{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_67388/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_67388","id":"gutenberg_67388","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/67388","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Religion/Spirituality","Mysticism -- Islam","Philosophy, Arab","Sufism"],"text":"Transcriber's note: Italic font is indicated by _underscores_.\n  Bolded and underlined words are indicated by =equals=.\n\n  The following two characters may not display as intended on certain\n  devices:\n\n  The Arabic letter _ayn_ or _ayin_ is here represented by the\n  character \u02bf (MODIFIER LETTER LEFT HALF RING).\n\n  The Arabic letter _hamza_ is here represented by the\n  character \u02be (MODIFIER LETTER RIGHT HALF RING).\n\n\n\n\n  The Quest Series\n  Edited by G. R. S. Mead\n\n\n  THE MYSTICS OF ISLAM\n\n\n\n\n  THE QUEST SERIES\n\n  Edited by G. R. S. MEAD,\n  EDITOR OF \u2018THE QUEST.\u2019\n\n  _Crown 8vo.  2s. 6d. net each._\n\n\n  FIRST LIST OF VOLUMES.\n\n  PSYCHICAL RESEARCH AND SURVIVAL. By James H. Hyslop, Ph.D., LL.D.,\n  Secretary of the Psychical Research Society of America.\n\n  THE QUEST OF THE HOLY GRAIL. By Jessie L. Weston, Author of \u2018The\n  Legend of Sir Perceval.\u2019\n\n  JEWISH MYSTICISM. By J. Abelson, M.A., D.Lit., Principal of Aria\n  College, Portsmouth.\n\n  BUDDHIST PSYCHOLOGY. By C. A. F. Rhys Davids, M.A., F.B.A., Lecturer\n  on Indian Philosophy, Manchester University.\n\n  THE MYSTICS OF ISLAM. By Reynold A. Nicholson, M.A., Litt.D., LL.D.,\n  Lecturer on Persian, Cambridge University.\n\n\n  London: G. BELL & SONS LTD.\n\n\n\n\n  THE\n  MYSTICS OF ISLAM\n\n  BY\n  REYNOLD A. NICHOLSON\n  M.A., Litt.D., Hon. LL.D. (Aberdeen)\n  LECTURER ON PERSIAN IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE\n  FORMERLY FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE\n\n[Illustration]\n\n  LONDON\n  G. BELL AND SONS LTD.\n  1914\n\n\n\n\n  EDITOR\u2019S NOTE\n\n\nIf Judaism, Christianity and Islam have no little in common in spite\nof their deep dogmatic differences, the spiritual content of that\ncommon element can best be appreciated in Jewish, Christian and\nIslamic mysticism, which bears equal testimony to that ever-deepening\nexperience of the soul when the spiritual worshipper, whether he be\nfollower of Moses or Jesus or Mohammed, turns whole-heartedly to God.\nAs the Quest Series has already supplied for the first time those\ninterested in such matters with a simple general introduction to Jewish\nmysticism, so it now provides an easy approach to the study of Islamic\nmysticism on which in English there exists no separate introduction.\nBut not only have we in the following pages all that the general reader\nrequires to be told at first about S\u016bfism; we have also a large amount\nof material that will be new even to professional Orientalists. Dr.\nNicholson sets before us the results of twenty years\u2019 unremitting\nlabour, and that, too, with remarkable simplicity and clarity for\nsuch a subject; at the same time he lets the mystics mostly speak for\nthemselves and mainly in his own fine versions from the original Arabic\nand Persian.\n\n\n\n\n  CONTENTS\n\n\n                                   PAGE\n       Introduction                   1\n\n  CHAP.\n    I. The Path                      28\n\n   II. Illumination and Ecstasy      50\n\n  III. The Gnosis                    68\n\n   IV. Divine Love                  102\n\n    V. Saints and Miracles          120\n\n   VI. The Unitive State            148\n\n       Bibliography                 169\n\n       Index                        173\n\n\n\n\n  THE MYSTICS OF ISLAM\n\n\n\n\n  INTRODUCTION\n\n\nThe title of this book sufficiently explains why it is included in a\nSeries \u2018exemplifying the adventures and labours of individual seekers\nor groups of seekers in quest of reality.\u2019 S\u016bfism, the religious\nphilosophy of Islam, is described in the oldest extant definition\nas \u2018the apprehension of divine realities,\u2019 and Mohammedan mystics\nare fond of calling themselves _Ahl al-Haqq_, \u2018the followers of the\nReal.\u2019[1] In attempting to set forth their central doctrines from\nthis point of view, I shall draw to some extent on materials which\nI have collected during the last twenty years for a general history\nof Islamic mysticism--a subject so vast and many-sided that several\nlarge volumes would be required to do it anything like justice. Here\nI can only sketch in broad outline certain principles, methods, and\ncharacteristic features of the inner life as it has been lived by\nMoslems of every class and condition from the eighth century of our\nera to the present day. Difficult are the paths which they threaded,\ndark and bewildering the pathless heights beyond; but even if we\nmay not hope to accompany the travellers to their journey\u2019s end,\nany information that we have gathered concerning their religious\nenvironment and spiritual history will help us to understand the\nstrange experiences of which they write.\n\n[1] _Al-Haqq_ is the term generally used by S\u016bf\u012bs when they refer to\nGod.\n\nIn the first place, therefore, I propose to offer a few remarks on the\norigin and historical development of S\u016bfism, its relation to Islam,\nand its general character. Not only are these matters interesting\nto the student of comparative religion; some knowledge of them is\nindispensable to any serious student of S\u016bfism itself. It may be said,\ntruly enough, that all mystical experiences ultimately meet in a single\npoint; but that point assumes widely different aspects according to the\nmystic\u2019s religion, race, and temperament, while the converging lines\nof approach admit of almost infinite variety. Though all the great\ntypes of mysticism have something in common, each is marked by peculiar\ncharacteristics resulting from the circumstances in which it arose and\nflourished. Just as the Christian type cannot be understood without\nreference to Christianity, so the Mohammedan type must be viewed in\nconnexion with the outward and inward development of Islam.\n\nThe word \u2018mystic,\u2019 which has passed from Greek religion into European\nliterature, is represented in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish, the three\nchief languages of Islam, by \u2018S\u016bf\u012b.\u2019 The terms, however, are not\nprecisely synonymous, for \u2018S\u016bf\u012b\u2019 has a specific religious connotation,\nand is restricted by usage to those mystics who profess the Mohammedan\nfaith. And the Arabic word, although in course of time it appropriated\nthe high significance of the Greek--lips sealed by holy mysteries,\neyes closed in visionary rapture--bore a humbler meaning when it\nfirst gained currency (about 800 A.D.). Until recently its derivation\nwas in dispute. Most S\u016bf\u012bs, flying in the face of etymology, have\nderived it from an Arabic root which conveys the notion of \u2018purity\u2019;\nthis would make \u2018S\u016bf\u012b\u2019 mean \u2018one who is pure in heart\u2019 or \u2018one of the\nelect.\u2019 Some European scholars identified it with \u03c3\u03bf\u03c6\u03cc\u03c2 in the sense\nof \u2018theosophist.\u2019 But N\u00f6ldeke, in an article written twenty years ago,\nshowed conclusively that the name was derived from _s\u016bf_ (wool), and\nwas originally applied to those Moslem ascetics who, in imitation of\nChristian hermits, clad themselves in coarse woollen garb as a sign of\npenitence and renunciation of worldly vanities.\n\nThe earliest S\u016bf\u012bs were, in fact, ascetics and quietists rather\nthan mystics. An overwhelming consciousness of sin, combined with a\ndread--which it is hard for us to realise--of Judgment Day and the\ntorments of Hell-fire, so vividly painted in the Koran, drove them to\nseek salvation in flight from the world. On the other hand, the Koran\nwarned them that salvation depended entirely on the inscrutable will of\nAllah, who guides aright the good and leads astray the wicked. Their\nfate was inscribed on the eternal tables of His providence, nothing\ncould alter it. Only this was sure, that if they were destined to be\nsaved by fasting and praying and pious works--then they would be saved.\nSuch a belief ends naturally in quietism, complete and unquestioning\nsubmission to the divine will, an attitude characteristic of S\u016bfism in\nits oldest form. The mainspring of Moslem religious life during the\neighth century was fear--fear of God, fear of Hell, fear of death, fear\nof sin--but the opposite motive had already begun to make its influence\nfelt, and produced in the saintly woman R\u0101bi\u02bfa at least one conspicuous\nexample of truly mystical self-abandonment.\n\nSo far, there was no great difference between the S\u016bf\u012b and the orthodox\nMohammedan zealot, except that the S\u016bf\u012bs attached extraordinary\nimportance to certain Koranic doctrines, and developed them at the\nexpense of others which many Moslems might consider equally essential.\nIt must also be allowed that the ascetic movement was inspired\nby Christian ideals, and contrasted sharply with the active and\npleasure-loving spirit of Islam. In a famous sentence the Prophet\ndenounced monkish austerities and bade his people devote themselves\nto the holy war against unbelievers; and he gave, as is well known,\nthe most convincing testimony in favour of marriage. Although his\ncondemnation of celibacy did not remain without effect, the conquest\nof Persia, Syria, and Egypt by his successors brought the Moslems into\ncontact with ideas which profoundly modified their outlook on life and\nreligion. European readers of the Koran cannot fail to be struck by its\nauthor\u2019s vacillation and inconsistency in dealing with the greatest\nproblems. He himself was not aware of these contradictions, nor were\nthey a stumbling-block to his devout followers, whose simple faith\naccepted the Koran as the Word of God. But the rift was there, and soon\nproduced far-reaching results.\n\nHence arose the Murjites, who set faith above works and emphasised\nthe divine love and goodness; the Qadarites who affirmed, and the\nJabarites who denied, that men are responsible for their actions;\nthe Mu\u02bftazilites, who built a theology on the basis of reason,\nrejecting the qualities of Allah as incompatible with His unity,\nand predestinarianism as contrary to His justice; and finally the\nAsh\u02bfarites, the scholastic theologians of Islam, who formulated the\nrigid metaphysical and doctrinal system that underlies the creed of\northodox Mohammedans at the present time. All these speculations,\ninfluenced as they were by Greek theology and philosophy, reacted\npowerfully upon S\u016bfism. Early in the third century of the Hegira--the\nninth after Christ--we find manifest signs of the new leaven stirring\nwithin it. Not that S\u016bf\u012bs ceased to mortify the flesh and take pride\nin their poverty, but they now began to regard asceticism as only the\nfirst stage of a long journey, the preliminary training for a larger\nspiritual life than the mere ascetic is able to conceive. The nature\nof the change may be illustrated by quoting a few sentences which have\ncome down to us from the mystics of this period.\n\n        \u201cLove is not to be learned from men: it is one of God\u2019s gifts\n    and comes of His grace.\u201d\n\n        \u201cNone refrains from the lusts of this world save him in whose\n    heart there is a light that keeps him always busied with the next\n    world.\u201d\n\n        \u201cWhen the gnostic\u2019s spiritual eye is opened, his bodily eye is\n    shut: he sees nothing but God.\u201d\n\n        \u201cIf gnosis were to take visible shape all who looked thereon\n    would die at the sight of its beauty and loveliness and goodness\n    and grace, and every brightness would become dark beside the\n    splendour thereof.\u201d[2]\n\n        \u201cGnosis is nearer to silence than to speech.\u201d\n\n        \u201cWhen the heart weeps because it has lost, the spirit laughs\n    because it has found.\u201d\n\n        \u201cNothing sees God and dies, even as nothing sees God and lives,\n    because His life is everlasting: whoever sees it is thereby made\n    everlasting.\u201d\n\n        \u201cO God, I never listen to the cry of animals or to the\n    quivering of trees or to the murmuring of water or to the warbling\n    of birds or to the rustling wind or to the crashing thunder without\n    feeling them to be an evidence of Thy unity and a proof that there\n    is nothing like unto Thee.\u201d\n\n        \u201cO my God, I invoke Thee in public as lords are invoked, but in\n    private as loved ones are invoked. Publicly I say, \u2018O my God!\u2019 but\n    privately I say, \u2018O my Beloved!\u2019\u201d\n\n[2] Compare Plato, _Ph\u00e6drus_ (Jowett\u2019s translation): \u201cFor sight is the\nkeenest of our bodily senses; though not by that is wisdom seen; her\nloveliness would have been transporting if there had been a visible\nimage of her.\u201d\n\nThese ideas--Light, Knowledge, and Love--form, as it were, the keynotes\nof the new S\u016bfism, and in the following chapters I shall endeavour to\nshow how they were developed. Ultimately they rest upon a pantheistic\nfaith which deposed the One transcendent God of Islam and worshipped\nin His stead One Real Being who dwells and works everywhere, and whose\nthrone is not less, but more, in the human heart than in the heaven\nof heavens. Before going further, it will be convenient to answer\na question which the reader may have asked himself--Whence did the\nMoslems of the ninth century derive this doctrine?\n\nModern research has proved that the origin of S\u016bfism cannot be\ntraced back to a single definite cause, and has thereby discredited\nthe sweeping generalisations which represent it, for instance, as a\nreaction of the Aryan mind against a conquering Semitic religion, and\nas the product, essentially, of Indian or Persian thought. Statements\nof this kind, even when they are partially true, ignore the principle\nthat in order to establish an historical connexion between A and B,\nit is not enough to bring forward evidence of their likeness to one\nanother, without showing at the same time (1) that the actual relation\nof B to A was such as to render the assumed filiation possible, and\n(2) that the possible hypothesis fits in with all the ascertained\nand relevant facts. Now, the theories which I have mentioned do not\nsatisfy these conditions. If S\u016bfism was nothing but a revolt of the\nAryan spirit, how are we to explain the undoubted fact that some of\nthe leading pioneers of Mohammedan mysticism were natives of Syria and\nEgypt, and Arabs by race? Similarly, the advocates of a Buddhistic\nor Ved\u0101ntic origin forget that the main current of Indian influence\nupon Islamic civilisation belongs to a later epoch, whereas Moslem\ntheology, philosophy, and science put forth their first luxuriant\nshoots on a soil that was saturated with Hellenistic culture. The truth\nis that S\u016bfism is a complex thing, and therefore no simple answer can\nbe given to the question how it originated. We shall have gone far,\nhowever, towards answering that question when we have distinguished the\nvarious movements and forces which moulded S\u016bfism, and determined what\ndirection it should take in the early stages of its growth.\n\nLet us first consider the most important external, _i.e._ non-Islamic,\ninfluences.\n\n\n  I. CHRISTIANITY\n\nIt is obvious that the ascetic and quietistic tendencies to which\nI have referred were in harmony with Christian theory and drew\nnourishment therefrom. Many Gospel texts and apocryphal sayings of\nJesus are cited in the oldest S\u016bf\u012b biographies, and the Christian\nanchorite (_r\u0101hib_) often appears in the _r\u00f4le_ of a teacher giving\ninstruction and advice to wandering Moslem ascetics. We have seen\nthat the woollen dress, from which the name \u2018S\u016bf\u012b\u2019 is derived, is\nof Christian origin: vows of silence, litanies (_dhikr_), and other\nascetic practices may be traced to the same source. As regards the\ndoctrine of divine love, the following extracts speak for themselves:\n\n        \u201cJesus passed by three men. Their bodies were lean and their\n    faces pale. He asked them, saying, \u2018What hath brought you to this\n    plight?\u2019 They answered, \u2018Fear of the Fire.\u2019 Jesus said, \u2018Ye fear\n    a thing created, and it behoves God that He should save those who\n    fear.\u2019 Then he left them and passed by three others, whose faces\n    were paler and their bodies leaner, and asked them, saying, \u2018What\n    hath brought you to this plight?\u2019 They answered, \u2018Longing for\n    Paradise.\u2019 He said, \u2018Ye desire a thing created, and it behoves God\n    that He should give you that which ye hope for.\u2019 Then he went on\n    and passed by three others of exceeding paleness and leanness, so\n    that their faces were as mirrors of light, and he said, \u2018What hath\n    brought you to this?\u2019 They answered, \u2018Our love of God.\u2019 Jesus said,\n    \u2018Ye are the nearest to Him, ye are the nearest to Him.\u2019\u201d\n\nThe Syrian mystic, Ahmad ibn al-Haw\u0101r\u012b, once asked a Christian hermit:\n\n        \u201c\u2018What is the strongest command that ye find in your\n    Scriptures?\u2019 The hermit replied: \u2018We find none stronger than this:\n    \u201cLove thy Creator with all thy power and might.\u201d\u2019\u201d\n\nAnother hermit was asked by some Moslem ascetics:\n\n        \u201c\u2018When is a man most persevering in devotion?\u2019 \u2018When love takes\n    possession of his heart,\u2019 was the reply; \u2018for then he hath no joy\n    or pleasure but in continual devotion.\u2019\u201d\n\nThe influence of Christianity through its hermits, monks, and heretical\nsects (_e.g._ the Messalians or Euchit\u00e6) was twofold: ascetic and\nmystical. Oriental Christian mysticism, however, contained a Pagan\nelement: it had long ago absorbed the ideas and adopted the language of\nPlotinus and the Neoplatonic school.\n\n\n  II. NEOPLATONISM\n\nAristotle, not Plato, is the dominant figure in Moslem philosophy,\nand few Mohammedans are familiar with the name of Plotinus, who was\nmore commonly called \u2018the Greek Master\u2019 (_al-Sheykh al-Yaun\u0101n\u012b_). But\nsince the Arabs gained their first knowledge of Aristotle from his\nNeoplatonist commentators, the system with which they became imbued\nwas that of Porphyry and Proclus. Thus the so-called _Theology of\nAristotle_, of which an Arabic version appeared in the ninth century,\nis actually a manual of Neoplatonism.\n\nAnother work of this school deserves particular notice: I mean the\nwritings falsely attributed to Dionysius the Areopagite, the convert of\nSt. Paul. The pseudo-Dionysius--he may have been a Syrian monk--names\nas his teacher a certain Hierotheus, whom Frothingham has identified\nwith Stephen Bar Sudaili, a prominent Syrian gnostic and a contemporary\nof Jacob of Sar\u016bj (451-521 A.D.). Dionysius quotes some fragments\nof erotic hymns by this Stephen, and a complete work, the _Book of\nHierotheus on the Hidden Mysteries of the Divinity_, has come down\nto us in a unique manuscript which is now in the British Museum. The\nDionysian writings, turned into Latin by John Scotus Erigena, founded\nmedieval Christian mysticism in Western Europe. Their influence in\nthe East was hardly less vital. They were translated from Greek into\nSyriac almost immediately on their appearance, and their doctrine was\nvigorously propagated by commentaries in the same tongue. \u201cAbout 850\nA.D. Dionysius was known from the Tigris to the Atlantic.\u201d\n\nBesides literary tradition, there were other channels by which the\ndoctrines of emanation, illumination, gnosis, and ecstasy were\ntransmitted, but enough has been said to convince the reader that\nGreek mystical ideas were in the air and easily accessible to the\nMoslem inhabitants of Western Asia and Egypt, where the S\u016bf\u012b theosophy\nfirst took shape. One of those who bore the chief part in its\ndevelopment, Dhu \u2019l-N\u016bn the Egyptian, is described as a philosopher\nand alchemist--in other words, a student of Hellenistic science. When\nit is added that much of his speculation agrees with what we find, for\nexample, in the writings of Dionysius, we are drawn irresistibly to the\nconclusion (which, as I have pointed out, is highly probable on general\ngrounds) that Neoplatonism poured into Islam a large tincture of the\nsame mystical element in which Christianity was already steeped.\n\n\n  III. GNOSTICISM[3]\n\n[3] Cf. Goldziher, \u201cNeuplatonische und gnostische Elemente im Had\u012bt,\u201d\nin _Zeitschrift f\u00fcr Assyriologie_, xxii. 317 ff.\n\nThough little direct evidence is available, the conspicuous place\noccupied by the theory of gnosis in early S\u016bf\u012b speculation suggests\ncontact with Christian Gnosticism, and it is worth noting that the\nparents of Ma\u02bfr\u016bf al-Karkh\u012b, whose definition of S\u016bfism, as \u2018the\napprehension of divine realities\u2019 was quoted on the first page of this\nIntroduction, are said to have been S\u0101bians, _i.e._ Mand\u00e6ans, dwelling\nin the Babylonian fenland between Basra and W\u0101sit. Other Moslem saints\nhad learned \u2018the mystery of the Great Name.\u2019 It was communicated to\nIbr\u0101h\u012bm ibn Adham by a man whom he met while travelling in the desert,\nand as soon as he pronounced it he saw the prophet Khadir (Elias). The\nancient S\u016bf\u012bs borrowed from the Manich\u00e6ans the term _sidd\u012bq_, which\nthey apply to their own spiritual adepts, and a later school, returning\nto the dualism of M\u0101n\u012b, held the view that the diversity of phenomena\narises from the admixture of light and darkness.\n\n        \u201cThe ideal of human action is freedom from the taint of\n    darkness; and the freedom of light from darkness means the\n    self-consciousness of light as light.\u201d[4]\n\n[4] Shaikh Muhammad Iqbal, _The Development of Metaphysics in Persia_\n(1908), p. 150.\n\nThe following version of the doctrine of the seventy thousand veils as\nexplained by a modern Rif\u0101\u02bf\u012b dervish shows clear traces of Gnosticism\nand is so interesting that I cannot refrain from quoting it here:\n\n        \u201cSeventy Thousand Veils separate Allah, the One Reality, from\n    the world of matter and of sense. And every soul passes before\n    his birth through these seventy thousand. The inner half of these\n    are veils of light: the outer half, veils of darkness. For every\n    one of the veils of light passed through, in this journey towards\n    birth, the soul puts _off_ a divine quality: and for every one of\n    the dark veils, it puts _on_ an earthly quality. Thus the child is\n    born _weeping_, for the soul knows its separation from Allah, the\n    One Reality. And when the child cries in its sleep, it is because\n    the soul remembers something of what it has lost. Otherwise,\n    the passage through the veils has brought with it forgetfulness\n    (_nisy\u0101n_): and for this reason man is called _ins\u0101n_. He is\n    now, as it were, in prison in his body, separated by these thick\n    curtains from Allah.\n\n        \u201cBut the whole purpose of S\u016bfism, the Way of the dervish,\n    is to give him an escape from this prison, an apocalypse of the\n    Seventy Thousand Veils, a recovery of the original unity with The\n    One, _while still in this body_. The body is not to be put off; it\n    is to be refined and made spiritual--a help and not a hindrance\n    to the spirit. It is like a metal that has to be refined by fire\n    and transmuted. And the sheikh tells the aspirant that he has the\n    secret of this transmutation. \u2018We shall throw you into the fire of\n    Spiritual Passion,\u2019 he says, \u2018and you will emerge refined.\u2019\u201d[5]\n\n[5] _\u201cThe Way\u201d of a Mohammedan Mystic_, by W. H. T. Gairdner (Leipzig,\n1912), pp. 9 f.\n\n\n  IV. BUDDHISM\n\nBefore the Mohammedan conquest of India in the eleventh century, the\nteaching of Buddha exerted considerable influence in Eastern Persia\nand Transoxania. We hear of flourishing Buddhist monasteries in Balkh,\nthe metropolis of ancient Bactria, a city famous for the number of\nS\u016bf\u012bs who resided in it. Professor Goldziher has called attention\nto the significant circumstance that the S\u016bf\u012b ascetic, Ibr\u0101h\u012bm ibn\nAdham, appears in Moslem legend as a prince of Balkh who abandoned\nhis throne and became a wandering dervish--the story of Buddha over\nagain. The S\u016bf\u012bs learned the use of rosaries from Buddhist monks, and,\nwithout entering into details, it may be safely asserted that the\nmethod of S\u016bfism, so far as it is one of ethical self-culture, ascetic\nmeditation, and intellectual abstraction, owes a good deal to Buddhism.\nBut the features which the two systems have in common only accentuate\nthe fundamental difference between them. In spirit they are poles\napart. The Buddhist moralises himself, the S\u016bf\u012b becomes moral only\nthrough knowing and loving God.\n\nThe S\u016bf\u012b conception of the passing-away (_fan\u0101_) of individual self\nin Universal Being is certainly, I think, of Indian origin. Its first\ngreat exponent was the Persian mystic, B\u0101yaz\u012bd of Bist\u0101m, who may have\nreceived it from his teacher, Ab\u016b \u02bfAl\u012b of Sind (Scinde). Here are some\nof his sayings:\n\n        \u201cCreatures are subject to changing \u2018states,\u2019 but the gnostic\n    has no \u2018state,\u2019 because his vestiges are effaced and his essence\n    annihilated by the essence of another, and his traces are lost in\n    another\u2019s traces.\u201d\n\n        \u201cThirty years the high God was my mirror, now I am my own\n    mirror,\u201d _i.e._ according to the explanation given by his\n    biographer, \u201cthat which I was I am no more, for \u2018I\u2019 and \u2018God\u2019 is a\n    denial of the unity of God. Since I am no more, the high God is\n    His own mirror.\u201d\n\n        \u201cI went from God to God, until they cried from me in me, \u2018O\n    Thou I!\u2019\u201d\n\n\nThis, it will be observed, is not Buddhism, but the pantheism of the\nVed\u0101nta. We cannot identify _fan\u0101_ with Nirv\u0101\u1e47a unconditionally. Both\nterms imply the passing-away of individuality, but while Nirv\u0101\u1e47a\nis purely negative, _fan\u0101_ is accompanied by _baq\u0101_, everlasting\nlife in God. The rapture of the S\u016bf\u012b who has lost himself in\necstatic contemplation of the divine beauty is entirely opposed to\nthe passionless intellectual serenity of the Arahat. I emphasise\nthis contrast because, in my opinion, the influence of Buddhism on\nMohammedan thought has been exaggerated. Much is attributed to Buddhism\nthat is Indian rather than specifically Buddhistic: the _fan\u0101_ theory\nof the S\u016bf\u012bs is a case in point. Ordinary Moslems held the followers of\nBuddha in abhorrence, regarding them as idolaters, and were not likely\nto seek personal intercourse with them. On the other hand, for nearly\na thousand years before the Mohammedan conquest, Buddhism had been\npowerful in Bactria and Eastern Persia generally: it must, therefore,\nhave affected the development of S\u016bfism in these regions.\n\nWhile _fan\u0101_ in its pantheistic form is radically different from\nNirv\u0101\u1e47a, the terms coincide so closely in other ways that we cannot\nregard them as being altogether unconnected. _Fan\u0101_ has an ethical\naspect: it involves the extinction of all passions and desires.\nThe passing-away of evil qualities and of the evil actions which\nthey produce is said to be brought about by the continuance of the\ncorresponding good qualities and actions. Compare this with the\ndefinition of Nirv\u0101\u1e47a given by Professor Rhys Davids:\n\n        \u201cThe extinction of that sinful, grasping condition of mind\n    and heart, which would otherwise, according to the great mystery\n    of Karma, be the cause of renewed individual existence. That\n    extinction is to be brought about by, and runs parallel with, the\n    growth of the opposite condition of mind and heart; and it is\n    complete when that opposite condition is reached.\u201d\n\nApart from the doctrine of Karma, which is alien to S\u016bfism, these\ndefinitions of _fan\u0101_ (viewed as a moral state) and Nirv\u0101\u1e47a agree\nalmost word for word. It would be out of place to pursue the comparison\nfurther, but I think we may conclude that the S\u016bf\u012b theory of _fan\u0101_\nwas influenced to some extent by Buddhism as well as by Perso-Indian\npantheism.\n\nThe receptivity of Islam to foreign ideas has been recognised by\nevery unbiassed inquirer, and the history of S\u016bfism is only a single\ninstance of the general rule. But this fact should not lead us to\nseek in such ideas an explanation of the whole question which I am\nnow discussing, or to identify S\u016bfism itself with the extraneous\ningredients which it absorbed and assimilated in the course of its\ndevelopment. Even if Islam had been miraculously shut off from contact\nwith foreign religions and philosophies, some form of mysticism would\nhave arisen within it, for the seeds were already there. Of course, we\ncannot isolate the internal forces working in this direction, since\nthey were subject to the law of spiritual gravitation. The powerful\ncurrents of thought discharged through the Mohammedan world by the\ngreat non-Islamic systems above mentioned gave a stimulus to various\ntendencies within Islam which affected S\u016bfism either positively or\nnegatively. As we have seen, its oldest type is an ascetic revolt\nagainst luxury and worldliness; later on, the prevailing rationalism\nand scepticism provoked counter-movements towards intuitive knowledge\nand emotional faith, and also an orthodox reaction which in its turn\ndrove many earnest Moslems into the ranks of the mystics.\n\nHow, it may be asked, could a religion founded on the simple and\naustere monotheism of Mohammed tolerate these new doctrines, much\nless make terms with them? It would seem impossible to reconcile the\ntranscendent personality of Allah with an immanent Reality which is the\nvery life and soul of the universe. Yet Islam has accepted S\u016bfism. The\nS\u016bf\u012bs, instead of being excommunicated, are securely established in the\nMohammedan church, and the _Legend of the Moslem Saints_ records the\nwildest excesses of Oriental pantheism.\n\nLet us return for a moment to the Koran, that infallible touchstone\nby which every Mohammedan theory and practice must be proved. Are any\ngerms of mysticism to be found there? The Koran, as I have said, starts\nwith the notion of Allah, the One, Eternal, and Almighty God, far above\nhuman feelings and aspirations--the Lord of His slaves, not the Father\nof His children; a judge meting out stern justice to sinners, and\nextending His mercy only to those who avert His wrath by repentance,\nhumility, and unceasing works of devotion; a God of fear rather than\nof love. This is one side, and certainly the most prominent side, of\nMohammed\u2019s teaching; but while he set an impassable gulf between the\nworld and Allah, his deeper instinct craved a direct revelation from\nGod to the soul. There are no contradictions in the logic of feeling.\nMohammed, who had in him something of the mystic, felt God both as far\nand near, both as transcendent and immanent. In the latter aspect,\nAllah is the light of the heavens and the earth, a Being who works in\nthe world and in the soul of man.\n\n        \u201cIf My servants ask thee about Me, lo, I am near\u201d (Kor. =2=.\n    182); \u201cWe (God) are nearer to him than his own neck-vein\u201d (=50.=\n    15); \u201cAnd in the earth are signs to those of real faith, and in\n    yourselves. What! do ye not see?\u201d (=51.= 20-21).\n\nIt was a long time ere they saw. The Moslem consciousness, haunted by\nterrible visions of the wrath to come, slowly and painfully awoke to\nthe significance of those liberating ideas.