, and began to lead the life of a wandering dervish,\nand became famous for his devoutness and austerity.\n\nAfter some years, he undertook the pilgrimage to Mecca, and joined a\ncaravan which was bound thither. The news of his coming having reached\nthe chief men of the city, they all came out to meet him. Some of their\nservants, going on, met Ibrahim (whom, of course, they did not know),\nand asked him if Ibrahim ben Adham was approaching. \"Why do you ask\nme?\" he said. \"Because the chief men of the city are come out to meet\nhim.\" \"And why make so much ado about that man,\" he said, \"who is a\nsinner and an infidel?\" \"What right hast thou to speak thus of him?\"\nthey cried; and, seizing him, handled him roughly. After having beaten\nhim they went on their way. Ibrahim said to himself, \"Thou hast had thy\ndeserts.\" When he was recognised afterwards, an ample apology was made\nto him, and he was conducted to Mecca, where he remained several years,\nsupporting himself by money earned by his daily toil.\n\nWhen Ibrahim left Balkh, he had a son who was then a child. When the\nlatter became a young man, he asked, \"Where is my father?\" Whereupon his\nmother told him all that had occurred to his father. \"Well,\" said the\nyouth, \"where is he to be found now?\" \"At Mecca,\" his mother answered.\n\"Very well, I will go to Mecca,\" he replied, \"and find my father.\" He\nset out, and when he arrived there, he found in the sacred precinct\nsurrounding the Kaaba many fakirs clothed with rags. \"Do you know\nIbrahim ben Adham?\" he asked them. \"He is one of ourselves,\" one of them\nanswered; \"he has gone to gather and sell wood wherewith to buy bread\nand bring it us.\" The younger Ibrahim immediately went out of the city\nto seek his father. Presently he found an old man carrying a bundle of\nwood on his head, whom he recognised as his father. At this sight he was\nnear weeping, but controlled himself, and walked behind him unobserved.\n\nAs for Ibrahim ben Adham, he carried his wood to the bazaar, sold it,\nand bought bread, which he took to his fellow-fakirs, and then\nperformed his devotions. On the other hand, his son did not disclose\nhimself, for he feared that to do so suddenly would cause his father to\nfly.\n\nThe next morning one of Ibrahim ben Adham's fellow-fakirs rose and went\nto his son's tent. He found the young man reading the Koran and weeping.\nThe fakir advanced and saluted him, asking, \"Who art thou? Whence comest\nthou? Whose son art thou?\" \"I am the son of Ibrahim ben Adham,\" replied\nthe young man, \"and I was never able to see my father until now; but I\nfear that if I make myself known to him, he will repulse me brusquely\nand flee away.\" \"Come,\" said the fakir, \"I will myself lead you to him.\"\n\nWithout further delay the wife and son of Ibrahim joined the fakir, and\nwent to seek him. No sooner had his wife perceived him than she uttered\na cry and said, \"My son, behold thy father.\" All the bystanders burst\ninto tears, while Ibrahim's son fell down in a swoon. When he came to\nhimself he saluted his father, who returned his greeting, embraced him,\nand said, \"O my son, of what religion art thou?\" \"Of the religion of\nMuhammad,\" he answered. \"God be praised!\" exclaimed Ibrahim. Then he\nasked, \"Dost thou know the Koran?\" \"I know it,\" was the reply. \"Dost\nthou read the books which treat of religious knowledge?\" \"I read them.\"\n\"God be praised!\" again exclaimed Ibrahim. Then he prepared to leave\nthem and depart, but his wife and son would not let him, and began to\nweep. But Ibrahim, lifting up his eyes to heaven, prayed, \"My God, come\nto my help,\" on which his son immediately died. The companions of\nIbrahim asked him, \"What is the meaning of this?\" \"When I saw my son,\"\nhe answered, \"my paternal tenderness was aroused. But immediately I\nheard a voice, 'What, Ibrahim! Dost thou pretend attachment to Us while\nall the while thy heart is engaged with another person? How can two\nloves co-exist in one heart?' On hearing this, I prayed to the Lord and\nsaid, 'O my God, if my love to this child makes Thee withdraw from me,\ntake his soul or mine.' My prayer was heard, and He has taken the soul\nof my son.\" On one occasion Ibrahim is reported to have said, \"Many\nnights in succession I sought to find the Kaaba unoccupied. One night\nwhen it was raining very hard, I at last found it so. I entered it, and\nlifting my heart to God, I said, 'O God, blot out my sins,' upon which I\nheard a Voice, which said, 'O Ibrahim, all over the world men ask Us the\nsame thing; but if We blot out everyone's sins, whom shall We cause to\nshare in the ocean of Our mercy?'\" On another occasion he was asked,\n\"Why hast thou given up thy rank and thy kingdom?\" \"One day,\" he said,\n\"When I was seated on my throne, I looked at a mirror. I saw reflected\nin it my last resting-place, which was an obscure tomb, wherein I had no\none to keep me company. The road whereby to reach the other world was\nlong, nay infinite, and I had no provision for the way. I saw besides an\nupright judge, who questioned me so rigorously that I could return him\nno fit answer. Behold why my rank and my kingdom lost all value in my\neyes, and why I abandoned them.\" \"But why,\" continued the questioner,\n\"didst thou flee Khorasan?\" \"Because,\" he said, \"they kept on\nquestioning me.\" \"And why dost thou not marry?\" \"Is there any woman who\nwould marry a man like myself, who am always hungry and naked? If I\ncould, I would divorce myself; how then can I attach anyone to myself?\"\n\nOnce Ibrahim asked a dervish, \"Have you a wife and children?\" \"No,\"\nanswered the dervish. \"It is all then well for thee.\" \"Why so?\" asked\nthe dervish. \"Because,\" said Ibrahim, \"everytime a dervish marries he is\nlike one who embarks on a vessel, but when children are born to him he\nis like one who is drowning.\"\n\nSeeing a dervish groaning, he said, \"Doubtless thou hast bought this\nposition of dervish at a low price.\" \"What, Ibrahim,\" answered the\nother, \"can the position of dervish be bought?\" \"Certainly,\" answered\nIbrahim; \"I have bought it at the price of royalty, and I find I have\nmade a good bargain.\"\n\nOne day a man brought to Ibrahim a sum of a thousand pieces of gold,\nwhich he had vowed to offer him. \"I do not take anything from the\nwretched,\" the latter said. \"But,\" said the other, \"I am a rich man.\"\n\"What,\" answered Ibrahim, \"you are as rich as that, and still seek to\nincrease your wealth?\" \"As a matter of fact, I do.\" \"Well then, you are\nmore wretched than anyone,\" and he added, \"Listen! I possess nothing,\nand I ask nothing of anyone. I have aspired after the condition of a\ndervish and found riches in it; others have aspired after riches and\nfound poverty.\" Another person also offered Ibrahim a thousand pieces of\ngold, which he refused, saying, \"You wish doubtless by means of this\ngold to erase my name from the list of dervishes.\"\n\nEvery day Ibrahim worked for hire, and whatever he earned he spent on\nprovisions to take to his companions; then they all broke their fast\ntogether. He never returned in any case till he had performed his\nevening devotions. One day when he had been absorbed in them, he\nreturned later than usual. His companions, who were waiting for him,\nsaid to themselves, \"We had better break our fast and all go to bed.\nWhen Ibrahim sees what we have done, he will come earlier another time,\nand not keep us waiting.\" Accordingly, they all ate and lay down. When\nIbrahim came and saw them asleep, he said to himself, \"Perhaps they have\ngone to bed hungry.\" He had brought with him a little meal, which he\nmade into dough; then he blew up the fire, and cooked supper for his\ncompanions. They then rose and said to him, \"What are you doing,\nIbrahim?\" \"I am cooking something for you, for it has occurred to me\nthat perhaps you have gone to bed without taking anything.\" They looked\nat each other, and said, \"See, while we were plotting against him, he\nwas engaged in thinking for us.\"\n\nOne day a man came to Ibrahim and said, \"O Ibrahim, I have done myself a\ngreat deal of harm (by sin). Give me some advice.\" \"Listen then,\" said\nIbrahim, \"here are six rules for you. First: When you have committed a\nsin, do not eat the food which the Lord sends you.\" \"But I cannot live\nwithout food,\" said the other. \"What!\" exclaimed Ibrahim, \"is it just\nthat you should profit by what the Lord supplies while you do not serve\nHim and never cease to offend Him?\" Second: \"When you are on the point\nof committing a sin, quit the Kingdom of the Most High.\" \"But,\" said\nthe man, \"His Kingdom extends from the East to the West; how can I go\nout of it?\" \"Very well, remain in it; but give up sin, and don't be\nrebellious.\" Third: \"When you are about to sin, place thyself where the\nMost High cannot see you.\" \"But one cannot hide anything from Him.\"\n\"Very well then,\" said Ibrahim, \"is it right that you should live on\nwhat He supplies, and that you should dwell in His Kingdom, and commit\nevil actions under His eyes?\" Fourth: \"When Azrael, the Angel of Death,\ncomes to claim your soul, say to him, 'Give me a respite, I wish to\nrepent.'\" \"But how will Azrael listen to such a prayer?\" \"If it is so,\"\nreplied Ibrahim, \"repent now, so as not to have to do so when Azrael\ncomes.\" Fifth: \"When you are placed in the tomb, dismiss the angels\nMunkir and Nakir,[11] who will come to examine thee.\" \"But I cannot.\"\n\"Very well, live such a life as to be able to reply satisfactorily to\nthem.\" Sixth: \"On the Day of Judgment, when the order goes forth to\nconduct sinners to hell, say you won't go.\" \"It suffices, Ibrahim, you\nhave said enough.\" The man repented, and the fervour of his conversion\nlasted till his death.\n\nIbrahim is said to have told the following story. \"One day I went to\nglean, but as soon as I put any ears of corn in the lappet of my robe\nthey were shaken out. This happened something like forty times. At last\nI cried, 'What does this mean, O Lord?' I heard a Voice say in reply,\n'O, Ibrahim, in the time of your prosperity forty bucklers of red gold\nwere carried in front of thee. It was necessary that you should be thus\nmolested as a requital for the luxury of those forty golden bucklers.'\"\n\nOnce Ibrahim was entrusted with the charge of an orchard. The owner one\nday came down to visit it, and told Ibrahim to bring him some sweet\npomegranates. Ibrahim went and gathered the largest he could find, but\nthey all proved to be bitter. \"What!\" said the owner, \"you have eaten\nthese pomegranates so long, and cannot distinguish the sweet from the\nbitter?\" \"Sir,\" replied Ibrahim, \"you told me to take charge of the\norchard, but you did not tell me to eat the pomegranates.\" \"Ah,\" replied\nthe other, \"to judge by your austerity, you must be no other than\nIbrahim ben Adham.\" The latter, seeing that he was discovered, left the\norchard and departed.\n\nA story told by Ibrahim was as follows. \"One night I saw in a dream\nGabriel, with a piece of paper in his hand. 'What are you doing?' I\nasked him. 'I am writing on this sheet of paper the names of the friends\nof the Lord.' 'Will you write mine among them?' Ibrahim asked. 'But you\nare not one of His friends.' 'If I am not one of His friends, at least I\nam a friend of His friends.' Immediately a Voice was heard, 'O Gabriel,\nwrite Ibrahim's name on the first line, for he who loves Our friends is\nOur friend.'\"[12]\n\nOnce while Ibrahim was walking in the country, a horseman met him and\nasked him who he was, \"I am,\" answered Ibrahim, \"the servant of the Most\nHigh.\" \"Well,\" said the horseman, \"direct me to the nearest dwellings.\"\nIbrahim pointed to the cemetery. \"You are jesting at me,\" the other\ncried, and struck him on the head so severely that the blood began to\nflow. Then he tied a cord round his neck, and dragged him forcibly into\nthe middle of the neighbouring town. The people cried out \"Madman, what\nare you doing? It is Ibrahim ben Adham.\" Immediately the horseman\nprostrated himself before Ibrahim and implored his pardon. \"O Ibrahim,\"\nhe said, \"when I asked you where were the nearest dwellings, why did you\npoint to the cemetery?\" \"Every day,\" he answered, \"the cemetery becomes\nmore and more peopled, while the town and its most flourishing quarters\nare continually falling into ruins.\"\n\nWhen Ibrahim's last hour arrived, he disappeared from sight, and no one\nhas been able to say exactly where his tomb is. Some say it is at\nBagdad, others at Damascus, others at Pentapolis. When he died, a Voice\nwas heard saying, \"The man who excelled all others in faith is dead;\nIbrahim ben Adham has passed away.\"\n\n   [11] According to the Mahommadan belief every man as soon as he\n   is buried is examined by these two angels.\n\n   [12] Leigh Hunt's well known poem refers to this:\n\n      \"Abou ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)\"\n        Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,\n      And saw within the moonlight in his room,\n        Making it rich and like a lily in bloom,\n      An angel writing in a book of gold.\n        Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,\n      And to the presence in the room he said:\n        \"What writest thou?\" The vision raised its head,\n      And with a look made all of sweet accord,\n        Answered \"The names of those who love the Lord,\"\n      \"And is mine one?\" said Abou. \"Nay not so,\"\n        Replied the Angel. Abou spoke more low\n      But cheerily still; and said: \"I pray thee then\n        Write me as one that loves his fellow men.\"\n      The angel wrote and vanished. The next night\n        He came again with a great wakening light,\n      And showed the names whom love of God had blest,\n        And lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest.\"\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nFUDHAYL BEN AYAZ, THE HIGHWAYMAN\n(D 803 AD)\n\n\nIn the beginning of his career Fudhayl ben Ayaz was a highwayman, and\nused to pitch his tent on the plains between Merv and Abiwerd. He had\ncollected many other robbers round him; when they brought in booty, he,\nas their chief, apportioned it. He never neglected saying the Friday\nprayers, and dismissed any of his servants whom he found neglecting\nthem.\n\nOne day his men were lying in wait on the high road when a numerous\ncaravan arrived and fell into their clutches. In this caravan was a\nmerchant who had a large sum of money in his purse. Desirous of hiding\nit, he fled towards the open plain; there he found a tent and a man\nclothed in coarse garments seated in it. The merchant, having explained\nthe matter to him, was told to leave his money there. He did so, and\nreturned to the caravan. When he got there he saw that the robbers had\nattacked it and taken all the goods, after having bound and laid on the\nearth all the travellers. He ransomed them, and helped them to gather\ntogether the remains of their property. When he returned to the tent he\nfound the robbers there dividing their booty. Seeing this, he said, \"Woe\nis me! Then he whom I trusted my money to was a robber.\" He was on the\npoint of departing when Fudhayl called out to him, \"What is the matter?\"\n\"I had come,\" he answered, \"to take back my money which I had deposited\nhere.\" \"Well,\" said Fudhayl, \"you will find it where you placed it.\" The\nmerchant did so. \"But,\" cried Fudhayl's companions, \"we did not find any\ncoined money at all in this caravan; how is it that you hand over such a\nlarge sum?\" \"This man,\" answered Fudhayl, \"has trusted me in the\nsimplicity of his heart; now I, in the simplicity of my heart, trust in\nthe Lord; and just as I have justified the good opinion which the\nmerchant had of me, I hope the Lord will justify that which I have of\nHim.\"\n\nThe conversion of Fudhayl to an ascetic life took place in the following\nmanner. As he was climbing over a wall to see a girl whom he loved, he\nheard a voice pronounce this verse of the Koran: \"Is not the time yet\ncome unto those who believe that their hearts should humbly submit to\nthe admonition of God?\"[13] On this he exclaimed, \"O Lord, that time is\ncome.\" He then went away from the place, and the approach of night\ninduced him to repair for shelter to a ruined edifice. A caravan was\nencamped not far off, and Fudhayl heard one of the travellers say to\nanother, \"We must rise and be going, lest Fudhayl should arrive and rob\nus.\" Fudhayl then came forward and said, \"I have good news for you.\nFudhayl has entered upon the path of penitence, and is more likely to\nflee from you than you from him.\" Then he departed, after having asked\ntheir pardon for his former misdeeds. For some time he resided at Mecca,\nwhere he received instruction from Abou Hanifeh, and subsequently\nreturned to his own country, where his sanctity became widespread.\n\nIt is related that one night the Caliph Harun-al-Rashid said to Fazl the\nBarmecide, \"Take me to a man by whose aid I may rise out of the moral\ntorpor into which I have fallen.\" Fazl took him to the door of a\ncelebrated ascetic, Sofyan ibn Oyaina, who asked on their knocking, \"Who\nis there?\" \"The Prince of the Faithful,\" answered Fazl. \"Why did you not\nsend for me?\" said Sofyan, \"I would have come myself in person to serve\nhim.\" Al-Rashid, hearing this, said, \"This is not the man I seek.\" They\nthen departed, and knocked at the door of Fudhayl. As they arrived, the\nlatter was reciting the following verse of the Koran: \"Do those who have\ndone evil imagine that we shall set them on the same level with those\nwho have done well?\" Koran (Sura xlv., v. 20). The Caliph had no sooner\nheard this verse than he said, \"If it is good advice we are seeking,\nhere is enough for us.\" Then they knocked at the door. \"Who is there?\"\nasked Fudhayl. \"The Prince of the Faithful,\" Fazl answered. \"What do you\nwant?\" was the reply; \"I have nothing to do with you, leave me alone and\ndon't waste my time.\" \"But you should treat the Caliph with honour, and\nlet us in.\" \"It is for you to come in if you must, in spite of me,\"\nanswered Fudhayl. When the Caliph and his attendant entered, Fudhayl\nextinguished the lamp in order not to see the intruders.\nHarun-al-Rashid, having touched Fudhayl's hand in the dark, the latter\nexclaimed, \"How soft this hand is; may it escape hell fire.\" Having thus\nspoken, he rose to pray. As for the Caliph, he began to weep, and said,\n\"Speak to me at least one word.\" Fudhayl, when he had finished his\nprayers, said to him, \"O Harun, thy ancestor Abbas, who was the\npaternal uncle of the Prophet (on whom be peace!) said to him one day, O\nProphet of God, make me ruler over a nation. The Prophet replied, I have\nmade thee ruler over thyself. If thou rulest thine own body and keepest\nit constant in the service of the Lord, that is better than ruling a\nnation for a thousand years. Again, Omar, the son of Abd al Aziz, being\ninstalled on the throne of the Caliphate, sent for three of his intimate\nfriends, and said to them, 'Behold me caught in the toils of the\nCaliphate; how shall I get rid of them? Many people consider power a\nblessing; I regard it as a calamity.'\"\n\nThen Fudhayl added, \"O Harun, if thou wishest to escape the punishment\nof the Day of Judgment, regard each old man among the Moslems as thy\nfather, the young men as thy brothers, the women as thy sisters. O\nHarun, I fear lest thy handsome visage be scorched by the flames of\nhell. Fear the Most High, and know that He will interrogate thee on the\nDay of Resurrection.\" At these words, Harun-al-Rashid wept copiously.\nThen Fazl said to Fudhayl, \"Say no more; you have killed the Caliph with\ngrief.\" \"Oh Haman!\"[14] Fudhayl answered, \"it is not I, it is thou and\nthy relations who have misled the Caliph and destroyed him.\" Hearing\nthese words, Harun-al-Rashid wept still more bitterly, and said to Fazl,\n\"Be silent! If he has called you Haman, he has (tacitly) compared me to\nPharaoh.\" Then, addressing Fudhayl, he asked him, \"Have you any debt to\npay?\" \"Yes,\" he answered, \"that of the service which I owe to the Most\nHigh. He furnishes me with subsistence, I have no need to borrow.\" Then\nHarun-al-Rashid placed in Fudhayl's hand a purse in which were a\nthousand pieces of gold, saying, \"This money is lawfully acquired, I\nhave inherited it from my mother.\" \"Ah!\" exclaimed Fudhayl, \"my advice\nhas been wasted; my object in giving it was to lighten thy burden; thou\nseekest to make mine more heavy.\" At these words, Harun-al-Rashid rose,\nsaluted him, and departed. All the way home he kept repeating to\nhimself, \"This Fudhayl is a great teacher.\" On another occasion the\nCaliph is reported to have said to Fudhayl, \"How great is thy\nself-abnegation,\" to which Fudhayl made answer, \"Thine is greater.\" \"How\nso?\" said the Caliph. \"Because I make abnegation of this world, and thou\nmakest abnegation of the next; now this world is transitory, and the\nnext will endure for ever.\"\n\nSofian Tsavri relates the following anecdote. \"One night I was talking\nwith Fudhayl, and after we had been conversing on all kinds of subjects,\nI said to him, 'What a pleasant evening we have had, and what\ninteresting conversation.' 'No,' he said, 'neither the evening nor the\nconversation have been good.' 'Why so?' I remarked. 'Because,' he said,\n'you sought to speak words which might please me, and I sought to answer\nso as to gratify you. Both of us, pre-occupied with our talk, had\nforgotten the Most High. It would be better for each of us to sit still\nin his place and to lift up his heart towards God.'\"\n\nA stranger coming to Fudhayl one day was asked by the latter for what\npurpose he came. \"I have come,\" he answered, \"to talk with you, and to\nfind in so doing calm of mind,\" \"That is to say,\" broke in Fudhayl, \"you\nwish to mislead me with lies, and desire me to do the same to you. Be\noff about your business.\"\n\n[15]But with all his austerity of life, his prolonged fasts and\nwatchings, his ragged dress and wearisome pilgrimages, he preferred the\npractice of interior virtue and purity of intention to all outward\nobservances, and used often to say that \"he who is modest and compliant\nto others and lives in meekness and patience gains a higher reward by so\ndoing than if he fasted all his days and watched in prayer all his\nnights.\" At so high a price did he place obedience to a spiritual guide,\nand so necessary did he deem it, that he declared, \"Had I a promise of\nwhatever I should ask in prayer, yet would I not offer that prayer save\nin union with a superior.\"\n\nBut his favourite virtue was the love of God in perfect conformity to\nHis will above all hope or fear. Thus, when his only son (whose virtues\nresembled his father's) died in early age, Fudhayl was seen with a\ncountenance of unusual cheerfulness, and, being asked by his intimate\ndisciple, Abou Ali, the reason wherefore, he answered, \"It was God's\ngood pleasure, and it is therefore my good pleasure also.\"\n\nOthers of his sayings are the following: \"To leave aught undone for the\nesteem of men is hypocrisy, and to do ought for their esteem is\nidolatry.\" \"Much is he beguiled who serves God for fear or hope, for His\ntrue service is for mere love.\" \"I serve God because I cannot help\nserving Him for very love's sake.\"\n\n   [13] Koran, Sura 57, v 15.\n\n   [14] According to the Koran, Haman was the vizier of Pharaoh whom\n   he misled by bad advice.\n\n   [15] Vide Palgrave: \"Asceticism among Mohammedan nations.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nBAYAZID BASTAMI\n(D 874 AD)\n\n\nBayazid Bastami, whose grandfather was a Zoroastrian converted to Islam,\nwas distinguished for his piety while still a child. His mother used to\nsend him regularly to the mosque to read the Koran with a mullah. When\nhe reached the chapter \"Luqman,\" he read the verse, \"Show thy gratitude\nin serving Me, and show thy gratitude to thy parents in serving them.\"\nHe asked his teacher the meaning of the verse, and had no sooner heard\nit explained than he immediately ran home. When she saw him, his mother\nsaid, \"Why have you come home so early, my child? Have they sent you for\nthe fees?\" \"Mother,\" answered Bayezid, \"I have just read the verse in\nwhich the Lord commands me to serve Him, and to serve thee; but, as I\ncannot serve in two places at once, I have come to propose to you that\nyou should ask the Lord to give me to you in order that I may serve you,\nor that you should yourself give me to the Lord that I may serve Him.\"\n\"Since that is the case,\" said his mother, \"I give you up to the Lord,\nand renounce all my rights over you.\" Accordingly, a few years\nafterwards, Bayazid left his native village Bastam, and for thirty years\nlived as a bare-footed ascetic in the deserts of Syria. Once during\nthis time Bayazid came home and listened at the door of his mother's\nhouse before going in. He heard her saying in prayer, \"May God bless my\npoor exile, may the hearts of the pious be rejoiced by him and accord\nhim grace.\" Bayazid, hearing these words, wept, and knocked at the door.\n\"Who is there?\" she asked. \"Thy exile,\" he answered. No sooner had she\nopened the door than, embracing Bayazid, she said to him, weeping, \"O my\nson, separated from thee as I have been, my eyes have lost the power to\nsee, and my back is bent,\" and they both mingled their tears together.\n\nSome time after Bayazid said to a friend, \"What I ought to have known\nmost clearly is just what I have only learnt when too late--to serve my\nmother. That which I sought in devoting myself to so many religious\nexercises, in putting myself at the service of others, and in exiling\nmyself far from my kindred and my country, see, how I have discovered\nit. One night when my mother asked for water, as there was none in the\npitcher, I went to the canal to draw some. It was a winter night, and\nthe frost was very sharp. While I had gone for the water, my mother had\nfallen asleep again. I stood waiting with the full pitcher in my hand\ntill she should awake. When she did so, she asked for water, but when I\nwished to give it her, I found that the water was frozen, and the handle\nof the jug stuck fast to my hand. 'Why,' said my mother, 'did you not\nput it down?' 'Because I feared,' I answered, 'not to be ready when you\nasked for it.' That same night the Lord revealed to me all that I wanted\nto know.\"\n\nBayazid used to tell the following story. \"A man came to see me, and\nasked where I was going. 'I am going to Mecca,' I said, 'to make the\ncircuit of the Kaaba.'[16] 'How much money hast thou?' he asked. 'Two\nhundred pieces of gold,' I answered. 'Very well,' he said, 'give them me\nand walk seven times round me. By this act of charity thou wilt deserve\na greater recompense than thou wouldest obtain at the Kaaba.'[17] I did\nas he asked, and that year I did not make the pilgrimage.\"\n\nOne day the thought crossed Bayazid's mind that he was the greatest Sufi\nof the age. But no sooner had it done so, than he understood it was an\naberration on his part. \"I rose immediately,\" he said, \"and went some\nway into the desert of Khorassan, where I sat down. I took then the\nresolution of not moving from the spot where I was seated till the Lord\nshould send me someone who would make me see myself as I really was. I\nwaited thus for three days and three nights. On the fourth night a rider\non a camel approached. I perceived on his countenance the marks of a\npenetrating mind. He halted, and, fixing his eyes on me, said, 'Thou\ndesirest doubtless, that in the twinkling of an eye I should cause to be\nswallowed up the village of Bastam and all its population, together with\nits riches, and Bayazid himself.' At these words I was seized with an\nindescribable fear, and asked him, 'Whence comest thou?' 'O Bayazid,' he\nanswered, 'while thou hast been seated here I have travelled three\nthousand miles. Take care, O Bayazid, to place a curb on thy heart, and\nnot to forget the road; else shalt thou infallibly perish.' Then he\nturned his back and departed.\"\n\nOne night Bayazid, having gone out of his house, went to the\nburial-ground to perform his devotions. There he found a young man\nplaying a guitar, who came towards him. Bayazid, considering music\nunlawful, exclaimed, \"There is no might or power except in God.\"[18] The\nyoung man, irritated, struck the head of Bayazid with his guitar,\nbreaking it, and wounding him. Bayazid returned home. The next morning\nvery early he placed some sweetmeats and some pieces of gold in a dish\nand sent it to the young man, charging the messenger to say from him,\n\"Last night you broke your guitar by striking my head with it; take,\ntherefore, this money, buy another guitar, and eat the sweetmeats so\nthat there may remain no rancour in your heart.\" When he had received\nthe message, the young man came in tears to Bayazid, asked his pardon,\nand repented.\n\nOn another occasion, Bayazid was saying his prayers in company with a\nfriend. When they had finished their devotions, his friend said to him,\n\"Tell me, Bayazid, you do not ask anything of anyone, you do not engage\nin any industry; whence do you get your provision?\" \"Wait a little,\"\nsaid Bayazid, \"I am going to say my prayers again.\" \"Why?\" \"Because it\nis unlawful to pray with a man who does not know Who is the Bestower of\ndaily bread.\"\n\nHatim Assam used to say to his disciples, \"If, on the Day of Judgment\nyou do not intercede for those who will be conducted to hell, you are\nnot my disciples.\" Bayazid, having heard this, said in his turn, \"Those\nonly are my disciples who, on the Day of Judgment, will stand on the\nbrink of hell, in order to seize and save the wretches cast down\nthither, even were it necessary to enter hell themselves for the\nsalvation of the others.\"\n\nBayazid related as follows. \"One day I heard a Voice, which said, 'O\nBayazid, our treasure-house is brimmed full with acts of adoration and\ndevotion offered by men; bring Us something which is not in Our\ntreasury.' 'But, O God,' I cried, 'what then shall I bring?' And the\nvoice answered me, 'Bring Me sorrow of heart, humility, contrition.'\"\n\nAnother time he said, \"After having endured the rigours of asceticism\nfor forty years, one night I found myself before the doors and curtains\nwhich hide the throne of God. 'For pity's sake,' I exclaimed, groaning,\n'let me pass.' 'O Bayazid,' cried a Voice, 'you still possess a pitcher\nand an old cloak; you cannot pass.' Then I cast away the pitcher and the\ncloak, and I heard the Voice again address me, 'O Bayazid, go and say to\nthose who do not know: \"Behold, for forty years I have practised\nrigorous asceticism. Well, till I cast away my broken pitcher and torn\ncloak, I could not find access to God; and you, who are entangled in the\nties of worldly interests, how shall you discover the way to Him?\"'\"\n\nOne night, after having said his evening prayer, Bayazid remained\nstanding till the morning, and shedding tears. When morning came, his\nservant asked him, \"What has happened to you to-night?\" \"Methought I had\narrived at the throne of God,\" replied Bayazid, and I said to it, 'O\nThrone, we are taught that the Lord rests on thee.' 'O Bayazid,' replied\nthe throne, 'it is said here that the Lord dwells in a humble heart; but\nwhere is the intelligence capable of penetrating this mystery? Heavenly\nbeings question earthly ones concerning it, and they only cast the\nquestion back.'\n\nBayazid said once, \"When I had arrived at the station of Proximity, I\nheard a Voice say to me, 'O Bayazid, ask what thou hast to ask.' 'My\nGod,' I answered, 'Thou art the Object of my desire.' 'O Bayazid,' the\nVoice replied, 'if there lingers in thee an atom of earthly desire, and\ntill thou art reduced to nothing in the station of Annihilation, thou\ncanst not find Me.' 'My God,' I answered, 'I shall not return from Thy\nCourt empty-handed; I wish to ask something from Thee.' 'Very well, ask\nit.' 'Grant me mercy for all men.' The Voice said, 'O Bayazid lift up\nthine eyes.' I lifted them, and I saw that the Most High was far more\ninclined to have mercy on His servants than I. 'Lord,' I cried, 'have\nmercy on Satan.' 'O Bayazid,' the Voice answered, 'Satan is made of\nfire, and fire must needs go to the fire. Take heed lest thou thyself\ndeserve to go there.'\"\n\nOne day, when Bayazid was walking along the road, a young man who\nfollowed him closely, setting his feet in his tracks, said to him, \"Tear\noff a piece of thy cloak and give it me, in order that thy blessing may\nrest upon me.\" Bayazid answered, \"Although thou strip Bayazid of his\nskin and clothe thyself with it, it will profit thee nothing, unless\nthou reproduce the actions of Bayazid.\"\n\nAmongst other remarkable utterances of Bayazid are the following. \"When\nfrom hatred to the world I fled to the Lord, His love so filled my heart\nthat I hated myself.\" \"He who relies on his acts of piety is worse than\nhe who commits sin.\" \"There are those among the servants of the Lord who\nwould utter groans like the damned in hell if one put them in possession\nof the eight paradises without Him.\" \"A single grain of the love of God\nis worth more than a hundred thousand paradises.\" \"He whom the Lord\nloves is known by three distinct signs--his liberality is like the sea,\nhis kindness is like the sun, his humility is like the earth, which\nallows itself to be trampled on by everyone.\" \"Whoso has the knowledge\nof the Lord receives from Him intuitional wisdom in such a manner that\nhe needs not to have recourse to anyone to learn anything.\"\n\nBeing asked his age, he replied, \"I am four years old.\" \"How is that,\nSheikh?\" they said. \"For seventy years,\" he said, \"I have been enveloped\nin the veils of this dull world; it is only four years since I\ndisentangled myself from them and see God.\" Being asked to define\nSufism, he said, \"Sufism consists in giving up repose, and accepting\nsuffering.\"\n\nIn the last moments of his life he put on a girdle and seated himself in\nthe \"mihrab\"[19] of the mosque. Then, turning his cloak and cap inside\nout, he said, \"My God, I ask for no reward for the austerities I have\npractised all my life. I say nothing of the prayers which I have prayed\nduring whole nights, of the fasts I have kept during the day, of the\nnumber of times I have said the Koran through. O my God, thou knowest\nthat I think nothing of the works which I have done, and that so far\nfrom putting trust in them, I would rather forget them. Besides, is it\nnot thou who hast covered my nakedness with the raiment of these good\nworks? As for me, I consider myself as a fire-worshipper who has grown\nto old age in a state of infidelity. But now I say 'Allah! Allah!' and I\ncut the girdle of the idolator. I enter Islam as a new proselyte, and I\nrepeat the profession of the Moslem faith. I reckon all that I have done\nnothing. Deign, for Thy mercy's sake, to blot out all my evil deeds and\ntransgressions.