\n\nThe verses which I have quoted do not stand alone, and however\nunfavourable to mysticism the Koran as a whole may be, I cannot assent\nto the view that it supplies no basis for a mystical interpretation\nof Islam. This was worked out in detail by the S\u016bf\u012bs, who dealt with\nthe Koran in very much the same way as Philo treated the Pentateuch.\nBut they would not have succeeded so thoroughly in bringing over the\nmass of religious Moslems to their side, unless the champions of\northodoxy had set about constructing a system of scholastic philosophy\nthat reduced the divine nature to a purely formal, changeless, and\nabsolute unity, a bare will devoid of all affections and emotions, a\ntremendous and incalculable power with which no human creature could\nhave any communion or personal intercourse whatsoever. That is the God\nof Mohammedan theology. That was the alternative to S\u016bfism. Therefore,\n\u201call thinking, religious Moslems are mystics,\u201d as Professor D. B.\nMacdonald, one of our best authorities on the subject, has remarked.\nAnd he adds: \u201cAll, too, are pantheists, but some do not know it.\u201d\n\nThe relation of individual S\u016bf\u012bs to Islam varies from more or less\nentire conformity to a merely nominal profession of belief in Allah\nand His Prophet. While the Koran and the Traditions are generally\nacknowledged to be the unalterable standard of religious truth, this\nacknowledgment does not include the recognition of any external\nauthority which shall decide what is orthodox and what is heretical.\nCreeds and catechisms count for nothing in the S\u016bf\u012b\u2019s estimation. Why\nshould he concern himself with these when he possesses a doctrine\nderived immediately from God? As he reads the Koran with studious\nmeditation and rapt attention, lo, the hidden meanings--infinite,\ninexhaustible--of the Holy Word flash upon his inward eye. This is\nwhat the S\u016bf\u012bs call _istinb\u0101t_, a sort of intuitive deduction; the\nmysterious inflow of divinely revealed knowledge into hearts made pure\nby repentance and filled with the thought of God, and the outflow of\nthat knowledge upon the interpreting tongue. Naturally, the doctrines\nelicited by means of _istinb\u0101t_ do not agree very well either with\nMohammedan theology or with each other, but the discord is easily\nexplained. Theologians, who interpret the letter, cannot be expected to\nreach the same conclusions as mystics, who interpret the spirit; and if\nboth classes differ amongst themselves, that is a merciful dispensation\nof divine wisdom, since theological controversy serves to extinguish\nreligious error, while the variety of mystical truth corresponds to the\nmanifold degrees and modes of mystical experience.\n\nIn the chapter on the gnosis I shall enter more fully into the attitude\nof the S\u016bf\u012bs towards positive religion. It is only a rough-and-ready\naccount of the matter to say that many of them have been good Moslems,\nmany scarcely Moslems at all, and a third party, perhaps the largest,\nMoslems after a fashion. During the early Middle Ages Islam was a\ngrowing organism, and gradually became transformed under the influence\nof diverse movements, of which S\u016bfism itself was one. Mohammedan\northodoxy in its present shape owes much to Ghaz\u0101l\u012b, and Ghaz\u0101l\u012b was\na S\u016bf\u012b. Through his work and example the S\u016bfistic interpretation of\nIslam has in no small measure been harmonised with the rival claims of\nreason and tradition, but just because of this he is less valuable than\nmystics of a purer type to the student who wishes to know what S\u016bfism\nessentially is.\n\nAlthough the numerous definitions of S\u016bfism which occur in Arabic and\nPersian books on the subject are historically interesting, their chief\nimportance lies in showing that S\u016bfism is undefinable. Jal\u0101ludd\u012bn R\u016bm\u012b\nin his _Masnav\u012b_ tells a story about an elephant which some Hindoos\nwere exhibiting in a dark room. Many people gathered to see it, but,\nas the place was too dark to permit them to see the elephant, they\nall felt it with their hands, to gain an idea of what it was like.\nOne felt its trunk, and said that the animal resembled a water-pipe;\nanother felt its ear, and said it must be a large fan; another its leg,\nand thought it must be a pillar; another felt its back, and declared\nthat the beast must be like an immense throne. So it is with those who\ndefine S\u016bfism: they can only attempt to express what they themselves\nhave felt, and there is no conceivable formula that will comprise every\nshade of personal and intimate religious feeling. Since, however, these\ndefinitions illustrate with convenient brevity certain aspects and\ncharacteristics of S\u016bfism, a few specimens may be given.\n\n        \u201cS\u016bfism is this: that actions should be passing over the S\u016bf\u012b\n    (_i.e._ being done upon him) which are known to God only, and that\n    he should always be with God in a way that is known to God only.\u201d\n\n        \u201cS\u016bfism is wholly self-discipline.\u201d\n\n        \u201cS\u016bfism is, to possess nothing and to be possessed by nothing.\u201d\n\n        \u201cS\u016bfism is not a system composed of rules or sciences but a\n    moral disposition; _i.e._ if it were a rule, it could be made one\u2019s\n    own by strenuous exertion, and if it were a science, it could be\n    acquired by instruction; but on the contrary it is a disposition,\n    according to the saying, \u2018Form yourselves on the moral nature of\n    God\u2019; and the moral nature of God cannot be attained either by\n    means of rules or by means of sciences.\u201d\n\n        \u201cS\u016bfism is freedom and generosity and absence of\n    self-constraint.\u201d\n\n        \u201cIt is this: that God should make thee die to thyself and\n    should make thee live in Him.\u201d\n\n        \u201cTo behold the imperfection of the phenomenal world, nay, to\n    close the eye to everything imperfect in contemplation of Him who\n    is remote from all imperfection--that is S\u016bfism.\u201d\n\n        \u201cS\u016bfism is control of the faculties and observance of the\n    breaths.\u201d\n\n        \u201cIt is S\u016bfism to put away what thou hast in thy head, to give\n    what thou hast in thy hand, and not to recoil from whatsoever\n    befalls thee.\u201d\n\nThe reader will perceive that S\u016bfism is a word uniting many divergent\nmeanings, and that in sketching its main features one is obliged\nto make a sort of composite portrait, which does not represent any\nparticular type exclusively. The S\u016bf\u012bs are not a sect, they have no\ndogmatic system, the _tar\u012bqas_ or paths by which they seek God \u201care\nin number as the souls of men\u201d and vary infinitely, though a family\nlikeness may be traced in them all. Descriptions of such a Protean\nphenomenon must differ widely from one another, and the impression\nproduced in each case will depend on the choice of materials and the\nprominence given to this or that aspect of the many-sided whole. Now,\nthe essence of S\u016bfism is best displayed in its extreme type, which\nis pantheistic and speculative rather than ascetic or devotional.\nThis type, therefore, I have purposely placed in the foreground. The\nadvantage of limiting the field is obvious enough, but entails some\nloss of proportion. In order to form a fair judgment of Mohammedan\nmysticism, the following chapters should be supplemented by a companion\npicture drawn especially from those moderate types which, for want of\nspace, I have unduly neglected.\n\n\n\n\n  CHAPTER I\n\n  THE PATH\n\n\nMystics of every race and creed have described the progress of the\nspiritual life as a journey or a pilgrimage. Other symbols have been\nused for the same purpose, but this one appears to be almost universal\nin its range. The S\u016bf\u012b who sets out to seek God calls himself a\n\u2018traveller\u2019 (_s\u0101lik_); he advances by slow \u2018stages\u2019 (_maq\u0101m\u0101t_) along\na \u2018path\u2019 (_tar\u012bqat_) to the goal of union with Reality (_fan\u0101 fi\n\u2019l-Haqq_). Should he venture to make a map of this interior ascent,\nit will not correspond exactly with any of those made by previous\nexplorers. Such maps or scales of perfection were elaborated by\nS\u016bf\u012b teachers at an early period, and the unlucky Moslem habit of\nsystematising has produced an enormous aftercrop. The \u2018path\u2019 expounded\nby the author of the _Kit\u0101b al-Luma\u02bf_, perhaps the oldest comprehensive\ntreatise on S\u016bfism that we now possess, consists of the following seven\n\u2018stages,\u2019 each of which (except the first member of the series) is the\nresult of the \u2018stages\u2019 immediately preceding it--(1) Repentance, (2)\nabstinence, (3) renunciation, (4) poverty, (5) patience, (6) trust\nin God, (7) satisfaction. The \u2018stages\u2019 constitute the _ascetic and\nethical_ discipline of the S\u016bf\u012b, and must be carefully distinguished\nfrom the so-called \u2018states\u2019 (_ahw\u0101l_, plural of _h\u0101l_), which form\na similar _psychological_ chain. The writer whom I have just quoted\nenumerates ten \u2018states\u2019--Meditation, nearness to God, love, fear, hope,\nlonging, intimacy, tranquillity, contemplation, and certainty. While\nthe \u2018stages\u2019 can be acquired and mastered by one\u2019s own efforts, the\n\u2018states\u2019 are spiritual feelings and dispositions over which a man has\nno control:\n\n        \u201cThey descend from God into his heart, without his being able\n    to repel them when they come or to retain them when they go.\u201d\n\nThe S\u016bf\u012b\u2019s \u2018path\u2019 is not finished until he has traversed all the\n\u2018stages,\u2019 making himself perfect in every one of them before advancing\nto the next, and has also experienced whatever \u2018states\u2019 it pleases\nGod to bestow upon him. Then, and only then, is he permanently raised\nto the higher planes of consciousness which S\u016bf\u012bs call \u2018the Gnosis\u2019\n(_ma\u02bfrifat_) and \u2018the Truth\u2019 (_haq\u012bqat_), where the \u2018seeker\u2019 (_t\u0101lib_)\nbecomes the \u2018knower\u2019 or \u2018gnostic\u2019 (_\u02bf\u0101rif_), and realises that\nknowledge, knower, and known are One.\n\nHaving sketched, as briefly as possible, the external framework of the\nmethod by which the S\u016bf\u012b approaches his goal, I shall now try to give\nsome account of its inner workings. The present chapter deals with the\nfirst portion of the threefold journey--the Path, the Gnosis, and the\nTruth--by which the quest of Reality is often symbolised.\n\n[Sidenote: Repentance.]\n\nThe first place in every list of \u2018stages\u2019 is occupied by repentance\n(_tawbat_). This is the Moslem term for \u2018conversion,\u2019 and marks the\nbeginning of a new life. In the biographies of eminent S\u016bf\u012bs the\ndreams, visions, auditions, and other experiences which caused them\nto enter on the Path are usually related. Trivial as they may seem,\nthese records have a psychological basis, and, if authentic, would be\nworth studying in detail. Repentance is described as the awakening of\nthe soul from the slumber of heedlessness, so that the sinner becomes\naware of his evil ways and feels contrition for past disobedience. He\nis not truly penitent, however, unless (1) he at once abandons the sin\nor sins of which he is conscious, and (2) firmly resolves that he will\nnever return to these sins in the future. It he should fail to keep\nhis vow, he must again turn to God, whose mercy is infinite. A certain\nwell-known S\u016bf\u012b repented seventy times and fell back into sin seventy\ntimes before he made a lasting repentance. The convert must also, as\nfar as lies in his power, satisfy all those whom he has injured. Many\nexamples of such restitution might be culled from the _Legend of the\nMoslem Saints_.\n\nAccording to the high mystical theory, repentance is purely an act of\ndivine grace, coming from God to man, not from man to God. Some one\nsaid to R\u0101bi\u02bfa:\n\n        \u201cI have committed many sins; if I turn in penitence towards\n    God, will He turn in mercy towards me?\u201d \u201cNay,\u201d she replied, \u201cbut if\n    He shall turn towards thee, thou wilt turn towards Him.\u201d\n\nThe question whether sins ought to be remembered after repentance or\nforgotten illustrates a fundamental point in S\u016bf\u012b ethics: I mean the\ndifference between what is taught to novices and disciples and what\nis held as an esoteric doctrine by adepts. Any Mohammedan director\nof souls would tell his pupils that to think humbly and remorsefully\nof one\u2019s sins is a sovereign remedy against spiritual pride, but he\nhimself might very well believe that real repentance consists in\nforgetting everything except God.\n\n        \u201cThe penitent,\u201d says Hujw\u012br\u012b, \u201cis a lover of God, and the lover\n    of God is in contemplation of God: in contemplation it is wrong to\n    remember sin, for recollection of sin is a veil between God and\n    the contemplative.\u201d\n\nSin appertains to self-existence, which itself is the greatest of all\nsins. To forget sin is to forget self.\n\nThis is only one application of a principle which, as I have said,\nruns through the whole ethical system of S\u016bfism and will be more fully\nexplained in a subsequent chapter. Its dangers are evident, but we must\nin fairness allow that the same theory of conduct may not be equally\nsuitable to those who have made themselves perfect in moral discipline\nand to those who are still striving after perfection.\n\nOver the gate of repentance it is written:\n\n    \u201cAll _self_ abandon ye who enter here!\u201d\n\n[Sidenote: The Sheykh.]\n\nThe convert now begins what is called by Christian mystics the\nPurgative Way. If he follows the general rule, he will take a director\n(Sheykh, P\u012br, Murshid), _i.e._ a holy man of ripe experience and\nprofound knowledge, whose least word is absolute law to his disciples.\nA \u2018seeker\u2019 who attempts to traverse the \u2018Path\u2019 without assistance\nreceives little sympathy. Of such a one it is said that \u2018his guide is\nSatan,\u2019 and he is likened to a tree that for want of the gardener\u2019s\ncare brings forth \u2018none or bitter fruit.\u2019 Speaking of the S\u016bf\u012b Sheykhs,\nHujw\u012br\u012b says:\n\n        \u201cWhen a novice joins them, with the purpose of renouncing the\n    world, they subject him to spiritual discipline for the space of\n    three years. If he fulfil the requirements of this discipline, well\n    and good; otherwise, they declare that he cannot be admitted to the\n    \u2018Path.\u2019 The first year is devoted to service of the people, the\n    second year to service of God, and the third year to watching over\n    his own heart. He can serve the people, only when he places himself\n    in the rank of servants and all others in the rank of masters,\n    _i.e._ he must regard all, without exception, as being better than\n    himself, and must deem it his duty to serve all alike. And he can\n    serve God, only when he cuts off all his selfish interests relating\n    either to the present or to the future life, and worships God for\n    God\u2019s sake alone, inasmuch as whoever worships God for any thing\u2019s\n    sake worships himself, not God. And he can watch over his heart,\n    only when his thoughts are collected and every care is dismissed,\n    so that in communion with God he guards his heart from the assaults\n    of heedlessness. When these qualifications are possessed by the\n    novice, he may wear the _muraqqa\u02bfat_ (the patched frock worn by\n    dervishes) as a true mystic, not merely as an imitator of others.\u201d\n\nShibl\u012b was a pupil of the famous theosophist Junayd of Baghd\u0101d. On his\nconversion, he came to Junayd, saying:\n\n        \u201cThey tell me that you possess the pearl of divine knowledge:\n    either give it me or sell it.\u201d Junayd answered: \u201cI cannot sell it,\n    for you have not the price thereof; and if I give it you, you will\n    have gained it cheaply. You do not know its value. Cast yourself\n    headlong, like me, into this ocean, in order that you may win the\n    pearl by waiting patiently.\u201d\n\nShibl\u012b asked what he must do.\n\n        \u201cGo,\u201d said Junayd, \u201cand sell sulphur.\u201d\n\nAt the end of a year he said to Shibl\u012b:\n\n        \u201cThis trading makes you well known. Become a dervish and occupy\n    yourself solely with begging.\u201d\n\nDuring a whole year Shibl\u012b wandered through the streets of Baghd\u0101d,\nbegging of the passers-by, but no one heeded him. Then he returned to\nJunayd, who exclaimed:\n\n        \u201cSee now! You are nothing in people\u2019s eyes. Never set your\n    mind on them or take any account of them at all. For some time\u201d\n    (he continued) \u201cyou were a chamberlain and acted as governor of a\n    province. Go to that country and ask pardon of all those whom you\n    have wronged.\u201d\n\nShibl\u012b obeyed and spent four years in going from door to door, until\nhe had obtained an acquittance from every person except one, whom he\nfailed to trace. On his return, Junayd said to him:\n\n        \u201cYou still have some regard to reputation. Go and be a beggar\n    for one year more.\u201d\n\nEvery day Shibl\u012b used to bring the alms that were given him to Junayd,\nwho bestowed them on the poor and kept Shibl\u012b without food until the\nnext morning. When a year had passed in this way, Junayd accepted him\nas one of his disciples on condition that he should perform the duties\nof a servant to the others. After a year\u2019s service, Junayd asked him:\n\n        \u201cWhat think you of yourself now?\u201d Shibl\u012b replied: \u201cI deem\n    myself the meanest of God\u2019s creatures.\u201d \u201cNow,\u201d said the master,\n    \u201cyour faith is firm.\u201d\n\nI need not dwell on the details of this training--the fasts and vigils,\nthe vows of silence, the long days and nights of solitary meditation,\nall the weapons and tactics, in short, of that battle against one\u2019s\nself which the Prophet declared to be more painful and meritorious\nthan the Holy War. On the other hand, my readers will expect me to\ndescribe in a general way the characteristic theories and practices\nfor which the \u2018Path\u2019 is a convenient designation. These may be treated\nunder the following heads: Poverty, Mortification, Trust in God,\nand Recollection. Whereas poverty is negative in nature, involving\ndetachment from all that is worldly and unreal, the three remaining\nterms denote the positive counterpart of that process, namely, the\nethical discipline by which the soul is brought into harmonious\nrelations with Reality.\n\n[Sidenote: Poverty.]\n\nThe fatalistic spirit which brooded darkly over the childhood of\nIslam--the feeling that all human actions are determined by an unseen\nPower, and in themselves are worthless and vain--caused renunciation to\nbecome the watchword of early Moslem asceticism. Every true believer\nis bound to abstain from unlawful pleasures, but the ascetic acquires\nmerit by abstaining from those which are lawful. At first, renunciation\nwas understood almost exclusively in a material sense. To have as few\nworldly goods as possible seemed the surest means of gaining salvation.\nD\u0101wud al-T\u0101\u02be\u012b owned nothing except a mat of rushes, a brick which he\nused as a pillow, and a leathern vessel which served him for drinking\nand washing. A certain man dreamed that he saw M\u0101lik ibn D\u012bn\u0101r and\nMohammed ibn W\u0101si\u02bf being led into Paradise, and that M\u0101lik was\nadmitted before his companion. He cried out in astonishment, for he\nthought Mohammed ibn W\u0101si\u02bf had a superior claim to the honour. \u201cYes,\u201d\ncame the answer, \u201cbut Mohammed ibn W\u0101si\u02bf possessed two shirts, and\nM\u0101lik only one. That is the reason why M\u0101lik is preferred.\u201d\n\nThe S\u016bf\u012b ideal of poverty goes far beyond this. True poverty is not\nmerely lack of wealth, but lack of desire for wealth: the empty heart\nas well as the empty hand. The \u2018poor man\u2019 (_faq\u012br_) and the \u2018mendicant\u2019\n(_derv\u012bsh_) are names by which the Mohammedan mystic is proud to be\nknown, because they imply that he is stripped of every thought or wish\nthat would divert his mind from God. \u201cTo be severed entirely from both\nthe present life and the future life, and to want nothing besides the\nLord of the present life and the future life--that is to be truly\npoor.\u201d Such a _faq\u012br_ is denuded of individual existence, so that he\ndoes not attribute to himself any action, feeling, or quality. He may\neven be rich, in the common meaning of the word, though spiritually he\nis the poorest of the poor; for, sometimes, God endows His saints with\nan outward show of wealth and worldliness in order to hide them from\nthe profane.\n\nNo one familiar with the mystical writers will need to be informed that\ntheir terminology is ambiguous, and that the same word frequently\ncovers a group, if not a multitude, of significations diverging more\nor less widely according to the aspect from which it is viewed. Hence\nthe confusion that is apparent in S\u016bf\u012b text-books. When \u2018poverty,\u2019 for\nexample, is explained by one interpreter as a transcendental theory\nand by another as a practical rule of religious life, the meanings\ncannot coincide. Regarded from the latter standpoint, poverty is only\nthe beginning of S\u016bfism. _Faq\u012brs_, J\u0101m\u012b says, renounce all worldly\nthings for the sake of pleasing God. They are urged to this sacrifice\nby one of three motives: (_a_) Hope of an easy reckoning on the Day of\nJudgment, or fear of being punished; (_b_) desire of Paradise; (_c_)\nlonging for spiritual peace and inward composure. Thus, inasmuch as\nthey are not disinterested but seek to benefit themselves, they rank\nbelow the S\u016bf\u012b, who has no will of his own and depends absolutely on\nthe will of God. It is the absence of \u2018self\u2019 that distinguishes the\nS\u016bf\u012b from the _faq\u012br_.\n\nHere are some maxims for dervishes:\n\n        \u201cDo not beg unless you are starving. The Caliph Omar flogged a\n    man who begged after having satisfied his hunger. When compelled to\n    beg, do not accept more than you need.\u201d\n\n        \u201cBe good-natured and uncomplaining and thank God for your\n    poverty.\u201d\n\n        \u201cDo not flatter the rich for giving, nor blame them for\n    withholding.\u201d\n\n        \u201cDread the loss of poverty more than the rich man dreads the\n    loss of wealth.\u201d\n\n        \u201cTake what is voluntarily offered: it is the daily bread which\n    God sends to you: do not refuse God\u2019s gift.\u201d\n\n        \u201cLet no thought of the morrow enter your mind, else you will\n    incur everlasting perdition.\u201d\n\n        \u201cDo not make God a springe to catch alms.\u201d\n\n\n[Sidenote: The _nafs_.]\n\nThe S\u016bf\u012b teachers gradually built up a system of asceticism and moral\nculture which is founded on the fact that there is in man an element of\nevil--the lower or appetitive soul. This evil self, the seat of passion\nand lust, is called _nafs_; it may be considered broadly equivalent\nto \u2018the flesh,\u2019 and with its allies, the world and the devil, it\nconstitutes the great obstacle to the attainment of union with God.\nThe Prophet said: \u201cThy worst enemy is thy _nafs_, which is between thy\ntwo sides.\u201d I do not intend to discuss the various opinions as to its\nnature, but the proof of its materiality is too curious to be omitted.\nMohammed ibn \u02bfUly\u0101n, an eminent S\u016bf\u012b, relates that one day something\nlike a young fox came forth from his throat, and God caused him to know\nthat it was his _nafs_. He trod on it, but it grew bigger at every\nkick that he gave it. He said:\n\n        \u201cOther things are destroyed by pain and blows: why dost thou\n    increase?\u201d \u201cBecause I was created perverse,\u201d it replied; \u201cwhat is\n    pain to other things is pleasure to me, and their pleasure is my\n    pain.\u201d\n\nThe _nafs_ of Hall\u0101j was seen running behind him in the shape of a dog;\nand other cases are recorded in which it appeared as a snake or a mouse.\n\n[Sidenote: Mortification.]\n\nMortification of the _nafs_ is the chief work of devotion, and leads,\ndirectly or indirectly, to the contemplative life. All the Sheykhs are\nagreed that no disciple who neglects this duty will ever learn the\nrudiments of S\u016bfism. The principle of mortification is that the _nafs_\nshould be weaned from those things to which it is accustomed, that it\nshould be encouraged to resist its passions, that its pride should be\nbroken, and that it should be brought through suffering and tribulation\nto recognise the vileness of its original nature and the impurity of\nits actions. Concerning the outward methods of mortification, such as\nfasting, silence, and solitude, a great deal might be written, but we\nmust now pass on to the higher ethical discipline which completes the\nPath.\n\nSelf-mortification, as advanced S\u016bf\u012bs understand it, is a moral\ntransmutation of the inner man. When they say, \u201cDie before ye die,\u201d\nthey do not mean to assert that the lower self can be essentially\ndestroyed, but that it can and should be purged of its attributes,\nwhich are wholly evil. These attributes--ignorance, pride, envy,\nuncharitableness, etc.--are extinguished, and replaced by the opposite\nqualities, when the will is surrendered to God and when the mind is\nconcentrated on Him. Therefore \u2018dying to self\u2019 is really \u2018living in\nGod.\u2019 The mystical aspects of the doctrine thus stated will occupy\na considerable part of the following chapters; here we are mainly\ninterested in its ethical import.\n\nThe S\u016bf\u012b who has eradicated self-will is said, in technical language,\nto have reached the \u2018stages\u2019 of \u2018acquiescence\u2019 or \u2018satisfaction\u2019\n(_rid\u0101_) and \u2018trust in God\u2019 (_tawakkul_).\n\n        A dervish fell into the Tigris. Seeing that he could not swim,\n    a man on the bank cried out, \u201cShall I tell some one to bring you\n    ashore?\u201d \u201cNo,\u201d said the dervish. \u201cThen do you wish to be drowned?\u201d\n    \u201cNo.\u201d \u201cWhat, then, do you wish?\u201d The dervish replied, \u201cGod\u2019s will\n    be done! What have I to do with wishing?\u201d\n\n[Sidenote: Trust in God.]\n\n\u2018Trust in God,\u2019 in its extreme form, involves the renunciation of\nevery personal initiative and volition; total passivity like that\nof a corpse in the hands of the washer who prepares it for burial;\nperfect indifference towards anything that is even remotely connected\nwith one\u2019s self. A special class of the ancient S\u016bf\u012bs took their name\nfrom this \u2018trust,\u2019 which they applied, so far as they were able, to\nmatters of everyday life. For instance, they would not seek food, work\nfor hire, practise any trade, or allow medicine to be given them when\nthey were ill. Quietly they committed themselves to God\u2019s care, never\ndoubting that He, to whom belong the treasures of earth and heaven,\nwould provide for their wants, and that their allotted portion would\ncome to them as surely as it comes to the birds, which neither sow nor\nreap, and to the fish in the sea, and to the child in the womb.\n\nThese principles depend ultimately on the S\u016bfistic theory of the divine\nunity, as is shown by Shaq\u012bq of Balkh in the following passage:\n\n        \u201cThere are three things which a man is bound to practise.\n    Whosoever neglects any one of them must needs neglect them all, and\n    whosoever cleaves to any one of them must needs cleave to them all.\n    Strive, therefore, to understand, and consider heedfully.\n\n        \u201cThe _first_ is this, that with your mind and your tongue and\n    your actions you declare God to be One; and that, having declared\n    Him to be One, and having declared that none benefits you or\n    harms you except Him, you devote all your actions to Him alone.\n    If you act a single jot of your actions for the sake of another,\n    your thought and speech are corrupt, since your motive in acting\n    for another\u2019s sake must be hope or fear; and when you act from\n    hope or fear of other than God, who is the lord and sustainer of\n    all things, you have taken to yourself another god to honour and\n    venerate.\n\n        \u201c_Secondly_, that while you speak and act in the sincere belief\n    that there is no God except Him, you should trust Him more than the\n    world or money or uncle or father or mother or any one on the face\n    of the earth.\n\n        \u201c_Thirdly_, when you have established these two things, namely,\n    sincere belief in the unity of God and trust in Him, it behoves you\n    to be satisfied with Him and not to be angry on account of anything\n    that vexes you. Beware of anger! Let your heart be with Him always,\n    let it not be withdrawn from Him for a single moment.\u201d\n\nThe \u2018trusting\u2019 S\u016bf\u012b has no thought beyond the present hour. On one\noccasion Shaq\u012bq asked those who sat listening to his discourse:\n\n        \u201cIf God causes you to die to-day, think ye that He will demand\n    from you the prayers of to-morrow?\u201d They answered: \u201cNo; how should\n    He demand from us the prayers of a day on which we are not alive?\u201d\n    Shaq\u012bq said: \u201cEven as He will not demand from you the prayers of\n    to-morrow, so do ye not seek from Him the provender of to-morrow.\n    It may be that ye will not live so long.\u201d\n\nIn view of the practical consequences of attempting to live \u2018on\ntrust,\u2019 it is not surprising to read the advice given to those who\nwould perfectly fulfil the doctrine: \u201cLet them dig a grave and bury\nthemselves.\u201d Later S\u016bf\u012bs hold that active exertion for the purpose of\nobtaining the means of subsistence is quite compatible with \u2018trust,\u2019\naccording to the saying of the Prophet, \u201cTrust in God and tie the\ncamel\u2019s leg.\u201d They define _tawakkul_ as an habitual state of mind,\nwhich is impaired only by self-pleasing thoughts; _e.g._ it was\naccounted a breach of \u2018trust\u2019 to think Paradise a more desirable place\nthan Hell.\n\nWhat type of character is such a theory likely to produce? At the\nworst, a useless drone and hypocrite preying upon his fellow-creatures;\nat the best, a harmless dervish who remains unmoved in the midst of\nsorrow, meets praise and blame with equal indifference, and accepts\ninsults, blows, torture, and death as mere incidents in the eternal\ndrama of destiny. This cold morality, however, is not the highest of\nwhich S\u016bfism is capable. The highest morality springs from nothing but\nlove, when self-surrender becomes self-devotion. Of that I shall have\nsomething to say in due time.\n\n[Sidenote: Recollection.]\n\nAmong the positive elements in the S\u016bf\u012b discipline there is one\nthat Moslem mystics unanimously regard as the keystone of practical\nreligion. I refer to the _dhikr_, an exercise well known to Western\nreaders from the careful description given by Edward Lane in his\n_Modern Egyptians_, and by Professor D. B. Macdonald in his recently\npublished _Aspects of Islam_. The term _dhikr_--\u2018recollection\u2019\nseems to me the most appropriate equivalent in English--signifies\n\u2018mentioning,\u2019 \u2018remembering,\u2019 or simply \u2018thinking of\u2019; in the Koran\nthe Faithful are commanded to \u201cremember God often,\u201d a plain act of\nworship without any mystical savour. But the S\u016bf\u012bs made a practice of\nrepeating the name of God or some religious formula, _e.g._ \u201cGlory\nto Allah\u201d (_subh\u0101n Allah_), \u201cThere is no god but Allah\u201d (_l\u0101 il\u0101ha\nilla \u2019llah_), accompanying the mechanical intonation with an intense\nconcentration of every faculty upon the single word or phrase; and they\nattach greater value to this irregular litany, which enables them to\nenjoy uninterrupted communion with God, than to the five services of\nprayer performed, at fixed hours of the day and night, by all Moslems.\nRecollection may be either spoken or silent, but it is best, according\nto the usual opinion, that tongue and mind should co-operate. Sahl ibn\n\u02bfAbdallah bade one of his disciples endeavour to say \u201cAllah! Allah!\u201d\nthe whole day without intermission. When he had acquired the habit\nof doing so, Sahl instructed him to repeat the same words during the\nnight, until they came forth from his lips even while he was asleep.\n\u201cNow,\u201d said he, \u201cbe silent and occupy yourself with recollecting them.\u201d\nAt last the disciple\u2019s whole being was absorbed by the thought of\nAllah. One day a log fell on his head, and the words \u201cAllah, Allah\u201d\nwere seen written in the blood that trickled from the wound.\n\nGhaz\u0101l\u012b describes the method and effects of _dhikr_ in a passage which\nMacdonald has summarised as follows:\n\n        \u201cLet him reduce his heart to a state in which the existence of\n    anything and its non-existence are the same to him. Then let him\n    sit alone in some corner, limiting his religious duties to what\n    is absolutely necessary, and not occupying himself either with\n    reciting the Koran or considering its meaning or with books of\n    religious traditions or with anything of the sort. And let him see\n    to it that nothing save God most High enters his mind. Then, as he\n    sits in solitude, let him not cease saying continuously with his\n    tongue, \u2018_Allah, Allah_,\u2019 keeping his thought on it. At last he\n    will reach a state when the motion of his tongue will cease, and it\n    will seem as though the word flowed from it. Let him persevere in\n    this until all trace of motion is removed from his tongue, and he\n    finds his heart persevering in the thought. Let him still persevere\n    until the form of the word, its letters and shape, is removed from\n    his heart, and there remains the idea alone, as though clinging to\n    his heart, inseparable from it. So far, all is dependent on his\n    will and choice; but to bring the mercy of God does not stand in\n    his will or choice. He has now laid himself bare to the breathings\n    of that mercy, and nothing remains but to await what God will open\n    to him, as God has done after this manner to prophets and saints.\n    If he follows the above course, he may be sure that the light of\n    the Real will shine out in his heart. At first unstable, like a\n    flash of lightning, it turns and returns; though sometimes it hangs\n    back. And if it returns, sometimes it abides and sometimes it is\n    momentary. And if it abides, sometimes its abiding is long, and\n    sometimes short.\u201d\n\nAnother S\u016bf\u012b puts the gist of the matter in a sentence, thus:\n\n        \u201cThe first stage of _dhikr_ is to forget self, and the last\n    stage is the effacement of the worshipper in the act of worship,\n    without consciousness of worship, and such absorption in the object\n    of worship as precludes return to the subject thereof.\u201d\n\nRecollection can be aided in various ways. When Shibl\u012b was a novice,\nhe went daily into a cellar, taking with him a bundle of sticks. If\nhis attention flagged, he would beat himself until the sticks broke,\nand sometimes the whole bundle would be finished before evening; then\nhe would dash his hands and feet against the wall. The Indian practice\nof inhaling and exhaling the breath was known to the S\u016bf\u012bs of the\nninth century and was much used afterwards. Among the Dervish Orders\nmusic, singing, and dancing are favourite means of inducing the state\nof trance called \u2018passing-away\u2019 (_fan\u0101_), which, as appears from the\ndefinition quoted above, is the climax and _raison d\u2019\u00eatre_ of the\nmethod.\n\n[Sidenote: Meditation.]\n\nIn \u2018meditation\u2019 (_mur\u0101qabat_) we recognise a form of self-concentration\nsimilar to the Buddhistic _dhy\u0101na_ and _sam\u0101dhi_. This is what the\nProphet meant when he said, \u201cWorship God as though thou sawest Him,\nfor if thou seest Him not, yet He sees thee.\u201d Any one who feels sure\nthat God is always watching over him will devote himself to meditating\non God, and no evil thoughts or diabolic suggestions will find their\nway into his heart. N\u016br\u012b used to meditate so intently that not a hair\non his body stirred. He declared that he had learned this habit from a\ncat which was observing a mouse-hole, and that she was far more quiet\nthan he. Ab\u016b Sa\u02bf\u012bd ibn Abi \u2019l-Khayr kept his eyes fixed on his navel.\nIt is said that the Devil is smitten with epilepsy when he approaches\na man thus occupied, just as happens to other men when the Devil takes\npossession of them.\n\nThis chapter will have served its purpose if it has brought before\nmy readers a clear view of the main lines on which the preparatory\ntraining of the S\u016bf\u012b is conducted. We must now imagine him to have\nbeen invested by his Sheykh with the patched frock (_muraqqa\u02bfat_ or\n_khirqat_), which is an outward sign that he has successfully emerged\nfrom the discipline of the \u2018Path,\u2019 and is now advancing with uncertain\nsteps towards the Light, as when toil-worn travellers, having gained\nthe summit of a deep gorge, suddenly catch glimpses of the sun and\ncover their eyes.\n\n\n\n\n  CHAPTER II\n\n  ILLUMINATION AND ECSTASY\n\n\nGod, who is described in the Koran as \u201cthe Light of the heavens and the\nearth,\u201d cannot be seen by the bodily eye. He is visible only to the\ninward sight of the \u2018heart.\u2019 In the next chapter we shall return to\nthis spiritual organ, but I am not going to enter into the intricacies\nof S\u016bf\u012b psychology any further than is necessary. The \u2018vision of the\nheart\u2019 (_ru\u02beyat al-qalb_) is defined as \u201cthe heart\u2019s beholding by the\nlight of certainty that which is hidden in the unseen world.\u201d This\nis what \u02bfAl\u012b meant when he was asked, \u201cDo you see God?\u201d and replied:\n\u201cHow should we worship One whom we do not see?\u201d The light of intuitive\ncertainty (_yaq\u012bn_) by which the heart sees God is a beam of God\u2019s own\nlight cast therein by Himself; else no vision of Him were possible.\n\n    \u201c\u2019Tis the sun\u2019s self that lets the sun be seen.\u201d\n\nAccording to a mystical interpretation of the famous passage in the\nKoran where the light of Allah is compared to a candle burning in a\nlantern of transparent glass, which is placed in a niche in the wall,\nthe niche is the true believer\u2019s heart; therefore his speech is light\nand his works are light and he moves in light. \u201cHe who discourses of\neternity,\u201d said B\u0101yaz\u012bd, \u201cmust have within him the lamp of eternity.\u201d\n\nThe light which gleams in the heart of the illuminated mystic endows\nhim with a supernatural power of discernment (_fir\u0101sat_). Although the\nS\u016bf\u012bs, like all other Moslems, acknowledge Mohammed to be the last of\nthe prophets (as, from a different point of view, he is the Logos or\nfirst of created beings), they really claim to possess a minor form\nof inspiration. When N\u016br\u012b was questioned concerning the origin of\nmystical _fir\u0101sat_, he answered by quoting the Koranic verse in which\nGod says that He breathed His spirit into Adam; but the more orthodox\nS\u016bf\u012bs, who strenuously combat the doctrine that the human spirit is\nuncreated and eternal, affirm that _fir\u0101sat_ is the result of knowledge\nand insight, metaphorically called \u2018light\u2019 or \u2018inspiration,\u2019 which God\ncreates and bestows upon His favourites. The Tradition, \u201cBeware of the\ndiscernment of the true believer, for he sees by the light of Allah,\u201d\nis exemplified in such anecdotes as these:\n\nAb\u016b \u02bfAbdallah al-R\u0101z\u012b said:\n\n        \u201cIbn al-Anb\u0101r\u012b presented me with a woollen frock, and seeing\n    on the head of Shibl\u012b a bonnet that would just match it, I\n    conceived the wish that they were both mine. When Shibl\u012b rose to\n    depart, he looked at me, as he was in the habit of doing when he\n    desired me to follow him. So I followed him to his house, and when\n    we had gone in, he bade me put off the frock and took it from me\n    and folded it and threw his bonnet on the top. Then he called for a\n    fire and burnt both frock and bonnet.\u201d\n\nSar\u012b al-Saqat\u012b frequently urged Junayd to speak in public, but Junayd\nwas unwilling to consent, for he doubted whether he was worthy of such\nan honour. One Friday night he dreamed that the Prophet appeared and\ncommanded him to speak to the people. He awoke and went to Sar\u012b\u2019s house\nbefore daybreak, and knocked at the door. Sar\u012b opened the door and\nsaid: \u201cYou would not believe me until the Prophet came and told you.\u201d\n\nSahl ibn \u02bfAbdallah was sitting in the congregational mosque when a\npigeon, overcome by the intense heat, dropped on the floor. Sahl\nexclaimed: \u201cPlease God, Sh\u0101h al-Kirm\u0101n\u012b has just died.\u201d They wrote it\ndown, and it was found to be true.\n\nWhen the heart is purged of sin and evil thoughts, the light of\ncertainty strikes upon it and makes it a shining mirror, so that the\nDevil cannot approach it without being observed. Hence the saying of\nsome gnostic: \u201cIf I disobey my heart, I disobey God.\u201d It was a man thus\nilluminated to whom the Prophet said: \u201cConsult thy heart, and thou\nwilt hear the secret ordinance of God proclaimed by the heart\u2019s inward\nknowledge, which is real faith and divinity\u201d--something much better\nthan the learning of divines. I need not anticipate here the question,\nwhich will be discussed in the following chapter, how far the claims\nof an infallible conscience are reconcilable with external religion\nand morality. The Prophet, too, prayed that God would put a light into\nhis ear and into his eye; and after mentioning the different members\nof his body, he concluded, \u201cand make the whole of me one light.\u201d[6]\nFrom illumination of gradually increasing splendour, the mystic rises\nto contemplation of the divine attributes, and ultimately, when his\nconsciousness is wholly melted away, he becomes transubstantiated\n(_tajawhara_) in the radiance of the divine essence. This is the\n\u2018station\u2019 of well-doing (_ihs\u0101n_)--for \u201cGod is with the well-doers\u201d\n(Kor. =29.= 69), and we have Prophetic authority for the statement\nthat \u201cwell-doing consists in worshipping God as though thou wert seeing\nHim.\u201d\n\n[6] The reader should be reminded that most, if not all, mystical\nTraditions ascribed to Mohammed were forged and fathered upon him by\nthe S\u016bf\u012bs, who represent themselves as the true interpreters of his\nesoteric teaching.\n\nI will not waste the time and abuse the patience of my readers\nby endeavouring to classify and describe these various grades of\nillumination, which may be depicted symbolically but cannot be\nexplained in scientific language. We must allow the mystics to\nspeak for themselves. Granted that their teaching is often hard to\nunderstand, it conveys more of the truth than we can ever hope to\nobtain from analysis and dissection.\n\nHere are two passages from the oldest Persian treatise on S\u016bfism, the\n_Kashf al-Mahj\u016bb_ of Hujw\u012br\u012b:\n\n        \u201cIt is related that Sar\u012b al-Saqat\u012b said, \u2018O God, whatever\n    punishment thou mayst inflict upon me, do not punish me with the\n    humiliation of being veiled from Thee,\u2019 because, if I am not veiled\n    from Thee, my torment and affliction will be lightened by the\n    recollection and contemplation of Thee; but if I am veiled from\n    Thee, even Thy bounty will be deadly to me. There is no punishment\n    in Hell more painful and hard to bear than that of being veiled. If\n    God were revealed in Hell to the people of Hell, sinful believers\n    would never think of Paradise, since the sight of God would so\n    fill them with joy that they would not feel bodily pain. And in\n    Paradise there is no pleasure more perfect than unveiledness. If\n    the people there enjoyed all the pleasures of that place and other\n    pleasures a hundredfold, but were veiled from God, their hearts\n    would be utterly broken. Therefore it is the way of God to let\n    the hearts of those who love Him have vision of Him always, in\n    order that the delight thereof may enable them to endure every\n    tribulation; and they say in their visions, \u2018We deem all torments\n    more desirable than to be veiled from Thee. When Thy beauty is\n    revealed to our hearts, we take no thought of affliction.\u2019\u201d\n\n        \u201cThere are really two kinds of contemplation. The former is the\n    result of perfect faith, the latter of rapturous love, for in the\n    rapture of love a man attains to such a degree that his whole being\n    is absorbed in the thought of his Beloved and he sees nothing else.\n    Muhammad ibn W\u0101si\u02bf said: \u2018I never saw anything without seeing God\n    therein,\u2019 _i.e._ through perfect faith. Shibl\u012b said: \u2018I never saw\n    anything except God,\u2019 _i.e._ in the rapture of love and the fervour\n    of contemplation. One mystic sees the act with his bodily eye,\n    and, as he looks, beholds the Agent with his spiritual eye; another\n    is rapt by love of the Agent from all things else, so that he sees\n    only the Agent. The one method is demonstrative, the other is\n    ecstatic. In the former case, a manifest proof is derived from the\n    evidences of God; in the latter case, the seer is enraptured and\n    transported by desire: evidences are a veil to him, because he who\n    knows a thing does not care for aught besides, and he who loves a\n    thing does not regard aught besides, but renounces contention with\n    God and interference with Him in His decrees and acts. When the\n    lover turns his eye away from created things, he will inevitably\n    see the Creator with his heart. God hath said, \u2018Tell the believers\n    to close their eyes\u2019 (Kor. =24.= 30), _i.e._ to close their bodily\n    eyes to lusts and their spiritual eyes to created things. He who\n    is most sincere in self-mortification is most firmly grounded in\n    contemplation. Sahl ibn \u02bfAbdallah of Tustar said: \u2018If any one shuts\n    his eye to God for a single moment, he will never be rightly guided\n    all his life long,\u2019 because to regard other than God is to be\n    handed over to other than God, and one who is left at the mercy of\n    other than God is lost. Therefore the life of contemplatives is the\n    time during which they enjoy contemplation; time spent in ocular\n    vision they do not reckon as life, for that to them is really\n    death. Thus, when B\u0101yaz\u012bd was asked how old he was, he replied,\n    \u2018Four years.\u2019 They said to him, \u2018How can that be?\u2019 He answered, \u2018I\n    have been veiled from God by this world for seventy years, but I\n    have seen Him during the last four years: the period in which one\n    is veiled does not belong to one\u2019s life.\u2019\u201d\n\nI take the following quotation from the _Maw\u0101qif_ of Niffar\u012b, an author\nwith whom we shall become better acquainted as we proceed:\n\n        \u201cGod said to me, \u2018The least of the sciences of nearness is that\n    you should see in everything the effects of beholding Me, and that\n    this vision should prevail over you more than your gnosis of Me.\u2019\u201d\n\nExplanation by the commentator:\n\n        \u201cHe means that the least of the sciences of nearness\n    (proximity to God) is that when you look at anything, sensibly or\n    intellectually or otherwise, you should be conscious of beholding\n    God with a vision clearer than your vision of that thing. There\n    are diverse degrees in this matter. Some mystics say that they\n    never see anything without seeing God before it. Others say,\n    \u2018without seeing God after it,\u2019 or \u2018with it\u2019; or they say that they\n    see nothing but God. A certain S\u016bf\u012b said, \u2018I made the pilgrimage\n    and saw the Ka\u02bfba, but not the Lord of the Ka\u02bfba.\u2019 This is the\n    perception of one who is veiled. Then he said, \u2018I made the\n    pilgrimage again, and I saw both the Ka\u02bfba and the Lord of the\n    Ka\u02bfba.\u2019 This is contemplation of the Self-subsistence through which\n    everything subsists, _i.e._ he saw the Ka\u02bfba subsisting through the\n    Lord of the Ka\u02bfba. Then he said, \u2018I made the pilgrimage a third\n    time, and I saw the Lord of the Ka\u02bfba, but not the Ka\u02bfba.\u2019 This\n    is the \u2018station\u2019 of _waqfat_ (passing-away in the essence). In\n    the present case the author is referring to contemplation of the\n    Self-subsistence.\u201d\n\nSo much concerning the theory of illumination. But, as Mephistopheles\nsays, \u201c_grau ist alle Theorie_\u201d; and though to most of us the living\nexperience is denied, we can hear its loudest echoes and feel its\nwarmest afterglow in the poetry which it has created. Let me translate\npart of a Persian ode by the dervish-poet, B\u0101b\u0101 K\u016bh\u012b of Sh\u012br\u0101z, who\ndied in 1050 A.D.\n\n    \u201cIn the market, in the cloister--only God I saw.\n    In the valley and on the mountain--only God I saw.\n    Him I have seen beside me oft in tribulation;\n    In favour and in fortune--only God I saw.\n    In prayer and fasting, in praise and contemplation,\n    In the religion of the Prophet--only God I saw.\n    Neither soul nor body, accident nor substance,\n    Qualities nor causes--only God I saw.\n    I oped mine eyes and by the light of His face around me\n    In all the eye discovered--only God I saw.\n    Like a candle I was melting in His fire:\n    Amidst the flames outflashing--only God I saw.\n    Myself with mine own eyes I saw most clearly,\n    But when I looked with God\u2019s eyes--only God I saw.\n    I passed away into nothingness, I vanished,\n    And lo, I was the All-living--only God I saw.\u201d\n\nThe whole of S\u016bfism rests on the belief that when the individual self\nis lost, the Universal Self is found, or, in religious language,\nthat ecstasy affords the only means by which the soul can directly\ncommunicate and become united with God. Asceticism, purification, love,\ngnosis, saintship--all the leading ideas of S\u016bfism--are developed from\nthis cardinal principle.\n\nAmong the metaphorical terms commonly employed by the S\u016bf\u012bs as, more\nor less, equivalent to \u2018ecstasy\u2019 are _fan\u0101_ (passing-away), _wajd_\n(feeling), _sam\u0101\u02bf_ (hearing), _dhawq_ (taste), _shirb_ (drinking),\n_ghaybat_ (absence from self), _jadhbat_ (attraction), _sukr_\n(intoxication), and _h\u0101l_ (emotion). It would be tedious and not, I\nthink, specially instructive to examine in detail the definitions\nof those terms and of many others akin to them which occur in S\u016bf\u012b\ntext-books. We are not brought appreciably nearer to understanding\nthe nature of ecstasy when it is described as \u201ca divine mystery which\nGod communicates to true believers who behold Him with the eye of\ncertainty,\u201d or as \u201ca flame which moves in the ground of the soul and is\nproduced by love-desire.\u201d The Mohammedan theory of ecstasy, however,\ncan hardly be discussed without reference to two of the above-mentioned\ntechnical expressions, namely, _fan\u0101_ and _sam\u0101\u02bf_.\n\nAs I have remarked in the Introduction (pp. 17-19), the term _fan\u0101_\nincludes different stages, aspects, and meanings. These may be\nsummarised as follows:\n\n1. A moral transformation of the soul through the extinction of all its\npassions and desires.\n\n2. A mental abstraction or passing-away of the mind from all objects of\nperception, thoughts, actions, and feelings through its concentration\nupon the thought of God. Here the thought of God signifies\ncontemplation of the divine attributes.\n\n3. The cessation of all conscious thought. The highest stage of\n_fan\u0101_ is reached when even the consciousness of having attained\n_fan\u0101_ disappears. This is what the S\u016bf\u012bs call \u2018the passing-away\nof passing-away\u2019 (_fan\u0101 al-fan\u0101_). The mystic is now rapt in\ncontemplation of the divine essence.\n\nThe final stage of _fan\u0101_, the complete passing-away from self, forms\nthe prelude to _baq\u0101_, \u2018continuance\u2019 or \u2018abiding\u2019 in God, and will be\ntreated with greater fullness in Chapter VI.\n\nThe first stage closely resembles the Buddhistic Nirv\u0101\u1e47a. It is a\n\u2018passing-away\u2019 of evil qualities and states of mind, which involves the\nsimultaneous \u2018continuance\u2019 of good qualities and states of mind. This\nis necessarily an ecstatic process, inasmuch as all the attributes of\n\u2018self\u2019 are evil in relation to God. No one can make himself perfectly\nmoral, _i.e._ perfectly \u2018selfless.\u2019 This must be done for him, through\n\u2018a flash of the divine beauty\u2019 in his heart.\n\nWhile the first stage refers to the moral \u2018self,\u2019 the second refers\nto the percipient and intellectual \u2018self.\u2019 Using the classification\ngenerally adopted by Christian mystics, we may regard the former as the\nconsummation of the Purgative Life, and the latter as the goal of the\nIlluminative Life. The third and last stage constitutes the highest\nlevel of the Contemplative Life.\n\nOften, though not invariably, _fan\u0101_ is accompanied by loss of\nsensation. Sar\u012b al-Saqat\u012b, a famous S\u016bf\u012b of the third century,\nexpressed the opinion that if a man in this state were struck on the\nface with a sword, he would not feel the blow. Abu \u2019l-Khayr al-Aqta\u02bf\nhad a gangrene in his foot. The physicians declared that his foot must\nbe amputated, but he would not allow this to be done. His disciples\nsaid, \u201cCut it off while he is praying, for he is then unconscious.\u201d The\nphysicians acted on their advice, and when Abu \u2019l-Khayr finished his\nprayers he found that the amputation had taken place. It is difficult\nto see how any one far advanced in _fan\u0101_ could be capable of keeping\nthe religious law--a point on which the orthodox mystics lay great\nemphasis. Here the doctrine of saintship comes in. God takes care to\npreserve His elect from disobedience to His commands. We are told\nthat B\u0101yaz\u012bd, Shibl\u012b, and other saints were continually in a state\nof rapture until the hour of prayer arrived; then they returned to\nconsciousness, and after performing their prayers became enraptured\nagain.\n\nIn theory, the ecstatic trance is involuntary, although certain\nconditions are recognised as being specially favourable to its\noccurrence. \u201cIt comes to a man through vision of the majesty of God and\nthrough revelation of the divine omnipotence to his heart.\u201d Such, for\ninstance, was the case of Ab\u016b Hamza, who, while walking in the streets\nof Baghd\u0101d and meditating on the nearness of God, suddenly fell into\nan ecstasy and went on his way, neither seeing nor hearing, until he\nrecovered his senses and found himself in the desert. Trances of this\nkind sometimes lasted many weeks. It is recorded of Sahl ibn \u02bfAbdallah\nthat he used to remain in ecstasy twenty-five days at a time, eating\nno food; yet he would answer questions put to him by the doctors of\ntheology, and even in winter his shirt would be damp with sweat. But\nthe S\u016bf\u012bs soon discovered that ecstasy might be induced artificially,\nnot only by concentration of thought, recollection (_dhikr_), and other\ninnocent methods of autohypnosis, but also by music, singing, and\ndancing. These are included in the term _sam\u0101\u02bf_, which properly means\nnothing more than audition.\n\nThat Moslems are extraordinarily susceptible to the sweet influences of\nsound will not be doubted by any one who remembers how, in the _Arabian\nNights_, heroes and heroines alike swoon upon the slightest provocation\nafforded by a singing-girl touching her lute and trilling a few lines\nof passionate verse. The fiction is true to life. When S\u016bf\u012b writers\ndiscuss the analogous phenomena of ecstasy, they commonly do so in a\nchapter entitled \u2018Concerning the _Sam\u0101\u02bf_.\u2019 Under this heading Hujw\u012br\u012b,\nin the final chapter of his _Kashf al-Mahj\u016bb_, gives us an excellent\nsummary of his own and other Mohammedan theories, together with\nnumerous anecdotes of persons who were thrown into ecstasy on hearing a\nverse of the Koran or a heavenly voice (_h\u0101tif_) or poetry or music.\nMany are said to have died from the emotion thus aroused. I may add by\nway of explanation that, according to a well-known mystical belief, God\nhas inspired every created thing to praise Him in its own language, so\nthat all the sounds in the universe form, as it were, one vast choral\nhymn by which He glorifies Himself. Consequently those whose hearts\nHe has opened and endowed with spiritual perception hear His voice\neverywhere, and ecstasy overcomes them as they listen to the rhythmic\nchant of the muezzin, or the street cry of the saqq\u0101 shouldering his\nwater-skin, or, perchance, to the noise of wind or the bleating of a\nsheep or the piping of a bird.\n\nPythagoras and Plato are responsible for another theory, to which the\nS\u016bf\u012b poets frequently allude, that music awakens in the soul a memory\nof celestial harmonies heard in a state of pre-existence, before the\nsoul was separated from God. Thus Jal\u0101ludd\u012bn R\u016bm\u012b:\n\n    \u201cThe song of the spheres in their revolutions\n    Is what men sing with lute and voice.\n    As we all are members of Adam,\n    We have heard these melodies in Paradise.\n    Though earth and water have cast their veil upon us,\n    We retain faint reminiscences of these heavenly songs;\n    But while we are thus shrouded by gross earthly veils,\n    How can the tones of the dancing spheres reach us?\u201d[7]\n\n[7] E. H. Whinfield, abridged translation of the _Masnav\u012b_, p. 182.\n\nThe formal practice of _sam\u0101\u02bf_ quickly spread amongst the S\u016bf\u012bs and\nproduced an acute cleavage of opinion, some holding it to be lawful and\npraiseworthy, whilst others condemned it as an abominable innovation\nand incitement to vice. Hujw\u012br\u012b adopts the middle view expressed in a\nsaying of Dhu \u2019l-N\u016bn the Egyptian:\n\n        \u201cMusic is a divine influence which stirs the heart to seek God:\n    those who listen to it spiritually attain unto God, and those who\n    listen to it sensually fall into unbelief.\u201d\n\nHe declares, in effect, that audition is neither good nor bad, and must\nbe judged by its results.\n\n        \u201cWhen an anchorite goes into a tavern, the tavern becomes his\n    cell, but when a wine-bibber goes into a cell, that cell becomes\n    his tavern.\u201d\n\nOne whose heart is absorbed in the thought of God cannot be corrupted\nby hearing musical instruments. So with dancing.\n\n        \u201cWhen the heart throbs and rapture grows intense, and the\n    agitation of ecstasy is manifested and conventional forms are gone,\n    this is not dancing nor bodily indulgence, but a dissolution of the\n    soul.\u201d\n\nHujw\u012br\u012b, however, lays down several precautionary rules for those who\nengage in audition, and he confesses that the public concerts given by\ndervishes are extremely demoralising. Novices, he thinks, should not be\npermitted to attend them. In modern times these orgiastic scenes have\nfrequently been described by eye-witnesses. I will now translate from\nJ\u0101m\u012b\u2019s _Lives of the Saints_ the account of a similar performance which\ntook place about seven hundred years ago.\n\n        \u201cThere was a certain dervish, a negro called Zang\u012b Bashgird\u012b,\n    who had attained to such a high degree of spirituality that the\n    mystic dance could not be started until he came out and joined\n    in it. One day, in the course of the _sam\u0101\u02bf_, he was seized with\n    ecstasy, and rising into the air seated himself on a lofty arch\n    which overlooked the dancers. In descending he leaped on to\n    Majdudd\u012bn of Baghd\u0101d, and encircled with his legs the neck of the\n    Sheykh, who nevertheless continued to spin round in the dance,\n    though he was a very frail and slender man, whereas the negro\n    was tall and heavy. When the dance was finished, Majdudd\u012bn said,\n    \u2018I did not know whether it was a negro or a sparrow on my neck.\u2019\n    On getting off the Sheykh\u2019s shoulders, the negro bit his cheek\n    so severely that the scar remained visible ever after. Majdudd\u012bn\n    often used to say that on the Day of Judgment he would not boast of\n    anything except that he bore the mark of this negro\u2019s teeth on his\n    face.\u201d\n\nGrotesque and ignoble features--not to speak of grosser\ndeformities--must appear in any faithful delineation of the ecstatic\nlife of Islam. Nothing is gained by concealing their existence or by\nminimising their importance. If, as Jal\u0101ludd\u012bn R\u016bm\u012b says:\n\n    \u201cMen incur the reproach of wine and drugs\n    That they may escape for a while from self-consciousness,\n    Since all know this life to be a snare,\n    Volitional memory and thought to be a hell,\u201d\n\nlet us acknowledge that the transports of spiritual intoxication are\nnot always sublime, and that human nature has a trick of avenging\nitself on those who would cast it off.\n\n\n\n\n  CHAPTER III\n\n  THE GNOSIS\n\n\nThe S\u016bf\u012bs distinguish three organs of spiritual communication: the\nheart (_qalb_), which knows God; the spirit (_r\u016bh_), which loves Him;\nand the inmost ground of the soul (_sirr_), which contemplates Him. It\nwould take us into deep waters if we were to embark upon a discussion\nof these terms and their relation to each other. A few words concerning\nthe first of the three will suffice. The _qalb_, though connected\nin some mysterious way with the physical heart, is not a thing of\nflesh and blood. Unlike the English \u2018heart,\u2019 its nature is rather\nintellectual than emotional, but whereas the intellect cannot gain real\nknowledge of God, the _qalb_ is capable of knowing the essences of all\nthings, and when illumined by faith and knowledge reflects the whole\ncontent of the divine mind; hence the Prophet said, \u201cMy earth and My\nheaven contain Me not, but the heart of My faithful servant containeth\nMe.\u201d This revelation, however, is a comparatively rare experience.\nNormally, the heart is \u2018veiled,\u2019 blackened by sin, tarnished by sensual\nimpressions and images, pulled to and fro between reason and passion:\na battlefield on which the armies of God and the Devil contend for\nvictory. Through one gate, the heart receives immediate knowledge\nof God; through another, it lets in the illusions of sense. \u201cHere a\nworld and there a world,\u201d says Jal\u0101ludd\u012bn R\u016bm\u012b. \u201cI am seated on the\nthreshold.\u201d Therefore man is potentially lower than the brutes and\nhigher than the angels.\n\n    \u201cAngel and brute man\u2019s wondrous leaven compose;\n    To these inclining, less than these he grows,\n    But if he means the angel, more than those.\u201d\n\nLess than the brutes, because they lack the knowledge that would enable\nthem to rise; more than the angels, because they are not subject to\npassion and so cannot fall.