\" When he was dying, he again ejaculated \"Allah! Allah!\"\nThen he cried, \"My God, I have passed my life in neglect of thee; I have\nnot served Thee faithfully,\" and expired.\n\n   [16] Pilgrims at Mecca go round the Kaaba seven times.\n\n   [17] An allusion to the mystics' doctrine that man himself is the\n   true Kaaba or House of God.\n\n   [18] A formula used by devout Mussalmen at the sight of anything\n   evil.\n\n   [19] The \"Mihrab\" is the niche or apse in the wall of the mosque\n   facing towards Mecca.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nZU'N NUN OF EGYPT\n(D 860 AD)\n\n\nIbn Khalliqan, the historian, calls Zu'n Nun \"the first person of his\nage for learning, devotion and communion with the Divinity.\" His father,\nwho was a native of Nubia, was a slave, enfranchised and adopted by the\ntribe of Koraish. Zu'n Nun, being asked why he had renounced the world,\nsaid, \"I went forth from Misr (Egypt) journeying to a certain village,\nand I fell asleep in one of the deserts on the way. And my eye was\nopened, and lo, a little bird, still blind, fell from its nest to the\nground. Then the ground split open and two trays came forth, one of\ngold, the other of silver; in one was sesame, and in the other water;\nand the bird ate of that, and drank of this. 'That', said I, 'is a\nsufficient warning for me; I renounce the world.' And then I did not\nquit the door of divine mercy till I was let in.\"\n\nHaving been denounced by his enemies to the Caliph Mutawakkil of Bagdad,\nhe was summoned from Egypt to appear before him. On entering into his\npresence, he addressed a pious exhortation to the Caliph, who shed\ntears, and dismissed him honourably. After this, whenever men of piety\nwere spoken of before the Caliph, he would weep and say, \"Speaking of\npious men, let me have Zu'n Nun.\"\n\nAt Cairo, however, Zu'n Nun did not come off so easily. He openly\nrebuked the vices of the inhabitants, and especially of the local\ngovernors, who caused him to be beaten and imprisoned. \"All this is as\nnothing, so I be not separated from thee, O my God,\" was his exclamation\nwhile dragged through the crowded street with blows and insults by the\nsoldiers of the garrison.\n\nZu'n Nun related the following story of himself. \"One day I saw a\nbeautiful palace on the bank of a river where I was performing my\ndevotions. On the roof of this palace I perceived a lovely maiden.\nCurious of learning who she was, I approached and asked her the name of\nher master. She answered, 'O Zu'n Nun when you were still a great way\noff, I took you for a madman, when you came nearer, for a religious man,\nwhen you came still nearer, for one of the initiated. I now perceive\nthat you are neither mad, nor religious, nor initiated. If you had been\nmad, you would not have engaged in religious exercises; if you had been\nreligious, you would not have looked at a person whom you ought not to\napproach; if you had been initiated, nothing would have drawn your\nattention away from God.' So saying, she disappeared. I then recognised\nthat she was no mortal, but an angel.\"\n\n[20]Zu'n Nun relates that he heard his spiritual teacher Schakran\nrecount the following story. \"When I was young, I lived on the eastern\nbank of the Nile, near Cairo, and gained my livelihood by ferrying\npassengers across to the western side. One day, as I was sitting in my\nboat near the river edge, an aged man presented himself before me; he\nwore a tattered robe, a staff was in his hand, and a water-skin\nsuspended from his neck. 'Will you ferry me over for the love of God?'\nsaid he. I answered, 'Yes.' 'And will you fulfil my commission for the\nlove of God?' 'Yes.' Accordingly, I rowed him across to the western\nside. On alighting from the boat, he pointed to a solitary tree some\ndistance off, and said to me, 'Now go your way, and do not trouble\nyourself further about me till to-morrow; nor indeed will it be in your\npower, even should you desire it, for as soon as I have left you, you\nwill at once forget me. But to-morrow, at this same hour of noon, you\nwill suddenly call me to mind. Then go to that tree which you see before\nyou, I shall be lying dead in its shade. Say the customary prayers over\nmy corpse, and bury me; then take my robe, my staff and the water-skin,\nand return with them to the other side of the river; there deliver them\nto him who shall first ask them of you. This is my commission.'\n\n\"Having said this, he immediately departed. I looked after him, but soon\nlost sight of him; and then, as he had himself already forewarned me, I\nutterly forgot him. But next day, at the approach of noon, I suddenly\nremembered the event, and hastily crossing the river alone, I came to\nthe western bank, and then made straight for the tree. In its shade I\nfound him stretched out at full length, with a calm and smiling face,\nbut dead. I recited over him the customary prayers, and buried him in\nthe sand at the foot of the tree; then I took the garment, the staff and\nthe water-skin, and returned to my boat. Arrived at the eastern side, I\nfound standing on the shore to meet me a young man whom I knew as a most\ndissolute fellow of the town, a hired musician by profession. He was\ngaudily dressed, his countenance bore the traces of recent debauch, and\nhis fingers were stained with henna. 'Give me the bequest,' said he.\nAmazed at such a demand from such a character, 'What bequest?' I\nanswered. 'The staff, the water-skin and the garment,' was his reply.\nThereupon I drew them, though unwillingly, from the bottom of the boat,\nwhere I had concealed them, and gave them to him. He at once stripped\noff his gay clothes, put on the tattered robe, hung the water-skin round\nhis neck, took the staff in his hand, and turned to depart.\n\n\"I, however, caught hold of him and exclaimed, 'For God's sake, ere you\ngo, tell me the meaning of this, and how this bequest has become yours,\nsuch as I know you.' 'By no merit of my own, certainly,' answered he;\n'but I passed last night at a wedding-feast, with many boon companions,\nin singing, drinking deep, and mad debauch. As the night wore away and\nmorning drew near, tired out with pleasure and heavy with wine, I lay\ndown to sleep. Then in my sleep one stood by me, and said, \"God has at\nthis very hour taken to himself the soul of such an ascetic, and has\nchosen you to fill his place on earth. Rise and go to the river bank,\nthere you will meet a ferryman in his boat; demand from him the bequest.\nHe will give you a garment, a staff and a water-skin; take them, and\nlive as their first owner lived.\"'\n\n\"Such was his story. He then bade me farewell, and went his way. But I\nwept bitterly over my own loss, in that I had not been chosen in his\nplace as successor to the dead saint, and thought that such a favour\nwould have been more worthily bestowed on me than on him. But that same\nnight, as I slept, I heard a voice saying unto me, 'Schakran, is it\ngrief to thee that I have called an erring servant of Mine to\nrepentance? The favour is My free gift, and I bestow such on whom I\nwill, nor yet do I forget those who seek Me.' I awoke from sleep, and\nrepented of my impatient ambition.\"\n\nZu'n Nun had a disciple who had made the pilgrimage to the Kaaba forty\ntimes, and during forty years had passed all his nights in devotional\nexercises. One day he came to Zu'n Nun and said, \"During the forty years\nthat I have practised austerity, nothing of the unseen world has been\nrevealed to me; the Friend (_i.e._, God) has not spoken to me, nor cast\nupon me a single look. I fear lest I die and leave this world in\ndespair. Thou, who are the physician of sick souls, devise some means\nfor my cure.\" \"Go,\" Zu'n Nun replied, \"this evening, omit your prayers,\neat as much as you like, and go to sleep. Doubtless, if the Friend does\nnot look upon you with an eye of mercy, He will at any rate look upon\nyou with an eye of anger.\" The dervish went away, but said his prayers\nas usual, saying to himself that it would be wrong to omit them. Then he\nate to satiety, and went to sleep. In his dreams he saw the Prophet, who\nsaid to him, \"O Dervish, the Friend sends thee his salutation, and says,\n'Surely that man is pusillanimous who, as soon as he has arrived at My\ncourt, hastens to return; set thy feet on this path like a brave man,\nand then We will give thee the reward for all the austerities which\nthou hast practised for forty years, and make thee reach the goal of thy\ndesires.'\"\n\nPerhaps someone may ask why Zu'n Nun told his disciple to omit his\nprayers. We should consider that sheikhs are physicians knowing the\nremedy for every kind of disease. Now there are many diseases whose\ntreatment involves the use of poisons. Besides, Zu'n Nun knew well that\nhis disciple would certainly not neglect his prayers. There are in the\nspiritual path (_tariqat_) many things not justifiable according to the\nwritten law (_shariat_). It is thus that the Lord ordered Abraham to\nslay his son, an act unlawful according to the written law. But whoever,\nwithout having attained to so high a degree in the spiritual life as\nZu'n Nun, should act as he did in this matter would be a being without\nfaith or law; for each one in his actions must conform to the decisions\nof the written law.\n\nZu'n Nun related once the following. \"When I was making the circuit of\nthe Kaaba, I saw a man with a pale face and emaciated frame. I said to\nhim, 'Dost thou really love Him?' 'Yes,' he answered. 'Does the Friend\ncome near thee?' 'Yes, assuredly.' 'Is He kind to thee?' 'Yes,\ncertainly.' 'What!' I exclaimed, 'the Friend approaches thee, He is kind\nto thee, and look at the wretched state of thy body!' He replied,\n'Simpleton! Knowest thou not that they whom the Friend approaches most\nnearly, are the most severely tried?'\"\n\n\"One day,\" said Zu'n Nun, \"when I was travelling, I arrived at a plain\ncovered with snow. I saw a fire-worshipper who was strewing seeds of\nmillet there. 'O infidel,' I said, 'why are you strewing this millet?'\n'To-day,' he said, 'as it has been snowing, I reflected that the birds\nwould find nothing to eat, and I strewed this millet that they may find\nsome food, and I hope that the Most High will perchance have mercy upon\nme.' 'The grain which an infidel sows,' I replied, 'does not germinate,\nand thou art a fire-worshipper.' 'Well,' he answered, 'even if God does\nnot accept my offering, may I not hope that He sees what I am doing?'\n'Certainly He sees it,' I said. 'If He sees it,' he remarked 'that is\nenough for me.'\n\n\"Long afterwards I met this infidel at Mecca making the circuit of the\nKaaba. He recognised me, and exclaimed, 'O Zu'n Nun, the Most High,\nwitnessing my act, has accepted it. The grain I sowed has indeed sprung\nup, for God has given me faith, and brought me to His House.' \"Seeing\nhim,\" added Zu'n Nun, \"I rejoiced, and cried, 'My God, dost Thou give\nparadise to an infidel for a handful of millet seed?' Then I heard a\nvoice reply, 'O Zu'n Nun, the mercy of the Lord is without limit.'\"\n\nZu'n Nun daily asked three things of God in prayer. The first was never\nto have any certainty of his means of subsistence for the morrow. The\nsecond was never to be in honour among men. And the third was to see\nGod's face in mercy at his death-hour. Near the end of his life, one of\nhis more intimate disciples ventured to question him on this triple\nprayer, and what had been its result. \"As for the first and second\npetitions,\" answered Zu'n Nun, \"God has liberally granted them, and I\ntrust in His goodness that He will not refuse me the third.\"\n\nDuring his last moments he was asked what he wished. \"I wish,\" he\nreplied, \"that if I have only one more breath left, it may be spent in\nblessing the Most High.\" As he said this, he breathed his last.\n\nHe died 860 A.D., and his tomb is still an object of popular veneration\nat Cairo.\n\n   [20] Vide Palgrave: Asceticism among Muhammadan Nations.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nMANSUR HALLAJ\n(D 922 AD)\n\n\nMansur Hallaj (\"the cotton-comber\"), a Persian, of Zoroastrian lineage,\nwas a pupil of Junaid of Bagdad, a more sober-minded Sufi than his\ncontemporary Bayazid Bastami. Mansur himself however was of an\nenthusiastic temperament, and took no pains to guard his language. One\nof his extraordinary utterances, \"I am the truth,\" led at last to his\nexecution, \"the Truth\" being one of the recognised names of God in\nMuhammadan nomenclature. Notwithstanding this, even at the present day\nhe passes among the Sufis for one of their greatest saints, while the\nmore orthodox regard him as a daring blasphemer who received his\ndeserts. \"His contemporaries,\" says a Muhammadan writer, \"entertained as\nmany different views concerning him as the Jews and Christians with\nrespect to the Messiah.\" Certainly when we read the various accounts of\nhim by authors of different tendencies, if we did not know to the\ncontrary, we might suppose ourselves reading about different persons\nbearing the same name. The orthodox regard him chiefly as a sorcerer in\nleague with supernatural powers, whether celestial or infernal, for he\ncaused, it is said, summer fruits to appear in winter and _vice versa_.\nHe could reveal in open day what had been done in secret, knew\neveryone's most private thoughts, and when he extended his empty hand in\nthe air he drew it back full of coins bearing the inscription, \"Say: God\nis One.\" Among the moderate Shiites, who had more than one point of\ncontact with the Sufis, it is not a question of sorcery at all. For them\nthe doctrine of Hallaj, which he had also practised himself, meant that\nby using abstinence, by refusing pleasure and by chastising the flesh,\nman can lift himself gradually to the height of the elect and even of\nangels. If he perseveres in this path he is gradually purged from\neverything human, he receives the spirit of God as Jesus did, and all\nthat he does is done by God.\n\nThe Shiites say, moreover, that the reason for which Hallaj was put to\ndeath should be found not in his utterances but in the astonishing\ninfluence which he exercised over the highest classes of society, on\nprinces and their courts, and which caused much disquietude to others,\nespecially to the orthodox mullahs. Hallaj has even been judged not\nunfavourably by those among the orthodox who were characterised by a\ncertain breadth of view, and who, like Ghazzali, although they disliked\nfree-thinking, yet wished for a religion of the heart, and were not\ncontent with the dry orthodoxy of the great majority of theologians.\nGhazzali indeed has gone so far as to put a favourable construction on\nthe following sayings of Hallaj: \"I am the Truth,\" \"There is nothing in\nParadise except God.\" He justifies them on the ground of the speaker's\nexcessive love for God. In his eyes, as well as in those of other great\nauthorities, Hallaj is a saint and a martyr. The most learned\ntheologians of the tenth century, on the contrary, believed that he\ndeserved execution as an infidel and a blasphemer. Even the greatest\nadmirers of Hallaj, the Sufis, are not agreed regarding him. Some of\nthem question whether he were a thorough-going pantheist, and think that\nhe taught a numerical Pantheism, an immanence of the Deity in certain\nsouls only. But this is not the opinion of the majority of the Sufis.\nThe high esteem which they entertain for him is best understood by\ncomparing the account they give of his martyrdom with that by orthodox\nwriters. The latter runs as follows:\n\nThe common people of Bagdad were circulating reports that Hallaj could\nraise the dead, and that the Jinn[21] were his slaves, and brought him\nwhatever he desired. Hamid, the vizier of the Caliph Muqtadir, was much\ndisturbed by this, and requested the Caliph to have Hallaj and his\npartizans arrested. But the grand chamberlain Nasir was strongly in his\nfavour, and opposed this; his influence, however, being less than that\nof the vizier, Hallaj and some of his followers were arrested. When the\nlatter were questioned, they admitted that they regarded their leader as\nGod, since he raised the dead; but when he was questioned himself, he\nsaid, \"God preserve me from claiming divinity or the dignity of a\nprophet; I am a mortal man who adores the Most High.\"\n\nThe vizier then summoned two cadis[22] and the principal theologians,\nand desired that they should give sentence against Hallaj. They answered\nthat they could not pronounce sentence without proofs and without\nconfession on the part of the accused. The vizier, foiled in his\nattempt, caused Hallaj to be brought several times before him, and tried\nby artfully devised questions to elicit from him some heretical\nutterance, but in vain. Finally he succeeded in finding in one of his\nbooks the assertion that if a man wished to make the pilgrimage to\nMecca, but was hindered from doing so by some reason or other, he could\nperform the equivalent of it in the following way. He should go through\nall the prescribed circuits in a chamber carefully cleansed and closed.\nIn this chamber also he should give a feast of the choicest food to\nthirty orphans, should wait upon them himself, make them a present of\nclothing, and give them each seven dirhems.[23] All this, he maintained,\nwould be a work more meritorious than the pilgrimage itself.\n\nThe vizier showed to the cadi Abou Amr this passage which scandalised\nhim. Abou Amr then asked Hallaj, \"Whence did you derive this idea?\"\nHallaj quoted a work of Hassan of Basra, from which he said he had taken\nit. \"It is a lie, O infidel, whose death is lawful,\" exclaimed the cadi;\n\"the book you speak of was expounded to us at Mecca by one of the\nlearned, but what you have written is not in it.\" The vizier eagerly\ncaught up the expressions \"O infidel,\" etc., which escaped the cadi in\nhis excitement, and asked him to pronounce sentence of death. The cadi\nrefused; that, he said, was not his intention; but the vizier insisted,\nand ended by obtaining the sentence of death, which was signed by all\nthe maulvies present. In vain Hallaj sought to prove that the\ncondemnation was unjust. \"You have no right,\" he exclaimed, \"to shed my\nblood. My religion is Islam; I believe in the traditions handed down\nfrom the Prophet, and I have written on this subject books which you can\nfind everywhere. I have always acknowledged the four Imams[24] and the\nfirst four Caliphs. I invoke the help of God to save my life!\"\n\nHe was taken to prison. The vizier despatched the sentence of death,\nsigned by the maulvies, to the Caliph, who ordered that Hallaj should be\nhanded to the Chief of Police and receive a thousand strokes of the rod,\nand then another thousand if he did not die from the effects of the\nfirst scourging, and finally be decapitated. The vizier, however, did\nnot transmit the order accurately, but modified it as follows: \"If\nHallaj does not die under the blows of the rod, let him first have a\nhand cut off, then a foot, then the other hand and foot. Lastly let his\nhead be cut off, and his body burnt.\"\n\nHallaj underwent the terrible punishment with admirable courage, and\nwhen his body had been burnt the ashes were cast into the Tigris. But\nhis disciples did not believe in his death; they were persuaded that a\nperson resembling him had been martyred in his place, and that he would\nshow himself again after forty days. Some declared that they had met him\nmounted on an ass on the road leading to Nahrawan, and had heard him\nsay, \"Be not like those simpletons who think that I have been scourged\nand put to death.\"\n\nThus far the theologians' account. That given by Fariduddin Attar in his\n\"Tazkirat-ul-Aulia\" is as follows:\n\nThis is he who was a martyr in the way of truth, whose rank has become\nexalted, whose outer and inner man were pure, who has been a pattern of\nloyalty in love, whom an irresistible longing drew towards the\ncontemplation of the face of God; this is the enthusiast Mansur Hallaj,\nmay the mercy of God be upon him! He was intoxicated with a love whose\nflames consumed him. The miracles he worked were such that the learned\nwere thunderstruck at them. He was a man whose range of vision was\nimmense, whose words were riddles, and profoundly versed in the\nknowledge of mysteries. Born in the canton of Baida in the province of\nShiraz, he grew up at Wasit.\n\nAbd Allah Khafif used to say, \"Mansur really possessed the knowledge of\nthe truth.\" \"I and Mansur,\" declared Shibli,[25] \"followed the same\npath; they regarded me as mad, and my life was saved thereby, while\nMansur perished because he was sane.\" If Mansur had been really astray\nin error, the two learned men we have just quoted would not have spoken\nof him in such terms. Many wise men, however, have reproached him for\nrevealing the mysteries of truth to the vulgar herd.\n\nWhen he had grown up, he was two years in the service of Abd Allah\nTeshtari. He made the pilgrimage to Mecca, and on his return became a\ndisciple of the Sufi Junaid. One day, when Mansur was plying him with\nquestions on certain obscure and difficult points, Junaid said, \"O\nMansur, before very long you will redden the head of the stake.\"[26]\n\"The day when I redden the head of the stake,\" rejoined Mansur, \"you\nwill cast away the garment of the dervish and assume that of ordinary\nmen.\" It is related that on the day when Mansur was taken to execution\nall the Ulama[27] signed the sentence of death. \"Junaid also must sign,\"\nsaid the Caliph. Junaid accordingly repaired to the college of the\nUlama, where, after putting on a mullah's robe and turban, he recorded\nin writing his opinion that \"though apparently Mansur deserved death,\ninwardly he possessed the knowledge of the Most High.\"\n\nHaving left Bagdad, Mansur spent a year at Tashter, then he spent five\nyears in travelling through Khorassan, Seistan and Turkestan. On his\nreturn to Bagdad, the number of his followers largely increased, and he\ngave utterance to many strange sayings which excited the suspicions of\nthe orthodox. At last he began to say, \"I am the Truth.\" These words\nwere repeated to the Caliph, and many persons renounced Mansur as a\nreligious leader and appeared as witnesses against him. Among these was\nJunaid, to whom the Caliph said, \"O Junaid, what is the meaning of this\nsaying of Mansur?\" \"O Caliph,\" answered Junaid, \"this man should be put\nto death, for such a saying cannot be reasonably explained.\" The Caliph\nthen ordered him to be cast into prison. There for a whole year he\ncontinued to hold discussions with the learned. At the end of that time\nthe Caliph forbade that anyone should have access to him; in\nconsequence, no one went to see him for five months except Abd Allah\nKhafif. Another time Ibn Ata sent someone to say to him, \"O Sheikh,\nwithdraw what you said, so that you may escape death.\" \"Nay, rather he\nwho sent you to me should ask forgiveness,\" replied Mansur. Ibn Ata,\nhearing this, shed tears and said, \"Alas, he is irreparably lost!\"\n\nIn order to force him to retract, he was first of all given three\nhundred blows with a rod, but in vain. He was then led to execution. A\ncrowd of about a hundred thousand men followed him, and as he looked\nround on them, he cried, \"True! True! True! I am the Truth!\"\n\nIt is said that among them was a dervish who asked him, \"What is love?\"\n\"Thou shalt see,\" Mansur replied, \"to-day and to-morrow and the day\nafter.\" And, as it happened, that day he was put to death, the next day\nhis body was burnt, and on the third his ashes were scattered to the\nwinds. He meant that such would be the results of his love to God. On\nhis son asking of him a last piece of advice, \"While the people of the\nworld,\" he said, \"spend their energies on earthly objects, do thou apply\nthyself to a study, the least portion of which is worth all that men and\nJinn can produce--the study of truth.\"\n\nAs he walked along lightly and alertly, though loaded with many chains,\nthey asked him the reason of his confident bearing. \"It is,\" he said,\n\"because I am going to the presence of the King.\" Then he added, \"My\nHost, in whom there is no injustice, has presented me with the drink\nwhich is usually given to a guest; but when the cups have began to\ncirculate he has sent for the executioner with his sword and leathern\ncarpet. Thus fares it with him who drinks with the Dragon[28] in July.\"\n\nWhen he reached the scaffold, he turned his face towards the western\ngate of Bagdad, and set his foot on the first rung of the ladder, \"the\nfirst step heavenward,\" as he said. Then he girded himself with a\ngirdle, and, lifting up his hands towards heaven, turned towards Mecca,\nand said exultantly, \"Let it be as He has willed.\" When he reached the\nplatform of the scaffold, a group of his disciples called out to him,\n\"What do you say regarding us, thy disciples, and regarding those who\ndeny thy claims and are about to stone thee?\" \"They will have a two-fold\nreward, and you only a single one,\" he answered, \"for you limit\nyourselves to having a good opinion of me, while they are carried on by\ntheir zeal for the unity of God and for the written law. Now in the law\nthe doctrine of God's unity is fundamental, while a good opinion is\nmerely accessory.\"\n\nShibli the Sufi stood in front of him and cried, \"Did we not tell thee\nnot to gather men together?\"[29] Then he added, \"O Hallaj, what is\nSufism?\" \"Thou seest,\" replied Hallaj, \"the least part of it.\" \"What is\nthen the highest?\" asked Shibli. \"Thou canst not attain to it,\" he\nanswered.\n\nThen they all began to stone him. Shibli making common cause with the\nothers threw mud at him. Hallaj uttered a cry. \"What,\" said one, \"you\nhave not flinched under this hail of stones, and now you cry out because\nof a little mud! Why is that?\" \"Ah!\" he replied, \"they do not know what\nthey are doing, and are excusable; but he grieves me because he knows I\nought not to be stoned at all.\"\n\nWhen they cut off his hands, he laughed and said, \"To cut off the hands\nof a fettered man is easy, but to sever the links which bind me to the\nDivinity would be a task indeed.\" Then they cut off his two feet. He\nsaid smiling, \"With these I used to accomplish my earthly journeys, but\nI have another pair of feet with which I can traverse both worlds. Hew\nthese off if ye can!\" Then, with his bleeding stumps, he rubbed his\ncheeks and arms. \"Why do you do that?\" he was asked. \"I have lost much\nblood,\" he answered, \"and lest you should think the pallor of my\ncountenance betokens fear, I have reddened my cheeks.\" \"But why your\narms.\" \"The ablutions of love must be made in blood,\" he replied.\n\nThen his eyes were torn out. At this a tumult arose in the crowd. Some\nburst into tears, others cast stones at him. When they were about to cut\nout his tongue, he exclaimed, \"Wait a little; I have something to say.\"\nThen, lifting his face towards heaven, he said, \"My God, for the sake of\nthese sufferings, which they inflict on me because of Thee, do not\ninflict loss upon them nor deprive them of their share of felicity.\nBehold, upon the scaffold of my torture I enjoy the contemplation of Thy\nglory.\" His last words were, \"Help me, O Thou only One, to whom there is\nno second!\" and he recited the following verse of the Koran, \"Those who\ndo not believe say, 'Why does not the day of judgment hasten?' Those who\nbelieve tremble at the mention of it, for they know that it is near.\"\nThen they cut out his tongue, and he smiled. Finally, at the time of\nevening prayer, his head was cut off. His body was burnt, and the ashes\nthrown into the Tigris.\n\nThe high opinion entertained of Mansur Hallaj by Fariduddin Attar, as\nseen in the above account, has been echoed by subsequent Sufi writers.\nJalaluddin Rumi, the great mystic poet, says of him:\n\n   \"Pharaoh said 'I am the Truth,'[30] and was laid low.\n     Mansur Hallaj said 'I am the Truth,' and escaped free.\n   Pharaoh's 'I' was followed by the curse of God.\n     Mansur's 'I' was followed by the mercies of God.\n   Because Pharaoh was a stone, Mansur a ruby,\n     Pharaoh an enemy of light, Mansur a friend.\n   Mansur's 'I am He,' was a deep mystic saying,\n     Expressing union with the light, not mere incarnation.\"[31]\n\nSimilarly Abdurrahman, the chief poet of the Afghans says:\n\n   \"Every one who is crucified like Mansur,\n   After death his cross becomes a fruitful tree.\"\n\n   [21] Spirits.\n\n   [22] Judges.\n\n   [23] A small coin.\n\n   [24] The founders of the four orthodox Sects.\n\n   [25] A celebrated contemporary Sufi\n\n   [26] Referring to punishment by impaling.\n\n   [27] Learned men.\n\n   [28] i.e. God.\n\n   [29] Koran V, v 70.\n\n   [30] According to the Koran, Pharaoh claimed divinity.\n\n   [31] Whinfield's Masnavi p. 248.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nHABIB AJAMI\n(D 773 AD)\n\n\nHabib Ajami was a rich usurer of Basra, and used to spend most of his\ntime going about and collecting the money which was due to him. He used\nalso to insist on being paid for the time so spent. One day he had gone\nto the house of one of his debtors, and when he had knocked at the door\nthe debtor's wife said to him, \"My husband is not at home.\" \"If he is\nnot,\" said Habib, \"pay me for my lost time and I will go.\" \"But I have\nnothing,\" replied the woman, \"except a neck of mutton.\" She fetched it\nand gave it to him. Habib took it home to his wife, and told her to cook\nit. \"But,\" said she, \"we have no bread or wood.\" So Habib went off\nagain, exacted his indemnity for lost time from another debtor, and\nbought wood and bread, which he took home. His wife set about cooking\nthe food, when a dervish appeared at the door asking alms. \"Go away,\"\nsaid Habib to him; \"you won't become rich with what you get here.\" The\ndervish departed in silence. Habib's wife prepared to put the food on\nthe plates, but when she looked into the cooking pot she saw a mass of\nblood. Filled with terror, she said to Habib, \"Your harshness towards\nthe dervish has brought this misfortune on us. All the food in the\ncooking pot has turned to blood.\" Habib, frightened himself, repented,\nand, as a pledge of the reality of his conversion, vowed to abandon the\npractice of usury. The following day was a Friday. Habib, having gone\nout, saw as he was walking along, children playing on the road. They no\nsooner saw him than they said to each other, \"Here is the usurer coming;\nlet us be off, lest the dust raised by his feet touch us and we become\ncursed like him.\" At these words Habib Ajami was profoundly stirred, and\nwent off to consult Hasan Basri, whom he found in the act of preaching\non the terrors of the judgment-day. Habib was so overcome with fear that\nhe fainted. When he came to himself, he made public confession of his\nsins in the presence of Hasan Basri and the congregation.\n\nThen he left the mosque and returned home. One of his debtors, seeing\nhim on the road, attempted to get out of his way, but Habib called after\nhim and said, \"Don't fly away; formerly you used to avoid me, but now it\nis I who seek to avoid you.\" As he approached his house he met the same\nchildren as before, and heard them say to one another, \"We must get out\nof the way, lest the dust raised by our feet should soil Habib, who has\nrepented.\" Habib, hearing this, exclaimed, \"O Lord, in that very hour,\nwhen, returning from my errors, I have taken refuge with Thee, Thou hast\nput affection for me in the hearts of Thy friends, and changed into\nblessings the curses which used to greet my name.\"\n\nHe remitted all the debts that were due to him, and gave public notice\nthat all his debtors had only to come and take back their bonds. They\nall came and did so. Then he gave away all the wealth he had been\namassing for years, till he had nothing left. He built a hermitage on\nthe banks of the Euphrates, where he gave himself up to a devotional\nlife, spending whole nights in prayer. During the day he attended the\ninstructions of Hasan Basri. At the commencement of his religious life\nhe received the appellation \"Ajami\" (ill-instructed) because he could\nnot pronounce the words of the Koran properly.\n\nAfter some time his wife began to complain, saying, \"I must really have\nsome money; we have neither food to eat nor clothes to wear.\" At this\ntime Habib was in the habit of going every day to his hermitage on the\nbanks of the river, and spending the day in devotional exercises. In the\nevenings he came home. One evening his wife asked him where he had been\nduring the day. \"I have been working,\" he replied. \"Very well, where are\nyour wages?\" she asked. \"My employer,\" said Habib, \"is a generous\nperson. He has promised to pay me at the end of ten days.\" So he\ncontinued spending his time as before. On the tenth day, as he reflected\nin his hermitage, he wondered what he should say to his wife when he\nreturned in the evening, and she wanted something to eat. That day four\nmen came to the house of Habib. One brought a quantity of flour, another\na sheep, a third a jar of honey, and the fourth a bottle of oil. Not\nlong after them a fifth came with a purse of gold. They gave all these\nto Habib's wife, saying to her, \"Your husband's Employer has sent\nthese,\" and they added, \"Tell your husband that his Master bids him\ncontinue his work, and He will continue his wages.\" Then they departed.\n\nIn the evening Habib came home, pensive and anxious. As he entered the\nhouse an odour of cooking greeted him. His wife hastened to meet him,\nand said, \"O Habib, go on working for your employer, for he is very\ngenerous, and has sent all that you see here, with this message that you\nare to go on working, and he will continue to pay you.\" Hearing this,\nHabib became more confirmed than ever in his resolve to give up the\nworld and to live to God.\n\nOne day Hasan Basri paid Habib a visit in his hermitage. The latter had\ntwo barley loaves and a little salt, which he placed before his guest.\nJust as the latter was commencing to eat and in the act of stretching\nout his hand, a dervish appeared at the door and asked for alms. Habib\nimmediately handed him the two loaves. Hasan, somewhat ruffled, said,\n\"Habib, you are a good man, but you would be none the worse for a little\nculture and intelligence. Don't you know that one ought never to take\nfood away from before a guest? At any rate, you might have given one of\nthose loaves to the dervish, and left the other.