\n\nHow shall a man know God? Not by the senses, for He is immaterial; nor\nby the intellect, for He is unthinkable. Logic never gets beyond the\nfinite; philosophy sees double; book-learning fosters self-conceit and\nobscures the idea of the Truth with clouds of empty words. Jal\u0101ludd\u012bn\nR\u016bm\u012b, addressing the scholastic theologian, asks scornfully:\n\n    \u201cDo you know a name without a thing answering to it?\n    Have you ever plucked a rose from R, O, S, E?\n    You name His name; go, seek the reality named by it!\n    Look for the moon in the sky, not in the water!\n    If you desire to rise above mere names and letters,\n    Make yourself free from self at one stroke.\n    Become pure from all attributes of self,\n    That you may see your own bright essence,\n    Yea, see in your own heart the knowledge of the Prophet,\n    Without book, without tutor, without preceptor.\u201d\n\nThis knowledge comes by illumination, revelation, inspiration.\n\n\u201cLook in your own heart,\u201d says the S\u016bf\u012b, \u201cfor the kingdom of God is\nwithin you.\u201d He who truly knows himself knows God, for the heart is a\nmirror in which every divine quality is reflected. But just as a steel\nmirror when coated with rust loses its power of reflexion, so the\ninward spiritual sense, which S\u016bf\u012bs call the eye of the heart, is blind\nto the celestial glory until the dark obstruction of the phenomenal\nself, with all its sensual contaminations, has been wholly cleared\naway. The clearance, if it is to be done effectively, must be the work\nof God, though it demands a certain inward co-operation on the part of\nman. \u201cWhosoever shall strive for Our sake, We will guide him into Our\nways\u201d (Kor. =29.= 69). Action is false and vain, if it is thought to\nproceed from one\u2019s self, but the enlightened mystic regards God as the\nreal agent in every act, and therefore takes no credit for his good\nworks nor desires to be recompensed for them.\n\nWhile ordinary knowledge is denoted by the term _\u02bfilm_, the mystic\nknowledge peculiar to the S\u016bf\u012bs is called _ma\u02bfrifat_ or _\u02bfirf\u0101n_. As I\nhave indicated in the foregoing paragraphs, _ma\u02bfrifat_ is fundamentally\ndifferent from _\u02bfilm_, and a different word must be used to translate\nit. We need not look far for a suitable equivalent. The _ma\u02bfrifat_\nof the S\u016bf\u012bs is the \u2018gnosis\u2019 of Hellenistic theosophy, _i.e._ direct\nknowledge of God based on revelation or apocalyptic vision. It is not\nthe result of any mental process, but depends entirely on the will and\nfavour of God, who bestows it as a gift from Himself upon those whom He\nhas created with the capacity for receiving it. It is a light of divine\ngrace that flashes into the heart and overwhelms every human faculty in\nits dazzling beams. \u201cHe who knows God is dumb.\u201d\n\nThe relation of gnosis to positive religion is discussed in a very\nremarkable treatise on speculative mysticism by Niffar\u012b, an unknown\nwandering dervish who died in Egypt in the latter half of the tenth\ncentury. His work, consisting of a series of revelations in which God\naddresses the writer and instructs him concerning the theory of gnosis,\nis couched in abstruse language and would scarcely be intelligible\nwithout the commentary which accompanies it; but its value as an\noriginal exposition of advanced S\u016bfism will sufficiently appear from\nthe excerpts given in this chapter.[8]\n\n[8] I am now engaged in preparing an edition of the Arabic text,\ntogether with an English translation and commentary.\n\nThose who seek God, says Niffar\u012b, are of three kinds: _firstly_, the\nworshippers to whom God makes Himself known by means of bounty, _i.e._\nthey worship Him in the hope of winning Paradise or some spiritual\nrecompense such as dreams and miracles; _secondly_, the philosophers\nand scholastic theologians, to whom God makes Himself known by means\nof glory, _i.e._ they can never find the glorious God whom they seek,\nwherefore they assert that His essence is unknowable, saying, \u201cWe\nknow that we know Him not, and that is our knowledge\u201d; _thirdly_, the\ngnostics, to whom God makes Himself known by means of ecstasy, _i.e._\nthey are possessed and controlled by a rapture that deprives them of\nthe consciousness of individual existence.\n\nNiffar\u012b bids the gnostic perform only such acts of worship as are\nin accordance with his vision of God, though in so doing he will\nnecessarily disobey the religious law which was made for the vulgar.\nHis inward feeling must decide how far the external forms of religion\nare good for him.\n\n        \u201cGod said to me, Ask Me and say, \u2018O Lord, how shall I cleave\n    to Thee, so that when my day (of judgment) comes, Thou wilt not\n    punish me nor avert Thy face from me?\u2019 Then I will answer thee\n    and say, \u2018Cleave in thy outward theory and practice to the Sunna\n    (the rule of the Prophet), and cleave in thy inward feeling to the\n    gnosis which I have given thee; and know that when I make Myself\n    known to thee, I will not accept from thee anything of the Sunna\n    but what My gnosis brings to thee, because thou art one of those to\n    whom I speak: thou hearest Me and knowest that thou hearest Me, and\n    thou seest that I am the source of all things.\u2019\u201d\n\nThe commentator observes that the Sunna, being general in scope, makes\nno distinction between individuals, _e.g._ seekers of Paradise and\nseekers of God, but that in reality it contains exactly what each\nperson requires. The portion specially appropriate in every case is\ndiscerned either by means of gnosis, which God communicates to the\nheart, or by means of guidance imparted by a spiritual director.\n\n        \u201cAnd He said to me, \u2018My exoteric revelation does not support My\n    esoteric revelation.\u2019\u201d\n\nThis means that the gnostic need not be dismayed if his inner\nexperience conflicts with the religious law. The contradiction is only\napparent. Religion addresses itself to the common herd of men who\nare veiled by their minds, by logic, tradition, and so on; whereas\ngnosis belongs to the elect, whose bodies and spirits are bathed in the\neternal Light. Religion sees things from the aspect of plurality, but\ngnosis regards the all-embracing Unity. Hence the same act is good in\nreligion, but evil in gnosis--a truth which is briefly stated thus:\n\n        \u201cThe good deeds of the pious are the ill deeds of the\n    favourites of God.\u201d\n\nAlthough works of devotion are not incompatible with gnosis, no one\nwho connects them in the slightest degree with himself is a gnostic.\nThis is the theme of the following allegory. Niffar\u012b seldom writes so\nlucidly as he does here, yet I fancy that few of my readers will find\nthe explanations printed within square brackets altogether superfluous.\n\n\n  THE REVELATION OF THE SEA\n\n        \u201cGod bade me behold the Sea, and I saw the ships sinking and\n    the planks floating; then the planks too were submerged.\u201d\n\n        [The Sea denotes the spiritual experiences through which the\n    mystic passes in his journey to God. The point at issue is this:\n    whether he should prefer the religious law or disinterested\n    love. Here he is warned not to rely on his good works, which are\n    no better than sinking ships and will never bring him safely to\n    port. No; if he would attain to God, he must rely on God alone. If\n    he does not rely entirely on God, but lets himself trust ever so\n    little in anything else, he is still clinging to a plank. Though\n    his trust in God is greater than before, it is not yet complete.]\n\n        \u201cAnd He said to me, \u2018Those who voyage are not saved.\u2019\u201d\n\n        [The voyager uses the ship as a means of crossing the sea:\n    therefore he relies, not on the First Cause, but on secondary\n    causes.]\n\n        \u201cAnd He said to me, \u2018Those who instead of voyaging cast\n    themselves into the Sea take a risk.\u2019\u201d\n\n        [To abandon all secondary causes is like plunging in the sea.\n    The mystic who makes this venture is in jeopardy, for two reasons:\n    he may regard himself, not God, as initiating and carrying out\n    the action of abandonment,--and one who renounces a thing through\n    \u2018self\u2019 is in worse case than if he had not renounced it,--or he may\n    abandon secondary causes (good works, hope of Paradise, etc.), not\n    for God\u2019s sake, but from sheer indifference and lack of spiritual\n    feeling.]\n\n        \u201cAnd He said to me, \u2018Those who voyage and take no risk shall\n    perish.\u2019\u201d\n\n        [Notwithstanding the dangers referred to, he must make God his\n    sole object or fail.]\n\n        \u201cAnd He said to me, \u2018In taking the risk there is a part of\n    salvation.\u2019\u201d\n\n        [Only a part of salvation, because perfect selflessness has\n    not yet been attained. The whole of salvation consists in the\n    effacement of all secondary causes, all phenomena, through the\n    rapture which results from vision of God. But this is gnosis, and\n    the present revelation is addressed to mystics of a lower grade.\n    The gnostic takes no risk, for he has nothing to lose.]\n\n        \u201cAnd the wave came and lifted those beneath it and overran the\n    shore.\u201d\n\n        [Those beneath the wave are they who voyage in ships and\n    consequently suffer shipwreck. Their reliance on secondary causes\n    casts them ashore, _i.e._ brings them back to the world of\n    phenomena whereby they are veiled from God.]\n\n        \u201cAnd He said to me, \u2018The surface of the Sea is a gleam that\n    cannot be reached.\u2019\u201d\n\n        [Any one who depends on external rites of worship to lead him\n    to God is following a will-o\u2019-the-wisp.]\n\n        \u201cAnd its bottom is a darkness impenetrable.\u201d\n\n        [To discard positive religion, root and branch, is to wander in\n    a pathless maze.]\n\n        \u201cAnd between the two are fishes which are to be feared.\u201d\n\n        [He refers to the middle way between pure exotericism and pure\n    esotericism. The \u2018fishes\u2019 are its perils and obstacles.]\n\n        \u201cDo not voyage on the Sea, lest I cause thee to be veiled by\n    the vehicle.\u201d\n\n        [The \u2018vehicle\u2019 signifies the \u2018ship,\u2019 _i.e._ reliance on\n    something other than God.]\n\n        \u201cAnd do not cast thyself into the Sea, lest I cause thee to be\n    veiled by thy casting thyself.\u201d\n\n        [Whoever regards any act as his own act and attributes it to\n    himself is far from God.]\n\n        \u201cAnd He said to me, \u2018In the Sea are boundaries: which of them\n    will bear thee on?\u2019\u201d\n\n        [The \u2018boundaries\u2019 are the various degrees of spiritual\n    experience. The mystic ought not to rely on any of these, for they\n    are all imperfect.]\n\n        \u201cAnd He said to me, \u2018If thou givest thyself to the Sea and\n    sinkest therein, thou wilt fall a prey to one of its beasts.\u2019\u201d\n\n        [If the mystic either relies on secondary causes or abandons\n    them by his own act, he will go astray.]\n\n        \u201cAnd He said to me, \u2018I deceive thee if I direct thee to aught\n    save Myself.\u2019\u201d\n\n        [If the mystic\u2019s inward voice bids him turn to anything except\n    God, it deceives him.]\n\n        \u201cAnd He said to me, \u2018If thou perishest for the sake of other\n    than Me, thou wilt belong to that for which thou hast perished.\u2019\n\n        \u201cAnd He said to me, \u2018This world belongs to him whom I have\n    turned away from it and from whom I have turned it away; and the\n    next world belongs to him towards whom I have brought it and whom I\n    have brought towards Myself.\u2019\u201d\n\n        [He means to say that everlasting joy is the portion of those\n    whose hearts are turned away from this world and who have no\n    worldly possessions. They really enjoy this world, because it\n    cannot separate them from God. Similarly, the true owners of the\n    next world are those who do not seek it, inasmuch as it is not the\n    real object of their desire, but contemplate God alone.]\n\n\nThe gnostic descries the element of reality in positive religion, but\nhis gnosis is not derived from religion or from any sort of human\nknowledge: it is properly concerned with the divine attributes, and God\nHimself reveals the knowledge of these to His saints who contemplate\nHim. Dhu \u2019l-N\u016bn of Egypt, whose mystical speculations mark him out as\nthe father of Moslem theosophy, said that gnostics are not themselves,\nand do not subsist through themselves, but so far as they subsist, they\nsubsist through God.\n\n        \u201cThey move as God causes them to move, and their words are the\n    words of God which roll upon their tongues, and their sight is the\n    sight of God which has entered their eyes.\u201d\n\nThe gnostic contemplates the attributes of God, not His essence, for\neven in gnosis a small trace of duality remains: this disappears only\nin _fan\u0101 al-fan\u0101_, the total passing-away in the undifferentiated\nGodhead. The cardinal attribute of God is unity, and the divine unity\nis the first and last principle of gnosis.[9]\n\n[9] According to some mystics, the gnosis of unity constitutes a higher\nstage which is called \u2018the Truth\u2019 (_haq\u012bqat_). See above, p. 29.\n\nBoth Moslem and S\u016bf\u012b declare that God is One, but the statement bears\na different meaning in each instance. The Moslem means that God is\nunique in His essence, qualities, and acts; that He is absolutely\nunlike all other beings. The S\u016bf\u012b means that God is the One Real\nBeing which underlies all phenomena. This principle is carried to its\nextreme consequences, as we shall see. If nothing except God exists,\nthen the whole universe, including man, is essentially one with God,\nwhether it is regarded as an emanation which proceeds from Him, without\nimpairing His unity, like sunbeams from the sun, or whether it is\nconceived as a mirror in which the divine attributes are reflected. But\nsurely a God who is all in all can have no reason for thus revealing\nHimself: why should the One pass over into the Many? The S\u016bf\u012bs\nanswer--a philosopher would say that they evade the difficulty--by\nquoting the famous Tradition: \u201cI was a hidden treasure and I desired\nto be known; therefore I created the creation in order that I might be\nknown.\u201d In other words, God is the eternal Beauty, and it lies in the\nnature of beauty to desire love. The mystic poets have described the\nself-manifestation of the One with a profusion of splendid imagery.\nJ\u0101m\u012b says, for example:\n\n    \u201cFrom all eternity the Beloved unveiled His beauty in the solitude\n        of the unseen;\n    He held up the mirror to His own face, He displayed His loveliness\n        to Himself.\n    He was both the spectator and the spectacle; no eye but His had\n        surveyed the Universe.\n    All was One, there was no duality, no pretence of \u2018mine\u2019 or \u2018thine.\u2019\n    The vast orb of Heaven, with its myriad incomings and outgoings,\n        was concealed in a single point.\n    The Creation lay cradled in the sleep of non-existence, like a child\n        ere it has breathed.\n    The eye of the Beloved, seeing what was not, regarded nonentity\n        as existent.\n    Although He beheld His attributes and qualities as a perfect whole\n        in His own essence,\n    Yet He desired that they should be displayed to Him in another\n        mirror,\n    And that each one of His eternal attributes should become manifest\n        accordingly in a diverse form.\n    Therefore He created the verdant fields of Time and Space and the\n        life-giving garden of the world,\n    That every branch and leaf and fruit might show forth His various\n        perfections.\n    The cypress gave a hint of His comely stature, the rose gave tidings\n        of His beauteous countenance.\n    Wherever Beauty peeped out, Love appeared beside it; wherever Beauty\n        shone in a rosy cheek, Love lit his torch from that flame.\n    Wherever Beauty dwelt in dark tresses, Love came and found a heart\n        entangled in their coils.\n    Beauty and Love are as body and soul; Beauty is the mine and Love\n        the precious stone.\n    They have always been together from the very first; never have they\n        travelled but in each other\u2019s company.\u201d\n\nIn another work J\u0101m\u012b sets forth the relation of God to the world more\nphilosophically, as follows:\n\n        \u201cThe unique Substance, viewed as Absolute and void of\n    all phenomena, all limitations and all multiplicity, is the\n    Real (_al-Haqq_). On the other hand, viewed in His aspect of\n    multiplicity and plurality, under which He displays Himself when\n    clothed with phenomena, He is the whole created universe. Therefore\n    the universe is the outward visible expression of the Real, and\n    the Real is the inner unseen reality of the universe. The universe\n    before it was evolved to outward view was identical with the Real;\n    and the Real after this evolution is identical with the universe.\u201d\n\nPhenomena, as such, are not-being and only derive a contingent\nexistence from the qualities of Absolute Being by which they are\nirradiated. The sensible world resembles the fiery circle made by a\nsingle spark whirling round rapidly.\n\nMan is the crown and final cause of the universe. Though last in the\norder of creation he is first in the process of divine thought, for\nthe essential part of him is the primal Intelligence or universal\nReason which emanates immediately from the Godhead. This corresponds\nto the Logos--the animating principle of all things--and is identified\nwith the Prophet Mohammed. An interesting parallel might be drawn\nhere between the Christian and S\u016bf\u012b doctrines. The same expressions\nare applied to the founder of Islam which are used by St. John, St.\nPaul, and later mystical theologians concerning Christ. Thus, Mohammed\nis called the Light of God, he is said to have existed before the\ncreation of the world, he is adored as the source of all life, actual\nand possible, he is the Perfect Man in whom all the divine attributes\nare manifested, and a S\u016bf\u012b tradition ascribes to him the saying \u201cHe\nthat hath seen me hath seen Allah.\u201d In the Moslem scheme, however,\nthe Logos doctrine occupies a subordinate place, as it obviously must\nwhen the whole duty of man is believed to consist in realising the\nunity of God. The most distinctive feature of Oriental as opposed to\nEuropean mysticism is its profound consciousness of an omnipresent,\nall-pervading unity in which every vestige of individuality is\nswallowed up. Not to become _like_ God or _personally_ to participate\nin the divine nature is the S\u016bf\u012b\u2019s aim, but to escape from the bondage\nof his unreal selfhood and thereby to be reunited with the One infinite\nBeing.\n\nAccording to J\u0101m\u012b, Unification consists in making the heart\nsingle--that is, in purifying and divesting it of attachment to aught\nexcept God, both in respect of desire and will and also as regards\nknowledge and gnosis. The mystic\u2019s desire and will should be severed\nfrom all things which are desired and willed; all objects of knowledge\nand understanding should be removed from his intellectual vision.\nHis thoughts should be directed solely towards God, he should not be\nconscious of anything besides.\n\nSo long as he is a captive in the snare of passion and lust, it is hard\nfor him to maintain this relation to God, but when the subtle influence\nof that attraction becomes manifest in him, expelling preoccupation\nwith objects of sense and cognition from his inward being, delight in\nthat divine communion prevails over bodily pleasures and spiritual\njoys; the painful task of self-mortification is ended, and the\nsweetness of contemplation enravishes his soul.\n\nWhen the sincere aspirant perceives in himself the beginning of this\nattraction, which is delight in the recollection of God, let him fix\nhis whole mind on fostering and strengthening it, let him keep himself\naloof from whatsoever is incompatible with it, and deem that even\nthough he were to devote an eternity to cultivating that communion, he\nwould have done nothing and would not have discharged his duty as he\nought.\n\n    \u201cLove thrilled the chord of love in my soul\u2019s lute,\n    And changed me all to love from head to foot.\n    \u2019Twas but a moment\u2019s touch, yet shall Time ever\n    To me the debt of thanksgiving impute.\u201d\n\nIt is an axiom of the S\u016bf\u012bs that what is not _in_ a man he cannot\nknow. The gnostic--Man _par excellence_--could not know God and all\nthe mysteries of the universe, unless he found them in himself. He is\nthe microcosm, \u2018a copy made in the image of God,\u2019 \u2018the eye of the\nworld whereby God sees His own works.\u2019 In knowing himself as he really\nis, he knows God, and he knows himself through God, who is nearer to\neverything than its knowledge of itself. Knowledge of God precedes, and\nis the cause of, self-knowledge.\n\nGnosis, then, is unification, realisation of the fact that the\nappearance of \u2018otherness\u2019 beside Oneness is a false and deluding dream.\nGnosis lays this spectre, which haunts unenlightened men all their\nlives; which rises, like a wall of utter darkness, between them and\nGod. Gnosis proclaims that \u2018I\u2019 is a figure of speech, and that one\ncannot truly refer any will, feeling, thought, or action to one\u2019s self.\n\nNiffar\u012b heard the divine voice saying to him:\n\n        \u201cWhen thou regardest thyself as existent and dost not regard Me\n    as the Cause of thy existence, I veil My face and thine own face\n    appears to thee. Therefore consider what is displayed to thee, and\n    what is hidden from thee!\u201d\n\n        [If a man regards himself as existing through God, that which\n    is of God in him predominates over the phenomenal element and\n    makes it pass away, so that he sees nothing but God. If, on the\n    contrary, he regards himself as having an independent existence,\n    his unreal egoism is displayed to him and the reality of God\n    becomes hidden from him.]\n\n        \u201cRegard neither My displaying nor that which is displayed, else\n    thou wilt laugh and weep; and when thou laughest and weepest, thou\n    art thine, not Mine.\u201d\n\n        [He who regards the act of divine revelation is guilty of\n    polytheism, since revelation involves both a revealing subject and\n    a revealed object; and he who regards the revealed object which\n    is part of the created universe, regards something other than\n    God. Laughter signifies joy for what you have gained, and weeping\n    denotes grief for what you have lost. Both are selfish actions. The\n    gnostic neither laughs nor weeps.]\n\n        \u201cIf thou dost not put behind thee all that I have displayed and\n    am displaying, thou wilt not prosper; and unless thou prosper, thou\n    wilt not become concentrated upon Me.\u201d\n\n        [Prosperity is true belief in God, which requires complete\n    abstraction from created things.]\n\nLogically, these doctrines annul every moral and religious law. In the\ngnostic\u2019s vision there are no divine rewards and punishments, no human\nstandards of right and wrong. For him, the written word of God has\nbeen abrogated by a direct and intimate revelation.\n\n        \u201cI do not say,\u201d exclaimed Abu \u2019l-Hasan Khurq\u0101n\u012b, \u201cthat Paradise\n    and Hell are non-existent, but I say that they are nothing to me,\n    because God created them both, and there is no room for any created\n    object in the place where I am.\u201d\n\nFrom this standpoint all types of religion are equal, and Islam is no\nbetter than idolatry. It does not matter what creed a man professes or\nwhat rites he performs.\n\n    \u201cThe true mosque in a pure and holy heart\n    Is builded: there let all men worship God;\n    For there He dwells, not in a mosque of stone.\u201d\n\nAmidst all the variety of creeds and worshippers the gnostic sees but\none real object of worship.\n\n        \u201cThose who adore God in the sun\u201d (says Ibn al-\u02bfArab\u012b) \u201cbehold\n    the sun, and those who adore Him in living things see a living\n    thing, and those who adore Him in lifeless things see a lifeless\n    thing, and those who adore Him as a Being unique and unparalleled\n    see that which has no like. Do not attach yourself\u201d (he continues)\n    \u201cto any particular creed exclusively, so that you disbelieve in all\n    the rest; otherwise, you will lose much good, nay, you will fail\n    to recognise the real truth of the matter. God, the omnipresent\n    and omnipotent, is not limited by any one creed, for He says (Kor.\n    =2.= 109), \u2018Wheresoever ye turn, there is the face of Allah.\u2019 Every\n    one praises what he believes; his god is his own creature, and in\n    praising it he praises himself. Consequently he blames the beliefs\n    of others, which he would not do if he were just, but his dislike\n    is based on ignorance. If he knew Junayd\u2019s saying, \u2018The water takes\n    its colour from the vessel containing it,\u2019 he would not interfere\n    with other men\u2019s beliefs, but would perceive God in every form of\n    belief.\u201d\n\nAnd Hafiz sings, more in the spirit of the freethinker, perhaps, than\nof the mystic:\n\n    \u201cLove is where the glory falls\n    Of Thy face--on convent walls\n    Or on tavern floors, the same\n    Unextinguishable flame.\n\n    Where the turbaned anchorite\n    Chanteth Allah day and night,\n    Church bells ring the call to prayer\n    And the Cross of Christ is there.\u201d\n\nS\u016bfism may join hands with freethought--it has often done so--but\nhardly ever with sectarianism. This explains why the vast majority of\nS\u016bf\u012bs have been, at least nominally, attached to the catholic body of\nthe Moslem community. \u02bfAbdallah Ans\u0101r\u012b declared that of two thousand\nS\u016bf\u012b Sheykhs with whom he was acquainted only two were Sh\u012b\u02bfites. A\ncertain man who was a descendant of the Caliph \u02bfAl\u012b, and a fanatical\nSh\u012b\u02bfite, tells the following story:\n\n        \u201cFor five years,\u201d he said, \u201cmy father sent me daily to a\n    spiritual director. I learned one useful lesson from him: he told\n    me that I should never know anything at all about S\u016bfism until\n    I got completely rid of the pride which I felt on account of my\n    lineage.\u201d\n\nSuperficial observers have described B\u0101bism as an offshoot of\nS\u016bfism, but the dogmatism of the one is naturally opposed to the\nbroad eclecticism of the other. In proportion as the S\u016bf\u012b gains more\nknowledge of God, his religious prejudices are diminished. Sheykh \u02bfAbd\nal-Rah\u012bm ibn al-Sabb\u0101gh, who at first disliked living in Upper Egypt,\nwith its large Jewish and Christian population, said in his old age\nthat he would as readily embrace a Jew or Christian as one of his own\nfaith.\n\nWhile the innumerable forms of creed and ritual may be regarded as\nhaving a certain relative value in so far as the inward feeling which\ninspires them is ever one and the same, from another aspect they seem\nto be veils of the Truth, barriers which the zealous Unitarian must\nstrive to abolish and destroy.\n\n    \u201cThis world and that world are the egg, and the bird within it\n    Is in darkness and broken-winged and scorned and despised.\n    Regard unbelief and faith as the white and the yolk in this egg,\n    Between them, joining and dividing, a barrier which they shall\n        not pass.\n    When He hath graciously fostered the egg under His wing,\n    Infidelity and religion disappear: the bird of Unity spreads\n        its pinions.\u201d\n\nThe great Persian mystic, Ab\u016b Sa\u02bf\u012bd ibn Abi \u2019l-Khayr, speaking in\nthe name of the Calendars or wandering dervishes, expresses their\niconoclastic principles with astonishing boldness:\n\n    \u201cNot until every mosque beneath the sun\n    Lies ruined, will our holy work be done;\n    And never will true Musalm\u0101n appear\n    Till faith and infidelity are one.\u201d\n\nSuch open declarations of war against the Mohammedan religion are\nexceptional. Notwithstanding the breadth and depth of the gulf between\nfull-blown S\u016bfism and orthodox Islam, many, if not most, S\u016bf\u012bs have\npaid homage to the Prophet and have observed the outward forms of\ndevotion which are incumbent on all Moslems. They have invested these\nrites and ceremonies with a new meaning; they have allegorised them,\nbut they have not abandoned them. Take the pilgrimage, for example.\nIn the eyes of the genuine S\u016bf\u012b it is null and void unless each of\nthe successive religious acts which it involves is accompanied by\ncorresponding \u2018movements of the heart.\u2019\n\nA man who had just returned from the pilgrimage came to Junayd. Junayd\nsaid:\n\n        \u201cFrom the hour when you first journeyed from your home have you\n    also been journeying away from all sins?\u201d He said \u201cNo.\u201d \u201cThen,\u201d\n    said Junayd, \u201cyou have made no journey. At every stage where you\n    halted for the night did you traverse a station on the way to\n    God?\u201d \u201cNo,\u201d he replied. \u201cThen,\u201d said Junayd, \u201cyou have not trodden\n    the road, stage by stage. When you put on the pilgrim\u2019s garb at\n    the proper place, did you discard the qualities of human nature\n    as you cast off your clothes?\u201d \u201cNo.\u201d \u201cThen you have not put on\n    the pilgrim\u2019s garb. When you stood at \u02bfAraf\u0101t, did you stand one\n    moment in contemplation of God?\u201d \u201cNo.\u201d \u201cThen you have not stood at\n    \u02bfAraf\u0101t. When you went to Muzdalifa and achieved your desire, did\n    you renounce all sensual desires?\u201d \u201cNo.\u201d \u201cThen you have not gone\n    to Muzdalifa. When you circumambulated the Ka\u02bfba, did you behold\n    the immaterial beauty of God in the abode of purification?\u201d \u201cNo.\u201d\n    \u201cThen you have not circumambulated the Ka\u02bfba. When you ran between\n    Saf\u0101 and Marwa, did you attain to purity (_saf\u0101_) and virtue\n    (_muruwwat_)?\u201d \u201cNo.\u201d \u201cThen you have not run. When you came to Min\u0101,\n    did all your wishes (_mun\u0101_) cease?\u201d \u201cNo.\u201d \u201cThen you have not yet\n    visited Min\u0101. When you reached the slaughter-place and offered\n    sacrifice, did you sacrifice the objects of worldly desire?\u201d \u201cNo.\u201d\n    \u201cThen you have not sacrificed. When you threw the pebbles, did you\n    throw away whatever sensual thoughts were accompanying you?\u201d \u201cNo.\u201d\n    \u201cThen you have not yet thrown the pebbles, and you have not yet\n    performed the pilgrimage.\u201d\n\nThis anecdote contrasts the outer religious law of theology with the\ninner spiritual truth of mysticism, and shows that they should not be\ndivorced from each other.\n\n        \u201cThe Law without the Truth,\u201d says Hujw\u012br\u012b, \u201cis ostentation, and\n    the Truth without the Law is hypocrisy. Their mutual relation may\n    be compared to that of body and spirit: when the spirit departs\n    from the body, the living body becomes a corpse, and the spirit\n    vanishes like wind. The Moslem profession of faith includes both:\n    the words, \u2018There is no god but Allah,\u2019 are the Truth, and the\n    words, \u2018Mohammed is the apostle of Allah,\u2019 are the Law; any one who\n    denies the Truth is an infidel, and any one who rejects the Law is\n    a heretic.\u201d\n\nMiddle ways, though proverbially safe, are difficult to walk in; and\nonly by a _tour de force_ can the Koran be brought into line with the\nesoteric doctrine which the S\u016bf\u012bs derive from it. Undoubtedly they\nhave done a great work for Islam. They have deepened and enriched the\nlives of millions by ruthlessly stripping off the husk of religion\nand insisting that its kernel must be sought, not in any formal act,\nbut in cultivation of spiritual feelings and in purification of the\ninward man. This was a legitimate and most fruitful development of the\nProphet\u2019s teaching. But the Prophet was a strict monotheist, while\nthe S\u016bf\u012bs, whatever they may pretend or imagine, are theosophists,\npantheists, or monists. When they speak and write as believers in\nthe dogmas of positive religion, they use language which cannot be\nreconciled with such a theory of unity as we are now examining.\n\u02bfAf\u012bfudd\u012bn al-Tilims\u0101n\u012b, from whose commentary on Niffar\u012b I have given\nsome extracts in this chapter, said roundly that the whole Koran is\npolytheism--a perfectly just statement from the monistic point of view,\nthough few S\u016bf\u012bs have dared to be so explicit.\n\nThe mystic Unitarians admit the appearance of contradiction, but deny\nits reality. \u201cThe Law and the Truth\u201d (they might say) \u201care the same\nthing in different aspects. The Law is for you, the Truth for us. In\naddressing you we speak according to the measure of your understanding,\nsince what is meat for gnostics is poison to the uninitiated, and the\nhighest mysteries ought to be jealously guarded from profane ears. It\nis only human reason that sees the single as double, and balances the\nLaw against the Truth. Pass away from the world of opposites and become\none with God, who has no opposite.\u201d\n\nThe gnostic recognises that the Law is valid and necessary in the\nmoral sphere. While good and evil remain, the Law stands over both,\ncommanding and forbidding, rewarding and punishing. He knows, on the\nother hand, that only God really exists and acts: therefore, if evil\nreally exists, it must be divine, and if evil things are really done,\nGod must be the doer of them. The conclusion is false because the\nhypothesis is false. Evil has no real existence; it is not-being, which\nis the privation and absence of being, just as darkness is the absence\nof light. \u201cOnce,\u201d said N\u016br\u012b, \u201cI beheld the Light, and I fixed my gaze\nupon it until I became the Light.\u201d No wonder that such illuminated\nsouls, supremely indifferent to the shadow-shows of religion and\nmorality in a phantom world, are ready to cry with Jal\u0101ludd\u012bn:\n\n    \u201cThe man of God is made wise by the Truth,\n    The man of God is not learned from book.\n    The man of God is beyond infidelity and faith,\n    To the man of God right and wrong are alike.\u201d\n\nIt must be borne in mind that this is a theory of perfection, and\nthat those whom it exalts above the Law are saints, spiritual guides,\nand profound theosophists who enjoy the special favour of God and\npresumably do not need to be restrained, coerced, or punished. In\npractice, of course, it leads in many instances to antinomianism and\nlibertinism, as among the Bekt\u0101sh\u012bs and other orders of the so-called\n\u2018lawless\u2019 dervishes. The same theories produced the same results in\nEurope during the Middle Ages, and the impartial historian cannot\nignore the corruptions to which a purely subjective mysticism is\nliable; but on the present occasion we are concerned with the rose\nitself, not with its cankers.\n\nNot all S\u016bf\u012bs are gnostics; and, as I have mentioned before, those who\nare not yet ripe for the gnosis receive from their gnostic teachers the\nethical instruction suitable to their needs. Jal\u0101ludd\u012bn R\u016bm\u012b, in his\ncollection of lyrical poems entitled _The D\u012bv\u0101n of Shamsi Tabr\u012bz_,\ngives free rein to a pantheistic enthusiasm which sees all things under\nthe form of eternity.\n\n    \u201cI have put duality away, I have seen that the two worlds are one;\n    One I seek, One I know, One I see, One I call.\n    I am intoxicated with Love\u2019s cup, the two worlds have passed out\n        of my ken;\n    I have no business save carouse and revelry.\u201d\n\nBut in his _Masnav\u012b_--a work so famous and venerated that it has\nbeen styled \u2018The Koran of Persia\u2019--we find him in a more sober mood\nexpounding the S\u016bf\u012b doctrines and justifying the ways of God to man.\nHere, though he is a convinced optimist and agrees with Ghaz\u0101l\u012b that\nthis is the best of all possible worlds, he does not airily dismiss\nthe problem of evil as something outside reality, but endeavours to\nshow that evil, or what seems evil to us, is part of the divine order\nand harmony. I will quote some passages of his argument and leave my\nreaders to judge how far it is successful or, at any rate, suggestive.\n\nThe S\u016bf\u012bs, it will be remembered, conceive the universe as a projected\nand reflected image of God. The divine light, streaming forth in a\nseries of emanations, falls at last upon the darkness of not-being,\nevery atom of which reflects some attribute of Deity. For instance,\nthe beautiful attributes of love and mercy are reflected in the form\nof heaven and the angels, while the terrible attributes of wrath\nand vengeance are reflected in the form of hell and the devils. Man\nreflects all the attributes, the terrible as well as the beautiful: he\nis an epitome of heaven and hell. Omar Khayy\u0101m alludes to this theory\nwhen he says:\n\n    \u201cHell is a spark from our fruitless pain,\n    Heaven a breath from our time of joy\u201d\n\n--a couplet which FitzGerald moulded into the magnificent stanza:\n\n    \u201cHeav\u2019n but the Vision of fulfilled Desire,\n    And Hell the Shadow from a Soul on fire,\n      Cast on the Darkness into which Ourselves\n    So late emerged from, shall so soon expire.\u201d\n\nJal\u0101ludd\u012bn, therefore, does in a sense make God the author of evil,\nbut at the same time he makes evil intrinsically good in relation to\nGod--for it is the reflexion of certain divine attributes which in\nthemselves are absolutely good. So far as evil is really evil, it\nsprings from not-being. The poet assigns a different value to this\nterm in its relation to God and in its relation to man. In respect of\nGod not-being is nothing, for God is real Being, but in man it is the\nprinciple of evil which constitutes half of human nature. In the one\ncase it is a pure negation, in the other it is positively and actively\npernicious. We need not quarrel with the poet for coming to grief in\nhis logic. There are some occasions when intense moral feeling is worth\nany amount of accurate thinking.\n\nIt is evident that the doctrine of divine unity implies predestination.\nWhere God is and naught beside Him, there can be no other agent than\nHe, no act but His. \u201cThou didst not throw, when thou threwest, but God\nthrew\u201d (Kor. =8.= 17). Compulsion is felt only by those who do not\nlove. To know God is to love Him; and the gnostic may answer, like the\ndervish who was asked how he fared:\n\n    \u201cI fare as one by whose majestic will\n    The world revolves, floods rise and rivers flow,\n    Stars in their courses move; yea, death and life\n    Hang on his nod and fly to the ends of earth,\n    His ministers of mourning or of joy.\u201d\n\nThis is the Truth; but for the benefit of such as cannot bear it,\nJal\u0101ludd\u012bn vindicates the justice of God by asserting that men have\nthe power to choose how they will act, although their freedom is\nsubordinate to the divine will. Approaching the question, \u201cWhy does God\nordain and create evil?\u201d he points out that things are known through\ntheir opposites, and that the existence of evil is necessary for the\nmanifestation of good.\n\n    \u201cNot-being and defect, wherever seen,\n    Are mirrors of the beauty of all that is.\n    The bone-setter, where should he try his skill\n    But on the patient lying with broken leg?\n    Were no base copper in the crucible,\n    How could the alchemist his craft display?\u201d\n\nMoreover, the divine omnipotence would not be completely realised if\nevil had remained uncreated.\n\n    \u201cHe is the source of evil, as thou sayest,\n    Yet evil hurts Him not. To make that evil\n    Denotes in Him perfection. Hear from me\n    A parable. The heavenly Artist paints\n    Beautiful shapes and ugly: in one picture\n    The loveliest women in the land of Egypt\n    Gazing on youthful Joseph amorously;\n    And lo, another scene by the same hand,\n    Hell-fire and Ibl\u012bs with his hideous crew:\n    Both master-works, created for good ends,\n    To show His perfect wisdom and confound\n    The sceptics who deny His mastery.\n    Could He not evil make, He would lack skill;\n    Therefore He fashions infidel alike\n    And Moslem true, that both may witness bear\n    To Him, and worship One Almighty Lord.\u201d\n\nIn reply to the objection that a God who creates evil must Himself be\nevil, Jal\u0101ludd\u012bn, pursuing the analogy drawn from Art, remarks that\nugliness in the picture is no evidence of ugliness in the painter.\n\nAgain, without evil it would be impossible to win the proved virtue\nwhich is the reward of self-conquest. Bread must be broken before\nit can serve as food, and grapes will not yield wine till they are\ncrushed. Many men are led through tribulation to happiness. As evil\nebbs, good flows. Finally, much evil is only apparent. What seems a\ncurse to one may be a blessing to another; nay, evil itself is turned\nto good for the righteous. Jal\u0101ludd\u012bn will not admit that anything is\nabsolutely bad.\n\n    \u201cFools buy false coins because they are like the true.\n    If in the world no genuine minted coin\n    Were current, how would forgers pass the false?\n    Falsehood were nothing unless truth were there,\n    To make it specious. \u2019Tis the love of right\n    Lures men to wrong. Let poison but be mixed\n    With sugar, they will cram it into their mouths.\n    Oh, cry not that all creeds are vain! Some scent\n    Of truth they have, else they would not beguile.\n    Say not, \u2018How utterly fantastical!\u2019\n    No fancy in the world is all untrue.\n    Amongst the crowd of dervishes hides one,\n    One true fak\u012br. Search well and thou wilt find!\u201d\n\nSurely this is a noteworthy doctrine. Jal\u0101ludd\u012bn died only a few years\nafter the birth of Dante, but the Christian poet falls far below the\nlevel of charity and tolerance reached by his Moslem contemporary.\n\nHow is it possible to discern the soul of goodness in things evil? By\nmeans of love, says Jal\u0101ludd\u012bn, and the knowledge which love alone can\ngive, according to the word of God in the holy Tradition:\n\n        \u201cMy servant draws nigh unto Me, and I love him; and when I love\n    him, I am his ear, so that he hears by Me, and his eye, so that he\n    sees by Me, and his tongue, so that he speaks by Me, and his hand,\n    so that he takes by Me.\u201d\n\nAlthough it will be convenient to treat of mystical love in a separate\nchapter, the reader must not fancy that a new subject is opening before\nhim. Gnosis and love are spiritually identical; they teach the same\ntruths in different language.\n\n\n\n\n  CHAPTER IV\n\n  DIVINE LOVE\n\n\nAny one acquainted, however slightly, with the mystical poetry of Islam\nmust have remarked that the aspiration of the soul towards God is\nexpressed, as a rule, in almost the same terms which might be used by\nan Oriental Anacreon or Herrick. The resemblance, indeed, is often so\nclose that, unless we have some clue to the poet\u2019s intention, we are\nleft in doubt as to his meaning. In some cases, perhaps, the ambiguity\nserves an artistic purpose, as in the odes of Hafiz, but even when\nthe poet is not deliberately keeping his readers suspended between\nearth and heaven, it is quite easy to mistake a mystical hymn for a\ndrinking-song or a serenade. Ibn al-\u02bfArab\u012b, the greatest theosophist\nwhom the Arabs have produced, found himself obliged to write a\ncommentary on some of his poems in order to refute the scandalous\ncharge that they were designed to celebrate the charms of his mistress.\nHere are a few lines:\n\n    \u201cOh, her beauty--the tender maid! Its brilliance gives light like\n        lamps to one travelling in the dark.\n    She is a pearl hidden in a shell of hair as black as jet,\n    A pearl for which Thought dives and remains unceasingly in the\n        deeps of that ocean.\n    He who looks upon her deems her to be a gazelle of the sand-hills,\n        because of her shapely neck and the loveliness of her gestures.\u201d\n\nIt has been said that the S\u016bf\u012bs invented this figurative style as a\nmask for mysteries which they desired to keep secret. That desire\nwas natural in those who proudly claimed to possess an esoteric\ndoctrine known only to themselves; moreover, a plain statement of\nwhat they believed might have endangered their liberties, if not\ntheir lives. But, apart from any such motives, the S\u016bf\u012bs adopt the\nsymbolic style because there is no other possible way of interpreting\nmystical experience. So little does knowledge of the infinite revealed\nin ecstatic vision need an artificial disguise that it cannot be\ncommunicated at all except through types and emblems drawn from the\nsensible world, which, imperfect as they are, may suggest and shadow\nforth a deeper meaning than appears on the surface. \u201cGnostics,\u201d says\nIbn al-\u02bfArab\u012b, \u201ccannot impart their feelings to other men; they can\nonly indicate them symbolically to those who have begun to experience\nthe like.\u201d What kind of symbolism each mystic will prefer depends\non his temperament and character. If he be a religious artist, a\nspiritual poet, his ideas of reality are likely to clothe themselves\ninstinctively in forms of beauty and glowing images of human love.\nTo him the rosy cheek of the beloved represents the divine essence\nmanifested through its attributes; her dark curls signify the One\nveiled by the Many; when he says, \u201cDrink wine that it may set you free\nfrom yourself,\u201d he means, \u201cLose your phenomenal self in the rapture of\ndivine contemplation.\u201d I might fill pages with further examples.\n\nThis erotic and bacchanalian symbolism is not, of course, peculiar\nto the mystical poetry of Islam, but nowhere else is it displayed so\nopulently and in such perfection. It has often been misunderstood by\nEuropean critics, one of whom even now can describe the ecstasies\nof the S\u016bf\u012bs as \u201cinspired partly by wine and strongly tinged with\nsensuality.\u201d As regards the whole body of S\u016bf\u012bs, the charge is\naltogether false. No intelligent and unprejudiced student of their\nwritings could have made it, and we ought to have been informed on what\nsort of evidence it is based. There are black sheep in every flock, and\namongst the S\u016bf\u012bs we find many hypocrites, debauchees, and drunkards\nwho bring discredit on the pure brethren. But it is just as unfair to\njudge S\u016bfism in general by the excesses of these impostors as it would\nbe to condemn all Christian mysticism on the ground that certain sects\nand individuals are immoral.\n\n    \u201cGod is the S\u0101q\u012b[10] and the Wine:\n    He knows what manner of love is mine,\u201d\n\nsaid Jal\u0101ludd\u012bn. Ibn al-\u02bfArab\u012b declares that no religion is more\nsublime than a religion of love and longing for God. Love is the\nessence of all creeds: the true mystic welcomes it whatever guise it\nmay assume.\n\n[10] Cupbearer.\n\n    \u201cMy heart has become capable of every form: it is a pasture for\n        gazelles and a convent for Christian monks,\n    And a temple for idols, and the pilgrim\u2019s Ka\u02bfba, and the tables\n        of the Tora and the book of the Koran.\n    I follow the religion of Love, whichever way his camels take. My\n        religion and my faith is the true religion.\n    We have a pattern in Bishr, the lover of Hind and her sister, and\n        in Qays and Lubn\u0101, and in Mayya and Ghayl\u0101n.\u201d\n\nCommenting on the last verse, the poet writes:\n\n        \u201cLove, _qu\u00e2_ love, is one and the same reality to those Arab\n    lovers and to me; but the objects of our love are different,\n    for they loved a phenomenon, whereas I love the Real. They are\n    a pattern to us, because God only afflicted them with love for\n    human beings in order that He might show, by means of them, the\n    falseness of those who pretend to love Him, and yet feel no such\n    transport and rapture in loving Him as deprived those enamoured men\n    of their reason, and made them unconscious of themselves.\u201d\n\nMost of the great medieval S\u016bf\u012bs lived saintly lives, dreaming of God,\nintoxicated with God. When they tried to tell their dreams, being men,\nthey used the language of men. If they were also literary artists,\nthey naturally wrote in the style of their own day and generation. In\nmystical poetry the Arabs yield the palm to the Persians. Any one who\nwould read the secret of S\u016bfism, no longer encumbered with theological\narticles nor obscured by metaphysical subtleties--let him turn to\n\u02bfAtt\u0101r, Jal\u0101ludd\u012bn R\u016bm\u012b, and J\u0101m\u012b, whose works are partially accessible\nin English and other European languages. To translate these wonderful\nhymns is to break their melody and bring their soaring passion down to\nearth, but not even a prose translation can quite conceal the love of\nTruth and the vision of Beauty which inspired them. Listen again to\nJal\u0101ludd\u012bn:\n\n    \u201cHe comes, a moon whose like the sky ne\u2019er saw, awake or dreaming,\n      Crowned with eternal flame no flood can lay.\n    Lo, from the flagon of Thy love, O Lord, my soul is swimming,\n      And ruined all my body\u2019s house of clay.\n    When first the Giver of the grape my lonely heart befriended,\n      Wine fired my bosom and my veins filled up,\n    But when His image all mine eye possessed, a voice descended,\n      \u2018Well done, O sovereign Wine and peerless Cup!\u2019\u201d\n\nThe love thus symbolised is the emotional element in religion, the\nrapture of the seer, the courage of the martyr, the faith of the\nsaint, the only basis of moral perfection and spiritual knowledge.\nPractically, it is self-renunciation and self-sacrifice, the giving up\nof all possessions--wealth, honour, will, life, and whatever else men\nvalue--for the Beloved\u2019s sake without any thought of reward. I have\nalready referred to love as the supreme principle in S\u016bf\u012b ethics, and\nnow let me give some illustrations.\n\n        \u201cLove,\u201d says Jal\u0101ludd\u012bn, \u201cis the remedy of our pride and\n    self-conceit, the physician of all our infirmities. Only he whose\n    garment is rent by love becomes entirely unselfish.\u201d\n\nN\u016br\u012b, Raqq\u0101m, and other S\u016bf\u012bs were accused of heresy and sentenced to\ndeath.\n\n        \u201cWhen the executioner approached Raqq\u0101m, N\u016br\u012b rose and offered\n    himself in his friend\u2019s place with the utmost cheerfulness and\n    submission. All the spectators were astounded. The executioner\n    said, \u2018Young man, the sword is not a thing that people are so eager\n    to meet; and your turn has not yet arrived.\u2019 N\u016br\u012b answered, \u2018My\n    religion is founded on unselfishness. Life is the most precious\n    thing in the world: I wish to sacrifice for my brethren\u2019s sake the\n    few moments which remain.\u2019\u201d\n\nOn another occasion N\u016br\u012b was overheard praying as follows:\n\n        \u201cO Lord, in Thy eternal knowledge and power and will Thou dost\n    punish the people of Hell whom Thou hast created; and if it be Thy\n    inexorable will to make Hell full of mankind, Thou art able to fill\n    it with me alone, and to send them to Paradise.\u201d\n\nIn proportion as the S\u016bf\u012b loves God, he sees God in all His creatures,\nand goes forth to them in acts of charity. Pious works are naught\nwithout love.\n\n    \u201cCheer one sad heart: thy loving deed will be\n    More than a thousand temples raised by thee.\n    One freeman whom thy kindness hath enslaved\n    Outweighs by far a thousand slaves set free.\u201d\n\nThe Moslem _Legend of the Saints_ abounds in tales of pity shown to\nanimals (including the despised dog), birds, and even insects. It is\nrelated that B\u0101yaz\u012bd purchased some cardamom seed at Hamadh\u0101n, and\nbefore departing put into his gaberdine a small quantity which was left\nover. On reaching Bist\u0101m and recollecting what he had done, he took out\nthe seed and found that it contained a number of ants. Saying, \u201cI have\ncarried the poor creatures away from their home,\u201d he immediately set\noff and journeyed back to Hamadh\u0101n--a distance of several hundred miles.\n\nThis universal charity is one of the fruits of pantheism. The ascetic\nview of the world which prevailed amongst the early S\u016bf\u012bs, and their\nvivid consciousness of God as a transcendent Personality rather than\nas an immanent Spirit, caused them to crush their human affections\nrelentlessly. Here is a short story from the life of Fudayl ibn \u02bfIy\u0101d.\nIt would be touching if it were not so edifying.\n\n        \u201cOne day he had in his lap a child four years old, and chanced\n    to give it a kiss, as is the way of fathers. The child said,\n    \u2018Father, do you love me?\u2019 \u2018Yes,\u2019 said Fudayl. \u2018Do you love God?\u2019\n    \u2018Yes.\u2019 \u2018How many hearts have you?\u2019 \u2018One.\u2019 \u2018Then,\u2019 asked the child,\n    \u2018how can you love two with one heart?\u2019 Fudayl perceived that the\n    child\u2019s words were a divine admonition. In his zeal for God he\n    began to beat his head and repented of his love for the child, and\n    gave his heart wholly to God.\u201d\n\nThe higher S\u016bf\u012b mysticism, as represented by Jal\u0101ludd\u012bn R\u016bm\u012b, teaches\nthat the phenomenal is a bridge to the Real.\n\n    \u201cWhether it be of this world or of that,\n    Thy love will lead thee yonder at the last.\u201d\n\nAnd J\u0101m\u012b says, in a passage which has been translated by Professor\nBrowne:\n\n    \u201cEven from earthly love thy face avert not,\n    Since to the Real it may serve to raise thee.\n    Ere A, B, C are rightly apprehended,\n    How canst thou con the pages of thy Koran?\n    A sage (so heard I), unto whom a student\n    Came craving counsel on the course before him,\n    Said, \u2018If thy steps be strangers to love\u2019s pathways,\n    Depart, learn love, and then return before me!\n    For, shouldst thou fear to drink wine from Form\u2019s flagon,\n    Thou canst not drain the draught of the Ideal.\n    But yet beware! Be not by Form belated:\n    Strive rather with all speed the bridge to traverse.\n    If to the bourne thou fain wouldst bear thy baggage,\n    Upon the bridge let not thy footsteps linger.\u2019\u201d\n\nEmerson sums up the meaning of this where he says:\n\n        \u201cBeholding in many souls the traits of the divine beauty, and\n    separating in each soul that which is divine from the taint which\n    it has contracted in the world, the lover ascends to the highest\n    beauty, to the love and knowledge of the Divinity, by steps on this\n    ladder of created souls.\u201d\n\n        \u201cMan\u2019s love of God,\u201d says Hujw\u012br\u012b, \u201cis a quality which\n    manifests itself, in the heart of the pious believer, in the form\n    of veneration and magnification, so that he seeks to satisfy his\n    Beloved and becomes impatient and restless in his desire for\n    vision of Him, and cannot rest with any one except Him, and grows\n    familiar with the recollection of Him, and abjures the recollection\n    of everything besides. Repose becomes unlawful to him, and rest\n    flees from him. He is cut off from all habits and associations, and\n    renounces sensual passion, and turns towards the court of love,\n    and submits to the law of love, and knows God by His attributes of\n    perfection.\u201d\n\nInevitably such a man will love his fellow-men. Whatever cruelty they\ninflict upon him, he will perceive only the chastening hand of God,\n\u201cwhose bitters are very sweets to the soul.\u201d B\u0101yaz\u012bd said that when\nGod loves a man, He endows him with three qualities in token thereof:\na bounty like that of the sea, a sympathy like that of the sun, and\na humility like that of the earth. No suffering can be too great, no\ndevotion too high, for the piercing insight and burning faith of a true\nlover.\n\nIbn al-\u02bfArab\u012b claims that Islam is peculiarly the religion of love,\ninasmuch as the Prophet Mohammed is called God\u2019s beloved (_Hab\u012bb_),\nbut though some traces of this doctrine occur in the Koran, its main\nimpulse was unquestionably derived from Christianity. While the oldest\nS\u016bf\u012b literature, which is written in Arabic and unfortunately has come\ndown to us in a fragmentary state, is still dominated by the Koranic\ninsistence on fear of Allah, it also bears conspicuous marks of the\nopposing Christian tradition. As in Christianity, through Dionysius\nand other writers of the Neoplatonic school, so in Islam, and probably\nunder the same influence, the devotional and mystical love of God soon\ndeveloped into ecstasy and enthusiasm which finds in the sensuous\nimagery of human love the most suggestive medium for its expression.\nDr. Inge observes that the S\u016bf\u012bs \u201cappear, like true Asiatics, to\nhave attempted to give a sacramental and symbolic character to the\nindulgence of their passions.\u201d I need not again point out that such a\nview of genuine S\u016bfism is both superficial and incorrect.\n\nLove, like gnosis, is in its essence a divine gift, not anything that\ncan be acquired. \u201cIf the whole world wished to attract love, they could\nnot; and if they made the utmost efforts to repel it, they could not.\u201d\nThose who love God are those whom God loves. \u201cI fancied that I loved\nHim,\u201d said B\u0101yaz\u012bd, \u201cbut on consideration I saw that His love preceded\nmine.\u201d Junayd defined love as the substitution of the qualities of the\nBeloved for the qualities of the lover. In other words, love signifies\nthe passing-away of the individual self; it is an uncontrollable\nrapture, a God-sent grace which must be sought by ardent prayer and\naspiration.\n\n    \u201cO Thou in whose bat well-curved my heart like a ball is laid,\n    Nor ever a hairbreadth swerved from Thy bidding nor disobeyed,\n    I have washed mine outward clean, the water I drew and poured;\n    Mine inward is Thy demesne--do Thou keep it stainless, Lord!\u201d\n\nJal\u0101ludd\u012bn teaches that man\u2019s love is really the effect of God\u2019s love\nby means of an apologue. One night a certain devotee was praying aloud,\nwhen Satan appeared to him and said:\n\n        \u201cHow long wilt thou cry, \u2018O Allah\u2019? Be quiet, for thou wilt get\n    no answer.\u201d The devotee hung his head in silence. After a little\n    while he had a vision of the prophet Khadir, who said to him, \u201cAh,\n    why hast thou ceased to call on God?\u201d \u201cBecause the answer \u2018Here am\n    I\u2019 came not,\u201d he replied. Khadir said, \u201cGod hath ordered me to go\n    to thee and say this:\n\n    \u201c\u2018Was it not I that summoned thee to service?\n    Did not I make thee busy with My name?\n    Thy calling \u201cAllah!\u201d _was_ My \u201cHere am I,\u201d\n    Thy yearning pain My messenger to thee.\n    Of all those tears and cries and supplications\n    I was the magnet, and I gave them wings.\u2019\u201d\n\nDivine love is beyond description, yet its signs are manifest. Sar\u012b\nal-Saqat\u012b questioned Junayd concerning the nature of love.\n\n        \u201cSome say,\u201d he answered, \u201cthat it is a state of concord, and\n    some say that it is altruism, and some say that it is so-and-so.\u201d\n    Sar\u012b took hold of the skin on his forearm and pulled it, but it\n    would not stretch; then he said, \u201cI swear by the glory of God, were\n    I to say that this skin hath shrivelled on this bone for love of\n    Him, I should be telling the truth.\u201d Thereupon he fainted away, and\n    his face became like a shining moon.\n\nLove, \u2018the astrolabe of heavenly mysteries,\u2019 inspires all religion\nworthy of the name, and brings with it, not reasoned belief, but\nthe intense conviction arising from immediate intuition. This inner\nlight is its own evidence; he who sees it has real knowledge, and\nnothing can increase or diminish his certainty. Hence the S\u016bf\u012bs never\nweary of exposing the futility of a faith which supports itself on\nintellectual proofs, external authority, self-interest, or self-regard\nof any kind. The barren dialectic of the theologian; the canting\nrighteousness of the Pharisee rooted in forms and ceremonies; the\nless crude but equally undisinterested worship of which the motive\nis desire to gain everlasting happiness in the life hereafter; the\nrelatively pure devotion of the mystic who, although he loves God, yet\nthinks of himself as loving, and whose heart is not wholly emptied of\n\u2018otherness\u2019--all these are \u2018veils\u2019 to be removed.\n\nA few sayings by those who know will be more instructive than further\nexplanation.\n\n        \u201cO God! whatever share of this world Thou hast allotted to me,\n    bestow it on Thine enemies; and whatever share of the next world\n    Thou hast allotted to me, bestow it on Thy friends. Thou art enough\n    for me.\u201d    (R\u0101bi\u02bfa.)\n\n        \u201cO God! if I worship Thee in fear of Hell, burn me in Hell; and\n    if I worship Thee in hope of Paradise, exclude me from Paradise;\n    but if I worship Thee for Thine own sake, withhold not Thine\n    everlasting beauty!\u201d    (R\u0101bi\u02bfa.)\n\n        \u201cNotwithstanding that the lovers of God are separated from Him\n    by their love, they have the essential thing, for whether they\n    sleep or wake, they seek and are sought, and are not occupied with\n    their own seeking and loving, but are enraptured in contemplation\n    of the Beloved. It is a crime in the lover to regard his love, and\n    an outrage in love to look at one\u2019s own seeking while one is face\n    to face with the Sought.\u201d    (B\u0101yaz\u012bd.)\n\n        \u201cHis love entered and removed all besides Him and left no\n    trace of anything else, so that it remained single even as He is\n    single.\u201d    (B\u0101yaz\u012bd.)\n\n        \u201cTo feel at one with God for a moment is better than all\n    men\u2019s acts of worship from the beginning to the end of the\n    world.\u201d    (Shibl\u012b.)\n\n        \u201cFear of the Fire, in comparison with fear of being parted\n    from the Beloved, is like a drop of water cast into the mightiest\n    ocean.\u201d    (Dhu \u2019l-N\u016bn.)\n\n    \u201cUnless I have the face of my heart towards Thee,\n    I deem prayer unworthy to be reckoned as prayer.\n    If I turn my face to the Ka\u02bfba, \u2019tis for love of Thine;\n    Otherwise I am quit both of prayer and Ka\u02bfba.\u201d\n                                           (Jal\u0101ludd\u012bn R\u016bm\u012b.)\n\nLove, again, is the divine instinct of the soul impelling it to realise\nits nature and destiny. The soul is the first-born of God: before the\ncreation of the universe it lived and moved and had its being in Him,\nand during its earthly manifestation it is a stranger in exile, ever\npining to return to its home.\n\n    \u201cThis is Love: to fly heavenward,\n    To rend, every instant, a hundred veils;\n    The first moment, to renounce life;\n    The last step, to fare without feet;\n    To regard this world as invisible,\n    Not to see what appears to one\u2019s self.\u201d\n\nAll the love-romances and allegories of S\u016bf\u012b poetry--the tales of Layl\u0101\nand Majn\u016bn, Y\u016bsuf (Joseph) and Zulaykh\u0101, Sal\u0101m\u0101n and Abs\u0101l, the Moth\nand the Candle, the Nightingale and the Rose--are shadow-pictures\nof the soul\u2019s passionate longing to be reunited with God. It is\nimpossible, in the brief space at my command, to give the reader more\nthan a passing glimpse of the treasures which the exuberant fancy of\nthe East has heaped together in every room of this enchanted palace.