\" Habib made no reply.\nSome minutes afterwards a man came carrying in a napkin a roast lamb, a\nlarge plate of sweetmeats, and some money. He set them before Habib and\nsaid, \"Sir, so and so sends you these with his compliments.\" Habib and\nHasan made a hearty meal, and Habib distributed the money to some\npassing mendicants. Then he said to Hasan Basri, \"My master, you are a\ngood man, but it would have been better had you shown more sincerity in\nthis matter, for then you would have possessed both knowledge and\nsincerity, and the two go well together.\"\n\nOn another occasion Hasan Basri arrived at Habib's hermitage just as the\nlatter was commencing his evening prayers. Hearing him pronounce the\nwords \"al hamdu[32]\" as \"al hemdu,\" Hasan said to himself, \"This man\ncannot pronounce the words of the Koran properly; it is impossible to\npray with him,\" and he said his prayers apart. That same night he saw\nthe Lord in a dream, and asked him, \"Lord, what must I do to gain Thy\napproval.\" An answer came, \"O Hasan, thou hadst gained it, but didst not\nappreciate its value. Thou shouldest have prayed with Habib Ajami. Such\na prayer would have had more worth than all those which thou hast made\nin the course of thy life. The tongues of others may speak rightly, but\nthe heart of Habib feels rightly.\"\n\nOne day Hasan Basri, flying from the agents of Hejjaj ibn Yusuf, the\nbloodthirsty governor of Irak, took refuge in Habib's hermitage. The\npursuers, arriving, asked Habib whether Hasan had passed that way. \"No,\"\nhe said, \"he is here in my dwelling.\" They entered, and seeing no one\nsaid to Habib, \"O Habib, whatever treatment Hejjaj deals out to you, you\nwill have richly deserved it. Why did you lie to us?\" \"I tell you,\" said\nHabib, \"Hasan is within this dwelling; if you don't see him, what can I\ndo?\" They again made a search, but not succeeding in finding Hasan,\ndeparted. Hasan then came out of his hiding-place, and said, \"O Habib,\nis this the way thou repayest thy debt to thy master, by betraying\nhim?\" \"Master,\" answered Habib, \"it is thanks to my truthfulness that\nthou hast escaped. If I had told a lie we should have both been caught.\"\nHasan then said, \"What words didst thou recite as a safeguard?\" \"I\nrepeated ten times,\" said Habib, \"the 'Verse of the throne,'[33] ten\ntimes 'Believe in the Apostle,'[34] six times 'Say, there is one God,'\nand in addition I said, 'Lord, I entrust Hasan to Thee; take care of\nhim.'\"\n\nHasan then asked Habib how he had arrived at such a high degree of\nsanctity. \"I spend my time,\" he said, \"in purifying my heart, while you\nspend yours in blackening paper\" (Hasan having written many theological\nworks). \"Alas!\" said Hasan. \"Must then my knowledge benefit others, only\nwhile I have nothing but the outward show of it?\"\n\n\"We must not suppose,\" says Fariduddin Attar in narrating the above\nincident, \"that Habib had really attained a higher degree of piety than\nHasan; for in the eyes of the Lord nothing is higher than knowledge. The\ndoctors of Islam have said truly, 'In the spiritual path the gift of\nperforming miracles is the fourteenth stage, while knowledge is the\neighteenth. The gift of miracles is the reward of many works of piety,\nwhile the knowledge of mysteries is revealed only to profound\nmeditation. Consider the case of Solomon, upon whom be peace! He\nunderstood the language of birds, and yet, though arrived at such a high\ndegree of knowledge, he submitted to the Law given by Moses, and acted\naccording to its instructions.'\"\n\nEvery time that he heard the Koran read, Habib used to weep bitterly.\nSome one said to him, \"You are a barbarian (the literal meaning of the\nword 'Ajami'). The Koran is in Arabic, and you don't understand it; why\nthen do you weep?\" \"It is true,\" he said \"my tongue is barbarian, but my\nheart is Arab.\"\n\n   [32] \"Praise to God.\"\n\n   [33] Koran c. 2, v. 256.\n\n   [34] Koran c. 4, v. 135.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nAVICENNA (IBN SINA)\n(AD 980-1037)\n\n\nAvicenna, now best known as a philosopher, was perhaps better known in\nthe middle ages as a kind of magician owing to the mastery of medical\nscience. His father was a native of Balkh, but removed from that city to\nBokhara; having displayed great abilities as a government tax collector\nhe was appointed to fill that office in a town called Kharmaithen, one\nof the dependencies of Bokhara. Here Avicenna was born. At the age of\nten years he was a perfect master of the Koran, and had studied\narithmetic and algebra.\n\nThe philosopher An-Natili having visited them about that time,\nAvicenna's father lodged him in his own house, and Avicenna studied\nunder him logic, Euclid and the Almagest (an astronomical treatise of\nPtolemy). He soon surpassed his master, and explained to him\ndifficulties and obscurities which the latter had not understood. On the\ndeparture of An-Natili, Avicenna applied himself to the study of natural\nphilosophy, divinity, and other sciences. He then felt an inclination to\nlearn medicine, and studied medical works; he treated patients, not for\ngain, but in order to increase his knowledge. When he was sixteen years\nof age, physicians of the highest eminence came to him for instruction\nand to learn from him those modes of treatment which he had discovered\nby his practice. But the greater portion of his time was given to the\nstudy of logic and philosophy. \"When I was perplexed about any\nquestion,\" he says in an autobiographical fragment, \"I went to the\nmosque and prayed God to resolve the difficulty. At night I returned\nhome; I lit the lamp, and set myself to read and write. When I felt\nmyself growing tired and sleepy I drank a glass of wine, which renewed\nmy energy, and then resumed reading. When finally I fell asleep I kept\ndreaming of the problems which had exercised my waking thoughts, and as\na matter of fact often discovered the solution of them in my sleep.\"\n\nWhen he came across the \"Metaphysics\" of Aristotle, that work in spite\nof his acuteness seemed to present an insuperable difficulty. \"I read\nthis book,\" he says, \"but I did not understand it, and the purport of it\nremained so obscure to me that though I read it forty times through and\ncould repeat it by heart, I was as far from understanding it as ever. In\ndespair, I said to myself, 'This book is quite incomprehensible.' One\nday at the time of afternoon prayer I went to a bookseller's, and there\nI met a friend who had a book in his hand, which he praised and showed\nme. I looked at it in a listless way and handed it back, certain that it\nwas of no use to me. But he said to me, 'Buy it; it is very cheap. I\nwill sell it you for three dirhems; its owner is in need of money.' It\nwas a commentary of Al Farabi on the metaphysics of Aristotle. I bought\nit, took it home and began to read it. Immediately all my difficulties\nwere cleared up, as I knew the \"Metaphysics\" by heart. I was delighted,\nand the next day distributed alms to the poor in order to show my\ngratitude to God.\"\n\nAbout this time the Emir Nuh Ibn Mansur, prince of Khorassan, fell ill,\nand having heard of Avicenna's talent, sent for him and was restored to\nhealth under his treatment. As a reward, Avicenna was allowed to study\nin the prince's library, which contained several chests of rare\nmanuscripts. Here he discovered treatises on the sciences of the\nancients, and other subjects, the essence of which he extracted. It\nhappened some time afterwards that this library was destroyed by fire,\nand Avicenna remained the sole depository of the knowledge which it\ncontained. Some persons even said that it was he who had set fire to the\nlibrary because he alone was acquainted with its contents, and wished to\nbe their sole possessor.\n\nAt the age of eighteen he had completely mastered all the sciences which\nhe had studied. The death of his father and the fall of the Samanide\ndynasty forced him to quit those literary treasures which he had learnt\nto appreciate so well. At the age of twenty-two he left Bokhara and went\nto Jorjan, the capital of Khwarezm where he frequented the Court of Shah\nAli ibn Mamoun. At this time the celebrated Sultan Mahmoud of Ghazni,\nhaving heard that there were several learned men, and among them\nAvicenna, at the Court of Mamoun, requested the latter to send them to\nhim. Several of them went, but Avicenna refused, probably because his\northodoxy was suspected, and Sultan Mahmoud was a strict Sunni. Mahmoud\nwas much displeased at not seeing Avicenna appear at his court with the\nrest, and sent descriptions and drawings of him in several directions in\norder that he might be arrested. In the meantime, Avicenna finding the\nallowance made to him at the Court of Mamoun insufficient, left Jorjan\nand wandered through the towns of Khorassan. Finally he settled in a\nlittle village near Balkh. There he composed the greater part of his\nphilosophical works, and among others the book on the \"Eternal Principle\nand the Return of the Soul.\" Some time afterwards he was called to\nHamadan to treat the Buwayhid Sultan Shams-ed Dawla, who suffered from a\ndangerous gastric malady. He was successful in curing the Sultan, who\nshowed his gratitude by appointing Avicenna his vizier.\n\nThe affairs of State did not prevent Avicenna from carrying on his\nstudies, for during his stay at Hamadan he found time to commence his\nexposition of the philosophy of Aristotle entitled the \"Shifa\" which he\nundertook at the Sultan's request. At this time Avicenna presented the\nrare spectacle of a philosopher discharging the functions of a\nstatesman, without injury to either statesmanship or philosophy. His\ngreat physical energy enabled him to spend the day in the service of the\nSultan and a great part of the night in philosophical discussions with\nhis disciples. His writings, which date from this time, allow us to\njudge with what success he pursued his philosophical studies, and we\nhave every reason to believe that he was equally successful in the\nconduct of affairs, for, after the death of Shams-ed-Dawla, his son and\nsuccessor Taj-ed-Dawla requested him to retain the post of vizier.\n\nAvicenna appreciated this testimony to his worth, but declined the offer\nin order to devote himself to the completion of his great work, the\nShifa. But even in his studious retirement he was not out of reach of\npolitical disturbance. Suspected of carrying on secret correspondence\nwith Ala-ed-Dawla, the governor of Ispahan, an enemy of Taj-ed-Dawla,\nAvicenna was imprisoned in a neighbouring fortress. He would probably\nhave remained there a long time had not the fortune of war put\nAla-ed-Dawla in possession of Hamadan, Avicenna was liberated after an\nimprisonment of four months. Despite this misadventure he succeeded\nduring his stay at Hamadan in completing the Shifa and several medical\ntreatises, besides, a little mystical allegory, \"Hay ibn Yokdhan\" (\"The\nliving one, son of the Waking One\"). This shows the mystical side of\nAvicenna's philosophy, and we therefore subjoin an abridgment and\nexplanation of it.\n\n\"During my sojourn in a certain country, I used to make excursions with\nmy friends to pleasant spots in our vicinity. One day when strolling out\nwith them I met an old man who, in spite of his advanced age, seemed\nbrimful of juvenile ardour, being neither bent nor having white hairs.\nWe felt attracted by him and accosted him. After the usual salutations,\nI opened the conversation by requesting him to inform us about himself,\nhis trade, name, family, and country. 'As to my name and family,' he\nanswered, 'I am called Hay ibn Yokdhan, and I was born in Jerusalem; as\nto my occupation, it consists in traversing all the regions of the\nearth, always following the direction indicated by my Father. He has\nentrusted to me the keys of all the sciences and guided me through all\nways even to the utmost bounds of the universe.' We continued to ask him\nquestions regarding different branches of science till we touched on the\nscience of physiognomy, on which he spoke with marvellous precision,\ntaking it as the starting point of a discourse which he delivered to\nus.\"\n\nThis exordium may be interpreted as follows: \"During the sojourn of my\nsoul in the body I felt a desire under the guidance of my imagination\nand my senses to examine whatever presented itself to me. While thus\nengaged, I came in contact with active Intelligence (the old man), the\nsalutary effects of which I had long experienced and which had preserved\nmy vigour unabated. I commenced to examine the nature of this\nIntelligence freed as it is from all material grossness and yet in a\ncertain way, linked to the material world. Since life includes the two\nconditions necessary to actual development, consciousness and movement,\nhe calls himself 'Hay' 'the Living,' and adds 'ibn Yokdhan' 'Son of the\nWaking,' meaning that he derives his origin from a Being higher than\nhimself, Who is always awake and has no need of repose. His birthplace\nis the holy city of Jerusalem, free from all earthly stain, and his\noccupation is to traverse the highest regions open to intelligence in\norder to understand the nature of his heavenly Father, who has committed\nto him the keys of all forms of knowledge. Thus, favoured by his help,\nwe arrive at Logic, a science which leads by sure and evident\nconclusions to a knowledge of what is remote and occult. For this reason\nlogic is indicated by the term 'physiognomy' which judges of the hidden\nby its outward manifestation.\"\n\nAfter this commencement the allegory proceeds: \"Logic,\" continued the\nold man, \"is a science whose income is paid in ready money; she brings\nto light what nature conceals, and what may be a source of either joy or\nsorrow; she points you out the way of freedom from earthly entanglements\nand sensual propensities. If her healing hand touches you, it will give\nyou salutary support, but if your weakness cause you to stumble, you\nwill be exposed to ruin, accompanied as you always are by bad\ncompanions[35] from which it is impossible to get free.\n\n\"As to thy nearest companion (imagination), he is a confused babbler,\nabounding in futility and falsity; he brings you news in which truth and\nfalsehood are mingled together, and that, though he professes to be your\nguide and enlightener. He often brings matters before you very\nill-suited to your dignity and position, and you must be at the pains of\ndistinguishing the false from the true in them. But for all that, he is\nvery necessary to you, and would exert a healthy influence on you, if\nhis false witness did not lead you into error.\n\n\"But your companion on the right (irascibility) is still more impetuous,\nand it is only with the greatest difficulty that his attacks can be\nrepulsed by reason or avoided by dexterity. He is like a blazing fire, a\nrushing torrent, a runaway horse, or a lioness deprived of its young.\nSimilarly with your left-hand companion (carnal concupiscence) whose\nevil influence springs from insatiable appetite; he is like a famished\nbeast let loose to graze. Such are your companions, unhappy mortal, to\nwhom you are tied, and from whom no release is to be obtained except by\nmigrating to those countries where such creatures are unknown. But till\nyou are allowed to do so, your hand at any rate must tame them; beware\nof flinging the rein on their necks and giving them free course; if you\nhold the reins tight they will submit, and you will be master.\"\n\n\"After I had heard this description of my companions, I began to\nrecognise the justice of it, and accordingly I varied gentleness and\nseverity in my treatment of them. Alternately I and they had the upper\nhand. But I constantly invoked the help of God in this respect, until I\nwas delivered. Meanwhile I prepared for the journey, and the old man\nadded this last counsel: 'You and those like you will be constantly\nimpeded in this journey, and the road will be very difficult for you,\nunless you can succeed in quitting this world for ever; but you cannot\nhasten the time fixed by God. You must therefore be content with a\nfrequently interrupted progress; sometimes you will make way, sometimes\nyou will be at the beck and call of your companions. When you apply\nyourself with your whole heart to making progress, you will succeed, and\nyour companions will lose all influence over you; but if you connive at\ntheir importunities, they will conquer you, and you will altogether lose\ntouch with me.'\n\n\"I then asked the old man for information on the various regions of the\nuniverse, of which he possessed ample knowledge, and he replied: 'The\nuniverse has three parts; first, the visible heaven and earth, the\nnature of which is ascertainable by ordinary observation: But as to the\nother two parts, they are marvellous indeed; one is on the East, the\nother on the West. Each of these regions is separated from our world by\na barrier which only a few elect souls succeed in passing, and that only\nby divine grace; the man who relies only on his natural powers is\nexcluded from them. What makes the passage thither easier is to wash in\nthe flowing waters of the fountain whose source is close to a stagnant\npool.[36] The traveller who has found the way to it and is refreshed by\nits healing waters, will feel himself endued with a marvellous energy,\nwhich will help him to traverse savage deserts. Unfatigued he will scale\nthe heights of Mount Kaf, and the guardians of hell will lose all power\nto seize him and to cast him into the abyss.'\n\n\"We asked him to explain more precisely the situation of this fountain,\nand he said: 'You are doubtless aware that perpetual darkness surrounds\nthe pole[37] unpenetrated by any ray of light till God permits. But he\nwho fearlessly enters this darkness will emerge into a clearly lighted\nplain, where he will find this springing fountain.\n\n\"We then asked him to tell us more about the Western region bordering\nour earth, of which he had spoken, and he gave us the following\ninformation:\n\n\"'In the extreme West is an immense sea called in the Divine\nRevelation[38] \"the miry sea,\" where the sun sets and along which\nstretches a desolate and sterile land, where the inhabitants never abide\nbut are always passing away, and which is covered by thick darkness.\nThose who go there are exposed to every kind of illusion. The sun only\ngives a feeble light, the soil is completely barren, whatever is built\nthere is soon destroyed again, conflict and strife perpetually rage\nthere, whatever gets the upper hand tyrannises over those which were in\npower before it. There are found all kinds of animals and plants passing\nthrough strange developments.\n\n\"'Now if you turn to the East[39] you will see a region where there is\nno human being, nor plant, nor tree, nor animal; it is an immense and\nempty plain. Crossing it, you will reach a mountainous region, where are\nclouds and strong winds and rapid rivers; there are also gold and silver\nand precious stones, but no plants. From thence you will pass into a\nregion where there are plants but no animals, then into another where\nthere are animals but no men. Lastly you will arrive at a region where\nthere are human beings such as are familiar to you.\n\n\"'After passing the extreme limit of the East, you will see the sun\nrising between the two horns of Satan, \"the flying horn\" and \"the\nmarching horn.\" This latter is divided into two parts, one having the\nform of a fierce animal, the other of a gross one; between these two\ncomposing the left horn is perpetual strife. As to \"the flying horn,\" it\nhas no one distinct form, but is composed of several, such as a winged\nman, a serpent with a swine's head, or merely a foot or an arm. The\nhuman soul which rules this region has established five ways of\ncommunication under the care of a watchman who takes whatever comes\nalong them and passes it on to a treasurer who presents it to the King.\n\n\"'The two horns continually attack the human soul, even to the point of\ndriving it to madness. As to \"the marching horn,\" the fierce animal of\nwhich it is partly composed lays a trap for man by embellishing in his\neyes all his evil actions, murder, mutilation, oppression and\ndestruction, by exciting his hatred and impelling him to violence and\ninjustice; while the other part in the shape of a gross animal\ncontinually attacks the human soul by casting a glamour over vileness\nand foulness and urging her thereto; nor does it cease its assaults till\nshe is brought into complete subjection. It is seconded in its attacks\nby the spirits of the flying horn, which make man reject whatever he\ncannot see with his own eyes, whispering to him that there is no\nresurrection nor retribution nor spiritual Lord of the universe.\n\n\"'Passing hence, we find a region inhabited by beings of angelic origin,\nfree from the defects above-mentioned. They enter into communication\nwith man, and contribute towards his spiritual progress. These are the\nintellectual faculties, which, though they are far below the pure\nIntelligences, have an instinctive desire to shake off the yoke of\nirascibility and concupiscence. Beyond this region is that of the\nangels, and further still, one directly governed by the Great King, and\ndwelt in by his faithful servants, who are engaged in fulfilling His\ncommands. These are free from all evil inclination, whether to\nconcupiscence or injustice or envy or idleness. To them is committed the\ndefence of the frontier of this Kingdom, which they guard in person.\nAllotted to different parts, they occupy lofty forts constructed of\ncrystal and precious stones, which surpass in durability all that may be\nfound in the region of earth. They are immortal, and subject to no\nfeebleness nor decay of force in discharging their duties.\n\n\"'Beyond this region again are beings in immediate and continual\nrelation with the supreme King, constantly occupied in His service, and\nnever replaced by others. They are allowed to approach the Lord, to\ncontemplate the throne of His Majesty and to adore Him, enjoying the\nsight of Him continually and without intermission. They have the\ngentlest natures, great spiritual beauty, and a keen faculty of\npenetration and of arriving at the truth. To each has been assigned a\ndistinct place and fixed rank, which can be shared by no one. Highest of\nall is that unique being, the nearest to the Lord, and the parent of all\nthe rest. Active Intelligence[40]; it is by his mediation that the word\nand commandment of the Lord go forth to all the other beings of\ncreation.\n\n\"'In this highest region all are pure spirits, having no relation to\nmatter, except in so far as innate desire may set them in movement or\ncause them to move others. From such desire only, the Lord himself is\nabsolutely exempt.\n\n\"'Those who think that He had a beginning are in complete error, and\nthose who think to describe Him fully are beside themselves. In relation\nto Him all description and comparison are impossible. Those who attempt\nto describe Him can only indicate the distance which separates Him from\nall human attributes; the beauty of being is represented in scriptural\nlanguage by His Face and His infinite bounty by His Hand. If even one of\nthe cherubims wished to contemplate His essence, he would be dazzled and\nfrustrated by His glory. Since beauty is the veil of beauty, His\nmanifestation must always remain a mystery, in the same way as the sun,\nwhen lightly obscured by a cloud allows its disc to be seen, but when it\nblazes forth in all its splendour, its disc is veiled from human eye by\nexcess of light. The Lord, however, is always communicating His\nsplendour to His creation without grudging or reserve; He imparts\nHimself generously and the plenitude of His bounty is without limit: He\nwho has the least glimpse of His beauty remains entranced by it for\never; sometimes saints of extraordinary attainments who have given\nthemselves up to Him and have been favoured by His grace, aware of the\nworthlessness of the perishable world, when, from their ecstatic state\nthey return to it, are haunted for the rest of their lives by regret and\nsadness.'\n\n\"Here Hay ibn Yokdhan closed his discourse by adding:\n\n\"'If I had not, in thus addressing you, been acting in obedience to the\ncommands of my Lord, I would rather have left you for Him. If you will,\naccompany me on the path of safety.'\"\n\nThus concludes this brief allegory, which, like Avicenna's other\nmystical treatises, is concerned with the progress and development of\nthe human soul. According to him, the soul is created for eternity, and\nthe object of its union with the body is the formation of a spiritual\nand independent microcosm. During our earthly life we have but a dim\npresentiment of this future condition; this presentiment produces in\ndifferent characters a lesser or greater desire for it, and the\nthoroughness of our preparation depends on this desire. This preparation\nis only accomplished by the development of the highest faculties of the\nsoul, and the inferior faculties of the senses furnish the indispensable\nbasis for this.\n\nEvery human faculty has some pleasure corresponding to it. The pleasure\nof the appetitive faculty for example, is to receive a sensation which\naccords with its desire; the pleasure of the irascible faculty is\nattack; the pleasure of the surmising faculty, hope; that of the\nrecollective faculty, memory. Generally speaking, the pleasures\nattending these faculties consist in their realising themselves in\naction, but they differ widely in rank, the soul's delight in\nintellectual perception of realities, in which the knower and the known\nare one, being incomparably higher than any mere sensual satisfaction.\nBy attaining to such perceptions, the soul prepares itself for the\nbeatitude of the next life. The degree of this beatitude will correspond\nto the intensity of spiritual desire awakened in it during its earthly\nsojourn.[41]\n\nIt is extremely difficult, not to say impossible, to determine the\ndegrees of beatitude of the soul after death. We may, nevertheless,\nunderstand that the various impediments of passions, prejudices, etc.,\nto which its union with the body has given rise, are not immediately\ndissolved on its separation from the body. Souls thus hindered may pass\ninto a state depicted by Plato and other ancient philosophers, in which\nthey are still weighed down by the passions they indulged in. Every soul\nis eternal and imperishable, and will finally attain the beatitude for\nwhich it was created. But it may be punished after death by a shorter or\nlonger exclusion from that beatitude. To suppose with Alexander\nAphrodisius that an imperfect or ill-prepared soul may be annihilated,\nwould be to admit a belief at complete variance with its eternal essence\nand origin.\n\nBut we may well conjecture that the punishment of such ill-prepared and\nrefractory souls would consist in their being in a state in which after\nseparation from the body they still pine after sensual enjoyments and\nsuffer from the impossibility of such gratification.\n\nIt may also be supposed that such ill-prepared souls remember the\nnotions that were current in this world regarding beatitude and\ndamnation; their conceptions would in that case resemble dreams which\nare often more vivid than impressions received in waking moments. They\nwould imagine themselves undergoing the examination in the tomb and all\nthe other punishments depicted in the Koran, or it may be enjoying the\nsensual pleasures there described. On the other hand, the noble and\nwell-prepared soul will pass at once to the contemplation of the\neternal, and will be exempt from every memory and every conception\nrelating to this world. For if anything of this kind remained in it as a\nreminder of its union with the body, it would so far fall short of the\nplenitude of its perfection.\n\nBesides his mystical treatise \"On the soul,\" Avicenna has left a short\nbut remarkable poem on the same subject, which runs as follows:--\n\n\n\"THE SOUL.\n\n\"It descended upon thee from the lofty station (heaven); a dove rare and\nuncaptured, curtained from the eyes of every knower yet which is\nmanifest and never wore a veil.[42] It came to thee unwillingly and it\nmay perhaps be unwilling to abandon thee although it complain of its\nsufferings. It resisted at first, and would not become familiar, but\nwhen it was in friendly union with the body, it grew accustomed to the\ndesert waste (the world). Methinks it then forgot the recollections of\nthe protected park (heaven), and of those abodes which it left with\nregret; but when in its spiral descent it arrived at the centre of its\ncircle in the terrestrial world, it was united to the infirmity of the\nmaterial body and remained among the monuments and prostrate ruins. It\nnow remembers the protected park and weepeth with tears which flow and\ncease not till the time for setting out towards the protected park\napproacheth; till the instant of departure for the vast plain (the\nspiritual world) draweth nigh. It then cooeth on the top of a lofty\npinnacle (for knowledge can exalt all who were not exalted) and it has\ncome to the knowledge of every mystery in the universe, while yet its\ntattered vest hath not been mended.[43]\n\n\"Its descent was predestined so that it might hear what it had not\nheard, else why did it descend from the high and lofty heaven to the\ndepth of the low and humble earth? If God sent it down by a decision of\nHis will, His motive is concealed from the intelligence of man. Why did\nit descend to be withheld from the exalted summit of heaven by the\ncoarse net of the body, and to be detained in a cage? It is like a flash\nof lightning shining over the meadow, and disappearing as if it had\nnever gleamed.\"\n\nAlthough Avicenna's reputation in the Muhammedan world has always been\nhigh, his mystical treatises have generally been regarded as heretical,\nand many have only been preserved in Hebrew translations. He himself\nsays explicitly that he only intended them for his most intimate\ndisciples, and forbade them to be communicated to the multitude. For his\nown part, he conformed to the religious law and customs. The celebrated\ncontemporary Sufi Abou Said Abi'l Khair having asked his opinion\nregarding the custom of praying for the dead, and visiting their tombs,\nhe answers thus:\n\n\"God the Unique Being and Source of all that exists--angels,\nintelligences exempt from connection with matter, souls united to\nmatter, elements in all their varied developments--animal, vegetable and\nmineral, inspires His whole creation, and His omniscience embraces all.\nHis influence in the first place acts immediately on the Active\nIntelligences and angels, who in their turn act on souls which in their\nturn act on our sublunary world. If there were not homogeneity of\nsubstance between celestial and terrestrial souls and likeness between\nthe macrocosm of the universe, and the microcosm of man, the knowledge\nof God would be impossible for us, as the Prophet himself hath said, 'He\nwho knows himself, knows God.' All creation, whose parts are linked\ntogether, is subject to influences which all derive from a single\nsource--God. Terrestrial souls differ widely in rank; the highest are\nendowed with gifts of prophecy, and perfected so far that they attain\nthe sphere of pure intelligence. A soul of this kind entering after\ndeath into eternal beatitude, shared with its peers, continues along\nwith them to exercise a certain influence on terrestrial souls. The\nobject of prayer for the dead and visiting their tombs is to beg for the\nhelp of those pure souls, a help which is realised sometimes in a\nmaterial, sometimes in a spiritual way. The former kind of help may be\ncompared with the direction which the body receives from the brain;\nspiritual assistance is realised by the purification of the mind from\nevery thought but that of God.\"\n\nAvicenna, after his liberation from imprisonment by Ala-ed-Dowla, being\nanxious to quit Hamadan, left the city secretly with his brother, his\ndisciple Joujani and two servants, all five disguised as Sufis. After a\npainful journey they reached Ispahan, where they were received in a\nfriendly manner by Ala-ed-Dowla. Avicenna here continued to hold\nphilosophical discussions as he had done at Hamadan. At Ispahan he also\ncomposed two of his most important works, the \"Shifa\" and the \"Najat,\"\ntreating of medicine. Later on he followed Ala-ed-Dowla to Bagdad, but\non the way was seized with a gastric malady, accompanied by an attack of\napoplexy. He recovered at the time, but not long afterwards the sickness\nreturned, and he died at the age of 57, A.D. 1037.\n\nIn his Literary History of Persia (vo. II., p. 108) Professor Browne\npoints out that one of the most celebrated stanzas in Fitzgerald's\ntranslation of Omar Khayyam was really composed by Avicenna:--\n\n   \"Up from earth's centre through the Seventh Gate\n   I rose, and on the throne of Saturn sate,\n   And many a knot unravelled by the road,\n   But not the master-knot of human fate.\"\n\nAnother interesting link between the two philosophers is supplied by the\nfact, mentioned by Professor Browne, that a few days before his death\nOmar Khayyam was reading in the \"Shifa\" of Avicenna the chapter treating\nof the One and of the Many.\n\n   [35] The bad companions of man which hinder his intellectual\n   progress are unregulated imagination, irascibility and carnal\n   concupiscence. Death alone delivers him and transports him to the\n   celestial country of true repose.\n\n   [36] The flowing waters signify logic and metaphysics, which help\n   man to attain to the unknown. Because they provoke argument and\n   discussion, they are called \"flowing.\" The stagnant pool\n   signifies positive science, which is the basis of philosophy. The\n   man who is refreshed by the flowing waters of philosophy will\n   grasp the scheme of the universe without losing himself in the\n   confusion of details; he will scale the heights of science (the\n   encircling mountain of Kaf) without being held back by worldly\n   entanglements.\n\n   [37] The pole surrounded by darkness signifies the soul of man\n   which, though intended to govern the body, is without any power\n   to attain truth unless guided by divine grace, but then it will\n   emerge into the full light and attain the end for which it was\n   created.\n\n   [38] Koran, c. 18, v. 84. The \"miry sea\" indicates _Matter_\n   stirred into life by the setting sun (Form), entering at every\n   moment into union with some new form, birth and death and ebb and\n   flow proceeding in ceaseless change.