\nThe soul is likened to a moaning dove that has lost her mate; to a reed\ntorn from its bed and made into a flute whose plaintive music fills the\neye with tears; to a falcon summoned by the fowler\u2019s whistle to perch\nagain upon his wrist; to snow melting in the sun and mounting as vapour\nto the sky; to a frenzied camel swiftly plunging through the desert\nby night; to a caged parrot, a fish on dry land, a pawn that seeks to\nbecome a king.\n\nThese figures imply that God is conceived as transcendent, and that the\nsoul cannot reach Him without taking what Plotinus in a splendid phrase\ncalls \u201cthe flight of the Alone to the Alone.\u201d Jal\u0101ludd\u012bn says:\n\n    \u201cThe motion of every atom is towards its origin;\n    A man comes to be the thing on which he is bent.\n    By the attraction of fondness and yearning, the soul and the heart\n    Assume the qualities of the Beloved, who is the Soul of souls.\u201d\n\n\u2018A man comes to be the thing on which he is bent\u2019: what, then, does the\nS\u016bf\u012b become? Eckhart in one of his sermons quotes the saying of St.\nAugustine that Man _is_ what he loves, and adds this comment:\n\n        \u201cIf he loves a stone, he is a stone; if he loves a man, he is\n    a man; if he loves God--I dare not say more, for if I said that he\n    would then be God, ye might stone me.\u201d\n\nThe Moslem mystics enjoyed greater freedom of speech than their\nChristian brethren who owed allegiance to the medieval Catholic Church,\nand if they went too far the plea of ecstasy was generally accepted as\na sufficient excuse. Whether they emphasise the outward or the inward\naspect of unification, the transcendence or the immanence of God, their\nexpressions are bold and uncompromising. Thus Ab\u016b Sa\u02bf\u012bd:\n\n    \u201cIn my heart Thou dwellest--else with blood I\u2019ll drench it;\n    In mine eye Thou glowest--else with tears I\u2019ll quench it.\n    Only to be one with Thee my soul desireth--\n    Else from out my body, by hook or crook, I\u2019ll wrench it!\u201d\n\nJal\u0101ludd\u012bn R\u016bm\u012b proclaims that the soul\u2019s love of God is God\u2019s love of\nthe soul, and that in loving the soul God loves Himself, for He draws\nhome to Himself that which in its essence is divine.\n\n\u201cOur copper,\u201d says the poet, \u201chas been transmuted by this rare\nalchemy,\u201d meaning that the base alloy of self has been purified and\nspiritualised. In another ode he says:\n\n    \u201cO my soul, I searched from end to end: I saw in thee naught save\n        the Beloved;\n    Call me not infidel, O my soul, if I say that thou thyself art He.\u201d\n\nAnd yet more plainly:\n\n    \u201cYe who in search of God, of God, pursue,\n    Ye need not search for God is you, is you!\n    Why seek ye something that was missing ne\u2019er?\n    Save you none is, but you are--where, oh, where?\u201d\n\nWhere is the lover when the Beloved has displayed Himself? Nowhere and\neverywhere: his individuality has passed away from him. In the bridal\nchamber of Unity God celebrates the mystical marriage of the soul.\n\n\n\n\n  CHAPTER V\n\n  SAINTS AND MIRACLES\n\n\nLet us suppose that the average Moslem could read English, and that\nwe placed in his hands one of those admirable volumes published by\nthe Society for Psychical Research. In order to sympathise with his\nfeelings on such an occasion, we have only to imagine what our own\nwould be if a scientific friend invited us to study a treatise setting\nforth the evidence in favour of telegraphy and recording well-attested\ninstances of telegraphic communication. The Moslem would probably see\nin the telegraph some kind of spirit--an _afreet_ or _jinn\u012b_. Telepathy\nand similar occult phenomena he takes for granted as self-evident\nfacts. It would never occur to him to investigate them. There is\nsomething in the constitution of his mind that makes it impervious to\nthe idea that the supernatural may be subject to law. He believes,\nbecause he cannot help believing, in the reality of an unseen world\nwhich \u2018lies about us,\u2019 not in our infancy alone, but always and\neverywhere; a world from which we are in no wise excluded, accessible\nand in some measure revealed to all, though free and open intercourse\nwith it is a privilege enjoyed by few. Many are called but few chosen.\n\n    \u201cSpirits every night from the body\u2019s snare\n    Thou freest, and makest the tablets clean.[11]\n    Spirits are set free every night from this cage,\n    Independent, neither ruled nor ruling.\n    At night prisoners forget their prison,\n    At night kings forget their power:\n    No sorrow, no brooding over gain and loss,\n    No thought of this person or that person.\n    This is the state of the gnostic, even when he is awake;\n    God hath said, \u2018Thou wouldst deem them awake while they slept.\u2019[12]\n    He is asleep, day and night, to the affairs of the world,\n    Like a pen in the controlling hand of the Lord.\u201d\n\n[11] By erasing all the sensuous impressions which form a veil between\nthe soul and the world of reality.\n\n[12] Kor. =18.= 17.\n\nThe S\u016bf\u012bs have always declared and believed themselves to be God\u2019s\nchosen people. The Koran refers in several places to His elect.\nAccording to the author of the _Kit\u0101b al-Luma\u02bf_, this title belongs,\nfirstly, to the prophets, elect in virtue of their sinlessness,\ntheir inspiration, and their apostolic mission; and secondly, to\ncertain Moslems, elect in virtue of their sincere devotion and\nself-mortification and firm attachment to the eternal realities:\nin a word, the saints. While the S\u016bf\u012bs are the elect of the Moslem\ncommunity, the saints are the elect of the S\u016bf\u012bs.\n\nThe Mohammedan saint is commonly known as a _wal\u012b_ (plural, _awliy\u0101_).\nThis word is used in various senses derived from its root-meaning\nof \u2018nearness\u2019; _e.g._ next of kin, patron, protector, friend. It is\napplied in the Koran to God as the protector of the Faithful, to angels\nor idols who are supposed to protect their worshippers, and to men who\nare regarded as being specially under divine protection. Mohammed twits\nthe Jews with professing to be _prot\u00e9g\u00e9s_ of God (_awliy\u0101 lill\u0101h_).\nNotwithstanding its somewhat equivocal associations, the term was\ntaken over by the S\u016bf\u012bs and became the ordinary designation of persons\nwhose holiness brings them near to God, and who receive from Him, as\ntokens of His peculiar favour, miraculous gifts (_kar\u0101m\u0101t_, \u03c7\u03b1\u03c1\u03af\u03c3\u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1);\nthey are His friends, on whom \u201cno fear shall come and they shall not\ngrieve\u201d;[13] any injury done to them is an act of hostility against Him.\n\n[13] Kor. =10.= 63.\n\nThe inspiration of the Islamic saints, though verbally distinguished\nfrom that of the prophets and inferior in degree, is of the same kind.\nIn consequence of their intimate relation to God, the veil shrouding\nthe supernatural, or, as a Moslem would say, the unseen world, from\ntheir perceptions is withdrawn at intervals, and in their fits of\necstasy they rise to the prophetic level. Neither deep learning in\ndivinity, nor devotion to good works, nor asceticism, nor moral purity\nmakes the Mohammedan a saint; he may have all or none of these things,\nbut the only indispensable qualification is that ecstasy and rapture\nwhich is the outward sign of \u2018passing-away\u2019 from the phenomenal self.\nAny one thus enraptured (_majdh\u016bb_) is a _wal\u012b_,[14] and when such\npersons are recognised through their power of working miracles, they\nare venerated as saints not only after death but also during their\nlives. Often, however, they live and die in obscurity. Hujw\u012br\u012b tells\nus that amongst the saints \u201cthere are four thousand who are concealed\nand do not know one another and are not aware of the excellence of\ntheir state, being in all circumstances hidden from themselves and from\nmankind.\u201d\n\n[14] _Waliyyat_, if the saint is a woman.\n\nThe saints form an invisible hierarchy, on which the order of the\nworld is thought to depend. Its supreme head is entitled the _Qutb_\n(Axis). He is the most eminent S\u016bf\u012b of his age, and presides over the\nmeetings regularly held by this august parliament, whose members are\nnot hampered in their attendance by the inconvenient fictions of\ntime and space, but come together from all parts of the earth in the\ntwinkling of an eye, traversing seas and mountains and deserts as\neasily as common mortals step across a road. Below the _Qutb_ stand\nvarious classes and grades of sanctity. Hujw\u012br\u012b enumerates them, in\nascending series, as follows: three hundred _Akhy\u0101r_ (Good), forty\n_Abd\u0101l_ (Substitutes), seven _Abr\u0101r_ (Pious), four _Awt\u0101d_ (Supports),\nand three _Nuqab\u0101_ (Overseers).\n\n        \u201cAll these know one another and cannot act save by mutual\n    consent. It is the task of the _Awt\u0101d_ to go round the whole world\n    every night, and if there should be any place on which their eyes\n    have not fallen, next day some flaw will appear in that place,\n    and they must then inform the _Qutb_ in order that he may direct\n    his attention to the weak spot and that by his blessing the\n    imperfection may be remedied.\u201d\n\nWe are studying in this book the mystical life of the individual\nMoslem, and it is necessary to keep the subject within the narrowest\nbounds. Otherwise, I should have liked to dwell on the external and\nhistorical organisation of S\u016bfism as a school for saints, and to\ndescribe the process of evolution through which the _wal\u012b_ privately\nconversing with a small circle of friends became, first, a teacher\nand spiritual guide gathering disciples around him during his\nlifetime, and finally the head of a perpetual religious order which\nbore his name. The earliest of these great fraternities date from\nthe twelfth century. In addition to their own members--the so-called\n\u2018dervishes\u2019--each order has a large number of lay brethren attached\nto it, so that their influence pervades all ranks of Moslem society.\nThey are \u201cindependent and self-developing. There is rivalry between\nthem; but no one rules over the other. In faith and practice each goes\nits own way, limited only by the universal conscience of Islam. Thus\nstrange doctrines and grave moral defects easily develop unheeded,\nbut freedom is saved.\u201d[15] Of course, the typical _wal\u012b_ is incapable\nof founding an order, but Islam has produced no less frequently\nthan Christendom men who combine intense spiritual illumination\nwith creative energy and aptitude for affairs on a grand scale. The\nMohammedan notion of the saint as a person possessed by God allows a\nvery wide application of the term: in popular usage it extends from the\ngreatest S\u016bf\u012b theosophists, like Jal\u0101ludd\u012bn R\u016bm\u012b and Ibn al-\u02bfArab\u012b,\ndown to those who have gained sanctity only by losing sanity--victims\nof epilepsy and hysteria, half-witted idiots and harmless lunatics.\n\n[15] D. B. Macdonald, _The Religious Life and Attitude in Islam_, p.\n164.\n\nBoth Qushayr\u012b[16] and Hujw\u012br\u012b discuss the question whether a saint can\nbe conscious of his saintship, and answer it in the affirmative. Their\nopponents argue that consciousness of saintship involves assurance of\nsalvation, which is impossible, since no one can know with certainty\nthat he shall be among the saved on the Day of Judgment. In reply it\nwas urged that God may miraculously assure the saint of his predestined\nsalvation, while maintaining him in a state of spiritual soundness and\npreserving him from disobedience. The saint is not immaculate, as the\nprophets are, but the divine protection which he enjoys is a guarantee\nthat he will not persevere in evil courses, though he may temporarily\nbe led astray. According to the view generally held, saintship depends\non faith, not on conduct, so that no sin except infidelity can cause\nit to be forfeited. This perilous theory, which opens the door to\nantinomianism, was mitigated by the emphasis laid on fulfilment of the\nreligious law. The following anecdote of B\u0101yaz\u012bd al-Bist\u0101m\u012b shows the\nofficial attitude of all the leading S\u016bf\u012bs who are cited as authorities\nin the Moslem text-books.\n\n[16] Author of a famous work designed to close the breach between\nS\u016bfism and Islam. He died in 1074 A.D.\n\n        \u201cI was told (he said) that a saint of God was living in\n    such-and-such a town, and I set out to visit him. When I entered\n    the mosque, he came forth from his chamber and spat on the floor.\n    I turned back without saluting him, saying to myself, \u2018A saint\n    must keep the religious law in order that God may keep him in his\n    spiritual state. Had this man been a saint, his respect for the law\n    would have prevented him from spitting on the floor, or God would\n    have saved him from marring the grace vouchsafed to him.\u2019\u201d\n\nMany _wal\u012bs_, however, regard the law as a curb that is indeed\nnecessary so long as one remains in the disciplinary stage, but may be\ndiscarded by the saint. Such a person, they declare, stands on a higher\nplane than ordinary men, and is not to be condemned for actions which\noutwardly seem irreligious. While the older S\u016bf\u012bs insist that a _wal\u012b_\nwho breaks the law is thereby shown to be an impostor, the popular\nbelief in the saints and the rapid growth of saint-worship tended to\naggrandise the _wal\u012b_ at the expense of the law, and to foster the\nconviction that a divinely gifted man can do no wrong, or at least that\nhis actions must not be judged by appearances. The classical instance\nof this _jus divinum_ vested in the friends of God is the story of\nMoses and Khadir, which is related in the Koran (18. 64-80). Khadir\nor Khizr--the Koran does not mention him by name--is a mysterious\nsage endowed with immortality, who is said to enter into conversation\nwith wandering S\u016bf\u012bs and impart to them his God-given knowledge. Moses\ndesired to accompany him on a journey that he might profit by his\nteaching, and Khadir consented, only stipulating that Moses should ask\nno questions of him.\n\n        \u201cSo they both went on, till they embarked in a boat and he\n    (Khadir) staved it in. \u2018What!\u2019 cried Moses, \u2018hast thou staved it in\n    that thou mayst drown its crew? Verily, a strange thing hast thou\n    done.\u2019\n\n        \u201cHe said, \u2018Did not I tell thee that thou couldst no way have\n    patience with me?\u2019\n\n        \u201cThen they went on until they met a youth, and he slew him.\n    Said Moses, \u2018Hast thou slain him who is free from guilt of blood?\n    Surely now thou hast wrought an unheard-of thing!\u2019\u201d\n\nAfter Moses had broken his promise of silence for the third time,\nKhadir resolved to leave him.\n\n        \u201cBut first,\u201d he said, \u201cI will tell thee the meaning of that\n    with which thou couldst not have patience. As to the boat, it\n    belonged to poor men, toilers on the sea, and I was minded to\n    damage it, for in their rear was a king who seized on every boat\n    by force. And as to the youth, his parents were believers, and I\n    feared lest he should trouble them by error and unbelief.\u201d\n\nThe S\u016bf\u012bs are fond of quoting this unimpeachable testimony that the\n_wal\u012b_ is above human criticism, and that his hand, as Jal\u0101ludd\u012bn\nasserts, is even as the hand of God. Most Moslems admit the claim to be\nvalid in so far as they shrink from applying conventional standards of\nmorality to holy men. I have explained its metaphysical justification\nin an earlier chapter.\n\nA miracle performed by a saint is termed _kar\u0101m\u0101t_, _i.e._ a \u2018favour\u2019\nwhich God bestows upon him, whereas a miracle performed by a prophet is\ncalled _mu\u02bfjizat_, _i.e._ an act which cannot be imitated by any one.\nThe distinction originated in controversy, and was used to answer those\nwho held the miraculous powers of the saints to be a grave encroachment\non the prerogative of the Prophet. S\u016bf\u012b apologists, while confessing\nthat both kinds of miracle are substantially the same, take pains to\ndifferentiate the characteristics of each; they declare, moreover, that\nthe saints are the Prophet\u2019s witnesses, and that all their miracles\n(like \u2018a drop trickling from a full skin of honey\u2019) are in reality\nderived from him. This is the orthodox view and is supported by those\nMohammedan mystics who acknowledge the Law as well as the Truth,\nthough in some cases it may have amounted to little more than a pious\nopinion. We have often noticed the difficulty in which the S\u016bf\u012bs find\nthemselves when they try to make a logical compromise with Islam. But\nthe word \u2018logic\u2019 is very misleading in this connexion. The beginning\nof wisdom, for European students of Oriental religion, lies in the\ndiscovery that incongruous beliefs--I mean, of course, beliefs which\n_our_ minds cannot harmonise--dwell peacefully together in the Oriental\nbrain; that their owner is quite unconscious of their incongruity; and\nthat, as a rule, he is absolutely sincere. Contradictions which seem\nglaring to us do not trouble him at all.\n\nThe thaumaturgic element in ancient S\u016bfism was not so important as it\nafterwards became in the fully developed saint-worship associated with\nthe Dervish Orders. \u201cA saint would be none the less a saint,\u201d says\nQushayr\u012b, \u201cif no miracles were wrought by him in this world.\u201d In early\nMohammedan _Vit\u00e6 Sanctorum_ it is not uncommon to meet with sayings to\nthe effect that miraculous powers are comparatively of small account.\nIt was finely said by Sahl ibn \u02bfAbdallah that the greatest miracle\nis the substitution of a good quality for a bad one; and the _Kit\u0101b\nal-Luma\u02bf_ gives many examples of holy men who disliked miracles and\nregarded them as a temptation. \u201cDuring my novitiate,\u201d said B\u0101yaz\u012bd,\n\u201cGod used to bring before me wonders and miracles, but I paid no\nheed to them; and when He saw that I did so, He gave me the means of\nattaining to knowledge of Himself.\u201d Junayd observed that reliance on\nmiracles is one of the \u2018veils\u2019 which hinder the elect from penetrating\nto the inmost shrine of the Truth. This was too high doctrine for the\ngreat mass of Moslems, and in the end the vulgar idea of saintship\ntriumphed over the mystical and theosophical conception. All such\nwarnings and scruples were swept aside by the same irresistible\ninstinct which rendered vain the solemn asseverations of Mohammed that\nthere was nothing supernatural about him, and which transformed the\nhuman Prophet of history into an omnipotent hierophant and magician.\nThe popular demand for miracles far exceeded the supply, but where the\n_wal\u012bs_ failed, a vivid and credulous imagination came to their rescue\nand represented them, not as they were, but as they ought to be. Year\nby year the _Legend of the Saints_ grew more glorious and wonderful\nas it continued to draw fresh tribute from the unfathomable ocean of\nOriental romance. The pretensions made by the _wal\u012bs_, or on their\nbehalf, steadily increased, and the stories told of them were ever\nbecoming more fantastic and extravagant. I will devote the remainder\nof this chapter to a sketch of the _wal\u012b_ as he appears in the vast\nmedieval literature on the subject.\n\nThe Moslem saint does not say that he has wrought a miracle; he says,\n\u201ca miracle was granted or manifested to me.\u201d According to one view,\nhe may be fully conscious at the time, but many S\u016bf\u012bs hold that such\n\u2018manifestation\u2019 cannot take place except in ecstasy, when the saint is\nentirely under divine control. His own personality is then in abeyance,\nand those who interfere with him oppose the Almighty Power which\nspeaks with his lips and smites with his hand. Jal\u0101ludd\u012bn (who uses\nincidentally the rather double-edged analogy of a man possessed by a\nperi[17]) relates the following anecdote concerning B\u0101yaz\u012bd of Bist\u0101m,\na celebrated Persian saint who several times declared in ecstatic\nfrenzy that he was no other than God.\n\n[17] One of the spirits called collectively Jinn.\n\nAfter coming to himself on one of these occasions and learning what\nblasphemous language he had uttered, B\u0101yaz\u012bd ordered his disciples to\nstab him with their knives if he should offend again. Let me quote the\nsequel, from Mr. Whinfield\u2019s abridged translation of the _Masnav\u012b_ (p.\n196):\n\n    \u201cThe torrent of madness bore away his reason\n    And he spoke more impiously than before:\n    \u2018Within my vesture is naught but God,\n    Whether you seek Him on earth or in heaven.\u2019\n    His disciples all became mad with horror,\n    And struck with their knives at his holy body.\n    Each one who aimed at the body of the Sheykh--\n    His stroke was reversed and wounded the striker.\n    No stroke took effect on that man of spiritual gifts,\n    But the disciples were wounded and drowned in blood.\u201d\n\nHere is the poet\u2019s conclusion:\n\n    \u201cAh! you who smite with your sword him beside himself,\n    You smite yourself therewith. Beware!\n    For he that is beside himself is annihilated and safe;\n    Yea, he dwells in security for ever.\n    His form is vanished, he is a mere mirror;\n    Nothing is seen in him but the reflexion of another.\n    If you spit at it, you spit at your own face,\n    And if you hit that mirror, you hit yourself.\n    If you see an ugly face in it, \u2019tis your own,\n    And if you see a Jesus there, you are its mother Mary.\n    He is neither this nor that--he is void of form;\n    \u2019Tis your own form which is reflected back to you.\u201d\n\nThe life of Abu \u2019l-Hasan Khurq\u0101n\u012b, another Persian S\u016bf\u012b who died in\n1033 A.D., gives us a complete picture of the Oriental pantheist,\nand exhibits the mingled arrogance and sublimity of the character as\nclearly as could be desired. Since the original text covers fifty\npages, I can translate only a small portion of it here.\n\n        \u201cOnce the Sheykh said, \u2018This night a great many persons (he\n    mentioned the exact number) have been wounded by brigands in\n    such-and-such a desert.\u2019 On making inquiry, they found that his\n    statement was perfectly true. Strange to relate, on the same night\n    his son\u2019s head was cut off and laid upon the threshold of his\n    house, yet he knew nothing of it. His wife, who disbelieved in him,\n    cried, \u2018What think you of a man who can tell things which happen\n    many leagues away, but does not know that his own son\u2019s head has\n    been cut off and is lying at his very door?\u2019 \u2018Yes,\u2019 the Sheykh\n    answered, \u2018when I saw that, the veil had been lifted, but when my\n    son was killed, it had been let down again.\u2019\u201d\n\n        \u201cOne day Abu \u2019l-Hasan Khurq\u0101n\u012b clenched his fist and extended\n    the little finger and said, \u2018Here is the _qibla_,[18] if any one\n    desires to become a S\u016bf\u012b.\u2019 These words were reported to the Grand\n    Sheykh, who, deeming the co-existence of two _qiblas_ an insult to\n    the divine Unity, exclaimed, \u2018Since a second _qibla_ has appeared,\n    I will cancel the former one.\u2019 After that, no pilgrims were able to\n    reach Mecca. Some perished on the way, others fell into the hands\n    of robbers, or were prevented by various causes from accomplishing\n    their journey. Next year a certain dervish said to the Grand\n    Sheykh, \u2018What sense is there in keeping the folk away from the\n    House of God?\u2019 Thereupon the Grand Sheykh made a sign, and the road\n    became open once more. The dervish asked, \u2018Whose fault is it that\n    all these people have perished?\u2019 The Grand Sheykh replied, \u2018When\n    elephants jostle each other, who cares if a few wretched birds are\n    crushed to death?\u2019\u201d\n\n[18] The _qibla_ is the point to which Moslems turn their faces when\npraying, _i.e._ the Ka\u02bfba.\n\n        \u201cSome persons who were setting forth on a journey begged\n    Khurq\u0101n\u012b to teach them a prayer that would keep them safe from the\n    perils of the road. He said, \u2018If any misfortune should befall you,\n    mention my name.\u2019 This answer was not agreeable to them; they set\n    off, however, and while travelling were attacked by brigands. One\n    of the party mentioned the saint\u2019s name and immediately became\n    invisible, to the great astonishment of the brigands, who could\n    not find either his camel or his bales of merchandise; the others\n    lost all their clothes and goods. On returning home, they asked the\n    Sheykh to explain the mystery. \u2018We all invoked God,\u2019 they said,\n    \u2018and without success; but the one man who invoked you vanished from\n    before the eyes of the robbers.\u2019 \u2018You invoke God formally,\u2019 said\n    the Sheykh, \u2018whereas I invoke Him really. Hence, if you invoke me\n    and I then invoke God on your behalf, your prayers are granted; but\n    it is useless for you to invoke God formally and by rote.\u2019\u201d\n\n        \u201cOne night, while he was praying, he heard a voice cry, \u2018Ha!\n    Abu \u2019l-Hasan! Dost thou wish Me to tell the people what I know of\n    thee, that they may stone thee to death?\u2019 \u2018O Lord God,\u2019 he replied,\n    \u2018dost Thou wish me to tell the people what I know of Thy mercy and\n    what I perceive of Thy grace, that none of them may ever again bow\n    to Thee in prayer?\u2019 The voice answered, \u2018Keep thy secret, and I\n    will keep Mine.\u2019\u201d\n\n        \u201cHe said, \u2018O God, do not send to me the Angel of Death, for I\n    will not give up my soul to him. How should I restore it to him,\n    from whom I did not receive it? I received my soul from Thee, and I\n    will not give it up to any one but Thee.\u2019\u201d\n\n        \u201cHe said, \u2018After I shall have passed away, the Angel of Death\n    will come to one of my descendants and set about taking his soul,\n    and will deal hardly with him. Then will I raise my hands from the\n    tomb and shed the grace of God upon his lips.\u2019\u201d\n\n        \u201cHe said, \u2018If I bade the empyrean move, it would obey, and if\n    I told the sun to stop, it would cease from rolling on its course.\u2019\u201d\n\n        \u201cHe said, \u2018I am not a devotee nor an ascetic nor a theologian\n    nor a S\u016bf\u012b. O God, Thou art One, and through Thy Oneness I am One.\u2019\u201d\n\n        \u201cHe said, \u2018The skull of my head is the empyrean, and my feet\n    are under the earth, and my two hands are East and West.\u2019\u201d\n\n        \u201cHe said, \u2018If any one does not believe that I shall stand up at\n    the Resurrection and that he shall not enter Paradise until I lead\n    him forward, let him not come here to salute me.\u2019\u201d\n\n        \u201cHe said, \u2018Since God brought me forth from myself, Paradise\n    is in quest of me and Hell is in fear of me; and if Paradise and\n    Hell were to pass by this place where I am, both would become\n    annihilated in me, together with all the people whom they contain.\u2019\u201d\n\n        \u201cHe said, \u2018I was lying on my back, asleep. From a corner of\n    the Throne of God something trickled into my mouth, and I felt a\n    sweetness in my inward being.\u2019\u201d\n\n        \u201cHe said, \u2018If a few drops of that which is under the skin of\n    a saint should come forth between his lips, all the creatures of\n    heaven and earth would fall into panic.\u2019\u201d\n\n        \u201cHe said, \u2018Through prayer the saints are able to stop the fish\n    from swimming in the sea and to make the earth tremble, so that\n    people think it is an earthquake.\u2019\u201d\n\n        \u201cHe said, \u2018If the love of God in the hearts of His friends were\n    made manifest, it would fill the world with flood and fire.\u2019\u201d\n\n        \u201cHe said, \u2018He that lives with God hath seen all things visible,\n    and heard all things audible, and done all that is to be done, and\n    known all that is to be known.\u2019\u201d\n\n        \u201cHe said, \u2018All things are contained in me, but there is no room\n    for myself in me.\u2019\u201d\n\n        \u201cHe said, \u2018Miracles are only the first of the thousand stages\n    of the Way to God.\u2019\u201d\n\n        \u201cHe said, \u2018Do not seek until thou art sought, for when thou\n    findest that which thou seekest, it will resemble thee.\u2019\u201d\n\n        \u201cHe said, \u2018Thou must daily die a thousand deaths and come to\n    life again, that thou mayst win the life immortal.\u2019\u201d\n\n        \u201cHe said, \u2018When thou givest to God thy nothingness, He gives to\n    thee His All.\u2019\u201d\n\nIt would be an almost endless task to enumerate and exemplify the\ndifferent classes of miracles which are related in the lives of the\nMohammedan saints--for instance, walking on water, flying in the air\n(with or without a passenger), rain-making, appearing in various\nplaces at the same time, healing by the breath, bringing the dead to\nlife, knowledge and prediction of future events, thought-reading,\ntelekinesis, paralysing or beheading an obnoxious person by a word or\ngesture, conversing with animals or plants, turning earth into gold or\nprecious stones, producing food and drink, etc. To the Moslem, who has\nno sense of natural law, all these \u2018violations of custom,\u2019 as he calls\nthem, seem equally credible. We, on the other hand, feel ourselves\nobliged to distinguish phenomena which we regard as irrational and\nimpossible from those for which we can find some sort of \u2018natural\u2019\nexplanation. Modern theories of psychical influence, faith-healing,\ntelepathy, veridical hallucination, hypnotic suggestion and the like,\nhave thrown open to us a wide avenue of approach to this dark continent\nin the Eastern mind. I will not, however, pursue the subject far at\npresent, full of interest as it is. In the higher S\u016bf\u012b teaching the\nmiraculous powers of the saints play a more or less insignificant\npart, and the excessive importance which they assume in the organised\nmysticism of the Dervish Orders is one of the clearest marks of its\ndegeneracy.\n\nThe following passage, which I have slightly modified, gives a fair\nsummary of the hypnotic process through which a dervish attains to\nunion with God:\n\n        \u201cThe disciple must, mystically, always bear his Murshid\n    (spiritual director) in mind, and become mentally absorbed in\n    him through a constant meditation and contemplation of him. The\n    teacher must be his shield against all evil thoughts. The spirit\n    of the teacher follows him in all his efforts, and accompanies him\n    wherever he may be, quite as a guardian spirit. To such a degree is\n    this carried that he sees the master in all men and in all things,\n    just as a willing subject is under the influence of the magnetiser.\n    This condition is called \u2018self-annihilation\u2019 in the Murshid or\n    Sheykh. The latter finds, in his own visionary dreams, the degree\n    which the disciple has reached, and whether or not his spirit has\n    become bound to his own.\n\n        \u201cAt this stage the Sheykh passes him over to the spiritual\n    influence of the long-deceased P\u012br or original founder of the\n    Order, and he sees the latter only by the spiritual aid of the\n    Sheykh. This is called \u2018self-annihilation\u2019 in the P\u012br. He now\n    becomes so much a part of the P\u012br as to possess all his spiritual\n    powers.