\n\n   [39] In the kingdom of _Form_ at first nothing is found but the\n   four elements mingled with each other, developed successively\n   through mineral, vegetable and animal stages. After the last is\n   found pure intellect struggling with powerful opponents, that is\n   to say, the various human faculties. \"The flying horn\" signifies\n   imaginitive faculties; \"the marching horn\" the passions, the\n   fierce animal representing irascibility, and the gross one,\n   concupiscence. \"The flying horn,\" irregulated imagination, is in\n   need of constant supervision by the human soul. The watchman is\n   the perceptive faculty, which, gathering the various impressions\n   of the five senses, conveys them to the King, the human soul.\n\n   [40] c.f. the Logos of Philo.\n\n   [41] c.f. Lowell\n\n          \"Perhaps the _longing_ to be so,\n          Helps make the soul immortal.\"\n\n   [42] The existence of the soul, though not manifest to the\n   senses, is yet too manifest to leave any doubt.\n\n   [43] The tattered vest of the soul or the body destroyed by death\n   is not mended till the day of resurrection; and yet the soul is\n   in heaven and in the enjoyment of all knowledge.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI\n\nAL GHAZZALI\n(AD 1058--1111)\n\n\nAl Ghazzali is one of the deepest thinkers, greatest theologians and\nprofoundest moralists of Islam. In all Muhammadan lands he is celebrated\nboth as an apologist of orthodoxy and a warm advocate of Sufi mysticism.\nIntimately acquainted with all the learning of his time, he was not only\none of the numerous oriental philosophers who traverse every sphere of\nintellectual activity, but one of those rarer minds whose originality is\nnot crushed by their learning. He was imbued with a sacred enthusiasm\nfor the triumph of his faith, and his whole life was dedicated to one\npurpose--the defence of Islam. As Browning says, \"he made life consist\nof one idea.\" His full name was Abu Hamid Muhammad Ibn Muhammad Ibn\nAhmed Algazzali, and he was born at Tus in Khorassan, 1058 A.D., where a\ngeneration earlier Firdausi, the author of the Shahnama, had died. Tus\nwas already famous for learning and culture, and later on Ghazzali's own\nfame caused the town to become a centre of pilgrimage for pious Moslems,\ntill it was laid in ruins by Genghis Khan, a century after Ghazzali's\ndeath.\n\nHis birth occurred at a time when the power of the Caliphs had been long\non the wane, and the Turkish militia, like the Pretorian guards of the\nlater Roman empire, were the real dispensers of power. While the\npolitical unity of Islam had been broken up into a number of\nmutually-opposed states, Islam itself was threatened by dangers from\nwithout. In Spain, Alphonso II. had begun to press the Moors hardly.\nBefore Ghazzali was forty, Peter the Hermit was preaching the First\nCrusade, and during his lifetime Baldwin of Bouillon was proclaimed King\nin the Mosque of Omar at Jerusalem. But more serious than these outer\nfoes was the great schism which had split Islam into the two great\nopposing parties of Shiahs and Sunnis--a schism which was embittered and\ncomplicated by the struggle of rival dynasties for power. While the\nShiites prevailed in Egypt and Persia, the Turks and Seljuks were\nSunnis. In Bagdad the seat of the Caliphate during the reign of Al\nKasim, when Ghazzali was a youth, fatal encounters between the two\ncontending factions were of daily occurrence. Ghazzali's native city was\nShiite, and not till Khorassan had been conquered by the Ghaznevides and\nSeljuks did Sunni teaching prevail there. Yet, however bitterly Shiahs\nand Sunnis might be opposed to each other, they both counted as orthodox\nand were agreed as to the fundamental principles of Islam, nor did their\nstrife endanger the religion itself. But besides the two great parties\nof Shiahs and Sunnis, a mass of heretical sects, classed under the\ncommon name of Mutazilites, had sprung up within Islam. These heretics\nhad studied Aristotle and Greek philosophy in Arabic translations, and\nfor a long time all that the orthodox could do was to thunder anathemas\nat them and denounce all speculation. But at last Al Asha'ari, himself\nformerly a Mutazilite, renounced his heresies, and sought to defend\northodoxy and confute the heretics on philosophical grounds.\n\nThe Mutazilites had cultivated the study of philosophy with especial\nzeal, and therefore the struggle with them was a fierce one, complicated\nas it was by political animosity. The most dangerous sect of all was\nthat of the Ismailians and Assassins, with their doctrine of a hidden\nImam or leader. In some of his works Ghazzali gives special attention to\nconfuting these.\n\nThe whole aspect and condition of Islam during Ghazzali's lifetime was\nsuch as to cause a devout Moslem deep distress and anxiety. It is\ntherefore natural that a man who, after long and earnest search, had\nfound rest and peace in Islam, should have bent all the energies of his\nenthusiastic character to oppose these destructive forces to the utmost.\nGhazzali is never weary of exhorting those who have no faith to study\nthe Muhammadan revelation; he defends religion in a philosophical way\nagainst the philosophers, refutes the heretics, chides the laxity of the\nShiites, defends the austere principles of the Schafiites, champions\northodoxy, and finally, by word and example, urges his readers towards\nthe mysticism and asceticism of the Sufis. His numerous writings are all\ndirected to one or another of these objects. As a recognition of his\nendeavours, the Muhammadan Church has conferred upon him the title of\n\"Hujjat al Islam,\" \"the witness of Islam.\"\n\nIt is a fact worthy of notice that when the power of the Caliphs was\nshattered and Muhammadanism, already in a state of decline, precisely at\nthat period theology and all other sciences were flourishing.\n\nThe reason of this may be found in the fact that nearly all the\nMuhammadan dynasties, however much they might be opposed to each other,\nzealously favoured literature and science. Besides this, the more\nearnest spirits, weary of the political confusions of the time, devoted\nthemselves all the more fervently to cultivating the inner life, in\nwhich they sought compensation and refuge from outward distractions.\nGhazzali was the most striking figure among all these. Of his early\nhistory not much is known. His father is said to have died while he was\na child, but he had a brother Abu'l Futuh Ahmed Alghazzali, who was in\ngreat favour with the Sultan Malik Shah, and owing to his zeal for Islam\nhad won the title of \"Glory of the Faith.\" From the similarity of their\npursuits we gather that the relationship between the brothers must have\nbeen a close one. Ibn Khalliqan the historian informs us that later on\nAbu'l Futuh succeeded his brother as professor, and abridged his most\nimportant literary work, \"The Revival of the religious sciences.\" While\nstill a youth, Ghazzali studied theology at Jorjan under the Imam Abu\nNasr Ismail. On his return journey from Jorjan to Tus, he is said to\nhave fallen into the hands of robbers. They took from him all that he\nhad, but at his earnest entreaty returned to him his note books, at the\nsame time telling him that he could know nothing really, if he could be\nso easily deprived of his knowledge. This made him resolve for the\nfuture to learn everything by heart.\n\nLater on Ghazzali studied at Nishapur under the celebrated Abu'l-Maali.\nHere also at the court of the Vizier Nizam-ul-mulk (the school-fellow of\nOmar Khayyam) he took a distinguished part in those discussions on\npoetry and philosophy which were so popular in the East. In 1091\nNizam-ul-mulk appointed him to the professorship of Jurisprudence in the\nNizamiya College at Bagdad, which he had founded twenty-four years\npreviously. Here Ghazzali lectured to a class of 300 students. In his\nleisure hours, as he informs us in his brief autobiography, \"Al munkidh\nmin uddallal\" (\"The Deliverance from error\") he busied himself with the\nstudy of philosophy. He also received a commission from the Caliph to\nrefute the doctrine of the Ismailians.\n\nIn the first chapter it has been mentioned how a deep-seated unrest and\nthirst for peace led him, after many mental struggles, to throw up his\nappointment and betake himself to religious seclusion at Damascus and\nJerusalem. This, together with his pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina,\nlasted nearly ten years. Ibn Khalliqan informs us that he also went to\nEgypt and stayed some time in Alexandria. Here the fame of the\nAlmoravide leader in Spain, Yusuf ibn Tashifin, is said to have reached\nGhazzali, and to have made him think of journeying thither. This prince\nhad begun those campaigns in Spain against the Cid and other Christian\nleaders which were destined to add Andalusia to his Moroccan dominions.\nBy these victories in the West he had to some extent retrieved the\ndecline of Islam in the East. It is natural to suppose that the\nenthusiastic Ghazzali would gladly have met with this champion of\nMuhammadanism. The news of Yusuf ibn Tashifin's death in 1106 seems to\nhave made him renounce his intention of proceeding to Spain.\n\nThe realisation of Ghazzali's wish to withdraw from public affairs and\ngive himself to a contemplative life was now interrupted. The requests\nof his children and other family affairs, of which we have no exact\ninformation, caused him to return home. Besides this, the continued\nprogress of the Ismailians, the spread of irreligious doctrines, and the\nincreasing religious indifference of the masses not only filled Ghazzali\nand his Sufi friends with profound grief but determined them to stem the\nevil with the whole force of their philosophy, the ardour of vital\nconviction, and the authority of noble example.\n\nIn addition, the governor of Nishapur, Muhammad Ibn Malikshah, had asked\nGhazzali to proceed thither in order to help to bring about a religious\nrevival. Thus, after an absence of ten years, he returned to Nishapur to\nresume his post as teacher. But his activity at this period was directed\nto a different aim than that of the former one. Regarding the contrast\nhe speaks like a Muhammadan Thomas a Kempis. Formerly, he says, he\ntaught a knowledge which won him fame and glory, but now he taught a\nknowledge which brought just the opposite. Inspired with an earnest\ndesire for the spiritual progress of his co-religionists and himself,\nand convinced that he was called to this task by God, he prays the\nAlmighty to lead and enlighten him, so that he may do the same for\nothers.\n\nHow long Ghazzali occupied his professorship at Nishapur the second time\nis not precisely clear. Only five or six years of his life remained, and\ntowards the close he again resigned his post to give himself up to a\nlife of contemplation to which he felt irresistibly drawn, in his\nnative city of Tus. Here he spent the rest of days in devotional\nexercises in friendly intercourses with other Sufis and in religious\ninstruction of the young. He died, devout as he lived, in the\nfifty-fourth year of his age, A.D. 1111. He founded a convent for Sufis\nand a professorship of jurisprudence.\n\nGhazzali's activity as an author during his relatively short life was\nenormous. According to the literary historians, he is the author of\nninety-nine different works. These are not all known to us, but there\nare existing in the West a considerable quantity of them, some in Latin\nand Hebrew translations, as he was much studied by the Jews in the\nMiddle Ages. A writer in the Jewish Encyclopaedia says (_sub. voc._),\n\"From his 'Makasid-al-Falasifah' in which he expounded logic, physics\nand metaphysics according to Aristotle, many a Jewish student of\nphilosophy derived much accurate information. It was not, however,\nthrough his attacks on philosophy that Ghazzali's authority was\nestablished among Jewish thinkers of the middle ages, but through the\nethical teachings in his theological works. He approached the ethical\nidea of Judaism to such an extent that some supposed him to be actually\ndrifting in that direction.\"\n\nAlthough Ghazzali was a Persian, both by race and birthplace, most of\nhis works are composed in Arabic, that language being as familiar to\nMuhammadan theologians as Latin to those of Europe in the Middle Ages.\nOne of his most important works is the \"Tahafut al falasifah,\"\n\"Destruction of the Philosophers,\" which the great Averroes endeavoured\nto refute. Somewhat in the style of Mr. Balfour's \"Defence of\nphilosophic doubt,\" Ghazzali attempts to erect his religious system on\na basis of scepticism. He denies causation as thoroughly as Hume, but\nasserts that the divine mind has ordained that certain phenomena shall\nalways occur in a certain order, and that philosophy without faith is\npowerless to discover God. Although chiefly famous in the West as a\nphilosopher, he himself would probably have repudiated the title. He\ntells us that his object in studying philosophy was to confute the\nphilosophers. His true element was not philosophy but religion, with\nwhich his whole being was penetrated, and which met all his spiritual\nneeds. Even in his most heterogeneous studies he always kept before him\none aim--the confirmation, spread, and glorification of Islam.\n\nIt is true that more than one of his contemporaries accused him of\nhypocrisy, saying that he had an esoteric doctrine for himself and his\nprivate circle of friends, and an exoteric for the vulgar. His Sufistic\nleanings might lend some colour to this accusation, it being a\nwell-known Sufi habit to cloak their teaching under a metaphorical veil,\nwine representing the love of God, etc., as in Hafiz and Omar Khayyam.\nAgainst this must be set the fact that in his autobiography written near\nthe close of his life, he constantly refers to his former works, which\nhe would hardly have done had he been conscious of any striking\ndiscrepancy between his earlier and his later teaching. There is no\nreason to doubt his previously-quoted statement that he \"studied\nphilosophy in order to refute the philosophers.\"\n\nHe was, at any rate, intensely indignant at having his orthodoxy\nimpugned, as appears from a striking story narrated by the Arabic\nhistorian Abu'l Feda. He tells us that Ghazzali's most important work,\n\"The revival of the religious sciences\" had created a great sensation\nwhen it reached Cordova. The Muhammadan theologians of Spain were\nrigidly orthodox, and accused the work of being tainted by heresy. They\nrepresented to the Caliph Ali Ibn Yusuf that not only this but all\nGhazzali's other works which circulated in Andalusia should be collected\nand burnt, which was accordingly done. Not long after, a young Berber\nfrom North Africa named Ibn Tumart wandered to Bagdad, where he attended\nGhazzali's lectures. Ghazzali noticing the foreigner, accosted him, and\ninquired regarding religious affairs in the West, and how his works had\nbeen received there. To his horror he learned that they had been\ncondemned as heretical and committed to the flames by order of the\nAlmoravide Caliph Ali. Upon this, Ghazzali, raising his hands towards\nheaven, exclaimed in a voice shaken with emotion, \"O God, destroy his\nkingdom as he has destroyed my books, and take all power from him.\" Ibn\nTumart, in sympathy with his teacher, said, \"O Imam[44] Ghazzali, pray\nthat thy wish may be accomplished by my means.\" And so it happened. Ibn\nTumart returned to his North African, proclaimed himself a Mahdi, gained\na large following among the Berbers, and overthrew Ali and the dynasty\nof the Almoravides. This story is not entirely beyond doubt, but shows\nthe importance attached by Ghazzali's contemporaries to his influence\nand teaching.\n\nAs an example of Ghazzali's ethical earnestness, we may quote the\nfollowing from his Ihya-ul-ulum (\"Revival of the religious sciences\").\nHe refers to the habit common to all Muhammadans of ejaculating, \"We\ntake refuge in God.\" \"By the fear of God,\" he says, \"I do not mean a\nfear like that of women when their eyes swim and their hearts beat at\nhearing some eloquent religious discourse, which they quickly forget and\nturn again to frivolity. There is no real fear at all. He who fears a\nthing flees from it, and he who hopes for a thing strives for it, and\nthe only fear that will save thee is the fear that forbids sinning\nagainst God and instils obedience to Him. Beware of the shallow fear of\nwomen and fools, who, when they hear of the terrors of the Lord, say\nlightly, 'We take refuge in God,' and at the same time continue in the\nvery sins which will destroy them. Satan laughs at such pious\nejaculations. They are like a man who should meet a lion in a desert,\nwhile there is a fortress at no great distance away, and when he sees\nthe ravenous beast, should stand exclaiming, 'I take refuge in that\nfortress,' without moving a step towards it. What will such an\nejaculation profit him? In the same way, merely ejaculating 'I take\nrefuge in God' will not protect thee from the terrors of His judgment\nunless thou really take refuge in Him.\"\n\nGhazzali's moral earnestness is equally apparent in the following\nextract from his work \"Munqidh min uddallal\" \"The Deliverance from\nerror,\" in which he sets himself to combat the general laxity and\nheretical tendencies of his time:--\n\n\"Man is composed of a body and a heart; by the word 'heart' I understand\nthat spiritual part of him which is the seat of the knowledge of God,\nand not the material organ of flesh and blood which he possesses in\ncommon with the animals. Just as the body flourishes in health and\ndecays in disease, so the heart is either spiritually sound or the prey\nof a malady which ends in death.\n\n\"Now ignorance of God is a deadly poison, and the revolt of the passions\nis a disease for which the knowledge of God and obedience to Him,\nmanifested in self-control, are the only antidote and remedy. Just as\nremedies for the body are only known to physicians who have studied\ntheir secret properties, so the remedies for the soul are devotional\npractices as defined by the prophets, the effects of which transcend\nreason.\n\n\"The proper work of reason is to confess the truth of inspiration and\nits own impotence to grasp what is only revealed to the prophets; reason\ntakes us by the hand and hands us over to the prophets, as blind men\ncommit themselves to their guides, or as the desperately sick to their\nphysicians. Such are the range and limits of reason; beyond prophetic\ntruth it cannot take a step.\n\n\"The causes of the general religious languor and decay of faith in our\ntime are chiefly to be traced to four classes of people: (1)\nPhilosophers, (2) Sufis, (3) Ismailians[45], (4) the Ulema or scholastic\ntheologians. I have specially interrogated those who were lax in their\nreligion; I have questioned them concerning their doubts, and spoken to\nthem in these terms: 'Why are you so lukewarm in your religion? If you\nreally believe in a future life, and instead of preparing for it sell it\nin exchange for the goods of this world, you must be mad. You would not\ngive two things for one of the same quality; how can you barter eternity\nfor days which are numbered? If you do not believe, you are infidels,\nand should seek to obtain faith.'\n\n\"In answer to such appeals, I have heard men say, 'If the observance of\nreligious practices is obligatory, it is certainly obligatory on the\nUlema or theologians. And what do we find amongst the most conspicuous\nof these? One does not pray, another drinks wine, a third devours the\norphans' inheritance, and a fourth lets himself be bribed into giving\nwrong decisions, and so forth.'\n\n\"Another man giving himself out as a Sufi said that he had attained to\nsuch a high pitch of proficiency in Sufism that for him religious\npractice was no longer necessary. An Ismailian said, 'Truth is very\ndifficult to find, and the road to it is strewn with obstacles;\nso-called proofs are mutually contradictory, and the speculations of\nphilosophers cannot be trusted. But we have an Imam (leader) who is an\ninfallible judge and needs no proofs. Why should we abandon truth for\nerror?' A fifth said, 'I have studied the subject, and what you call\ninspiration is really a high degree of sagacity. Religion is intended as\na restraint on the passions of the vulgar. But I, who do not belong to\nthe common herd, what have I to do with such stringent obligations? I am\na philosopher; science is my guide, and dispenses me from submission to\nauthority.'\n\n\"This last is the fate of philosophic theists, as we find it expressed\nin the writings of Avicenna and Farabi. It is no rare thing to find men\nwho read the Koran, attend public worship at the mosque, and outwardly\nprofess the greatest respect for the religious law, in private indulging\nin the use of wine and committing other shameful actions. If we ask such\nmen how it comes that although they do not believe in the reality of\ninspiration, they attend public worship, they say that they practise it\nas a useful exercise and as a safeguard for their fortunes and families.\nIf we further ask them why they drink wine, which is absolutely\nprohibited in the Koran, they say, \"The only object of the prohibition\nof wine was to prevent quarrelling and violence. Wise men like ourselves\nare in no danger of such excesses, and we drink in order to brighten and\nkindle our imaginative powers.'\n\n\"Such is the faith of these pretended Moslems and their example has led\nmany astray who have been all the more encouraged to follow these\nphilosophers because their opponents have often been incompetent.\"\n\nIn the above extracts Ghazzali appears as a reformer, and it would not\nbe difficult to find modern parallels for the tendencies which he\ndescribes. Professor D.B. Macdonald compares him to Ritschl in the\nstress which he lays on personal religious experience, and in his\nsuspicion of the intrusion of metaphysics into the domain of religion.\nAlthough intensely in earnest, he was diffident of his powers as a\npreacher, and in a surviving letter says, \"I do not think myself worthy\nto preach; for preaching is like a tax, and the property on which it is\nimposed is the acceptance of preaching to oneself. He then who has no\nproperty, how shall he pay the tax? and he who lacks a garment how shall\nhe cover another? and 'When is the stick crooked and the shadow\nstraight?' And God revealed to Jesus (upon whom be peace). Preach to\nthyself, then if thou acceptest the preaching, preach to mankind, and if\nnot, be ashamed before Me.\"[46]\n\nLike other preachers of righteousness, Ghazzali strove to rouse men out\nof lethargy by laying stress on the terrors of the world to come and the\nJudgment Day. He was not one of those who think fear too base a motive\nto appeal to; he strikes the note of warning again and again. Towards\nthe close of his life he composed a short work on eschatology \"Al Durra\nal Fakhirah\" (\"The precious pearl\") of a sufficiently lurid character.\nIn it he says: \"When you watch a dead man and see that the saliva has\nrun from his mouth, that his lips are contracted, his face black, the\nwhites of his eyes showing, know that he is damned, and that the fact of\nhis damnation in the other world has just been revealed to him. But if\nyou see the dead with a smile on his lips, a serene countenance, his\neyes half-closed, know that he has just received the good news of the\nhappiness which awaits him in the other life.\n\n\"On the Day of Judgment, when all men are gathered before the throne of\nGod, their accounts are all cast up, and their good and evil deeds\nweighed. During all this time each man believes he is the only one with\nwhom God is dealing. Though peradventure at the same moment God is\ntaking account of countless multitudes whose number is known to Him\nonly. Men do not see each other, nor hear each other speak.\"\n\nRegarding faith, Ghazzali says in the Ihya-ul-ulum:\n\n\"Faith consists of two elements, patience and gratitude. Both are graces\nbestowed by God, and there is no way to God except faith. The Koran\nexpounds the excellence of patience in more than seventy passages. The\nCaliph Ali said, 'Patience bears the same relation to faith as the head\ndoes to the body. He who has no head, has no body, and he who has no\npatience has no faith.'\"\n\nGhazzali's philosophy is the re-action of his intensely religious\npersonality against the naturalistic tendencies of men like Avicenna and\nAverroes. They believed in the eternity of matter, and reduced God to a\nbare First Cause. He also, though sympathising with the Sufis,\nespecially on the side of their asceticism, was opposed to Sufistic\nPantheism. He conceived God chiefly as an active Will, and not merely as\nthe Self existent.\n\nWhile his contemporaries were busying themselves with metaphysical\ntheories concerning matter and creation, Ghazzali laid stress on\nself-observation and self-knowledge (\"He who knows himself, knows God\").\nAs St. Augustine found deliverance from doubt and error in his inward\nexperience of God, and Descartes in self-consciousness, so Ghazzali,\nunsatisfied with speculation and troubled by scepticism, surrenders\nhimself to the will of God. Leaving others to demonstrate the existence\nof God from the external world, he finds God revealed in the depths of\nhis own consciousness and the mystery of his own free will.\n\nHe fared as innovators in religion and philosophy always do, and was\nlooked upon during his lifetime as a heretic. He admits himself that his\n\"Destruction of the philosophers\" was written to expose their mutual\ncontradictions. But he has no mere Mephistophelic pleasure in\ndestruction; he pulls down in order to erect. He is not a mere sceptic\non the one hand, nor a bigoted theologian on the other, and his verdict\non the Mutazilite heretics of his day is especially mild. Acute thinker\nthough he was, in him will and feeling predominated over thought. He\nrejected the dogmatic and philosophic systems of his contemporaries as\nmere jejune skeletons of reality, and devoted the close of his life to\nstudy of the traditions and the Koran.\n\nLike Augustine, he finds in God-derived self-consciousness the\nstarting-point for the thought, and like him emphasizes the fundamental\nsignificance of the will. He sees everywhere the Divine Will at work in\nwhat philosophers call natural causes. He seeks the truth, but seeks it\nwith a certain consciousness of possessing it already within himself.\n\nHe is a unique and lonely figure in Islam, and has to this day been only\npartially understood. In the Middle Ages his fame was eclipsed by that\nof Averroes, whose commentary on Aristotle is alluded to by Dante, and\nwas studied by Thomas Aquinas and the schoolmen. Averroes' system was\nrounded and complete, but Ghazzali was one of those \"whose reach exceeds\ntheir grasp\"; he was always striking after something he had not\nattained, and stands in many respects nearer to the modern mind than\nAverroes. Renan, though far from sympathising with his religious\nearnestness, calls him \"the most original mind among Arabian\nphilosophers,\" and De Boer says, \"Men like Ghazzali have for philosophy\nthis significance that they are a problem alike for themselves and for\nphilosophy, because they are a fragment of spiritual reality that\nrequires explanation. By the force of their personality they remove\nwhat hinders them in the construction of their systems without troubling\nabout correctness. Later thinkers make it their business to explain the\nimpulses that guide such men both in their work of destruction and of\nrestoration. Original minds like his supply food for reflection to\nfuture generations.\"\n\n   [44] Imam, _i.e._ leader.\n\n   [45] A sect which declared the impossibility of arriving at truth\n   except through an \"Imam\" or infallible guide.\n\n   [46] D.B. Macdonald \"Life of Ghazzali.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII.\n\nFariduddin Attar\n(AD 1119-1229)\n\n\nFariduddin Attar was born in the village of Kerken near Nishapur in\nKhorassan, A.D. 1119 under the Sultan Sandjar. Some years after his\nbirth his father removed to Schadbakh, where he kept a druggist's shop.\nOn his father's death, Fariduddin carried on the business, whence he\nreceived his cognomen Attar (druggist). His call to the religious life\nwas as follows: One day while he was seated in his shop surrounded by\nservants busily attending to his orders, a wandering dervish paused at\nthe door and regarded him silently, while his eyes slowly filled with\ntears. Attar sharply told him to be off about his business. \"That is\neasily done,\" replied the dervish; \"I have only a light bundle to carry,\nnothing in fact but my clothes. But you with your sacks full of valuable\ndrugs, when the time comes to go, what will _you_ do? Had you not better\nconsider a little?\" The appeal went home. He promptly abandoned his\nbusiness in order to devote himself to a religious life. Bidding a\ndecisive adieu to the world, he betook himself to a Sufi convent,\npresided over by Sheikh Ruknuddin. Here he resided for some time engaged\nin devotional practices, and then made the pilgrimage to Mecca, where he\nmet with many devotees and conceived the idea of compiling a collection\nof stories of the holy men of Islam. To this work he devoted several\nyears of his long life; he also composed a Pand-nama or \"Book of\nCounsels.\" But the work by which he is chiefly known is the\n\"Mantiq-ut-tair\" or \"Parliament of Birds,\" and of this we proceed to\ngive some account.\n\nIn this allegorical poem various birds representing mystics, unite\nthemselves under the leadership of the hoopoe in order to journey to the\ncourt of the Simurgh, a mysterious bird whose name signifies \"thirty\nbirds,\" dwelling in Mount Kaf, the mountain which encircles the world.\nAt the commencement of the poem there is a long debate between the\nhoopoe and the other birds, who at first allege various excuses for not\nundertaking the journey, while he rebukes them for their lukewarmness,\nnot concealing, however, the fact that the journey is full of peril, and\nthat though many start few will reach the goal. The hoopoe's description\nof the road is as follows: \"We have seven valleys to traverse.[47] The\nfirst is the Valley of Search; the second the Valley of Love, which has\nno limits; the third is the Valley of Knowledge; the fourth is the\nValley of Independence; the fifth is the Valley of Unity, pure and\nsimple; the sixth is the Valley of Amazement; last of all is the valley\nof Poverty and Annihilation, beyond which there is no advance. There\nthou wilt feel thyself drawn, but will have no power to go any further.\n\n\"(1) When thou enterest the Valley of Search, at every step new trials\nwill present themselves; there the parrot of the celestial sphere is as\nmute as a fly. There thou must cast away all thy possessions and imperil\nall thy riches. Not only must the hand be empty, but thy heart must be\ndetached from all that is earthly. Then the Light of the Divine Essence\nwill begin to cast upon thee some rays.\n\n\"(2) In order to enter the second valley (of love) thou must be made all\nof fire; he who is not composed of fire will find no pleasure in that\nvalley; he must not think of the future, but be ready to sacrifice a\nhundred worlds to the flames, if needs be. Faith and infidelity, good\nand evil, religion and irreligion, are all one for him who has arrived\nat the second stage; for where love reigns, none of them exist any more.\n\n\"(3) In the third valley (of knowledge) the progress of the pilgrims is\nin proportion to their innate powers. In the path traversed by Abraham\nthe Friend of God, can a feeble spider keep pace with an elephant? Let\nthe gnat fly as hard as he may, he will never keep up with the wind.\nThus the degrees of knowledge attained to by the initiated are\ndifferent; one only reaches the entrance of the temple, while another\nfinds the Divinity who dwells in it. When the Sun of Knowledge darts its\nrays, each is illumined in proportion to his capacity, and finds in the\ncontemplation of the truth the rank which belongs to him. He sees a path\nlie open before him through the midst of the fire, the furnace of the\nworld becomes for him a garden of roses. He perceives the almond within\nthe shell, that is to say, he sees God under the veil of all apparent\nthings. But for one happy man who penetrates into these mysteries, how\nmany millions have gone astray? Only the perfect can dive with success\ninto the depths of this ocean.\n\n\"(4) In the fourth valley (of independence) thou hast done with\neverything but God. Out of this disposition of mind, which no longer\nfeels the need of anything, there rises a tempestuous hurricane, every\nblast of which annihilates whole kingdoms. The seven seas are then no\nmore than a pool of water; the seven planets are a spark; the eight\nparadises are only a single curtain; the seven hells a mass of ice. In\nless time than it takes the greedy crow to fill its crop, out of a\nhundred caravans of travellers there remains not one alive.\n\n\"(5) The Valley of Unity which succeeds to that of Independence, is the\nvalley of privation of all things and reduction to unity, that is to\nsay, the attainment of a degree of spirituality, in which the Divine\nEssence, apart from every attribute, is the object of contemplation.\n\n\"(6) In the sixth valley, that of Amazement, the pilgrim's lot is to\nsuffer and to groan; each breath he draws is like a sword; his days and\nnights are passed in sighs; from each of his hairs distils a drop of\nblood, which, as it falls, traces in the air the letters of the word\n\"alas!\" There he remains in a state of stupefaction, and finds his way\nno more.\"\n\nTo make the meaning of \"Amazement\" clearer, Attar gives the following\nallegory. He supposes that the young companions of a princess wished one\nday to amuse themselves at the expense of a slave. They made him drink\nwine in which they had dropped a narcotic drug, and when he was asleep\nhad him carried to the harem. At midnight, when he woke, he found\nhimself on a gilded couch surrounded by perfumed candles, scent-boxes of\naloes, and lovely women whose songs ravished his ear. \"Disconcerted and\nstupefied,\" says the poet, \"he no longer retained reason nor life. He\nwas no longer in this world, nor was he in the other. His heart was full\nof love for the princess, but his tongue remained mute. His spirit was\nin ecstacies. When he awoke in the morning he found himself again a\nslave at his old post. The memory of the past night was so vivid that it\ncaused him to utter a cry; he tore his garments, and threw dust upon his\nhead. They asked him what was the matter, but he knew not what to reply.