\n\n        \u201cThe third grade leads him, also through the spiritual aid of\n    the Sheykh, up to the Prophet himself, whom he now sees in all\n    things. This state is called \u2018self-annihilation\u2019 in the Prophet.\n\n        \u201cThe fourth degree leads him even to God. He becomes united\n    with the Deity and sees Him in all things.\u201d[19]\n\n[19] J. P. Brown, _The Dervishes, or Oriental Spiritualism_ (1868), p.\n298.\n\nAn excellent concrete illustration of the process here described will\nbe found in the well-known case of Tawakkul Beg, who passed through all\nthese experiences under the control of Moll\u0101-Sh\u0101h. His account is too\nlong to quote in full; moreover, it has recently been translated by\nProfessor D. B. Macdonald in his _Religious Life and Attitude in Islam_\n(pp. 197 ff.). I copy from this version one paragraph describing the\nfirst of the four stages mentioned above.\n\n        \u201cThereupon he made me sit before him, my senses being as\n    though intoxicated, and ordered me to reproduce my own image\n    within myself; and, after having bandaged my eyes, he asked me to\n    concentrate all my mental faculties on my heart. I obeyed, and in\n    an instant, by the divine favour and by the spiritual assistance of\n    the Sheykh, my heart opened. I saw, then, that there was something\n    like an overturned cup within me. This having been set upright, a\n    sensation of unbounded happiness filled my being. I said to the\n    master, \u2018This cell where I am seated before you--I see a faithful\n    reproduction of it within me, and it appears to me as though\n    another Tawakkul Beg were seated before another Moll\u0101-Sh\u0101h.\u2019 He\n    replied, \u2018Very good! the first apparition which appears to thee is\n    the image of the master.\u2019 He then ordered me to uncover my eyes;\n    and I saw him, with the physical organ of vision, seated before me.\n    He then made me bind my eyes again, and I perceived him with my\n    spiritual sight, seated similarly before me. Full of astonishment,\n    I cried out, \u2018O Master! whether I look with my physical organs or\n    with my spiritual sight, always it is you that I see!\u2019\u201d\n\nHere is a case of autohypnotism, witnessed and recorded by the poet\nJ\u0101m\u012b:\n\n        \u201cMawl\u0101n\u0101 Sa\u02bfdudd\u012bn of K\u0101shghar, after a little concentration of\n    thought (_tawajjuh_), used to exhibit signs of unconsciousness. Any\n    one ignorant of this circumstance would have fancied that he was\n    falling asleep. When I first entered into companionship with him,\n    I happened one day to be seated before him in the congregational\n    mosque. According to his custom, he fell into a trance. I supposed\n    that he was going to sleep, and I said to him, \u2018If you desire to\n    rest for a short time, you will not seem to me to be far off.\u2019\n    He smiled and said, \u2018Apparently you do not believe that this is\n    something different from sleep.\u2019\u201d\n\nThe following anecdote presents greater difficulties:\n\n        \u201cMawl\u0101n\u0101 Niz\u0101mudd\u012bn Kh\u0101m\u016bsh relates that one day his master,\n    \u02bfAl\u0101\u02beudd\u012bn \u02bfAtt\u0101r, started to visit the tomb of the celebrated\n    saint Mohammed ibn \u02bfAl\u012b Hak\u012bm, at Tirmidh. \u2018I did not accompany\n    him,\u2019 said Niz\u0101mudd\u012bn, \u2018but stayed at home, and by concentrating\n    my mind (_tawajjuh_) I succeeded in bringing the spirituality of\n    the saint before me, so that when the master arrived at the tomb\n    he found it empty. He must have known the cause, for on his return\n    he set to work in order to bring me under his control. I, too,\n    concentrated my mind, but I found myself like a dove and the master\n    like a hawk flying in chase of me. Wherever I turned, he was always\n    close behind. At last, despairing of escape, I took refuge with the\n    spirituality of the Prophet (on whom be peace) and became effaced\n    in its infinite radiance. The master could not exercise any further\n    control. He fell ill in consequence of his chagrin, and no one\n    except myself knew the reason.\u2019\u201d\n\n\u02bfAl\u0101\u02beudd\u012bn\u2019s son, Khw\u0101ja Hasan \u02bfAtt\u0101r, possessed such powers of\n\u2018control\u2019 that he could at will throw any one into the state of\ntrance and cause them to experience the \u2018passing-away\u2019 (_fan\u0101_) to\nwhich some mystics attain only on rare occasions and after prolonged\nself-mortification. It is related that the disciples and visitors who\nwere admitted to the honour of kissing his hand always fell unconscious\nto the ground.\n\nCertain saints are believed to have the power of assuming whatever\nshape they please. One of the most famous was Ab\u016b \u02bfAbdallah of Mosul,\nbetter known by the name of Qad\u012bb al-B\u0101n. One day the Cadi of Mosul,\nwho regarded him as a detestable heretic, saw him in a street of the\ntown, approaching from the opposite direction. He resolved to seize\nhim and lay a charge against him before the governor, in order that\nhe might be punished. All at once he perceived that Qad\u012bb al-B\u0101n had\ntaken the form of a Kurd; and as the saint advanced towards him,\nhis appearance changed again, this time into an Arab of the desert.\nFinally, on coming still nearer, he assumed the guise and dress of\na doctor of theology, and cried, \u201cO Cadi! which Qad\u012bb al-B\u0101n will\nyou hale before the governor and punish?\u201d The Cadi repented of his\nhostility and became one of the saint\u2019s disciples.\n\nIn conclusion, let me give two alleged instances of \u2018the obedience of\ninanimate objects,\u2019 _i.e._ telekinesis:\n\n        \u201cWhilst Dhu \u2019l-N\u016bn was conversing on this topic with some\n    friends, he said, \u2018Here is a sofa. It will move round the room, if\n    I tell it to do so.\u2019 No sooner had he uttered the word \u2018move\u2019 than\n    the sofa made a circuit of the room and returned to its place. One\n    of the spectators, a young man, burst into tears and gave up the\n    ghost. They laid him on that sofa and washed him for burial.\u201d\n\n        \u201cAvicenna paid a visit to Abu \u2019l-Hasan Khurq\u0101n\u012b and immediately\n    plunged into a long and abstruse discussion. After a time the\n    saint, who was an illiterate person, felt tired, so he got up and\n    said, \u2018Excuse me; I must go and mend the garden wall\u2019; and off he\n    went, taking a hatchet with him. As soon as he had climbed on to\n    the top of the wall, the hatchet dropped from his hand. Avicenna\n    ran to pick it up, but before he reached it the hatchet rose of\n    itself and came back into the saint\u2019s hand. Avicenna lost all his\n    self-command, and the enthusiastic belief in S\u016bfism which then took\n    possession of him continued until, at a later period of his life,\n    he abandoned mysticism for philosophy.\u201d\n\n\nI am well aware that in this chapter scanty justice has been done to\na great subject. The historian of S\u016bfism must acknowledge, however\ndeeply he may deplore, the fundamental position occupied by the\ndoctrine of saintship and the tremendous influence which it has exerted\nin its practical results--grovelling submission to the authority of\nan ecstatic class of men, dependence on their favour, pilgrimage to\ntheir shrines, adoration of their relics, devotion of every mental and\nspiritual faculty to their service. It may be dangerous to worship God\nby one\u2019s own inner light, but it is far more deadly to seek Him by the\ninner light of another. Vicarious holiness has no compensations. This\ntruth is expressed by the mystical writers in many an eloquent passage,\nbut I will content myself with quoting a few lines from the life of\n\u02bfAl\u0101\u02beudd\u012bn \u02bfAtt\u0101r, the same saint who, as we have seen, vainly tried\nto hypnotise his pupil in revenge for a disrespectful trick which the\nlatter had played on him. His biographer relates that he said, \u201cIt is\nmore right and worthy to dwell beside God than to dwell beside God\u2019s\ncreatures,\u201d and that the following verse was often on his blessed\ntongue:\n\n    \u201cHow long will you worship at the tombs of holy men?\n    Busy yourself with the _works_ of holy men, and you are saved!\u201d\n\n        (\u201c_tu t\u0101 kay g\u016br-i mard\u0101n-r\u0101 parast\u012b_\n        _bi-gird-i k\u0101r-i mard\u0101n gard u rast\u012b._\u201d)\n\n\n\n\n  CHAPTER VI\n\n  THE UNITIVE STATE\n\n    \u201cThe story admits of being told up to this point,\n    But what follows is hidden, and inexpressible in words.\n    If you should speak and try a hundred ways to express it,\n    \u2019Tis useless; the mystery becomes no clearer.\n    You can ride on saddle and horse to the sea-coast,\n    But then you must use a horse of wood (_i.e._ a boat).\n    A horse of wood is useless on dry land,\n    It is the special vehicle of voyagers by sea.\n    Silence is this horse of wood,\n    Silence is the guide and support of men at sea.\u201d[20]\n\n[20] The _Masnav\u012b_ of Jal\u0101ludd\u012bn R\u016bm\u012b. Abridged translation by E. H.\nWhinfield, p. 326.\n\n\nNo one can approach the subject of this chapter--the state of the\nmystic who has reached his journey\u2019s end--without feeling that all\nsymbolical descriptions of union with God and theories concerning its\nnature are little better than leaps in the dark. How shall we form any\nconception of that which is declared to be ineffable by those who have\nactually experienced it? I can only reply that the same difficulty\nconfronts us in dealing with all mystical phenomena, though it appears\nless formidable at lower levels, and that the poet\u2019s counsel of silence\nhas not prevented him from interpreting the deepest mysteries of S\u016bfism\nwith unrivalled insight and power.\n\nWhatever terms may be used to describe it, the unitive state is the\nculmination of the simplifying process by which the soul is gradually\nisolated from all that is foreign to itself, from all that is not God.\nUnlike Nirv\u0101\u1e47a, which is merely the cessation of individuality, _fan\u0101_,\nthe passing-away of the S\u016bf\u012b from his phenomenal existence, involves\n_baq\u0101_, the continuance of his real existence. He who dies to self\nlives in God, and _fan\u0101_, the consummation of this death, marks the\nattainment of _baq\u0101_, or union with the divine life. Deification, in\nshort, is the Moslem mystic\u2019s _ultima Thule_.\n\nIn the early part of the tenth century Husayn ibn Mans\u016br, known to\nfame as al-Hall\u0101j (the wool-carder), was barbarously done to death\nat Baghd\u0101d. His execution seems to have been dictated by political\nmotives, but with these we are not concerned. Amongst the crowd\nassembled round the scaffold, a few, perhaps, believed him to be what\nhe said he was; the rest witnessed with exultation or stern approval\nthe punishment of a blasphemous heretic. He had uttered in two words\na sentence which Islam has, on the whole, forgiven but has never\nforgotten: \u201c_Ana \u2019l-Haqq_\u201d--\u201cI am God.\u201d\n\nThe recently published researches of M. Louis Massignon[21] make it\npossible, for the first time, to indicate the meaning which Hall\u0101j\nhimself attached to this celebrated formula, and to assert definitely\nthat it does not agree with the more orthodox interpretations offered\nat a later epoch by S\u016bf\u012bs belonging to various schools. According to\nHall\u0101j, man is essentially divine. God created Adam in His own image.\nHe projected from Himself that image of His eternal love, that He might\nbehold Himself as in a mirror. Hence He bade the angels worship Adam\n(Kor. =2.= 32), in whom, as in Jesus, He became incarnate.\n\n[21] _Kit\u0101b al-Taw\u0101s\u012bn_ (Paris, 1913). See especially pp. 129-141.\n\n    \u201cGlory to Him who revealed in His humanity (_i.e._ in Adam)\n        the secret of His radiant divinity,\n    And then appeared to His creatures visibly in the shape of one\n        who ate and drank (Jesus).\u201d\n\nSince the \u2018humanity\u2019 (_n\u0101s\u016bt_) of God comprises the whole bodily and\nspiritual nature of man, the \u2018divinity\u2019 (_l\u0101h\u016bt_) of God cannot unite\nwith that nature except by means of an incarnation or, to adopt the\nterm employed by Massignon, an infusion (_hul\u016bl_) of the divine Spirit,\nsuch as takes place when the human spirit enters the body.[22] Thus\nHall\u0101j says in one of his poems:\n\n    \u201cThy Spirit is mingled in my spirit even as wine is mingled with\n        pure water.\n    When anything touches Thee, it touches me. Lo, in every case\n        Thou art I!\u201d\n\nAnd again:\n\n    \u201cI am He whom I love, and He whom I love is I:\n    We are two spirits dwelling in one body.\n    If thou seest me, thou seest Him,\n    And if thou seest Him, thou seest us both.\u201d\n\n[22] Massignon appears to be right in identifying the Divine Spirit\nwith the Active Reason (_intellectus agens_), which, according to\nAlexander of Aphrodisias, is not a part or faculty of our soul, but\ncomes to us from without. See Inge, _Christian Mysticism_, pp. 360,\n361. The doctrine of Hall\u0101j may be compared with that of Tauler,\nRuysbroeck, and others concerning the birth of God in the soul.\n\nThis doctrine of personal deification, in the peculiar form which was\nimpressed upon it by Hall\u0101j, is obviously akin to the central doctrine\nof Christianity, and therefore, from the Moslem standpoint, a heresy of\nthe worst kind. It survived unadulterated only amongst his immediate\nfollowers. The Hul\u016bl\u012bs, _i.e._ those who believe in incarnation, are\nrepudiated by S\u016bf\u012bs in general quite as vehemently as by orthodox\nMoslems. But while the former have unhesitatingly condemned the\ndoctrine of _hul\u016bl_, they have also done their best to clear Hall\u0101j\nfrom the suspicion of having taught it. Three main lines of defence are\nfollowed: (1) Hall\u0101j did not sin against the Truth, but he was justly\npunished in so far as he committed a grave offence against the Law. He\n\u201cbetrayed the secret of his Lord\u201d by proclaiming to all and sundry the\nsupreme mystery which ought to be reserved for the elect. (2) Hall\u0101j\nspoke under the intoxicating influence of ecstasy. He imagined himself\nto be united with the divine essence, when in fact he was only united\nwith one of the divine attributes. (3) Hall\u0101j meant to declare that\nthere is no essential difference or separation between God and His\ncreatures, inasmuch as the divine unity includes all being. A man who\nhas entirely passed away from his phenomenal self exists _qu\u00e2_ his real\nself, which is God.\n\n    \u201cIn that glory is no \u2018I\u2019 or \u2018We\u2019 or \u2018Thou.\u2019\n    \u2018I,\u2019 \u2018We,\u2019 \u2018Thou,\u2019 and \u2018He\u2019 are all one thing.\u201d\n\nIt was not Hall\u0101j who cried \u201c_Ana \u2019l-Haqq_,\u201d but God Himself, speaking,\nas it were, by the mouth of the selfless Hall\u0101j, just as He spoke to\nMoses through the medium of the burning bush (Kor. =20.= 8-14).\n\nThe last explanation, which converts _Ana \u2019l-Haqq_ into an impersonal\nmonistic axiom, is accepted by most S\u016bf\u012bs as representing the true\nHall\u0101jian teaching. In a magnificent ode Jal\u0101ludd\u012bn R\u016bm\u012b describes how\nthe One Light shines in myriad forms through the whole universe, and\nhow the One Essence, remaining ever the same, clothes itself from age\nto age in the prophets and saints who are its witnesses to mankind.\n\n    \u201cEvery moment the robber Beauty rises in a different shape,\n        ravishes the soul, and disappears.\n    Every instant that Loved One assumes a new garment, now of eld,\n        now of youth.\n    Now He plunged into the heart of the substance of the potter\u2019s\n        clay--the Spirit plunged, like a diver.\n    Anon He rose from the depths of mud that is moulded and baked,\n        then He appeared in the world.\n    He became Noah, and at His prayer the world was flooded while He\n        went into the Ark.\n    He became Abraham and appeared in the midst of the fire, which\n        turned to roses for His sake.\n    For a while He was roaming on the earth to pleasure Himself,\n    Then He became Jesus and ascended to the dome of Heaven and began\n        to glorify God.\n    In brief, it was He that was coming and going in every generation\n        thou hast seen,\n    Until at last He appeared in the form of an Arab and gained the\n        empire of the world.\n    What is it that is transferred? What is transmigration in reality?\n        The lovely winner of hearts\n    Became a sword and appeared in the hand of \u02bfAl\u012b and became the\n        Slayer of the time.\n    No! no! for \u2019twas even He that was crying in human shape,\n        \u2018_Ana \u2019l-Haqq_.\u2019\n    That one who mounted the scaffold was not Mans\u016br,[23] though the\n        foolish imagined it.\n    R\u016bm\u012b hath not spoken and will not speak words of infidelity:\n        do not disbelieve him!\n    Whosoever shows disbelief is an infidel and one of those who\n        have been doomed to Hell.\u201d\n\n[23] Hall\u0101j is often called Mans\u016br, which is properly the name of his\nfather.\n\nAlthough in Western and Central Asia--where the Persian kings were\nregarded by their subjects as gods, and where the doctrines of\nincarnation, anthropomorphism, and metempsychosis are indigenous--the\nidea of the God-man was neither so unfamiliar nor unnatural as to\nshock the public conscience very profoundly, Hall\u0101j had formulated\nthat idea in such a way that no mysticism calling itself Mohammedan\ncould tolerate, much less adopt it. To assert that the divine and human\nnatures may be interfused and commingled,[24] would have been to deny\nthe principle of unity on which Islam is based. The subsequent history\nof S\u016bfism shows how deification was identified with unification. The\nantithesis--God, Man--melted away in the pantheistic theory which has\nbeen explained above.[25] There is no real existence apart from God.\nMan is an emanation or a reflexion or a mode of Absolute Being. What\nhe thinks of as individuality is in truth not-being; it cannot be\nseparated or united, for it does not exist. Man _is_ God, yet with\na difference. According to Ibn al-\u02bfArab\u012b,[26] the eternal and the\nphenomenal are two complementary aspects of the One, each of which is\nnecessary to the other. The creatures are the external manifestation\nof the Creator, and Man is God\u2019s consciousness (_sirr_) as revealed in\ncreation. But since Man, owing to the limitations of his mind, cannot\nthink all objects of thought simultaneously, and therefore expresses\nonly a part of the divine consciousness, he is not entitled to say\n_Ana \u2019l-Haqq_, \u201cI am God.\u201d He is _a_ reality, but not _the_ Reality.\nWe shall see that other S\u016bf\u012bs--Jal\u0101ludd\u012bn R\u016bm\u012b, for example--in their\necstatic moments, at any rate, ignore this rather subtle distinction.\n\n[24] _Hul\u016bl_ was not understood in this sense by Hall\u0101j (Massignon,\n_op. cit._, p. 199), though the verses quoted on p. 151 readily suggest\nsuch an interpretation. Hall\u0101j, I think, would have agreed with Eckhart\n(who said, \u201cThe word _I am_ none can truly speak but God alone\u201d) that\nthe personality in which the Eternal is immanent has itself a part in\neternity (Inge, _Christian Mysticism_, p. 149, note).\n\n[25] See pp. 79 ff.\n\n[26] Massignon, _op. cit._, p. 183.\n\nThe statement that in realising the nonentity of his individual\nself the S\u016bf\u012b realises his essential oneness with God, sums up the\nMohammedan theory of deification in terms with which my readers are\nnow familiar. I will endeavour to show what more precise meaning may\nbe assigned to it, partly in my own words and partly by means of\nillustrative extracts from various authors.\n\nSeveral aspects of _fan\u0101_ have already been distinguished.[27]\nThe highest of these--the passing-away in the divine essence--is\nfully described by Niffar\u012b, who employs instead of fan\u0101 and f\u0101n\u012b\n(self-naughted) the terms _waqfat_, signifying cessation from search,\nand _w\u0101qif_, _i.e._ one who desists from seeking and passes away in the\nObject Sought. Here are some of the chief points that occur in the text\nand commentary.\n\n[27] See pp. 60, 61.\n\n_Waqfat_ is luminous: it expels the dark thoughts of \u2018otherness,\u2019 just\nas light banishes darkness; it changes the phenomenal values of all\nexistent things into their real and eternal values.\n\nHence the _w\u0101qif_ transcends time and place. \u201cHe enters every house and\nit contains him not; he drinks from every well but is not satisfied;\nthen he reaches Me, and I am his home, and his abode is with Me\u201d--that\nis to say, he comprehends all the divine attributes and embraces all\nmystical experiences. He is not satisfied with the names (attributes),\nbut seeks the Named. He contemplates the essence of God and finds it\nidentical with his own. He does not pray. Prayer is from man to God,\nbut in _waqfat_ there is nothing but God.\n\nThe _w\u0101qif_ leaves not a rack behind him, nor any heir except God. When\neven the phenomenon of _waqfat_ has disappeared from his consciousness,\nhe becomes the very Light. Then his praise of God proceeds from God,\nand his knowledge is God\u2019s knowledge, who beholds Himself alone as He\nwas in the beginning.\n\nWe need not expect to discover how this essentialisation,\nsubstitution, or transmutation is effected. It is the grand paradox of\nS\u016bfism--the _Magnum Opus_ wrought somehow _in_ created man by a Being\nwhose nature is eternally devoid of the least taint of creatureliness.\nAs I have remarked above, the change, however it may be conceived, does\nnot involve infusion of the divine essence (_hul\u016bl_) or identification\nof the divine and human natures (_ittih\u0101d_). Both these doctrines are\ngenerally condemned. Ab\u016b Nasr al-Sarr\u0101j criticises them in two passages\nof his _Kit\u0101b al-Luma\u02bf_, as follows:\n\n        \u201cSome mystics of Baghd\u0101d have erred in their doctrine that\n    when they pass away from their qualities they enter into the\n    qualities of God. This leads to incarnation (_hul\u016bl_) or to the\n    Christian belief concerning Jesus. The doctrine in question has\n    been attributed to some of the ancients, but its true meaning is\n    this, that when a man goes forth from his own qualities and enters\n    into the qualities of God, he goes forth from his own will and\n    enters into the will of God, knowing that his will is given to him\n    by God and that by virtue of this gift he is severed from regarding\n    himself, so that he becomes entirely devoted to God; and this is\n    one of the stages of Unitarians. Those who have erred in this\n    doctrine have failed to observe that the qualities of God are not\n    God. To make God identical with His qualities is to be guilty of\n    infidelity, because God does not descend into the heart, but that\n    which descends into the heart is faith in God and belief in His\n    unity and reverence for the thought of Him.\u201d\n\nIn the second passage he makes use of a similar argument in order to\nrefute the doctrine of _ittih\u0101d_.\n\n        \u201cSome have abstained from food and drink, fancying that\n    when a man\u2019s body is weakened it is possible that he may lose\n    his humanity and be invested with the attributes of divinity.\n    The ignorant persons who hold this erroneous doctrine cannot\n    distinguish between humanity and the inborn qualities of humanity.\n    Humanity does not depart from man any more than blackness departs\n    from that which is black or whiteness from that which is white,\n    but the inborn qualities of humanity are changed and transmuted\n    by the all-powerful radiance that is shed upon them from the\n    divine Realities. The attributes of humanity are not the essence\n    of humanity. Those who inculcate the doctrine of _fan\u0101_ mean the\n    passing-away of regarding one\u2019s own actions and works of devotion\n    through the continuance of regarding God as the doer of these\n    actions on behalf of His servant.\u201d\n\nHujw\u012br\u012b characterises as absurd the belief that passing-away (_fan\u0101_)\nsignifies loss of essence and destruction of corporeal substance, and\nthat \u2018abiding\u2019 (_baq\u0101_) indicates the indwelling of God in man. Real\npassing-away from anything, he says, implies consciousness of its\nimperfection and absence of desire for it. Whoever passes away from his\nown perishable will abides in the everlasting will of God, but human\nattributes cannot become divine attributes or _vice versa_.\n\n        \u201cThe power of fire transforms to its own quality anything that\n    falls into it, and surely the power of God\u2019s will is greater than\n    that of fire; yet fire affects only the quality of iron without\n    changing its substance, for iron can never become fire.\u201d\n\nIn another part of his work Hujw\u012br\u012b defines \u2018union\u2019 (_jam\u02bf_) as\nconcentration of thought upon the desired object. Thus Majn\u016bn, the\nOrlando Furioso of Islam, concentrated his thoughts on Layl\u0101, so that\nhe saw only her in the whole world, and all created things assumed the\nform of Layl\u0101 in his eyes. Some one came to the cell of B\u0101yaz\u012bd and\nasked, \u201cIs B\u0101yaz\u012bd here?\u201d He answered, \u201cIs any one here but God?\u201d The\nprinciple in all such cases, Hujw\u012br\u012b adds, is the same, namely:\n\n        \u201cThat God divides the one substance of His love and bestows a\n    particle thereof, as a peculiar gift, upon every one of His friends\n    in proportion to their enravishment with Him; then he lets down\n    upon that particle the shrouds of fleshliness and human nature\n    and temperament and spirit, in order that by its powerful working\n    it may transmute to its own quality all the particles that are\n    attached to it, until the lover\u2019s clay is wholly converted into\n    love and all his acts and looks become so many properties of love.\n    This state is named \u2018union\u2019 alike by those who regard the inward\n    sense and the outward expression.\u201d\n\nThen he quotes these verses of Hall\u0101j:\n\n    \u201cThy will be done, O my Lord and Master!\n    Thy will be done, O my purpose and meaning!\n    O essence of my being, O goal of my desire,\n    O my speech and my hints and my gestures!\n    O all of my all, O my hearing and my sight,\n    O my whole and my element and my particles!\u201d\n\nThe enraptured S\u016bf\u012b who has passed beyond the illusion of subject\nand object and broken through to the Oneness can either deny that he\nis anything or affirm that he is all things. As an example of \u2018the\nnegative way,\u2019 take the opening lines of an ode by Jal\u0101ludd\u012bn which I\nhave rendered into verse, imitating the metrical form of the Persian as\nclosely as the genius of our language will permit:\n\n    \u201cLo, for I to myself am unknown, now in God\u2019s name what must I do?\n    I adore not the Cross nor the Crescent, I am not a Giaour nor a Jew.\n    East nor West, land nor sea is my home, I have kin nor with angel\n        nor gnome,\n    I am wrought not of fire nor of foam, I am shaped not of dust\n        nor of dew.\n    I was born not in China afar, not in Saqs\u012bn and not in Bulgh\u0101r;\n    Not in India, where five rivers are, nor \u02bfIr\u0101q nor Khor\u0101s\u0101n I grew.\n    Not in this world nor that world I dwell, not in Paradise, neither\n        in Hell;\n    Not from Eden and Rizw\u0101n I fell, not from Adam my lineage I drew.\n    In a place beyond uttermost Place, in a tract without shadow\n        of trace,\n    Soul and body transcending I live in the soul of my Loved One anew!\u201d\n\nThe following poem, also by Jal\u0101ludd\u012bn, expresses the positive aspect\nof the cosmic consciousness:\n\n    \u201cIf there be any lover in the world, O Moslems, \u2019tis I.\n    If there be any believer, infidel, or Christian hermit, \u2019tis I.\n    The wine-dregs, the cupbearer, the minstrel, the harp, and\n        the music,\n    The beloved, the candle, the drink and the joy of the\n        drunken--\u2019tis I.\n    The two-and-seventy creeds and sects in the world\n    Do not really exist: I swear by God that every creed and\n        sect--\u2019tis I.\n    Earth and air and water and fire--knowest thou what they are?\n    Earth and air and water and fire, nay, body and soul too--\u2019tis I.\n    Truth and falsehood, good and evil, ease and difficulty from first\n        to last,\n    Knowledge and learning and asceticism and piety and faith--\u2019tis I.\n    The fire of Hell, be assured, with its flaming limbos,\n    Yes, and Paradise and Eden and the Houris--\u2019tis I.\n    This earth and heaven with all that they hold,\n    Angels, Peris, Genies, and Mankind--\u2019tis I.\u201d\n\nWhat Jal\u0101ludd\u012bn utters in a moment of ecstatic vision Henry More\ndescribes as a past experience:\n\n        \u201cHow lovely\u201d (he says), \u201chow magnificent a state is the soul\n    of man in, when the life of God inactuating her shoots her along\n    with Himself through heaven and earth; makes her unite with, and\n    after a sort feel herself animate, the whole world. He that is here\n    looks upon all things as One, and on himself, if he can then mind\n    himself, as a part of the Whole.\u201d\n\nFor some S\u016bf\u012bs, absorption in the ecstasy of _fan\u0101_ is the end of their\npilgrimage. Thenceforth no relation exists between them and the world.\nNothing of themselves is left in them; as individuals, they are dead.\nImmersed in Unity, they know neither law nor religion nor any form\nof phenomenal being. But those God-intoxicated devotees who never\nreturn to sobriety have fallen short of the highest perfection. The\nfull circle of deification must comprehend both the inward and outward\naspects of Deity--the One and the Many, the Truth and the Law. It is\nnot enough to escape from all that is creaturely, without entering into\nthe eternal life of God the Creator as manifested in His works. To\nabide in God (_baq\u0101_) after having passed-away from selfhood (_fan\u0101_)\nis the mark of the Perfect Man, who not only journeys _to_ God, _i.e._\npasses from plurality to unity, but _in_ and _with_ God, _i.e._\ncontinuing in the unitive state, he returns with God to the phenomenal\nworld from which he set out, and manifests unity in plurality. In this\ndescent\n\n    \u201cHe makes the Law his upper garment\n    And the mystic Path his inner garment,\u201d\n\nfor he brings down and displays the Truth to mankind while fulfilling\nthe duties of the religious law. Of him it may be said, in the words of\na great Christian mystic:\n\n        \u201cHe goes _towards_ God by inward love, in eternal work, and he\n    goes _in_ God by his fruitive inclination, in eternal rest. And\n    he dwells in God; and yet he goes out towards created things in a\n    spirit of love towards all things, in the virtues and in works of\n    righteousness. And this is the most exalted summit of the inner\n    life.\u201d[28]\n\n[28] Ruysbroeck, quoted in E. Underhill\u2019s _Introduction to Mysticism_,\np. 522.\n\n\u02bfAf\u012bfudd\u012bn Tilims\u0101n\u012b, in his commentary on Niffar\u012b, describes four\nmystical journeys:\n\nThe _first_ begins with gnosis and ends with complete passing-away\n(_fan\u0101_).\n\nThe _second_ begins at the moment when passing-away is succeeded by\n\u2018abiding\u2019 (_baq\u0101_).\n\nHe who has attained to this station journeys in the Real, by the Real,\nto the Real, and he then is a reality (_haqq_).