\nHe could not say whether what he had seen was a dream or a reality;\nwhether he had passed the night in drunkenness or in full possession of\nhis faculties. What he had seen had left a profound impression on his\nmind, and yet he could not trace it out accurately. He had contemplated\nBeauty beyond all words, and yet he was not sure whether he had seen It\nafter all. The only effect of his vision was a trouble of mind and\nuncertainty.\"\n\n(7) At last comes the seventh valley, that of Poverty and Annihilation.\n\"But these words are insufficient to describe it; forgetfulness,\ndeafness, dumbness, fainting--such is the condition of the pilgrim in\nthis valley. One sun causes millions of shadows to vanish. When the\nocean is agitated, how can the figures traced on its waters remain? Such\nfigures are this world and the world to come, and he who knows them to\nbe nothing is right. He who is plunged in this sea, where the heart is\nastray and lost, has by means of his very annihilation found immutable\nrepose. In this ocean, where reigns a constant calm, the heart finds\nnought but annihilation.\"\n\nAttar also illustrates the Sufi doctrine of annihilation (which\nresembles the Buddhistic nirvana) by an allegory. \"One night,\" he says,\n\"the butterflies were tormented by the desire to unite themselves with\nthe candle-flame. They held a meeting, and resolved that one of them\nshould go and experiment, and bring back news. A butterfly was sent to a\nneighbouring house, and he perceived the flame of the candle which was\nburning within. He brought back word and tried to describe the flame\naccording to the measure of his intelligence; but the butterfly who\npresided over the assembly said that the exploring butterfly had\nattained no real knowledge of the candle-flame. A second butterfly went\nforth, and approached so close to the flame as to singe his wings. He\nalso returned, and threw a little light on the mystery of union with the\nflame. But the presiding butterfly found his explanation not much more\nsatisfactory than the preceding one.\n\n\"A third butterfly then flew forth; he was intoxicated with love for the\nflame, and flung himself wholly into it; he lost himself, and identified\nhimself with it. It embraced him completely, and his body became as\nfiery-red as the flame itself. When the presiding butterfly saw from\nafar that the flame had absorbed the devoted butterfly and communicated\nits own qualities to it; 'That butterfly,' he exclaimed, 'has learnt\nwhat he wished to know, but he alone understands it. Only he who has\nlost all trace and token of his own existence knows what annihilation\nis. Until thou ignorest thyself, body and soul, thou canst not know the\nobject which deserves thy love.'\"\n\nThe foregoing terrible description of the seven mysterious valleys was\nwell calculated to discourage the birds, and Attar tells us that after\nhearing it they stood with hearts oppressed and heads bent. \"All\nunderstood,\" he says, \"that it was not for a feeble hand to bend this\nbow. They were so terrified by the discourse of the hoopoe that a great\nnumber died on the spot where they were assembled. As to the others, in\nspite of their dismay, they consented to commence the journey. During\nlong years they travelled over hill and dale, and spent a great part of\ntheir lives in pilgrimage.\n\n\"Finally, of all who set out, a very small band arrived at the goal.\nSome were drowned in the ocean, others were annihilated and disappeared.\nOthers perished on the peaks of high mountains, devoured by thirst and a\nprey to all kinds of ills.[48] Others had their plumes burnt and their\nhearts dried up by the scorching heat of the sun; others fell a prey to\nthe wild beasts which haunted the road, falling panic-struck, without\nresistance, into their claws; others died of sheer exhaustion in the\ndesert; others fought and killed each other madly for chance grains of\ncorn; others experienced all kinds of pains and fatigues, and ended by\nstopping short of the goal; others, engrossed in curiosity and\npleasure, perished without thinking of the object for which they had\nset out.\n\n\"When they started, their numbers were countless, but at last only\nthirty arrived, and these without feathers and wings, exhausted and\nprostrated, their hearts broken, their souls fainting, their bodies worn\nout by fatigue. They had arrived at the Palace of the Simurgh. A\nchamberlain of the King, who saw these thirty hapless birds without\nfeathers or wings, questioned them whence they came, and why. 'We have\ncome,' they answered, 'that the Simurgh may become our king. The love\nthat we feel for him has unsettled our reason. We have denied ourselves\nall rest to follow the road that leads to Him. It is very long since we\nstarted, and of our many millions, only thirty have reached the goal.\nThe hope of appearing here has buoyed us up hitherto; may the King think\nkindly of the perils we have undergone, and cast upon us at least a\nglance of compassion.' The chamberlain returned a harsh answer, and\nordered them to go back, telling them that the King had no need of their\nhomage. This answer at first cast them into despair, but afterwards,\nimitating the moth which seeks certain death in the flame of the lamp,\nthey persisted in their request to be admitted to the presence of the\nSimurgh. Their steadfastness did not remain unrewarded. The \"chamberlain\nof grace\" came out, opened a door, and presented them with a document\nwhich he ordered them to read. This contained a list of all the sins\nwhich the birds had committed against the Simurgh. The perusal of it\ncaused them nothing less than death, but this death was for them the\nbirth into a new life.\"\n\nAttar says: \"By reason of the shame and confusion which these birds\nexperienced, their bodies became dust, and their souls were annihilated.\nWhen they were entirely purified from all earthly elements, they all\nreceived a new life. All that they had done or omitted to do during\ntheir earthly existence passed entirely out of mind. The sun of\nproximity burnt them, that is to say, their former existence was\nconsumed by the sun of the Divine Essence which they had approached, and\na ray of this light produced a life which animated them all. At this\nmoment they beheld themselves reflected in the Simurgh.[49] When they\nstole a glance at Him, He appeared to be the thirty birds themselves;\nwhen they looked at themselves, they seemed to be the Simurgh; and when\nthey looked at both together, only one Simurgh appeared. The situation\nwas inexpressible in words. They were all submerged in an ocean of\nstupefaction, with all faculties of thought suspended. Without moving a\ntongue, they interrogated the Awful Presence for an explanation of the\nmystery of apparent identity between the Divinity and his adorers.\n\n\"Then a voice was heard saying, 'The Majesty of the Simurgh is a\nsun-resembling mirror; whosoever contemplates Him beholds his own\nreflection; body and soul see in Him body and soul. As you are thirty\nbirds, you appear in this mirror as thirty birds; if forty or fifty\nbirds came here they would see forty or fifty. Although you have passed\nthrough many changes, it is yourselves only whom you have seen\nthroughout. Can the eye of an ant reach the Pleiades? Then how can your\ninch of inkling attain to Us?\n\n\"In all the valleys which you have traversed, in all the acts of\nkindness which you have done to others, it was by Our impulse alone that\nyou were acting. All this while you have been asleep in the Valley of\nthe Essence and the Attributes. You thirty birds have been unconscious\nhitherto. The name \"thirty birds\" belongs rather to Us, who are the\nveritable Simurgh. Find then in Us a glorious self-effacement, in order\nto find yourselves again in us.'\n\n\"So they vanished in Him for ever, as the shadow disappears in the sun.\nWhile on pilgrimage they conversed; when they had arrived, all converse\nceased. There was no longer a guide; there were no longer pilgrims; the\nroad itself had ceased to be.\"\n\nSuch is this allegory, or Sufi's \"Pilgrim's Progress,\" which contains\nnearly five thousand couplets. Attar varies the monotony of the long\nspeeches of the Hoopoe and the other birds by inserting anecdotes, of\nwhich the following is one of the most striking:--\n\n\nSTORY OF THE SHEIKH SANAAN.\n\nThe Sheikh Sanaan was one of the saints of his age; four or five times\nhe had made the pilgrimage to Mecca; his prayers and fasts were\ncountless; no practice enjoined by the religious law was omitted by him;\nhe had passed through all the degrees of the spiritual life; his very\nbreath had a healing influence upon the sick. In joy and in grief, he\nwas an example for men, and, as it were, a standard lifted up.\n\nOne night, to his distress, he dreamt that he was fated to leave Mecca\n(where he was then residing) for Roum (Asia Minor), and there become an\nidolator. When he awoke, he said to his disciples, of whom he had four\nhundred, \"My decision is taken; I must go to Roum in order to have this\ndream explained.\" His four hundred disciples accompanied him on the\njourney. They went from Mecca to Roum, and traversed the country from\none end to another. One day, by chance they saw on an elevated balcony a\nyoung and lovely Christian girl. No sooner had the Sheikh seen her than\nhe became violently in love, and seemed to lose all regard for his\nreligious duties. His disciples tried to rouse him out of his perilous\nstate, but in vain. One said to him, \"O thou knower of secrets, rise and\nperform thy prayers.\" He replied, \"My 'mihrab'[50] is the face of my\nBeloved; only thither will I direct my prayers.\" Another said, \"Dost\nthou not repent? Dost thou not preserve any regard for Islam?\" \"No one,\"\nhe said, \"repents more deeply than I do for not having been in love\nbefore.\" A third said, \"Anyone with intelligence can see that though\nthou wast our guide, thou hast gone astray.\" He answered, \"Say what you\nlike, I am not ashamed; I break with a stone the vase of hypocrisy.\"\n\nTo many similar remonstrances he made similar replies. At last, finding\ntheir efforts of no avail, his disciples left him. Lost in a kind of\nstupor, he remained the whole night motionless before the balcony.\n\nIn the morning the young Christian came out, and seeing that he did not\ngot away, understood that he was in love. He poured out a passionate\nappeal, when she would have dismissed him, and refused to depart. At\nlast she said, \"If thou art really in earnest, thou must utterly wash\nthy hands of Islam; thou must bow to idols,[51] burn the Koran, drink\nwine, and give up thy religious observances.\" The Sheikh replied, \"I\nwill drink wine, but I cannot consent to the three other conditions.\"\nShe said, \"Rise, then, and drink; when thou hast drunk, thou mayest,\nperchance, be able.\" Accordingly the Sheikh drank wine, and, having done\nso, lost his senses entirely, complied with her requests, and became her\nabject slave. He then said to her, \"O charming maiden, what remains to\nbe done? I have drunk wine, I have adored idols; no one could do more\nfor love than I have done.\" She, though she began to requite his\naffection, wishing still further to prove him, answered, \"Go, then, and\nfeed my swine for a year, and then we will pass our lives together in\njoy or in sorrow.\"\n\nSo this saint and great Sheikh consented to keep swine for a year. The\nnews of his apostasy spread all over Roum, and his disciples again came\nto remonstrate with him, and said, \"O thou who disregardest religion,\nreturn with us again to the Kaaba.\" The Sheikh answered, \"My soul is\nfull of sadness; go whither your desires carry you. As for me, the\nChurch is henceforth my place, and the young Christian the happiness of\nmy life.\" He spoke, and turning his face from his friends, went back to\nfeed his swine. They wept, and looked at him wistfully from afar. At\nlast they returned sadly to the Kaaba.\n\nNow there was a friend of the Sheikh, who happened to have been absent\nwhen the Sheikh left Mecca. On the arrival of the Sheikh's disciples, he\nquestioned them, and learned all that had happened. He then said, \"If\nyou are really his friends, go and pray to God night and day for the\nSheikh's conversion.\" Accordingly, forty days and nights they prayed and\nfasted, till their prayers were heard, and God turned the sheikh's heart\nback again to Islam. The secrets of divine wisdom, the Koran, the\nprophecies, all that he had blotted out of his mind, came back to his\nmemory, and at the same time he was delivered from his folly and his\nmisery. When the fire of repentance burns, it consumes everything. He\nmade his ablutions, resumed his Moslem garb, and departed for Mecca,\nwhere he and his old disciples embraced with tears of joy.\n\nIn the meantime the young Christian saw the Prophet appearing to her in\na dream, and saying, \"Follow the Sheikh! Adopt his doctrine; be the dust\nunder his feet. Thou who wert the cause of his apostasy, be pure as he\nis.\" When she awoke from her dream, a strong impulse urged her to seek\nfor him. With a heart full of affection, though with a feeble body, she\nwent to seek for the Sheikh and his disciples. While she was on the way,\nan inner voice apprised the Sheikh of what was passing. \"This maiden,\"\nit said, \"has abandoned infidelity; she has heard of Our sacred\nHouse,[52] she has entered in Our way; thou mayest take her now, and be\nblameless.\"\n\nForthwith, the Sheikh set out on the way towards Roum to meet her; his\ndisciples essayed to stop him and said, \"Was thy repentance not real?\nArt thou turning back again to folly?\" But he told them of the\nintimation which he had received, and they set out together till they\narrived where the young Christian was. But they found her prostrate on\nthe ground, her hair soiled by the dust of the way, her feet bare, her\ngarments torn. At this sight tears ran down the Sheikh's cheeks; she,\nwhen she saw him, said, \"Lift the veil that I may be instructed, and\nteach me Islam.\"\n\nWhen this lovely idol had become one of the Faithful, they shed tears of\njoy, but she was sad; \"O Sheikh!\" she cried, \"my powers are exhausted; I\ncannot support absence. I am going to leave this dusty and bewildering\nworld. Farewell, Sheikh Sanaan, farewell! I can say no more; pardon me\nand oppose me not.\" So saying, her soul left the body; the drop returned\nto the ocean.\n\nOther anecdotes which occur in the Mantiq-ut-tair are the following:--\n\n\nTHE ANGEL GABRIEL AND THE INFIDEL.\n\nOne night Gabriel was near the Throne, when he heard Allah pronouncing\nwords of acquiescence in answer to someone's prayer. \"A servant of God,\"\nsaid Gabriel to himself, \"is invoking the Eternal just now; but who is\nhe? All that I can understand is that he must be a saint of surpassing\nmerit, whose spirit has entirely subdued his flesh. Gabriel wished to\nknow who the happy mortal was, but though he flew over lands and seas,\nhe did not find him. He hastened to return to the proximity of the\nThrone and heard again the same answer given to the same prayers. In his\nanxiety to know the suppliant, he again sought for him throughout the\nworld, but in vain. Then he cried, \"O God, show me the way that conducts\nto his dwelling.\" \"Go,\" was the answer, \"to the country of Roum; enter a\ncertain Christian convent, and thou shalt find him.\" Gabriel hastened\nthither, and saw the man who was the object of the divine favour; at\nthat very moment he was adoring an idol. Then Gabriel said to God, \"O\nMaster of the world, reveal to me this secret; How canst Thou hear with\nkindness him who prays to an idol in a convent?\" God answered him, \"A\nveil is upon his heart; he knows not that he is astray. Since he has\nerred through ignorance, I pardon him, and grant him access to the\nhighest rank of saints.\"\n\n\nTHE CLAY OF WHICH MAN IS MADE.\n\nOne day the Prophet drank of a stream and found its taste more sweet\nthan rose-water. As he was sitting by the stream, someone came and\nfilled his clay pitcher from it, and the Prophet drank out of that also.\nTo his amazement, he found the water bitter. \"O God,\" he said, \"the\nwater of the stream and the water in the pitcher are one; disclose to me\nthe secret of the difference in their taste. Why is the water in the\npitcher bitter, and the other sweet as honey?\" From the pitcher itself\ncame the answer. \"I am old; the clay of which I am made has been worked\nover and over again into a thousand shapes. But in every shape I am\nimpregnated with the bitter savour of mortality. It exists in me in such\na way that the water which I hold cannot be sweet.\"\n\n\nTHE DEAD CRIMINAL.\n\nA poor criminal died, and as they were carrying him to burial, a devotee\nwho was passing by stood aloof, saying that funeral prayers should not\nbe said over such an one. The next night, in a dream, the devotee saw\nthe criminal in heaven, with his face shining like the sun. Amazed, he\nsaid to him, \"How hast thou obtained so lofty a place, thou who hast\nspent thy life in crime, and art foul from head to foot?\" He answered,\n\"It is because of thy want of compassion towards me that God has shown\nme mercy, though so great a sinner. Behold the mystery of God's love and\nwisdom. In His wisdom, He sends man, like a child with a lamp, through\nthe night as black as a raven; immediately afterwards he commands a\nfurious wind to blow and extinguish the lamp. Then He asks His child why\nthe lamp is blown out.\"\n\n\"Night and day, O my child, the seven spheres carry on their revolutions\nfor thee. Heaven and hell are reflections of thy goodness and of thy\nwickedness. The angels have all bowed down to thee.[53] The part and\nwhole are lost in thy essence. Do not, therefore, despise thine own\nself, for nothing is higher than it. The body is part of the Whole, and\nthy soul is the Whole. The body is not distinct from the soul, but is a\npart of it, neither is the soul distinct from the Whole. It is for thee\nthat the time arrives when the rose displays its beauty; for thee that\nthe clouds pour down the rain of mercy. Whatever the angels do, they\nhave done for thee.\"\n\n\nANECDOTE OF BAYAZID BASTAMI.\n\nOne night Sheikh Bayazid went out of the town, and found reigning\neverywhere profound silence. The moon was shining at the full, making\nthe night as clear as day. The sky was covered with constellations, each\nfulfilling its course. The Sheikh walked on for a long while without\nhearing the least sound, and without perceiving anyone. He was deeply\nmoved, and said, \"O Lord, my heart is pained. Why is such a sublime\naudience-hall as Thine without throngs of worshippers?\" \"Cease thy\nwonder,\" an inner voice replied to him. \"The King does not accord access\nto His Court to everyone. When the sanctuary of Our splendour is\ndisplayed, the careless and the slumbering are without. Those who are to\nbe admitted to this Court wait whole years, and then only one in a\nmillion enters.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn his latter years, Fariduddin Attar carried his asceticism to such a\ndegree that he gave up composing poetry altogether. The story of his\ndeath illustrates in a striking way the indifference to external things\ncultivated by the Sufis. During the invasion of Persia by Jenghiz Khan\n(1229 A.D.) when Attar had reached the great age of 110, he was taken\nprisoner by the Mongols. One of them was about to kill him, when another\nsaid, \"Let the old man live; I will give a thousand pieces of silver as\nhis ransom.\" His captor was about to close with the bargain, but Attar\nsaid, \"Don't sell me so cheaply; you will find someone willing to give\nmore.\" Subsequently another man came up and offered a bag of straw for\nhim. \"Sell me to him,\" said Attar, \"for that is all I am worth.\" The\nMongol, irritated at the loss of the first offer, slew the saint, who\nthus found the death he desired.\n\n   [47] _i.e.:_ The stages of the Sufi's progress to God.\n\n   [48] c.f. G. Meredith\n\n                \"Out of hundreds who aspire,\n                Eighties perish, nineties tire;\n          Those who bear up in spite of wrecks and wracks,\n          Were seasoned by celestial blows and thwacks.\"\n\n   [49] It should be remembered that the name Simurgh means \"thirty\n   birds.\"\n\n   [50] The niche in the mosque wall facing Mecca, towards which\n   Muhammadans pray.\n\n   [51] Christians are regarded as idolators by Moslems.\n\n   [52] The Kaaba.\n\n   [53] Alluding to the Koran (Sura 18) where the angels are\n   represented as worshipping Adam by the command of God.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII\n\nSuhrawardy[54]\n(1153-1191 AD)\n\n\nVery few remains in writing, except their Persian poems, have come down\nto us from the older Pantheistic mystics. In the Kingdom of the Caliphs\nheretical books were suppressed by stronger measures than being placed\non the Index. To express views openly at variance with the established\nreligion was to imperil one's life. The Persian Sufis, therefore, who in\ntheir mystical works generally used Arabic, veiled their views in a sort\nof technical language, which was quite unintelligible to the\nuninitiated. Still some works are preserved which give us an insight\ninto their tendencies.\n\nThe Sheikh Suhrawardy, who was a martyr to his convictions, must be\nregarded as the chief representative of this free-thinking tendency in\nSufism. His works have been more appreciated by the Persians and Turks\nthan by the Arabs, among whom copies of them are no longer to be found,\nwhile they may be met with in Turkish libraries.\n\nSuhrawardy belonged to the orthodox school of the Shafiites, and gained\na great reputation for his learning. He studied jurisprudence in\nMaraghah, then went to Ispahan, and later to Bagdad and Aleppo, where he\noccupied himself chiefly with philosophical studies. He gave himself\nthe title \"Disciple of the Spirit-world.\" In the Arabic biographies of\nhim, his teaching is said to have aimed at overthrowing Islam; this,\nhowever, is always said of anyone who ventures to oppose the dominant\northodox party. As a matter of fact, he founded a sect who bore the name\nIshrakiyya--\"The Illumined.\" For them he composed a work, \"Hikmat al\nIshrak,\" _i.e._, \"The philosophy of illumination,\" containing mystical\nand fantastic teaching. In Aleppo, where he finally took up his abode,\nhe seems to have exercised a powerful influence on Prince Malik Zahir,\nthe son of the famous Saladin. The orthodox party persuaded the latter\nto pass sentence of death on him as a heretic, which sentence Malik\nZahir caused to be carried out (1191 A.D.), but not till he had received\na threatening letter from his father for his dilatoriness. Suhrawardy is\nsaid when he heard the sentence, to have quoted a Persian verse:\n\n   \"It is not worth while to draw the sword.\"\n\nBy his own consent, he was then shut up in a separate chamber and\ndeprived of meat and drink till he passed into the world for which he\nlonged. His tomb is still preserved in Aleppo, where the memory of him\nas \"the murdered Suhrawardy\" has by no means faded. The inhabitants say\nthat no tree or shrub will grow in the tomb-enclosure. His real\ncharacter has, for the most part, been forgotten, and he is represented\nas a magician and sorcerer who possessed the philosopher's stone, and\nknew how to make gold. Many even believe that he was never killed at\nall, but disappeared, while a phantom was put to death in his place.\nThey say that at night weird sounds are heard from his grave.\n\nThese popular legends give us reason to suppose that Suhrawardy's life\nand death in Aleppo really made an extraordinary impression on the\npeople, and that his teaching penetrated more deeply than Muhammedan\nwriters find convenient to admit. Suhrawardy's writings were preserved\nfrom entire destruction by the Persians and Turks. The most important of\nthem are the above-mentioned Hikmat al Ishrak, Haikal-un-nur (The Temple\nof Light) and others. From the two first a few passages may be quoted,\nwhich suffice to show that the theosophy of this Persian Sufi took a\nmuch bolder flight than that of the Arabian Sufis, and that for it Islam\nwas a mere outward form.\n\nIn the Hikmat al Ishrak we find the influences of two entirely different\nschools of thought fantastically blended into an extraordinary compound\nof philosophy and mysticism. In this, Neo-platonic ideas are brought\ninto connection with a theory of light obviously derived from\nZoroastrian doctrine, and both are variously modified by the influence\nof Islamic monotheism and presented in the abstract terminology of the\nArabic Sufis. With these last, Suhrawardy found himself in harmony with\nregard to their \"ecstatic\" stages and arrival at the knowledge of God by\nway of intuition. He also betrays the influence of the Perso-Shiite\ndogma of the hidden spiritual Imams, of whom only one is believed to be\non earth at any given time, and he is the highest spiritual and\nreligious authority among his contemporaries.\n\nThe following is an abridged translation of the preface to the \"Hikmat\nal Ishrak\": \"Long have ye, O worthy friends and companions--may God\nprotect you!--prayed me to write for you a book wherein I should\ndescribe what has been revealed to me by way of inspiration in my lonely\ncontemplations and soul-combats. Spiritual science is no class privilege\nreserved for the elect, behind whom the doors of the spirit-world are\nclosed, and thereby he who would learn somewhat of the supernatural is\nexcluded. Nay, He who graciously granted us this knowledge, He, the\nHorizon of Illumination, is not miserly with the secrets of the other\nworld. The worst of all ages is that in which the carpet of free\nspiritual investigation is rolled up, the wings of thought are cramped,\nthe gates of intuition closed and the road of contemplation barricaded.\n\n\"The world was never wholly without philosophy, and without someone who\ncultivated it and was declared a philosopher by manifest proofs and\nfacts. This man is the real Caliph or representative of God on earth,\nand his successors will be so, as long as heaven and earth shall endure.\nThe difference between the old and new philosophers only consists in the\nvariations of their phraseology and of their methods of exposition and\nproof. All in common acknowledge the three worlds (the earthly world,\nthe spirit world, and the world of Deity); all alike are agreed in\nMonotheism and in their fundamental principles.\n\n\"As regards the first teacher, Aristotle, it is clear that he is of\nincomparable value, that his wisdom is great and his faculty of\npenetration profound; yet we should not so exaggerate our reverence for\nhim as to undervalue his masters, among whom especially are to be\ncounted the travelling and law-giving philosophers, such as Agathodaemon,\nHermes, AEsculapius and others. The line of their succession is long;\nthe chief classes into which they may be divided are as follows: (1) The\nTheosophist without philosophy; (2) the speculative philosopher without\ntheosophy; (3) the philosopher who is equally strong in both; (4) the\nTheosophist who is strong in theosophy but mediocre or weak in\nphilosophy; (5) the philosopher who is strong in philosophy but mediocre\nor weak in theosophy, etc. Now if the complete mastery of both\nphilosophic and theosophic science is found in one man, _this_ man is\nthe representative of God on earth. Failing such a person, the title\ndevolves on him who is complete in theosophy, though he may be mediocre\nin philosophy. Failing him, the representative of God is he who is\ncomplete in theosophy without possessing any philosophy at all. There\nnever fails to be in the world _one_ great theosophist.\n\n\"But the speculative philosopher, fully equipped in philosophy, has no\nclaim to the rule in this earth. For there is always a theosophist on\nearth and he is better fitted for the post than the philosopher, as the\nplace of God's Vicar on earth cannot remain unoccupied. By this 'rule,'\nhowever, I do not mean the possession of political power; only the Imam\nwho is also a theosophist _may_ take over the political power and\nexercise it publicly, or he may rule in secret. In the latter case he is\ntermed the mystical pole (\"qutb\"); to him the rule belongs, even though\nhe live in the deepest poverty. If the political power should really\ncome into his hand, the age becomes illuminated; but if it lacks such\ndivine guidance, it is overwhelmed by darkness.\n\n\"It is nobler to aim at a high attainment at theosophy and philosophy\nalike than to confine one's effort to one or the other. This book is\nintended for those who devote themselves to both, and not to the latter\nonly; in it we address ourselves only to the untrammelled thinker in the\nreign of theosophy; the lowest step which the reader of it should have\nattained, if he would derive any benefit therefrom, is at any rate to\nhave felt a flash of the divine light reach him, and in some measure to\nhave made it his own. Whoever merely wishes to study philosophy, let him\nattend the school of the Peripatetics; for that purpose it is good and\nsufficient. Just as we form certain sense-perceptions and recognise\ntheir conditions with certainty, and base further scientific\ninvestigations upon them, so in the spiritual realm we form certain\nperceptions and build upon them; but he who does not adopt this method,\nunderstands nothing of philosophy.\"\n\nContinuing, he assumes a peculiar theory of light, which betrays a\nreally Persian origin. One special light he designates by the old\nPersian word \"Isfahbad.\" The Godhead Itself he calls the \"light of\nlights.\" In other places he borrows from Neo-Platonism. He assumes a\nregion in the heavenly spheres where the ideal prototypes of existing\nthings are found. The saints and devout ascetics, according to him, have\nthe power to call those ideal prototypes into real existence, and these\ncan produce at their wish, food, figures or melodies, etc.\n\nSuhrawardy's optimistic way of conceiving the world is peculiar for a\nMoslem. While Islam regards the world as a vale of tears, and earthly\nlife as a time of temptation, he finds the evil in this world much less\nthan the good. The following sentences of his work are noteworthy:\n\"Know that souls in whom the heavenly illuminations are lasting, reduce\nthe material world to obedience. Their supplication is heard in the\nUpper World, and fate has already decreed that the supplication of such\na person for such an object should be heard. The light which streams\nfrom the highest world is the Elixir of power and knowledge and the\nworld obeys it. In the purified souls is reproduced a reflex of God's\nlight, and a creative ray is focussed in them. The 'evil eye' is only a\nlight-power, which influences objects and injures them.\" Soon after\nSuhrawardy had been put to death, nearly the whole of his books were\ncommitted to the flames by order to the Caliph Nasir.\n\n   [54] From Von Kremer.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV\n\nJALALUDDIN RUMI\n\n\nJalaluddin Rumi has been called by Professor Ethe (in the _Encyclopaedia\nBritannica_) \"the greatest pantheistic writer of all ages.\" However that\nmay be, he is certainly the greatest mystical poet of Persia, though not\nso well known in Europe as Saadi, Hafiz and Omar Khayyam. Saadi,\nJalaluddin's contemporary, seems to have been conscious of this, for\nwhen asked by the Prince of Shiraz to send him the finest poem which had\nbeen published in Persia, he sent an ode from Jalaluddin's \"Diwan.\"\n\nJalaluddin (\"the glory of religion\") was born at Balkh, in Central Asia\n(1207 AD), where his father, Behauddin, was a professor of theology\nunder the Sultan Khwarezm Shah. His discourses were largely attended by\ngreat and small, but for some reason he seems to have excited the\nSultan's displeasure. He therefore left Balkh with the whole of his\nfamily and dependants, taking an oath not to return thither while the\nSultan was on the throne. Behauddin's way led him to Nishapur, where he\nmet the Sheikh Fariddudin Attar, who, pointing to Jalaluddin, said,\n\"Take care! This son of yours will light a great flame in the world.\"\nAttar also presented the boy with his _Asrarnama_, or \"book of\nsecrets.\" In every town which they visited the chief men came to see\nBehauddin and listened to his teaching. Behauddin and his son made the\npilgrimage to Mecca, after which the former settled at Konia (Iconium),\nin Asia Minor (\"Roum\"), whence the poet received the title \"Rumi.\" Here\nBehauddin obtained as great a reputation as he had done at Balkh, and on\nhis death Jalaluddin succeeded him as \"Sheikh,\" or spiritual instructor.\nHe soon grew tired of the ordinary round of Mohammedan learning and gave\nhimself up to mysticism. This tendency of his received an additional\nimpulse from the arrival in Iconium of an extraordinary man, the fakir\nShams-i-Tabriz, a disciple of the celebrated Sheikh Ruknuddin.\n\nOne day Ruknuddin, when conversing with Shams-i-Tabriz, had said to him,\n\"In the land of Roum is a Sufi who glows with divine love; thou must go\nthither and fan this glow to a clear flame.\" Shams-i-Tabriz immediately\nwent to Iconium. On his arrival he met Jalaluddin riding on a mule in\nthe midst of a throng of disciples who were escorting him from the\nlecture hall to his house. He at once intuitively recognised that here\nwas the object of his search and his longing. He therefore went straight\nup to him and asked, \"What is the aim of all the teaching that you give,\nand all the religious exercises which you practise?\" \"The aim of my\nteaching,\" answered Jalaluddin, \"is the regulation of conduct as\nprescribed by the traditions and the moral and religious law.\" \"All\nthis,\" answered Shams-i-Tabriz, \"is mere skimming the surface.\" \"But\nwhat then is under the surface?\" asked Jalaluddin. \"Only complete union\nof the knower with the known is knowledge,\" answered Shams-i-Tabriz and\nquoted the following verse of Hakim Sanai:--\n\n   Only when knowledge frees thee from thyself,\n     Is such knowledge better than ignorance.\n\nThese words made a most powerful impression on Jalaluddin, so that he\nplied Shams-i-Tabriz with questions and resorted with him to lonely\ndesert places for uninterrupted converse. This led to a neglect of\nteaching on his part, and his pupils and adherents persecuted and\nridiculed Shams-i-Tabriz, calling him \"a bare-footed and bare-headed\nfakir, who has come hither to lead the pattern of believers astray.\"\nTheir treatment caused Shams-i-Tabriz to flee to his native city without\ntelling Jalaluddin. The latter, however, overcome by love and longing,\nwent after him, found him and persuaded him to return.