[29] Thus travelling\nonward, he arrives at the station of the _Qutb_,[30] which is the\nstation of Perfect Manhood. He becomes the centre of the spiritual\nuniverse, so that every point and limit reached by individual human\nbeings is equally distant from his station, whether they be near or\nfar; since all stations revolve round his, and in relation to the\n_Qutb_ there is no difference between nearness and farness. To one who\nhas gained this supreme position, knowledge and gnosis and passing-away\nare as rivers of his ocean, whereby he replenishes whomsoever he will.\nHe has the right to guide others to God, and seeks permission to do so\nfrom none but himself. Before the gate of Apostleship was closed,[31]\nhe would have deserved the title of Apostle, but in our day his due\ntitle is Director of Souls, and he is a blessing to those who invoke\nhis aid, because he comprehends the innate capacities of all mankind\nand, like a camel-driver, speeds every one to his home.\n\n[29] See p. 155 above.\n\n[30] See p. 123.\n\n[31] _I.e._ before the time of Mohammed, who is the Seal of the\nProphets.\n\nIn the _third_ journey this Perfect Man turns his attention to God\u2019s\ncreatures, either as an Apostle or as a Spiritual Director (Sheykh),\nand reveals himself to those who would fain be released from their\nfaculties, to each according to his degree: to the adherent of positive\nreligion as a theologian; to the contemplative, who has not yet enjoyed\nfull contemplation, as a gnostic; to the gnostic as one who has\nentirely passed-away from individuality (_w\u0101qif_); to the _w\u0101qif_ as a\n_Qutb_. He is the horizon of every mystical station and transcends the\nfurthest range of experience known to each grade of seekers.\n\nThe _fourth_ journey is usually associated with physical death. The\nProphet was referring to it when he cried on his deathbed, \u201cI choose\nthe highest companions.\u201d In this journey, to judge from the obscure\nverses in which \u02bfAf\u012bfudd\u012bn describes it, the Perfect Man, having been\ninvested with all the divine attributes, becomes, so to speak, the\nmirror which displays God to Himself.\n\n    \u201cWhen my Beloved appears,\n    With what eye do I see Him?\n    With His eye, not with mine,\n    For none sees Him except Himself.\u201d\n                             (Ibn al-\u02bfArab\u012b.)\n\nThe light in the soul, the eye by which it sees, and the object of its\nvision, all are One.\n\n\nWe have followed the S\u016bf\u012b in his quest of Reality to a point where\nlanguage fails. His progress will seldom be so smooth and unbroken as\nit appears in these pages. The proverbial headache after intoxication\nsupplies a parallel to the periods of intense aridity and acute\nsuffering that sometimes fill the interval between lower and higher\nstates of ecstasy. Descriptions of this experience--the Dark Night of\nthe Soul, as it is called by Christian authors--may be found in almost\nany biography of Mohammedan saints. Thus J\u0101m\u012b relates in his _Nafah\u0101t\nal-Uns_ that a certain dervish, a disciple of the famous Shih\u0101budd\u012bn\nSuhraward\u012b,\n\n        \u201cWas endowed with a great ecstasy in the contemplation of Unity\n    and in the station of passing-away (_fan\u0101_). One day he began to\n    weep and lament. On being asked by the Sheykh Shih\u0101budd\u012bn what\n    ailed him, he answered, \u2018Lo, I am debarred by plurality from the\n    vision of Unity. I am rejected, and my former state--I cannot find\n    it!\u2019 The Sheykh remarked that this was the prelude to the station\n    of \u2018abiding\u2019 (_baq\u0101_), and that his present state was higher and\n    more sublime than the one which he was in before.\u201d\n\nDoes personality survive in the ultimate union with God? If personality\nmeans a conscious existence distinct, though not separate, from God,\nthe majority of advanced Moslem mystics say \u201cNo!\u201d As the rain-drop\nabsorbed in the ocean is not annihilated but ceases to exist\nindividually, so the disembodied soul becomes indistinguishable from\nthe universal Deity. It is true that when S\u016bf\u012b writers translate\nmystical union into terms of love and marriage, they do not, indeed\nthey cannot, expunge the notion of personality, but such metaphorical\nphrases are not necessarily inconsistent with a pantheism which\nexcludes all difference. To be united, here and now, with the\nWorld-Soul is the utmost imaginable bliss for souls that love each\nother on earth.\n\n    \u201cHappy the moment when we are seated in the Palace, thou and I,\n    With two forms and with two figures but with one soul, thou and I.\n    The colours of the grove and the voice of the birds will bestow\n        immortality\n    At the time when we come into the garden, thou and I.\n    The stars of heaven will come to gaze upon us;\n    We shall show them the Moon itself, thou and I.\n    Thou and I, individuals no more, shall be mingled in ecstasy,\n    Joyful and secure from foolish babble, thou and I.\n    All the bright-plumed birds of heaven will devour their hearts\n        with envy\n    In the place where we shall laugh in such a fashion, thou and I.\n    This is the greatest wonder, that thou and I, sitting here in the\n        same nook,\n    Are at this moment both in \u02bfIr\u0101q and Khor\u0101s\u0101n, thou and I.\u201d\n                                     (Jal\u0101ludd\u012bn R\u016bm\u012b.)\n\nStrange as it may seem to our Western egoism, the prospect of sharing\nin the general, impersonal immortality of the human soul kindles in the\nS\u016bf\u012b an enthusiasm as deep and triumphant as that of the most ardent\nbeliever in a personal life continuing beyond the grave. Jal\u0101ludd\u012bn,\nafter describing the evolution of man in the material world and\nanticipating his further growth in the spiritual universe, utters a\nheartfelt prayer--for what?--for self-annihilation in the ocean of the\nGodhead.\n\n    \u201cI died as mineral and became a plant,\n    I died as plant and rose to animal,\n    I died as animal and I was man.\n    Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?\n    Yet once more I shall die as man, to soar\n    With angels blest; but even from angelhood\n    I must pass on: all except God doth perish.\n    When I have sacrificed my angel soul,\n    I shall become what no mind e\u2019er conceived.\n    Oh, let me not exist! for Non-existence\n    Proclaims in organ tones, \u2018To Him we shall return.\u2019\u201d\n\n\n\n\n  BIBLIOGRAPHY\n\n\n  _A._ GENERAL\n\nTholuck, F. A. G., _Ssufismus sive Theosophia Persarum pantheistica_\n    (Berlin, 1821).\n\n      In Latin. Out of date in some respects, but still worth reading.\n\nPalmer, E. H., _Oriental Mysticism_ (Cambridge, 1867).\n\n      A treatise on Persian theosophy, based on a work by Nasaf\u012b.\n\nVon Kremer, A., _Geschichte der herrschenden Ideen des Islams_\n    (Leipzig, 1868), pp. 52-121.\n\n      A brilliant sketch of the origin and development of S\u016bfism.\n\nGoldziher, I., _Vorlesungen \u00fcber den Islam_ (Heidelberg, 1910), pp.\n    139-200.\n\n      An account of S\u016bf\u012b asceticism and mysticism by the greatest\n    living authority on Islam.\n\nGoldziher, I., _Muhammedanische Studien_ (Halle, 1888-90), Part ii.,\n    pp. 277-378.\n\n      Gives full details concerning the worship of Moslem saints.\n\nMacdonald, D. B., _The Religious Life and Attitude in Islam_ (Chicago,\n    1909).\n\n      A valuable introduction to the study of the moderate type of\n    S\u016bfism represented by Ghaz\u0101l\u012b. The chapters on psychology are\n    particularly helpful.\n\nIqbal, Shaikh Muhammad, _The Development of Metaphysics in Persia_\n    (London, 1908), pp. 96 ff.\n\nGibb, E. J. W., _History of Turkish Poetry_ (London, 1900-1909), vol.\n    i. pp. 15-69.\n\n      Outlines of Persian philosophic mysticism.\n\nBrowne, E. G., _Literary History of Persia_ (London, 1902), vol. i. pp.\n    416-444.\n\nBrown, J. P., _The Dervishes, or Oriental Spiritualism_ (London, 1868).\n\n      Unscientific, but contains much interesting material.\n\nDepont, O., and Coppolani, X., _Les Confr\u00e9ries religieuses musulmanes_\n    (Algiers, 1897).\n\n      A standard work on the Dervish Orders.\n\n\n  _B._ TRANSLATIONS\n\nHujw\u012br\u012b, _Kashf al-Mahj\u016bb_, translated by R. A. Nicholson (London,\n    1911).\n\n      The oldest Persian treatise on S\u016bfism.\n\n\u02bfAtt\u0101r, _Le Manticu \u2019ttair ou le Langage des Oiseaux_, translated, with\n    an essay on the philosophical and religious poetry of Persia, by\n    Garcin de Tassy (Paris, 1864).\n\nJal\u0101ludd\u012bn R\u016bm\u012b, _Masnav\u012b_, abridged translation by E. H. Whinfield,\n    2nd ed. (London, 1898).\n\n  _Masnav\u012b_, Book i., translated by Sir James Redhouse (London, 1881).\n\n  _Masnav\u012b_, Book ii., translated with commentary by C. E. Wilson\n    (London, 1910).\n\n  _Selected Odes from the D\u012bv\u0101ni Shamsi Tabr\u012bz_, Persian text with\n    English translation, introduction, and notes by R. A. Nicholson\n    (Cambridge, 1898).\n\nMahm\u016bd Shabistar\u012b, _Gulshani R\u0101z_, Persian text with English\n    translation, introduction, and notes by E. H. Whinfield (London,\n    1880).\n\n      A versified exposition of the chief S\u016bf\u012b doctrines. It should be\n    read by every one who is seriously interested in the subject.\n\nJ\u0101m\u012b, _Law\u0101\u02beih_, Persian text with translation by E. H. Whinfield and\n    M\u012brz\u0101 Muhammad Kazv\u012bn\u012b (London, 1906).\n\n      A prose treatise on S\u016bf\u012b theosophy.\n\n  _Y\u016bsuf and Zulaikha_, translated into verse by R. T. H. Griffith\n    (London, 1882).\n\n      One of the most famous mystical love-romances in Persian\n    literature.\n\nIbn al-\u02bfArab\u012b, _Tarjum\u0101n al-Ashw\u0101q_, a collection of mystical odes.\n    Arabic text with translation and commentary by R. A. Nicholson\n    (London, 1911).\n\n\n\n\n  INDEX\n\n(Titles of books, as well as Arabic and Persian technical terms, are\nprinted in italics.)\n\n\n  _Abd\u0101l_, 124.\n\n  \u02bfAbdallah Ans\u0101r\u012b, 89.\n\n  \u02bfAbd al-Rah\u012bm ibn al-Sabb\u0101gh, 89.\n\n  Abraham, 153.\n\n  _Abr\u0101r_, 124.\n\n  Abs\u0101l, 116.\n\n  Ab\u016b \u02bfAbdallah of Mosul, 144.\n\n  Ab\u016b \u02bfAbdallah al-R\u0101z\u012b, 51.\n\n  Ab\u016b \u02bfAl\u012b of Sind, 17.\n\n  Ab\u016b Hamza, 62.\n\n  Abu \u2019l-Hasan Khurq\u0101n\u012b, 87, 133 ff., 145.\n\n  Abu \u2019l-Khayr al-Aqta\u02bf, 61.\n\n  Ab\u016b Nasr al-Sarr\u0101j, 157.\n\n  Ab\u016b Sa\u02bf\u012bd ibn Abi \u2019l-Khayr, 49, 90, 118.\n\n  Adam, 64, 150, 161.\n\n  \u02bfAf\u012bfudd\u012bn al-Tilims\u0101n\u012b, 93, 164, 165. _See_ Niffar\u012b.\n\n  _Ahl al-Haqq_, 1.\n\n  Ahmad ibn al-Haw\u0101r\u012b, 11.\n\n  _ahw\u0101l_, 29.\n\n  _Akhy\u0101r_, 124.\n\n  \u02bfAl\u0101\u02beudd\u012bn Att\u0101r, 143, 144, 146.\n\n  Alexander of Aphrodisias, 151.\n\n  _Al-Haqq._ See _Haqq_.\n\n  \u02bfAl\u012b, the Caliph, 50, 89, 153.\n\n  _Ana \u2019l-Haqq_, 150 ff.\n\n  _Arabian Nights_, the, 63.\n\n  \u02bfAraf\u0101t, 91.\n\n  _\u02bf\u0101rif_, 29.\n\n  Aristotle, 12.\n\n  Asceticism, 4, 5, 6, 10, 28 ff., 109.\n\n  Ash\u02bfarites, the, 6.\n\n  \u02bfAtt\u0101r, Far\u012bdudd\u012bn, 106.\n\n  Audition, 63 ff. See _sam\u0101\u02bf_.\n\n  Augustine, St., 118.\n\n  Avicenna, 145, 146.\n\n  _awliy\u0101_, 122.\n\n  _Awt\u0101d_, 124.\n\n\n  B\u0101b\u0101 K\u016bh\u012b, 58.\n\n  B\u0101bism, 89.\n\n  Bactria, 16, 18.\n\n  Baghd\u0101d, 149, 157.\n\n  Balkh, 16.\n\n  _baq\u0101_, 18, 61, 149, 159, 163, 164, 167.\n\n  Basra, 14.\n\n  B\u0101yaz\u012bd of Bist\u0101m, 17, 51, 57, 62, 108, 111, 112, 115, 126, 131, 132,\n        159.\n\n  Bekt\u0101sh\u012bs, the, 95.\n\n  Bishr, 105.\n\n  Breath, practice of inhaling and exhaling the, 48.\n\n  Brown, J. P., 141.\n\n  Browne, Professor E. G., 110.\n\n  Buddha, 16, 17.\n\n  Buddhism, 16 ff., 48. _See_ Nirv\u0101\u1e47a.\n\n  Bulgh\u0101r, 161.\n\n\n  Calendars, the, 90.\n\n  Celibacy, condemned by Mohammed, 5.\n\n  China, 161.\n\n  Christ, 82, 88. _See_ Jesus.\n\n  Christianity, 4, 5, 10 f., 82, 111, 112, 151, 157.\n\n  Contemplation, 18, 31, 32, 53, 54 ff., 68.\n\n\n  Dancing, 63, 65, 66.\n\n  Dante, 100.\n\n  Dark Night of the Soul, the, 166.\n\n  Davids, Professor T. W. Rhys, 19.\n\n  D\u0101wud al-T\u0101\u02be\u012b, 36.\n\n  Deification, 149 ff., 163.\n\n  _derv\u012bsh_, 37.\n\n  Dervish Orders, the, 48, 95, 125, 130, 140 ff.\n\n  Dervishes, maxims for, 38, 39.\n\n  Devil, the, 49, 53, 69. _See_ Ibl\u012bs _and_ Satan.\n\n  _dhawq_, 59.\n\n  _dhikr_, 10, 45 ff., 63.\n\n  Dhu \u2019l-N\u016bn the Egyptian, 13, 65, 79, 116, 145.\n\n  Dionysius the Areopagite, 12 f., 112.\n\n  Directors, spiritual, 31, 32 ff., 89, 140 ff., 165.\n\n  _D\u012bv\u0101n of Shamsi Tabr\u012bz_, 95.\n\n\n  Eckhart, 118, 154.\n\n  Ecstasy, 59 ff., 118, 132, 133, 166. See _fan\u0101_.\n\n  Eden, 161.\n\n  Elias, 14.\n\n  Emanation, the theory of, 80, 96.\n\n  Emerson, 110.\n\n  Euchit\u00e6, the, 11.\n\n  Evil, the unreality of, 94.\n\n  Evil, part of the divine order, 96 ff.\n\n  Evolution, of Man, 168.\n\n\n  _fan\u0101_, 17 ff., 28, 48, 59, 60 ff., 144, 149, 155 ff., 164, 165, 166.\n\n  _fan\u0101 al-fan\u0101_, 61, 79.\n\n  _f\u0101n\u012b_, 155.\n\n  _faq\u012br_, 37, 38.\n\n  _fir\u0101sat_, 51.\n\n  FitzGerald, Edward, 97.\n\n  Frothingham, A. L., 12.\n\n  Fudayl ibn \u02bfIy\u0101d, 109.\n\n\n  Gairdner, W. H. T., 16.\n\n  _ghaybat_, 59.\n\n  Ghayl\u0101n, 105.\n\n  Ghaz\u0101l\u012b, 24, 46, 96.\n\n  Gnosis, the, 7, 14, 29, 30, 68 ff., 121, 164.\n\n  Gnosticism, 14 ff.\n\n  Goldziher, Professor I., 14, 16.\n\n  Gospel, the, 10.\n\n\n  Hafiz, 88, 102.\n\n  _h\u0101l_, 29, 59.\n\n  Hall\u0101j, 40, 149 ff., 160.\n\n  Hamadh\u0101n, 108, 109.\n\n  _haq\u012bqat_, 29, 79. _See_ Truth, the.\n\n  _Haqq_ = God, 1, 81. See _Ana \u2019l-Haqq_.\n\n  _haqq_, 164.\n\n  Hasan \u02bfAtt\u0101r, Khw\u0101ja, 144.\n\n  _h\u0101tif_, 63.\n\n  Heart, the, a spiritual organ, 50, 68 ff.\n\n  Heaven and Hell, subjective, 97, 162.\n\n  Hierotheus, 12.\n\n  Hind, 105.\n\n  Hujw\u012br\u012b, 31, 32, 54, 63, 65, 92, 110, 123, 124, 126, 159, 160.\n\n  _hul\u016bl_, 150, 151, 154, 157.\n\n  Hul\u016bl\u012bs, the, 151.\n\n  Husayn ibn Mans\u016br, 149. _See_ Hall\u0101j.\n\n  Hypnotism, 139 ff.\n\n\n  Ibl\u012bs, 99. _See_ Devil, the.\n\n  Ibn al-Anb\u0101r\u012b, 51.\n\n  Ibn al-\u02bfArab\u012b, 87, 102, 103, 105, 111, 125, 155, 166.\n\n  Ibr\u0101h\u012bm ibn Adham, 14, 16.\n\n  _ihs\u0101n_, 53.\n\n  Illumination, 7, 50 ff., 70.\n\n  _\u02bfilm_, 71.\n\n  Immortality, impersonal, 167, 168.\n\n  Incarnation, 150, 151, 157. See _hul\u016bl_.\n\n  India, 16, 161.\n\n  Inge, Dr. W. R., 112, 151, 154.\n\n  Iqbal, Shaikh Muhammad, 15.\n\n  \u02bfIr\u0101q, 161, 168.\n\n  Islam, relation of S\u016bfism to, 19 ff., 71 ff., 86 ff., 159, 160.\n\n  _istinb\u0101t_, 23, 24.\n\n  _ittih\u0101d_, 157, 158.\n\n\n  Jabarites, the, 6.\n\n  Jacob of Sar\u016bj, 12.\n\n  _jadhbat_, 59.\n\n  Jal\u0101ludd\u012bn R\u016bm\u012b, 25, 64, 67, 69, 95 ff., 105, 106, 107, 109, 113,\n        116, 117, 118, 119, 125, 129, 132, 148, 152, 155, 161, 162, 168.\n\n  _jam\u02bf_, 159.\n\n  J\u0101m\u012b, 38, 66, 80, 81, 83, 106, 110, 142, 166.\n\n  Jesus, 10, 133, 150, 153, 157. _See_ Christ.\n\n  Jews, the, 122.\n\n  Jinn, the, 132.\n\n  John, St., 82.\n\n  John Scotus Erigena, 12.\n\n  Joseph, 99, 116.\n\n  Journeys, mystical, 163, 164. _See_ Path, the.\n\n  Junayd of Baghd\u0101d, 34, 35, 52, 88, 91, 112, 113, 131.\n\n\n  Ka\u02bfba, the, 58, 91, 92, 105, 116, 134.\n\n  _kar\u0101m\u0101t_, 122, 129.\n\n  Karma, the doctrine of, 19.\n\n  _Kashf al-Mahj\u016bb_, 54, 63. _See_ Hujw\u012br\u012b.\n\n  Khadir, 14, 113, 127 ff.\n\n  _khirqat_, 49.\n\n  Khizr, 127. _See_ Khadir.\n\n  Khor\u0101s\u0101n, 161, 168.\n\n  Khurq\u0101n\u012b. _See_ Abu \u2019l-Hasan Khurq\u0101n\u012b.\n\n  _Kit\u0101b al-Luma\u02bf_, 28, 121, 130.\n\n  _Kit\u0101b al-Taw\u0101s\u012bn_, 150.\n\n  Knowledge of God. _See_ Gnosis, the.\n\n  Knowledge, religious opposed to mystical, 71.\n\n  _Koran_, the, 4, 5, 21, 22, 23, 46, 50, 63, 93, 105, 111, 121, 122,\n        127.\n\n  _Koran_, the, quotations from, 22, 45, 50, 51, 53, 56, 70, 88, 98,\n        121, 122, 128, 129, 150, 152.\n\n  _Koran_, germs of mysticism in the, 21 f.\n\n\n  _l\u0101h\u016bt_, 150.\n\n  Lane, Edward, 45.\n\n  Law, the religious, 62, 86, 92 ff., 126, 127, 152, 163.\n\n  Layl\u0101, 116, 159.\n\n  _Legend of the Moslem Saints_, the, 21, 31, 108, 131.\n\n  _Lives of the Saints_, by J\u0101m\u012b, 66. See _Nafah\u0101t al-Uns_.\n\n  Logos, the, 51, 82, 83.\n\n  Love, divine, 6, 8, 10, 45, 55, 80, 81, 84, 88, 101, 102 ff., 151,\n        160.\n\n  Lubn\u0101, 105.\n\n\n  Macdonald, Professor D. B., 23, 45, 46, 125, 141.\n\n  _majdh\u016bb_, 123.\n\n  Majdudd\u012bn of Baghd\u0101d, 66.\n\n  Majn\u016bn, 116, 159.\n\n  M\u0101lik ibn D\u012bn\u0101r, 36, 37.\n\n  Man, the final cause of the universe, 82.\n\n  Man, higher than the angels, 69.\n\n  Man, the microcosm, 84, 85, 97.\n\n  Man, the Perfect, 83, 163, 164, 165.\n\n  Mand\u00e6ans, the, 14.\n\n  M\u0101n\u012b, 14.\n\n  Manich\u00e6ans, the, 14.\n\n  Mans\u016br, 153. _See_ Hall\u0101j.\n\n  _maq\u0101m\u0101t_, 28.\n\n  _ma\u02bfrifat_, 29, 71. _See_ Gnosis, the.\n\n  Ma\u02bfr\u016bf al-Karkh\u012b, 14.\n\n  Marwa, 92.\n\n  Mary, 133.\n\n  _Masnav\u012b_, the, 25, 64, 96, 132, 148. _See_ Jal\u0101ludd\u012bn R\u016bm\u012b.\n\n  Massignon, L., 150, 151, 154, 155.\n\n  _Maw\u0101qif_, the, 57. _See_ Niffar\u012b.\n\n  Mayya, 105.\n\n  Mecca, 134.\n\n  Meditation, 48 f.\n\n  Mephistopheles, 58.\n\n  Messalians, the, 11.\n\n  Min\u0101, 92.\n\n  Miracles, 122, 123, 129 ff., 138, 139 ff.\n\n  Mohammed, the Prophet, 5, 20, 21, 35, 39, 44, 49, 51, 52, 53, 68,\n        70, 73, 82, 90, 93, 111, 129, 131, 141, 144, 164, 165. _See_\n        Traditions of the Prophet.\n\n  Mohammed ibn \u02bfAl\u012b Hak\u012bm, 143.\n\n  Mohammed ibn \u02bfUly\u0101n, 39.\n\n  Mohammed ibn W\u0101si\u02bf, 36, 37, 55.\n\n  Moll\u0101-Sh\u0101h, 141, 142.\n\n  More, Henry, 162.\n\n  Mortification, 36, 40 f.\n\n  Moses, 127 ff., 152.\n\n  _mu\u02bfjizat_, 129.\n\n  _mur\u0101qabat_, 48.\n\n  _muraqqa\u02bfat_, 33, 49.\n\n  Murjites, the, 5.\n\n  _murshid_, 32, 140.\n\n  Music, 48, 63 ff.\n\n  Mu\u02bftazilites, the, 6.\n\n  Muzdalifa, 91.\n\n\n  _Nafah\u0101t al-Uns_, 166. See _Lives of the Saints_.\n\n  _nafs_, 39, 40.\n\n  Name, the Great, 14.\n\n  _n\u0101s\u016bt_, 150.\n\n  Neoplatonism, 12 f., 112.\n\n  Niffar\u012b, 57, 71, 72, 74, 85, 93, 155, 164.\n\n  Nirv\u0101\u1e47a, 18 ff., 61, 149.\n\n  Niz\u0101mudd\u012bn Kh\u0101m\u016bsh, Mawl\u0101n\u0101, 143.\n\n  Noah, 153.\n\n  N\u00f6ldeke, Th., 3.\n\n  Not-being, the principle of evil, 94, 97.\n\n  _Nuqab\u0101_, 124.\n\n  N\u016br\u012b, 49, 51, 94, 107, 108.\n\n\n  Omar, the Caliph, 38.\n\n  Omar Khayy\u0101m, 97.\n\n\n  Pantheism, 8, 18, 21, 23, 79 ff., 109, 133 ff., 148 ff. _See_ Unity,\n        the divine.\n\n  Path, the, 28 ff., 163.\n\n  Paul, St., 12, 82.\n\n  Pentateuch, the, 22.\n\n  Personality, survival of, 167.\n\n  Phenomena, the nature of, 82.\n\n  Phenomena, a bridge to Reality, 109 f.\n\n  Philo, 22.\n\n  Pilgrimage, allegorical interpretation of the, 91.\n\n  _p\u012br_, 32, 140.\n\n  Plato, 7, 12, 64.\n\n  Plotinus, 11, 12, 117.\n\n  Porphyry, 12.\n\n  Poverty, 36 ff.\n\n  Predestination, 4, 6, 36, 98.\n\n  Pre-existence of the soul, 15, 64, 116.\n\n  Proclus, 12.\n\n  Prophet, the. _See_ Mohammed, the Prophet.\n\n  Prophets, the, 121, 122, 126, 129, 164.\n\n  Purgative Way, the, 32.\n\n  Pythagoras, 64.\n\n\n  Qadarites, the, 6.\n\n  Qad\u012bb al-B\u0101n, 144.\n\n  _qalb_, 50, 68.\n\n  Qays, 105.\n\n  _qibla_, 134.\n\n  Quietism, 4. _See_ Trust in God.\n\n  Qushayr\u012b, 126, 130.\n\n  _Qutb_, 123, 124, 164, 165.\n\n\n  R\u0101bi\u02bfa, 4, 31, 115.\n\n  _r\u0101hib_, 10.\n\n  Raqq\u0101m, 107.\n\n  Reason, the Active, 151.\n\n  Recollection, 36, 45. See _dhikr_.\n\n  Religion, all types of, are equal, 87.\n\n  Religion, positive, its relation to mysticism, 24, 71 ff. _See_\n        Islam, relation of S\u016bfism to.\n\n  Repentance, 30 ff.\n\n  _rid\u0101_, 41.\n\n  Rizw\u0101n, 161.\n\n  Rosaries, used by S\u016bf\u012bs, 17.\n\n  _r\u016bh_, 68.\n\n  R\u016bm\u012b, 153. _See_ Jal\u0101ludd\u012bn R\u016bm\u012b.\n\n  Ruysbroeck, 151, 164.\n\n\n  S\u0101bians, the, 14.\n\n  Sa\u02bfdudd\u012bn of K\u0101shghar, Mawl\u0101n\u0101, 142.\n\n  Saf\u0101, 92.\n\n  Sahl ibn \u02bfAbdallah of Tustar, 46, 52, 56, 63, 130.\n\n  Saints, the Moslem, 120 ff.\n\n  Saintship, the doctrine of, 62, 120 ff.\n\n  Sal\u0101m\u0101n, 116.\n\n  _s\u0101lik_, 28.\n\n  _sam\u0101\u02bf_, 59, 60, 63 ff.\n\n  Saqs\u012bn, 161.\n\n  Sar\u012b al-Saqat\u012b, 52, 54, 61, 113.\n\n  Satan, 32, 113. _See_ Devil, the.\n\n  _Sea, the Revelation of the_, by Niffar\u012b, 74.\n\n  Self-annihilation, 140, 141, 168. See _fan\u0101_.\n\n  Sh\u0101h al-Kirm\u0101n\u012b, 52.\n\n  Shaq\u012bq of Balkh, 42, 43, 44.\n\n  Sheykh, the, 32 ff., 49, 140, 141. _See_ Directors, spiritual.\n\n  Shibl\u012b, 34, 35, 48, 52, 55, 62, 116.\n\n  Shih\u0101budd\u012bn Suhraward\u012b, 166.\n\n  Sh\u012b\u02bfites, the, 89.\n\n  _shirb_, 59.\n\n  _sidd\u012bq_, 14.\n\n  Sin, 30 ff.\n\n  Singing, 63 ff.\n\n  _sirr_, 68, 155.\n\n  Soul, the lower or appetitive. See _nafs_.\n\n  Spirit, the divine, 150, 151.\n\n  Spirit, the human, 51, 68.\n\n  Stages, mystical, 28 f., 41.\n\n  States, mystical, 29.\n\n  Stephen Bar Sudaili, 12.\n\n  S\u016bf\u012b, meaning and derivation of, 3.\n\n  S\u016bfism, definitions of, 1, 14, 25 ff.\n\n  S\u016bfism, the oldest form of, 4 f.\n\n  S\u016bfism, the origin of, 8 ff.\n\n  S\u016bfism, its relation to Islam, 19 ff., 71 ff., 86 ff., 159, 160.\n\n  _sukr_, 59.\n\n  Sunna, the, 73.\n\n  Symbolism, mystical, 28, 102 ff., 116, 117.\n\n\n  _t\u0101lib_, 29.\n\n  _tar\u012bqat_, 27, 28.\n\n  Tauler, 151.\n\n  _tawajjuh_, 142, 143.\n\n  _tawakkul_, 41.\n\n  Tawakkul Beg, 141, 142.\n\n  Telekinesis, 145.\n\n  Telepathy, 120. See _fir\u0101sat_.\n\n  _Theology of Aristotle_, the so-called, 12.\n\n  Tirmidh, 143.\n\n  Tora, the, 105.\n\n  Traditions of the Prophet, 23, 39, 44, 49, 51, 53, 54, 68, 80, 83,\n        100.\n\n  Transoxania, 16.\n\n  Trust in God, 36, 41 ff.\n\n  Truth, the, 29, 30, 79, 92 ff., 152, 163.\n\n\n  Underhill, E., 164.\n\n  Union with God, 39, 159, 160. _See_ Unitive State, the, and _fan\u0101_.\n\n  Unitive State, the, 148 ff.\n\n  Unity, the divine, S\u016bfistic theory of, 42, 79 ff., 98, 152, 154, 155.\n\n\n  Ved\u0101nta, the, 18.\n\n  Veils, the seventy thousand, doctrine of, 15 f.\n\n  Vision, spiritual, 50.\n\n\n  _wajd_, 59.\n\n  _wal\u012b_, 122, 123. _See_ Saints, the Moslem.\n\n  _waliyyat_, 123.\n\n  _waqfat_, 58, 156.\n\n  _w\u0101qif_, 156, 165.\n\n  W\u0101sit, 14.\n\n  Whinfield, E. H., 64, 132, 148.\n\n\n  _yaq\u012bn_, 50.\n\n  Y\u016bsuf, 116. _See_ Joseph.\n\n\n  Zang\u012b Bashgird\u012b, 66.\n\n  Zulaykh\u0101, 116.\n\n\n  _Printed by_ Morrison & Gibb Limited, _Edinburgh_\n\n\n\n\n  THE\n  QUEST SERIES\n\n  Edited by G. R. S. MEAD,\n\n  President of the Quest Society.\n\n  =_Crown 8vo.   2s. 6d. net each volume._=\n\n\n  =NOW READY.=\n\n=Psychical Research.= By James H. Hyslop, Ph.D., LL.D., Secretary of\n    the Psychical Research Society of America.\n\n=The Quest of the Holy Grail.= By Jessie L. Weston, Author of \u2018The\n    Legend of Sir Perceval,\u2019 \u2018Sir Gawain at the Grail Castle,\u2019 etc.\n\n=Jewish Mysticism.= By J. Abelson, Lit.D., Principal of Aria College,\n    Portsmouth.\n\n=Mystics of Islam.= By Reynold A. Nicholson, M.A., Litt.D., Lecturer on\n    Persian, Cambridge University.\n\n\n  =READY SPRING, 1914.=\n\n=Buddhist Psychology.= By Mrs. Rhys Davids, M.A., F.B.A., Lecturer on\n    Indian Philosophy, Manchester University.\n\n\n  =IN PREPARATION.=\n\n=The Ethical and Social Significance of Personality.= By William Brown,\n    M.A., D.Sc., Lecturer on Psychology, King\u2019s College.\n\n=Catholic Mysticism.= By Baron Friedrich Von H\u00fcgel, Author of \u2018The\n    Mystical Element of Religion.\u2019\n\n=The Interpretation of Nature from Aristotle to Bergson.= By J. Arthur\n    Thomson, M.A., Regius Professor of Natural History, Aberdeen\n    University.\n\n=Ruysbroeck.= By Evelyn Underhill, Author of \u2018Mysticism\u2019 and \u2018The\n    Mystic Way,\u2019 etc.\n\n\n\n\n  _Demy 8vo. 7s. 6d. net._\n\n  QUESTS\n  OLD AND NEW\n\n  By G. R. S. MEAD\n\n  EDITOR OF \u2018THE QUEST SERIES\u2019\n\n  AUTHOR OF \u2018THRICE-GREATEST HERMES,\u2019 \u2018FRAGMENTS\n  OF A FAITH FORGOTTEN,\u2019 ETC. ETC.\n\n\n  _CONTENTS_\n\nThe Way of the Spirit in Ancient China.\n\nThe Doctrine of the True Man in Ancient Chinese Mystical Philosophy.\n\nSpiritual Reality in Progressive Buddhism.\n\nThe Ideal Life in Progressive Buddhism.\n\nSome Features of Buddhist Psychology.\n\nThe Doctrine of Reincarnation Ethically Considered.\n\nSome Mystical Experiments on the Frontiers of Early Christendom.\n\nThe Meaning of Gnosis in the Higher Forms of Hellenistic Religion.\n\n\u2018The Book of the Hidden Mysteries,\u2019 by Hierotheos.\n\nThe Rising Psychic Tide.\n\nVaihinger\u2019s Philosophy of the \u2018As If.\u2019\n\nBergson\u2019s Intuitionism.\n\nEucken\u2019s Activism.\n\n\n  THE MISSING GODDESS,\n  AND OTHER LEGENDS\n\n  BY\n  MINNIE B. THEOBALD.\n\n  =_Crown 8vo.   3s. net._=\n\nThese allegorical stories, written by a musician, form a distinct\ncontribution to the literature of experimental psychology. The\nauthoress claims that they were actually written in a state of\nexaltation induced by long and intense concentration on musical\nexercises. Fresh in style, graphic and original in character, they\ndeal with those problems in this world and the next which are of vital\ninterest to all, and will make special appeal to students of the\npsychology of different phases of consciousness.\n\n\n  RALPH WALDO TRINE\u2019S\n  NEW BOOK\n\n  THE NEW ALINEMENT\n  OF LIFE\n\n  =_Post 8vo.   3s. 6d. net._=\n\nThe author\u2019s main object in this new volume is to sift out the\nfundamental truths of =real Christianity=. He separates them from the\nmany half-truths and errors which nowadays so often overlay them. It\nwill appeal to all thoughtful readers, expressing as it does the very\nideas so many of us have tried to express. Like all Mr. Trine\u2019s books,\nit will inspire to better living and better thinking, and shows what\na little wholesome philosophy will do toward the attainment of true\nhappiness.\n\n\n\n\n  OTHER BOOKS BY RALPH WALDO TRINE.\n\n  Mr. TRINE\u2019S GREATEST WORK:\n  IN TUNE with THE INFINITE\n  OR, THE FULNESS OF PEACE, POWER, AND PLENTY.\n\n  =_Post 8vo.  340th Thousand.  3s. 6d. net._=\n\n\nALSO A POCKET EDITION.--Printed on Japon paper, with a portrait of Mr.\n    Trine, and specially designed binding and end-papers. 3s. 6d. net.\n\n\u2018Nothing I have ever read so lifts my soul up to the Divine, so\namazes me, creating new and better thoughts, greater aspirations\nand a determination to live up to its teachings. It is so grand, so\nelevating, yet so plain.\u2019--Mrs. J. A. J.\n\n\u2018That book will carry blessings to multitudes. I congratulate the\nauthor on putting so profound a theme in so simple a way that the\npeople can get it.\u2019--Rev. W. H. 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BELL AND SONS LTD.\n\n\n\n\n  Bohn\u2019s Popular Library\n\n\n_Fcap. 8vo. With designed title-page, binding,\nand end-papers.   1s. net each_\n\n  Vols. 1-60 Now Ready.\n\n    1. SWIFT (Jonathan). GULLIVER\u2019S TRAVELS.\n\n  2-4. MOTLEY (J. L.). RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC. 3 vols.\n\n  5-6. EMERSON (R. W.). WORKS. A new edition in 5 volumes.\n          Vol. I. Essays (1st and 2nd Series), and Representative Men.\n          Vol. II. English Texts, Nature, and Conduct of Life.\n\n  7-8. BURTON (Sir Richard). PILGRIMAGE TO ALMADINAH AND\n          MECCAH. 2 vols.\n\n    9. LAMB (Charles). ESSAYS. Including the Essays\n          of Elia, Last Essays of Elia, and Eliana.\n\n   10. HOOPER (George). WATERLOO: THE DOWNFALL OF THE\n          FIRST NAPOLEON.\n\n   11. FIELDING (Henry). JOSEPH ANDREWS.\n\n12-13. CERVANTES. DON QUIXOTE. 2 vols.\n\n   14. CALVERLEY (C. S.). THE IDYLLS OF THEOCRITUS, with\n          the ECLOGUES OF VIRGIL. English Verse Translation.\n\n   15. BURNEY (Fanny). EVELINA.\n\n   16. COLERIDGE (S. T.). AIDS TO REFLECTION.\n\n17-18. GOETHE. POETRY AND TRUTH FROM MY OWN LIFE. 2 vols.\n\n   19. EBERS (George). AN EGYPTIAN PRINCESS.\n\n   20. YOUNG (Arthur). TRAVELS IN FRANCE, during the\n          years 1787, 1788, and 1789.\n\n21-22. BURNEY (Fanny). THE EARLY DIARY OF FRANCES BURNEY (Madame\n          D\u2019Arblay), 1768-1778. 2 vols.\n\n23-25. CARLYLE. HISTORY OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. With Introduction\n          and Notes, by J. Holland Rose, Litt.D. 3 vols.\n\n26-27. EMERSON (R. W.). WORKS. Vol. III. Society and\n          Solitude--Letters and Social Aims--Addresses. Vol. IV.\n          Miscellaneous Pieces.\n\n28-29. FIELDING (Henry). TOM JONES. 2 vols.\n\n   30. JAMESON (Mrs.). SHAKESPEARE\u2019S HEROINES.\n\n   31. MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS, THE THOUGHTS OF.\n\n   32. MIGNET. HISTORY OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, from\n          1789 to 1814.\n\n33-35. MONTAIGNE. ESSAYS. 3 vols.\n\n36-38. RANKE. HISTORY OF THE POPES. 3 vols.\n\n   39. TROLLOPE (Anthony). THE WARDEN. With an\n          Introduction by Frederic Harrison.\n\n   40. ---- BARCHESTER TOWERS.\n\n   41. ---- DR. THORNE.\n\n   42. ---- FRAMLEY PARSONAGE.\n\n43-44. ---- SMALL HOUSE AT ALLINGTON. 2 vols.\n\n45-46. ---- THE LAST CHRONICLE OF BARSET. 2 vols.\n\n   47. EMERSON (R. W.). WORKS. A new edition. Vol. V.\n          Poems.\n\n48-49. THE ARABIAN NIGHTS\u2019 ENTERTAINMENTS. Vols. I.-II.\n\n   50. PLOTINUS, SELECT WORKS OF.\n\n   51. MACAULAY. ESSAYS FROM THE \u201cENCYCLOP\u00c6DIA\n          BRITANNICA.\u201d Edited by R. H. Gretton, M.A.\n\n   52. HOOPER (G.). THE CAMPAIGN OF SEDAN: The Downfall\n          of the Second Empire, August-September, 1870. New edition.\n\n   53. BLAKE. POETICAL WORKS.\n\n   54. VAUGHAN. POETICAL WORKS.\n\n   55. GOETHE. FAUST.\n\n56-57. TRELAWNEY. ADVENTURES OF A YOUNGER SON. 2 vols.\n\n   58. POUSHKIN. PROSE TALES. The Captain\u2019s\n          Daughter--Doubrovsky--The Queen of Spades--An Amateur Peasant\n          Girl--The Shot--The Snowstorm--The Postmaster--The Coffin\n          Maker--Kirdjali--The Egyptian Nights--Peter the Great\u2019s\n          Negro. Translated by T. Keane.\n\n59-60. MANZONI. THE BETROTHED. 2 vols.\n\n\n_Other volumes will be published at regular intervals._\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Notes\n\n\nThe following changes have been made to the text as printed:\n\n1. Footnotes have been placed immediately below the paragraph within\nwhich they occur, and marked numerically.\n\n2. A period has been removed following the subheading \"Gnosticism\"\n(Page 14), for consistency with other subheadings.\n\n3. \"strenously\" (Page 51) has been corrected to \"strenuously\".\n\n4. The missing word \"I\" has been inserted in the passage \"the next\nworld belongs to him towards whom I have brought it\" (Page 78).\n\n5. The name printed as Fitz Gerald (Page 97) has been rendered as\nFitzGerald (the usual form for this writer).\n\n6. A single close-quote mark has been inserted after \"vouchsafed to\nhim\" (Page 127).\n\n7. _kar\u0101mat_ (Page 129) has been changed to _kar\u0101m\u0101t_.\n\n8. The line beginning \"Then he quotes\" (Page 160) has had its\nindentation reduced, as it is part of the main text and not (as\nprinted) part of the preceding quotation.\n\n9. Index: The character \u02bf has been added in the words Abu \u2019l-Khayr\nal-Aqta\u02bf, \u02bfAl\u0101\u02beudd\u012bn, _mu\u02bfjizat_, Mu\u02bftazilites, and R\u0101bi\u02bfa.\n\n10. Apparent inconsistencies in whether hyphens occur in the word pairs\n\"well known\", \"passed away\", and \"above mentioned\" are judged to be due\nto differences in sense, and no amendments have been made.","title":"The Mystics of Islam","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":39842}