\n\nShams-i-Tabriz did so, and for some time longer they lived in friendly\nintercourse together; but Jalaluddin's disciples again began to\npersecute the former, who departed to Syria, where he remained two\nyears. During this interval, in order to soften the pain of separation,\nJalaluddin instituted mystical dances, which he ordered to be\naccompanied by the flute. This was the beginning of the celebrated order\nof Mevlevis, or dancing dervishes, which has now existed for over six\nhundred years, successively presided over by descendants of Jalaluddin.\nTheir gyrations are intended to symbolise the wheelings of the planets\nround their central sun and the attraction of the creature to the\nCreator. They exist in large numbers in Turkey, and to this day the\ncoronation of the Sultan of Turkey is not considered complete till he\nis girded with a sword by the head dervish of the Mevlevi order.\n\nShams-i-Tabriz subsequently returned to Konia and perished there in a\ntumult, the details of which are not known. To commemorate his friend\nJalaluddin composed his \"Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz,\" putting the latter's\nname in place of his own as the author. It is a collection of spirited\nodes setting forth the doctrines of Sufistic Pantheism. The following\nlines on pilgrimage to the Kaaba afford a good instance of the way in\nwhich the Sufi poets endeavour to spiritualise the rites of Islam:--\n\n   Beats there a heart within that breast of thine,\n   Then compass reverently its sacred shrine:\n   For the essential Kaaba is the heart,\n   And no proud pile of perishable art.\n\n   When God ordained the pilgrim rite, that sign\n   Was meant to lead thy thoughts to things divine;\n   A thousand times _he_ treads that round in vain\n   Who gives one human heart a needless pain.\n\n   Leave wealth behind; bring God thy heart, Whose light\n   Will guide thy footsteps through the gloomiest night\n   God spurns the riches of a thousand coffers,\n   And says, 'The saint is he his heart who offers;\n\n   Nor gold nor silver seek I, but above\n   All gifts the heart, and buy it with My love:\n   Yea! one sad, contrite heart which men despise\n   More than My throne and fixed decree I prize';\n   The meanest heart that ever man has spurned\n   Is a clear glass where God may be discerned.\n\nThe following ode, translated by the late Professor\nFalconer, is frankly pantheistic:--\n\n   I was, ere a name had been named upon earth,\n   Ere one trace yet existed of aught that has birth:\n   When the locks of the Loved One streamed forth for a sign\n   And Being was none, save the Presence Divine.\n   Named and name were alike emanations from Me,\n   Ere aught that was 'I' yet existed, or 'We';\n   Ere the veil of the flesh for Messiah was wrought,\n   To the Godhead I bowed in prostration of thought;\n   I measured intently, I pondered with heed\n   (But, ah, fruitless my labour!) the Cross and its Creed:\n   To the pagod I rushed and the Magian's shrine,\n   But my eye caught no glimpse of a glory divine;\n   The reins of research to the Kaaba I bent,\n   Whither hopefully thronging the old and young went;\n   Candahar and Herat searched I wistfully through,\n   Nor above nor beneath came the Loved One to view.\n   I toiled to the summit, wild, pathless and lone,\n   Of the globe-girding Kaf,[55] but the Anka[56] had flown!\n   The seventh earth I traversed, the seventh heaven explored,\n   But in neither discerned I the court of the Lord.\n   I questioned the Pen and the Tablet of Fate,\n   But they whispered not where He pavilions His state;\n   My vision I strained, but my God-scanning eye\n   No trace that to Godhead belongs could descry.\n   My glance I bent inward: within my own breast\n   Lo, the vainly sought elsewhere! the Godhead confessed!\n\nJalaluddin's chief work, the Masnavi, containing upwards of 26,000\ncouplets, was undertaken at the instance of one of his disciples and\nintimates, Husam-ud-din, who had often urged him to put his teaching\ninto a written form. One day when Husam-ud-din pressed the subject upon\nhim, Jalaluddin drew from his turban a paper containing the opening\ncouplets of the Masnavi, which are thus translated by Mr. Whinfield:--\n\n   Hearken to the reed flute, how it discourses,\n   When complaining of the pains of separation:--\n   'Ever since they tore me from my ozier-bed,\n   My plaintive notes have moved men and women to tears.\n   I burst my breast, striving to give vent to sighs,\n   And to express the pangs of my yearning for my home.\n   He who abides far away from his home\n   Is ever longing for the day he shall return;\n   My wailing is heard in every throng,\n   In concert with them that rejoice and them that weep.'\n\nThe reed flute is one of the principal instruments in the melancholy\nmusic which accompanies the dancing of the Mevlevi dervishes. It is a\npicture of the Sufi or enlightened man, whose life is, or ought to be,\none long lament over his separation from the Godhead, for which he\nyearns till his purified spirit is re-absorbed into the Supreme Unity.\nWe are here reminded of the words of Novalis, \"Philosophy is, properly\nspeaking, home sickness; the wish to be everywhere at home.\"\n\nBriefly speaking, the subject of the Masnavi may be said to be the love\nof the soul for God as its Origin, to Whom it longs to return, not the\nsubmission of the ordinary pious Moslem to the iron despotism of Allah.\nThis thesis is illustrated with an extraordinary wealth of imagery and\napologue throughout the six books composing the work. The following\nfable illustrates the familiar Sufi doctrine that all religions are the\nsame to God, Who only regards the heart:--\n\n   Moses, to his horror, heard one summer day\n   A benighted shepherd blasphemously pray:\n   'Lord!' he said, 'I would I knew Thee, where Thou art,\n   That for Thee I might perform a servant's part;\n   Comb Thy hair and dust Thy shoes and sweep Thy room,\n   Bring Thee every morning milk and honeycomb.'\n   Moses cried: 'Blasphemer! curb thy blatant speech!\n   Whom art thou addressing? Lord of all and each,\n   Allah the Almighty? Thinkest thou He doth need\n   Thine officious folly? Wilt all bounds exceed?\n   Miscreant, have a care, lest thunderbolts should break\n   On our heads and others perish for thy sake.\n   Without eyes He seeth, without ears He hears,\n   Hath no son nor partner through the endless years,\n   Space cannot contain Him, time He is above,\n   All the limits that He knows are Light and Love.'\n\n   Put to shame, the shepherd, his poor garment rent,\n   Went away disheartened, all his ardour spent.\n\n   Then spake God to Moses: 'Why hast thou from Me\n   Driven away My servant, who goes heavily?\n   Not for severance it was, but union,\n   I commissioned thee to preach, O hasty one!\n   Hatefullest of all things is to Me divorce,\n   And the worst of all ways is the way of force.\n   I made not creation, Self to aggrandize,\n   But that creatures might with Me communion prize.\n   What though childish tongues trip? 'Tis the heart I see,\n   If it really loves Me in sincerity.\n   Blood-stains of the martyrs no ablution need,\n   Some mistakes are better than a cautious creed,\n   Once _within_ the Kaaba,[57] wheresoe'er men turn,\n   Is it much to Him Who spirits doth discern?\n   Love's religion comprehends each creed and sect,\n   Love flies straight to God, and outsoars intellect.\n   If the gem be real, what matters the device?\n   Love in seas of sorrow finds the pearl of price.'\n\nA similar lesson is taught by the apologue of the \"Elephant in the\nDark\":--\n\n   During the reign of an Eastern sovereign, he remarked that the\n   learned men of his time differed widely in their estimate of the\n   Deity, each ascribing to Him different characteristics. So he had\n   an elephant brought in secret to his capital and placed in a dark\n   chamber; then, inviting those learned men, he told them that he\n   was in possession of an animal which none of them had ever seen.\n   He requested them to accompany him to the chamber, and, on\n   entering it, said that the animal was before them, and asked if\n   they could see it. Being answered in the negative, he begged them\n   to approach and feel it, which they did, each touching it in a\n   different part. After returning to the light, he asked them what\n   they thought the animal was really like. One declared that it was\n   a huge column, another that it was a rough hide, a third that it\n   was of ivory, a fourth that it had huge flaps of some coarse\n   substance; but not one could correctly state what the animal was.\n   They returned to the chamber, and when the light was let in,\n   those learned men beheld for the first time the object of their\n   curiosity, and learned that, whilst each was correct in what he\n   had said, all differed widely from the truth.\n\nThough a pantheist, Jalaluddin lays great stress on the fact of man's\nsinfulness and frailty and on the personality of the Devil, as in the\nfollowing lines:--\n\n   Many a net the Devil spreads, weaving snare on snare,\n   We, like foolish birds, are caught captive unaware;\n   From one net no sooner free, straightway in another\n   We are tangled, fresh defeats aspirations smother;\n   Till upon the ground we lie, helpless as a stone,\n   We, who might have gained the sky, we, who might have flown.\n   When we seek to house our grain, pile a goodly store,\n   Pride, a hidden mouse, is there nibbling evermore;\n   Till upon the harvest day, lo, no golden heap,\n   But a mildewed mass of chaff maggots overcreep.\n   Many a brilliant spark is born where the hammers ply,\n   But a lurking thief is there; prompt, with finger sly,\n   Spark on spark he puts them out, sparks which might have soared\n   Perish underneath his touch. Help us then, O Lord!\n   What with gin and trap and snare, pitfall and device,\n   How shall we poor sinners reach Thy fair paradise?\n\nAgain, in contradiction to logical pantheism Jalaluddin lays stress on\nman's free-will and responsibility, as in the following illustration:--\n\n   On the frontier set, the warden of a fort,\n   Far from his monarch and his monarch's court,\n   Holds the fort, let foemen bluster as they may,\n   Nor for fear or favour will his trust betray;\n   Far from his monarch, on the empire's edge,\n   He, with his master, keeps unbroken pledge;\n   Surely then his lord his worth will higher own,\n   Than their prompt obedience who surround his throne;\n   In the Master's absence a little work done well\n   Weighs more than a great one when his eyes compel;\n   _Now_ is the time to show who faith and trust will keep,\n   Once probation over, faith and trust are cheap.\n\nHowever much individual Sufis may have fallen into Antinomianism and\nacted as if there was no essential difference between good and evil, the\ngreat Sufi teachers have always enjoined self-mortification, quoting the\nsaying, \"Die before you die.\" This dying is divided by them into three\nkinds: \"black death\" (suffering oppression from others), \"red death\"\n(mortifying the flesh), and \"white death\" (suffering hunger). Jalaluddin\nillustrates this by the following parable:--\n\n   A merchant from India a parrot had brought,\n   And pent in a narrow cage, sorrow-distraught\n   With longing for freedom. One day the good man\n   Determined to try with his wares Hindustan;\n   So he said to his parrot, 'What gift shall I bring\n   From the land you were born in--what curious thing?'\n   The parrot replied, 'There are kinsfolk of mine\n   Flying blithe in those woods, for whose freedom I pine;\n   (Oh, the green woods of India!). Go, tell them my state--\n   A captive in grip of implacable fate--\n   And say, \"Is it justice that I should despair\n   While you, where you list, can flash swift through the air,\n   Can peck at the pineapples, bathe in the springs,\n   And spread in the sunlight your green-gleaming wings?\"\n   His message the man took, and made his word good\n   When he came where the parrots flew free in the wood;\n   But no sooner the message was given than one\n   Like lead to the earth fell as dead as a stone.\n   The merchant upbraided himself, 'It is clear\n   This parrot of mine was a relative dear,\n   And the shock has been fatal; myself am to blame.'\n   When his journey was finished and homeward he came,\n   His parrot inquired, 'Hast brought me a crumb\n   Of comfort in sorrow where, caged, I sit dumb?'\n   The merchant said, 'No; 'twas a pity you sent,\n   For the message you gave proved of fatal content;\n   As soon as I gave it one shuddered and fell\n   Stone-dead, as if struck by some magical spell.'\n   No sooner that bird's fate it heard, than his own\n   On the floor of its cage fell as dead as a stone.\n   'Alas!' cried the merchant, 'my own bird I've killed--\n   My own pretty parrot, so Allah has willed!'\n   Sadly out from the cage the dead body he drew,\n   When, to his amazement, straight upwards it flew\n   And perched on a tree. 'Lo! the message,' he said,\n   'My friend sent--\"Die thou, as I make myself dead,\n   And by dying win freedom.\" Farewell, master dear,\n   I caught the plain hint with intelligence clear.\n   Thyself reckon dead, and then thou shalt fly\n   Free, free, from the prison of earth to the sky!\n   Spring may come, but on granite will grow no green thing;\n   It was barren in winter, 'tis barren in spring;\n   And granite man's heart is, till grace intervene,\n   And, crushing it, clothe the long barren with green.\n   When the fresh breath of Jesus shall touch the heart's core,\n   It will live, it will breathe, it will blossom once more.'\n\nThe last couplet is a good illustration of the different ways in which\nChrist is regarded by the Sufi poets and by Mohammed in the Koran. In\nthe latter, it is true, He is acknowledged as the Word of God and the\nSpirit of God, but His work among men is done, having been entirely\nsuperseded by the coming of Mohammed, the last and greatest of the\nprophets. Jalaluddin on the other hand, as in the above couplet, speaks\nof Christ as still exercising healing influences. Elsewhere he says,\nreferring to the Gospel narrative of Christ's entry into Jerusalem (not\nmentioned in the Koran), and taking the ass as the symbol of the body\npampered by the sensualist:--\n\n   You deserted Jesus, a mere ass to feed,\n   In a crowd of asses you would take the lead;\n   Those who follow Jesus, win to wisdom's ranks;\n   Those who fatten asses get a kick for thanks.\n   Pity keep for Jesus, pity not the ass,\n   Let not fleshly impulse intellect surpass.\n   If an ass could somewhat catch of Jesus' mind,\n   Classed among the sages he himself would find;\n   Though because of Jesus you may suffer woe,\n   Still from Him comes healing, never let Him go.\n\nIn another place, speaking of the importance of controlling the tongue\nbecause of the general sensitiveness of human nature, he says:--\n\n   In each human spirit is a Christ concealed,\n   To be helped or hindered, to be hurt or healed;\n   If from any human soul you lift the veil\n   You will find a Christ there hidden without fail;\n   Woe, then, to blind tyrants whose vindictive ire,\n   Venting words of fury, sets the world on fire.\n\nBut though he speaks with reverence of Christ, he shares the common\nMohammedan animus against St. Paul. As a matter of fact St. Paul is\nrarely mentioned in Mohammedan writings, but Jalaluddin spent most of\nhis life at Iconium, where, probably, owing to the tenacity of Oriental\ntradition, traces of St. Paul's teaching lingered. In the first book of\nthe Masnavi a curious story is told of an early corrupter of\nChristianity who wrote letters containing contradictory doctrines to the\nvarious leaders of their Church, and brought the religion into\nconfusion. In this case Jalaluddin seems to have neglected the\nimportance of distinguishing between second-hand opinion and first-hand\nknowledge, on which he elsewhere lays stress:--\n\n   Knowledge hath two wings, Opinion hath but one,\n   And opinion soon fails in its orphan flight;\n   The bird with one wing soon droops its head and falls,\n   But give it two wings and it gains its desire.\n   The bird of Opinion flies, rising and falling,\n   On its wing in vain hope of its rest;\n   But when it escapes from Opinion and Knowledge receives it,\n   It gains its two wings and spreads them wide to heaven;\n   On its two wings it flies like Gabriel\n   Without doubt or conjecture, and without speech or voice.\n   Though the whole world should shout beneath it,\n   'Thou art in the road to God and the perfect faith,'\n   It would not become warmer at their speech,\n   And its lonely soul would not mate with theirs;\n   And though they should shout to it, 'Thou hast lost thy way;\n   And thinkest thyself a mountain and art but a leaf,'\n   It would not lose its convictions from their censure,\n   Nor vex its bosom with their loud reproof;\n   And though sea and land should join in concert,\n   Exclaiming, 'O wanderer, thou hast lost thy road!'\n   Not an atom of doubt would fall into its soul,\n   Nor a shade of sorrow at the scorner's scorn.\n\n     (_Professor Cowell's translation._)\n\nLike all quietists, Jalaluddin dwells on the importance of keeping the\nmind unclouded by anger and resentment, as in the following little\nparable:--\n\n   One day a lion, looking down a well,\n   Saw what appeared to him a miracle,\n   Another lion's face that upward glared\n   As if the first to try his strength he dared.\n   Furious, the lion took a sudden leap\n   And o'er him closed the placid waters deep.\n   Thou who dost blame injustice in mankind,\n   'Tis but the image of thine own dark mind;\n   In them reflected clear thy nature is\n   With all its angles and obliquities.\n   Around thyself thyself the noose hast thrown,\n   Like that mad beast precipitate and prone;\n   Face answereth to face, and heart to heart,\n   As in the well that lion's counterpart.\n   'Back to each other we reflections throw,'\n   So spake Arabia's Prophet long ago;\n   And he, who views men through self's murky glass,\n   Proclaims himself no lion, but an ass.\n\nAs Ghazzali had done before him, Jalaluddin sees in the phenomena of\nsleep a picture of the state of mind which should be cultivated by the\ntrue Sufi, \"dead to this world and alive to God\":--\n\n   Every night, O God, from the net of the body\n   Thou releasest our souls and makest them like blank tablets;\n   Every night thou releasest them from their cages\n   And settest them free: none is master or slave.\n   At night the prisoners forget their prisons,\n   At night the monarchs forget their wealth:\n   No sorrow, no care, no profit, no loss,\n   No thought or fear of this man or that.\n   Such is the state of the Sufi in this world,\n   Like the seven sleepers[58] he sleeps open-eyed,\n   Dead to worldly affairs, day and night,\n   Like a pen held in the hand of his Lord.\n\n     --(_Professor Cowell._)\n\nAs we have seen, Jalaluddin's conception of God is a far higher one than\nis embodied in the orthodox formula of the Koran, \"Say: God is One. He\nneither begetteth nor is begotten.\" With Jalaluddin God is far more\nimmanent than transcendent. In one place he says, \"He who beholdeth God\nis godlike,\" and in another, \"Our attributes are copies of His\nattributes.\" In a remarkable passage anticipating the theory of\nEvolution he portrays man ascending through the various stages of\nexistence back to his Origin:--\n\n     From the inorganic we developed into the vegetable kingdom,\n     Dying from the vegetable we rose to animal,\n     And leaving the animal, we became man.\n     Then what fear that death will lower us?\n     The next transition will make us an angel,\n   Then shall we rise from angels and merge in the Nameless,\n   All existence proclaims, \"Unto Him shall we return.\"\n\nElsewhere he says:--\n\n     Soul becomes pregnant by the Soul of souls\n     And brings forth Christ;\n     Not that Christ Who walked on land and sea,\n   But that Christ Who is above space.\n\nThe work of man in this world is to polish his soul from the rust of\nconcupiscence and self-love, till, like a clear mirror, it reflects God.\nTo this end he must bear patiently the discipline appointed:--\n\n   If thou takest offence at every rub,\n   How wilt thou become a polished mirror?\n\nHe must choose a \"pir,\" or spiritual guide who may represent the Unseen\nGod for him; this guide he must obey and imitate not from slavish\ncompulsion, but from an inward and spontaneous attraction, for though it\nmay be logically inconsistent with Pantheism, Jalaluddin is a thorough\nbeliever in free-will. Love is the keynote of all his teaching, and\nwithout free-will love is impossible. Alluding to the ancient oriental\nbelief that jewels are formed by the long-continued action of the sun on\ncommon stones, he says:--\n\n   For as a stone, so Sufi legends run,\n   Wooed by unwearied patience of the sun\n   Piercing its dense opacity, has grown\n   From a mere pebble to a precious stone,\n   Its flintiness impermeable and crass\n   Turned crystalline to let the sunlight pass;\n   So hearts long years impassive and opaque\n   Whom terror could not crush nor sorrow break,\n   Yielding at last to love's refining ray\n   Transforming and transmuting, day by day,\n   From dull grown clear, from earthly grown divine,\n   Flash back to God the light that made them shine.\n\nJalaluddin did not live to finish the Masnavi, which breaks off abruptly\nnear the end of the sixth book. He died in 1272, seven years after\nDante's birth. His last charge to his disciples was as follows:--\n\n   I bid you fear God openly and in secret, guard against excess in\n   eating, drinking and speech; keep aloof from evil companionship;\n   be diligent in fasts and self-renunciation and bear wrongs\n   patiently. The best man is he who helps his fellow-men, and the\n   best speech is a brief one which leads to knowledge. Praise be to\n   God alone!\n\nHe is buried at Iconium, and his tomb, like those of all Mohammedan\nsaints, in a greater or lesser degree, is a centre of pilgrimage. The\nreverence with which he is regarded is expressed in the saying current\namong Moslems:--\n\n   Paigumbar nest, wali darad Kitab\n   (He is not a prophet, but he has a book)\n\n   [55] The mountain which encircles the world.\n\n   [56] The Eastern Phoenix.\n\n   [57] All Mohammedans pray towards the Kaaba.\n\n   [58] Koran, c. 18.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV\n\nSHARANI, THE EGYPTIAN\n(AD 1550)\n\n\nOne of the last representatives of the mystical school of Islam is\nSharani, who wrote in the middle of the sixteenth century. In his time\nEgypt had just been conquered by the Turks, whose military despotism\ntook the place of the feudal anarchy which had prevailed under the\nMameluke sultans. The supremacy of Islam was not affected by the change,\nthe Turks being as sincere Moslems as the Arabs. The administration of\nthe country was centralised in the hands of a Pasha, who resided at\nCairo as governor-general. As elsewhere in the Muhammadan world, the\nmost powerful class was that of the Ulema, or learned men. The generous\ngifts which the Sultan showered upon them and the privileged position he\nallowed them quickly reconciled them to the new regime. But there was\nanother numerous body, who, though deprived of the substantial\nadvantages which the Ulema enjoyed, had, however, with the masses a\nprestige almost as great. These were the Sufis. Poor and humble, they\nwere lost in the crowd, whence they drew their origin, and whose\nmiseries they shared. A smouldering animosity existed between these\nEssenes of Islam and the Ulema, who corresponded to the Pharisees. These\nlast claimed to be the exclusive depositaries of religious knowledge\nand divine wisdom; they administered justice and monopolised benefices.\n\nThe doctrine of the Sufis was in diametrical opposition to this. In\ntheir eyes the knowledge derived from books and theological science was\nfar inferior to the inner perception of the supernatural, the mystic\nintuition to which they claimed to attain in their religious ecstacies.\nThey regarded the theosophist as far superior in every respect to the\ntheologian. Besides this, they considered the different sects of Islam\nas equally good, and attached no importance to any of the formalities of\nthe ceremonial law, the strict observation of which was considered by\nthe orthodox as binding on every good Moslem. Thus, the reading of the\nKoran, with rhythmical intonation, as practised in every mosque, had in\ntheir eyes no value. To adore God with a pure heart, according to them,\nwas infinitely more important than all outward observances.\n\nSuch ideas could not be acceptable to the Ulemas, who saw the absolute\nauthority in religious matters slipping from their hands. Only a\nmoderate power of perception was needed to understand what dangers for\nthe official hierarchy lurked in the ideas of these enthusiasts who\nclaimed to derive divine wisdom from a source so different to that of\nwhich the Ulemas believed themselves to be the sole dispensers.\n\nIt is true that Arab mysticism had never taken such a bold flight as\nPersian theosophy, which proclaimed openly a Pantheistic system, in\nwhich the authority of the books revealed to different prophets was\ndisplaced by a poetic belief. According to this faith, the universe was\nan emanation of God, the human soul a spark of the Divine Essence gone\nastray in this transitory world, but destined to return finally to God,\nafter having been purified of its earthly stains. The Arab Sufis did not\ngo so far; for them the Koran was always the Word of God, and Muhammed\nwas His prophet. They conformed externally to the precepts of Islam, but\nclaimed at the same time to understand God and His law better than the\ntheologians, and that not by the study of large volumes of exegesis and\ntraditions, but by celestial inspiration. The orthodox mullahs\nunderstood the danger, and did not conceal their growing irritation\nagainst these audacious heretics. The government and the great majority\nof Moslems were on the side of the Ulema, but the mystics found sympathy\namong the people, and their ideas spread with incredible rapidity.\n\nIn the eleventh century, a man of great ability, of whom the Muhammadans\nare justly proud, made a vigorous effort to reconcile orthodox Islam\nwith the Sufi doctrines current in his time. This man was Ghazzali. He\nconsecrated the labour of a lifetime to this task, and his chief work,\n\"The Revival of the Religious Sciences,\" is a veritable encyclopaedia of\nIslam. He did not work in vain, but succeeded in erecting a system in\nwhich dogmatic theology is cleverly combined with the theosophy of the\nArab school of mysticism. But Islam such as Ghazzali conceived it is no\nlonger that of ancient times. Another order of ideas has been insensibly\nsubstituted for the austere creed of the Prophet of Mecca, the very\nfoundations of which they have undermined. Muhammad's religious edifice\nremains standing, its framework and external outlines are the same; but\nthe spirit which informs it is profoundly different. Arab mysticism has\nsucceeded in finding a footing in the official circles of the Moslem\nhierarchy.\n\nThe reconciliation, however, of the mystics with the theologians was\nonly apparent, and could not be otherwise. At the bottom of the question\nthere were two incompatible principles. For the theologians the letter\nof the Koran and written tradition contained all religious knowledge.\nFor the mystics the dead letter was nothing, and the inspiration of\ntheir own hearts was the sole source of all knowledge. Of these two\nprinciples, one subordinates reason to tradition and tends to the almost\ncomplete abdication of thought in favour of absolute faith; the other\nresults in enthroning imagination, spiritual hallucination and mystic\necstacy. The first confines religion to too narrow limits; the second\nrobs it of all palpable substance and positive form, and makes it as\nvague and intangible as the clouds.\n\nEgypt has always been a soil favourable to the development of mystic\ntendencies. Christian asceticism took early root there, and during the\nfirst centuries of our era thousands of anchorites inhabited the deserts\nof the Thebaid, and carried on there religious exercises of extreme\nausterity. We do not know what secret connection may exist between the\nclimate of the valley of the Nile and the character of its inhabitants,\nbut if the Arab chroniclers deserve any credit, Arab mysticism\noriginated in this country. The celebrated theosophist Zu'l Noun is\nknown as the first who introduced into Islam visions and mystic\necstacies. Some centuries later the famous poet Omar Ibn Faridh saw the\nlight at Cairo, and since then Egypt has produced a long series of\nMuhammadan ascetics more or less famous. Sharani is one of the last of\nthis theosophic school of Egypt, the doctrines of which he expounds in\nhis numerous works. We do not know if the impression he made on his\ncontemporaries was as great as the zeal with which he pleads the cause\nof mysticism, but up to the present day his memory is religiously\npreserved at Cairo, where a mosque still bears his name. The natives\nrevere his memory as that of a saint. He himself informs us that the\npublication of his work entitled \"Al bahr al Maurud\" gave rise to\nserious disturbances at Cairo.\n\nIn this work Sharani expounds the duties of the true Sufi, the perfect\ntheosophist, and at the same time in very energetic language he exposes\nthe defects and weakness of the Muhammadan society of his day. His most\nvirulent attacks are naturally directed against the Ulema, as in the\nfollowing extract:\n\n\"We Sufis have entered into an engagement never to allow one of our body\nto have recourse to intrigues to obtain employment such as those\npractised by self-styled doctors of the law. The endeavour to obtain\nsuch a post is all the more contemptible when it has belonged to a\nperson recently deceased who has left sons or brothers or when it is\nalready occupied by a poor man who has no protector or support in the\nworld. Such acts of injustice, however, are often committed by the\nso-called Ulema. The plot to supplant men of merit, with the aim of\nobtaining for themselves lucrative posts, which they straightway\ndispose of for money to incompetent individuals.\n\n\"Often one man occupies more than one office, _e.g._, that of preacher\nin mosques so far apart that it is impossible for him to attend to both\nproperly; in which case he puts in a deputy-preacher (sometimes he does\nnot even do that) and pays him part of the emolument of the post,\npocketing the rest.\n\n\"We have also entered into an engagement to rise before our superiors\nwhen they appear, and to kiss their hands even when they are unjust. We\ndo this with the Ulema, although they do not act in a manner conformable\nto the science which they profess.\"\n\nIn speaking of the Christians and the Jews, he praises their demeanour,\nin order to censure all the more sharply the pretensions of the Ulema.\n\"See,\" he says, \"how modestly they conduct themselves towards the\nmeanest subordinates, and you will see that their manners and demeanour\nare more noble and worthy of imitation than those of the Ulema. They are\nnot angry if people do not make room for them when they enter a public\nassembly; and if they are offered to drink water which has been sullied\nby the hands of children, slaves or beggars, they do not change\ncountenance, but on the contrary consider themselves as the last of men.\nWhen they are allowed to sit down in an assembly they look upon it as a\nfavour. They take their places with heads bent, praying God to cover\ntheir faults with the veil of his clemency, and not to expose them to\nthe scorn of others. These are the distinctive qualities of the truly\nlearned; for if learning does not increase the modesty of him who has\nit, it is good for nothing.\"\n\nThese extracts make it sufficiently plain with what courage the daring\ntheosophist censured the most influential class of Moslem society in his\nday. Sharani reproaches the Ulema, with their ambition, their cupidity,\ntheir pride, their hypocrisy, and he advises them to confine themselves\nin their sermons simply to dwelling on the precepts of the moral law and\nto abstain from speaking of the recompenses and punishments of the\nfuture life, since the destiny of souls after death depends on God, and\nnot on them.\n\nAs a natural consequence of these ideas, Sharani goes on to inveigh\nagainst the Turkish Government, which, wishing to create for itself a\nsupport in the powerful class of the Ulema, made them great concessions,\nand by doing so annoyed their antagonists the Sufis. Thus Sharani does\nnot hesitate to say that since a.d. 1517 real learning had ceased to\nexist, that being the date of the conquest of Egypt by the Sultan Selim.\n\nThe lot of the Egyptian fellahin or peasants has never been an enviable\none. Successive Roman and Arab dominations brought no change favourable\nto them. Under the Mamelukes, when the country was parcelled out among\npetty feudal lords ruling over their domains with absolute authority,\nthe condition of the peasants was one of extreme wretchedness. Sharani\nfinds that in his time the state of the agricultural class was worse\nthan formerly.\n\n\"In past times,\" he says, \"when a peasant died, there was often found in\nthe corner of his house a jar, a pot or other vessel filled with pieces\nof gold. It was what the poor man had saved from his harvests after\nhaving paid his taxes and the daily expenses of his family and his\nguests. But in our day, in order to pay his taxes, the peasant is often\nobliged to sell the produce of his land, the ox with which he ploughs,\nand the cow which gives him milk.\n\n\"If part of his tax is unpaid he is taken to prison, and often his wife\nand children accompany him thither. Often the Kashif or governor\ndisposes of the hand of his daughter without consulting him, and her\ndowry is kept back to pay the arrears of his tax. It sometimes happens\nthat the tax charged upon him is not really due from him at all, but\nfrom his fellow-villagers who have gone away to avoid molestation.\"\n\nElsewhere he says, \"We Sufis have entered into an engagement not to buy\nmerchandises, gardens or water-wheels, for in our time the taxes on\nthese are so heavy that no one can afford to possess them. Let him who\nlistens not to our counsel and acquires such property, blame himself if\nhe has to undergo all kinds of humiliations; if, in order that the\nGovernment may pay for naval expeditions, it demands of him in advance a\nyear's taxes on his houses, his merchandise or his lands. Then he will\nsay with a sigh, 'How happy are they who possess nothing.'\"\n\nIt is not difficult to see in these passages a profound dissatisfaction,\nnot only with the ruling class, but with the Government itself.\nNotwithstanding this, Sharani enjoins his disciples to respect the\ntemporal authority and to submit to the laws. Passive obedience has\nalways characterised the Oriental.\n\nWe do not know precisely whether Sharani had in view a veritable reform\nof Muhammadan society. Probably the contrary. He felt deeply the\ngeneral uneasiness of the time; he understood that Islam was entering a\nperiod of decadence, but he had, as far as we can see, no clear plan for\nits regeneration. Mysticism, in which he was such a fervent adept, here\nhindered him. But this mystical tendency, which was in one respect his\nweakness, was his glory in another. A tone of high moral purity marks\nhis utterances on the social and religious state of his time, and, led\nrather by instinct than by philosophical considerations, he hits the\nblot on Muhammadan society--polygamy. We may judge by the following\nextract: \"We Sufis have entered into an engagement to espouse only one\nwife, and not to associate others with her.\n\n\"The man who has only one wife is happy; his means are sufficient to\nsupport his home; but as soon as he takes a second wife, the prosperity\nof his house decreases, and when he opens his money-box he finds it\nempty. A pure-hearted wife is a great happiness in the house. Oh, how\noften while I was weaving[59] have I stolen a glance at my wife, the\nmother of my son Abdurahman, sewing garments for the poor. I understood\nthen that I had happiness in my house. Often she opened her larder which\nsufficed us for whole months, and distributed the contents to the poor,\nwho quickly emptied it. May God be merciful to her.\"\n\nAs a religious reformer, Sharani endeavoured to restore Islam to its\nprimitive unity. Many sects existed in it from the earliest times[60]\nfour of which preserved the title of orthodox. Sharani sought to unite\nthese sects on a common basis, and numerous passages in his writings\nattest that this idea remained with him all his life. His efforts\napparently had no success, but for those who have faith in the power of\nideas, it is certain that Sharani has not lived nor laboured in vain. In\nthe East, reforming ideas do not make way so quickly as in Europe, but\ntheir effect is none the less great when they come to the front. Few\ndetails of Sharani's life are known. He informs us that he belonged to\nthe order of the Shadiliyah dervishes, and that his instructor in\nmysticism was the Egyptian Sufi, Ali Khawass. He died at Cairo, A.D.\n1565.\n\n   [59] Sharani was a weaver by trade.\n\n   [60] They are generally reckoned at 73.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI\n\nMULLAH SHAH\n(D 1661)\n\n\nMullah Shah was born A.D. 1584, in the village of Erkesa in Badakshan, a\nmountainous and inaccessible country to the north of the Indian\nCaucasus. His family, which was of Mongol origin, held a certain\nposition, and his grandfather had been judge of the village. At the age\nof twenty-one the young man quitted his relatives and his country, and\nwent back to Balkh, then a centre of learning in Central Asia. He made\ngreat progress there, especially in the knowledge of Arabic. After some\ntime he left Balkh, and turning his steps southward, arrived at Kashmir,\nwhere he continued his studies, but an irresistible thirst after truth\nmade him feel the necessity of seeking a spiritual guide, and he\nresolved to go to Lahore, where there lived a celebrated saint, Sheikh\nMian Mir.\n\nThe reception he met with was not favourable. Mian Mir at first repulsed\nhim, but allowed himself at last to be overcome by the perseverance of\nthe young man, and taught him Sufi exercises according to the rule of\nthe Qadiri order of dervishes.[61] The stifling heat of Lahore did not\nsuit the health of Mullah Shah, who accordingly resolved to spend the\nsummers in Kashmir, returning to Lahore for the winter. He led this\nlife for several years, till he had passed through all the stages of\nasceticism, but his spiritual guide would not lead him to the supreme\ngoal of mystical science, which is termed \"Union with God,\" or\n\"knowledge of oneself.\"[62]\n\nMian Mir only spoke to him of it in an enigmatic way and said, \"Do not\ncease to study thyself and thine own heart, for thy goal is in thyself.\"\n\nIn the year 1636 A.D. he returned again, as usual, from Lahore to\nKashmir, and practised his austerities without relaxation, when one day,\nby the special favour of the Divinity, and without the assistance of any\nspiritual preceptor, \"the desired image\" revealed itself to him. By this\nexpression is understood, in mystic phraseology, union with God, and the\nconception of Absolute Being, which is equivalent to the knowledge of\none's self. When Mullah Shah thus attained the goal of his mystical\naspirations he was in his forty-seventh year, and had been engaged\ntwenty-seven years in the spiritual exercises of the Sufis. When he\nreturned to Lahore, he informed his spiritual guide that he had attained\nunion with God. The latter advised him not to divulge the fact, and not\nto give up his ascetic practices. In Kashmir Mullah Shah had collected\nround him a little circle of devoted disciples. The strong emotional\ncondition into which Mullah Shah's new spiritual experience had brought\nhim did not prevent him from doing his best not to offend against the\nreligious law, and he was in the habit of saying to his friends, \"Whoso\ndoes not respect the precepts of the religious law is not one of us.\"\n\nMullah Shah had always been of a retiring disposition, but in his\npresent mood he carried his self-isolation so far that he closed the\ndoor of his house and only received his intimates at fixed times, when\nhe dropped his habitual reserve. The spiritual power of Mullah Shah had\nbecome so great that every novice whom he caused to sit in front of him\nand to concentrate his mental faculties on his own heart, became\nclairvoyant to such a degree that his internal senses were unfolded, and\nthe unseen world appeared to him.\n\nMullah Shah expressed himself in very bold terms regarding the manner\nwith which he conceived God and His relation to humanity. Thus he said,\n\"Since I have arrived at understanding the absolute Reality and that I\nknow most positively that nothing exists besides God, existence and\nnon-existence are in my eyes the same thing.\" In one of his poems he\nsays, \"The sage who knows himself has become God, be sure of that, my\nfriend.\" In another poem, which caused a temporary estrangement between\nhimself and the Sheikh Mian Mir, he said:\n\n\"My heart by a thousand tongues cries to me 'I am God.' What reproach of\nheresy can they bring against me that this utterance comes to my lips?\n\n\"Those who had attained union with God used to say, 'I am Absolute\nBeing.'\n\n\"But I only say what I have heard from the mouth of Sheikh Mian Mir.\"\n\nIn the meantime the number of his adherents daily increased; persons of\nall classes in society became his adherents; even women became capable\nof mystical intuitions by the effect of his prayers and without having\nseen him. However, the increasing number of those who wished to approach\nhim commenced to be inconvenient, and he said, \"I am not a sheikh of\ndervishes who receives novices and builds convents.\"\n\n   \"Neither the mosque nor the dervish-convent attract me,\n   But the purity of the desert and the freedom of the open country.\"\n\nIn the year 1634 A.D., a certain Mir Baki, a descendant of the prophet,\nattached himself to Mullah Shah, and experienced in a short time\necstatic states; he then preached the doctrine of union with God without\nany reserve. At the same time he claimed to be free from the precepts of\nthe religious law. The following lines were composed by him:--\n\n   \"Why should my hand let go this sparkling cup of my soul,\n   I already realise the aspirations of to-morrow.\"\n\nWhich lines, rendered into prose, seem to mean, \"Why should I pass my\nlife sadly on in self-maceration and austerity? I prefer to anticipate\nnow the delights which they speak of as belonging to the future life.\"\nThis is epicureanism, pure and simple, such as we find it in the odes of\nHafiz and the Quatrains of Omar Khayyam. When Mullah Shah heard of these\nextravagant utterances, he caused Mir Baki to be expelled from the town.\nAt the same time the doctrines of Mullah Shah regarding union with God\nbegan to make a great deal of sensation, and a large number of\ninfluential men who belonged to the Conservative party raised against\nhim the accusation of heresy without really understanding his teaching.\nThey quoted some of his verses against him, and said, \"Mullah Shah is\nbeginning to imitate Mansur Hellaj.[63] He should be brought to trial\nand sentenced to death.\" They unanimously drew up an indictment against\nhim and affixed their seals; a large number of religious functionaries\njoined them, and they submitted their petition to the Emperor\nShah-jehan, requesting him to pronounce sentence of death against Mullah\nShah. The Emperor consented, and despatched a firman to that effect to\nZafer-Khan, governor of Kashmir. Shah-jehan's son, the prince\nDara-Shikoh, had been absent, and only learned what had happened when he\nreturned. He immediately went to his father and represented to him that\nMullah Shah was a pupil of Sheikh Mian Mir, a man renowned for piety,\nand that the Emperor ought, before pronouncing final judgment, to ask\nthe latter regarding the conduct of his former disciple. The prince\nconcluded by saying that in such a matter haste was ill-omened, because\nto deprive a man of life is to pull down a building of which God is the\nArchitect. The Emperor accepted this appeal graciously, and ordered the\nexecution to be deferred. Meanwhile the news of the condemnation of\nMullah Shah had spread and reached Kashmir, but the respite obtained by\nthe Prince was still unknown there. The friends of Mullah Shah were in\ndespair, and used their utmost endeavours to persuade him to fly. But he\nanswered, \"I am not an impostor that I should seek safety in flight; I\nam an utterer of truth; death and life are to me alike. Let my blood in\nanother life also redden the impaling stake. I am living and eternal;\ndeath recoils from me, for my knowledge has vanquished death. The\nsphere where all colours are effaced has become my abode.\"\n\n\"Once,\" he added, \"I used to bar the door of my house with a bolt in\norder not to be disturbed by anyone, but now I will leave it wide open,\nin order that whoever wishes to make me a martyr may enter at his\npleasure.\"\n\nMullah Shah thus awaited death in an attitude of imperturbable calm, but\nfate had decided otherwise. Not long afterwards the Emperor Shah-jehan\nwent to Lahore, and in the company of Prince Dara-Shikoh paid a visit to\nthe Sheikh Mian Mir, and questioned him concerning Mullah Shah. Mian Mir\ntold him that Mullah Shah was apt to be carried out of himself when in\nan ecstatic state, and that then he sometimes spoke without observing\nthe reserve necessary on the doctrine of union with God; but he adjured\nthe Emperor at the same time to take no steps against his old pupil,\n\"For,\" he said, \"this holy man is a consuming fire, and woe to you if he\nbe irritated, for he could destroy the world. In any case prevent the\northodox party from persecuting him, otherwise some dreadful disaster\nmay happen.\"\n\nThis advice made a deep impression on the Emperor, who thanked Prince\nDara-Shikoh for having prevented his carrying out the sentence of death.\nHe said, \"These theologians have tried to persuade me to kill a\nvisionary dervish; I thank thee, my son, for having prevented my\ncommitting an act of injustice.\" Some time afterwards the Emperor went\nto Kashmir, but he did not see Mullah Shah, who had become so fond of\nsolitude that he rarely showed himself in the city.\n\nIn 1635 A.D., the Sheikh Mian Mir died at Lahore, and in the\nsame year one of the chief nobles of the court named Najat Khan became a\ndisciple of Mullah Shah. About the same time, Mozaffer Beg, one of the\nEmperor's suite, devoted himself to his service, and his example was\nfollowed by several of his friends. But no sooner had they been\ninitiated into the mystical doctrines than they believed themselves\nprivileged to dispense with the prescribed fast of Ramazan and the\nobligatory prayers, considering that the religious law no longer applied\nto them. Being informed of these irregularities, Mullah Shah prayed the\ngovernor to have them removed from the town.\n\nAbout this time he made a collection of his verses, among which are the\nfollowing:--\n\n   \"If alchemy can change dust into gold, thou marvellest;\n   But asceticism is an alchemy which changes dust into God.\n   If a man dives into the ocean of Deity what does he become?\n   As a drop which falls from the clouds into the sea.\"\n\nRegarding pedantic theologians, he says:--\n\n     \"Well I know these preachers who do not practise,\n   Their memory stored with a hundred thousand traditions,\n   While their mind is empty of ideas.\"\n\nIn 1639 the Emperor Shah-jehan came a second time to Kashmir, and took\nup his dwelling in the park called Zafer-abad, in a pavilion which\ncommanded a delightful view of the lake. No sooner had he arrived than\nhe sent for Mullah Shah, who came without delay. The Emperor received\nhim with marked kindness and conversed long with him on subjects\nrelating to the Sufi sciences.\n\nThis same year is remarkable for an event which had important results\nfor Mullah Shah and his followers. The Prince Dara-Shikoh, who had saved\nMullah Shah's life by his intervention, had always been marked by keen\nreligious feeling, and often spent whole nights in prayer and\nmeditation. He had often heard of the extraordinary powers of Mullah\nShah, but had never had the opportunity of seeing him, as the sheikh\nstill maintained his habits of retirement. Little by little, a feeling\nof irresistible curiosity took possession of the Prince; he determined\nto see the holy man who was so highly spoken of, and one night,\naccompanied by a single servant named Mujahid, he left his palace and\ndirected his steps towards the dwelling of Mullah Shah. The latter had\nin his courtyard an ancient plane-tree, and was in the habit of sitting\nat the foot of it during the night, lost in meditation. Having arrived\nat the house, the prince ordered his servant to wait near the door, and\nentered the courtyard alone. Seeing the Sheikh seated at the foot of the\ntree, he stopped and remained standing till the master should speak to\nhim. The latter knew very well who the new-comer was, and that little\npersuasion was needed to make him one of his disciples; but he made as\nthough he did not see him. A long time passed thus, till the Sheikh\nbroke the silence by asking the Prince \"Who art thou?\" The Prince did\nnot speak. Mullah Shah then said again, \"Why dost thou not answer?\nSpeak, and tell thy name.\"\n\nThe Prince, filled with embarrassment, replied, \"My name is\nDara-Shikoh.\" \"Who is thy father?\" \"The Emperor Shah-jehan,\" \"Why hast\nthou come to see me?\" \"Because I feel drawn towards God, and seek for a\nspiritual guide.\" On this Mullah Shah exclaimed sharply, \"What are\nemperors and princes to me? Know that I am a man devoted to asceticism.\nIs this hour of the night the time to come and trouble me? Go, and do\nnot show thyself here a second time.\"\n\nDeeply wounded by this reception, the Prince withdrew and re-entered his\npalace, where he spent the whole night weeping. But in spite of all his\ndisappointment, he felt himself drawn the next night by an irresistible\nattraction towards the saint's dwelling, but the latter this time did\nnot even condescend to speak to him. Mujahid, the servant who\naccompanied the Prince, became angry, and said to his master, \"What\nmiracles has this crabbed dervish shown you that you should come here\nevery night and expose yourself to such indignities? Ordinary dervishes\nare cheerful folk, not uncivil and morose like this old man. For my own\npart, I set no great store by this asceticism, and the only thing that\nmakes me uneasy is your putting faith in it.\" The Prince answered, \"If\nMullah Shah was an impostor, so far from treating me as he has done, he\nwould, on the contrary, have prayed God to bring me to him. It is\nprecisely his independent spirit and irritated manner which proves him\nto be an extraordinary man.\" That same night when Mujahid returned home,\nhe was seized by fever and carried off in a few hours. Dara-Shikoh, when\ninformed of this terrible event, was profoundly moved. He reproached\nhimself bitterly for not having at once punished his servant's\ninsolence, and considered the death of Mujahid as a divine punishment\nwhich menaced him also. He immediately sent for the Qazi Afzal, one of\nhis most devoted friends, and told him of his anxiety. The latter was a\nfriend of Akhund Mullah Muhammad Synd, a disciple of Mullah Shah, and at\nhis instance the Sheikh consented to see the prince.\n\nDara-Shikoh could not pay his visit during the day, from fear of\narousing public curiosity, but as soon as night fell, he presented\nhimself before the Sheikh, whom this time he found seated in his cell.\nBefore crossing the threshold, the Prince saluted the holy man with\nprofound respect, and the latter bade him enter and be seated. The cell\nwas lighted by a single lamp, whose wick was smoking; in his eager\ndesire to discern the venerable features of the Sheikh, the Prince\ndressed the wick with his own fingers. This simple action gained him the\nSheikh's affection. At the end of some days he bade him to blindfold\nhimself, then he concentrated his attention upon him in such a way that\nthe invisible world was revealed to the view of the Prince, who felt his\nheart filled with joy.\n\nDara-Shikoh had a sister, the Princess Fatimah, to whom he was deeply\nattached. As soon as he had become a disciple of Mullah Shah and his\nheart had been opened to the intuition of the spiritual world, he\nhastened to inform his sister. This news made such an impression on the\nmind of the Princess that she wrote to the Sheikh several letters full\nof humility and devotion. He read them all, but made no reply for more\nthan a month, till he was convinced that Fatimah was animated by an\ninvincible resolution. At last he accorded his sympathy to her also, and\nadmitted her to the circle of the initiates. The Princess persevered\nardently in these mystical studies, and received the instructions of her\nspiritual guide by correspondence. She attained to such perfection that\nshe arrived at intuitive knowledge of God and union with Him. Although\nthe Sheikh was full of affection for all his disciples, he had a\nparticular regard for her, and was in the habit of saying that \"she had\nattained to such an extraordinary degree of knowledge that she was fit\nto be his successor.\"\n\nMullah Shah was now old and infirm; he had passed several winters at\nLahore, surrounded by the care and attention of his friends and pupils.\nIn the year 1655 A.D., the Emperor wrote to him to invite him\nto pass the winter with him at Shahjahanabad, his ordinary residence,\nbut the Sheikh was beginning to suffer from weakness of the eyes, and\ndid not feel strong enough to undertake the journey. For some years he\nremained in Kashmir, and would often say, \"The theosophist ought to\nprofit by length of life. My life is approaching its end; let us then\nenjoy our stay in Kashmir, and not leave it.\"\n\nIn A.D. 1658 Aurangzeb, Dara-Shikoh's younger brother, seized on the\nperson of his father the Emperor Shah-jehan, whom he kept in confinement\nfor the rest of his life, and had Dara assassinated in prison. Aurangzeb\nwas a bigoted Muhammadan, and his accession to the throne threatened to\nhave serious consequences for Mullah Shah. As soon as he had assumed the\nreins of government, the clerical party began to represent to him that\nMullah Shah taught doctrines contrary to revealed religion. There were\nnot wanting witnesses on the other side, but the Emperor, on hearing\nthe complaints against Mullah Shah, sent an order to the governor of\nKashmir to send him to the capital. The governor pleaded for a delay on\naccount of Mullah Shah's advanced age and weakness till he was strong\nenough to make the journey. A year thus passed by; some verses which\nMullah Shah composed in honour of Aurangzeb made a favourable impression\non the Emperor, and the Princess Fatimah having interceded on behalf of\nher old teacher, Aurangzeb revoked his first order, and merely enjoined\nhim to take up his residence at Lahore as soon as possible.\n\nIt was not till 1660 A.D. that Mullah Shah could obey this order; he\nleft Kashmir at the beginning of winter and came to Lahore, where he\ncontinued to live a retired life, only granting interviews to a few\nchosen disciples. But when from time to time he had an access of\nmystical emotion he would speak of union with God without any reserve,\nin a loud voice, and without noticing who was present. One of his\nfriends said to him one day, \"We live in a strange time, and people are\ndisquieted by your discourses on this matter; it would be more prudent\nto expound your doctrines with a little more reserve.\" The Sheikh\nanswered him, \"Up to the present I have never been afraid for my life;\nbooks containing such doctrine are known to all, and everyone has read\nthem. What precautions, then, at my time of life, ought I to observe? I\ncannot abandon or change my habits of thinking and speaking now.\"\n\nSome of his other sayings reported at this time show that he had already\na presentiment of his approaching death. Kabil Khan, one of his friends,\nsaid to him one day, \"Formerly our sovereign Aurangzeb loved to listen\nto discourses on the subject of mysticism, and I have often had the\nhonour of reading before him passages from the Masnavi of Jalaluddin\nRumi.[64] The Emperor was often so touched by them that he shed tears;\ncertainly when he comes to Lahore he will wish to see you.\" \"No,\"\nreplied Mullah Shah; \"we shall never see him:\n\n   'The night is great with child, see what it will bring forth.'\"\n\nIn 1661 he had an attack of fever which lasted about fifteen days. That\nyear fever became epidemic at Lahore, and on the 11th of the month of\nSafar Mullah Shah had another attack, which carried him off on the night\nof the 15th of the same month. He was buried in a plot of ground which\nhe had already acquired for the purpose. The Princess Fatimah bought the\nsurrounding land, and erected a shrine of red stone over his tomb. The\nforegoing sketch of Mullah Shah gives a general view of oriental\nspiritualism as it prevailed two and a half centuries ago over a great\npart of Asia. The first point worthy of notice in it is the immense\npopularity of mystical ideas at that time, and the wide influence which\nthey exercised over all minds. Round Mullah Shah gathered persons of\nevery condition; poor peasants as well as princes were seized with the\nsame enthusiasm for his doctrines; the same ascetic training produced\nthe same results in the most varying temperaments. The Master seems to\nhave exercised a kind of magnetic influence over his neophytes. He fixes\nhis gaze upon them for a longer or shorter time, till their inward\nsenses open and render them capable of seeing the wonders of the\nspiritual world. All the accounts are unanimous in this respect, and\nthey carry such a stamp of sincerity that their veracity is\nindisputable. We are then obliged to admit that at this period many\nminds shared a predisposition to religious ecstacy and enthusiasm.\n\nUnder the apparent stagnation of the East, there is continually going on\na collision between two opposing forces--the official hierarchy of the\nUlema, conservative to the core, and mysticism in its early phases,\npietistic and enthusiastic, but gradually tending to scepticism, and\nfinally to pantheism and the negation of all positive religion. The\nMussalman hierarchy, which in its own interests desired to maintain the\nprestige of dogma and of the revealed law, combatted this tendency to\nmysticism, but, as we have seen, without success. The orthodox mullahs\nmade fruitless efforts to obtain the condemnation of Mullah Shah, who\nhad on his side the members of the imperial family of Delhi and the\nEmperor himself, all more or less imbued with mystical ideas.\n\nThe biography of Mullah Shah also throws a great deal of light on the\nfundamental ideas of oriental mysticism. They spring from a pantheistic\nphilosophy in many respects, startlingly resembling those of modern\ntimes. Mullah Shah often insists that individual existence counts for\nnothing, and that nothing in reality exists outside of God, the Absolute\nBeing; every particular life dissolves in this universal unity, life and\ndeath are mere changes in the form of existence. The individual is only\nin some way a part of the Infinite Being who fills the universe; a\nparticle which has been momentarily detached therefrom, only to return\nthither. To know oneself is therefore the equivalent of knowing God. But\nin order to acquire this knowledge the pupil must submit to long and\npainful self-discipline; he must pass through all the tests of the\nseverest asceticism; only after he has thus prepared himself will the\nspiritual master open his heart and render him capable of perceiving the\nmysteries of the spiritual world.\n\nBut this great secret must not be divulged; it is only permissable to\nspeak of it to the initiate, as Mullah Shah says, in the following\nverses:--\n\n   We must say that only One exists,\n   Though such a saying excite astonishment;\n   The universe is He, though we must not say so openly,\n   Such doctrines must be kept secret.\n\nThis Eastern Pantheism does not lack a certain grandeur, but it has also\na dangerous side, and tends to atheism and materialism. Of this some\ninstances occur in the life of Mullah Shah. The passage from pantheism\nto epicureanism is not a long one. If the human soul only possesses a\ntransient individuality, and after death is merged like a drop in the\nocean of divinity, why, many will argue, not have done with asceticism\nfor good, and enjoy the pleasures of existence as long as possible\nduring the little while our individuality endures? Thus Omar Khayyam\nsays:--\n\n   Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend,\n   Before we too into the dust descend,\n   Dust into dust, and under dust to lie,\n   Sans wine, sans song, sans singer, and--sans end.\n\nIt is precisely this dangerous side of oriental philosophy which has\nunhappily attained a much greater development and an incomparably more\ncomplete success than the elevated moral systems of the chief\ntheosophists of Persia. A mocking cynicism has been, up to modern times,\na common characteristic of the great majority of Sufis and dervishes.\nThe dangerous consequences of theosophical ideas and of oriental\nspiritualism in general became at an early date so apparent that\nGhazzali, although a fervent partisan of Sufism, did not hesitate to\navow that if these doctrines were generally accepted society would\nnecessarily fall into a state of anarchy.\n\nIn face of the wild aberrations caused by Sufism, we should not grudge\nall the greater credit to the few distinguished men who, although\nadherents of Sufism and dominated by its doctrines, kept their\ncharacters clear of stain. In spite of their conviction that there was\nno individual life after death, these men spent their lives in\nmortification of the senses and in abstinence, and often braved death\nwith a truly Roman stoicism.\n\nSuch shining characters are not of frequent occurrence in oriental\nhistory; but certainly Mullah Shah is one and Prince Dara-Shikoh\nanother. In a path strewn with pitfalls he kept a name without stain and\nwithout reproach, thanks to the austere moral principles instilled into\nhim by his master. He faced death with calm resignation, and knew how to\ndie as a prince and as a philosopher.\n\n   NOTE.--Prince Dara-Shikoh has left a curious fragment of\n   spiritual autobiography in his preface to a Persian translation\n   of the Upanishads or chapters from the Vedas which he had caused\n   to be translated from Sanskrit. It is indeed strange to see this\n   son of a Muhammadan Emperor ranking these selections from the\n   Vedas above the Koran, the Pentateuch, Psalms and Gospels, all of\n   which he says he had read. The Preface runs as follows:--\n\n   \"When Dara-Shikoh, the resigned worshipper of God, visited\n   Kashmir in the year of the Hegira 1050 (A.D. 1640), by the\n   blessing of the Most High he met with Mullah Shah, the chief of\n   the learned, the teacher of teachers, versed in the subtleties of\n   \"Tauhid\" (Unity); may he be joined with God!\n\n   \"As that prince already relished the pleasure of seeing the\n   learning of each sect, had perused various treaties of the Sufi\n   philosophers, and even composed some himself, the thirst of\n   exploring the doctrine of the Unity (which is a boundless ocean)\n   daily increased, and his mind attained a degree of acuteness and\n   subtlety which would have been impossible without the immediate\n   assistance and favour of the Divine will. Now the sacred Koran,\n   being frequently obscure, and few at this day being found capable\n   of explaining it, he determined to read all inspired works; that\n   the word of God might furnish a commentary on itself, and what is\n   concisely expressed in one book might be elucidated by a\n   reference to others; the abridged being the more diffuse. With\n   this view he perused the Pentateuch, the Gospels and the Psalms,\n   but the unity of God was obscurely and enigmatically expressed in\n   these works; nor did he derive more instruction from the simple\n   translations of hired linguists.\n\n   \"He next desired to ascertain how it happened that in Hindustan\n   the Unity of God is the frequent theme of discourse, and that the\n   ancient philosophers of India neither denied nor objected to the\n   doctrine of the Divine Unity, but on the contrary held it as an\n   axiom. Unlike the ignorant race of the present day who set up for\n   philosophers, though they have fallen into the track of bloodshed\n   and infidelity, denying the attributes and unity of God, and\n   contradicting the proofs of that doctrine derived from the Koran\n   and authentic traditions; these may be considered as banditti on\n   the path of God.\n\n   \"In the cause of this inquiry it was discovered that amongst the\n   Hindus, four inspired books were held peculiarly sacred, viz.:\n   the Rig Veda, the Jajur Veda, the Sam Veda and Atharva Veda,\n   which had descended from the skies to the prophets of those\n   times, of whom Adam (purified by God; may blessings attend him!)\n   was the chief, containing rules and precepts; and this doctrine\n   (viz.: the Unity of God) is clearly expressed in those books. As\n   the object of this explorer of truth (Dara-Shikoh) was not the\n   acquisition of languages, whether Arabic, Syriac or Sanskrit, but\n   the proofs of the Unity of the Supreme Being, he determined that\n   the Upanishads (which might be considered as a treasure of\n   Unitarianism) should be translated into Persian without adding or\n   expunging, and without bias or partiality, but correctly and\n   literally that it might appear what mysteries are contained in\n   those books which the Hindus so carefully conceal from Moslems.\n\n   \"As the city of Benares, which is the seat of Hindu science, was\n   a dependency of this explorer of truth (Dara-Shikoh), having\n   assembled the Pundits and Sanyasis who are the expounders of the\n   Vedas and Upanishads, he caused a translation to be made of the\n   latter into Persian. This was completed in the year of the\n   Hegira, 1067, A.D., 1656. Every difficulty was elucidated\n   by this ancient compilation, which, without doubt, is the first of\n   inspired works, the fountain of truth, the Sea of the Unity; not\n   only consentaneous with the Koran, but a commentary on it.\"\n\n   [61] Founded by Abdul Qadir Gilani.\n\n   [62] According to the reported saying of Muhammad, \"He who knows\n   himself, knows God.\"\n\n   [63] Chapter 5.\n\n   [64] The great mystic poet of Persia (A.D. 1207-1272).\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX I\n\nMOHAMMEDAN CONVERSIONS\n\n\nBy Mohammedan Conversion is not here meant conversion from Christianity\nto Mohammedanism, or _vice versa_, but those spiritual crises which take\nplace _within_ Mohammedanism, as within Christianity, by which the soul\nis stung as with a regenerating shudder to use George Eliot's phrase, to\nrise from a notional to a real belief in God. Mohammedan theologians are\nas aware of this distinction as Christian ones. Thus Al Ghazzali, in his\n_Revival of the Religious Sciences_, is very sarcastic on the indulgence\nin the common expletive, \"We take refuge in God,\" by Mohammedans without\nattaching any real meaning to it. He says: \"If you see a lion coming\ntowards you, and there is a fort close by, you do not stand exclaiming,\n'I take refuge in this fort!' but you get into it. Similarly, when you\nhear of the wrath to come, do not merely _say_, 'I take refuge in God,'\nbut take refuge in Him.\"\n\nThis transformation of a notional into a real belief has proved the\ncrisis in the lives of many of the saints and mystics of Islam, without,\nas far as it appears, any contact on their part with Christianity. Thus,\nIbn Khalliqan, in his great Biographical Dictionary, tells of Al-Fudail,\na celebrated highwayman, who, one night, while he was on his way to an\nimmoral assignation, was arrested by the voice of a Koran-reader\nchanting the verse, \"Is not the time yet come unto those who believe,\nthat their hearts should humbly submit to the admonition of God?\" On\nthis he exclaimed, \"O Lord! that time is come.\" He then went away from\nthat place, and the approach of night induced him to repair for shelter\nto a ruined edifice. He there found a band of travellers, one of whom\nsaid to the others, \"Let us set out\"; but another answered, \"Let us\nrather wait till daylight, for Al-Fudail is on the road, and will stop\nus.\" Al-Fudail then turned his heart to God, and assured them that they\nhad nothing to fear. For the rest of his life he lived as an ascetic,\nand ranked among the greatest saints. One of his recorded sayings is,\n\"If the world with all it contains were offered to me, even on the\ncondition of my not being taken to account for it, I would shun it as\nyou would shun a carrion, lest it should defile your clothes.\"\n\nAnother striking \"conversion\" is that of Ibrahim Ben Adham, Prince of\nKhorassan. He was passionately addicted to the chase, and one day when\nso employed heard a voice behind him exclaiming, \"O Ibrahim, thou wast\nnot born for this.\" At first he took it for a delusion of Satan, but on\nhearing the same words pronounced more loudly exclaimed, \"It is the Lord\nwho speaks; His servant will obey.\" Immediately he desisted from his\namusement, and, changing clothes with an attendant, bade adieu to\nKhorassan, took the road towards Syria, and from thenceforth devoted\nhimself entirely to a life of piety and labour.\n\nA third example is that of Ghazzali himself, who, in his work _The\nDeliverance from Error_, has left one of the very few specimens of\nEastern religious autobiography, and one bearing a certain resemblance\nto Newman's _Apologia_. He was professor of theology at the University\nof Bagdad in the eleventh century. In his autobiography he says:\n\"Reflecting upon my situation, I found myself bound to this world by a\nthousand ties; temptations assailed me on all sides. I then examined my\nactions. The best were those relating to instruction and education; and\neven there I saw myself given up to unimportant sciences, all useless in\nanother world. Reflecting on the aim of my teaching, I found it was not\npure in the sight of the Lord. I saw that all my efforts were directed\ntowards the acquisition of glory to myself.\" After this, as he was one\nday about to lecture, his tongue refused utterance; he was dumb. He\nlooked upon this as a visitation from God, and was deeply afflicted at\nit. He became seriously ill, and the physicians said his recovery was\nhopeless unless he could shake off his depression. \"Then,\" he continues,\n\"feeling my helplessness, I had recourse to God, as one who has no other\nrecourse in his distress. He compassionated me as He compassionates the\nunhappy who invoke Him. My heart no longer made any resistance, but\nwillingly renounced the glories and the pleasures of this world.\"\n\nWe may close this short list with the name of the Sufi poet,\nFerid-eddin-Attar. He was a druggist by trade, and one day was startled\nby one of the half-mad fakirs, who swarm in Oriental cities, pensively\ngazing at him while his eyes slowly filled with tears. Ferid-eddin\nangrily ordered him to go about his business. \"Sir,\" replied the fakir,\n\"that is easily done; for my baggage is light. But would it not be wise\nfor you to commence preparations for your journey?\" The words struck\nhome, Ferid-eddin abandoned his business, and devoted the rest of his\nlife to meditation and collecting the sayings of the wise.\n\nThese four cases, the highwayman, the prince, the theologian, the poet,\nare sufficient to show that the Recognition (anagnorisis) and Revolution\n(peripeteia), to use Aristotle's phrase, which turns life from a chaotic\ndream into a well-ordered drama, of which God is the Protagonist, may\nreceive as signal though not as frequent illustration in the territory\nof Islam as in that of Christianity. They also serve to illustrate\nProfessor W. James' thesis in his Gifford Lectures, that \"conversion,\"\nwhether Christian or extra-Christian, is a psychological fact, and not a\nmere emotional illusion.\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX II\n\nA MOHAMMEDAN EXPOSITION OF SUFISM\nBY IBN KHALDOUN\n\n\nSufism consists essentially in giving up oneself constantly to\ndevotional exercises, in living solely for God, in abandoning all the\nfrivolous attractions of the world, in disregarding the ordinary aims of\nmen--pleasures, riches and honours--and finally in separating oneself\nfrom society for the sake of practising devotion to God. This way of\nlife was extremely common among the companions of the Prophet and the\nearly Moslems. But when in the second century of Islam and the\nsucceeding centuries the desire for worldly wealth had spread, and\nordinary men allowed themselves to be drawn into the current of a\ndissipated and worldly life, the persons who gave themselves up to piety\nwere distinguished by the name of \"Sufis,\" or aspirants to Sufism.\n\nThe most probable derivation is from \"suf\" (wool), for, as a rule, Sufis\nwear woollen garments to distinguish themselves from the crowd, who love\ngaudy attire.\n\nFor an intelligent being possessed of a body, thought is the joint\nproduct of the perception of events which happen from without, and of\nthe emotions to which they give rise within, and is that quality which\ndistinguishes man from animals. These emotions proceed one from another;\njust as knowledge is born of arguments, joy and sadness spring from the\nperception of that which causes grief or pleasure. Similarly with the\ndisciple of the spiritual life in the warfare which he wages with\nhimself, and in his devotional exercises. Every struggle which he has\nwith his passions produces in him a state resulting from this struggle.\nThis state is either a disposition to piety which, strengthening by\nrepetition, becomes for him a \"station\" (_maqam_), or merely an emotion\nwhich he undergoes, such as joy, merriment, &c.\n\nThe disciple of the spiritual life continues to rise from one station to\nanother, till he arrives at the knowledge of the Divine Unity and of\nGod, the necessary condition for obtaining felicity, conformably to the\nsaying of the Prophet: \"Whosoever dies while confessing that there is no\ngod but God, shall enter Paradise.\"\n\nProgress through these different stages is gradual. They have as their\ncommon foundation obedience and sincerity of intention; faith precedes\nand accompanies them, and from them proceed the emotions and qualities,\nthe transient and permanent modifications of the soul; these emotions\nand qualities go on producing others in a perpetual progression which\nfinally arrives at the station of the knowledge of the Unity of God. The\ndisciple of the spiritual life needs to demand an account of his soul in\nall its actions, and to keep an attentive eye on the most hidden\nrecesses of his heart; for actions must necessarily produce results, and\nwhatever evil is in results betokens a corresponding evil in actions.\n\nThere are but a few persons who imitate the Sufis in this practice of\nself-examination, for negligence and indifference in this respect are\nalmost universal. Pious men who have not risen to this class (the\nmystics) only aim at fulfilling the works commanded by the law in all\nthe completeness laid down by the science of jurisprudence. But the\nmystics examine scrupulously the results of these works, the effects and\nimpressions which they produce upon the soul. For this purpose they use\nwhatever rays of divine illumination may have reached them while in a\nstate of ecstacy, with the object of assuring themselves whether their\nactions are exempt or not from some defect. The essence of their system\nis this practice of obliging the soul often to render an account of its\nactions and of what it has left undone. It also consists in the\ndevelopment of those gifts of discrimination and ecstacy which are born\nout of struggles with natural inclinations, and which then become for\nthe disciple stations of progress.\n\nThe Sufis possess some rules of conduct peculiar to themselves, and make\nuse of certain technical expressions. Of these Ghazzali has treated in\n_Ihya-ul-ulum_ (\"Revival of the Religious Sciences\"). He speaks of the\nlaws regulating devotion, he explains the rules and customs of the Sufis\nand the technical terms which they use. Thus the system of the Sufis,\nwhich was at first only a special way of carrying on worship, and the\nlaws of which were only handed on by example and tradition, was\nmethodised and reduced to writing, like the exegesis of the Koran, the\nTraditions, Jurisprudence, and so forth.\n\nThis spiritual combat and this habit of meditation are usually followed\nby a lifting of the veils of sense, and by the perception of certain\nworlds which form part of the \"things of God\" (knowledge of which He has\nreserved for Himself). The sensual man can have no perception of such\nthings.\n\nDisentanglement from the things of sense and consequent perception of\ninvisible things takes place when the spirit, giving up the uses of\nexterior senses, only uses interior ones; in this state the emotions\nproceeding from the former grow feebler, while those which proceed from\nthe spirit grow stronger; the spirit dominates, and its vigour is\nrenewed.\n\nNow, the practice of meditation contributes materially to this result.\nIt is the nourishment by which the spirit grows. Such growth continues\ntill what was the knowledge of One absent becomes the consciousness of\nOne present, and the veils of sense being lifted, the soul enjoys the\nfullness of the faculties which belong to it in virtue of its essence,\n_i.e._, perception. On this plane it becomes capable of receiving divine\ngrace and knowledge granted by the Deity. Finally its nature as regards\nthe real knowledge of things as they are, approaches the loftiest heaven\nof angelic beings.\n\nThis disentanglement from things of sense takes place oftenest in men\nwho practise the spiritual combat, and thus they arrive at a perception\nof the real nature of things such as is impossible to any beside\nthemselves. Similarly, they often know of events before they arrive; and\nby the power of their prayers and their spiritual force, they hold sway\nover inferior beings who are obliged to obey them.\n\nThe greatest of the mystics do not boast of this disentanglement from\nthings of sense and this rule over inferior creatures; unless they have\nreceived an order to do so, they reveal nothing of what they have learnt\nof the real nature of things. These supernatural workings are painful,\nand when they experience them they ask God for deliverance.\n\nThe companions of the Prophet also practised this spiritual warfare;\nlike the mystics, they were overwhelmed with these tokens of divine\nfavour such as the power to walk on the water, to pass through fire\nwithout being burnt, to receive their food in miraculous ways, but they\ndid not attach great importance to them. Abu-bekr, Omar, and Ali were\ndistinguished by a great number of these supernatural gifts, and their\nmanner of viewing them was followed by the mystics who succeeded them.\n\nBut among the moderns there are men who have set great store by\nobtaining this disentanglement from things of sense, and by speaking of\nthe mysteries discovered when this veil is removed. To reach this goal\nthey have had recourse to different methods of asceticism, in which the\nintellectual soul is nourished by meditation to the utmost of its\ncapacity, and enjoys in its fullness the faculty of perception which\nconstitutes its essence. According to them, when a man has arrived at\nthis point, his perception comprehends all existence and the real nature\nof things without a veil, from the throne of God to the smallest drops\nof rain. Ghazzali describes the ascetic practices which are necessary to\narrive at this state.\n\nThis condition of disentanglement from the things of sense is only held\nto be perfect when it springs from right dispositions. For there are, as\na matter of fact, persons who profess to live in retirement and to fast\nwithout possessing right dispositions; such are sorcerers, Christians,\nand others who practise ascetic exercises. We may illustrate this by the\nimage of a well-polished mirror. According as its surface is convex or\nconcave, the object reflected in it is distorted from its real shape;\nif, on the contrary, the mirror has a plane surface, the object is\nreflected exactly as it is. Now, what a plane surface is for the mirror,\na right disposition is for the soul, as regards the impressions it\nreceives from without.\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX III\n\nCHRISTIAN ELEMENTS IN MOHAMMEDAN\nLITERATURE\n\n\nThe almost miraculous renaissance in Islam which is now proceeding in\nTurkey and other Mohammedan countries reminds one forcibly of Dante's\nlines:\n\n                     For I have seen\n   The thorn frown rudely all the winter long,\n   And after bear the rose upon its top.\n\n      _Paradiso_, xiii. 133.\n\nIt is not perhaps fanciful to conjecture that one of the hidden causes\nof this renaissance is the large quantity of Christian truth which Islam\nliterature holds, so to speak, in solution. It is a well-known fact that\nthe Koran has borrowed largely from the Old Testament and the Apocryphal\nGospels, but it is not so generally known that Mohammedan philosophers,\ntheologians, and poets betray an acquaintance with facts and incidents\nof the Gospels of which the Koran contains no mention.\n\nLeaving the Koran on one side, in the \"Traditions,\" _i.e._, sayings of\nMohammed handed down by tradition, we find God represented as saying at\nthe Judgment, \"O ye sons of men, I was hungry and ye gave Me no food,\"\nthe whole of the passage in Matt. xxv. being quoted. This is remarkable,\nas it strikes directly at the orthodox Mohammedan conception of God as\nan impassible despot. Other sayings attributed to God which have a\nChristian ring are, \"I was a hidden Treasure and desired to be known,\ntherefore I created the world\"; \"If it were not for Thee, I would not\nhave made the world\" (addressed to Mohammed), evidently an echo of Col.\nI. 17, \"All things have been created through Him and unto Him\" (R.V.).\nThe writer has often heard this last saying quoted by Indian Mohammedans\nin controversy.\n\nAnother traditional saying attributed to Mohammed is not unlike the\ndoctrine of the Holy Spirit: \"Verily from your Lord come breathings. Be\nye prepared for them.\" The Second Advent is also referred to in others:\n\"How will it be with you when God sends Jesus to judge you?\" \"There is\nno Mahdi but Jesus.\" It is a well-known fact that a certain gate in\nJerusalem is kept walled up because the Mohammedans believe that Jesus\nwill pass through it when He returns.\n\nSome traditions have twisted Gospel parables, &c., in favour of\nMohammedanism. Thus in the mention of the parable of the hired\nlabourers, the first two sets of labourers are said to mean Jews and\nChristians, and the last comers, who receive an equal wage, though\ngrumbled at by the others, are believed to indicate the Mohammedans.\nOther traditions give one of Christ's sayings a grotesquely literal\ndress. Thus our Lord is said to have met a fox, and to have said, \"Fox!\nwhere art thou going?\" The fox replied, to his home. Upon which our Lord\nuttered the verse, \"Foxes have holes,\" &c. Once when entering an Afghan\nvillage the writer was met by a Pathan, who asked if the New Testament\ncontained that verse. This shows how even garbled traditions may\npredispose the Mohammedan mind for the study of the Gospels.\n\nTabari, the historian (d. 923 A.D.), gives an account of the Last Supper\nand of Christ washing the disciples' hands (_sic_)--topics entirely\nignored by the Koran--and quotes the saying of our Lord regarding the\nsmiting of the Shepherd and the scattering of the sheep.\n\nSufi literature, representing as it does the mystical side of Islam,\nabounds with allusions to Scripture. Al Ghazzali, the great opponent of\nAverroes (1058-1111 A.D.), in his _Ihya-ul-ulum_ (\"Revival of the\nReligious Sciences\") quotes the saying of Christ regarding the children\nplaying in the market-place. In his _Kimiya-i-Saadat_ (\"Alchemy of\nHappiness\") he writes, \"It is said that Jesus Christ in a vision saw\nthis world in the form of an old woman, and asked how many husbands she\nhad lived with. She said they were innumerable. He asked her if they had\ndied, or had divorced her. She replied that it was neither, the fact\nbeing that she had killed all.\" Here we seem to have a confused echo of\nthe episode of the woman of Samaria. Again in the same work he says, \"It\nis a saying of Jesus Christ that the seeker of the world is like a man\nsuffering from dropsy; the more he drinks water the more he feels\nthirsty.\" In the _Ihya-ul-ulum_, the verse \"Eye hath not seen,\" &c., is\nquoted as if from the Koran, where it nowhere occurs. Ghazzali was an\nardent student of the Neo-Platonists, and through him the phrases\nAql-i-Kull (--Logos) and Nafs-i-Kull (--Pneuma) passed into Sufi\nwritings (v. Whinfield, Preface to the _Masnavi_).\n\nSaadi (b. 1184 A.D.), the famous author of the _Gulistan_ and\n_Bostan_, was for some time kept in captivity by the Crusaders. This may\naccount for echoes of the Gospels which we find in his writings. In the\n_Gulistan_ he quotes the verse, \"We are members of one another,\" and in\nthe _Bostan_ the parable of the Pharisee and Publican is told in great\ndetail.\n\nNizami (b. 1140) gives a story which, though grotesque, seems to show\nthat he had apprehended something of the Christian spirit. Some\npassers-by were commenting on the body of a dead dog, saying how\nabominably it smelt, &c. Christ passed, and said, \"Behold, how white its\nteeth are!\"\n\nBut of all the Mohammedan writers, none bears such distinct traces of\nChristian influence as Jalaluddin Rumi, the greatest of the Sufi poets,\nwho is to this day much studied in Persia, Turkey and India. In the\nfirst book of his _Masnavi_ he has a strange story of a vizier who\npersuaded his king, a Jewish persecutor of the Christians, to mutilate\nhim. He then went to the Christians and said, \"See what I have suffered\nfor your religion.\" After gaining their confidence and being chosen\ntheir guide, he wrote epistles in different directions to the chief\nChristians, contradicting each other, maintaining in one that man is\nsaved by grace, and in another that salvation rests upon works, &c. Thus\nhe brought their religion into inextricable confusion. This is evidently\naimed at St. Paul, and it is a curious fact that Jalaluddin Rumi spent\nmost of his life at Iconium, where some traditions of the apostle's\nteaching must have lingered. Other allusions to the Gospel narrative in\nthe _Masnavi_ are found in the mention of John the Baptist leaping in\nhis mother's womb, of Christ walking on the water, &c., none of which\noccur in the Koran. Isolated verses of Jalaluddin's clearly show a\nChristian origin:\n\n       I am the sweet-smiling Jesus,\n       And the world is alive by Me.\n\n   I am the sunlight falling from above,\n   Yet never severed from the Sun I love.\n\nIt will be seen that Jalaluddin gives our Lord a much higher rank than\nis accorded to Him in the Koran, which says, \"And who could hinder God\nif He chose to destroy Mary and her son together?\"\n\nA strange echo of the Gospel narrative is found in the story of the\ncelebrated Sufi, Mansur-al-Hallaj, who was put to death at Bagdad, 919\nA.D., for exclaiming while in a state of mystic ecstacy, \"I am\nthe Truth.\" Shortly before he died he cried out, \"My Friend (God) is not\nguilty of injuring me; He gives me to drink what as Master of the feast\nHe drinks Himself\" (Whinfield, preface to the _Masnavi_).\nNotwithstanding the apparent blasphemy of Mansur's exclamation, he has\nalways been the object of eulogy by Mohammedan poets. Even the orthodox\nAfghan poet, Abdurrahman, says of him:\n\n   Every man who is crucified like Mansur,\n   After death his cross becomes a fruit-bearing tree.\n\nMany of the favourite Sufi phrases, \"The Perfect Man,\" \"The new\ncreation,\" \"The return to God,\" have a Christian sound, and the modern\nBabi movement which has so profoundly influenced Persian life and\nthought owes its very name to the saying of Christ, \"I am the Door\"\n(\"Ana ul Bab\"), adopted by Mirza Ali, the founder of the sect.\n\nWhen Henry Martyn reached Shiraz in 1811, he found his most attentive\nlisteners among the Sufis. \"These Sufis,\" he writes in his diary, \"are\nquite the Methodists of the East. They delight in everything Christian\nexcept in being exclusive. They consider they all will finally return to\nGod, from whom they emanated.\"\n\nIt is certainly noteworthy that some of the highly educated Indian\nconverts from Islam to Christianity have been men who have passed\nthrough a stage of Sufism, _e.g._, Moulvie Imaduddin of Amritsar, on\nwhom Archbishop Benson conferred a D.D. degree, and Safdar Ali, late\nInspector of Schools at Jabalpur. In one of the semi-domes of the Mosque\nof St. Sophia at Constantinople is a gigantic figure of Christ in\nmosaic, which the Mohammedans have not destroyed, but overlaid with\ngilding, yet so that the outlines of the figure are still visible. Is it\nnot a parable?\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX IV\n\nCHRIST IN MODAMMEDAN TRADITION.\n\n\nThe following brief article is an attempt to bring together some of the\npassages in Mohammedan writers in which Christ is accorded a higher\nplace than in the Koran, and in which deeds and words of His are\nmentioned regarding which the Koran is quite silent. For though the\nKoran calls Him 'the Spirit of God' and 'a Word proceeding from Him,' at\nthe same time it says 'What could hinder God if He chose to destroy the\nMessiah and His mother both together?'\n\nIn the traditional sayings of Mohammed collected by Al Bokhari, accepted\nby all Sunni Mohammedans, we have the following:--\n\n1st. The sinlessness of Christ. The Prophet said, 'Satan touches every\nchild at its birth and it cries out from the touch of Satan. This is the\ncase with all, except Mary and her son.'\n\n2nd. A famous utterance of Christ is attributed to God. The Prophet\nsaid, 'At the resurrection God shall say, \"O ye sons of men, I was sick\nand ye visited Me not.\" They shall say, \"Thou art the Lord of the worlds\nhow should we visit Thee?\" He will say, \"A certain servant of Mine was\nsick; if you had visited him you would have found Me with him.\"' This\ntradition is noteworthy as it brings out the affinity between God and\nman which the Koran for the most part ignores.\n\n3rd. Christ returning to judgment. The Prophet said, 'How will it be\nwith you when God sends back the Son of Mary to rule and to judge\n(hakiman, muqsitan)?'\n\nIn the 'Awarifu-l-Mawarif of Shahabu-d-Din Suhrawardi the doctrine of\nthe New Birth is definitely attributed to Christ: 'The death of nature\nand of will which they call \"the second birth\" even as Christ has\nwritten.'\n\nGhazzali in the Ihya-ul-ulum thus refers to St. Matt. xi. 17: 'Some one\nsaid, \"I saw written in the Gospel, We have sung to you but ye have not\nbeen moved with emotion; we have piped unto you but ye have not\ndanced.\"' He also quotes St. Matt. vi. 25, 'Jesus said, Consider the\nfowls, etc.'\n\nThe historian Tabari mentions the institution of the Last Supper,\nChrist's washing His disciple's hands, requesting them to watch with\nHim, predicting Peter's denial, and quotes the text, 'The shepherd shall\nbe smitten, and the sheep shall be scattered.'\n\nIn the Bostan of Sa'di the parable of the Publican and the Pharisee\ntakes the following curious shape:--\n\n   In Jesus' time there lived a youth so black and dissolute,\n   That Satan from him shrank appalled in every attribute;\n   He in a sea of pleasures foul uninterrupted swam\n   And gluttonized on dainty vices, sipping many a dram.\n   Whoever met him on the highway turned as from a pest,\n   Or, pointing lifted finger at him, cracked some horrid jest.\n   I have been told that Jesus once was passing by the cave\n   Where dwelt a monk who asked Him in,--\n   When suddenly that slave of sin appeared across the way,\n   Far off he paused, fell down and sobbingly began to pray;\n   And like a storm or rain the tears pour gushing from his eyes.\n   'Alas, and woe is me for thirty squandered years,' he cries;\n   The pride-puffed monk self-righteous lifts his eyebrows with a sneer,\n   And haughtily exclaims, 'Vile wretch! in vain hast thou come here.\n   Art thou not plunged in sin, and tossed in lust's devouring sea?\n   What will thy filthy rags avail with Jesus and with me?\n   O God! the granting of a single wish is all I pray,\n   Grant me to stand far distant from this man at Judgement Day.'\n   From heaven's throne a revelation instantaneous broke,\n   And God's own thunder-words through the mouth of Jesus spoke:\n  'The two whom praying there I see, shall equally be heard;\n   They pray diverse,--I give to each according to his word.\n   That poor one thirty years has rolled in sin's most slimy steeps,\n   But now with stricken heart and streaming eyes for pardon weeps.\n   Upon the threshold of My grace he throws him in despair,\n   And faintly hoping pity pours his supplications there.\n   Therefore forgiven and freed from all the guilt in which he lies\n   My mercy chooses him a citizen of paradise;\n   This monk desires that he may not that sinner stand beside,\n   Therefore he goes to hell and so his wish is gratified.'\n\n      (_Alger: Poetry of the Orient_)\n\nIt is refreshing to find one of the classical Moslem writers so strongly\ndenouncing self-righteousness. The poet Nizami in the following apologue\nseems to have caught no little of the spirit of the Gospel:--\n\n   One evening Jesus lingered in the market-place\n   Teaching the people parables of truth and grace,\n   When in the square remote a crowd was seen to rise\n   And stop with loathing gestures and abhorring cries.\n   The Master and His meek Disciples went to see\n   What cause for this commotion and disgust could be,\n   And found a poor dead dog beside the gutter laid;\n   Revolting sight! at which each face its hate betrayed.\n   One held his nose, one shut his eyes, one turned away,\n   And all amongst themselves began loud to say,\n  'Detested creature! he pollutes the earth and air!'\n  'His eyes are blear!' 'His ears are foul!' 'His ribs are bare!'\n  'In his torn hide there's not a decent shoe-string left!'\n  'No doubt the execrable cur was hung for theft!'\n   Then Jesus spake and dropped on him this saving wreath:\n  'Even pearls are dark before the whiteness of his teeth!'\n\n      (_Alger: Poetry of the Orient._)\n\nThe entrance of our Lord into Jerusalem is referred to in the following\npassage from the Masnavi of Jalaluddin Rumi:--\n\n   Having left Jesus, thou cherishest an ass,\n   And art perforce excluded like an ass;\n   The portion of Jesus is knowledge and wisdom,\n   Not so the portion of an ass, O assinine one!\n   Thou pitiest thine ass when it complains;\n   So art thou ignorant, thine ass makes thee assinine,\n   Keep thy pity for Jesus, not for the ass,\n   Make not thy lust to vanquish thy reason.\n\n      (_Whinfield's Translation_).\n\nElsewhere in the Masnavi Jalaluddin Rumi says:--\n\n   Jesus, thy Spirit, is present with thee;\n   Ask help of Him, for He is a good Helper.\n\nIn the Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz, by the same author, we have the lines:--\n\n   I am that sweet-smiling Jesus,\n   And the world is alive through Me.\n\nElsewhere he says, 'The pure one is regenerated by the breath of Jesus.'\nIt is a significant fact that Jalaluddin Rumi spent most of his life at\nIconium, where very likely some apostolic traditions lingered.\n\nOne aspect of our Lord which has strongly impressed itself on the\nMohammedan imagination is His homelessness.[65] Once on entering a\nPathan village the writer was met by a youth, who asked, 'Is this verse\nin the Injil: \"The Son of Mary had nowhere to lay His head\"?'\n In the\nQissas-al-ambiya (Stories of the Prophets) this takes the following\ngrotesque shape:--\n\n   One day Jesus saw a fox running through the wilderness. He said\n   to him, 'O fox! whither art thou going?' The fox answered, 'I\n   have come out for exercise; now I am returning to my own home.'\n   Jesus said, 'Every one has built himself a house; but for Me\n   there is no resting-place.' Some people who heard it, said, 'We\n   are sorry for Thee and will build Thee a house.' He replied, 'I\n   have no money.' They answered, 'We will pay all the expenses.'\n   Then he said, 'Very well, I will choose the site.' He led them\n   down to the edge of the sea and, pointing where the waves were\n   dashing highest, said, 'Build Me a house there.' The people said,\n   'That is the sea, O Prophet! how can we build there?' 'Yea, and\n   is not the world a sea,' He answered, 'on which no one can raise\n   a building that abides?'\n\nA similar echo of Christ's words is found in the famous inscription over\na bridge at Fatehpur Sikri: 'Jesus (upon Whom be peace) said, \"The world\nis a bridge; pass over it, but do not build upon it.\"'\n\nThis keen sense of the transitoriness of everything earthly is a\nstrongly-marked feature of the Oriental mind, and characterized all\ntheir saints and mystics. There is no wonder that this side of the\ngospel should make a special appeal to Orientals, and that the\nFakir-missionary should seem to them to approximate most closely to his\nMaster.[66]\n\nThe following account of the trial of our Lord before the Sanhedrin and\nPilate which occurs in the Dabistan of Mohsin Fani (A.D. 1647)\napproximates more nearly to the Gospel narrative than that which is\nordinarily current among Mohammedan writers:--\n\n   When Jesus appeared, the high-priest said, 'We charge Thee upon\n   Thy oath by the living God, say art Thou the Son of God?' The\n   blessed and holy Lord Jesus replied to him, 'I am what thou hast\n   said. Verily We say unto you, you shall see the Son of man seated\n   at the right hand of God, and He shall descend in the clouds of\n   heaven.' They said, 'Thou utterest a blasphemy, because,\n   according to the creed of the Jews, God never descends in the\n   clouds of heaven.'\n\n   Isaiah the prophet has announced the birth of Jesus in words the\n   translation of which is as follows:--'A branch from the root of\n   I'shai shall spring up, and from this branch shall come forth a\n   flower in which the Spirit of God shall dwell, verily a virgin\n   shall be pregnant and bring forth a Son.' I'shai is the name of\n   the father of David.\n\n   \"When they had apprehended Jesus, they spat upon His blessed face\n   and smote Him. Isaiah had predicted it. 'I shall give up My body\n   to the smiters, and My cheek to the diggers of wounds. I shall\n   not turn My face from those who will use bad words and throw\n   spittle upon Me.' When Pilatus, a judge of the Jews, scourged the\n   Lord Jesus in such a manner that His body from head to foot\n   became but one wound, so was it as Isaiah had predicted, 'He was\n   wounded for our transgressions; I struck Him for His people.'\n   When Pilatus saw that the Jews insisted upon the death and\n   crucifixion of Jesus, he said, 'I take no part in the blood of\n   this Man; I wash my hands clean of His blood.' The Jews answered,\n   'His blood be on us and on our children.' On that account the\n   Jews are oppressed and curbed down in retribution of their\n   iniquities. When they had placed the cross upon the shoulders of\n   Jesus and led Him to die, a woman wiped with the border of her\n   garment the face, full of blood, of the Lord Jesus. Verily she\n   obtained three images of it and carried them home; the one of\n   these images exists still in Spain, the other is in the town of\n   Milan in Italy, and the third in the city of Rome.\"\n\nThe same author, Mohsin Fani, says:--\n\n   The Gospel has been translated from the tongue of Jesus into\n   different languages, namely, into Arabic, Greek, Latin, which\n   last is the language of the learned among the Firangis; and into\n   Syriac, and this all learned men know.\n\nFragments of our Lord's teaching are found not only in religious but\nalso in secular Mohammedan books; thus in the Kitab Jawidan of Ibn\nMuskawih we have the following:--\n\n   The hatefullest of learned men in the eyes of God is he who loves\n   reputation and that room should be made for him in the assemblies\n   of the great, and to be invited to feasts. Verily I say they have\n   their reward in the world.\n\nIn the Kitab-al-Aghani, a history of Arabic poetry, it is related:--\n\n   Satan came to Jesus and said, 'Dost Thou not speak the truth?'\n   'Certainly,' answered Jesus. 'Well then,' said Satan, 'climb this\n   mountain and cast Thyself down.' Jesus said, 'Woe to thee, for\n   hath not God said, O Son of Man, tempt Me not by casting thyself\n   into destruction, for I do that which I will.'\n\nFrom the above instances taken from well-known Mohammedan writers it\nwill be seen that the Christ of post-Koranic tradition is far more\nlife-like than the Christ of the Koran. The latter is a mere lay-figure,\nbedecked with honorific titles indeed, such as the 'Spirit of God and a\nword proceeding from Him,' and working miracles, but displaying no\ncharacter. In the post-Koranic writers, on the other hand, we have His\nsinlessness, His return to judgment, His humility, His unworldliness,\nHis sufferings, His doctrine of the New Birth, topics upon which the\nKoran is entirely silent. An open-minded Moslem perusing the above\npassages in the original Persian and Arabic (and many might be added)\nwould certainly gain a far higher conception of our Lord than from\nanything he would find in the Koran.\n\n   [65] In one tradition He is called 'Imam al ashin,' 'Leader of\n   the wanderers.'\n\n   [66] Although Mohammed said, 'There is no monkery in Islam,' and\n   rebuked one of his followers who showed a tendency to it,\n   celibacy and homelessness have often marked the saints of Islam.\n\n   One of them, Bishr Hafi, being asked why he did not marry,\n   answered, 'I am afraid of that verse in the Koran, \"The rights of\n   women over men are the same as the rights of men over women.\"'\n\n  +-----------------------------------------------------------+\n  | Transcriber's Note:                                       |\n  |                                                           |\n  | There are a number of words, mostly Arabic, spelled in    |\n  | different ways in the present book. As many of these are  |\n  | variants often used in the transliteration of Arabic      |\n  | names, these differences have been retained. Below is     |\n  | the list of the words which have been spelled differently |\n  | at different places in the book:                          |\n  |                                                           |\n  | Adham, Adhem.                                             |\n  | Alghazzali, Algazzali.                                    |\n  | Bayazid, Bayezid.                                         |\n  | Hassan, Hasan.                                            |\n  | Hejaj, Hejjaj.                                            |\n  | Judgment, Judgement.                                      |\n  | Kaf, Kaf.                                                 |\n  | Khorassan, Khorasan.                                      |\n  | Muhammad, Mohammed, Muhammed, Mohammad.                   |\n  | Mohammedan, Muhammadan, Muhammedan, Mahommadan,           |\n  |   Mohammadan.                                             |\n  | Mohammedanism, Muhammedanism.                             |\n  | Saadi, Sa'di.                                             |\n  | Sofian, Sofyan.                                           |\n  | Suhrawardy, Suhrawardi.                                   |\n  +-----------------------------------------------------------+","title":"Mystics and Saints of Islam","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":58769}